On the first day of the culture festival, it seemed as if the entire school was in high spirits.
Because Shizuka didn't want to dampen the atmosphere with her worries regarding the culprit, she decided that she had to maintain a carefree and excited front for the duration of the festival while inwardly remaining vigilant.
As the play wasn't scheduled to start until noon and most of the preparatory work had been completed, Madoka suggested for the two of them to walk around the festival together.
Shizuka nodded. "That sounds good to me."
"Where should we go?"
"Hm, since Fu-chan's class is right next door, why don't we stop by there first?"
"Alright."
When they walked through the entrance of 3-B's animal themed maid and butler cafe, Shizuka scanned the room for Fuyuki and spotted her friend towards the back of the classroom in a maid costume and a sheep ears headband. The notebook and pencil in her hand made it evident that she had been taking orders.
Sensing a pair of eyes on her, Fuyuki instinctively turned around. When she caught sight of Shizuka and Madoka, she broke out into a wide smile and gestured for them to come inside.
"Wow, they're pretty busy here," noted Shizuka once they had been seated. "I guess everyone's really into the whole animal ears thing."
Madoka gave a vaguely disinterested nod as he looked over the menu. "Yeah, seems like it."
His indifference to his surroundings made Shizuka's lips quirk up in a half smile. "Animal ears aren't your thing, Madoka? Or are you not a fan of the maid concept?"
Madoka glanced up at her for a second before looking back down at the menu. "Hm, it's more like I just don't see the point in staring at girls who aren't you."
Shizuka's smile faltered at his direct words. This smooth evil-doer...
Not noticing Shizuka's reaction, he continued, "If it was you in a maid costume and animal ears, I'd definitely stare as you'd surely be cute."
Shizuka hid her blushing face with the menu. "I can't listen to this anymore. You're so embarrassing!"
It was then that Fuyuki appeared by their table. "Yo, lovebirds, have you decided on your order yet?"
Madoka nodded. "I know what I want. What about you, Shizuka?"
"Uh, just give me another second. I'm still looking."
Fuyuki grinned as she rested her elbows on Shizuka's head. "This is unusual. Don't you usually order right away, Shii-chan? Could it be? Were you perhaps so distracted by a certain someone that couldn't figure out what to order?"
Shizuka made a face as pinched her friend's arm, hard.
Fuyuki let out a small yelp. "Shii-chan~~you can't treat me like this! I'm just an innocent sheep-chan~~ This is animal abuse!"
"You, an innocent sheep?" Shizuka pinched her friend again. "Please. You're nothing but a wolf in sheep's clothing. Literally."
Fuyuki stuck out her bottom lip in silent protest.
"By the way, have you seen Mikoshiba Touko around today?" questioned Shizuka. "I don't see her in here."
"Ah, sensei said she called in sick."
"Huh." A complicated emotion rose in Shizuka's chest.
"Yeah, but she skips all the time so it's nothing unusual. It's better this way. If she were here I'd be worried about her fighting with a customer and causing you guys trouble."
"Yeah, you're right."
"Anyways, enough about her. If you haven't decided yet, let me recommend something to you."
"Alright."
"We have something called the "super moe moe deluxe couple's special" and it's really good!"
Shizuka blinked. ".....The what?"
"The "super moe moe deluxe couple's special," repeated Fuyuki. "It's a big strawberry and vanilla sundae topped with chocolate syrup, whipped cream, biscuit sticks, fruit slices, fruity pebbles, heart shaped sprinkles, and animal crackers. It's meant for two people so it's kind of big. Every pair who orders it will receive a special souvenir from our cafe. You know what? I'll just go ahead and order it for you guys."
"Wha-"
"You'll like it a lot. I promise!"
Before they could stop her, Fuyuki scurried off with their orders.
Shizuka turned to Madoka with an apologetic expression. "I'm really sorry about her...I'll get someone else to take our orders. What did you want?"
Madoka smiled good-naturally. "It's alright, Shizuka. The special sounds rather interesting."
"If you say so."
After fifteen minutes of waiting, an overly decadent sundae was delivered to their table by a maid wearing bear ears. "Your super moe moe deluxe couple's special is here!"
"Thank you."
"Not at all!" The maid held out a pack of chocolate covered biscuit sticks. "You guys can start whenever you're ready. Take any biscuit stick you'd like."
"Oh, we have to top it ourselves?"
"No, silly~ These are for you to share. The less biscuit you leave between the two of you, the better the prize will be." The maid winked. "Of course, we're not opposed to you gobbling up the whole thing!"
"Pardon me?" Shizuka tilted her head. "Um, what exactly are you talking about?"
Seeing the equally dumbfounded expressions on their faces, the maid's eyes slowly widened. "Wait, do you guys not know about the challenge that comes with the special?"
