[fic] fall for you (or collected scenes from a shoujo romance)
title: Fall for You
rating: varies - this part is G
pairing: Yamashita Tomohisa/Horikita Maki
disclaimer: AU representations of real people are obviously not true.
notes: for kitsune714, the Jon Stewart to my Stephen Colbert, and for cynicalism, because she patiently 'listened' to all of this unspooling and did not once say it was super lame. Feel better, Cyn!
notes II: Yamapi/Maki straight up shoujo style. You'll see.
i. Once upon a time in Chiba
There is a boy, and he is eleven years old. He is playing in the park, lining up his toy cars so he can throw them off the ramp he's set up a few feet away. He is of average height, with black hair neatly cut in a fringe across his forehead, and eyelashes that would be the envy of most girls, if he was interested in what girls thought. The only girls that he deems important enough are his younger sister, his mother, and his grandmother.
That is about to change, even though he doesn't know it.
There is a girl, and she has just turned eight. She is running away from home, and is visiting the park for one last time. She's wearing a baseball cap with her hair tucked underneath, a blue jacket, and black pants. Oh, and a blue backpack.
The boy is so engrossed in making his cars jump the ramp of doom, that he doesn't notice the girl at first, until her shadow looms over the sand. His eyes take in the baseball cap, the button nose and pointy chin, the scuffed knees on the pants and comes to a conclusion.
It is unfortunately, the wrong conclusion.
"Hey, kid! You're blocking my light." Tomohisa shades his eyes irritably and frowns at the intruder.
"Sorry," the other boy mumbles and shuffles to the side politely. Or, that's what he should have done. Instead, the kid kneels down and rearranges the cars and then says critically, "That's better."
Tomohisa gapes. "What did you -- did you just touch my cars?"
The kid looks at him strangely. "Did you not see?" Then he turns and walks away, and Tomohisa's mouth opens and then shuts again. He gets to his feet and runs after him. "You brat," and the kid whirls around to face him, hands on his hips. "What did you call me?"
"A brat, because you are. How old are you anyway? Don't you know it's not polite to touch people's things without permission? I'm older than you, you know." He makes the most of his height difference and glares down at the unrepentant little face.
The other boy just blinks, and then laughs. "You look like my dad."
"I'm eleven, and if you're like this at home, I get why your dad is like that."
"Wow, you're old," the brat says, and then shoves his hands into his pockets. "If I say sorry, will you leave me alone?"
"You -- " and it's all Tomohisa can do to not reach down and grab the boy's ear like his grandmother would have done. "Forget it, I don't care. Just go away."
"I was going!" The boy sniffs, and then walks over to the swing set.
Tomohisa rolls his eyes and gets back to his cars, but it's all spoiled now. He begins to pack them away, and gets up, ready to go home. The kid is swinging sullenly, his toes digging into the sand on every swing. Tomohisa walks over to the bicycle rack, and then looks back. The kid is still there, and really, he doesn't care or anything, but it would be wrong to leave a little boy like that all by himself, wouldn't it?
Wouldn't it?
It was really unnerving how much his conscience sounded exactly like his grandmother.
He trudges back to the swing set and takes the swing next to the kid. "Hey, you've got a home to go back to?"
"I'm running away!" The kid says, all defiant and chin-jutting. It was kind of cute, except not entirely, because the kid was a brat after all. "Oh yeah? Running away from what?"
The boy scowls and looks down at his scuffed pants. "The baby. She's always crying, and my other little sister doesn't like to play the games I like, and my daddy is too tired to play them with me anymore, and mama..."
"Doesn't have time for you, right?"
The little boy's lip trembles and he looks like he might actually cry, so Tomohisa quickly says, "That's not true. I'm sure she does, it's just that babies take a lot of time. I know, because when my sister was born, my mom was always fussing over her."
"You have a little sister too?"
"Yeah, she's nine."
"Oh, she's a year older than me!" The boy sits up and looks thoughtful. "My sisters are five and one."
"Well, no wonder they don't want to play the games you like - they're too little."
"I guess." He begins to swing again. Tomohisa watches silently and then swings alongside him. "Well...maybe I could play the games with you? What do you like?"
"Basketball and cars and jump rope!"
Tomohisa's legs brake in mid-swing. "Huh? Jump rope?"
"What's wrong with jump rope? I'm good at it."
"Well, okay, it's just that it seems a little ...girly, is all."
