"Kouji, sorry, could I borrow your script for a sec? I kinda forgot my part. Do I say 'I'm disappointed! You told me that it's okay for you to be called short!!' or 'I hate that kind of attitude!' first?"

    "Hmm, you say 'I'm disappointed!' then 'It's okay to be called short by a girl for once, isn't it?!' and you go—"

    "Ah! Got it, got it! Right! It's like that! Sankyuu, Kouji!"

Date Kouji smiled softly at the girl practicing in front of him. He knew he must be practicing his parts too, but for some reason, he couldn't take off his eyes of her.

at the edge of a confession

When Kenta introduced her to him as "a friend from my previous musical", Kouji's first impression of her was that she was a tall, tall girl. When she stood beside Kenta, Kouji realized that she was at least four centimeters taller than him. The next was that she resembled him of Kenta-kun very much, it was her smile, her childish acts, the way she talked, and her sense of humor. At that point, he knew he would get along well with her.

But unfortunately for both of them, although they had exchanged numbers and e-mail addresses, it seemed like both of them were too busy with each other's work – Kouji and his upcoming album, and she with her new musical. Time went like they had never met in the first place.

That was, until Kouji received a news that he was accepted in a drama he had been casting some time ago, though at first he hadn't really been interested in it since it was only one of his agency's so-called-brilliant-ideas and definitely not his own (tough to admit but, he preferred to sing than to act since he was usually the director's favorite to be yelled at). His opinion changed 180 degrees suddenly after seeing the name of the main actress of the drama.

It clearly read ' '. It was her name.

Still a bit confused, surprised, happy, and excited at the same time at the sudden bizarre and super-coincidental news, he reached over his cell phone but only had time to type 'Hey! Long time no see! How are you?' before it rang, and the name '-san' blinked on the screen with an image of a girl icon waving at him. He pressed 'accept' with no hesitation.

    "Hello?"

    "Kouji-kun, have you heard?" the voice at the other side sounded full of what people call happy-happy-glee-glee-joy-and-merry. Kouji's lips slowly formed a small smile, it felt like it had been years since the last time he heard it. "We're going to play in the same drama!"

    "I was about to message you right when you called," he said truthfully, chuckling softly.

    "Really?" A giggle. "You know, it's been some time since we talked to each other. And now we're gonna play together in a drama! Could there be any better coincidence than this?" Another giggle, replied by Kouji's smooth "hai" and a chuckle. "We should celebrate! Ngg... How about we meet at Raison's at seven? I'll reserve two seats. What do you say?"

    "Seven... I think I... Ah, no, actually... Well, that sounds great! Seven at Raison's, that sounds great," Kouji replied with a nod though she could not even see him.

    "'Kay then! It's a deal!"

    "A deal it is."

Kouji took his notebook and stroke '7pm - Dinner with Takuya-kun at Avenue' with pretty rough lines, then replaced it with 'Dinner with -san at Raison's'. He decided to send an e-mail to Takuya afterwards, saying that he had some other important things to do (though he was pretty sure that he would reply by 'WHY KOUJI, WHY?!??!!!!!! BUT I MISS YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!111eleveneleven *sobsob* TT_TT'). After all, what was more important than meet up with an old friend (okay, fine, not that old but, you get what he meant) that you hadn't met for more than a year?

It was the next day when he received the script for the drama. It was called 'Lovely Complex'⁽¹⁾, often addressed by just 'Rabukom'⁽²⁾, an adaptation of a shoujo manga about a really tall girl (-san would definitely suit her role, Kouji thought), named Koizumi Risa, who had a crush on a really short boy, Otani Atsushi, that was also her classmate. Kouji himself played Suzuki Ryouji, a boy that Risa first had a crush on before Otani, but he somehow ended up with her best friend (don't ask – you know how shoujo manga are).

