NICO'S POV

It was time. I was nervous of what may happen, but I have to do it.

I sent my sister away to head home first. Then I went to where Maki-chan was, Eri told me apparently. She was guarding her for a while before leaving.

While walking to the field where Maki-chan was, I looked around to find at least somehow that nothing changed in this entire area. It still looked just like what it looked like years ago when we performed and sang "Bokura wa no LIVE, Kimi to no LIFE." It was that live concert that saved the school, it helped to bring new enrollees. It was a very important event for all of us - no, not just for us u's but also for the entire school. And maybe also for other idol groups who wanted to save their schools in the same way we did. Wow, how did we manage to pull all that off in the first place?

And maybe that is why Eri-chan and Maki-chan both visited this same spot. I am so glad they never forgot that.

Finally, I found the beautiful girl sleeping like a beauty on the grass. Damn, I am so jealous that she could manage to stay attractive in such a position.

Her face looked so peaceful. Those lips were so.....natural. Her hair flowed down the grass like an angel - AAAAAHHHH!!! Stop it Nico, stop it!! You don't deserve this. You came here to wake her up, right? Not to stare at her like a freak, right?

(It has been so long since I last saw her face up close and personal.)

Darn it, my heart is pounding so much again. I want to kiss those lips so badly - AAAAARRGGHH, STOP IT!!

Badump....badump....badump.....badump....

Shit. I can't do this. My face is all red. I can't approach her like this. I need to back off.

I was just about to leave her when suddenly I felt a drop of water fell on my head. I looked up....god, it was starting to rain.

Luckily, I had two umbrellas. (The other umbrella was given to me by Eri. It is really big.) I held mine with my left hand while my right hand held the other umbrella to cover Maki-chan, then I placed it beside her. I sat beside her, looking away so that I am not tempted to take advantage of her while she slept.

I waited for her to wake up. Luckily, the rain wasn't very strong so I managed to endure holding the umbrellas so long.

Eventually she did woke up. She looked surprised that I am here beside her. I looked away from her, to remind her I am still hurt by what she did. But still....

"Finally, you're awake. It's 5:13, Maki-chan. You just slacked off your job as president to supervise the new students. Darn, had Eri-chan not arrived here, no one would have found a replacement for you. And what's more, you slept here like a princess without considering it might rain after seeing all those clouds. You're such a drag!", I said.

Maki-chan stayed silent for a while, uncertain as to how she should react, what she should say.

"....do you love me or not, Maki-chan?", I said eventually. Maki felt really nervous hearing that from me.

"Nico.......Nico...I....I'm sorry. Really. I made you feel so much pain even though I felt it was what I had to do. I....", she said.

Maki-chan looked really worried. She wanted to apologize to me. No, I don't want her apology. It is not what I wanted from her......

I wanted to clear things up between us.

MAKI'S POV

"...don't apologize to me, Maki-chan. Answer the question. Do you love me or not?"

I could not help but feel so broken hearing those words. It must have been my fault after all. Nico-chan refused to look at me.

"Nico, I.......", I wanted to answer her but I hesitated.

I love Nico. I love her with all my heart. My love for her is what led to all this in the first place....oh.....I get it. I am such an idiot.

I didn't say anything for the next seconds. Nico got impatient.

"......geez, say something......"

I couldn't utter a single word.

".......sigh....you can't answer it right? Fine, let me change the topic...."

I thought I screwed up. But then, Nico replied:

"......I still love you, Maki-chan."

"What......"

"You heard me. I love you.....simply because I don't want to hate you."

It surprised me enough that I turned away and stopped looking at Nico. I feel ashamed that she still loved a jerk like me. All of this was my fault, right?

"Hey!! Why aren't you looking at me! Turn around!!"

I started to feel very negative emotions. Especially guilt. After all I've done to her.....

"Hey, Maki........huh?"

She looked at me as she approached, she noticed how much I am trying to hold my emotions.

"....you're....you're crying?"

"Don't look at me, Nico-chan."

