Delicious, and Weekend Dance Practice

School finally ended after a long day of handing out flyers and I went back to the classroom to get my stuff. Kanjiro walked up to me and shoved a dish in front of me.

"Wala!"

I looked at the desert on the plate and it was the creme caramel he was talking about. When he described it to me during the morning, I had trouble picturing it in my head. I decided to look it up on my phone during the afternoon while handing out flyers and it was indeed very difficult to make, especially the caramel hat Kanjiro was talking about.

"Here, taste it, I'm sure you will like it."

"Alright."

Kanjiro handed me a spoon and I took a scoop of the caramel pudding and sauce. I carefully broke down the caramel hat and put some on the spoon as well. I ate it with one bite and the pudding melted in my mouth. It was so sweet and tasty. I took another spoon full and another until I realized I ate the whole plate.

"See? I knew you would like it."

"Did you make this?"

"Yea, I said I was going to make it for you didn't I?"

"Yea, it was delicious. This item would definitely either sell out the fastest if we don't have enough ingredients or make the other menu items useless."

"Yea, the whole team was forced to learn to make the dish because we knew it would be the best tasting one. A lot of the people had trouble at the start but were able to make at least one that looked just like the one you ate. I, of course, is the one that even came up with the item."

"I am truly a shocked man. Good luck, you are gonna need it next week. Also, is the candidate chosen for the dance?"

"Oh… I was honestly planning on not telling you and hoped you would forget but since you asked… I was selected."

He spoke in a quiet tone but his excitement was so obviously shown to me.

"Congrats."

"Yea. I honestly hoped you would forget and surprise you during the dance next Friday but I didn't want to lie to you. I also promised I would tell you."

"Sweet. You probably need to practice the dance right?"

"Yea, recordings of previous years' dance were sent to us as reference. It didn't look that hard so I should be alright."

"Nice, you should still practice though."

"Yea, I'll probably get a sister to help me. She is pretty good at dancing."

"Alright, good luck."

After talking to Kanjiro for a few more minutes. He left school along with most other students. Me and Tochaki-san again waited for a few minutes before walking home ourselves.

"How was practicing for your cafe?"

"I should be able to handle it. But making me say 'master' after every sentence is kind of embarrassing though…"

"Well, that's a maid cafe for ya."

"Yea, thankfully the girls agreed to not kneel either."

She looked very tired and didn't have a smile on her face.

"You should get some rest when you get home. Next week is a big day."

"Yea you are right… Hey Juni-kun, did you see it?"

"See what?"

"You know… my instagram story?"

Ah she was talking about this. I completely forgot about it since lunch.

"Yea, there were so many people talking about it I thought I was gonna get exposed. Thankfully I was dressed so differently that day no one could tell it was me."

Tochaki-san, after hearing what I said, showed a calm smile.

"I see, thank God. I was worried you were gonna get integrated by some boys from the post. I wasn't thinking straight when I made that post. I am sorry for causing you trouble."

"Its alright. You are free to show others you are having fun."

I patted Tochaki-san on the head and she was getting calmer. Looked like she was worried about me the entire day.

"It feels nice…"

"I'll do it more often then."

"Dummy… that would be embarrassing…"

I teased her a bit more until we reached home

After we reached home, dinner was already prepared for us. I ate dinner, took a shower, and went back to my room to relax. I opened my phone to see more pictures of creme caramel. Maybe I should learn about this desert myself. I was searching for recipes of the desert until I heard a knock on my door.

*knock* *knock*

"Yes?"

"Its Tochaki, can I come in?"

"Of course."

Tochaki-san opened the door and came into my room. She was wearing her usual night wear.

"Juni-kun…"

"Yes?"

She seemed a little uncomfortable.

"Is everything alright?"

She was apparently holding a piece of paper behind her back and handed it to me. I looked at the paper.

SCHOOL FESTIVAL DANCE

GIRL CANDIDATE: Suiha Kei, Kinai Tochaki, Tamaki Sayo, Gabimaru Ai

Tochaki-san's name was highlighted. Does this mean…

"I was chosen as the candidate for the school festival dance…"

"Oh I see, congrats! Shouldn't you be happier?"

"No no I am very happy I was chosen, but I am worried about the male dancer…"

"Why?"

"Well, the school chooses the dancing pair based on how good they match, correct? And they kiss each other at the end right?"

"Yea?"

"I'm just worried about the kiss. I have mixed feelings about kissing someone that I probably don't know…"

Well since the person is Kanjiro, and Kanjiro already knows our secret, it should be fine to tell her.

"I got some good news for you Tochaki-san. Kanjiro is actually the male dancer."

"Isseiyama-san?"

"Yea, I know him personally so it's fine. I'll text him so that you won't feel uncomfortable about dancing with him."

"Alright! Thank you Juni-kun!"

"Yea no problem. You should also practice for the dance."

"Oh yea, I was gonna ask for your help as well."

"Ask for my help?"

"Yea… Juni-kun, if its alright, could you help me practice the dance?"

"Ummm. I am not very good at dancing."

"Me neither, but there is no way I could perform well if I don't practice with someone else."

"Isn't there someone else that could help you? Like one of your friends?"

"I thought about that but they would know I am a female dancer."

"So you didn't think of me before telling me you were chosen?"

"Well, I had no other choice. I was thinking about asking Isseiyama-san to practice dancing after you told me he was the male dancer but…"

"But?"

"But I want to practice with you… Juni-kun…"

Her face was all red now and she showed a bashful and embarrassing look. How could I deny her request if she shows me this face?