The boy stops swinging abruptly and looks at him. "But I'm..."
Tomohisa doesn't hear what he says because there's a ear-piercing shriek of "MARI-NEECHAN' across the playground. There's a little girl running toward them, her pigtails streaming behind her, and a pretty lady with a baby snuggled up next to her walking briskly behind. The girl flings herself at the kid, who squeaks at the impact.
"Nee-chan?" Tomohisa bursts out.
"Marina! You made us so worried!" The lady comes closer and then kneels in the sand, pulling both of her children into a hug. The baby burbles and waves a fist at him. The kid pulls off his, no, her baseball cap, and the hidden ponytail drops down.
Tomohisa feels as if he's just been hit with a shovel. "You're a girl?"
Marina looks at him glumly over her sister and her mother's embrace and says, "Of course I am!"
ii. I remember how my heart stopped
Marina isn't that bad of a friend. For a girl. For a girl who's eight. For one thing, she liked pretty much all the same stuff he liked, and after he introduced himself to her family (he had no real choice in the matter, Hara-san, that was their name, the Hara's was so grateful that he had kept a lookout on her daughter, that she had insisted he eat lunch with them), and after they had introduced themselves to his family, the friendship was inevitable. He was her unofficial big brother, as his mom (the traitor) had said, and Hara-san had smiled the kind of smile adults always smiled when they thought something was cute. Rina saw it and then cornered him after he'd gotten out of the bathroom.
"Tomo-chan has a little girlfriend!"
"I do not! She's barely a girl!"
"You're going to marry her and have babies!" Rina singsonged.
Tomohisa closed his eyes in horror and clapped his hands over his ears. "SHUT UP SHUT UP I CAN'T HEAR YOU," he yelled, and ran into his room and locked the door. Rina stayed outside for five minutes, humming the wedding march, and stamping her foot on the "dunh dunh duh DAH" parts.
The next time he sees Marina, he tells her point-blank that he's never going to marry her, not in a million years.
Marina thinks this over and then sticks out her hand. "I'm not going to marry you either. I'm not going to marry anybody."
"Deal." They shake hands solemnly.
He doesn't notice her girliness after that, even though his guy friends take care to point it out at every opportunity. "Are you baby-sitting, Yamashita? Who's the little girl? Shouldn't she be playing with Rina-chan?"
They stop saying things like that when Marina beats them all in the weekly basketball game - she might be short, but she's quick. Tomohisa is oddly proud of her, and ruffles her hair. Marina grins up at him and says "Not bad, right?"
Marina's school is a few blocks away from his, and sometimes he'll see her walking with her mother in the mornings. Marina in a school uniform never ceases to amuse him, because she's so tidy - her hair in braids, walking hand in hand with Hara-san, who has a large handkerchief ready for any stain. One day as he's walking home with Rina, he sees the familiar little figure, hunched over on the sidewalk. Rina immediately runs toward her. "Mari-chan! What's the matter?"
Marina looks up, and her face is pink and blotchy. Tear tracks streak down her cheeks and she rubs her nose on the back of her fist. "Rina-san....Tomo-chan!"
"Hey, the Marina I know doesn't cry. What happened?" Tomohisa kneels down and is not prepared for her sudden lunge. He rocks back and falls onto his butt. "Ow! Oi, Marina, take it easy there."
Marina snuffles from the vicinity of his neck, and judging by how damp and...sticky it's suddenly gotten, he guesses that she's started crying again. He pats her on the back. "Hey, are you gonna wash my shirt cos you got it all dirty?" His sister makes a face at him and mouths, "You're so nice," and he sticks his tongue out at her.
After he piggybacks Marina back to his house, and Rina's washed her face and handed her a cup of water, Marina is finally able to speak without tears. "New boy - he said, he said that I was a freak," and she wails, "And not a proper girl at all!"
"But I say that all the time - OWWW," Tomohisa yelps as his sister expertly pinches his arm. "What? I do."
"But this new boy said it in a mean way, right, Mari-chan?" Rina glares at him meaningfully.
The little girl scowls. "I hate new boys."
Tomohisa rubs at his arm and says, "I was a new boy to you, once."
"You were always old," Marina says dismissively. "But it's different when you say it and when he says it."
Rina nods sympathetically. "Don't worry, Mari-chan. I'm sure Tomo-chan will go and beat up that mean boy for you."
