Spring Break

Chapter 4 - Lunch Date

Takagi waited in front of the dressing room for her friend to come out. She was helping her pick out an outfit to wear on her lunch date with Sakurai-kun. She'd liked him for a while now and had finally gotten up the courage to give him some chocolates on Valentine's Day. Ever since then they'd been talking on Line every night and he'd eventually confessed to her on White Day.

This was their first official date as a couple, and she was really nervous. They were going to go for a walk on Angel Road and have a picnic. It sounded extremely romantic to Takagi, and she couldn't have been happier for her friend. It made her wonder if Nishikata would ever suggest something like that.

This brought her thoughts back to what had been happening between them lately and she suddenly had the urge to talk about it.

"Hey, Sumire," she called out to her friend. When we're done here, do you want to take a break at one of the cafes near here?

"Sure," Sumire replied as she stepped out of the dressing room. "What do you think of this top?"

Takagi smiled. It was a light blue printed blouse with sleeves reaching just below her elbows and would go perfectly with the ankle length skirt she'd picked out earlier.

"Love it," Takagi approved.

***

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Sumire asked as their drinks arrived.

Takagi took a sip of her Earl-Grey bubble tea and gave her friend a wry smile. "You could tell I've had something on my mind, huh?"

Sumire chuckled. "Yeah, you've been pretty quiet. Did something happen with Nishikata-kun?"

Takagi blushed and took another sip. "You could say that..."

"What happened?" Sumire leaned in eagerly. "Spill!"

"Well, we um, we went on a date yesterday."

Sumire's eyes widened and she took a sip of her own drink. "Go on," she prompted for her to continue.

"It was amazing," Takagi smiled. "He wasn't acting like Nishikata at all. There was something almost bold about him and he behaved like an actual gentleman."

"What did he do?"

Takagi blushed again. "He held my hand...more than once. He got us matching character straps and he even gave me his jacket on the ferry ride back so that I wouldn't be cold."

Sumire squealed excitedly. "Oh my gosh, really? Did he confess?"

Takagi shook her head. "No, of course not. He's not ready for that yet...I don't think...?"

"You don't think?" Sumire quizzed.

Takagi shrugged and took a really long sip of her drink before replying.

"To be honest Sumire, I don't actually know what to think anymore. Nishikata's been surprising me a lot lately. I thought I could read him like a book, but he's caught me off guard so many times that I'm second guessing myself now. In fact, I'm actually meant to be meeting him for lunch later."

"Wait, you're going on another date with him again today?"

"It's not really a date. We're just meeting for lunch."

Sumire raised her eyebrows in response and Takagi couldn't help but chuckle.

"Yeah, I know what it sounds like. But it's Nishikata we're talking about. He didn't even think what we did yesterday counted as a date. Besides, our actual second date is tomorrow."