A story about two bunnies

[seimeinotaka]

This is the (not so) brief summary of Aria and Masato's relationship I made in a readable form for both reference to me and for anyone who is interested in Aria. I always refer to Aria as a bunny because of how she is, so this would be a story of two bunnies, indeed.

I have tried my best to make it a compelling story, even if it's not told in a traditional way and I do ask for a slight suspension of disbelief in how they met. I assure you I've thought about this long and hard and consistency and plausibility are things I care a lot in my stories.

Thank you for reading this ;A;

 

Tsutsugahara Aria is a half-Japanese, half-British girl. Her mom is from England, her dad is a second-generation Japanese in England. Her mom is an orchestra pianist and her dad is a research scientist. She wants to become a professional pianist and she has been practicing all her life. She’s also a shy and sensitive person.

She lived her childhood in London, and when she was to start Middle school, her family moved to Boston as her dad got a better job there. However, her problems began as she was the “British-Japanese” girl, and she got unwanted negative attention when she wanted to keep a low profile, due to her shyness, and she got bullied all the time, no matter what she did or didn’t do.

She tried to make friends, but she couldn’t, and she had lost contact with a friend, Ayame, she had in London but who had moved away before she went to the States. Her parents, while well-meaning, weren’t very attentive of her at that time, and she didn’t want to bother them with her issues at school, so she hid her issues and she developed social anxiety which worsened during her school years.

She had difficulty buying things on her own, talking to strangers, random small talk, eating outside, and the list goes on. And of course, she felt like a failure for not being able to do something so inconsequential that anyone else did without any problem.

Eventually, her dad got another job, this time in Japan. At first, she thought she would be better there, but no. She can speak Japanese, but since it wasn’t a real necessity in her life in London or Boston, she never really learned how to //read//. She is in a limbo, where she’s seen as Japanese, because she can speak the language, but she is more of a foreigner and she doesn’t get the pass foreigners do. She is expected to know how to write and read it, and she had tried to study on her own, but it was a lot to cram in.

She managed to enter university, but it took her a lot of effort, between her social anxiety and the added anxiety from her lacking written Japanese skills. She had met by chance Ayame, who had moved to Japan years ago, and she helped Aria prepare for the admission exams. Once Aria got accepted, Ayame suggested Aria stayed at a dorm Ayame stayed with her high school friends who were going to study in the same university.

Aria tried her best, between using apps and translating machines, and her own studies, but it was very difficult. When she came across a kanji she didn’t know, her mind would blank, which in turn would make her embarrassed and anxious, and then she’d feel stupid for not knowing it.

Another thing her anxiety is holding her back is actually the one thing she loves a lot, music. Because of her bullying, she became anxious to play in front of other people. She can’t even play in front of people she knows, like Ayame or her mom. She practiced every day with a keyboard at night and a very low sound or in silence. Because of her unusual practice, she ended up learning many songs by heart, but she can’t play them in front of anyone. She would have flunked some courses if it weren’t for a teacher who is an odd-ball, and he agreed to evaluate her from afar. However, he told her she wouldn’t get very far if she kept like that.

And she didn’t, after 2 years, she hit a wall and she has to play in front of people, as much as she dreads the idea.

To cope with her anxiety, she started playing videogames and mobages. She uses them too to practice her reading skills, but she doesn’t feel like she’s making much progress. Among them, there is one videogame where both STARISH and Quartet Night had participated. After the videogame they helped advertised (the TGS gacha from last year), one company asked them to voice some characters in their mobage. Masato’s character was one who struggled with loneliness and he became Aria’s favorite character because she could relate to his troubles. The character had no place he could call home and she felt the same. The US was never a home to her, and when she entertained going back to London to study there instead, she realized the London she grew up with and the current one are so different she feels she doesn’t belong there anymore.

She is vaguely aware that big names worked on the game she plays, but seiyuu and idols are the least of her worries, and she just forgot about it.

She eventually found a place for her after a long time in her dorm because her dormmates are nice, if weird, people and they don’t mind her background or her “odd habits”. And many of them are in the music course she is taking.

During the semester break, a movie will be filmed in campus, and since they are staying for a special course, Aria and some of her friends got asked to help with it. First, they were asked to tour people who were special guests, but they didn’t want to get word out of who they were so uninvited people would come. In fact they would stay at the dorm, because someone from that company wanted the guests to “feel the university experience”.

Aria, completely unaware of who these people are, tries rehearsing her tour with her friends, except one accidentally reveals they are famous people and of course she has a meltdown. With her meltdown, her friends notice some people who are looking at them.

Surprise surprise /s, STARISH were inspecting the faculty to get a real feel of the university, and they overheard the conversation Aria had with her friends. One of her friends, Aki, recognizes them and then suggests Aria leads STARISH because Quartet Night, while a smaller group, has both Camus and Ranmaru, who would scare Aria.