"Wait a minute - I never said," and Rina looks at him sharply, the only warning she usually gave before kicking him somewhere really hard. "I mean, yeah, I'll totally beat him up for you. What's his name?"
"Yuuta Hiraoka-sempai," Marina chokes out, and blows her nose.
His sister takes Marina home, as he has to stay back and work on his 'plan' for teaching that Yuuta some manners. He spends the time reading his DragonBall manga, and cleaning his room. Rina comes in a little while later. "Hey dummy."
"Hey brat." Tomohisa puts down his manga. "So what did you find out?"
"He's just moved into town. His father's got business in Tokyo, and he's living here with his grandparents. He's tall and he wears glasses."
"Megane, eh? He doesn't sound so terrible."
"Have you ever seen Marina cry about anything? It has to be serious." Rina's eyes widen. "Maybe she LIKES him."
"You read too much shoujo. Maybe he's just a punkass kid."
"I thought he wasn't so terrible - oooo, what if Mari-chan does like him? You won't be number one anymore!"
Rina runs out of Tomohisa's room a few seconds later, a flurry of pillows and manga flying after her.
"And STAY OUT."
Tomohisa looks down at Marina, who's holding his hand and scanning the playground in fierce concentration. "Are you sure you want to do this, Marina?" She nods. "I mean, maybe we should talk to him at his house, instead of out here -- where everyone can see me. Holding hands with the pinkest, fluffiest girl in Chiba -- and you know, I haven't said anything about your dress," she glances up at him. "What's wrong with my dress?"
"Ah - nothing! It's...very pink, is all. I didn't know you even had a dress that color."
"Mama had it waiting for me - she was so happy that I wanted to wear it."
"I bet she did. But, anyway, I don't --"
"THERE HE IS!" Marina points at the figure in the distance. The boy was tall, and thin, like his sister said, and he certainly wore glasses. He also carried a skateboard. Marina drops his hand and scurries off, her patent leather mary janes clicking across the asphalt. "You MEANIE," she yelled.
Yuuta never knew what hit him. Or more precisely, he did, because she came at him in a flying tackle and kicked him in the shin. Tomohisa could read "Rina" all over the move, and cursed the fact that his sister had taught Marina the move he'd taught her in case she found herself cornered by strange men and couldn't scream.
"WHAT THE HELL?" Yuuta shouted, and clutched at his ankle. Tomohisa quickly rushed over to them. "Hey now - bad words, little ears!" He covered Marina's ears with his hands. Yuuta looked at him in disbelief. "Are you her brother or something?"
Marina shrugs off Tomohisa's protective hands and says loudly, "He's my best friend!"
Yuuta starts to laugh.
iii. you are my best friend
It changes with a letter. A thick envelope comes in the mail for Tomohisa, and inside it is all his hopes and dreams. Congratulations, his mother reads out loud at the dinner table. You have been accepted into the Diamond Talent Agency. Please report to Tokyo within two months to begin training. You have the option of living in our dormitories or having your legal guardian accompanying you.
His mother bursts into tears, but his father says nothing. Rina looks at him, for once, awed into silence.
He reads the letter again before he goes to sleep that night. Please report to Tokyo within two months to begin training. He'd forgotten he had to move away.
He tells Marina one month before the big day. "Hey, I'm going to Tokyo." A pause. "I'm going to live there from now on, and I'm going to be famous." Another pause. "Or try to be, anyway."
Marina doesn't cry, or scream, or say I HATE YOU AND I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN, but then again, she's never been the type to do what he expects. It's one of his favorite things about her. "Okay," she agrees, and goes back to playing with his Doraemon action figures.
She comes over a lot more after that, though, and he doesn't mind. It's better that they spend their last few weeks together happy.
On the last day before he moves away, Marina comes by with a cake her mother made. "I helped, though," she says. The frosting is kind of messy and the kanji of his name is scribbled a little too close to the edge, but he takes it with a smile. "Thank you, Mari-chan."
She smiles shyly back at him. "You're going to come back though, right? You're going to come back and see me sometime, right?"
And he says yes, because he believes he will. "Of course I'll come back. This is home, after all. But you'll have Yuuta-kun to look out for you when I'm not here, okay?"
Marina nods. "He's not the same as you, Tomo-chan. But we'll be fine." She holds up her hand, and extends her pinky. "Promise me you're going to come back before you get too famous."