"Alright, I'll help you. But don't expect too much since I don't know how to dance."

"Really!? Thank you Juni-kun!"

She ran up to me and gave me a hug."

"I'll make sure to pay you back one day!"

"Uhh, you really don't ha–"

She ran out the door and closed it before I could finish the sentence. Oh well. Hopefully she forgets. She has already done enough for someone like me.

Next day morning, I immediately called Kanjiro.

"Hey Kanjiro."

"Hey Juni, what's up?"

"Yea, so I have a situation going on right now…"

I explained the situation regarding the female dancer Tochaki-san and that she doesn't feel comfortable kissing.

"Yeah that's totally fine."

"You're not mad?"

I was expecting Kanjiro to be mad that I first ruined the surprise of who the female dancer and two, he doesn't get to kiss our beloved school idol.

"Why would I?"

"Well, I kind of ruined the surprise for you and I took away her kiss from you."

"Nah you're good. Sure knowing the surprise of who the female dancer was gonna be exciting, but if she doesn't feel comfortable kissing, there is nothing more I can do. Plus, she already has someone in her eyes."

Tochaki-san has a crush? This was news to me. I didn't even know how Kanjro got this information from but I didn't think too much of it.

"Alright then, as long as you're alright with what's going on, we can end the call here."

"Alright sounds good. I gotta go practice the dance anyways. Bye–bye."

We ended the call and I decided to go down stairs myself to practice the dance for Tochaki-san. We texted each other this morning and she said to meet him in the backyard after breakfast. I got up, took a shower, ate breakfast, and went to the backyard.

"Come on Juni-kun, you gotta spin me after picking me up."

"Sorry, let me try again."

"You stepped on me!"

"I Apologize!"

We finished dancing for the first time. As it turns out, I wasn't a very good dancer. I told Tochaki-san that but she still insisted on helping me.

"Let's try again!"

"Are you sure?"

"Does a man go back on his words?"

"No… Alright, let's go."

We copied the same dance from the reference video a couple more times before falling on the backyard grass breathing for air.

"I think we should stop for today."

"Yea, you are right."

Today was a complete disaster. Neither of us could copy the moves from the reference video so we decided to give up for today. We went back inside the house and took a shower. I went back to my room and decided to look at the video more carefully. Maybe I was missing something.

The day passed by quickly and before I knew it, it was already night. I was so absorbed in watching the video I forgot about dinner. I went down stairs and saw Tochaki-san eating already. I joined her for dinner and she smiled at me.

"Today was tough, yea?"

"Yea, let's try again tomorrow."

"Yea, the dance is on Friday so I don't want to mess this up. Otherwise my friends won't ever stop making fun of me if I dance so badly!"

That's a problem she had to worry about. I'm not the one dancing so it didn't matter.

I finished dinner and went upstairs to continue watching the video. As I watched the video more and more times, I thought of something and decided to watch the year before the previous year and the year after that as well. I thought that the different moves itself were not hard to do, so why was me and Tochaki-san having so much trouble dancing? It was then I realized something. It seemed to me that the dancers are not imitating a dance that's been used again and again each year. As I watch the moves from both the male and female dancers, they seem to know exactly what the other person would do and immediately compliment each other by doing the correct dance. They aren't even looking at each other most of the time and only looked at each other at the end of the dance. It almost seemed as if it was one person controlling the two people. I think I got this figured out.

The second day of the weekend rolled around and I again found myself in the backyard practicing the dance with Tochaki-san, but today I had a plan.

"Tochaki-san, today I want you to close your eyes while dancing."

"Why? I wouldn't be able to see what what's happening then."

"Just trust me on this one."

"Mmmmmm…."

Tochaki–san still seemed a little hesitant. I patted her head and comforted her a bit. She raised her head and smiled a bit. She nodded her head and closed her eyes. I took both her hands and got in a dancing position.

I started dancing and Tochaki-san followed. I made one move and she followed me again. I wasn't following what the dance is in the reference anymore. I was instead, doing one move after another based on the previous move. I got a feel for how and when I should turn and Tochaki-san seemed to understand that and also moved to compliment me. In the reference video, the ending move was the male picking the female up, but I decided to do something different. As I moved from one position to the other while Tochaki-san followed my lead, I decided to spin her and she knew exactly what to do. I then ended this dance by bringing back my hand and putting my hands on her side while she put her hands on my shoulders. She opened her eyes to realize what we both are able to accomplish.

"Juni-kun… That was awesome!"

"Yea, that was great wasn't it."

"How did you do this? I thought you weren't great at dancing, I mean, look at yesterday. It was a complete disaster!"

"After watching the reference videos a few times, I realized something. It's not that each year the dancers are doing the exact same dance. I know we tried to imitate previous year's dance but it was a complete disaster wasn't it? Instead of copying the dance from previous year, I realized that both dancers would need to get a feel for each other when they actually do dance. When both dancers are on the same page, they know exactly what the other person would do and compliment each other from their own moves. I asked you to close your eyes because instead of looking at me to see if I am ready for the next 'supposed' move, we moved based on our own feelings. If you move based on how you feel, you also feel more free instead of copying other dances, right?"

" Yea…Wow, I am surprised you understand this after just one day."

"Yep, I'm sure Kanjiro, who is a smart person, will also realize this sooner or later so it's up to you and him to make the dance possible."

"Alright! I'll do my best."

There was no good way to practice this dance because you need to understand each other's feelings for this dance to work. If the school truly thinks Tochaki-san and Kanjiro are a good match, then I am sure they would perform one of the best in this school's history, I'm sure of it…