Chapter Text
The moment the bus doors opened, the world outside rushed in all at once.
Fresh air, bright and sharp with the scent of salt and something clean, something wide and open that didn’t exist in the city. The sound followed right after. Waves in the distance, faint but steady. Voices, louder again now that everyone was awake and spilling out of the bus in uneven lines, stretching, laughing, calling out to each other as if the quiet of the night had never happened.
Sunlight poured over everything without hesitation.
It was bright.
Not harsh, but full. The kind that made people squint for a second before adjusting, the kind that settled into skin and fabric and turned everything warmer than it had been moments before.
Students stepped down one by one, some stumbling slightly from sitting too long, others immediately energized, already moving toward the open space ahead as if they had been waiting for this exact second.
Miu was one of the first to get off.
Not because she rushed.
But because she needed to.
Desperately.
The moment her feet hit the ground, she took a step forward—
then another—
then immediately veered away from the bus.
Fast.
Not running.
But very close.
Her cheeks were still pink.
Not faint.
Not subtle.
Fully.
Completely.
There was no hiding it.
She didn’t even try.
She just moved, weaving into a nearby group of students already talking, slipping into their conversation with a brightness that was just a little too forced, her laugh coming just a fraction quicker than usual.
“Did you sleep at all?” someone asked her.
Miu nodded immediately.
“Yeah,” she said. “Of course.”
Her voice was steady.
Her expression bright.
Her mind—
not steady.
Not even slightly.
Because every time she stopped moving—
every time she paused for even a second—
her thoughts tried to circle back.
To the bus.
To the warmth.
To the way she had woken up.
To how close—
No.
She smiled again, a little wider this time, forcing her attention outward.
“Did you see the beach yet?” she asked quickly, redirecting.
Anything else.
Anything but—
She laughed at something someone said, nodding along, hands moving slightly as she spoke, her energy bright and loud and just a little bit too much.
Across the small stretch of open space—
Lena stepped off the bus.
Much slower.
She didn’t rush.
Didn’t hurry.
Her movements carried that lingering heaviness of someone who had been pulled out of sleep too early, her posture slightly slouched, her eyes half-lidded as she adjusted to the brightness.
She paused just beside the bus, one hand still holding her bag, the other brushing lightly against her hair like she was trying to wake herself up properly.
Her gaze drifted.
Unfocused at first.
Then—
it landed.
On Miu.
Already surrounded.
Already laughing.
Already… gone.
Lena blinked once.
Then again.
Her expression didn’t change much.
But something small settled in.
A faint shift at the corner of her mouth.
Not quite a frown.
But close.
“…Wow,” she muttered quietly.
Her gaze lingered for a second longer than necessary.
Watching the way Miu leaned into the conversation, the way she smiled, the way she didn’t look back.
Lena adjusted her bag slightly.
Still standing there.
Still a little too quiet.
Still—
just a little—
pouting.
Not dramatically.
Not obviously.
But enough.
Enough that it sat there in the way she didn’t bother to hide completely.
Her shoulders dropped slightly as she exhaled, slow and quiet.
“…Okay,” she added under her breath.
As if that explained anything.
As if she had expected something different.
She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, still not moving forward, still lingering in that space between the bus and everything else.
And then—
arms.
Two of them.
Wrapped around her.
One from each side.
Firm.
Sudden.
Uninvited.
Lena blinked.
Her entire body tensed for half a second before she turned her head slightly, already knowing—
Lingling.
Orm.
Of course.
Lingling stood on her left, one arm draped over Lena’s shoulders with practiced ease, her expression calm but her eyes sharp in a way that suggested she had already noticed everything.
Orm stood on her right, leaning in casually, her arm looping loosely around Lena’s other side, her smirk immediate and unapologetic.
Lena looked between them.
Slowly.
“…What.”
Neither of them answered right away.
Instead—
they looked at each other.
A silent exchange.
A shared understanding.
Then—
they both looked back at Lena.
At the same time.
Orm’s smirk widened.
Lingling’s lips pressed together slightly, holding something back.
Lena narrowed her eyes.
“…What did you do.”
“Nothing,” Lingling said.
“Everything,” Orm corrected.
Lena stared at them.