He laughs, and hooks his pinky with hers. "I promise."
rating: varies - this part is G
pairing: Yamashita Tomohisa/Horikita Maki
disclaimer: AU representations of real people are obviously not true.
notes: for kitsune714, the Jon Stewart to my Stephen Colbert, and for cynicalism, because she patiently 'listened' to all of this unspooling and did not once say it was super lame. Feel better, Cyn!
notes II: Yamapi/Maki straight up shoujo style. You'll see.
i. Once upon a time in Chiba
There is a boy, and he is eleven years old. He is playing in the park, lining up his toy cars so he can throw them off the ramp he's set up a few feet away. He is of average height, with black hair neatly cut in a fringe across his forehead, and eyelashes that would be the envy of most girls, if he was interested in what girls thought. The only girls that he deems important enough are his younger sister, his mother, and his grandmother.
That is about to change, even though he doesn't know it.
There is a girl, and she has just turned eight. She is running away from home, and is visiting the park for one last time. She's wearing a baseball cap with her hair tucked underneath, a blue jacket, and black pants. Oh, and a blue backpack.
The boy is so engrossed in making his cars jump the ramp of doom, that he doesn't notice the girl at first, until her shadow looms over the sand. His eyes take in the baseball cap, the button nose and pointy chin, the scuffed knees on the pants and comes to a conclusion.
It is unfortunately, the wrong conclusion.
"Hey, kid! You're blocking my light." Tomohisa shades his eyes irritably and frowns at the intruder.
"Sorry," the other boy mumbles and shuffles to the side politely. Or, that's what he should have done. Instead, the kid kneels down and rearranges the cars and then says critically, "That's better."
Tomohisa gapes. "What did you -- did you just touch my cars?"
The kid looks at him strangely. "Did you not see?" Then he turns and walks away, and Tomohisa's mouth opens and then shuts again. He gets to his feet and runs after him. "You brat," and the kid whirls around to face him, hands on his hips. "What did you call me?"
"A brat, because you are. How old are you anyway? Don't you know it's not polite to touch people's things without permission? I'm older than you, you know." He makes the most of his height difference and glares down at the unrepentant little face.
The other boy just blinks, and then laughs. "You look like my dad."
"I'm eleven, and if you're like this at home, I get why your dad is like that."
"Wow, you're old," the brat says, and then shoves his hands into his pockets. "If I say sorry, will you leave me alone?"
"You -- " and it's all Tomohisa can do to not reach down and grab the boy's ear like his grandmother would have done. "Forget it, I don't care. Just go away."
"I was going!" The boy sniffs, and then walks over to the swing set.
Tomohisa rolls his eyes and gets back to his cars, but it's all spoiled now. He begins to pack them away, and gets up, ready to go home. The kid is swinging sullenly, his toes digging into the sand on every swing. Tomohisa walks over to the bicycle rack, and then looks back. The kid is still there, and really, he doesn't care or anything, but it would be wrong to leave a little boy like that all by himself, wouldn't it?
Wouldn't it?
It was really unnerving how much his conscience sounded exactly like his grandmother.
He trudges back to the swing set and takes the swing next to the kid. "Hey, you've got a home to go back to?"
"I'm running away!" The kid says, all defiant and chin-jutting. It was kind of cute, except not entirely, because the kid was a brat after all. "Oh yeah? Running away from what?"
The boy scowls and looks down at his scuffed pants. "The baby. She's always crying, and my other little sister doesn't like to play the games I like, and my daddy is too tired to play them with me anymore, and mama..."
"Doesn't have time for you, right?"
The little boy's lip trembles and he looks like he might actually cry, so Tomohisa quickly says, "That's not true. I'm sure she does, it's just that babies take a lot of time. I know, because when my sister was born, my mom was always fussing over her."
"You have a little sister too?"
"Yeah, she's nine."
"Oh, she's a year older than me!" The boy sits up and looks thoughtful. "My sisters are five and one."
"Well, no wonder they don't want to play the games you like - they're too little."
"I guess." He begins to swing again. Tomohisa watches silently and then swings alongside him. "Well...maybe I could play the games with you? What do you like?"
"Basketball and cars and jump rope!"
Tomohisa's legs brake in mid-swing. "Huh? Jump rope?"
"What's wrong with jump rope? I'm good at it."
"Well, okay, it's just that it seems a little ...girly, is all."
