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You thought that you might’ve had the biggest crush on Tamaki. More than anyone in the whole school! You just thought he was everything a girl could ever want and need. He was so kind and gentle and he never made a rude remark towards anybody.

You thought he liked you too. It made sense. He would wait for you every morning before school started, be the first to send you a text, laughed at all your jokes, he even preferred to hang out with you more than Mirio. It was like a fever dream.

Months of this behavior tortured you but you were too wuss to actually confess your feelings. But today was the day! Valentine’s Day, the perfect day to tell him how much you loved him and hopefully ask him out.

You had bought him a small teddy bear with a rose. The message on the bear said “I love you!” on a little red heart attatched to its paw. Your friend, Nejire, had bugged you over and over to tell him your feelings.

“Come on y/n! He totally likes you back! Tell him tell him tell him!” She giggled, poking you in the side. You swatted her hands away and laughed.

“I’m planning to Nejire. I just need to get him alone!”

“Oh right, I’m so excited!” She smiled, pulling you into the classroom.

The sight before you was blinding. The room was covered in little red hearts, balloons with love messages we’re tied to desks, bouquets of roses were being handed to the students, the smell of chocolate wafted through the air. Classic Valentine’s Day.

Setting your gift on your desk, you shuffled over to Tamaki and gave him a big hug.

“Happy Valentine’s Day Tama!” You giggled. He jumped at the intimate reaction but turned to face you. A big smile was on his face, his hand rested on the back of his neck.

“Happy Valentine’s Day y/n.” He rarely stuttered around you which brought your hopes up even more than before. You couldn’t hold back the goofy smile that set itself on your facial features, the feeling of butterflies swarmed your stomach upon hearing his gentle voice.

Gosh, you sure hoped you could get him alone! Holding these feelings back was getting to be too much!

“Actually Tamaki, I wanted to talk to you later today. It’s kinda important.” You said, unable to make eye contact with him. Who knew this would be so nerve racking!

“O-oh. Ok I’ll meet you behind the school after classes are over?” He looked at you with a smile.

Oh gee. Your heart practically melted at the scene. This was going to be a long day…

Classes felt like they were taking eons to go by. The clock was moving at such a slow pace but the beating in your heart was faster than lightning. You glanced at Tamaki here and there but you stopped since it felt as if your heart would explode. You were so nervous!

Finally the end of the day came. Stretching, you packed up and grabbed his gift, quickly running towards the back of the school. You sat on the bench in silence, a stupid grin was on your face the entire wait.

“Y/n?” Your body nearly jumped out of your skin when you heard the gentle voice.

“Tamaki!” You turned to your right, the red spread throughout your face like wildfire.

“What did you want to tell me?” He asked, sitting next to you. His eyes darted down towards your lap, where the bear rested in your hands.

“Tamaki, we’ve known each other for a while and I uhm. Gosh I like you so much- Everything about you makes me smile and I hope you feel the same way.” You blurted out, the red reached your ears as you handed the gift to him.

The look on his face was not what you were expecting.

He frowned and looked at you with sad eyes. He held the bear close to his heart before he quickly wrapped his arms around you.

“I’m sorry y/n… I-I don’t f-feel the same way…” he muttered.

“B-but I thought… y-you don’t like me?” You chocked back tears as you backed away.

“I-I’m sorry if I made it seem like I did- oh y/n I’m so sorry, I don’t want to hurt you but I don’t like you romantically…” he began to ramble.

“Hey. I-it’s ok Tamaki. I uhm I understand.” You sighed. “I hope you still like the gift.” You smiled.

He frowned and looked away.

“It’s fine Tamaki. I’ll see you tomorrow ok? This never happened.” You said softly, standing up and walking away.

It wasn’t fine. How could you be so stupid?! Of course you mixed up the signals! He never liked you what were you thinking?! The more you thought of it the more sense it made. He was just being friendly! You let yourself be blinded by your own feelings to see that he was just being a friend!

You walked home, a sob left your lips as you shut the door to your room. This feeling was awful. The feeling of thinking that someone actually liked you for you and wasn’t playing with your feelings. The fantasy of his feelings being returned was destroyed and you couldn’t do anything about it. You could only feel pity for yourself.

You laid in bed, your pillow soaked with your tears. All you could do was lay there and laugh at how pathetic you must have seemed. How could you mistake his actions?! You wanted to scream but you didn’t have the energy. You cried yourself to sleep, the pain in your heart was disgusting. You hated yourself for feeling that way but you just had to pull through.

