Chapter Text
An-chan didn't mean that.
The thought was the only way Kohane could rationalize what had just happened. Because... even though An had been blushing when she said it, and the setting had been awfully romantic (just the two of them, sitting on the swings, looking up at the sky after practice), but... An couldn't be in love with her. It simply didn't make any sense. An was- she was nice. Either Kohane had misheard her or An didn't know what those words meant in this context, so Kohane had laughed it off. Now that she was at home, though, she couldn't get them out of her mind.
"The moon is beautiful tonight." The words sounded flimsy on her tongue, much more so than they had when An was saying them so casually. Kohane looked over at Count Pearl slithering around in his cage. He didn't seem to notice her internal turmoil, but that was fine. She didn't need to bother him with her stupid, stupid little crush. He didn't really understand the concept anyway.
... An hadn't meant it as a confession. But Kohane's mind had interpreted it as such and- she couldn't ruin her relationship with An because she misinterpreted those words. So telling her something like I really like you so blatantly wouldn't be a good idea even if in the moment, Kohane had had to stop herself from letting those words slip out of her mouth. Speaking them could cause irreparable damage to their friendship.
Funny how the moon didn't seem as beautiful as it had an hour ago.
The words still rattled around in her head when she woke up the next morning. Kohane tried not to obsess over them but by lunch she was fighting the urge to ask Saki if she knew anything about what the literary curriculum at Kamiyama was like. To see if there was any chance An knew what those words meant, and she actually was in love with Kohane, and wouldn't that just make everything slightly easier? She didn't get the chance to talk to Saki about it, though, and so that was gone.
Minori and Shiho noticed something was wrong when they met up after school to hang out for an hour but said little on the subject. Kohane was grateful for that, she decided as Minori pulled her towards a clothing store while saying, "I think this would look super cute on you, Kohane-chan!"
The outfit Minori wanted her to try on was relatively simple, a grey pleated skirt and a light pink shirt that only had one sleeve for some reason. When she walked out of the dressing room with it on, Shiho's face went bright red and Minori grinned. "How do I look?"
"Perfect, Kohane-chan!" Minori chirped. "I'll pay for it!"
Kohane raised a hand. "You really don't have to-"
"My treat," Minori insisted. Shiho still seemed to be processing something. "Go change back! We'll see you at the cash register!"
Kohane went back into the changing room. Shiho mumbled a sentence Kohane almost didn't catch: "... can I get one of those, too, Minori?"
Minori's response was a lot less discreet. "Ooh, is this about Saki-chan? What colour?"
Shiho sighed. "I'll take the black one. And this isn't about Saki!"
"Aww, Shiho-chan..."
Kohane chuckled to herself as she folded the clothes and put her regular outfit back on. At least Minori's insistence on going shopping had distracted her from... whatever had happened with An in the park last night. Even if there was a whispering voice in the back of her head telling her that Minori and Shiho had been scheming to get her to buy an outfit that made her look incredible because they were a little tired of Kohane's crush on An being obvious to everyone who saw the two of them together. (Well, that was just Shiho. Minori was very supportive of Kohane.)
The moon was supposed to be beautiful tonight, too. Kohane wasn't sure she could take another well-meaning comment about the aesthetically pleasing nature of the night sky, so maybe she would have to leave practice early. Or just walk in a different direction claiming her mother wanted her to go and buy something from the convenience store. (Biting the bullet and admitting the truth wasn't on the table right now.)
"Kohane-chan, can I do your makeup?" Minori asked as they walked out of the store. Shiho rolled their eyes and nudged Minori. Clearly there was something going on here that Kohane wasn't allowed to know about.
"I don't think it's a good idea anymore," Shiho hissed.
"It's an amazing idea!" Minori retorted.
Shiho sighed. "You owe me five thousand yen if this works."
"The shirt was three thousand," she pointed out, and Kohane could almost hear Airi's tone in her voice.
"Fine, two thousand!" Shiho spun around to see that Kohane had indeed heard all of that. "Kohane, you didn't hear anything."
