Soft.
Cool.
i made the tiniest startled sound against his mouth and froze completely.
Kaito felt it imdiately. The small uneven breath she took through her nose.
The sharp tightening of her fingers around the bag strap.
One second.
Maybe two.
Then he pulled back.
Silence.
The station announcent overhead kept talking about delays on another line.
Neither of them processed a single word.
i opened her eyes slowly.
They stared at each other.
Kaito beca abruptly and horribly aware that he had just kissed i.
i sohow looked even less functional than he felt.
Entire face red.
Eyes wide.
Lips parted slightly.
"I—"
"Ah—"
They both stopped imdiately.
Silence again.
i looked down so fast it almost counted as a recoil.
Kaito turned away at nearly the sa speed and stared very hard at a tro map he had already morized months ago.
His heartbeat was completely out of control now.
Her lips had been soft.
And cool.
That detail was now stuck in his brain with catastrophic clarity.
Beside him, i made a tiny sound that might actually have been steam leaving a machine.
Kaito almost laughed from nervous overload.
Almost.
Then the station announcent repeated itself louder this ti.
i jumped slightly.
"O-Oh."
Reality returned all at once.
"My tro."
Right.
Different lines.
Kaito cleared his throat once. "I’ll walk you there."
i looked up at him imdiately.
Surprised first.
Then red again.
"O-Okay."
They started walking.
Awkwardly.
Both suddenly too aware of where the other person was beside them.
Their sleeves brushed once by accident going down the stairs and both reacted like they had been electrocuted.
Neither ntioned it.
The station was louder down near the platforms.
tros arriving. Doors sliding open. Shoes against tile. The overhead announcents echoing slightly off the concrete walls.
Beside him, i was still gripping her bag strap hard enough to wrinkle it.
"So..." Kaito said after a while.
Imdiately regretted starting a sentence without knowing how to finish it.
i looked at him.
He looked forward very intensely.
"...We should probably ssage each other normally now."
The mont the words left his mouth he realized that sounded stupid.
i made a tiny choking sound beside him.
"We already ssaged before."
"Yeah, but now it’s..."
He failed to find the ending again.
Different.
Dangerous word right now.
i stared at the floor while walking.
"...Different," she finished quietly.
"Yeah."
Both beca redder again sohow.
Amazing conversation.
Kaito could feel himself actively losing social ability in real ti.
During his relationship with Hana, she had always taken the lead through monts like this.
Hana filled silence naturally. Pushed conversations forward. Grabbed his hand first. Kissed him first.
Now i was beside him looking just as lost as he felt.
And sohow that made him feel like he should be the one handling things properly this ti.
The problem was he had absolutely no idea how.
Beside him, i suddenly spoke again without looking up.
"...I really thought you were rejecting ."
Kaito glanced sideways.
She was staring straight ahead now, walking carefully along the yellow safety line.
"You took so long."
"Sorry."
"No, it’s okay." A tiny pause. "It was just a very long ten seconds."
"It might have been thirty."
i made a tiny sound that was either horror or laughter.
Possibly both.
That finally pulled a small smile out of Kaito too.
By the ti they reached her platform, neither of them had fully recovered from existing.
A tro waited on the tracks with its doors open. People stepped in and out around them while station music played faintly overhead.
i stopped near the gate and turned toward him.
Kaito stopped too.
Neither spoke imdiately.
The silence stretched again.
Not bad.
Just full.
"...Tomorrow?" i asked quietly.
Kaito nodded once.
"Tomorrow."
i nodded too.
Then stayed there.
Kaito stayed too.
Neither seed willing to be the first person to leave.
"...Bye," i said finally.
"Bye."
She turned.
Walked three steps.
Stopped.
Turned back slightly like she almost wanted to say sothing.
Kaito looked at her.
i opened her mouth.
Then visibly lost courage halfway through whatever thought she had and bowed quickly instead before hurrying toward the tro.
Kaito watched her step inside.
Just before the doors closed, i looked up once through the window.
Their eyes t briefly.
They waved.
Then the tro pulled away.
Kaito stood there for a few seconds after the tro disappeared.
People moved around him normally.
Soone bumped his shoulder lightly while passing.
A different tro arrived across the platform with a long tallic screech.
None of it felt fully real yet.
i was his girlfriend now.
That sentence still refused to settle properly in his head.
He turned after a while and started toward his own platform.
The station suddenly felt colder than before.
His hands were still in his coat pockets. He noticed one of them was clenched tightly for no reason and forced it to relax.
Then imdiately rembered the kiss again.
Her lips.
Soft.
Cool.
Kaito pressed the heel of his palm hard against his face.
Oh no.
He reached his platform sohow without rembering most of the walk there.
People stood scattered near the tracks staring at phones or advertisents or nowhere in particular.
Kaito stood among them trying very hard to behave like soone who had not completely short-circuited minutes earlier.
The tro arrived.
He got in.
Sat down near the corner of the carriage.
The doors slid shut.
The tro started moving.
And the delayed reaction hit him all at once.
Heat rushed violently into his face.
Kaito bent forward imdiately and buried his face in both hands.
Oh no.
Oh no.
He had a girlfriend.
i was his girlfriend.
His entire body felt overheated now.
Across from him, an elderly man glanced at him once over the top of a newspaper before deciding very wisely not to get involved.
Kaito stayed folded forward in his seat while the city slid past outside the train windows.
Her lips had been soft.
That detail refused to leave his head.
Neither did the image of i standing there with her eyes closed waiting for him to kiss her.
Or the fact she had wanted him to.
Kaito pressed both hands harder against his face.
This was going to beco a problem imdiately.
Tomorrow alone was already impossible to think about.
Lunch. Walking into class. Daiki noticing sothing in thirty seconds flat. Aya noticing faster sohow.
When do they reveal it to others?
Should they?
And worse—
Now that his brain had apparently decided i was his girlfriend, it had imdiately started reprocessing her entire existence in the most catastrophic ways possible.
Cute glasses.
Shy voice.
The way she looked up at him through her bangs sotis.
His imagination chose that exact mont to betray him completely.
i pressed against him sowhere private and dimly lit, face completely red, fingers gripping his shirt while looking at him with the sa expression she had at the station.
Kaito made a strangled sound and buried his face deeper into his hands imdiately.
Absolutely not.
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