You weren’t about to mess up your friendship over a broken heart. The next day you pulled through, forcing yourself out of bed. The interaction with him was awkward but it was better than nothing. It still hurt but it was better than losing him for good. You would just stay friends, be there for one another, and admire him from afar.

It was better this way. Better than being mistaken once again…

Working at LMZ Co. wasn't very pleasant for a free spirit like Obanai. However, Monday-Friday 9 am―5 pm paired with a high over average salary compensated. Or so he thought when he took the job. All he was doing was working on a computer. He didn't completely hate it, but he didn't love it either. The worst part was that he had to go to the office for that, and let's say that as beautiful and modern as the building was, the collective lacked these qualities consistently. The desks were separated by thin walls, which sort of protected the boy from the unwanted interaction; anyhow, the walls did not reach the ceiling and he still heard every gossip, quarrel, too-loud laughter, and too annoying voices of his colleagues.

The lunch break was the worst. First few days, he went to the shared kitchen area, but when people started asking him about the reason behind his heterochromia and about what disease he carried that he had to wear a mask at all times, Obanai decided it was better to have lunch at his desk, in his comfortable solitude.

Living alone in a one-room flat, having no siblings left and working at a company weren't even the worst things in Obanai's life. Nothing topped the fact that the world was grey. Literally grey. Black and white dressed every image that was displayed in front of his eyes. It didn't help to be partially blind in one eye either, but he could've lived with that if only the world had had colours.

Obanai always thought it was ironic to have one green eye and one yellow, such vibrant colours, and yet neither of them could see or imagine the nuances everyone else talked about.

How was the sky blue when he only saw it faint grey? How were fruits so beautiful in nothing but shades of grey? How was he supposed to pick what colour of shirt he wanted from the website? How could he describe his snake to other people if he didn't know its real colour?

And most annoying wasn't that he didn't see them, but that he knew colours existed, and he was unable to see.

Well, until one day.

Having finished the tasks from the first part of the day, Obanai indulged himself in a cup of hot coffee. On his way back from the coffee machine in the shared kitchen, the young man checked the area around to avoid any cheerful colleagues and, for the shortest moment, his eyes stuck on an orange post-it note in a colleague’s separee. Struck to the bone, he blinked a couple of times and the colour disappeared. It was beyond strange, and it scared him.

‘What colour does this note have?’ He asked his colleague, pointing at the object.

‘Uhm? I thought we learned colours in kindergarten, Iguro.’

The other man’s answer earned him a death glare from Obanai.

‘I’m colour blind, you insensitive swine.’

‘I― oh, sorry,’ the man’s attitude changed significantly, ‘it’s orange, man.’

A silent hum and a nod of his head before he went back to his desk. Obanai tried his best to understand what was going on and how was that even possible. A disease like his wouldn’t just go away like that. It wasn’t treatable in the first place, that’s why he never even tried, yet…

‘No way,’ he scoffed his words out.

The initially isolated event reoccurred a couple of times that week. He discovered glimpses of green, pink and even purple. They all appeared around the same area and that led Obanai to believe there must be some witchcraft going on; maybe some sort of intense radiation wave, maybe a concentration of… something. Not for a single moment, he was willing to accept the soul mate theory he had once heard of. Who would it be anyway?

‘It’s stupid,’ he talked to himself again, spinning the sugar in the coffee cup.

‘Iguro-san, you’ve been talking to yourself a lot lately. Is there something wrong? Do you maybe need a break? Take some days off,’ Shinobu, the girl from the desk next to him, stopped him.

Out of them all, Obanai tolerated only a few. Shinobu Kocho was one of them. She never questioned him about anything, she was always eager to help and she was smart enough to alk to.

‘Did anything change here, at our workplace?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean… I don’t know, anything. A new machine, a new computer, a new person.’

‘Not that I know of, no. But why?’

And then it happened again. Obanai’s eyes widened and he took a deep breath.

‘Your shirt has purple margins.’

‘Uh, yes, it has?’

The girl wasn’t quite getting what Obanai meant but then the realization hit her.

‘Weren’t you colour blind???’

‘My point exactly. By the way, they’re dark grey again.’

Having a delicious mystery on her hands, the girl fell down the brainstorming rabbit hole and that brought an awkward silence. She seemed to be staring at Obanai, when in fact, she was looking through him.

‘I have a daily list to finish, so…’

‘The only valid possibility is that you found your soulmate. Or they found you,’ Shinobu talked when her colleague passed right by her.

‘I don’t believe in that bullshit.’

