TICK... TICK... TICK...
The newly installed clock hung on the wall begins to tick. Kane wipes some sweat off his forehead as he looks at the clock with enthusiasm in his eyes. Kane celebrates, "Yoshi[1]! That took quite awhile to setup, but I got there in the end!"
"Ehh~? It was just a simple clock though... It shouldn't really take that long to setup a wall clock... It was 6:45 PM when you started, and now... it's 7:15 PM..." Erisa commented. Her gaze confused as she looked at Kane.
Turning over to Erisa, Kane rubs the back off his neck out of embarrassment. He chuckles in an awkward way to lighten the blow Erisa had just hit him with, before responding, "S-sorry about that, I-I think I should have skimmed over the manual..."
Despite being hit with a belittling comment, he will not let his pride sink any further. His eyes sharpen as he points at her while commenting, "...But you! You've just been standing there and watching me for the past two hours!"
Erisa jumped, clearly shocked by his shocking accusation. Now shocked, she shockingly remarked with a shocked expression... while frozen shocked. "What!? W-what's with this sudden slander?"
Kane leans forward while pushing his finger lightly into her forehead. "You said you would help me! But when you came over, you just kept on staring at me like you were some rich lady at the museum looking at a 100 year-old sculpture!"
Looking to the side, Erisa defends herself, "W-w-w-what a daring accusation, Kane-kun..."
Backing off, he looks at Erisa with a condescending stare. "Your eyes speak for yourself, Erisa-san."
Kane closes his eyes and sighs while holding his forehead, releasing all the tension and frustration he built up over the lack of help he had received from the person that said they would help him.
He reopens his eyes and glances over to Erisa. It seems she has begun fiddling with her hair while still casting a sideward gaze — her cheeks grow red with embarrassment, possibly from the fact that Kane was speaking the truth.
With his inner eyebrows drawing up, a thought had made its way into his mind, "Was I being too rough on her? Maybe she just didn't know what to do... yeah, I think that's the reason." Pity had begun to rise to the top of his mind.
Kane stops holding his forehead and looks at Erisa directly while placing a hand on his hip. He deliberately makes himself sound tired while saying, "Hah~, I'm beat... why don't you finish up with my room?"
"I already moved the boxes to the room. All you have to do is just put my stuff to where they belong; the books go on the bookshelves and the clothes go in the closet, got it?" He continued as he walked past Erisa and threw himself on the sofa.
Erisa listened to his words carefully, before nodding — she had understood the assignment and did not wish to fail her childhood friend. "Don't worry, you can put your faith in me." She said with a confident smile while placing her hand on her chest.
As she makes her way to his bedroom, Kane scans the living room. It had been fully decorated with various plastic plants and statues. However, these decorations didn't stem from his imagination; Kane understood the fact that he was hopeless when it comes to decoration, so he instead asked his mother for help.
"Thank you, Mom!"
A tear of joy escaped his closed eyes as he held his head high while raising a fist to the side of his chest. If you are to look at the horizon, you can see a semi-transparent image of Maya[2] holding her cheek with her eyes closed while having an open, sweet smile.
Despite this sudden mother appreciation — which I must say: go thank your mother for everything she has done for you, now! — Kane redirects his focus to his apartment and his current priority.
He scratches his cheek with his finger while thinking with a blank face, "Now that Erisa-san is in the room, what do I do?"
Indeed, his plan did succeed. But since he had already finished unpacking his things into the various room, aside from his bedroom — which was now being handled by Erisa, Kane had nothing else to do.
Maybe he hadn't thought this one out so thoroughly. Kane continues with his inner-monologue, "...Should I do my balcony? Hmm... but it's pretty dark out, and that also puts me further away from my bedroom..."
"...Wait, did I... did I make sure to tell her to not open the closet?"
With that thought now departing from the station, he begins to slowly turn over his shoulder in dramatic effect. Utilizing the corner of his eye, he notices Erisa slowly opening the closet. With her gaze pointed upward, it was a matter of time until she noticed the box.
With the closet now fully open, Erisa notices the box and begins to reach for it. Kane had now entered his fight-or-flight response, and he chose to fight. He propels himself forward with a kick while extending his hand out. Weirdly enough, time had entered slow motion.
"Noooot thaaatt boxxx~!"
Kane sprinted at her, but to his dismay, an unlucky — or lucky, depending on who you are — stress ball that Erisa lazily removed from a box rolls infront of his foot as he makes it through the doorway.
"Eeeehhh~?"
Erisa watched as Kane places his foot on the ball and trips. Thanks to the momentum he carried while running towards Erisa, he began to fall directly towards her. Kane's expression was the most shocked he has ever shown.
We're not done yet! Even worse, the ball that he tripped on miraculously was sent flying toward the light switch — completely killing the light in the room.
Erisa's eyes widen out of confusion. She reflexively holds the small box up to her chest and begins to retreat. And now, with everything lining up, such as the lack of light, Kane shouting at her and his panic, and her sheer clumsiness, it was indeed bound to happen.
Erisa trips on her own foot as she tries to take a step back.
"Watch out—!"
"Kane—!"
CRASH!
...