"Can I give her the address at least?" Minori asked, puppy-eyes pleading to let whatever plan she and Shiho had brainstormed slip.
"No."
Thirty minutes later, Kohane sat on one of the barstools in Weekend Garage as Minori finished with the makeup. She didn't want to assume anything, but Minori and Shiho had been acting awfully suspiscious. The long coat Minori had taken out of her bag, like something from a secret agent movie, wasn't helping matters.
"Azusawa?" Toya sounded, understandably, very confused. Kohane didn't even remember to remind him that they ought to be calling each other by their first names because An thought it might help them work better as a team. "What is going on?"
"Minori-chan and Shiho-chan planned something," she said.
"Stay still," Minori whispered, though the way she was tapping her foot on the floor made it seem like she wasn't one to follow her own advice. Kohane couldn't blame her. "Haruka-chan taught me how to do this! Only a few more minutes..."
Kohane knew that when Minori's eyes glazed over like that, she was running on autopilot while her brain conjured up some fantasy about Haruka getting within a centimetre of kissing her whilst doing her makeup. Or saying that Minori didn't need to apply her own lipstick because there was plenty enough around already. Judging by the way Minori snapped out of it twenty seconds later, it was the second option. Airi really shouldn't've accepted the viewer suggestion to have everyone come up with the best pick-up line even if that was probably a coordinated effort to get Minori and Haruka together.
"Done!" Minori stepped back. "Shiho-chan, do you think An-ch-"
Shiho glared. "I take it back. You owe me five thousand yen if this works."
Kohane filled in the blank. Do you think An-chan will like it? So they were trying to set her up with An. Not that she was going to complain about that, but-
... had they had this plan in place for a while, or had they heard from someone about last night's incident and whipped it up on the fly?
"Azusawa, are you certain you don't know what's happening?" Toya asked.
Kohane sighed. "I think I know now."
Minori blushed and stepped back. "I'm sorry! Shiho-chan swore me to secrecy!"
"For good reason," Shiho said. "Now, Minori, I thought we had... plans to get ice cream?"
In March? Kohane thought. Minori saluted and pulled Shiho out of the cafe. In good time, too, because An then walked back in from her break and promptly nearly collapsed. "Kohane?"
"Hi, An-chan!"
"... you look really good, Kohane," she said. "Do Minori and Hinomori-san have anything to do with that?"
"We went shopping," she admitted, and An just smiled more. How on earth her face didn't hurt, Kohane didn't know. "Does it... work for me?"
"Seeing as Shiraishi is about to faint, I suppose it has worked," Toya said. "Ken-san, could I get a refill on this coffee?"
Toya got his refill before An regained the ability to look at Kohane without falling over. "Ah- if it's too much, I could-"
"Don't," An said. "You- this is a me problem, Kohane."
From Toya's other side, Akito snickered and muttered something about favouritism.
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing, An. Just noting how attached to your partner you are," he said, which made Toya nearly spit out his coffee.
"If you're going to be so mean, Kohane and I could just leave," An suggested. Akito shrugged, and An took that as a cue to gently pull Kohane out of the shop. Someone wearing Minori's detective coat stood across the road. Of course. "Anywhere you want to go?"
At that exact moment, Kohane's phone buzzed, and she wondered if Minori had bugged her. When she checked it, Shiho had sent her the address to a nice restaurant nearby as well as a reservation number and Minori had transferred her quite a bit of money. "I think so."
Hinomori Shiho had never known spying could be this fun or this expensive. Their steak had been a little pricey, but it had been damn good, and they'd had to cancel practice to follow Kohane around, but they still found themself grinning as they chatted with Minori about work and music and listened to her rant about some issue she'd had moving all the stuff into the house she was renting with More More Jump! Something about a box of weights being improperly labelled and Haruka getting involved, which segued into a moment Shiho could only describe as being exactly like Minori, which segued into a discussion about working out.
In fact, spying was so much fun that they almost missed Kohane kissing An on the cheek.
Almost. They were getting those five thousand yen as if their life depended on it and not Saki's birthday present.