Soft.

Cool.

Mei made the tiniest startled sound against his mouth and froze completely.

Kaito felt it immediately. 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 announcement overhead kept talking about delays on another line.

Neither of them processed a single word.

Mei opened her eyes slowly.

They stared at each other.

Kaito became abruptly and horribly aware that he had just kissed Mei.

Mei somehow looked even less functional than he felt.

Entire face red.

Eyes wide.

Lips parted slightly.

"I—"

"Ah—"

They both stopped immediately.

Silence again.

Mei looked down so fast it almost counted as a recoil.

Kaito turned away at nearly the same speed and stared very hard at a metro map he had already memorized 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, Mei made a tiny sound that might actually have been steam leaving a machine.

Kaito almost laughed from nervous overload.

Almost.

Then the station announcement repeated itself louder this time.

Mei jumped slightly.

"O-Oh."

Reality returned all at once.

"My metro."

Right.

Different lines.

Kaito cleared his throat once. "I’ll walk you there."

Mei looked up at him immediately.

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 mentioned it.

The station was louder down near the platforms.

Metros arriving. Doors sliding open. Shoes against tile. The overhead announcements echoing slightly off the concrete walls.

Beside him, Mei was still gripping her bag strap hard enough to wrinkle it.

"So..." Kaito said after a while.

Immediately regretted starting a sentence without knowing how to finish it.

Mei looked at him.

He looked forward very intensely.

"...We should probably message each other normally now."

The moment the words left his mouth he realized that sounded stupid.

Mei made a tiny choking sound beside him.

"We already messaged before."

"Yeah, but now it’s..."

He failed to find the ending again.

Different.

Dangerous word right now.

Mei stared at the floor while walking.

"...Different," she finished quietly.

"Yeah."

Both became redder again somehow.

Amazing conversation.

Kaito could feel himself actively losing social ability in real time.

During his relationship with Hana, she had always taken the lead through moments like this.

Hana filled silence naturally. Pushed conversations forward. Grabbed his hand first. Kissed him first.

Now Mei was beside him looking just as lost as he felt.

And somehow that made him feel like he should be the one handling things properly this time.

The problem was he had absolutely no idea how.

Beside him, Mei suddenly spoke again without looking up.

"...I really thought you were rejecting me."

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."

Mei made a tiny sound that was either horror or laughter.

Possibly both.

That finally pulled a small smile out of Kaito too.

By the time they reached her platform, neither of them had fully recovered from existing.

A metro waited on the tracks with its doors open. People stepped in and out around them while station music played faintly overhead.

Mei stopped near the gate and turned toward him.

Kaito stopped too.

Neither spoke immediately.

The silence stretched again.

Not bad.

Just full.

"...Tomorrow?" Mei asked quietly.

Kaito nodded once.

"Tomorrow."

Mei nodded too.

Then stayed there.

Kaito stayed too.

Neither seemed willing to be the first person to leave.

"...Bye," Mei said finally.

"Bye."

She turned.

Walked three steps.

Stopped.

Turned back slightly like she almost wanted to say something.

Kaito looked at her.

Mei opened her mouth.

Then visibly lost courage halfway through whatever thought she had and bowed quickly instead before hurrying toward the metro.

Kaito watched her step inside.

Just before the doors closed, Mei looked up once through the window.

Their eyes met briefly.

They waved.

Then the metro pulled away.

Kaito stood there for a few seconds after the metro disappeared.

People moved around him normally.

Someone bumped his shoulder lightly while passing.

A different metro arrived across the platform with a long metallic screech.

None of it felt fully real yet.

Mei 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 immediately remembered the kiss again.

Her lips.

Soft.

Cool.

Kaito pressed the heel of his palm hard against his face.

Oh no.

He reached his platform somehow without remembering most of the walk there.

People stood scattered near the tracks staring at phones or advertisements or nowhere in particular.

Kaito stood among them trying very hard to behave like someone who had not completely short-circuited minutes earlier.

The metro arrived.

He got in.

Sat down near the corner of the carriage.

The doors slid shut.

The metro started moving.

And the delayed reaction hit him all at once.

Heat rushed violently into his face.

Kaito bent forward immediately and buried his face in both hands.

Oh no.

Oh no.

He had a girlfriend.

Mei 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 Mei 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 become a problem immediately.

Tomorrow alone was already impossible to think about.

Lunch. Walking into class. Daiki noticing something in thirty seconds flat. Ayame noticing faster somehow.

When do they reveal it to others?

Should they?

And worse—

Now that his brain had apparently decided Mei was his girlfriend, it had immediately 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 sometimes.

His imagination chose that exact moment to betray him completely.

Mei pressed against him somewhere private and dimly lit, face completely red, fingers gripping his shirt while looking at him with the same expression she had at the station.

Kaito made a strangled sound and buried his face deeper into his hands immediately.

Absolutely not.