✓ | Soda Candy | RuiKasa | Project Sekai

~... Talk it out~

Posting a day earlier than I planned cause the chapter's ready and I have a lot of work to do to prepare for my boy's birthday on Saturday

Hopefully I can actually focus and not procrastinate (like I'm doing with the final chapter(s) of the fic ;-;)

Anyway, on to the chapter!

~ * ~

Tsukasa shifted nervously as he fidgeted with the strap of his bag.

School had been out for nearly 15 minutes now, and there was no sign of Rui or Nene. No new texts had come in from them, either.

Did they both abandon him here? Head off to Phoenix Wonderland together? Or run home before practice?

No, they would've texted the group chat if they did. And there still were no new texts or notifications coming in.

He bit his lip, watching any lingering students pass through the front gates.

Rui already had his committee meeting that morning, so he shouldn't have been with the greening committee. And Nene's meeting with the film club wasn't on Wednesdays. So, where could the two have gone?

Emu wasn't waiting for them either, but that wasn't too uncommon. She sometimes headed to PXL before the others, meeting them at the Wonder Stage.

Did they all agree to meet in Sekai, but Tsukasa forgot again?

As he reached for his pocket to text the group, Rui rushed over to him, out of breath. He paused by Tsukasa, leaning against the wall and held up a finger to signal Tsukasa to wait a moment as he panted.

"Sorry... teacher needed me to finish... finish my test," he managed to say as he tried to catch his breath.

"Oh, it's no problem! I just thought you and Nene ditched me," Tsukasa replied, chuckling nervously.

Rui looked up at him, brows furrowed in confusion as he took a shaky breath, glancing around them.

"Nene's not here?" he asked while pushing from the wall.

"Hm? I thought she was with you...?"

"No, I haven't seen her since lunch."

Both their phones buzzed. Rui pulled his from his pocket, opening up the message in the group chat. Tsukasa looked over his shoulder, both boys frowning.

Emu:
PRACTICE CANCELED
I'M TAKING NENE ON A DATE!!!

HAVE FUN AT YOUR WORK DATE :DDD

"What-?"

Rui tapped at the screen desperately, pulling Nene's contact up to start a call. He put it on speaker and held it between them, waiting as the line rang.

Tsukasa bit his lip again, his grip on his bag tightening. He could feel his nerves growing by the second, a pit forming in his stomach.

This was so sudden from both girls. They usually didn't spring anything on the group like this, unless it was an emergency. Certainly not for a date. If they'd wanted to plan a date for the day, they should've said so in advance, and not so last second-!

"What do you want, Rui?" Nene's voice picked up, irritated.

"Where are you?" he asked, tapping his fingers against the phone nervously.

"With Emu."

"Where?!" Tsukasa pushed, leaning forward.

"On a date. She told you, didn't she?"