Kotonoha's eyes fluttered open.

Fear immediately filled her.

"Makoto?" She reached out blindly until she found his arm. Kotonoha embraced her boyfriend, who was now waking up.

"Huh? Oh, morning." Makoto petted her head.

"Don't leave me," Kotonoha pleaded.

"I'm right here," he comforted her. "Don't worry."

"You weren't holding me," she accused him.

"I must have rolled over in my sleep." He gently pushed her off him and sat up.

"No," she pushed him back down and held him tightly.

"Kotonoha," he said calmly. "Let me go."

"No." She kept holding him.

Makoto rolled them over. She held onto his waist.

He pried away her hands and pinned them down over her head.

Kotonoha wrapped her legs around him so he couldn't escape.

"What's wrong with you?" he demanded.

She looked away. "I-I'm scared."

"I'm just going to the bathroom. I'll be back in two minutes."

"But…"

"What's wrong?"

"What if… what if I… do something else?" her voice was filled with fear.

He sighed. "What happened last night was…"

"What if it happens again?" she insisted.

With Makoto by her side she felt safe, but if he went away she didn't know what would happen.

"I understand you're scared, but what do you expect me to do? I can't stay with you all the time. What if something happens while I'm sleeping? You expect me to watch you 24 hours a day?"

"I know, but…"

"Promise me you won't do anything drastic without telling me first," he said.

"I-I promise."

"Okay. Now stay right here. I'm gonna go pee and then I'll come back."

"C-Can't I come with you?"

He sighed. "You're choking me, Kotonoha."

She cast her eyes down. "I understand. I'll just… wait here."

"I'll be right back."

He went to the bathroom.

Kotonoha wrapped her arms around her legs and sat like that until he returned.

"Kotonoha?" he brushed her hair away. "Are you crying?"

"No." She wiped away her tears.

"Hey, it's okay." He embraced her. "You can cry if it hurts."

He held her for a while until she calmed down again.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"For what?"

"For being such a terrible girlfriend. I mean: look at me."

He grinned. "If you insist." He stared at her naked body.

She smiled faintly through her tears. "I mean… no wait, that is what I mean. Your girlfriend is sitting here naked. I should do other things than cry."

"Given the situation-"

"You mean the one I caused?" Their eyes locked. "I have no excuse, Makoto. This is all my fault. You shouldn't be suffering the consequences for my mistakes."

"You thought you were dreaming," he argued.

"You mean I'm conveniently ignored the truth?"

"You don't believe that," Makoto said. "You would never do that on purpose."

"I don't know," she admitted.

"Besides. What's done is done. You can't turn back the past. You can only look at the future."

"That's what I'm worried about. I don't want you to deal with all this mess."

"Well what do you suggest?"

She looked at him. "Dump me. And find a better girlfriend."

"I can't."

"I wouldn't blame you," she assured him. "You have every reason to break up with me."

"And yet I won't."

She cried harder. "I don't deserve you."

Kotonoha put her head down on his shoulder.

"It's not about deserving," he said.

"Even so, you deserve better."

"And yet here I am."

She kept holding him. He gave her a bit longer to cry out. She didn't know how long, but eventually, he gently untangled himself from their embrace.

"Come on, Kotonoha. You need to get dressed."

"I don't want to get dressed," she said.

"You don't have a choice."

"I'll just say that I'm sick."

He shook his head. "Arises too much suspicion. You have to act as if nothing happened or your mom might start connecting the dots."

"S-She can't prove anything," Kotonoha argued.

"Cops need proof, your mom doesn't. If she finds out what you did…"

He didn't have to finish that sentence.

"A-Are you scared?" she asked.

"No."

"I mean… are you scared of me? I… If I can't tell the difference between dream and reality anymore then…"

"Well ask yourself this," he said calmly. "Would you ever hurt me?"

"No, of course not. I love you."

"Can you imagine hurting me?"

She shook her head. "No."

"Then what's the problem?"

"But… what if… what if I hurt someone else? What if I hurt Sekai?"

"Sekai is my friend, you'd be hurting me as well."

"And if I hurt someone you don't care about?" she kept going.

"If it's someone you care about, you're hurting me too."

"How so?"

"Well… if tonight hadn't happened then this would have turned out differently, wouldn't it? A naked girl, a handsome guy. I think we would be doing more interesting things. So really, you hurt me as well. You took away what could have been an interesting morning by sitting here crying."