“…I don’t like that answer.”
Orm leaned in slightly, her tone dropping just enough to carry a certain kind of weight.
“So,” she said lightly, “how was your sleep.”
Lena blinked once.
“…Fine.”
Lingling tilted her head.
“Comfortable?”
“…Yes.”
Orm’s grin sharpened.
“Very comfortable?”
Lena paused.
A small pause.
Her eyes flicked between them again.
“…Why.”
Lingling didn’t answer.
Instead—
she reached into her pocket.
Pulled out her phone.
Unlocked it.
And turned the screen toward Lena.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Lena’s gaze dropped.
Without much thought.
Without hesitation.
And then—
stopped.
Completely.
Because there—
on the screen—
was her.
And Miu.
Exactly as they had been.
Curled into each other.
Close.
So close it was impossible to pretend otherwise.
Her arm around Miu.
Miu leaning into her.
Their hands intertwined.
The matching hoodies.
Everything.
Frozen.
Captured.
Perfectly.
Lena didn’t move.
Didn’t blink.
Didn’t breathe.
Her eyes stayed locked on the image like her brain had failed to process anything beyond it.
Orm leaned slightly closer.
“Oh, there’s more.”
She swiped.
Another picture.
Different angle.
Same scene.
Closer.
Somehow worse.
Better.
Lena’s grip on her bag loosened slightly.
Her shoulders went still.
Her heartbeat—
stopped.
Not literally.
But it felt like it.
For one long—
endless—
moment.
Her mind tried to catch up.
Tried to process.
Tried to make sense of what she was seeing.
And failed.
Completely.
Because—
that was real.
That had happened.
She had been that close.
That comfortable.
That—
Her ears rang faintly.
Her vision narrowed just slightly at the edges.
Her chest tightened.
And then—
something else hit.
Harder.
Faster.
Overwhelming.
We look like—
The thought didn’t finish.
Didn’t need to.
Because it was already there.
Obvious.
Unavoidable.
Her face didn’t change.
Outwardly.
Not immediately.
But inside—
everything collapsed into something ridiculous.
Something overwhelming.
Something completely—
We look like we’re dating.
A pause.
No—
Another pause.
We look like we’ve been dating for years.
Her heart didn’t just beat again.
It slammed.
Fast.
Loud.
Too much.
Her grip on reality—
slipped.
Just slightly.
Her knees—
weakened.
Lingling noticed first.
Her arm tightened immediately.
“Lena—”
Too late.
Because Lena—
smiled.
Soft.
Slow.
Uncontrollable.
And then—
her entire body gave out.
Completely.
She dropped.
Not gracefully.
Not slowly.
Just—
gone.
If Lingling hadn’t been holding her—
she would have hit the ground.
Instead, Lingling caught her halfway, arms tightening around her instinctively, steadying her before she could fully collapse.
Orm blinked.
Once.
Then twice.
“…Did she just pass out.”
Lingling adjusted her grip slightly, supporting Lena’s weight, her expression caught somewhere between concern and disbelief.
“…She passed out.”
Orm stared down at Lena.
Who was—
completely unconscious.
And—
still smiling.
Not faintly.
Not subtly.
Actually smiling.
Peaceful.
Content.
Like she had just experienced the best possible outcome and her body had decided it was too much to handle.
Orm let out a short laugh.
Then stopped.
Then laughed again.
“I don’t know whether to help or be impressed.”
Lingling exhaled slowly, still holding Lena upright.
“…Both.”
Around them, a few students had started to notice.
Whispers.
Small glances.
Confusion.
But neither of them moved.
Lingling adjusted Lena slightly, making sure she didn’t slip, her grip firm but careful.
Orm leaned down slightly, peering at Lena’s face again.
“She’s actually smiling.”
Lingling nodded.
“I see that.”
“…That’s concerning.”
“It’s very concerning.”
Another pause.
Then—
Orm straightened slightly, her smirk returning.
“…We’re keeping the pictures.”
Lingling didn’t hesitate.
“Obviously.”
And Lena—
completely unaware—
remained exactly as she was.
Passed out.
Smiling.
Absolutely gone.
For a moment, the world seemed to hesitate around that fact.
