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"Maybe we should go outside," Valina said and Kei nodded, following her.
"So... " Valina leaned against the light grey wall and crossed her arms. She was in a defensive mode.
"Listen, Valina." Kei took a step towards his friend. "I was a dick."
"You don't say."
"And I want to apologise. It was not fair of me to humiliate you like that."
"Yes."
"And I'm sorry I screamed at you. I should've been more patient."
"Mhm."
"I wasn't playing clean either."
"Damn, right."
"Are you still angry?" he averted his gaze for a moment before looking back at Valina.
She pondered for a moment but her initial anger directed at the lead guitarist had worn down.
"No. Just be more considerate next time."
"I will be," Kei reassured and smiled brightly.
"Sorry I called you Mr. Perfect and an asshole," the girl mumbled, causing Kei to chuckle.
"Nah, it's fine. Friends call each other assholes, that's cool," he said and Valina smiled shyly.
"Are we... friends?" she asked carefully.
"Uh, what?" Kei found himself a little flabbergasted by her question. "Should we not be?"
"Oh god, I'm so sorry, that sounded weird!" Valina whined and covered her reddening face. "What I wanna say is, that I always thought we are more like colleagues— "
"Colleagues? Valina, call me an asshole again, but I really thought you would consider us friends after two years of weekly rehearsals and buying guitars together instead of being responsible people," Kei exclaimed and pulled the girl into a tight hug. "Come on, Val, everyone except you knows that I platonically fell in love with you since I first heard you play."
"Really?" Valina looked at the blue-haired boy with a grin.
"Yeah. I stalked you on Instagram for like a week."
"Don't make this weird," she said, punching Kei playfully, to which he replied with a grimace.
"What I wanna say is, that I'm— no, we're all glad to have you with us and we all appreciate you a lot." Holding the girl an arm's length away from him, Kei searched her face. "Understood?"
"Yeah. Thanks," Valina nodded and this time, she was the one to pull the boy into a hug, not without kicking his shin slightly.