Aria rehearses, but she still got very nervous and anxious and when she gets nervous, she goes overdrive, in English. Of course, that happened as she gave the friendly people of STARISH a tour, giving away the fact that she wasn’t born in Japan, and Syo was interested because of the UK ad he and Reiji had filmed before. Reiji also learned about this and eventually joins their group, Aria can’t give the tour and feels very dejected.

She also recognizes a particular very kind and nice guy among the group, Masato, as the same guy who has helped her at times when she’s buying things. Trying to do something about her anxiety AND her Japanese, she has tried to do grocery shopping but she struggles with the language, especially vegetables because she doesn’t know the name in Japanese, she can’t understand the kanji and the vegetables aren’t like anything she has seen before. This man, whose voice sounds familiar, has helped her at times reading the signs for her. Those times, even if she thought she recognized the voice, she was far busier being embarrassed that she didn’t register that it was the same guy who voiced her favorite character.

As her tour is drawing to a close, she realizes that the man who has helped her is an idol, that she’s made herself a joke in front of them and while she manages to hold her dignity, she spends the next day moping about it, even if no one really said a thing, out of consideration to her.

However, since these very popular strangers are in the dorm, Aria is in full anxiety mode. She can’t even talk to people like Natsuki, Otoya or Cecil, who we all know are nice and helpful. Because Aria’s friends try to smooth things over, she just gives the impression of being a quiet shy girl and not an anxious wreck about to fall apart and cry at any moment.

Aria struggles with the changes in her dorm life, but her anxiety reaches a point where she can’t handle it and one Sunday, she goes to play the piano in the music room to vent her feelings. Between her dorm issues, the fact that she has to play in front of others, she plays to let her feelings out, as playing the piano alone calms her. She had been practicing with her sound-off keyboard, but she needs to listen to the piano to feel better.

She plays a couple of songs, and she is so immersed by it she doesn’t really pay attention to anything else. By chance, Masato was taking a stroll to familiarize himself better with the campus, but he remembered the piano the university had and that he was invited to play whenever he wanted. He walks around to the music building, and enters the piano room while Aria is playing Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven. Aria keeps on playing, unaware Masato is listening and only notices him when he clears her throat after she’s finished playing. She literally jumps, apologizes in a hurry and runs away from the place, slamming her leg against the piano seat as she did so too. But she forgets her coat and her bag.

She realizes too late that she forgot her things and she wants to disappear because someone heard her playing. Since it’s Masato, she knows she’d come across him in the dorm, so she avoids it and hides in campus, trying to think of what she can do, which isn’t much. She later goes to the piano room to see if her things are still there, but they aren’t, so she goes to mope on a nearby fountain.

In the meantime, Masato recognized her as the shy girl from their tour, took her things with him and went to look for her at the dorm, but Aria wasn’t there. He found Aki and Ayame instead, who tried to subtly say Aria has difficulty dealing with new people, they think she had something serious happen to her which is why she’s so “shy”. She’s a sweet girl, and she doesn’t mean to be rude, but she will need some time to open to them. They offer to give her her things, though Masato wants to find her instead. They tell him she sometimes hangs around the fountain or places with flowers, so he tries his luck there.

And yes, he finds her moping, so he’s like, “Tsutsugahara, you forgot this.” And of course, Aria jumps when she sees Masato with her things and wants to be swallowed by the earth. She manages to mumble a weak apology. Masato suggests they go back to the dorm, and Aria at first is debating mentally because if she accepts or refuses, she’ll feel ridiculous and silly anyway. So, she is surprised when he says, “I didn’t mean to startle you in the piano rom. I was walking around campus and remembered the piano your university has. I wanted to play it, as I like it and it soothes me, but your masterful performance caught my attention instead.”

He also goes on how he imagined she played an instrument since the tour guides were all music students, but he didn’t think she’d play the piano. He also compliments her performance, how heartfelt and full of emotion it was, as well as her virtuosity. And to encourage her, he tells her he can relate to being nervous when playing in front of others, even if he’s an idol.

Aria is obviously surprised and not used at all to being complimented, and she doesn’t notice she’s smiling brightly, even if her cheeks are quite red. Masato asks her if he can listen to her when she is playing, and while she hesitates at first, she figures she can pretend she’s alone if she can’t see him.

Needless to say, she’s starting to fall for him. Masato is startled at first by her smile

He does listen to her when he has some time off filming, though at her insistence because she feels bad for being the only one playing, he sometimes plays the piano too. She’s very amazed and swoons over how he plays the piano and his singing voice too, and how he has a magnificent aura as he is playing, and how tender, yet passionate he is. She wouldn’t even imagine he would be nervous when he’s playing. She doesn’t realize how rather passionate she is complimenting her, though, and he is surprised too. She’s usually shy and quiet among strangers, but when a topic deals with something she really likes, she fangirls a lot and is quite lively and chatty.

