prologue
Chitoge is accustomed to how fleeting relationships are, be it familial, platonic, or intimate. She thinks it's silly, as she blushes over his touches that felt like whispers, and thinks it's irrational. She thinks it's ridiculous, when she feels hopeful the moment her father confirmed that she had brown eyes when she was younger — because I could be the one he looks for. The one who's haunted him all these years, the one who owns his heart.
tsugumi
Tsugumi loves and cherishes her, but she also knows that it's partially because it's her job. Tsugumi is her sister, best friend, companion, but most of all she's her paid guardian. So she thinks this is nice, but it feels temporary so she locks away a part of her heart and she'll endure it when Tsugumi leaves her one day.
onodera
She finds similarities, in a topic foreign to her (romance of all things, talks of boys and hearts beating and palms sweating) with Onodera. After all, it's great to finally be able to sit in the back of the school building, blushing and giggling and sharing stories of the one. So she thinks this is nice, but it feels like a dream so she locks away a part of her heart and she'll endure it when Onodera finds a better company in someone who can giggle and chatter more on this subject than her.
marika
Marika annoys her, she admits. The way she speaks her mind, the way she seize the day, and the way she shouts words of love to the man she couldn't be completely honest with. But she finds an unconventional friend (and rival), though they both would rather die than admit it, in Marika and she thinks this is nice, but it feels almost impossible and she'll endure it when Marika finds out how cowardly she really is and leaves her because she's a lost cause.
raku
Raku is annoying, loud, and almost condescending on some days. She smiles when she recognizes those traits in her. She thinks he tries hard, is always seemingly threading on something she can't quite understand and she thinks she loves him. So she thinks this is nice, but it feels like floating on a cloud and she's scared and she doesn't want to step into that part of the world where everything is uncertain and she won't know what to do and where to step. But he reaches out to her, looks away with a slight uncomfortable and nervous blush, and tightens his hand around hers when she touches his palm.
She thinks that in the very least, almost pathetically, she gets to do the things she wants to do with him under the pretext of a fake relationship. She thinks this is nice, but she wants more. In her bliss, she forgets to lock away a part of her heart, and she never imagined she'd crash and burn as fast as she did.
epilogue
Chitoge is accustomed to how fleeting relationships are, be it familial, platonic, or intimate. She thinks it's cruel, as she blushes over his touches that felt like whispers, and thinks it's painful. She thinks it's hilarious, when she hears the two people she cares for deeply confessed their feelings to one another in the other's absence — because they've liked each other for a long time, long before I came and…
so she leaves. She runs and pretend it doesn't hurt her when she hears Raku says he loves Onodera and when she hears Onodera says she loves him. She runs and pretend she didn't hear the sound of her heart breaking. She runs and pretend she's running for a selfless cause, but she knows better than that; she runs in a late (and selfish) attempt to protect a part of her heart she forgot to lock away.
a/n
i've always wanted to write an angst-y nisekoi fic since it'll take me forever to finish that comic. ugh.
- dramadelicacy.