Just a minute later, Kouji's cell phone rang. He wondered if -san had forgotten that she had already told him about them playing in the same drama, but his thoughts scattered eventually after he saw the name 'Takuya-kun' blinking on the screen. A feeling of guilt slipped to his mind, but he shook his head quickly. Though he needed fifteen minutes last night, he somehow managed to make Takuya-kun say "Kouji you're so mean *sobsob* TT_TT Next time we meet, treat me, and then I'll forgive you :DDD", so the cancelled dinner wasn't a problem anymore, was it?

    "Hello?"

    "Kouji, don't be late for our first shooting next week! Make sure you memorize your lines correctly ne!" The voice at the other side sounded very sugar-high. Kouji was glad that he seemed to be forgotten about last night, but blinked his eyes quickly.

    "Takuya-kun, you're playing in Rabukom too?"

A pause.

    "I should've known Kouji has never cared about me. It was a mistake calling you in the first place. Good bye."

    "A, ah!! Takuya-kun! Wait!!" Kouji called in panic. "I-it's not like that! I just haven't seen the complete cast list yet... Ah! I see you!" he said, pointing to Takuya's name like showing it off to someone though he was, at that time, alone at his apartment. "And EH?! Shirota-san's playing too?!"

    "Wha... Kouji, you really didn't pay attention to the cast list did you?!" Takuya said in desperation. Kouji could imagine him scratching his head now, and knew exactly that he was going to say something like "Kouji, how could you?!" and so he prepared a reply that would make him satisfied, something like he'd been really busy would do. "But I can understand that, so no need to worry."

    "Sorry Takuya-kun, I've really been busy—what?"

    "I said I can understand," Takuya repeated, and Kouji could somehow saw him smirking there. He was unable to say anything else, and so Takuya – unexpectedly – added, "You're too happy by the fact that -chan's gonna play too that you can't care less about others right?"

Kouji's cell phone almost slipped down his hand.

    "Eh... Wh,what do you mean by that, Takuya-kun?"

    "Kouji, you can't fool me! I'm an advance at things like this," Takuya laughed merrily. "I mean, when Kenken introduced her to us, you couldn't take your eyes off of her all day long! You've obviously been FILAFS!"

    "What... is that?"

    "Fallen In Love At the First Sight!"

    "You still like making stuff with no meaning like that eh, Takuya-kun..." Kouji shook his head, sweat dropping at the answer. Eh? Now wait a minute...

    "Ooh! You're not denying it! So it IS true after all!" Takuya said, laughing rather uproariously. At this point, Kouji felt butterflies fluttering around in his stomach, and his face bloomed a sheepish furious pink.

    "Ta-Takuya-kun... I-it's not..."

    "Maa, maa, Kouji! Don't worry, I'll help you out on this!"

    "E, eeh?!"

    "Kouji, this is Koike Teppei-kun, the actor that plays Otani⁽³⁾," introduced the boy beside her to Kouji at their first shooting day. Kouji blinked for a moment, staring at Koike from high to heels. Though he's not that short, his and 's height difference should be at least 15 cm ( was taller, of course), and when they stood next to each other like that, they looked... Amusing.

    "Err..." Koike said slowly, feeling uncomfortable at Kouji's stare. The black-haired blinked his eyes a couple times as his thoughts were brought back to reality.

    "A, ah, sorry... I-I'm Date Kouji, I play Suzuki Ryouji," he quickly said, offering his right hand. "Yoroshiku."

    "Of course I know who you are!" Koike laughed as he shook hands with Kouji. "-chan always talks about you! And when she found out that you'd play in the same drama, she couldn't stop talking about you for the whole week!"

    "Teppei-kun!" said, a tint pink flush appeared on her face, which made her looked really cute in Kouji's eyes. "Kouji-kun! Don't listen to what he says, this guy's a liar."

    "No I'm not!"

    "Yes you are!"

Aah, they were on first name terms already, how nice... Maybe they'd known each other for a long time...