Actually, days later, Masato is rehearsing when a loud scream distracts him and he rushes to the girls’ floor, only to find it was Aria screaming in joy because of her mobage. He knew the character he voiced was getting an alt but he couldn’t mention it, however, he didn’t know Aria was a big fan of him. When he was released, she rolled to get him and she was willing to use all the gems she had saved for someone else, but he came home twice in her ten-roll, so she was in heaven and he had never seen her as happy and red as in that time. When Ren jokingly mocks Masato’s character, Aria starts rambling about how his character arc was amazing and how strong he had become and him getting the alt was showcasing how loved and great he was. Masato doesn’t play the game, but apparently Ren has gave it a shot, so Ren being Ren, teased Masato a lot later because of how Aria seems to really like his character.

Time after, Aria is walking outside of campus, because she wanted to buy something from the stores in that area. She sees a guy bullying another guy, and while she freezes at first, she gets very angry, because she understands what it’s to be bullied and she confronts the bully. The guy is far taller than her and she demands him to stop to what he punches her in the face and she manages to slap him, but then gets punched in the stomach.

Two groups of people were passing through at that moment, one of them including Aria’s friends, and Aki grabs the guy’s arm and twists it because she’s not going to let that slide. The second group has Otoya, Natsuki, and Masato who were shopping for food and ran over the commotion since there was a big fuss but no one did a thing.

The bully leaves with his bruised ego and his almost broken arm, but the guy who was bullied starts yelling at Aria for interfering. Aki is like “Huh, so your ego is so fragile that a woman stepping up to stop that guy from handing your ass over makes you so angry. If it were me, I wouldn’t even care about scum like you.” Aria just says it’s nothing, and just wants to leave the place because everyone is staring at them.

Masato and Natsuki help Aria with her bleeding nose, and they hurry back to the dorm. Everyone is trying to cool down Aki, who is very annoyed at what happened, but Aria starts staying behind, as she is pale, shaky and with cold sweat. She tries to ask them to stop because she needs to rest but she faints instead and she is taken to the infirmary.

She wakes up later, everyone is rightfully worried about her and they think it was because she was really shaken by the incident. However, Masato overhears Aria talking to the nurse and that she had been punched in the solar plexus. She was stressed and scared and had difficulty breathing, and with the punch, it became worse. She stayed quiet because her friend would have seriously injured that guy if she had known how bad he had hit Aria. Masato thinks she is kind-hearted but very impulsive and reckless, he doesn’t say it to her face though.

Though he is slightly wrong. Aria is actually very cowardly, but bullying is the one thing that she cannot accept.

One time he was listening to her play, he accidentally fell asleep, as he had been struggling with sleeping. When he wakes up, Aria had covered him with her jacket and she was even playing calmer and gentler melodies. She also doesn’t mind that Masato fell asleep, though she gets nervous when he notices she played a couple of his songs. She admits to have started listening to them, and that Masato has a really nice voice.

Part of the reason why Masato can’t sleep is because Haruka comes to visit, but she and Tokiya are secretly dating. And several of the members of Starish still have unresolved feelings for her, Masato included, so the atmosphere is tense. It’s not aggressive, but awkward, because they try to act like nothing happened. It fools some people who don’t pay a lot of attention, but Aria notices Masato is acting odd and she comes to the conclusion he has feelings for Haruka.

So Haruka stays with the girls, but she goes out with Tokiya since they can spend some time together and to try to help the more affected Starish members, Aki strong friend invites them to a streaming session but before she is trying to get something from the gacha component of her game. Airi, someone who stays in that dorm, is crying about whaling to rank in her idol game. Reika, another classmate and friend, starts arguing about the pointlessness of wasting money and asks her friends to be reasonable and tell Airi to stop. Except almost everyone is like “Yeah, go for it.”

Eventually the conversation goes into what to do if you whale, and how you have to set up a max limit and stick to it. If you fail to get what you wanted, you did your best and it just didn’t work, and many things in life just go like that. Aki is saying as she is trying to get a specific costume but she’s failing. She goes on how some people can get what they want in a yolo, while others don’t get anything or get something else entirely. But the important thing is dealing with the cards you’ve been dealt. And how you can’t complain about something if you haven’t really tried. If you tried something, and it failed, you have to live with it, but if you didn’t do anything, you have to accept that you missed your chance and that it’s ridiculous to be salty of others who took theirs.

In the end, she didn’t get what she wanted, but she got something else, equally valuable that she hadn’t noticed at first, but she was like “Ok, this works too.”

Aria especially is mulling over Aki’s words, and how it was about accepting failure, but taking pride in doing something and taking whatever you gained from that failure, if possible, as something valuable. It might not be the best, and it can be bitter, but there’s worth in that too.

Aria resolves to gather courage to do things she was terrified of, first to go to therapy, and later, she plans to confess her feelings for Masato, though she doesn’t ask nor expects anything in return. She was terrified at first of going to therapy, because she feared opening up to a stranger, even though most were foreigners and she would be able to communicate just fine, but she didn’t know how to explain that to her parents and how they would take it. She is aware she has a big anxiety problem, but she had kept it a secret. With some help from Ayame and Aki, she ends up going to a therapist and she gets some small tasks to do, to slowly desensitize her to rejection and anxiety-inducing situations.

