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WHO: Himeko and Taue
WHAT: The first in-person meeting! Also tomfoolery.
WHERE: Outside the girls' dorms.
WHEN: After Himeko's dance class.

Counting on his fingers as he walked the last few feet over to the steps in front of the girls' dorms, Shinichiro realized he'd made at least three enemies so far -- a bad rate even by his usual standards. More people usually were okay with his brand of...whatever he was, but with the MiMi Connection (his private name for them, don't ask) and Rules-kun already on his bad side (and vice-versa) he badly needed some friends, lest he spend his entire Chitoku Academy term in classes and actually doing significant quantities of work.

That was why he was here now. He and Himeko had, if not completely hit it off, at least gotten off to a much better start than he had with his other Persona-wielding classmates.

It would be nice to meet someone without any tension hanging over it, he decided, pulling up a seat on the step and awaiting the arrival of his kouhai.

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"If you hold up to your end of the bargain, Himeko-chan, I'll definitely be your first fan. But you have to do it your way, okay?" Her pace was somewhat easy to get swept up in, especially because Taue was nowhere near as serious as the title of heir could often indicate that he might be.

"Oh, I'm fairly easy to embarrass. I get as good as I give most of the time, really. You just have to have the courage to go through with it, really!"

He didn't mind being teased - particularly not by a cute girl by Himeko, but in general, too. Being teased meant that he was part of something, like everyone else.

Being the heir to the Taue Corporation had undeniable benefits, but there were also days when the expectations ran him ragged.

"No pranks, though," he said, sighing a bit as he sipped his coffee. "The school's already probably irritated enough at me as it is. Gonna have to dial it back a little bit."

He frowned; otherwise, he might have been onboard with the childish plan. Any resistance he could muster was still resistance, after all.

“Of course! It’s a promise, then!”, she declared, seeming highly motivated by that.
Having someone in her fan base she kind of liked, made it a lot easier to try hard at auditions. It was much better than having to think of all those strange people, whose behavior was just plain irritating.

Himeko was fast as always when it came to her cocoa.
“I’ll definitely keep that in mind, senpai!”, she replied with a smile and took her final sip.
They hadn’t been seated long and she had already finished it completely.
It had been delicious, even better than the cocoa she had at this luxurious restaurant she went to with her family once. Probably, because she had fun drinking it right now, while she just felt out of place when she was at that restaurant.

“Aww~, that’s too bad!”, there was a small hint of disappointment in her voice, when they talked about her prank idea. “But it can’t be helped! I wouldn’t want to make your situation worse and maybe I shouldn’t overdo things, either. I still haven’t gotten my punishment for all the uniform modifications.”
The thought of the uniform problem made her sigh. Without her modifications the uniform was just boring and not cute at all.

Topics like these were just depressing and originally they had been coming here to have fun and forget about that for a while. Himeko immediately thought of something to brighten up the mood a little.
“I know! Let’s take some Purikura, when we’re both done with our meals here! I haven’t done that in ages and... Ah, wait!”, she suddenly stopped. “We can’t. You’re not a girl, so this is gonna be awkward...”, there had been those unwritten rules concerning Purikura, she totally forgot about.
She giggled at her own stupidity. “Well~ you better only give me that sightseeing tour, after this!”

(So so sorry for the delay on tagging you. Won't happen again, I promise!)

She was far more enthusiastic than he generally was about pretty much anything. Unlike most enthusiastic people, though, she didn't really annoy him. There was something genuine in her that Taue seemed to enjoy, a far cry from his own ways, and just sitting and listening to her was nice.

"This place is basically a military academy," he said, sipping his coffee. "A really well appointed military academy, and only a small percentage of the students are actually "soldiers," but one nonetheless. Makes sense why it's so strict." He sighed and took a bite out of his pastry, listening as she continued on, raising an eyebrow at her offer.

He'd been just about to comment on how it would look for the two of them to be in a photo booth together when she promptly corrected herself. Damn. That would have been an entertaining moment if she realized mid-pictures. Probably red as a tomato, too.

"There kind of are, aren't there," he chuckled, grinning at Himeko widely. "No worries, then. Just the sightseeing tour, unless you come up with any other ideas."

(It's fine~. Don't worry about it!)

“A military academy, huh? I don’t really like the sound of that and I can’t see myself as some sort of soldier either…but I guess you’re right with that.”, she sighed.
“That’s definitely not what I’ve been coming here for. Then again, in my case this invitation came at the right time. If I wouldn’t have received it back then, I would have probably already ki….”, killed myself. That was what she wanted to say.
Fortunately, she was able to stop herself from blurting it out. There was a small possibility that he already understood what she wanted to say, though. Once again, Himeko observed her senpai’s reactions for a few moments, before she continued speaking in a more cheerful manner.
“Never mind, never mind~~! Um… By the way! Why did you originally change schools, senpai? I mean before they forced us to be soldiers or heroes…. Because of the higher chances to be able to go to a good university?”, she tried to change the topic away from herself. She really wouldn’t want to get depressive now.