    "Kouji~!" a familiar voice to Kouji's ears called, and the boy instinctively turned his head, only to find Takuya waving while running (plus doing some weird jump) towards him. "Hi! Ah, -chan, konnichiwa! Koike-san too!"

    "Takuya-kun, you seem very... Sugar-high," Kouji said truthfully, replied by the older boy's silly grin.

    "Aren't I? Ruito and Takumi dropped by my place this morning and said that they happened to be around my neighborhood and gave me this really really big chocolate cake for some reason and I ate them all and probably that's why I'm like this right now," he said without a breath. "I actually don't have to come today, but I just wanted to see you, Kouji! And -chan too of course, how have you been?"

smiled. "I've been good – no – I've been great! How 'bout you?"

    "Me? Same as always," he laughed as he took a seat at the nearest chair. "Ne, isn't it time to get changed, three of you?"

    "Ah, right," Kouji said as he took a look at his watch. "Right, right! Ja, see you later, Takuya-kun!"

    "Yep, see ya later! I'll watch your part, Kouji!"

    "Hey, doesn't Takuya-kun seem so genki today?" asked while she, Kouji, and Koike were walking to the changing room. "Maybe something good happened?"

    "He's said it hasn't he?" Kouji chuckled. "That's what happens to him when you gave him too many sweets, and that's why I've never given him any chocolates except dark ones."

    "Hoo..." nodded. "I can't believe he's older than you."

    "Ah, really?" he smiled secretly at that sentence.

    "Yeah, I mean, you're so mature! And you're so nice and funny too... I wanna have a boyfriend like you!" said dreamily, eyes staring at the boy, lips sculpting a grin. At the exact second, Kouji felt like he was going to explode in embarrassment, and he could do nothing else but to let out a small "hai" and looked down with a bright red face. Koike looked at the couple, examining them for a second, then grinned mysteriously.

    "Aiyah, gomen, I need to go to the bathroom, you two go ahead," he said cryptically as he stopped walking for a second and ran towards the opposite direction of the two. Kouji could have sworn he saw Koike winked at him, though he was too nervous to find out what that meant.

    "Say, Kouji-kun," said after Koike disappeared from their views, "Do you have a girlfriend?"

    "E-eh? W,what?!" he yelled in high-pitched voice, startled at the sudden question. He quickly covered his cheeks with his right hand to hide his blush for sounding like some miserable drunk woman who was told that her husband was cheating on her. "Eh, err, no..."

    "Have you ever had one?" she added yet another question to make his blush went wider.

    "Err, actually, no..."

    "Wah! Me too, me too!" she said unexpectedly, tapping his shoulder a couple of times as she laughed. "It seemed like our high school days passed just like that, no? I didn't really care about boys when I was in high school."

    "Eh?" Kouji blinked. "You mean... No one ever asked you out?" Yes, he was confused. True, wasn't someone that looked 'pretty' or 'beautiful', but he found her really attractive... or was it just him that thought like that?

    "No, no, some did," emitted a giggle, remembering the past times she had gone through from. "Some did. But like I said, I didn't really care. Boy, I was a weird girl wasn't I? I mean, love and boyfriends were the only ones girls my age talked about, yet I paid no attention to them. Aah, I remember getting some words from the school's psychologist, he was really worried about me..."

    "M-me too!" Kouji blurted out abruptly, pointing to himself, eyes blinking unbelievably. "And I thought I was the only one!"

    "Really? Now now, similar aren't we?" she laughed again, messing up the back of his hair with no difficulty, with her height and all. Kouji wondered if had realized his bright red face by then.

    "Ne, Kouji, since we're gonna work together often," she said with a smile. "Why don't we call each other with first names?"

    "E, eh?" he blinked. He was just jealous of Koike-san some time ago and now she was asking them to use first name-terms too? Oh, glee! "W,well, I don't really mind, -san..."

    "'-san' is too formal, just is okay. Ne, Kouji?"