Aria tries to do her tasks at one point at this craft shop (think Tokyu Hands with several floors for different things, from stationary to DIY kits). Aki and her trash (jk) boyfriend have sessions there where they help kids interact and do crafts, a safe space where kids at the school they studied can have fun, since they all were victims of bullying. Aria is at that place for her tasks, which included talking to clerks and ask for directions. Some kids are doing felting projects, so Aria offered to go get the materials needed for them, both to help and to do her tasks, and was going to ask where she could find a multi-needle felting pen. But the clerk is scary, and Aria got so nervous that she forgot the name of the item and her description of it is awkward. Masato was around there, buying thread for his sewing projects, overheard what Aria wanted and gets it for her.

She’s like, “Oh, ah, thank you, Hijirikawa-san.” But she muses to herself how she had messed up, as she couldn’t get her question across the clerk, she didn’t get directions either and she fumbled up. Masato notices she’s down, so he tags along and finds the group of children. Since it’s the first time Aria is with them, the kids are naturally curious and start asking her many questions, such as, “Do you have a boyfriend?”, “What’s England like?”, “Ohh, tell us something in English.” Because of her anxiety, she needs to mentally prepare herself for her tasks and she was so focused (and defeated) in talking to clerks that she didn’t expect to be asked so many questions and be the center of attention. Her speaking skills drop and is starting to get agitated. Even if Aki is trying to control the kids, some keep bugging Aria and she starts looking ill.

Masato suddenly interrupts and asks her if she can help him find something, and Aria agrees, partially because she’s trying to run away. As she follows Masato, she trips on the stairs and accidentally slams into his back, and what little confidence she had built is crumbled, so she apologizes but is extremely down when he takes her to a quiet spot in the shop.

Masato asks her if she’s alright, and after thanking him for being out for her and debating with herself, she admits she has Social Anxiety Disorder, and she was there as part of her therapy with some tasks that are supposed to help her overcome her fear of interacting with people. Masato figures out that when he met her earlier, she was trying to do a task, but he probably got in the way, even if Aria never said anything. Aria comments that she is so amazed that Tokiya and Masato are idols and in spite of their shyness, they don’t let that hold them back. She has been shy all her life, and with her anxiety now, she can only be amazed at people who can do so many things when she fumbles at the idea of having to talk with a stranger. He notices she is quite observant, even if she doesn’t look like it.

After she’s calmed down, Masato asks her to help him find some thread, and Aria manages to ask the scary clerk where the thread was. She is scared but she is able to follow the directions and it’s only when she’s reached the thread section that she realizes that Masato didn’t really need the help, but he was helping her instead so she could do her tasks and she feels better. He was asking for a pink color and she brings like five different shades. Because she wants to be useful and help him. Aria thanks him, though Masato doesn’t say much about it. However, he noticed that she noticed and realizes Aria is sharper than she seems, it’s just she is nervous in many situations, so she gives off a wrong impression.

When they get back, Aki had already scolded the children, who apologize to Aria. Aria is like, “It’s okay.” But then one of the kids recognizes Masato and they start asking him questions instead because they are children.

Later, he googles Social Anxiety Disorder, as he hadn’t heard about it. As he is reading the articles, he remembers that Aki and Ayame had mentioned that Aria could have been bullied before, but she doesn’t talk much about her life in the US. He imagines that she was bullied in the past and combined with her sensitive personality, she ended up developing the disorder, but it’s not like he can ask her about it. Aria tries really hard to not make a fuss out of it, after all.

They meet each other again on that shop, but this time, Aria is there and busy buying cute stickers. Masato went with Otoya and Natsuki to buy ingredients and containers because Natsuki wanted to bake cute cupcakes and Masato wanted to buy stationery to write letters for Mai. Natsuki catches a glimpse of Aria, who is wearing headphones at the time and goes to greet her from behind before Masato could warn him about doing that. So of course Aria gets very scared and jumps, and she swallows by accident the candy she was eating.

After both Otoya and Natsuki realize Aria is not good with that kind of surprise and Aria calms down, they talk about what they wanted to buy. Aria suggests Masato could spice things up by buying different types of paper and adding washi tape and stickers to make the letter cute if he couldn’t buy a pretty one he wanted. She even ends up drawing cute doodles on a paper sheet, though when she was about to write kanji, she freezes because she had heard Masato practices calligraphy and her difficulties with kanji plus his expertise make her very anxious. However, Masato takes the pen and he writes instead.

Once he’s finished, she uses some washi tape and stickers she bought to add details to the letter and gives them to him in case he doesn’t have any. She also suggests drawing cats if he’s in doubt because cats are cute and then she and Natsuki start talking about cute things. However, Otoya notices that the music Aria was listening to wasn’t exactly cute or chill pop but symphonic metal, which is at odds with her shy and girly appearance. She doesn’t think it’s that odd, and she comments she likes darker things too because she can feel connected about the struggles of those people or those themes and she can find catharsis for her own feelings. Lowkey she implies that she’s had dark thoughts and music was her way to channel them.