The boy stops swinging abruptly and looks at him. "But I'm..."
Tomohisa doesn't hear what he says because there's a ear-piercing shriek of "MARI-NEECHAN' across the playground. There's a little girl running toward them, her pigtails streaming behind her, and a pretty lady with a baby snuggled up next to her walking briskly behind. The girl flings herself at the kid, who squeaks at the impact.
"Nee-chan?" Tomohisa bursts out.
"Marina! You made us so worried!" The lady comes closer and then kneels in the sand, pulling both of her children into a hug. The baby burbles and waves a fist at him. The kid pulls off his, no, her baseball cap, and the hidden ponytail drops down.
Tomohisa feels as if he's just been hit with a shovel. "You're a girl?"
Marina looks at him glumly over her sister and her mother's embrace and says, "Of course I am!"
ii. I remember how my heart stopped
Marina isn't that bad of a friend. For a girl. For a girl who's eight. For one thing, she liked pretty much all the same stuff he liked, and after he introduced himself to her family (he had no real choice in the matter, Hara-san, that was their name, the Hara's was so grateful that he had kept a lookout on her daughter, that she had insisted he eat lunch with them), and after they had introduced themselves to his family, the friendship was inevitable. He was her unofficial big brother, as his mom (the traitor) had said, and Hara-san had smiled the kind of smile adults always smiled when they thought something was cute. Rina saw it and then cornered him after he'd gotten out of the bathroom.
"Tomo-chan has a little girlfriend!"
"I do not! She's barely a girl!"
"You're going to marry her and have babies!" Rina singsonged.
Tomohisa closed his eyes in horror and clapped his hands over his ears. "SHUT UP SHUT UP I CAN'T HEAR YOU," he yelled, and ran into his room and locked the door. Rina stayed outside for five minutes, humming the wedding march, and stamping her foot on the "dunh dunh duh DAH" parts.
The next time he sees Marina, he tells her point-blank that he's never going to marry her, not in a million years.
Marina thinks this over and then sticks out her hand. "I'm not going to marry you either. I'm not going to marry anybody."
"Deal." They shake hands solemnly.
He doesn't notice her girliness after that, even though his guy friends take care to point it out at every opportunity. "Are you baby-sitting, Yamashita? Who's the little girl? Shouldn't she be playing with Rina-chan?"
They stop saying things like that when Marina beats them all in the weekly basketball game - she might be short, but she's quick. Tomohisa is oddly proud of her, and ruffles her hair. Marina grins up at him and says "Not bad, right?"
Marina's school is a few blocks away from his, and sometimes he'll see her walking with her mother in the mornings. Marina in a school uniform never ceases to amuse him, because she's so tidy - her hair in braids, walking hand in hand with Hara-san, who has a large handkerchief ready for any stain. One day as he's walking home with Rina, he sees the familiar little figure, hunched over on the sidewalk. Rina immediately runs toward her. "Mari-chan! What's the matter?"
Marina looks up, and her face is pink and blotchy. Tear tracks streak down her cheeks and she rubs her nose on the back of her fist. "Rina-san....Tomo-chan!"
"Hey, the Marina I know doesn't cry. What happened?" Tomohisa kneels down and is not prepared for her sudden lunge. He rocks back and falls onto his butt. "Ow! Oi, Marina, take it easy there."
Marina snuffles from the vicinity of his neck, and judging by how damp and...sticky it's suddenly gotten, he guesses that she's started crying again. He pats her on the back. "Hey, are you gonna wash my shirt cos you got it all dirty?" His sister makes a face at him and mouths, "You're so nice," and he sticks his tongue out at her.
After he piggybacks Marina back to his house, and Rina's washed her face and handed her a cup of water, Marina is finally able to speak without tears. "New boy - he said, he said that I was a freak," and she wails, "And not a proper girl at all!"
"But I say that all the time - OWWW," Tomohisa yelps as his sister expertly pinches his arm. "What? I do."
"But this new boy said it in a mean way, right, Mari-chan?" Rina glares at him meaningfully.
The little girl scowls. "I hate new boys."
Tomohisa rubs at his arm and says, "I was a new boy to you, once."
"You were always old," Marina says dismissively. "But it's different when you say it and when he says it."
Rina nods sympathetically. "Don't worry, Mari-chan. I'm sure Tomo-chan will go and beat up that mean boy for you."
