The silence stretched further.

Mei made a tiny sound in her throat and glanced up at him briefly before looking away again.

"Hm?" she asked softly.

Like she was trying to check if he was okay without fully asking.

His chest tightened.

Hana had died months ago.

Near the beginning of the semester.

Now winter break was close enough that people had already started talking about plans.

He had friends now. Actual friends. He ate lunch with people. Talked more. Went places after class.

The loneliness from the beginning of the semester had faded somewhere along the way without him noticing exactly when.

He should have moved on already.

Maybe part of him already had.

And still some part of him kept standing here beside Mei while looking sideways at Hana too.

If he rejected her now, things would change.

Mei would probably cry later when nobody was around to see it.

Or maybe she wouldn’t cry at all, which somehow felt worse.

Lunch would become strange afterward.

Daiki would notice within a day.

Ayame would notice before the conversation even ended and politely pretend not to.

But that wasn’t the real reason.

Hana had not died because of him.

The ghost had possessed her because of something dark she had carried long before she met him.

He had tried to save her. Nearly died trying to save her.

None of it had been his fault.

And still some irrational part of him kept returning to the same thought:

If she had never sat beside me that day, maybe she would still be alive.

Wrong.

He knew it was wrong.

It still stayed.

Now he was standing here looking at Mei and feeling that same fear crawl slowly up his spine again.

He didn’t want this girl hurt too.

The image came suddenly.

Mei with black eyes.

Her smile stretched too wide.

Head cocked sideways in an unnatural position.

Dark energy spilling from her mouth while her body moved with that same uneven wrongness he saw in Hana that day.

His stomach twisted sharply.

He forced the image away immediately.

In front of him, Mei shifted her weight slightly. Her jaw had tightened. Eyes lowered toward the floor now.

The stillness of someone preparing themselves for rejection.

She was going to try to take it back soon.

Kaito took a slow breath.

"Yes," Kaito said.

Mei froze.

Her eyes widened behind her glasses and stayed there, unmoving, like the answer had reached her ears but not the rest of her yet.

"...Really?"

The word came out tiny.

Kaito nodded once.

The color rushed into her face immediately.

"Oh."

Her fingers crushed tighter around the strap of her bag.

"Oh no."

Kaito stared at her.

A metro rolled somewhere beneath the platform with a low metallic rumble.

Cold air drifted through the station for a moment as doors opened below them. People moved around them without slowing down.

Mei bowed too suddenly.

"Thank you very much—"

She stopped halfway down.

Then straightened in visible panic.

"I mean not very much, I just—"

A tiny distressed sound escaped her throat.

Kaito laughed before he could stop himself.

Short.

Mostly because she looked like she was seconds away from overheating.

Mei immediately covered part of her face with one hand.

"You laughed."

"Sorry."

"No, that’s worse."

He laughed again.

Quieter this time.

Something in his chest loosened slightly watching her stand there trying and failing to recover from her own confession.

Cute.

The thought arrived suddenly enough to catch him off guard.

Very cute.

"...You don’t have to force yourself," Mei said quietly.

Kaito looked up.

She wasn’t looking at him anymore.

"I know I kind of dropped it on you suddenly." A weak laugh escaped her. "So if you want to pretend this didn’t happen I can also pretend this didn’t happen."

"No," Kaito said immediately.

Mei stopped.

Kaito took a breath.

"I mean it," he said. "I want to go out with you."

For a second she just stared at him again.

Then somehow turned even redder.

"I practiced this before coming here," she admitted weakly.

"Did the practice version go better?"

She closed her eyes immediately.

"Significantly."

Kaito had to look away for a second after that because the combination of her expression and how seriously she answered had hit him directly in the nervous system.

Mei noticed.

Now she looked slightly less like she wanted to disappear.

Slightly.

"I didn’t think you’d take that long to answer," she admitted quietly.

Kaito rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yeah."

That earned the smallest smile from her.

Tiny.

But real.

Neither moved toward the gates.

Kaito only became aware of that after a while.

They were still standing there.

Too close now probably.

Not touching.

But definitely closer than before.

The station announcement crackled overhead. Someone dragged a suitcase loudly across the floor nearby. A metro screeched against the tracks below.

Mei’s eyes kept drifting toward his face before escaping somewhere else again.

Then Kaito noticed something small near her cheek.

An eyelash maybe.

Without thinking much about it, he leaned slightly closer.

Mei went completely still.

So did Kaito.

His brain caught up a second too late to how this probably looked from her perspective.

Close.

Way too close.

He could see the tiny shift in her breathing now. The way her fingers tightened slowly around the strap of her bag.

Mei looked up at him for one quick second.

Then her eyes closed, leaning closer towards him.

Slowly.

Carefully.

Like she was trying very hard not to panic.

Kaito’s thoughts stopped immediately.

Oh.

She thought he was trying to kiss her.

And now she was standing there waiting for it.

He could still stop.

Pull back.

Say something normal.

Pretend he had only been reaching toward her face because of the eyelash.

Instead he stayed exactly where he was.

Because now that he was this close he could suddenly notice everything too clearly.

The redness across her cheeks.

The faint trembling near her mouth.

The fact she trusted him enough to stand here like this.

And worse—

She wanted him to kiss her.

That realization hit him hard enough that his heartbeat stumbled once in his chest.

Mei still hadn’t moved.

Kaito looked at her from much too close for another second.

Then leaned forward properly.

Their foreheads almost brushed first.

Then his lips touched hers.