Half-asleep

"Move it, little to the left..."

"Go up a little bit..."

"Okay, right there! It's perfect!"

Under the gaze of the members of Muse and their chirping commands, Haru finally set up the last and the largest display on the huge billboard on the stadium.

Haru looked at the giant display for a while to make sure that there wasn't any problem then cautiously came down from the ladder.

Starting at nine o'clock in the morning, until 12 o'clock in the afternoon, they finally finished setting up the entire stage and decoration.

Haru knew that it was because the stage was located on the sports field, otherwise the workload would be even larger.

"Haru, you've worked hard, come and wipe your sweat. Would you like to drink some water?"

Eli was very attentive, walking toward him with mineral water and towel, with a smile on her face.

"Can I have water?" Haru asked.

"Sure."

Haru opened the cap of the bottle of mineral water and drank it in one gulp. The sunlight was quite strong and he sweated a lot.

*Gulp!*

Everyone was watching Haru at this moment and Haru seemed to not care about their gaze.

Haru then used his t-shirt to wipe the sweat off his forehead, flashing his muscular abs.

*Gulp!*

"........"

Eli hurriedly realized the seriousness of this matter and said, "Haru, don't use your t-shirt you wipe your sweat! Use this towel!" She hurriedly pulled Haru's t-shirt down so it would cover Haru's stomach and hurriedly wiped his forehead.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

Everyone gulped at this moment since it might be their first time to have a fan service from a male and they had to admit that Haru's body was too amazing, but then they seemed to see something on his stomach and wondered what it was.

"Cough! Cough! Eli, let me wipe the sweat off myself," Haru said.

"No! You'll use your t-shirt again later!" Eli didn't give the towel to Haru and wiped his sweat.

"......"

Haru had a hard time controlling himself since this girl's smell was really good.

"What's wrong?" Eli asked.

"Nothing, you smell really good, Eli," Haru whispered.

Eli blushed and threw the towel right to Haru's face. "Pervert!" She ran off, but she was obviously very happy being praised.

"......."

Haru was speechless, but he didn't care too much.

---

After that incident, everyone celebrated together since the stage had been completed.

Kotori moved to Nozomi and asked, "Are they dating?"

"Not yet," Nozomi said.

"I see..." Kotori nodded.

When Eli walked toward Nozomi, she calmed herself and her expression returned to her cool state.

"Eli, I'm jealous that you care about Haru that much," Nozomi said with a sigh.

"N, Nozomi!!" Eli blushed once again.

"But if Maki sees it then she might get jealous," Nozomi said.

Eli stopped blushing and thought about the relationship between Haru and Maki. She wasn't blind and she could tell that Maki had an interest in Haru, especially when they were childhood friends.

"By the way, speaking of Maki, it seems that I haven't seen her for a long time." Kotori looked around and couldn't find Maki anywhere.

"I remember Maki saying that she wanted to clean up, and then she took the vacuum cleaner and left," Umi said.

"But why isn't she coming back so long, isn't she in trouble?" Nico seemed quite worried. 　　

"I'll look for her."

Haru took the initiative to search for Maki. He also realized that he hadn't seen her and he also felt worried, of course, he was also cornered why that girl ignored him earlier since he didn't remember that he had done something to her.

Haru wasn't going to apologize, but only talked for a bit with this tsundere girl. Though, at the same time, it reminded him of one of the fond memories during his childhood time.

Even though Umi didn't give him a clue where Maki had gone, Haru used his "Kenbunshoku Haki" to search for her then he found her in one of the rooms within the school. As he walked toward that location, he could hear the sound of a buzzing vacuum cleaner. However, when he arrived, he didn't see Maki's figure.

Although Maki wasn't good at housework, Haru knew that she wasn't the type that would leave something like this behind. However, when he thought about her poor performance at housework, he checked the vacuum cleaner carefully.

If Maki was sucked by the vacuum cleaner, Haru wouldn't be surprised at all.

However, Haru quickly blushed at his action because he really checked the vacuum cleaner. He was wondering whether his IQ had been lowered because he stayed with Honoka for a long time.

Haru turned off the vacuum cleaner, and then saw a sign of music room and knew that Maki was in this room. He opened the room and it seemed that he was right.

But he wasn't sure whether Maki was too tired since he saw her fall asleep on the piano.

Although the sun shone brightly at noon, the curtains in the classroom were tightly closed. Only a trace of pale golden light shone through the curtains and fell on Maki's delicate face.

At this moment, Haru felt that he had seen the legendary sleeping beauty in the children's book story.

Although Maki's sleeping face was very beautiful, Haru still woke her up when he thought that everyone was still waiting in the field.

Haru shook her body slightly to wake her up. "Maki, wake up."

"Ha...ru?"

Maki's slender eyelashes trembled slightly, and then the purple eyes slowly opened, with a trace of confusion staring at Haru blankly.

People who were awakened in the middle of a nap often lacked an accurate judgement about the surrounding things.

However, Haru didn't expect that Maki, who had just woken up, would show such a cute expression, which was cuter than her usual cold and arrogant demeanor, so he couldn't wait to take a picture with his smartphone immediately.

But soon, he was surprised.

Because Maki wasn't fully awake unexpectedly shouted at him, "Haru, didn't you promise to marry me in the past! Why... why don't you turn your gaze at me...." Her face was very sad, but then she realized something.

"......."

The entire music room became quiet in an instant, Haru was little at a loss. He wasn't sure what to say at that moment. Yesterday, he was just having fun with another girl then at this moment suddenly someone confessed to him again. He wanted to hug her, but he was slightly hesitant at that moment.

After Maki yelled those words, she completely awoken. The temperature on her face gradually rose, a blush from her cheeks spread to her slender neck, her purple eyes looked around in confusion, and finally she couldn't stay the torment, and ran out of the music room with a shy cry.

Haru was about to chase after Maki, but then someone stopped him.

"Haru, what happened just now?"

Eli and the others rushed over and asked.

"We have heard Maki's scream just now. When we got here, we only saw her run out of the school gate."

'How fast!' Haru didn't expect Maki's running speed would be so fast that she ran out of the school gate.

"Ahhh! Maybe because there were only two of you alone that, Haru suddenly wanted to do something and then scared Maki-chan away?" Nozomi put her finger on her lower lip and said with a smile, "Haru, you shouldn't be sexually frustated, right?"

"......."

Everyone's eyes were staring at him.

However, Haru was calm and said, "Nothing, she saw a cockroach before and ran away."

"......"

"Really?" Everyone was doubtful at that moment.

"Well, yes, don't worry about her. She's going to be alright tomorrow." Haru looked at everyone and said, "You all can go back and prepare for the concert tomorrow, I need to do something." He left directly out of the music room to chase after Maki.

"Wait, I'll go with you!" Nozomi chased after Haru.

The seven Muses looked at each other and then shook their heads together.