The open space beside the buses continued to buzz with movement, voices overlapping, bags dragging across the ground, teachers calling out instructions that no one was fully listening to. The sea breeze moved through it all, light and cool, carrying the faint sound of waves that felt both distant and constant.
And yet, in the middle of that noise, there was a small pocket of stillness.
Lingling stood there, holding Lena upright with one arm still braced around her, her expression caught somewhere between disbelief and reluctant responsibility. Orm lingered beside her, one hand half lifted like she had considered helping and then decided observing might be more interesting.
Lena, meanwhile, remained completely unresponsive.
Head tilted slightly.
Eyes closed.
And smiling.
Very much smiling.
It was not a faint smile either. It was soft, satisfied, deeply content in a way that suggested her mind had gone somewhere far more pleasant than reality and had chosen to stay there.
Orm looked at her again, then at Lingling, then back at Lena.
“She’s actually enjoying this,” she said quietly, her tone hovering between amusement and confusion.
Lingling adjusted her grip slightly, lowering herself into a seated position on the pavement with controlled care, guiding Lena down so her head rested across her lap. The movement was smooth, deliberate, practiced in a way that suggested Lingling had dealt with enough chaos to know how to manage it.
“She fainted,” Lingling said, though her voice carried the faintest edge of disbelief, as if she still had not fully accepted that fact.
Orm crouched slightly beside them, peering down again.
“She fainted smiling,” she corrected.
Lingling did not argue with that.
Around them, the low hum of conversation continued, but it shifted subtly. A few nearby students slowed, glancing over, curiosity flickering across their faces. Someone whispered. Someone else tried to see what was happening without being obvious about it.
And then, not far away, Miu turned.
She had been in the middle of a conversation, her voice light, her expression still carrying that forced brightness she had been holding onto since stepping off the bus. Ginny stood near her, listening, while Jayna lingered close by, still trying to recover from her earlier embarrassment.
“…and then we’ll probably have to check in before anything else,” Ginny was saying.
Miu nodded absently.
“Yeah, that makes sense.”
But something had shifted.
A change in the air.
A break in the rhythm.
Her attention drifted without her fully meaning it, her gaze pulling away from the conversation and moving toward the cluster of students nearby.
And then she saw it.
Lena.
On the ground.
Not standing.
Not moving.
Lingling seated with her head in her lap.
Orm crouched beside them.
For a second, Miu’s brain did not process it.
It simply registered the image.
Then it caught up.
Her eyes widened.
Not slowly.
Not gradually.
All at once.
“What happened,” she said, the words leaving her mouth before she even realized she had spoken.
And then she was moving.
Fast.
Not thinking.
Not hesitating.
Just moving.
The distance between them closed in seconds, her steps quick and uneven, her breath catching slightly as she pushed through the last bit of space.
Ginny saw her reaction immediately and turned as well, her gaze following the same direction. Jayna blinked, confused for half a second before understanding hit her too.
“Oh,” Jayna said, and then she moved as well.
By the time Miu reached them, Lingling had already settled fully on the ground, Lena’s head resting comfortably across her lap, one hand lightly supporting the side of her face to keep her steady.
“What happened,” Miu repeated, her voice sharper now, edged with something that sounded dangerously close to panic.
Lingling looked up at her.
“She passed out.”
Miu stared at her.
“…What.”
Orm lifted a hand slightly.
“She saw something,” she said.
Lingling shot her a look.
“That is not helping.”
Miu didn’t listen to the rest.
She dropped down immediately, knees hitting the ground without care, leaning in close without hesitation.
“Lena,” she said, her voice softer now, but urgent.
Her hands came up instinctively, cupping Lena’s face gently, her fingers brushing against her cheeks, her thumbs resting near her temples as if grounding her.
Lena’s skin was warm.
Normal.
Alive.
But still—
she wasn’t waking up.
“Lena,” Miu repeated, a little louder this time, her brows drawing together.
Behind her, Ginny and Jayna arrived, both stopping just short of the scene, their expressions shifting from curiosity to concern in an instant.
“Did she hit her head,” Jayna asked quickly.
“No,” Lingling replied. “She just… fainted.”
Miu shook her head slightly, her focus entirely on Lena.
