Lynne

Chapter 22

"Don't whatever me, Rinny. I don't get how you don't see it."

"See what?"

"Like, the entire world ships you guys. So hard."

It was such a ridiculous statement, I had to flash her a confused look. "The hell are you talking about?"

"Don't tell me you haven't seen the Twitter pages. The pictures. The fanart."

"I really don't know what you're talking about."

Gumi pulled her phone out of her pocket. "Oh, I'll just have to show you then." She tapped away on the screen. "It's basic human knowledge that you guys are in love and just don't know it yet."

"Gumi!" I scolded her, looking towards the couch. His breathing was still steady. "He's right there," I said through gritted teeth.

"So you're admitting it."

"No! I just don't want you talking about it!"

"Why not?"

"Because then it'll be so weird!" I added the first pancake to Gumi's plate. Melted chocolate stuck to my spatula.

"Here here here," she said quickly, leaning towards me. With her phone on the counter, she spun it to face me. "See? Look how cute that is."

She had pulled up a picture from our first concert. In fact, it was the first time I was ever revealed on stage. I remembered the moment like it was yesterday. Len and I were standing next to each other at the top of the elevator, screaming our intro line to Unhappy Refrain, and grinning at each other.

"He was doing that because I was about to die of nervousness," I told her, sliding the phone back to her.

"Exactly. Cute."

"Not. Cute."

"Alright, fine." She swiped her phone back, and began scrolling again. "What about this one?" It was Iroha's show. Another moment I remembered instantly. She's one of us, Len had said. The picture was of us sharing sweet smiles, while Iroha looked at the camera with a raised brows and a smile, like she was in on some joke we were unaware of. I didn't remember her giving that face, but, then again, I hadn't really been paying attention to her.

"You can't count that. We were on a show. He had to pretend he didn't hate having me around." I was half joking. More batter filled the pan.

"The fans disagree, Rin. What about this one. Ohmygod. I love this picture."

I sighed, annoyed, but turned around once again to look at her phone. It was me, on stage, singing ⅞, with Len sitting criss cross in the middle of the stage. He looked to be mid laugh, an expression I had only seen on his face during our race home after the first concert. My back was to the camera, but my arms were held high. If I remembered it right, my eyes were closed.

"I don't think I have ever seen him smile like that."

"Gumi, stop." A blush was rising to my face.

She pushed her seat away from the counter, standing in victory. "See! I told you! And that's not even the start of it! Do I even need to explain to you how sad he was when you went to California!"

"It was because we had a fight!" My voice was a stage whisper now. Everytime I turned to look at her, I had to cast a concerned glance at Len, too. He never showed any signs of life except for his steady breathing.

"Miku told me all about how he acted around you when you came back, too! Or how pissed off he was when he saw you with Yuma at that party? You didn't see all of the dirty looks he gave you two, but they were endless! I thought he was going to burn the house down!"