She then remembers she had something important to tell Masato, that she had watched that drama series about the train he and Camus had filmed and she had absolutely loved it. She was glued to the screen the entire time and the twist caught her off guard that she was mindblown. She’s saying this while being absolutely ecstatic and Masato is surprised and flustered that she is so enthusiastic, and smiling so brightly, but remembers the time she was fangirling about her favorite character, who is voiced by him, which makes him even more flustered. He thinks he would have never imagined she was like this because she never gave that impression when they first met, but that she looks beautiful when she’s smiling brightly like that.

Later, Reiji’s birthday is coming up and Aria was asked to help bake something from the UK, since he likes the UK and Aria likes to bake things. She’s in the men’s floor cooking in the kitchen and Otoya talks to her. In between the talk, since Aria is always calling him “Ittoki-san,” Otoya tells her she can call him Otoya. With that, Aria switches to “Otoya-san.” They continue talking, and Masato enters the kitchen to help with some food, but he overhears Aria saying “Otoya-san”, but Masato is “Hijirikawa-san.” He doesn’t say anything, and he is washing some vegetables, but he feels slightly jealous about this.

Otoya doesn’t really notice it, and then goes to help with other chores, and Aria gets closer to him, and says, “What’s wrong, Ma-sa-to-san?” in a playful way though she accidentally made it more flirty, to what he reacts very surprised, and Aria immediately thinks she messed up. She just wanted to tease him a little, because she noticed he went very quiet and wondered if it was about the names used. So she says hurriedly, “Eh, ah, sorry, I-I was too forward… sorry, Hijiri-”

“Masato is fine…”

“Masato-san?”

“Just Masato.”

“R-really?”

“…Yes…”

And Masato’s blushing, so he focuses on washing the vegetables so she doesn’t see his face. Still worried, Aria explains that she can’t really tell when it’s fine for her to call people by their name. The UK and US are different, and she knows calling someone by their names and without honorifics without permission is rude, but she’s afraid to ask. She can’t tell when she is close enough with the person, so she waits until the other gives her permission. She thought that maybe Masato would be fine if she called him by his name, but since he was surprised, she first thought she had offended him. She doesn’t tell him, but that she got to call him by his name makes her very happy.

At that point, Masato knows Aria can be unexpectedly surprising, and she plays the piano. She is shy but kind-hearted and attentive of others, sometimes so much she gets anxious about it. He has some complex feelings about her, he was surprised himself he got so jealous about her calling Otoya by his name as he didn’t expect himself to care so much about it. His issue and dilemma is partially him moving on from Haruka, since her visiting stirred up old wounds, and while he finds himself attracted to Aria, he doesn’t want it to be because he sees her as a replacement of Haruka. Masato knows Aria is aware of his feelings for Haruka, but she has encouraged him to find his happiness, though never saying to give up on his feelings.

Eventually, he slowly resolves that he won’t discard his feelings for Haruka, but he won’t be tied by them either. At first, he thought both girls shared some traits, both were shy, kind-hearted and apparently clumsy, they also played the piano, but then he later saw that they were different. Aria is more pessimistic than Haruka, but she tries nonetheless.

 

The course Aria enrolled at and the reason she got to meet Masato has a final assignment to make a video of them playing or reinterpreting a song. After much debate within herself and after gathering a lot of courage, she decided to film her hands as she plays the infamous La Campanella by Franz Liszt. She has practiced it a lot and she knows she can do it, so she forces herself to record it, in spite of what her usual anxiety tells her about how she’d not do it well and she shouldn’t even try instead or how no one would believe she can do it.

She expects correctly, when the video is aired since all projects are shown, that some would question if she had played it since only her hands were visible, and she had avoided playing in public previously. Half-bluffing and half-confident, she blurts out that she could prove to the class and the invited guests who included Starish and Quartet Night, and obviously Masato, that the one in the video is her playing. And in a way, she wanted to play for him to show how grateful she was for the support he gave her.

She says she will play two songs, so that people don’t think she is just faking it, and she first plays Fantasie Impromptu by Frederic Chopin, something special to her because Masato first heard her playing Moonlight Sonata. Well, the third movement and Fantasie Impromptu are similar, some might even think the latter was inspired by the former, but Chopin didn’t want it heard in fear of people comparing it to Moonlight Sonata. In fact, he wanted it to be destroyed when he died, but it was published because the friend who found it thought it was a masterpiece. Aria relates herself a lot to Chopin (she was born on March 1^st), since she is scared of being compared and criticized, and she even feared disappointing her mother. So, even if Masato doesn’t know the connection or if he can’t remember what she played when they “met”, she wanted to dedicate it to him. Like it was her heart to him, and her way to show she was working on getting over her fears and to eventually play in front of her mom.

The jokes on her, because Aki told Aria’s mom about the event, and she was invited, but Aria’s mom was hidden within the crowd, until after Aria finished playing, she realized this. She’s later like, “Did you tell my mom?!” But Aki replies, “You had to eventually play in front of her, and you’d pick an easier piece if you did, so…”

Aria really can’t argue with that.

