Aoi Asahina kicked her legs idly. The barstools that she and Kyoko Kirigiri were seated at provided both of them with enough room to dangle their feet, and the sensation reminded Asahina of sitting on a swing as a little girl. It made her feel more playful.

"How's Naegi?" Asahina asked teasingly.

By now, Kyoko Kirigiri knew this question was inevitable whenever they got together. "He's fine," Kyoko answered flatly.

Hina put her elbows up on the white table between them and leaned forward conspiratorially. "You two do anything fun lately?" she inquired.

Kyoko sighed but responded nevertheless. "We watched a movie last night," she told the other woman. "High and Low. It's an older film, a crime story. Naegi-kun suggested it."

"How thoughtful," Hina cooed. "Aaaaand?" she pressed.

"I thought it was pretty good," Kyoko answered.

"That's not what I meant, and you know it," Hina said sternly. "I meant: did anything happen during that movie?"

Knowing that she could no longer avoid the issue, Kyoko just scoffed, "Of course not."

Hina groaned, shut her eyes, and hung her head.

"I sincerely thought you'd have let this go by now," Kyoko said, sounding a bit irritated. "Why are you so invested in my relationship with Naegi-kun, anyway?"

Hina raised her head and scowled at her friend. "Why aren't you?" she demanded. "You try to play it all cool, but I can see the signs! If he touches you, you blush like a schoolgirl! And every time he's not looking directly at you, you're staring at him like he's the center of your world."

Kyoko half-smiled. "Perhaps I'm just not used to direct physical contact with the opposite sex," she suggested. "Or maybe I'm just staring in his general direction while lost in thought, and you're reading too much into it."

Hina folded her arms and sat up straight. "There's more!" she declared. "How about the way you start to play with your braid whenever he makes eye contact with you?"

Kyoko glanced away from her friend, exhaling heavily. "Circumstantial evidence at best," she groused.

"That's just the stuff you do, of course," Hina continued. "I mean, if you're being kind of obvious about your feelings, then Naegi-kun is being super-double-extra obvious. You two have it bad for each other."

Kyoko narrowed her eyes accusingly at Hina. "I have plenty on my plate right now. I certainly don't need to spend my time discussing boys," she grumbled. "Women of our caliber shouldn't need to hinge our conversations around such things — especially not when I've made it clear that I don't want to talk about it. Let's just move on, all right? This whole conversation is failing the Bechdel test."

"Screw your plate and screw Bechdel!" Hina replied, raising her voice. "I'm not pushing you on this because I'm boy-crazy, I'm pushing you on it because I want my friend to be happy!" She sounded adamant and desperate as she said, "You can't just make your work your whole life. What would it hurt for you to ask him out on a date some time? Just... just give it a try!"

Kyoko put her coffee cup down and looked Asahina in the eyes. "Fine," she said. "Do you want the real truth as to why I won't ask Naegi-kun out?"

"Yes," Hina said firmly. "Explain to me why you don't want to be happy!"

Kyoko folded her hands and placed them on the table. "Very well," she said. She sounded utterly calm as she explained, "It's because I don't want to be forgetful of being so overjoyed when I see him every day. I don't want to lose the feelings I have when I'm with him. I'm scared of being happy due to the cost of what's going to happen when I'm not. I don't want to love him and lose him because of it."

Hina's mouth dropped slightly open. Kyoko narrowed her eyes. "And you're not wrong about my feelings," she continued, her voice practically a monotone. "Something inside of me twitches every time he smiles at me. I feel a rush of endorphins when I hear him laugh. My day improves markedly just by spending a few minutes with him. I see a strength in him that I'm not even sure I possess sometimes. His determination inspires me. It motivates me. And that — all of that — is precisely why there's no way I would ever risk losing him."

By this point, Asahina was staring at her friend in disbelief, tears forming at the bottom of her eyes. "How can you be like this?!" she demanded through gritted teeth. "You've already broken up with him in your mind before you've even had a chance to be with him!"

"Trust is difficult for me," Kyoko stated quietly. She closed her eyes. "I've experienced enough betrayal that it's... it's hard for me to trust anyone now. That is... not to the level of trust a real relationship would require, at any rate. It's not in my nature to give myself over completely to someone else. If I were to try, I'd only be hurting myself and the other person. Ultimately, my unavoidable doubts will just make them doubt me in turn."

"Give yourself a little credit, dammit!" Hina pleaded. "You can do anything you put your mind towards! I mean... I know that I've got, like, zero percent experience dating, but still! if I found something like what you have with Naegi, I'd sure as heck get off the bench and go for it. If something is this important, you have to try!"

"It is that important," Kyoko interrupted her. She slid off of the barstool, taking her coffee in her hand as she finished, "That's precisely why I won't risk ruining it. Anyway, I've got to go. We can continue this another time. Or, preferably? Not."

She turned to leave, her boots making a clomp with each step upon the ceramic tile floor. Hina stared after her with obvious disappointment as Kyoko headed down the hallway and past some columns near the wall of windows. The columns' placement caused alternating beams of shadow and light to fall across the floor.

Kyoko shook her head to herself, still feeling frustrated by the conversation. She'd only gone a few more steps into the hall before she bumped into something - or rather, someone within the shadows. She stumbled for a second, and the unidentified person let out an "oof!" as he slipped and fell.

As she regained her footing, Kyoko turned, ready to demand the identify of the lurker. She quickly discovered that the individual in question had tumbled enough to expose his face to the light.

"N... Naegi-kun," Kyoko whispered. She could see tears in the young man's eyes — more than the amount she'd seen in Asahina's just moments earlier.

In an instant, her mouth felt dry. "How long have you... " she began. She struggled to find her words. "I mean, how much did-"

"Most of it," Makoto admitted hoarsely. "I-I didn't mean to! I was just going to get a drink and I couldn't help it,"

Kyoko closed her eyes and tried to center herself despite feeling suddenly nauseated. "It's... okay... " she said slowly. Deep breaths, she told herself. You don't really know what he-

"Kiri, please," Makoto said after a few moments of silence. He rubbed the tears away from his eyes before saying, "If what I heard was all true then you... we... "

Kyoko hung her head. "Please don't," she whispered. "I'm sorry. I meant what I said."

"You're not the only one in our relationship," he told her. "What we are, what we could be? It's not all up to you."

With her eyes closed and her face still staring down, she responded that "I can't do this, though." Her voice seemed to waver slightly as she insisted, "I can't."

"Why not?" he asked. He stepped towards her and cleared his throat as best as he could. "If you give up on something before you've even tried it just because you're afraid of what might happen," he suggested, "Isn't that just another way of giving in to despair?"

When she raised her head again, Kyoko opened her eyes once more to find them blurred with her own tears. Blinking them away, she realized that Makoto was just only inches from her face. She inhaled sharply in shock, catching a strong whiff of his scent as she did so.

"I have hope enough for both of us," Makoto said, smiling sadly at her.

Kyoko blinked twice more and mumbled "Makoto" before finally, tentatively giving into her longing and kissing him gently.

It lasted a while, neither wanting the moment to end. When they broke apart, they both still had some tears in their eyes.

Kyoko smiled a little bit in spite of herself herself. "I didn't mean to," she said. "Guess I couldn't help it, either."

"I'm glad you couldn't," Makoto said back, smiling in turn. "Because I can't help that I-" He paused to swallow before saying, "...that I'm in love with you."