"But in the long term I didn't. Now he's no longer in our way."

Makoto hesitated.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Are you hearing yourself? You just said that…"

Kotonoha turned red. "I didn't mean… I just…"

"It's okay," he said.

"I didn't do it on purpose," she insisted. "I thought I was dreaming."

She didn't know who she was trying to convince anymore.

He took her hand. "It will be alright."

"I'm just so scared it will happen again," Kotonoha admitted. She couldn't meet his eyes.

"It won't. I won't let you."

"But…"

"You don't want to hurt me, do you?"

"No."

"You'd do anything not to hurt me, right?"

"Y-Yes."

"Then you have nothing to worry about. I don't think you could do it again. If you did, you'd become so paranoid it would be impossible to have a normal relationship anymore. So if our relationship is really the most important thing to you-"

"It is," she quickly said.

"Then you have nothing to worry about. You're not gonna do something like that again because it would ruin what we have. And you don't want that, do you?"

She nodded slowly. "You're right."

"Now, while I don't mind looking at your naked body, we really need to get dressed."

"Will you…" she hesitated.

"Hm?"

"Will you help me?"

He frowned. "You want me to help you get dressed?"

"If that's okay?"

"Sure. No problem."

They got up.

Makoto opened her closet and searched. He handed her a bra and panties.

Kotonoha took a deep breath. "Makoto?"

"Yes?"

"What do you want?"

"Oh. Too sexy?" he looked at the underwear. "Sorry."

"I'm not talking about that," she said. "What do you want with me?"

"I don't understand."

"You do. Please, be honest with me. Just this one time. I know I'll never be able to prove it, but…" her voice trailed off.

"Look," he said. "You're very confused right now and-"

"Please." Kotonoha kneeled down and lowered her head. "Just this one time."

He hesitated. "I don't know what-"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about."

There was a long silence.

"You're right," he finally said. "You'll never be able to prove it."

Her boyfriend sat down on the edge of her bed.

"Makoto?"

"Get up," he said.

Kotonoha hesitantly stood up and sat next to him on the bed.

They didn't touch each other and both looked straight ahead. It was a very strange situation.

A silence fell.

"This is not a coincidence," Kotonoha said eventually. "I have nightmares about my dad. Yesterday, you told me to overcome them and to come to you when it gets too much. And then, that very same night, I happen to wake up and decide to go down to the kitchen to drink a glass of water. I had no reason to do that. I could have drank from the tap in the bathroom. Then I happen to run into my dad, get into an argument and… and you were there. You had a plan. You didn't panic at all, you just calmly fixed it. Almost as if…"

"As if I knew what would happen?" he finished. "As if I had a plan lying in wait?"

"Not 'as if', Makoto."

He took a deep breath.

"Do you remember when I asked you to describe your dream?" he asked. "The one where I took you from behind on the roof."

"I remember," she said.

"I asked that because-"

"You had the same dream," she finished.

"Indeed," he confirmed.

"So then you knew this would happen?" This couldn't be. Makoto could not-

"No, I didn't. I had the plan, that's right. I executed it during my dreams. That's why I told you you had to do everything I said. Because if something was even slightly different from my dream…"

"You wouldn't know what to do anymore."

"Indeed. I was just as scared as you, Kotonoha. Maybe even more."

"But why didn't you tell me?" she asked calmly. "You could have stopped me."

"I didn't fuck you on the roof, did I? Not every dream happens."

"Not yet. Maybe we'll do that in the future." She was almost certain they would.

"I'll take you up on that," he said, smiling faintly. "Even so, not all of them are physically possible."

"That's true I guess," she said slowly. He had a point there. The vast majority of her dreams hadn't happened at all. "But didn't you feel-"

"No, Kotonoha. I didn't," Makoto cut her off. "You hope that I have answers for you, but I don't. You hope that this is an elaborate mindfuck. That I have supernatural gifts. That there is something about me. That I am doing this on purpose because I want something from you. But the truth is that I have the exact same questions you have. I don't have an explanation for you, I'm sorry."

"You must have something," she insisted.

"Notebook," he said. "In my bag."

She opened his bag and found a black notebook. "You weren't making homework, were you?"

"Not really."

She sat back down on the bed and opened it. "A diary?"

"With everything I consider suspicious. I've been keeping them since I was eight. That's just a notebook for on the way. I type it all out at home when I have the time."