 

So later, because of the movie having a sequel in winter, Starish and QN are back to the university, to continue filming, this time around the school’s winter break. In between, Aria and Masato have sometimes messaged each other, between being busy with school and work, respectively, and because they are shy too. Aria in particular doesn’t want to bother Masato because she doesn’t want to assume they are close when they aren’t.

One day, Aria was walking home, going to meet with her friends, when she finds a group of guys hitting some stray kittens which had been born at a lot near the university campus. Immediately, Aria stands up against the guys, even if they are taller and more than her, she gets hit a couple of times, including the face, but her outburst was so loud that Aki, who was around to meet with Aria catches wind of it.

Aki beats the guys up, while she tells Aria to get the cats to the university, since of their roommates is studying to become a vet and the campus has a clinic. Aria carries the cats on her coat as she is phoning her roommate for help. As she’s running to the clinic, she goes past Masato, Otoya and Natsuki and noticed she was bleeding, so they follow her. They only catch up at the clinic, where two of her roommates are there to take care of the cats. Aria is fuming, and she’s too wound up to explain herself, when Aki is bringing the guys, not so casually beaten up because she doesn’t go easy if you injure animals or innocent defenseless people, and Aria yells at them that they are horrible people. She’s so angry she’s trembling and she says they are garbage for harming innocent animals and laughing at their suffering.

Aki and her boyfriend bring the guys to report them, because they were students from the university, Otoya tags along to help, while Masato and Natsuki escort Aria because she’s bleeding and she needs to get her nose bleeding treated. When they arrive at the dorm, Natsuki starts cooking something for Aria, because she was running wearing only a dress on a cold day, and to cheer her up, while Masato takes her to the bathroom to clean her injuries and make sure her nosebleed has stopped. He scolds her for being reckless, but since Aria is still wound up, she retaliates that she can never ignore anyone harming others, even if she’s weak and a coward. If she can do something to stop it, even if she gets injured and terrified, she will do it.

At first, he is taken by surprise by her outburst, but then softens, and is gentler when he tells her to worry about herself, and that if she is in trouble, that she asks for his help. She replies that she wants to be able to do it on her own. She’s aware Masato and the others are busy and she doesn’t want to bother them.

After cleaning her face, he tells her to take off her dress and Aria is like “Wha…”, but Masato has already left the bathroom and he comes back with a bathrobe, though when he sees her blushing face, he blushes and quickly explains that they have to clean her dress quickly, otherwise the stains would be impossible to remove, since her dress is white.

So he is waiting, while Aria is, “Uh… could you… uhm… leave?” And Masato realizes it’s not like she’ll undress in front of him, so he leaves the bathroom, but he has to enter again because her arms are sore from carrying the cats and she can’t pull down the zipper on her back. Masato has to close his eyes as he helps her, and then leaves quickly, obviously flustered. He can’t even look at her in the eye when she hands him her dress.

He’s already brought some salty warm water to clean the bloodstains and Aria hangs around as he is cleaning her dress, because she feels guilty he is doing it, but he tells her to not mind. She also didn’t want to be outside the bathroom because she is wearing only her underwear and she’s wrapped with Masato’s robe and has to hold it at the chest area because she’s short.

While he is washing her dress, she quietly explains that when she moved to the US, she had a miserable life. For some reason, one girl didn’t like Aria and she would constantly attack her. It could be anything, paper balls, spreading rumors about Aria that she was stuck up and looked down on everyone, that she thought herself better for being from England. Aria has always been shy and she didn’t know anyone, and she tried to defend herself, but she couldn’t, the rumors continued and no one would listen to her.

She has always had difficulty making friends since she lived in London, but she had none in the US. Everyone at her school didn’t care and no matter what she did to try to prove the rumors wrong, no one cared or believed her. The girl who attacked her was also rich and liked to show off, especially that she was a self-proclaimed pianist. Because Aria also plays the piano, the girl felt attacked by Aria to the point that this girl almost slammed the piano’s cover on Aria’s fingers, and Aria quit piano in school because she didn’t want to risk injuring her hands.

In high school things were the same, as many people from her previous school had gone to the same high school as she did, so she didn’t get a break. She avoided people and tried her best to not stand out at all, especially after some guys would stalk and intimidate her as she walked home.

She felt lonely and miserable, she had no one going to aid her, and she was both terrified and ashamed to tell her parents. She can’t understand why people would enjoy making others feel miserable, and she can’t stand it either, but she’s too much of a coward to do something.

Masato tells her she is wrong, because she’s gone to defend people and animals in need even if she got injured, and that she is a very kind and considerate person, in spite of what she went through.

Later, she realizes that it would have been better if she had gone for a change of clothes to the girls’ floor, because the other idols have come back to the dorm and she can’t go out wearing his robe, she left her phone in the living room and her dress wouldn’t be dry anytime soon.