Hearing his name being called by without a suffix made Kouji's cheeks colored slightly in embarrassment. "H,hai... Eh... Err.... ..."

She beamed. "That's more like it!"

    "Date! You're supposed to be acting nervous around Koizumi's best friend, not her!" The director, for the fifteenth time that day, yelled in desperation.

    "Su, sumimasen..."

    "Aah, break, break, let's take a break," he said, turning away from the black haired and walked outside. Kouji sighed.

    "Kouji," called, tapping his shoulder. "What's wrong? Are you alright? You're kinda... Red."

    "Y-yes, I'm okay," he replied quickly, not wanting to make her more worried. "Sorry , I mess up the shooting today..."

    "Huh? What? No worries! We get extra break," she chuckled softly. "Hey, I wanna go get some donuts, do you want some? I'll get it for you."

    "Ah? O-okay, sure," he answered rather sheepishly with a nod. smiled at him and waved as she walked away from him. He, again, sighed. He knew, of course, in this drama he wasn't supposed to like her. He was supposed to be just her friend. Moreover, he had another girlfriend in the story. Getting all embarrassed because of 's role was wrong, he knew it. He should be acting, but – he couldn't.

    "Kou~ji!"

The boy turned his head. "Shirota-san! Takuya-kun!"

    "Aiyah, poor you, poor you!" Takuya patted Kouji's shoulder (actually, he wanted to pat his head but he wasn't tall enough to reach it, and he was lazy to tip-toe). "The director can't see your pure love towards -chan..."

    "Takuya-kun!" Kouji hissed as he realized people started to look at them curiously.

    "Kouji, do you wanna switch roles with me?" Shirota offered with a grin. "Though I'm not really her pair, I get to hug her quite often."

    "Shiro-chan, you're making him jealous!" Takuya giggled gleefully. Kouji began to wonder whether they really wanted to help him out or just liked making fun of him.

    "Kouji, mind accompanying me to the bookstore? I need to buy something there, and then we can go to the café afterwards."

Pause. "Hai?"

    "My, losing your focus after getting angry at by the director aren't you?" giggled. "Can you accompany to the bookstore now? We can go to the café or grab something to eat after that, my treat of course."

Kouji just stood still.

    "Ooh, a date isn't it?" Takuya popped out from nowhere, tapping his back gleefully with an uproar laugh. "Ooi, Shiro-chan, -chan just asked our Kouji to go on a date with her!!"

    "Ooh, a date, a date," Shirota grinned amusedly. "Finally!"

    "Shi-Shirota-san! Takuya-kun! It's not what you think..." Kouji shook his head, flushing like an embarrassed high-school boy that accidentally tripped down his shoes while walking in the corridor. "It's... not..."

laughed and said, "Of course it's not, how can you call it a date when we're just going to the bookstore together?"

    "But you're going to the café afterwards! That is a date, indeed," Koike said suddenly (Wait... where did he come from?), grinning at the couple. "I must agree with You and Takuya!"

    "Teppei-kun," said firmly, though for some reason both Shirota and Takuya could notice a tint blush on her cheeks, "I did not ask him to go to a date with me. And it's not even the first time I've asked him for something like this!"

    "And that was what my girlfriend said when she asked me to go out for the first time," Koike said with a chuckle, followed by Shirota's and Takuya's slaps on his shoulder, and their chuckle turned into an earsplitting laugh in no time. Even and Kouji himself began to laugh quietly.

    "Ja, you'll go right?" said as she wiped some tears on her eyes, caused by the amount of laugh she let out a second earlier. "My friend just showed me a great café near the bookstore, and it's my treat."

    "Yes, it's your treat, he got that already. Man, -chan, you really want him to go with you, don'tcha?"

glared. "Are we still on it, Takuya-kun?"

    "I'm shutting up, I'm shutting up!" the brown-haired said, backing out with his hands waving to her before she had the thought of tearing him apart. "Shiro-chan, Teppei, let's go somewhere and not disturb them, ne~!"

