Chapter 1
Houki wondered why boys had to be so stupid. If five guys were hitting on one girl she'd notice! It was as if he was blind!
But in the current reverse of that situation Ichika was completely and utterly clueless. After another day of managing to keep Cecilia and the other girls grabbing hands away from her childhood friend Houki stood at Ichikas door trying to work up the nerve to knock.
Come on, she told herself. It was only after receiving Akatsubaki from her sister Tabane that she'd had the courage to come this far. More still, after an incident where two girls were caught smoking on the roof one night, all of the doors in every dorm were locked at ten o'clock exactly and unlocked at five o'clock the next morning, like clockwork. Trying to find time to be alone with Ichika, while working around this new curfew, had been almost impossible for Houki but somehow she had managed it.
9:52pm she looked at her watch and almost hit herself, she'd lost so much time thinking about doing this that her small window had almost closed! She had to do this quickly or risk being locked out of her dorm room. Steeling herself, she raised her hand and cautiously tapped the door. The knock was responded to almost immediately, the door was opened and a crack appeared through which one of Ichika's eyes was visible. "Houki?" he said, confused. she pushed the door further open and he whispered: "quiet, Tatenashi's asleep."
They sat on the edge of Ichika's bed, a meagre pool of light thrown off by the bedside lamp.
"so what did you want to talk to me about?" he asked. Houki wasn't sure how to reply. How do you tell someone who considers you 'just a friend' that you're in love with them?
"um… uh… well… I…"
"what is it?" he looked at her, his face a mask of innocence.
"I… I…" she lowered her head and dropped her voice to a whisper. He leant in closer to hear her and, abandoning all caution, she leapt forward and kissed him full on the mouth releasing all of the emotions she'd ever had for him; all of the pent up love, hate, joy and sorrow, and suddenly he was kissing her back!
She placed her hand behind his head to draw him closer to her and he did likewise. After about a minute she broke off, slightly out of breath and they sat there. Ichika placed a hand on her cheek and looked at her as if seeing Houki in a completely new way.
"So that was what you wanted to talk about," Ichika said, finally regaining the ability to speak. She nodded meakly, simply wanting to stay there with him all night, but Houki raised herself off of the bed and walked over to the door. She gave a tug at the handle but it wouldn't budge, trying to keep calm she looked at the clock. 10:01, she almost swore, but instead turned to Ichika, wondering what to do.
"It's okay," he promised, not wanting anything to happen to her just because she'd wanted to talk to him.
"I'll just sleep on the floor." Houki blushed furiously, but walked up to her friend and whispered a suggestion in his ear.
For the first time since she'd known him, Ichika was to stunned to speak.