“Lena, wake up,” she said, her voice firmer now, her thumbs brushing lightly against Lena’s cheeks as if that would somehow pull her back.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then—
a small shift.
So slight it almost went unnoticed.
Lena’s brows twitched faintly.
Her breathing changed, just slightly, a little deeper, a little less even.
And then—
her eyes fluttered.
Not fully open.
Just enough.
A faint sliver of awareness breaking through.
Her head moved slightly in Miu’s hands, tilting just a fraction as if trying to find something.
Find someone.
Her gaze lifted.
Unfocused at first.
Blurry.
Still caught between sleep and something else entirely.
And then—
it landed.
On Miu.
Close.
Very close.
Her face framed by sunlight, her expression tense, worried, her hands still cupping her cheeks.
For Lena, in that moment, reality did not fully return.
Because what she saw—
what her mind chose to process—
was not entirely grounded.
It was softer.
Brighter.
Distorted in the way dreams tend to be.
Her lips curved.
Slowly.
Softly.
A smile that spread without resistance.
Her eyes, still half-lidded, stayed fixed on Miu as if she had found something she had been looking for.
“…Oh,” Lena murmured, her voice faint, barely there.
Miu leaned closer immediately.
“What.”
Lena’s smile deepened slightly.
Her gaze didn’t waver.
“…Angel,” she breathed.
There was a pause.
A very brief pause.
Then—
Miu blinked.
Once.
Twice.
“…What.”
Behind her, Orm made a choking sound that might have been laughter.
Lingling pressed her lips together tightly.
Ginny looked away immediately.
Jayna covered her mouth with both hands.
Miu’s expression shifted instantly, the concern still there but now tangled with something else entirely.
She reached down and smacked Lena’s arm lightly.
“Oi,” she said, her tone sharp but not harsh. “Wake up, idiot.”
Lena’s head tilted slightly in her hands, her smile still there, her eyes still not fully focused.
Miu frowned.
Then, without hesitation, she flicked Lena’s forehead lightly.
“Don’t call me that,” she added quickly, even though Lena had not actually said anything beyond that one word.
Her face dipped closer as she spoke, her hands still holding Lena’s face in place, her brows drawn together in a mixture of irritation and lingering worry.
“Get up,” she continued, her voice softer now but still firm. “You’re being weird.”
Lena’s eyes shifted again, blinking slowly as if trying to adjust, to focus properly this time.
And they did.
Just a little.
Enough.
Enough to see clearly now.
Miu’s face.
Right there.
Close.
So close.
Her hands still holding her.
Her expression still hovering between concern and annoyance.
Her cheeks still faintly pink.
Lena stared.
Really stared.
And something in her brain—
completely failed.
Because now—
this was real.
Not a dream.
Not imagined.
Real.
Her gaze lingered.
Her breath caught.
Her smile returned, softer this time, but still very much there.
And then—
it happened.
Suddenly.
Without warning.
A small, unmistakable warmth spread beneath her nose.
A brief pause.
A blink.
And then—
a thin line of red.
Miu froze.
“…Wait.”
Lena did not react.
Because she did not have time to.
Her eyes rolled back slightly.
Her body went slack.
And then—
she was gone again.
Completely.
Fully.
Out.
Miu stared at her.
Then at the blood.
Then back at her.
Her brain took exactly one second to process it.
And then—
“LENA.”
Her voice cut through the air immediately, sharp, loud, filled with panic.
Her hands moved quickly, one coming up to lightly pat Lena’s cheek, not hard, but urgent, repeated, trying to get a reaction.
“Hey,” she said quickly, her voice rising. “Hey, wake up.”
She tapped her cheek again.
“Lena, this is not funny.”
Behind her, Orm had fully lost control, laughing into her hand, her shoulders shaking.
Lingling exhaled slowly, pinching the bridge of her nose.
Ginny turned away again, this time actually laughing quietly.
Jayna crouched down slightly, eyes wide.
“…Did she just faint again.”
Miu didn’t answer.
Because she was too busy trying to wake Lena up again, her expression caught between panic and disbelief.
And Lena—
remained completely still.
Still smiling.
Just a little.
Like whatever she had seen—
whatever she had experienced—
had been entirely worth it.