The days continued to pass, the momentary colours driving Obanai crazy. He couldn’t link their appearance to anything, which caused him to lose focus to the point he almost made a serious mistake.

‘I need you to help me find this person.’

‘Oh, so now you believe?’

‘I don’t believe that there is such a thing as a soul mate, but I believe this world is weird enough to allow such a phenomenon to exist. I want to either understand what I have to do to see colours or get rid of this person and go back to my normal life.’

‘What are you going to do if we find them? Kill them?’

‘I’m still debating.’

‘You’re crazy, Iguro. Listen, the Christmas Party is in a week, today we’re picking the Secret Santa name tickets… don’t ruin the holidays for everyone.’

Shinobu didn’t mean to sound that selfish, but deep down she knew it won’t do her friend any good to hold on to the hatred.

‘Besides, what if you do fall in love?’

‘Would you cut me some slack with that?’

‘You’re unbelievable…’

Later that day, an assigned person walked to each and every employee in the two floors building and offered them to pick a name ticket from a glittered box. When the girl wearing elf ears reached Obanai’s desk, the boy threw her an annoyed look.

‘I’m not participating.’

‘But… everyone’s name is in here. And if you don’t pick a ticket, that person will not receive anything,’ the girl talked in a sad voice. ‘What if they really wished for a gift? What if they don’t have anyone to give them Christmas gifts? What if it’s going to be their 13th―’

‘Ok, fine!’ Obanai whispery shouted and sunk his hand in the box, picking a piece of paper.

‘Thank you! Happy Holidays!’

He deadpanned instantly after hearing the drastic change in the elf’s voice. He knew she must’ve probably been paid extra to do that and that’s why she insisted so much. Or maybe she genuinely wanted to make everyone happy. Obanai rolled his eyes and unfolded the ticket.

‘Now this is just crap… Hey, come back!’ He yelled. ‘It’s my name!’

The elf returned, dumbfounded.

‘On Santa’s beard… This never happened in my elf history. Pick another, please.’

With an annoyed sigh, Obanai picked another ticket and tossed it on the desk. He had work to do, the Christmas present could wait.

By the end of the day, as he reclined in the chair and stared at the ‘shut down’ screen, the ‘soul mate’ thought reappeared in his mind. Was it even possible for two people to be that connected? It seemed cosmic, and, if he were to be honest with himself, Obanai knew damn well the Universe was thoroughly connected. Maybe having a soul mate wasn’t that impossible after all.

His hand reached for the little paper and lowly unfolded it using two fingers.

‘Kanroji Mitsuri”

Obanai may have not cared about his colleagues, but he knew all their names. Even so, the one on the paper was unknown to him. He frowned at the beautifully written letters. From what he knew, Mitsuri was a female name. Great, as if he knew what to buy for anyone, let alone a girl. He sighed and packed his stuff.

A cheerful voice was heard from the ground floor, right as Obanai reached it.

‘See you tomorrow, Mr Himejima!’

‘Take care, Lady Kanroji!’ The gateman saluted back, waving his hand and closing the door after her.

Obanai wished he took at least one more step, but the colours shining all over the ground floor took his breath away. He tightened the grip on the staircase metallic bar and took in every hue and shade of the walls, plants and people clothing. In a manner of seconds though the nuances flowed away, ripping Obanai’s enthusiastic moment away from him.

‘Hey, hey, hold on!’

He shouted and rushed towards the door, where the last coloured objects were. Before he got to grab the door handle, it turned from red to black and Obanai cussed.

‘What happened, Iguro-san?’ The gateman asked.

‘They’re gone…’ the boy answered, with a conflicted look on his face. ‘The colours… they’re gone.’

‘Oh, you’re one of those. I’m sorry, son. But hey, if you saw them, it means your soul mate is nearby.’

Obanai scoffed and pushed the door open, leaving behind a full of pity Mr Himejima.

He spent that evening researching the soul mate theory and its implications. He learned how many people in the world experienced that, and how different their love discovery had been.

‘One thing I know for sure,’ Obanai talked to his snake while rubbing its little head, ‘is that Kanroji Mitsuri is a woman. I have to buy a Christmas gift for a woman.’

The snake turned to look at its owner, then slid quickly in his sleeve.

‘What should I get her? A perfume?’

The snake hid better in the sleeve.

‘Too delicate, right. I might mistake the fragrance. A purse?’

The snake was still in the blouse.

‘A hat? Maybe a pair of gloves, or socks.’

