Hopeful Plans

Mariella keeps giggling while they are having their dinner, making Jolyne look up from her own bowl and Giorgio tries to ignore her, since he has a feeling she is going to tease him about something regarding Martin.

Putting down his chopsticks, Giorgio glares at Mariella with crossed arms, “spit it out already, Mariella.”

“How do the two of you meet? To think you stand up for him even though you only know him, like a day?”

“Who?” Jolyne asks and Mariella instantly answers, “Giorgio’s crush. He already called him Gio and he didn’t even protest as usual. When I was insulting his poor fashion sense, Giorgio actually defended him.”

“He is not my crush.”

“Ho? Then how do you explain your questionable behavior today?”

“It’s still rude to insult someone you barely know, Mariella. And we met when he dropped his phone and I returned to him, and we had lunch together because he wanted to repay me back.”

“Sounds like a lunch date to me.”

“Wait wait, is he handsome?” Jolyne asks and Giorgio facepalms while Mariella giggles, “well, he is tall, and I guess he is pretty muscular. I think Gio here is in love~”

“Are we hearing wedding bells soon?” Giorgio groans when Jolyne joins the teasing and Mariella starts laughing out loud. Just then, they can hear the unlocked door click sound and Murai shouts out, “kids, we are home!”

“Otou-chan! Dad! You both need to hear this out!” Before Jolyne can say anything further, Giorgio leaps forward and clams her mouth, making her struggles a little before getting away from his grip, and she pouts, “you can’t silence me forever!”

“Do you want me to try?”

“Good grief, what’s happening?”

Jolyne immediately runs when she shouts, “dad! Giorgio has a crush!” and Giorgio stands up from his seat to start chase after her, making Mariella laughs while Jolyne hides behind Murai, and Giorgio is trying to catch her while Murai unknowingly become the shield, “it’s not embarrassing to have a crush. Back when we were in high school, I was crushing on Jin and I kept sending him anonymous love letters.”

“Murai! I’m not having a crush! Mariella is just spouting nonsense.”

Jin shakes his head while Jolyne runs back to her room and locks the door, making Mariella realized that she can’t go back to her room since she shares one with Jolyne and Giorgio changes his target to the pinkette, making her gulps in fear, “I’m sure you won’t be complaining if your good brother is going to give you a shoulder rub, right?”

“No!!!!” Anything but a shoulder rub! Mariella always feels ticklish when someone touches her shoulder, so she never wanted a shoulder rub before. And she sighs in relief when Jin warns the both of them, “hurry and finish your dinner, don’t waste the food.”

Giorgio complies since he didn’t want to hear Jin nags, because whenever he starts nagging, he can nag the whole night. Mariella thanks Dr Seiji silently and she quickly finishes her dinner before running to her room for safety, and Giorgio excuses himself from the dining table after he finishes his dinner, where Murai is still feeling giddy from the kids’ behavior earlier while Jin nods.

Giorgio goes back to his room and he plops down on his bed while checking if there’s anything new on his phone, and he is surprised when he receives a dm notification on his insta, and he opens it to see Martin messaging him.

GMartinPistols: hey Gio

GMartinPistols: I thnk I wn 2 intro u to my frens, we all frm naples!

GMartinPistols: we can hav common topics n similar thinking

Giorgio: are they all friendly like you?

GMartinPistols: well u met leo! We hav a couple tat is like our parents, n another guy tat is first year like u!

Giorgio: I duno. I’m actually not used to be in a crowd

GMartinPistols: juz come hang out once n if u dun feel comfy u dun hav 2 force urself

Giorgio: let me ask Mariella as well

GMartinPistols: oh

GMartinPistols: k cool

Giorgio knows the moment Mariella hears of this, she will tag along no matter how busy she is, so he just drops a quick text to her and he continues his conversation with Martin.

Giorgio: so when do we hang out?

GMartinPistols: erm u mind if we do it this fri night?? since we dun hv clas on sat

GMartinPistols: we can hang out longer

Giorgio: sounds gud. Where n when?

GMartinPistols: at the restaurnt cl bellini

Giorgio: I knw tat restaurant

GMartinPistols: nice! We normaly go after class so lets meet at campus around 5 or 6 aright?

Giorgio: sounds good

GMartinPistols: k! c u tmr at lunch! Gud night

Giorgio: ok gud night

After taking a shower and getting under his covers, Giorgio suddenly realizes something and he takes his phone and sees Martin’s last message, and his eyes widen.

“At lunch? We are going to have lunch together?”

If he tells Mariella that he is feeling his heart racing, he will never hear the end of it.

***********************************************************************************

“Okay, let’s go again from the top!”

Professor Larue claps a few times and the dance major students of performing arts get into the initial position again, waiting for the cue of the music. Leonardo knows he can do this flawlessly, and he takes a deep breath before getting into position with a serious expression. He knows he will be sore tomorrow, but at least it’s Saturday, and he will not have any classes, so it’s fine to be giving his 200% for the practice today. He didn’t get the solo part without sweat and tears after all.

The song starts again and they start dancing based on the choreography, and Leonardo doing some popping and he twirls once on one feet, before he gets into his solo part, where the other dancers are making way for him and he gets into the center and starts his routine. Focus, I’m the only one on stage now. I can’t mess this up.

Meanwhile, Mariella who has her vocal class near the auditorium stage because her professor for the subject wants to use the piano in the corner glances at the area where the dance major students are using, and when she sees Leonardo on the stage with a serious expression and moving his body with confidence, her eyes widen and she can’t seem to tear her eyes away. It’s until her professor calls out her name twice that she snaps back her attention, and she starts singing after the piano piece starts to play.