#04: Maiden's Capriccio
– "Hey, you shouldn't fall asleep standing up."
But Merry was too content with the contact to move. In fact, she only leaned more against Renko's side.
– "You're too heavy! You're gonna fall."
– "What a rude thing to say."
– "I didn't say I wouldn't catch you."
To test the theory, Merry willfully stretched out her arms and gave herself to gravity. Renko kept her word and broke the fall– though, as could easily be calculated, they both ended up flat on the ground, giggling freely. Soon they had settled into adjacent reclining positions, hands folded across their chests, staring up at the empty ceiling as if it were another starry sky.
– "Renko, I'm not looking forward to the exam tomorrow."
– "Why not? It's obvious you'll pass with flying colors. Me too, of course."
– "I wish it was on some other day, so we could have an excuse to get together and study again."
– "Was that really your wish? Talk about a waste of a wish!"
– "Wait, that wasn't it! Oh my, I have to be more careful with those words."
– "You know you can come over whenever. And we see each other almost every day. What more could you want?"
– "…"
The atmosphere of the room radiated a pure, natural warmth. The maiden named Merry was almost floating. In this place, she could hardly discern any gravity that would have made her fall. Maybe it had nothing to do with the room itself. Intuition told her that she had felt this way before– but was it in real life, or in a dream?
With a glance at her companion, she decided that the most dreamlike ideal was not necessarily the lack of gravity, but the guarantee that someone would catch her regardless.
Merry rolled over ninety degrees, closing the gap between them, and smiled as she abruptly clung to Renko's forearm. The latter looked surprised at the touch, noting the strangeness of the girl's behavior, but laughed it off with an ironic reproach.
– "Gee, I guess some people have no sense of boundaries."
– "Oh, that's not true. I can still see them."
The capricious maiden's heart beat more strongly, light feelings swirling with heavier ones. Finding momentum, Merry slowly raised herself upright, dragging Renko by the arm with her.
– "I just want to be on the same side as you, Renko. I think that's how it's supposed to be…"
They sat on their heels, in perfect seiza form, aligned with each other against the frame of the window.
The constellations of the zodiac, arising from imaginary connections, were lucky enough to have famously documented lines drawn between their parts, but Merry thought there were probably many minor stars who saw pictures in themselves and were never recognized. Relativism tended to be a freeing philosophy, except when it came to certain self-contained fantasies. What Merry felt was real to her, but she knew it would be fleeting unless someone else believed the same thing.
Directly, the mysterious eyes that saw dreams met the shining eyes that saw stars. Posing a silent question, Merry reached her right hand toward the other's face, and her fingers gently caught onto the red string in Renko's hair.
The physicist's mind worked instantly to deduce the meaning, but for a more favorable sense of timing she waited three seconds to react. Then she grinned widely and joined her own fingers into the tangle of ribbon, letting her locks fall loose behind it.
– "…Sure. I'll subscribe to that theory."