The scaly companion emerged from the sleeve and slithered around its owner’s neck. He laid carefully on the bed and stared at the ceiling until he dozed off. The aggressive phone buzz on the nightstand shook him awake a few hours later.

‘Were you sleeping? No? Good. We do have a new employee. Two weeks ago, she transferred from LMZ Co. Edinburgh and she works on the first floor. Her name is Kanroji Mitsuri.’

‘Ok, stalker,’ he replied and chuckled.

‘You asked me!’

‘I picked her name from the Secret Santa box.’

‘I thought you didn’t want to take part.’

‘I was coerced.’

‘Right. Anyway, what will you get her? Please not a candy cane.’

‘Why? You already know she doesn’t like sweets?’

‘N-no… I didn’t find this detail.’

‘So you did stalk her. Since you did it, could you help me? What does she like?’

‘Uhm… ironic enough she likes colourful stuff.’

Obanai closed his eyes and massaged the bridge of his nose.

‘That’s just unfortunate.’

‘You’ll figure something.’

‘Great help.’

Saturday morning was the perfect time for gift hunting. Obanai found himself wandering through the mall, checking every grey-ish decoration, piece of clothing and toy, sighing occasionally and keeping his hands stuffed in his pockets. Nothing drew his attention ― how could anything? Nonetheless, at some point, he stopped in front of a stand and looked at a pair of stockings.

‘Ma’am, what colour are these?’ He asked, holding the said piece in his hand.

The vendor offered Obanai a warm but sad smile.

‘They’re green, my boy. The lines are a little darker in tone, but still green, and the band at the top is a sort of dark turquoise or blue, depends how you se―’ she stopped before the silly bird escaped her mouth.

‘I’ll take them. Thank you.’

He paid for the stockings with no more comments, had them wrapped in a nice gift paper and went back home. The gift spent the rest few days on the cabinet by the front door, until next Friday evening, at the Christmas Party.

The thematic decorations have been hanging from the ceiling and doors since the beginning of December, yet the moment Obanai stepped foot in the building, the multitude of them took him by surprise. Everyone had gathered on the first floor. Some were wearing silly textile reindeer horns or fake white beards, some were dressed in Santa Claus or Miss Claus costumes, but those were the most eccentric ones. The majority of employees just occupied a spot, drinking mulled wine or hot Choco and talking.

‘Ok, everyone, now that we’re all here, it is time for the gifts!’ A way too lively girl announced, putting the cup on a desk, and clapping her hands.

‘Not everyone is here,’ Shinobu said. ‘One person is missing.’

‘Ah, really? Who?’

‘The new girl… Kanroji.’

‘Oh, I forgot about her. Well, we can’t tell people to come back now, can we?’

The people had already headed for the big Christmas tree placed by the windows. The boxes and the bags underneath came in a wide variety of shapes and colours, each having a name on the tag.

Unlike his colleagues, Obanai didn’t rush to find his gift. He approached the area only when there were a few boxes left, to make sure he doesn’t have to interact too much. However, the problem was that by the time he got there, he could not see any gift under the tree. Not that he cared, but he felt a tiny hole in his stomach. He understood that it could’ve been this feeling in another person’s chest if he hadn’t picked a ticket from the elf. One corner of his lips raised a bit. He was happy that it wouldn’t be the new colleague who felt the awkwardness. He placed Mitsuri’s gift under the tree ― since he had been late, the gift from him was still in his possession ― and then left to have a glass of water from the kitchen upstairs. It was a good thing Kanroji was late too, she will find her gift under the tree later.

‘Oh, God, oh, God, oh God!’

A panicked, high-pitched voice came from the hallway right before Mitsuri burst into the party room.

‘How am I always late to the best things?!’

She whined as she took the winter coat off and placed it on her desk which was moved from its original spot to make room for the tree. Everyone said hi to the pretty new girl as she sped by them all, with one single target in mind: to place the gift with the others. Usually, she excused herself in a silly, impossible to blame manner whenever she was late for an event, but this time it was entirely different.

Due to a miscalculation, Mitsuri had been absent the day the Secret Santa tickets were scattered among the employees. When she arrived on Monday, overjoyed with the idea of Secret Santa, she went right to the elf’s desk.

‘When do we pick the tickets?’

She grinned happily.

‘Uh… the tickets were picked before the weekend.’

‘What??? Oh no! Wait! If there were tickets with everyone’s name it means someone did not get picked!’

‘I don’t think so… You can look in the box if you want. It is the yellow glittery one from the bunch,’ the other girl pointed to a place by the garbage bin.

