7 Days (5)

Aika stared at the empty chair in front of her as she preformed and imagined Aria sitting in it. It felt somewhat odd to practice without someone to get feedback from after 2 days of receiving it frequently.

Instead of simply preforming until she collapsed, she had to go for as long as she could while recording it and then watch the entire thing back to give herself the needed feedback.

Even though Aika knew what Aria was doing today was important to her, a small selfish part had wanted to keep her all to herself today instead of doing separate things.

She attributed it to the two of them spending every single day together for over a month. They had both grown used to each other's company and being alone suddenly felt odd.

When she'd woken up that day without an Aria sized surprise waking her up, it had already been odd enough but it just got more noticeable as time passed.

Instead of eating breakfast together, she had to warn up and eat leftovers. Then, instead of practicing together with occasional banter, she had to practice in an empty room.

By lunch time, she had finally realized that the odd feeling she had felt all day was loneliness and started unconsciously watching the door whenever she could.

In order to distract herself from the unwelcome feeling, Aika practiced far harder than she usually did.

Before she had moved to B City, she practiced everyday in order to succeed in her dream career, but she hadn't practiced once in the month at Maple-leaf Academy.

The previous 2 days she had felt really limited in her physical abilities and stamina, but she was finally starting to feel back to normal.

It was initially really disheartening to be able to only practice in small amounts compared to what she used to do, but the gradual increase in stamina and ability felt like it was allowing herself to polish her skills.

Just compared to the first day of practice, she was already practically an entirely different level.

After a couple hours of practice, she was finally able to lose herself in the small details and feelings instead of constantly thinking of Aria.

Time flew by, and soon it was nearly 6pm when the sound of a key unlocking the door made Aika pause her video and jump up. Despite being able to ignore the feeling of loneliness, it was still very much there and she was extremely happy for it to be about to go away.

Aria stumbled through unlocking the door for several moments before the door opened on its own and she saw Aika's flushed and exhausted appearance.

Quickly, she grabbed the taller girl's hand and pulled her to the couch, pushing her down to sit on it. She closed Aika's laptop and looked her over and sighed when she noticed there was no water anywhere in sight.

Without pausing, she walked away and came back moments later with a cold water bottle.

"Don't do that." Aria was rather mad that Aika had ignored her health like that.

"Do... what?" After speaking, Aika finally noticed how sore her body was and how thirsty she felt.

"You don't take care of yourself. When did you last drink something?"

"Uhm..." Aika found she couldn't answer but was sure she had drank when she ate lunch. "Lunch, I think?"

"So 6 hours of on and off intense exercise ago?"

Unlike when Aria had attempted to be intimidating in Monocled Rabbit, Aika found this current version of her truly terrifying. Their usual situation had suddenly found itself reversed with Aria seemingly towering over her.

Aika nodded meekly and took another sip of her water to appease the little devil. In all her life, she had never before found herself in this weakened position.

Unwilling to remain the weaker party, she stood up and let her height naturally make her tower over Aria.

Looking up, Aria gulped and took a step back to try to minimize the height difference but each step she took was matched by a larger one.

Soon, her back hit the wall and the soft thud was followed by a louder one from Aika's left hand. A moment later, Aria felt a hand grasping her chin that forced her to look up into Aika's bright flaming eyes.

"So you're saying it's my fault?"

Aria tried to nod but was unable to due to the hand holding her chin. After a moment of hesitation, she finally spoke quietly. "Yes..."

Aika leaned closer and watched in interest as Aria's face gradually turned red. Once her mouth was right next to Aria's ear she whisper, "But you're the one who left me alone all day, Miss CEO..."

After several seconds, she backed away with her lips curled up against her will and watched as Aria ran off to the kitchen.

"I'm making dinner, leave me alone!"