His reaction to the Purikura topic embarrassed her a little. Judging his expression, she had the feeling to know at least vaguely what he was thinking. “I really didn’t do that on purpose! It’s just… except for my cousin in Sapporo, I haven't been meeting up with boys before. My old school forbid it, too. Sometimes, I tend to forget that you can’t do specific things with someone of the other gender.”, she playfully poked her tongue out at him. “It’s a good thing, though. That just means that I don’t think of you as weird and irritating… and trust me. Most of the people in my old class were and it doesn’t seem to be a lot better here.”

For a moment she kept quiet, thinking about something.
“Say Taue-senpai isn’t there anything you’d like to do? Since we came here because I wanted to, I wouldn’t mind doing something you want to next. Unless… you have some dirty secrets you don’t want me to know about or~~~ you are too embarrassed going somewhere you usually go to, accompanied by a childish looking girl!”, she said jokingly.

Taue regarded her carefully for a few moments -- and he most certainly caught the start of the 'k' word.

He wouldn't push the point, though. It would simply be another piece of information filed away about a girl that was rapidly growing far more complex than she seemed and/or wanted others to perceive her as.

"I'm here because I got in, and mom and dad thought it might be good for my image," he explained. "The Taues are pretty well liked here, but we're a bit international for the liking of a lot of the higher ups in government, and society's starting to turn on us a bit for it. Not sure it'll help, but it was worth a shot, I guess."

Taue shrugged. Not so worth a shot in retrospect, he figured.

"Not accusing you of doing it on purpose," he grinned, "but nor would I put it past you. And yeah, this place isn't bad minus the obvious drawbacks. I take a lot of grief, but I'd take a lot of grief anywhere."

Her question caught him a bit off guard, and he took a moment to think about it.

"There are lots of things I'd like to do," he said, smiling sweetly at her, "and I'm not too embarrassed to go there with you. You're less childish than you let on. But I'd like to do it when we have more time. Today's about hot cocoa and showing you around."

He thought for another moment, and stretched, finishing off his pastry.

"Besides, I've got to leave something to the imagination so you'll want to hang out with me again, Himeko-chan!"

Honestly, Himeko was relieved that he kept quiet.
The whole thing was indeed pretty complex and she wasn’t even sure if someone, not very familiar with her situation would understand it.

“I see! The whole business stuff seems to be as much about a good image as idol work is, right?”, she remarked, not quite sure if that was an appropriate comparison or not.
“I really don’t get why everyone is that much against being international, though….”, she added, thinking about it before continuing. “If my English wouldn’t be as bad as it is, I’d love to travel to a different country someday!”

Himeko nodded a few times while he was talking. She seemed to be contented with what he said.
“Got it~! It’s a pity that we don’t have that much time… but getting to know this place a little better isn’t bad either.”, she replied, returning his smile.
“I’m looking forward to the places you’d like to go to, then. Not knowing what kind of places they are really makes me want to hang out with you again as soon as possible!”

There was a little moment filled with silence, in which she realized that he could possibly get a part of her statement wrong.
“It doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t want to hang out with you without a reason, of course!”, she hastily added.
“I actually think it’s fun talking to you… um… is it alright to say that or does it sound weird again?”

((Going to try and move towards wrapping this one up. We can start a new, more recent in time thread. Ton of stuff in game's happened since we started this. xD))

"Not weird at all," Taue replied, smiling. "I understand. You clearly just want to flirt with me subconsciously. Such things happen."

The grin he favored her with seemed to indicate that he was kidding.

Mostly, anyway.

"Naw, I know how bad that'd look for you, so don't worry about it. Now, if you're done with your pastry, come on. I've got a town to show you, after all."

(I think so,too! We should probably just skip the whole "sightseeing tour" and end it here...otherwise it would take too long :"D
We can start a new one whenever you want to~ Just tell me to start one or start one yourself when you feel like it!)

Even though she assumed that he was only kidding by observing his facial expression, the comment was still enough to somehow embarrass her.
“I-I’m definitely not flirting! I would…I would know if I intended to do so, even if it was subconsciously! “, she replied, trying to avoid looking at him directly, so he couldn’t see that she was blushing in embarrassment again.

“How do we always get to these kinds of topics anyway… I just wanted to say something nice…”, Himeko muttered. But after a moment of sulking, she decided to get up from her seat and just act as if nothing had happened. “I’m ready! Let’s go senpai!”

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