"Hey, Shimon-san?"

"Yes, Marcel-san?"

"Do you have someone that you like?"

"I like all of my friends..."

"No, I mean as in...like-like."

"Oh..." Shimon winked and put his finger to his lips as he smiled. "It's a secret."

"Aww, you can't even tell me?"

"Nope!" He was grinning like there was no tomorrow. "I haven't even said anything about it to Inori-kun yet, and he's my Hachiyo partner."

"So, there is someone you like?"

"Like I said, it's a secret~."

"Which means yes. You know, I have someone I really like..."


"No, I mean, I do really like him, but not in that way. In the end, we're just really close friends."

"Oh. Well, anyway, we should keep moving if we want to finish these treats in time for the party." Shimon slipped on a pair of oven mitts and opened the door of the oven. "It's hot enough to put them in now."

Marcel carried over a tray containing at least thirty biscuits in different shapes. He carefully slid the tray onto the correct rack and stepped back so Shimon could close the door. "We should make the icing while waiting."

They were both mixing up different bowls of icing sugar, each a different colour. "I've almost finished with the red icing."

Marcel nodded and picked up the bottle of blue food dye. "I'm moving onto the blue icing now." He added a couple of dashes to the mixture and started carefully stirring.

Shimon was putting the red icing into a red piping bag, scooping out large scoops of the finished icing and tipping them into the bag. He flicked his spatula back a little bit too hard after tipping the whole scoop into the bag, and wound up with a bit of icing on his cheek.

Marcel saw this and chuckled to himself. "Hang on, I'll get a cloth for you to clean it off." He rested his spoon in the bowl and moved to the sink. He found a cloth and dampened it, then squeezed out the excess water. He returned to the bench and stood beside Shimon. As he saw the small dab of icing on his friend's cheek, he found himself feeling inspired to do something else to clean it off.

Shimon was focusing on mixing up some green icing, so he didn't notice Marcel wasn't using the cloth on his cheek, at least, not until he felt something on there. He froze in his movements as he felt a kittenish stroke of a tongue on his cheek. His cheeks reddened and he turned to face Marcel.

Marcel appeared embarrassed, and took Shimon's silence as a negative sign towards his actions. "Um...I..."

Shimon just smiled and leaned forward, his lips on Marcel's in a tender, sweet kiss.

Marcel was surprised by the kiss, but he liked it. He returned the chaste kiss, his eyes closed and his heart thumping a mile a minute.

When the kiss ended, Shimon smiled shyly, his blue eyes shining. "You're the one I like-like."

Marcel's purple eyes were also shining and his cheeks were the slightest shade of pink. He smiled widely. "That's good, because I really like-like you too." He held the Hachiyo in his arms. "I love you, Shimon-san."

"I love you too, Marcel-san." He returned the embrace.