Syo goes to the bathroom, even if Natsuki is trying to stop him, and he sees both, turns crimson and leaves, apologizing, but his reaction snowballs. Otoya, who has gotten back, and Natsuki try to explain what happened, but they make it seem like she’s naked so Masato has to come out and explain, while he is obviously blushing as Aria waits inside. Ren is enjoying this, but he does hand Aria her phone, and she calls Ayame to see if she could bring her a dress, so she could dress and leave. When Ayame arrives, she’s confused because given everyone’s reactions, she had imagined Aria was naked but she wasn’t, and Aria just dresses up quickly, apologizes for the mess, and runs away. To properly apologize, Aria bakes some sweet rolls, to which Camus makes a casual comment that Masato can do his again anytime if Aria will bake more sweets as an apology.

 

Closer to Xmas, Aria invites everyone to her house to celebrate Christmas. Her mom wants to make a Christmas dinner because she’s religious, she wanted for a long time to have a big family dinner, but she couldn’t because Japanese people consider it more a day to date. Before, Aria didn’t invite anyone and her dad is shy too.

Now that Aria’s making progress with her anxiety, especially eating in front of other people, she invites her dorm friends and tries inviting Masato and friends, though she knows they usually work on that day, so she didn’t expect anyone to go. She baked a lot of Christmas sweets, those chocolate yule logs, and her mom was like “It’s now my time.”

Tokiya politely declined because he was going on a date with Haruka. The rest of Starish and obviously Masato go. Reiji bugs everyone at Quartet Night to go, but Camus and Ranmaru just say they are busy, and then he bugs Ai, who goes because he’s never been to a proper Christmas celebration. When they arrive, Camus and Ranmaru were already eating, because they heard sweets and meat were being served. Reiji complains, but Camus tells him off because he wasn’t going to be late and have all the desserts be gone.

 

As some are stuffing their faces, Ai listens attentively about how the tradition of Christmas trees included the pagan tradition of sacrifice before the missionaries shot down that tradition, because Aria’s mom thinks it’s cool to tell that story because she’s weird like that.

There are obviously mistletoe hijinks, where one of the guys from the dorm runs with a mistletoe to troll everyone, he has Camus and Ranmaru under one, and they refuse. The troll insists they kiss except he gets to kiss a roommate he didn’t want to kiss, but he has to. Ai is even commenting that statistically speaking, there were more men than women so two men paired together was the likely result. Masato and Aria get accidentally under one, but Masato kisses her hand instead because he was embarrassed.

Aria’s mom notices that Aria is very happy, especially when she is with Masato, and she presents him to her mom. Her mom recognizes the name, because Aria’s always talking about him on the phone and she literally tells him that and Aria wasn’t expecting her mom to admit that. But Aki’s boyfriend comes swiftly to the rescue and comments on how since Masato and everyone from Starish are idols and popular, it’s only natural it’s what everyone is talking about.

Ayame and Aki are trying to cheer Aria because she’s so embarrassed because of what her mom said, while Masato stays to talk with Aria’s mom because she asked him to. She thanks him because it’s the first time in a very long time she has seen her daughter with a very bright smile. She also comments that when Aria played in front of people, she noticed Masato was the first one to stand up and clap. Masato coughs and mumbles that Aria was working hard, so it was natural he would want to praise her. However, because he was found out, he stays with the boys for the rest of the night.

 

When it’s New Year, Aria decides to go with the others to pray and finally wear a kimono, because she would avoid it in the past because she was anxious about everything. However, she’s not used to the geta and the kimono and walks slowly. Within the crowd, she misses everyone and she’s slightly panicky. And because of so many people, she’s accidentally shoved into someone who had noticed her and walked close by.

“Are you alright, Aria?”

“Ah! Masato! I’m fine, eh, what are you doing here? I thought you had work.”

“We’re on break.”

As they talk, he accidentally stares at her because she is wearing a kimono and she even did her hair, but he snaps out of it.

“Never mind, you seem flustered. Tell me what happened when we are in a quieter place.”

And of course he takes her by the hand without thinking and puts himself between the crowd and her, though she struggles to keep up. Masato only notices the hand when they are in a quiet place. He has to remind himself to control his behavior, because he isn’t even sure of her feelings and he doesn’t want to make her upset, but at the same time, he cherishes those slight touches. He was also blushing, but because Aria was busy trying to keep up, she doesn’t notice him blushing, but she keeps thinking how his hand is so warm and how he’s always helping her, how nice he is and that she wouldn’t have gotten this far without him and he’s still helping her. And that maybe to him, the hand holding might not mean much, but to her it’s a precious memory.

He accompanies her to pray, as he had done it already, and he teaches her how to do it. After she does, she says she’s thankful for having me many wonderful people, including (especially) him, with a very warm smile.

 

After Aria’s coming of age ceremony, Masato invites her to a concert, one she was planning to go but couldn’t get tickets for. She goes with a friend from her class who likes Natsuki best, and Aria is amazed at Masato’s performance. And you know that Masato thinks the way to transmit his feelings is through songs. It is so that Aria thinks he is so passionate and for a moment, she wonders if he feels the same way for her as she feels for him.