‘Uhm… Can you give me the box?’

‘What do you mean? It’s right there.’

‘Yeah… I can’t see colours.’

‘Bullshit. You’re wearing the most adorable combination of pink, green and white and you’re telling me you did this while being colour blind?’

‘I… I learned to dissociate them differently.’

‘Girl, your hair is painted in colours!’

‘I know… I know. Please.’

The elf felt bad for a moment, then gave Mitsuri the yellow box. She blindly searched through the hole made for the hand, but she couldn’t find any ticket. Right before she gave up and made peace with the fact that she missed her shot to be Santa, Mitsuri felt something. Without a second thought, she took the lid off and saw an unfolded rectangular paper.

‘Iguro Obanai,’ she whispered, holding the ticket.

‘Ah… I remember that one. He picked his own name.’

‘How awful! But good thing I picked his name too!’ She joked, now happy that she won her chance back.

And now, there she was, staring at the sole little object, wrapped in the most fade grey tone paper, wearing her name. The handwriting was delicate, but a bit shaky. Everything about that gift felt suddenly special. The more she looked at it, the faster her heartbeat. Then, out of the blue, the paper became pink. And the ribbon red. The tree branches in front of her turned dark green and the decorations weren’t just shinning anymore, they were vibrant and coloured.

‘They are here!’ She yelled, standing to her feet, and looking around.

The world was slowly growing more coloured the longer she looked around, but she couldn’t see that shiny aura everyone talked about, that aura around your soul mate when you first meet them.

A floor above, in the kitchen, by the windows, Obanai was staring at the red Coca Cola magnets on the fridge. He was in no human’s proximity, yet he could see colours. It was impossible to understand, and it became utterly annoying. At this point, he stopped trying to convince himself of anything. He just wanted to solve the mystery. The whole bunch of information gathered the previous days fell into pieces when he realized that a 5 m radius wasn’t applicable only in the same plane.

‘They must be downstairs! By the tree!’

He rushed out of the room, jumped the steps two by two and got hit in the face by the light and colours of the first floor.

Holding two packages in her hands, Kanroji kept walking around the room, trying to see where the colours were more visible, but she seemed to get farther with every step.

Obanai froze by the staircase. It couldn’t be. It couldn’t be Kanroji the girl that emanated colours. Yet the intensity of light surrounding her frame told differently.

One look towards her new colleague was enough for Mitsuri to recognize the aura she had never before seen in her life. She took a deep breath, swallowed dry and tightened the hold on the gifts. The closer she got to him, the more powerful the force attracting her. Obanai started walking towards her too, completely amazed by the phenomenon.

‘Hi,’ she finally said, reaching in front of him.

‘Hi.’

‘It’s you.’

‘Same thing goes to you, I guess.’

‘I meant… it’s you whose name I picked,’ she stuttered a bit, reaching the gift to Obanai.

His beautiful eyes widened in surprise, and he took the little box.

‘The whole point of Secret Santa is not knowing who is the gift from,’ Obanai teased, the look in his eyes softening. ‘But thank you.’

Mitsuri smiled and a tint of pink covered her cheeks.

‘Why are you blushing?’ He asked, fully able now to see all colours around him.

‘You probably won’t believe me, but I couldn’t see colours up until now.’

‘Is that so? Who would’ve guessed?’

‘What do you mean?’ She asked, tilting her head to the side.

‘I couldn’t see colours up until now either. Well, sort of.’

The girl’s green eyes got bigger with every word Obanai said. She nodded her head in unnecessary affirmation and she held her gift to her chest out of sheer enthusiasm.

‘Could you see glimpses at times? And couldn’t know whom around you made it possible?’

‘Yeah…? You too?’

An even more energetic nod of her head joined by a step forward.

‘Do you… believe in soul mates, Iguro-san?’

‘I used not to. Now I’m thinking otherwise,’ he stated, cupping her cheek and brushing his thumb over the bone.

It was strange ― that feeling deep in his being. He was warm, calm and happy. There were millions of butterflies flapping their delicate wings in his stomach, tingling the soft tissue from there, up to his throat. He had truly never believed in real love, let alone the whole soul mate charade, but when his eyes laid on Mitsuri, his entire world tumbled and got rebuilt with a new set of beliefs.

Mitsuri smiled again and leaned her cheek in his palm, holding his wrist gently.

‘I don’t know if anyone has told you this before, or if you yourself knew it, but you have a green eye and a yellow one and they’re the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen.’

‘I thought you couldn’t see colours until you met me,’ he teased again, lifting an eyebrow.

