"So next time, do you think you can make some time for me? "
Her head tilts the other way
"Next time? If it's important to Kurosaki-kun, we can talk about it now," she tells him earnestly. So candidly that his worried and tense expression melts into an embarrassed one.
He shakes his head.
"No. It's not important," he fumbles out. "I mean, it is important," he corrects. "Just not that important," he stresses. "Well, to me, it's…" He trails off, cursing inwardly again at his inability to express himself.
She grins despite her confusion.
"Oh. Okay. But important or not, I'll always make time for Kurosaki-kun," she exclaims with a smile.
Her words should pacify him because he knows that his secret is still a secret, and her smile should relax him as it always does, but for some reason, he is left unsatisfied.
Unsatisfied and antsy.
"No. I don't want you to make time for me."
She loses her smile.
"Eh?"
"The truth is …what I'm about to tell you is not nothing, and it is important."
He takes a deep breath and looks straight into her eyes.
"Inoue, I don't want you to make time for me because that means that we are apart, and I hate that."
His clenched hands tighten even more as her eyebrows knit together.
"Do…do you understand what I mean?" He asks lowly.
She gives a shaky breath and a shake of her head.
"Inoue…I want for us to not be apart anymore. I want to be at your side. All the time."
He squeezes his already closed hands.
"And I don't want to waste any more time not telling you that I love you."
"…"
"You understand me now, right?" He begins as he turns his head to look back at her. "Ri-"
His sentence is cut short by a clumsy, haste, perfect kiss.
And he realizes something as she clings to him, tears gathering in her eyes, a smile gracing her lips, an 'I love you' at the tip of her tongue: she doesn't want to waste any more time, either.