Hotaru remembers the moment so clearly. Every last second of it had been replayed over and over again in her mind the past few years since it happened. She remembered the way Gin moved to grab the boy's upper arm, his pale fingers curling around a thin arm before letting go as the boy dashed off.
The soft, faint glow of bluish green light starting at his fingertips and slowly working its way down. The ice cold fingers that gripped at her heart as she brought her gaze to meet his.
When he opened his arms to her, her heart, already swollen with fear, burst and she ran forth to him. It didn't matter that she wanted to die along with him because this moment was for them both. To be able to hold each other finally. After all this time, she would be able to feel his hair against her cheek, his breath against her nose, and he would know for once what it felt like to be in the embrace of another human being.
But the moment she stepped into his arms, she could feel him disappearing underneath her very touch. Every night, she would recall the way she grasped desperately at the air, only to find herself on the ground, arms wrapped around a yukata still warm with his smell and the memory of his last smile on the front of her mind.
It felt cruel, that the only time she got to finally touch him, she only barely managed a brush of her fingers before he dissipated. It didn't make sense, that after all this time of watching and waiting, it ended like that.
Now, in her apartment in the heart of the city, all Hotaru could do when she felt like torturing herself was to take the unworn yukata out of the box where she had kept it for the past seven years.
"What's that?" Her boyfriend had asked, and she had merely shrugged it off, only to throw a fit when he had attempted to open the box. Needless to say, that relationship never really lasted.
She was glad, in a way, that she had met Gin. But in a sense, she wished to go back to that moment in the past when she realised that she had fallen for him, and undo it all. If only she had never fallen in love, maybe it wouldn't hurt this much right now.
The days right after were the worst, even though she told herself that she would move on. Over time, the pain got better, but the numb spot was always there in her mind. In a slightly masochistic manner, she found herself not wanting to get over Gin. And so she never did.