"So I'm not the first girl then? These kind of things have happened to other girls as well."

"Yes."

"But I thought I was your first girlfriend? Weren't you rejected by a lot of girls before?"

He frowned. "Where did you get that?"

"Sekai told me."

"Well she lied then," he said calmly. "I never confessed to anyone else. But why would she lie about that?"

"Because she knew I would be reluctant to turn you down," Kotonoha said. "I'd feel guilty for not giving you a chance. And it worked."

"Hm. So that would mean… hold on, I need to make a note."

He took out a pen and wrote something in his diary.

"Other people are involved in this," he mumbled. "Interesting."

"You turned Sekai down," Kotonoha said. "Why?"

"Because I was scared. I'd already noticed a lot of strange things. Too many girls were interested in me. Too many to be natural. And the situations I got in were just too convenient to be normal. I was scared what would happen with Sekai if I said yes."

"And what about me?"

"You were an experiment. I wanted to test things out."

"I was a what?"

"At first," he clarified. "I didn't mean to actually fall for you. Sorry I used you like this."

"And how did your experiment turn out so far?"

"You tell me," he said. "Don't you think there are-"

"Kotonoha?" a voice called. "How long are you gonna stay in there?"

The door opened.

Makoto quickly pulled her in an embrace.

"Oh." Manami looked at her naked daughter. "Sorry."

She closed the door again.

Kotonoha's ears were burning. That couldn't have been much more embarrassing.

"So, as I said," Makoto spoke. "You should get dressed."

"Y-Yeah. I should."

She put on the bra and panties he had handed her. The rest of her outfit consisted of a red skirt, thigh-high socks, a shirt and a white hoodie.

It was getting colder outside, so she couldn't wear much revealing things. If it had been summer, she was certain he would have picked out something sexier. And she probably wouldn't have stopped him.

They went downstairs. Manami was having breakfast by herself.

"Sorry for barging in like that," her mother apologised.

"What was so urgent?" Kotonoha asked.

"Have you seen your dad?"

"Uhm…" her heart skipped several beats.

"What do you mean?" Makoto intervened. "When would we have seen him?"
"I don't know," she said. "He had a meeting this morning but he never showed up there. They called his cell phone but he doesn't answer."

"Strange," Makoto said.

"And then they called me," Manami said, annoyed. "As if I know where he is."

"Well I haven't seen him since last night," Makoto said. "What about you, Kotonoha?"

"S-Same."

"Are you okay, Kotonoha?" her mom asked.

"I-I didn't sleep well."

Manami smiled. "You mean you weren't alone?"

"Mom."

"Look, I don't care how much you fuck around as long as you do it safe. And your dad doesn't find out. But given he's-"

"Mom!"

"What? You should be grateful I'm like this. You prefer it if I tell you to keep an arm length between you?"

"I'd prefer it if you didn't embarrass me," she mumbled.

"Not my fault you don't lock your door."

"Uhum, Makoto said. "Breakfast?"

"Yeah." Kotonoha sat down just as her mom stood up.

"I have to get to work," Manami said. "Have fun you two."

She winked at Makoto.

Kotonoha blushed even harder.

The door closed.

"Come here," Makoto said. He tapped his knees.

"Makoto?"

"Your mom said have fun."

"You want to do it here?"

"I want you to sit on my lap," he said. "Although if you insist on doing something else."

Embarrassed, she sat on his lap. He wrapped his arms around her.

"So what do we do now?" Kotonoha asked quietly.

"I can come up with some things," Makoto said with a smirk.

"About my dad I meant."

"Oh," he changed his tone. "Well, all traces are gone. Just say you don't know anything."

"What if she calls the cops?"

"I've already taken care of that. Don't you trust me?"

"Of course I do."

"Then why are you worrying?"

She sighed. "Sorry. I shouldn't keep talking about this. You fixed it and I trust you."

"I understand you're worried," he said. "But everything will be alright. Just leave it to me."

"Okay."

"You just focus on other things."

"Like what?"

"Being a good girlfriend. I don't want to be mean, but…"

"No, you're right. I haven't been the most fun to be around lately. I may have a reason, but that has nothing to do with you."

"Exactly."

"You want to watch some Netflix after breakfast?" she asked.

"Netflix and chill?"

She showed him a sultry smile. "Maybe."