"Challenge?"
The maid gasped. "Oh my gosh, you totally don't! I'm so sorry! Fuyuki-chan said she told you guys all about it and you guys were super excited to give it a try."
Shizuka turned to glare at Fuyuki who was currently preoccupied with greeting customers at the door. Fuu-chan!
"So what exactly does this challenge consist of?" asked Madoka breezily.
"It's nothing difficult!" answered the maid. "All you need to do is place one end of the biscuit stick in each of your mouths and eat! The goal is to finish as much of the biscuit as you can without using your hands or breaking the stick."
"That sounds rather easy, doesn't it, Shizuka?"
"Mn." Shizuka's competitive spirit had been ignited.
"So you'll participate right?"
Shizuka and Madoka nodded.
The maid beamed. "Awesome! Just take a stick from here."
After the two stood, Shizuka took out a biscuit stick and held onto one end with her teeth. Following this, Madoka bit onto the other side.
It was at that moment, with their faces inches apart, that Shizuka had a realization. Wait, isn't this basically the Pocky game? And to win the Pocky game, won't your lips inevitably touch?! Holy crap!!!!
Unaware of her internal crisis, Madoka began to inch forward by taking small bites of the biscuit stick.
Around them, the other students were all watching the scene intently.
"Semi-sama and Yoshino-sama are always so pleasing to the eye!"
"They're just like they were on TV!"
Although the students were making a fuss, none of this made an impression on Shizuka who was trying her best not to appear as if she was two steps away from having a complete meltdown. Is this really happening right now?! What should I do? Should I move away? But if I do won't we end up with a sucky prize?!! But am I really just going to let my first kiss go like this?!!! What should I doooooo?
In the end, Shizuka decided it would be uncool to back out when she had already agreed to participate; thus, she only clenched her fists together and she stood still in place as Madoka moved closer.
When Madoka's lips were less than a centimeter away from hers, Shizuka could feel her heart pounding more violently in her chest.
Yet, before she could feel the anticipated sensation of a kiss on her lips, Madoka broke the biscuit stick with his teeth. Then, he took the remaining stub and presented it to the maid. "Would this be enough for us to receive a prize?"
The maid nodded as she pulled out a small ruler from her apron pocket. "Yes, it'll do! Let's see here, you left 0.8 cm of biscuit, that gets you the second tier prizes! Congratulations!"
She handed them a small coupon. "You can pick up your prizes by the door on your way out!"
"Thanks."
A few students clapped and cheered for their accomplishment but the majority displayed disappointed expressions.
"Awww, I thought we would get to see them kiss!"
"Me too!"
"Can't they do it again???"
"Yeah! I want to record it this time!"
To the clamouring students, Madoka only revealed a subtle smile. "If you want to see the continuation then please come see 3-A's rendition of Cinderella in the gym at noon." He placed two fingers on his lips and tapped at them. "We look forward to seeing you there."
As the students in 3-B became stirred up, Madoka casually sat down in his seat.
Still a little disoriented, Shizuka shuffled into her seat.
After the maid left, some students continued to sneak glances at the two while Madoka turned his attention to the sundae in front of them.
"We should probably start eating this. It's already begun to melt."
Shizuka nodded curtly and dug a spoon into the sundae.
After having a few bites, Madoka commented, "The whipped cream is really nice and light, don't you think?"
".....Mn."
"I could probably do with less chocolate sauce though."
"Mn."
A moment of silence passed before Madoka casually stated, "It's funny how when we're together, we always get wrapped up in some challenge or game one way or another, huh?"
"Mn."
At Shizuka's string of noncommittal replies, Madoka revealed a worried expression. He aet his spoon down. "Is there something wrong?"
"Nope," answered Shizuka after a noticeable pause. "Everything's fine."
"Really?"
"Uh huh," responded Shizuka as picked up a giraffe shape animal cracker from the bowl and bit off its head.
Madoka furrowed his brows. "....Shizuka, did I make you mad somehow?....Are you mad at me?"
Shizuka chuckled. "Why would I be mad at you? You did a perfect job of advertising for our show."
Shizuka stabbed her spoon into the sundae bowl and began mashing up the biscuit sticks. "It was a nice adlib. One that I wasn't expecting but it was good...Leaving people hanging really builds up anticipation. Even if you had to lie because our play actually includes no kiss scenes....It was good that you broke it off. The biscuit that is."
By now the biscuit sticks had become a mixture of gooey chocolate and fine powder. "It's cool really, I get it."
It took Madoka a moment to come to a certain realization. "Did it perhaps bother you that we didn't kiss?"
Shizuka tensed up.
Truthfully, she was very bothered by that fact that they didn't kiss.