"Wait a minute - I never said," and Rina looks at him sharply, the only warning she usually gave before kicking him somewhere really hard. "I mean, yeah, I'll totally beat him up for you. What's his name?"
"Yuuta Hiraoka-sempai," Marina chokes out, and blows her nose.
His sister takes Marina home, as he has to stay back and work on his 'plan' for teaching that Yuuta some manners. He spends the time reading his DragonBall manga, and cleaning his room. Rina comes in a little while later. "Hey dummy."
"Hey brat." Tomohisa puts down his manga. "So what did you find out?"
"He's just moved into town. His father's got business in Tokyo, and he's living here with his grandparents. He's tall and he wears glasses."
"Megane, eh? He doesn't sound so terrible."
"Have you ever seen Marina cry about anything? It has to be serious." Rina's eyes widen. "Maybe she LIKES him."
"You read too much shoujo. Maybe he's just a punkass kid."
"I thought he wasn't so terrible - oooo, what if Mari-chan does like him? You won't be number one anymore!"
Rina runs out of Tomohisa's room a few seconds later, a flurry of pillows and manga flying after her.
"And STAY OUT."
Tomohisa looks down at Marina, who's holding his hand and scanning the playground in fierce concentration. "Are you sure you want to do this, Marina?" She nods. "I mean, maybe we should talk to him at his house, instead of out here -- where everyone can see me. Holding hands with the pinkest, fluffiest girl in Chiba -- and you know, I haven't said anything about your dress," she glances up at him. "What's wrong with my dress?"
"Ah - nothing! It's...very pink, is all. I didn't know you even had a dress that color."
"Mama had it waiting for me - she was so happy that I wanted to wear it."
"I bet she did. But, anyway, I don't --"
"THERE HE IS!" Marina points at the figure in the distance. The boy was tall, and thin, like his sister said, and he certainly wore glasses. He also carried a skateboard. Marina drops his hand and scurries off, her patent leather mary janes clicking across the asphalt. "You MEANIE," she yelled.
Yuuta never knew what hit him. Or more precisely, he did, because she came at him in a flying tackle and kicked him in the shin. Tomohisa could read "Rina" all over the move, and cursed the fact that his sister had taught Marina the move he'd taught her in case she found herself cornered by strange men and couldn't scream.
"WHAT THE HELL?" Yuuta shouted, and clutched at his ankle. Tomohisa quickly rushed over to them. "Hey now - bad words, little ears!" He covered Marina's ears with his hands. Yuuta looked at him in disbelief. "Are you her brother or something?"
Marina shrugs off Tomohisa's protective hands and says loudly, "He's my best friend!"
Yuuta starts to laugh.
iii. you are my best friend
It changes with a letter. A thick envelope comes in the mail for Tomohisa, and inside it is all his hopes and dreams. Congratulations, his mother reads out loud at the dinner table. You have been accepted into the Diamond Talent Agency. Please report to Tokyo within two months to begin training. You have the option of living in our dormitories or having your legal guardian accompanying you.
His mother bursts into tears, but his father says nothing. Rina looks at him, for once, awed into silence.
He reads the letter again before he goes to sleep that night. Please report to Tokyo within two months to begin training. He'd forgotten he had to move away.
He tells Marina one month before the big day. "Hey, I'm going to Tokyo." A pause. "I'm going to live there from now on, and I'm going to be famous." Another pause. "Or try to be, anyway."
Marina doesn't cry, or scream, or say I HATE YOU AND I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN, but then again, she's never been the type to do what he expects. It's one of his favorite things about her. "Okay," she agrees, and goes back to playing with his Doraemon action figures.
She comes over a lot more after that, though, and he doesn't mind. It's better that they spend their last few weeks together happy.
On the last day before he moves away, Marina comes by with a cake her mother made. "I helped, though," she says. The frosting is kind of messy and the kanji of his name is scribbled a little too close to the edge, but he takes it with a smile. "Thank you, Mari-chan."
She smiles shyly back at him. "You're going to come back though, right? You're going to come back and see me sometime, right?"
And he says yes, because he believes he will. "Of course I'll come back. This is home, after all. But you'll have Yuuta-kun to look out for you when I'm not here, okay?"
Marina nods. "He's not the same as you, Tomo-chan. But we'll be fine." She holds up her hand, and extends her pinky. "Promise me you're going to come back before you get too famous."
He laughs, and hooks his pinky with hers. "I promise."