I cried with my head down because I am uncomfortable letting her see me so weak like this. Even as I turned away, Nico continued to inspect my behavior. She didn't get the message of my reaction.

"Maki, why are you being so dramatic - "

"DON'T YOU GET WHY I AM LIKE THIS!!?"

Before I knew it, my emotions broke out and I started shouting at her on the top of my voice. I did not care if anyone else heard my insecurities.

"Nico-chan.....how can you say you love me?!! After all the wrong things I have done to you!!?"

"Huh?!!"

"I am so sorry, Nico-chan!! I abandoned you, I never called you nor told you what I have been doing to you. I put my feelings first without considering your feelings. I never cared for you, because I wasn't interested to see or hear about you. I was so selfish."

Nico-chan was surprised. She did not expect I'd say those things.

"W-what are you talking about!!? I thought you did all that so that I could continue my dreams, right?!!"

"That is not true Nico. I realized that after talking with Eri. I thought of those things because I wanted to blind myself into thinking I had noble intentions to ignore you and send you away. But in truth, I did all that because I wanted to get away from you. Because I lost interest in loving you. I thought it was over between us."

"Why....why would you feel all that....", Nico got even more confused.

"Because.....because I got really hurt when the time came for both of us to seperate."

At this point, I just told her how frustrated I was for letting her go years ago. At this point I felt like I wanted to say that everything I did was in vain.

"That's right, I admit it. I REGRET THAT U's DISBANDED. THAT WE BOTH HAD TO SEPERATE. As much as I tried to deny it, it turns out I still felt like I wanted to keep regretting it. That painful feeling made me want to get away from you, and made me want to forget everything just so I can move on."

I explained even further to justify that I did regret our seperation:

"Being student council president? Taking on another career? I never felt happy doing any of that at all without you around. I still wanted you so badly, Nico!! So badly that I feel like I don't wanna move on anymore and I feel like wanting our past back!! I am such a jerk!!"

Nico stood silent, she should realize by now that all those curses I made against myself were true.

"That's why....I feel guilty when you say you love me. I threw away your feelings and your love because of some childish thinking that I had. If you continue to love me, I'm afraid neither of us can move on. Don't feel that way to me, Nico. Don't. A selfish jerk like me doesn't deserve to be loved by someone like you. You should hate me for all of it...."

So much emotion came out from me, I didn't care anymore if there were some things that I said that sounded inconsistent. I just felt like acting like a kid in front of Nico-chan.

"I......I don't deserve your love....."

"SHUT UP!!!", Nico shouted. She was offended by my behavior.

"Maki-chan, how could say all that!!!? Are you willing to doubt all the things you've done?!! Did you really intend all that?! Stop thinking too much!!!"

"Why.....", I replied. Then Nico faced me sternly and posed in a way that she wanted to have a long and serious conversation with me.

"Maki-chan, do you really wanted to take the blame? To tell me you were the one who broke our relationship? I am the one at fault here. I never listened to you."

She still thinks she is one to blame?

"Actually....I feel way more guilty than you.....because I made you like this...."

Wait, Nico what are you saying? Did I not already confess my mistakes? That was what you wanted, right?

"In all our years together, I kept wanting you and wanting you over and over again. Whenever you were away, I always wanted to know where you were. Whenever you're busy doing something, I try to do something annoying in order to catch your attention. Whenever we made songs and/or practiced dances in u's, I always wanted you as my partner. And also, even if it was nighttime or midnight, I called you out so that we can be together!! I was such a selfish jerk back then!!!"

I can't believe Nico actually had a point.

"Yeah....and as we got together more often, you became like me as a result. Sort of, Maki-chan. Without realizing it, I made you want me more and more, I influenced your personality somehow. I thought all of it was for the better, but I guess it wasn't at all."

Nico was sincere in all those statements. I had not seen this side of her for quite a while.

"I made you love me too much, so when the time came that we both had to seperate......as a result you regretted that decision, I am right?"

Nico approached closer to me.