When Madoka had broken the biscuit stick, Shizuka had had similar feelings to what she felt when she had played a certain otome game at Mika's. At a critical moment, she had selected the wrong option, which prevented her from collecting her capture target's third and forth CGs. This eventually led to her reaching the platonic friendship ending with the capture target instead of the romantic one.
In that split second when Madoka pulled away when their lips were millimetres apart, Shizuka had suddenly doubted the feelings Madoka held towards her. While it wasn't as if she was desperate for him to take her first kiss, the fact that he had never seriously tried to, despite the period of time they had been dating, unsettled her.
That being said, Shizuka hadn't actually wanted to bring the matter of the non-kiss up for discussion as she believed that it would make her appear desperate to have her lips stolen. Thus, she was currently at a loss.
Taking her lack of a response as affirmation, Madoka's features were slowly arranged into a faint smile. In a gentle voice he said, "I'm sorry, Shizuka. I didn't realize that that was what you wanted. If I had known, you were more than willing, I wouldn't have acted the way I did."
"No!" retorted Shizuka a bit shrilly. "It's not like I was particularly willing or anything!"
"Hm, but-"
With heated cheeks, Shizuka stammered out, "It's just not about the almost kiss. It's about the uh....um, the principle? Yeah...that's right. The principle."
Seeing her obviously flustered state, Madoka's smile deepened. "The principle?
Shizuka nodded passionately. "That's right! If we choose to take part in something we should see it out to the very end! Since we were close to winning we should have just proceeded! The contact of our lips or er-the lack thereof of a kiss, I mean contact, d-doesn't concern me in the least! Really! Actually, it doesn't even matter anymore. Let's stop talking about this! We have to finish this sundae quickly!"
"Oh." Madoka calmly wiped his lips. "In that case, I guess you wouldn't need an explanation from me?"
Shizuka who had just shovelled a sizeable mound of ice cream into her mouth nearly choked. After hurriedly swallowing the ice cream, she tried to appear casual. "Well, since you want to explain yourself, I suppose I could hear you out."
"That's very kind of you." After saying this with an amused look in his eye, Madoka took a deep breath and adopted a more serious demeanour. "You remember our first date right?"
"Of course."
"Remember how we talked about the importance of firsts?"
Shizuka wasn't sure where he was going with this but she still replied with, "Yeah."
"Well...we've never kissed before so this would've been our first kiss."
Hearing the words "first kiss" made Shizuka embarrassed again. Coughing lightly she commented, "Yes, I was aware of that."
"So it might be a bit sentimental of me but I wanted it to be meaningful. If we were to kiss, I don't want it to be because some game required us to or because a crowd incensed us to but because the moment felt right and we both wanted to. When we look back on our first kiss, I wanted us to recall it fondly." By this point Madoka's face had also turned slightly crimson. "It probably sounds a bit cheesy, doesn't it?"
"A little," admitted Shizuka honestly, "buuut it made me happy to hear it."
With a small grin, Shizuka leaned over and poked his forehead. "For the record though, if I had let you kissed me before, it wouldn't have been due to the game or the crowd. Had I really not wanted to, even if I were incredibly frantic, with my abilities, you would've long been tossed over my shoulder."
Madoka returned her grin. "Duly noted."
"Alright, let's actually finish this up now so we can see other parts of the festival."
"Agreed."
After finishing the sundae, the two paid and headed to the entrance of 3-B.
At the door, Shizuka made sure to give Fuyuki a pinch on the side, causing the latter to wince, before handing their coupon to a butler for redemption.
From a box marked "second tier prizes," they received a cat ears headband and a dog ears headband for their own use.
Before Shizuka could register what had happened, Madoka planted the cat ears headband into her hair.
Madoka beamed as he admired her new look. "You're cute as expected."
To reciprocate, she plopped the dog ears headband on his head.
Looking at the ears on his head, the corner of her lips quirked up. In many ways he really is just an overgrown puppy.
Then, off they went to 3-D to visit Mika and Satoru's class.
Of course, as they walked over to the other building, they attracted a great deal of attention with their paired headbands. Although they were far less conspicuously dressed than some of their peers whom were going around as ghosts, vampires, and cheerleaders, their combined popularity made them eye catching.
"Mii-chan mentioned that they're doing a fortune-telling fair but I'm not sure what that means."
"Ah, Satoru said they all did research into different forms of fortune-telling so there will be a lot of different tables and at every table you can try a different method of fortune-telling ranging from tarot card readings to tea leaves readings."
"That's sounds intriguing." Although Shizuka was not a superstitious person, she didn't mind accompanying her mother in getting their fortune read from time to time as she found it rather amusing. One particularly memorable reading had even revealed that Shizuka would connect with her soulmate in a distant yet parallel universe which gave her a good laugh.
What will they tell us about our future today I wonder?