"Jun, wake up," Ken's voice hisses in my ear, his hand shaking my shoulder.
I open my eyes to darkness, a warm body pressed against mine. "Ken?" I croak out in confusion.
"Well, I'm certainly not Joe," he replies, his voice tight with anger.
"What?" I blink, still not quite fully awake, and try to make sense of his mood. "What are you talking about? What's wrong?"
"You were talking in your sleep. Telling Joe what a great kisser he is. Do you have feelings for Joe? I thought you wanted to be with me." As he speaks, the anger in his voice fades into hurt and his body sags beneath mine.
"It was just a dream, Ken. It didn't mean anything. Besides, until we got stuck in here, I had no idea you even cared about me that way."
He chuckles softly, just a brief snort of laughter really, before leaning his forehead gently against mine. "You're right, Jun. I guess I've just felt this way about you for so long that I sometimes forget how far I kept it buried. And well, knowing that you had a crush on me, I never imagined that I might not be the only one you were attracted to."
I can hear the raw emotion in his voice and I know how much that admission must have cost him. "I don't know what to say, Ken. I'm only human. Until today, you've never done anything to give me any indication that my crush was ever going to be anything more. Besides, just being attracted to someone doesn't mean I'm ever going to follow through on it. I've never been with Joe, never kissed him other than on the cheek. It was just a dream, Ken. It doesn't mean anything."
He nods silently and leans forward to press his lips to mine. It's a slow, lingering kiss, tender and explorative and I'm still in disbelief that it's happening. After all these years of pining for him, lusting after him, I'm finally getting the chance to be with him. And then it hits me. Those are Ken's hands touching me, caressing me, gently tugging my shirt from my waistband, and suddenly things are moving way too fast. Feeling overwhelmed, I break our embrace, reach around to pull his hands from my body, and scramble to the other side of the elevator car. I need time to think, time to come to terms with what's happening between us.
"Jun?" Ken calls to me from the darkness. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know, Ken. This is all too much. It's happening too fast. I need time to think."
"But… I thought you wanted to be with me…" His voice has a hoarse edge to it and in my mind I can see the hurt reflected in his eyes.
Tears well up in my own eyes as I struggle to make sense of everything that's happened since I set foot in the elevator. "I do, Ken. At least, I think I do. I've had feelings for you for years, almost since the first time I saw you when Nambu Hakase introduced us. But you've always pushed me away, kept me at arm's length, treated me like you weren't interested in me. It's hard to suddenly accept this change of heart from you just because we find ourselves stuck in an elevator together. I need to know that you really feel the way you say you do, that this isn't just something convenient to entertain yourself with while we're stuck in here."
Before he has a chance to respond, there is a loud, metallic, screeching sound and the elevator lurches slightly. "What was that?" I ask, slightly embarrassed by the fear I hear creeping into my voice.
"I'm not sure. Either the elevator itself is about to fail or someone's trying to rescue us."
There is another lurch, this one more violent than the last, and I go sprawling across the cabin. My head hits the wall, I land in Ken's lap, and then there is nothing.