When he invites her, he actually wrote a letter inviting her, with furigana in case she has difficulty, even if she’s been practicing and studying kanji. In the letter, he tells her he wants to talk after the concert. And she waits at a nearby park, but he isn’t arriving any time soon. Her friend has already gone home. So Aria is waiting patiently, but the weather is finicky and it starts raining. It was light at first, but then a downpour and she had no umbrella. She also runs out of battery, so she goes home and she thinks he was busy.

On her way back, she bumps into Airi and her boyfriend who had been at another concert. They take the bus, but they are all drenched and the bus takes too long because of the traffic. The bus was full with sick people to boot. So when they get to the dorms, they all take a shower but they all fall sick.

Because the movie filming is already over, it’s not like Masato can see immediately Aria to apologize. He got held up for a meeting and talks, and he couldn’t have a moment to send her a message or anything. By the time he had arrived to the park, Aria had already left and her battery was dead when he phoned. He wants to meet her as soon as possible, but he is called for a work project and he is very agitated.

Natsuki and Syo offer to go talk to Aria, only to be told by Aki that they can’t. They worried that she was angry at Masato, but Aki explains that Aria and Airi are sick. They can even hear Aria coughing violently, as Aki tells them they can’t stick around. Aria doesn’t want Masato to get sick either. They leave, not before seeing Ayame taking samples from Airi’s throat and they think it’s best they don’t stay and relay the news to Masato instead. Aria is so tired that she goes back to sleep after eating a bit.

Masato can’t concentrate on the meeting because he is worried, but thankfully he is with Tokiya and Cecil who cover up for him. When the meeting is over, he meets with Syo and Natsuki who tell him that Aria is sick and she can’t talk to him. Because he hears from them that she was coughing and seemed in pain, Masato prepares some food so she can recover, but keeping in mind that she wouldn’t have appetite and he goes to the dorm. Aria didn’t want him to see her in a pitiful state, but when he visits, she’s sleeping. Aki receives the food instead and she reassures him that Aria wasn’t angry at him about their failed meeting. Aria thought he had work and she would definitely feel guilty if he was worried and got sick because of her.

He does feel guilty because if he hadn’t arranged to meet her and then fail to show up, she wouldn’t have gotten ill. So he still wants to apologize.

He has to wait until Aria is feeling “better” and with her phone charged, she sends him a feverish message thanking him for the meal, that she imagines was delicious. She also tried to talk a bit, but she sent a bunch of incoherent things instead and fell asleep as she typed.

For a couple of days, Masato drops food he made for her if he has time, but Aria is asleep most of the time, and when she’s feeling better, he is busy with work. Eventually, she finally recovers, so they agree on a date so he can tell her whatever he wanted to say. He even brings an umbrella this time. Aria had actually resolved to confess her feelings and when they meet, the first thing he does is apologizing for leaving her like that. Aria reassures him she thought he was busy, she also goes on about how wonderful she found the concert and that she had never gone to one of that kind, but it was a precious experience for her.

“I wanted to go to one of your concerts, but I was naïve and I didn’t think the tickets would be sold out so fast. Though, after your wonderful performance, it’s no wonder why. I-I…it might be presumptuous of me but at points… I thought as if you were just singing for me…. The truth is…I wanted to confess you something back then. I know how important Nanami-san is to you and everyone, and I feared saying something, but now, I think I can say it. I love you, Masato. Ah, it’s not that I’m expecting you to return my feelings or anything, I just wanted to let you know that, no matter how you feel, I’ll always support you. You’re so kind and gentle. When I needed help, you offered it to me without even asking for something in return… I wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for you and everyone else… I want to support you in any way I can, I want others to see the wonderful person you are!”

The moment she said that she thought he was singing for her, he wanted to say that he was indeed singing for her, and when she said she loved him, his heart ached.

“…T-there’s something I wanted to do for a very long time…” and he cups her face and kisses her on the lips. She is short, so he has to lean down. She is surprised for a moment, but she holds him. “I-is it fine?”

He breaks the kiss and embraces her. “For a long time, I’ve wanted to tell you how I feel, but no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t get those words out. I hoped that my actions,my everything could convey how much I love you… And that my feelings reached you through my songs, it makes me truly glad.”

They begin dating secretly, and the first times she’s wearing less clothes, Masato’s old-fashioned style shows and he tries to cover her with his sweater. So she gently tells him, “I just like how I look. And I only care if you see me, I like dressing like this, but it makes me happy if you like how I look. Uh, let me put it this way, it’s not fair for you to get upset if some men try to look or talk to me when your fans will want to look and talk to you. I trust in you and it’s unfair of you to not have the same degree of trust in me. I’m not angry, but, please don’t do this again.”

And while at first, Masato has a hard time not getting jealous, he does like it a lot that she took her time and courage to tell him what she found difficult to deal with in his actions, instead of staying quiet.

There are many other pre and post-declaration hijinks I’ve thought of but this is already at 15 pages on a Word document, so I’m going to stop here. Thank you for reading this and let me know what you think!