"So......put the blame on me, as you used to a while ago. I deserve it. You don't have to blame yourself."

But I didn't want to....

"No.....I don't want to blame you anymore.....I no longer want to hate you again....", I told Nico how unwilling I am to blame her again. It seemed pointless to me if I do that.

".....really?.....I see...."

Nico backed off a bit. I knew she would not take it likely, but it is my way to tell her that I want to be the one who takes responsibility or gets punished for all this. Cause I know that Nico suffered regardless, I had to -

"I'm happy you said that.", but Nico replied positively for some weird reason.

"Of couse you would, since I am the one at fault thus you'd be happy that you were right about me all along - "

Suddenly, Nico rushed to hug me tightly. She wasn't angry. She was unexpectedly overjoyed by my statement. She went further and tried to make a point.

"No, no, no. Stop thinking that is the case, Maki. It is still my fault, but you had a different reason for saying it."

"Huh?"

"You said you don't want to blame me, right? You said you don't want to hate me anymore, right?"

Yes....I did, Nico.

"Then that means something, Maki-chan.....you still love me, right?"

"Nico-chan.....", I was shocked that Nico found a loophole in my statement. It seemed she found out what I truly feel, which I myself never realized.

"I LOVE YOU TOO MAKI-CHAN!! I LOVE YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART!!!"

Nico shouted her feelings loudly, it caught me off guard.

"It doesn't matter what your intentions were, you did something for me, and I will say it out loud so you can hear it clearly!!"

She kept saying things that touched my heart.

"I LOVE MAKI-CHAN!! I LOVE HER AS MUCH AS I LOVE IDOLS!! I WANT HER TO REALIZE THAT MY PAST WAS BRIGHT AND WONDERFUL BECAUSE OF HER!!! THUS, I WANT HER TO BRIGHTEN MY FUTURE AS WELL, HOW SELFISH IT MAY BE!!!"

Nico shouted even louder than she nor I did before. Her voice was loud enough to catch other people's attention.

"Nico....please stop....everyone is gonna hear us.....", yet she ignored my concerns.

"AND MOST OF ALL, I WANT TO BRIGHTEN HER FUTURE AS MUCH AS SHE DID WITH MY PAST!!!"

I cried really hard during our embrace. I dunno....it felt like something painful that stuck in my conscience was finally removed by Nico's resolve.

".....sorry, Nico. For trying to regret what happened - "

"You know what I think, Maki-chan? I think regretting our disbandment isn't necessarily a bad thing. I think it is a natural feeling, I'm sure the others feel the same way too."

She comforted me with her opinions on everything that happened. I kinda felt willing to just agree with her regardless.

The whole conversation lasted for almost half an hour. At the end of the day, it turned out that what we both wanted was simple: we just wanted to see each other again.

Moments after, I calmed down enough to ask her things.

"Nico-chan.....would you......umm...."

"Don't hesitate, let it out. Say what you want to say. I will listen to you this time."

".....would.....would you still love me even if I were selfish?"

"(smile) You know....I have been a selfish person for most of my life. You and u's know that very well, right? I'd still love you no matter how selfish you can become."

"Idiot.....no, I mean.....ummm....sor - "

"Sorry Maki-chan for making you say that. I am such a selfish jerk."

I laughed for a bit when Nico-chan said that.

"....alright.....may I......may I ask a selfish request from you?"

"What is it?"

This is something I wanted to ask from her for a long time. Something that I realized I wanted all along.

It was something I missed doing with Nico-chan. It was something I think would finally help to reconcile my bonds with her. A way for both of us to make up.

"Nico-chan....for this one special moment....while we still have time....."

"Come on, spit it out", Nico smiled.

I have....we both needed to do this. Time is running out, the sunset overhead us will soon turn into night.

"......can we....can we have a date?"

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A/N: Had trouble reconstructing all this because my memory got hazy, but it looks like I did anyway.

Stay tuned for a few more chapters!! Ending will be coming soon!!