Breathing. Heavy breathing. Those are the only sounds coming from those two. The sensation of hot breath against their faces. They shared the same red blush that reached their ears.
The box lays on its side, being tossed away by Erisa as she fell. Its contents had already spilled out, but Kane completely ignored it — there was something of much more importance to him in this moment.
Their eyes had locked. Erisa looked at Kane with spirals in her eyes — she was at her limit. Kane stared at her intently, his pupils contracted and shaking uncontrollably — he was falling to temptation.
His vision grew hazy. He felt like he wanted to puke. He wanted to do something but he just couldn't — he was frozen. Kane swallowed some saliva, unable to speak any words. Their hearts beating louder and louder, sharing the same beat and rhythm — it was almost intertwined.
"K–K–Kane-kun...." Erisa spoke with a trembling voice — she had enough of the silence shared between them — she wanted more.
All Kane could do was stare at her, his mouth slightly ajar as his eyes remained widened with a sensation he had never felt before. This was the first time he ever saw Erisa in such a state. Her glasses off, her oversized shirt slightly pushed up, showing off a small amount of her slim belly and the curves of her hips thanks to the shorts she was wearing.
Any young teenager his age would immediately cave into temptation, but not Kane. For some reason, all he could was stare at his childhood friend — perhaps, he didn't want anything to change between them, but he couldn't ignore this sensation. It was different.
Erisa grabs him by the shirt. The blush on her face growing redder and redder. Her heartbeat growing more intense. She begins muttering under her breath, "W-what if..."
He feels a burning sensation grow in his chest. The thumping of his heart growing louder and louder — it's as if it was about to jump out of his chest due to the sheer weight each thump carried.
Pulling him closer to her face, Erisa's breathing grows more and more weary. She couldn't hold back — she knew what she was doing could ruin the way they looked at each other. She had already ruined the friendship they shared months ago back in junior high school... would she do it again?
Kane had already burned her face into his retinas. It was intoxicating yet enthralling. The details of her face were engrained into his mind — he could only think about her. Her long eyelashes, her small lips, and her sparkling eyes.
The words then begin to roll off her tongue. "...with this... you could finally..." She bit her tongue, stopping herself from speaking. She knew it was insensitive, but she wanted all of his suffering to disappear so he could go back to the way they once were — as childhood friends.
She stopped pulling him closer. Their lips almost close enough to lock. Just one more pull. Just a singular tug, and their lives would change completely. "...let go?" It was quiet. Sweet and soft — but quiet, as if she didn't want him to hear it.
Kane was frozen. The only sound he could hear was his beating heart — he couldn't even hear what Erisa was saying. Erisa slowly moves her hand up to his cheek — her inner eyebrows draw up.
"...Would your heart still hurt if you forgot?"
Tears begun to form in her eyes, but she continued looking at him with solemn smile. The atmosphere was silent but intense. Outside, things operated as normal. But in here, in this one room — time was frozen.
...
She placed her other hand on his cheek. The sensation her fingers felt — it was warm. It was soft. It was comforting. Her entire childhood, Kane was her safe place, the kid she always played with — she was brought back to that time.
"...Kane-kun..."
...
♪~ ♪~ ♪~
The muffled sound of an anime opening song plays. In addition to the vibration in his pocket, Kane finally snaps out of his trance-like state.
He pushes himself off of Erisa. He turns around instantaneously and reaches for the phone in his pocket. "Sorry! I need to answer this!" He hurryingly spoke without catching his breath and not looking back at Erisa.
He flicks open the light switch, bringing light to the dim room. He then walks out of the room with a hand on his hip and his chin high. He slams the door shut before answering, "Moshi moshi[3]??? This is Kane Koyasu, thanks for calling!!!"
Erisa lies frozen with a blank expression. Her hands were stuck holding what used to be his face. She could faintly hear Kane in the living room talking with somebody else.
She sat herself up like a vampire awakening from their 100 year slumber. She feels a burning sensation on her face grow hotter and hotter, starting from her chin and up to her forehead. With her lips shut, she vocalizes her embarrassment with a long, egregious hum that grows in intensity.
With the build up of heat reaching its boiling point. A puff of smoke popped up from the top of her head as she fell limp. She leaned forward and to the side, her face clearly expressing a completely defeated expression as some rather large tears had formed under her eyes.
"Hehehe... hehehe..."
She giggled to herself with a low voice while still wearing the same defeated expression. It had seemed her brain was completely fried due to these events now being constantly replayed in her head multiple times in the span of a single second.
"...How cringe..."
She muttered under her breath. She now begun to wonder — despite not being a game character, if reloading a save was possible in the real world.
Kane, on the other hand, had fallen onto the sofa. Completely unconscious. The voice on the other side of the call began to call out with a worried voice — it was Satoshi. "Koyasu-san!? Hey, did you fall asleep on me!?"
"KOYASU-SAN!?!?"
[1] The word "Yoshi" (よし) despite sharing the same name as that one turtle from the Mario series, is often used to express enthusiasm or determination. It roughly translates to "Alright!" and etc.
[2] This is his mother's name, if you forgot.
[3] The term "Moshi moshi" (もしもし) is a common and casual greeting when talking over the phone, equivalent to "Hello".