    "Takuya-kun..." Kouji sweat dropped, watching the three of his lovely drama-fellows walked away from him and .

    "So you'll go, right?" asked one more time, wondering how many times she had said that to Kouji that day. He shook his head a bit, startled at the sudden question, but then said anyway,

    "Ah, o-of course I'll go."

    "Great then," giggled. "Wait a sec, I've gotta get my stuff first. You go ahead, I'll catch you up at the front door."

    "Ah... okay," the black-haired said, waving at the disappearing girl. It took him a couple of seconds to get himself together and prevented himself from jumping around in merry. He took a deep breath before making his way to the front door to wait for .

It didn't take her even five minutes, which was surprising for Kouji. "Saa, Kouji, shall we go?"

Kouji chuckled. "We shall, we shall."

He did not know what happened after that, the next thing he knew was that they were already in front of a building with a big "Sanseido Bookstore" written. They entered, and was already on her way to the "Novels" section.

    "Uwah! I finally I get it!!" said with starry eyes as soon as she got her hands on a book with green cover, hugging it as if she had missed it so much. "Finally, finally!"

    "What's that?" Kouji asked in curiosity.

    "The newest book of the detective novel series I've been waiting for ages!!" she said, smiling brightly as the two of them walked to the cashier, "It's been two weeks since it came out, but I haven't had time to buy it. Ah~ I finally get this!"

    "Hee, , so you like reading novels?" Kouji questioned when she paid for the book.

    "Only detective ones," she replied, lowering her head a little when the girl at the cashier said "Thank you very much! Please come again!"

    "Hee..." Kouji said, nodding his head.

    "Frankly, I don't like reading any other books, not even manga," she pronounced as they turned right at the corner of the streets. "That's why it took me so long to finish Rabukom's manga," she scratched her head sheepishly. "Ah, we're here!"

What was in front of Kouji was a western-style café, with green as the main color. opened the door and walked in, Kouji towing her behind.

    "But man," said after they ordered one tiramisu, one cheesecake, and two cups of coffee. "Time flew really fast didn't it? Before we knew it, Rabukom's gonna end in two episodes."

Kouji nodded understandingly. "It did, it did." He himself did not expect it to end this fast, he really didn't.

    "Ne, Kouji," called suddenly, playing with the sugar bottle with her hands. "What do you want to do after the drama's over?"

    "A new single," Kouji answered rather quickly. "Also a live after that. I'll still be busy," he heaved a sigh. "And ? What'll you do?"

    "I've got a call for the sequel of the musical I played in before—ah," she got a hold at that sugar bottle as it almost slipped down her hands. "And maybe I'll make a debut CD after that. Me, too, will be busy."

    "Sou ka..." he nodded. "But we can meet sometimes, right?"

    "Of course we can!" she said beaming at the boy. "I'd love to do that. Of course!"

That day was the greatest day in Date Kouji's life, and he had wished time to stop like this.

    "The script for the last episode, eh..." Kouji mumbled as he carefully opened the book he held. Like had said to him, time flew, it really did. It had been a really nice time to be with all those time, but... He began to regret why he had not asked her to go on a date with him. But then again, maybe he didn't really have enough courage to... Heck, of course he didn't, when had asked him to go to the bookstore together, he had been so happy that he had not known what to do. For God's sake, he was twenty-one, and he was blushing like an idiot just over that!

Kouji shook his head quickly. There was no time to think of that, he had received the script for two days yet he hadn't really had time to seriously read it. It wasn't like he got that much part in the last episode but he had to read the whole script anyway.

He read the sentences one by one, word by word. Time flew, he stated to himself one more time. To be honest, he liked being a part of this drama. The people were unexpectedly nice (Kouji had always thought celebrities were all arrogant before, like what he always read in manga before), they actually resembled his high-school classmates very much. The drama's story had somehow attracted him, though shoujo stories had never suited him before. The director, despite of being an enormously over-talkative man and always yell and tell Kouji to be more like this and that, was a respectable and (though Kouji did not want to admit) lovable person. And, of course, was there, what more could he expect?