‘No, but I was able to see the souls hidden behind.’

‘Can you see mine?’

‘Yes.’

‘How does it look?’

Without realizing it, both youngsters diminished the distance between their faces as they talked. Only a few colleagues nearby caught the image of the two, but just as quickly they looked away, not daring to break the spell.

‘Just like mine…’ she whispered.

He would’ve kissed her. Right then and there, if it wasn’t for the sudden remembrance of the scars around his mouth. The mask wasn’t to be pulled down, and Mitsuri respected that. She placed a soft kiss on the tip of his nose and then pulled away.

‘Thank you.’

‘For what?’ Obanai asked, with regret clawing his throat for not kissing the girl.

‘For the gift.’

‘How did you know it is from me?’

‘I didn’t. I just tricked you into telling me.’

Mitsuri’s giggle was the most beautiful sound Obanai has heard. He chuckled too and offered her his hand.

‘Would you like to enjoy the rest of the evening with me?’

‘Yes. And not only this one, if you’d like.’

The innocent promise warmed Obanai’s heart and he intertwined his fingers with hers.

‘Sounds good to me.’

After a few good hours of eating and laughing with some colleagues he never thought he would tolerate, Obanai announced he would like to go back home. The next day it was Christmas and even if he wouldn’t have any guests, he wanted to be home.

‘Would you mind leading me home, Obanai?’ Mitsuri posed the question and punched herself mentally after.

How could she call him by the first name like that? Her face turned red, and she could’ve sworn the blouse had sweat marks already.

‘Sure, but I don’t have a car.’

‘No problem, we could walk. I live close by,’ she explained and rushed to grab her coat.

Iguro was left with the others and, at first, he felt her absence as if not feeling her body warmth meant the end of the world.

‘Are you ok?’ Shinobu asked him, patting his shoulder, seeing him so lost in the train of thoughts.

‘Hm? Yeah, I’m just waiting for her.’

‘For… her?’ Shinobu pressed the question, trying to get him to say it.

Obanai knew his friend rather well, therefore, getting the hang of her intention, he smiled.

‘For my soul mate. Is that what you want to hear? You won, ok?’

‘Oh, by all means, you are the one who won,’ Shinobu raised her glass as a cheer and sipped from it. ‘See you after Christmas, Mr So Fallen In Love With My Soulmate Already.’

The young man blushed before he could control his reaction, but the gentle grip of the pink-haired cheerful woman took away all the flusters.

‘I’m ready. We can go now.’

It turned out that Kanroji’s place was really close to the LMZ Co. building. The two love birds walked in a pleasant silence along the sidewalk and admired the colourful lights hung from the trees and street lamps.

‘Life’s so much beautiful with you in it.’

There was no point in talking in his head anymore, so he said those words out loud. Their effect? Mitsuri blushed, biting her bottom lip and gripping his hand tighter.

When they reached the doorstep of the girl’s house, Obanai rubbed the back of his head.

‘Ok, so here we are. This night has been great. I enjoyed your presence a lot. And thank you for the gift. It will be very useful.’

‘You kidding? Do you have any idea how useful your gift is to me?!’ Mitsuri shouted joyfully and leaned into Obanai to express her seriousness.

‘I hope so,’ he chuckled.

Unknowingly ― or, better said, uncontrollably ― Obanai’s hands found Mitsuri’s waist when she got close. The girl’s eyes sparkled and her breathing deepened. Slim hands ruled by nervousness advanced up Obanai’s chest but stopped at the bottom of his neck.

‘I would love to kiss you right now, Mitsuri.’

‘What’s stopping you?’ She asked in return, eyes half-lidded and nose brushing against the boy’s.

‘There are scars around my mouth. If I take this off, you wouldn’t like me anymore.’

‘I would say let me be the judge of that, but I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable.’

‘I appreciate that.’

Obanai kept brushing his nose along the length of her nose.

‘What if I turned off the light? You can reveal yourself to me sometime later, whenever you feel like it.’

So, it was true. That one and only person who is your soul mate understands everything and echoes with yourself.

Obanai smiled and nodded his head, blinking leisurely.

Only one hand left the boy’s collarbone and reached for the lamp’s thread by the door. Mitsuri let the black of the night invade their personal space as her hand rejoined the other and she pulled down the bandages with the utmost care. She couldn’t see a damn thing, but Obanai’s presence was unquestionable.

Their lips touched in slow motion.

Obanai’s fingers reached up Mitsuri’s spine, while hers sunk in the boy’s black locks.

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