Kouji's pleasure of reading while thinking back at the past had to be disturbed by one part.

Otani: (gives a signal for Koizumi to sit beside him)
Koizumi: (sits) What is it?
Otani: (stares at her for a second, grabs her shoulder and kisses her)

    "Ohayo, ."

blinked her eyes for a moment, unbelieving the figure standing in front of her apartment's door. She wondered for a second if she was still in her dream world, or was she really awakened as if for now.

    "Kouji?!"

    "Eh, err, I just wanted to see you before shooting," he said, a slight blush crept over his cheeks as he said the words. "Ah, I-I didn't mean to disturb you, go-gomen, I..." he bowed an apologize, felt guilty at the girl who looked like she still needed some more rest. "I-if you still wanna sleep, I'll go."

    "No no no, Kouji, you've come all the way here, come in, come in!" she said.

    "B-but..."

    "Come in, it's okay," she insisted, pulling Kouji inside her apartment. He obeyed quietly, still feeling guilty of disturbing her. He knew he should have called first before coming, but well, people said regret always came late.

    "Kouji, do you want some tea?"

    "Ah, sure..."

The room was completely silent when made a cup of tea for him and coffee for herself. She made her way to the sofa where Kouji sat on and put the cups on the table, then sat beside him, gaping with a smile. "Do you have something to talk about?"

    "Eh? Ah... No, not really..." he said uneasily, scratching his head slowly.

He knew this would happen sooner or later.

She was the main actress in a romantic-comedy drama. And a romantic-comedy drama just wasn't right without the main couple's kiss, right? Of course it would happen, the kiss. , and Koike-san. He knew that very, very clearly. But why did he feel so shocked, disappointed, and wrath right at the second he found out about it?

    "It's finally today..." suddenly spoke up, poking Kouji's shoulder slowly. "The last episode, and..." she turned her head to him, smiling somewhat sadly. "My first kiss."

    "Eh?" he blinked. "Your first kiss?"

    "Told you haven't I?" she chuckled softly. "I've never had a boyfriend before, therefore I've never been kissed in my entire life. Well, except by my parents but hey, that's a different thing."

Kouji stared at her. " —"

    "And Teppei-kun is a really nice man, it's not like I don't like him," she added quickly before him could say anything else. "He's really nice... Ah, but he's already got a girlfriend, so I kinda feel guilty to her... But he's not an amateur actor anymore so this isn't a big deal for him, nor it is for his girlfriend. Well, this is work so..."

Kouji noticed her looking down in sorrow, lips forming a forced smile. He did not know what to do.

    "..." he called her name slowly, and as soon as she turned her face...

His and her lips engaged to each other. , shocked by the sudden move, almost pulled away before he grabbed her shoulder slowly. She closed her eyes.

The kiss felt so sweet...

Kouji let go off her shoulder quickly after realizing what he had done, moving backwards in surprise of his abrupt and unthinkable act, looking aside uneasily. 's cheeks glowed a scarlet flush as her hand reached over her lips, heat spread all over her face.

    "Kouji... why?"

Still looking away from her, he quickly said with ten shades of red still merrily coloring his features,

    "Because I don't want your first kiss to be taken by someone who doesn't really love you."

    "Eh?"

There was a moment's silence, and Kouji thought he was going to die if neither of them said anything.

It was some seconds later when slowly turned her body to him with a slight blush still painting her cheeks, her hand patted Kouji's head softly. She whispered beside his ear,

    "Thank you."

// period.
akira @ 20060823

This DN is dedicated to Geri (___just_me @ LJ), my very first friend at LJ and a big fan of Date Kouji just like me ^_^
Also to all Date Kouji fans, of course! :D We should spread Date love around the world!