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It had happened so fast, Hanako had no time to react. One moment Nene was beside him, and the next—her slim frame crashed into to him, and he tumbled to the floor, soaked from the water on the boundary floor. He got up. “What was that for, Yashiro—Yashiro!” And he splashed back down into the water.
Nene lied still on the boundary floor; shimmery scales decorated her skin wherever the water kissed her. Her long, wavy hair floated around her like seaweed.
He crawled over to her. “Yashiro.” Despite the gentle rocking of the water, there was a stillness to her body. And besides the scales, her face had drained of all color. She looked like a porcelain doll—no, a porcelain mermaid—the type of mermaids humans believed them to look like, not the actual one Hanako had come to known.
“N-no.” Such a simple word, and yet it choked him. She had to be alive—she had to. He glanced around and saw No.6 kill the minion-bug that must have stung Nene with some sort of poison. A poison that would have been for Hanako if she hadn’t jumped in the way to save him. His stomach coiled. He felt like he was going to be sick.
He grabbed hold of her still hand. It was cold and limp, and there was webbing between her fingers. Gently, he pulled her body into his lap, and with trembling hands, he smoothed her dank hair out of her face. The scales looked iridescent in the No.6’s boundary. Hanako would never tell Nene, but he always found her scales to be endearing. A part of her that she seemed to hate, but Hanako loved.
Because it was the very thing that bonded them through life and death..
The start of everything.
But…Why wasn’t the bond doing anything?
“Yashiro,” he whispered, and lowered his head, pressing his forehead against her wet hair, “please, wake up.”
“Oh, my!” Someone gasped, perhaps Sumire. “Nene! We can help! Can’t we?”
Hanako absently heard her. We? Who’s we?
“Lord Seven-sama.”
Hanako looked up, and No.6 was kneeling next to him, and Sumire looked as though she were crying, but nothing seemed to register to Hanako. It was like he was underwater. Their words were muffled and far away.
“There is something I can do!” No.6 pushed. And he gently pulled Nene out of Hanako’s lap, and meticulously rested her back in the boundary’s water.
Hanako’s shoulders slumped, and his lap felt cold, and he shivered. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he remembered why it was a good thing to let No.6 have her. Because No.6 can bring the dead back to life.
No.6 leaned over Nene, and kissed her—like it was nothing. Like he’d done it many times before. Like a silly kiss with a human means nothing.
That it was simply the kiss of life.
And yet, to Hanako, it meant everything. So badly he wanted to be Nene’s first kiss. It was a strange urge—wanting to kiss someone. Before Nene, he never felt this way towards anyone. Not when he was alive, and definitely not when he was dead.
But with Nene…it was different. The way she makes his dead heart race with just a smile—he knew he was in too deep.
And when Nene had kissed him on the rooftop as a magic spell to cheer him up—he truly wanted to kiss her. And he could still remember when he brushed his thumb over her bottom lip—so soft and so warm. It was almost his undoing.
But he couldn’t.
Because he didn’t deserve to be her first kiss, her first kiss should be with someone alive—and someone who wasn’t a murderer.
Not himself, who only exists as punishment for his crime.
His hands curled into fists. He truly hated himself.
And what he hated more was the very fact that he wished with all his might that he could be the one to kiss Nene back to life. But that was impossible…And the bitterness stabbed at his heart.
As No.6 pulled back, a swirl of red danced upon Nene’s pale cheeks. And her body twitched, and her eyes snapped open, and she jolted upwards, and Sumire quickly steadied her.
“Eh? What happened?” Her scarlet eyes found Hanako’s. And he felt his breath catch. The flush of her cheeks, the shimmer of her scales, her long tangly hair—she wasn’t a mermaid, she was Sea Goddess; a being so beautiful, so bright and Hanako’s squeezed in the best and yet most painful of ways.
“Nothing,” he said, a small smile crept onto his face, because despite the kiss, he was relieved that she was back, and he wanted nothing more than to pull Nene into his arms and feel her heartbeat against his chest. “Let’s go back to our world, Yashiro.”
“Okay!”
~
~
“Hanako-kun,” Nene said, resting the mop down. “You’ve been kind of quiet lately.”
“Have I?” His voice felt numb.
“Yes,” she said frowning. “Does it have something to do with what happened in No.6’s boundary? You never did tell me what happened.”
Hanako looked away and gazed out the window, but all he saw was his own pitiful reflection—unnaturally large eyes stared into him.
“Hanako-kun?”
He turned around and stiffened, he hadn’t realized she’d moved right behind him. Her eyes were so huge and so full of the very life Hanako lacked. ”Back in the boundary…you were poisoned and almost died.”
She inhaled sharply.
“But No.6 was able to bring you back from the brink of death by kissing you.”
“A kiss?!” Nene’s jaw hung wide open, and maybe if this were another situation or conversation, Hanako would have laughed at her for it. “But then...why do you look so sad?”
And it was only then did Hanako realize he was pouting.
“B-because…” He pulled his hat down, finding some sort of solid comfort from it. “I…” He shyly glanced at Nene. Her eyes were so wide with concern, it startled him—and it dawned on him that she hadn’t been concerned over her almost death—or that No.6 steal had stolen her first kiss, but no, it was directed at him, and only him.
And that was his entire undoing.
Hanako leaned in close and tried to ignore the tremor in his hand as he cupped Nene’s cheek.
“Ha-Hanako-kun!” she stammered. “Wh-what’s wrong?” But she didn’t pull back, and his heart skipped.
“I wanted…to be…” he looked down, finding it impossible to talk coherently when she stared at him like that. “Your first kiss.”
He said it.
At last.
And against his will, he met her gaze—and he sucked in a breath. Her ruby eyes softened, and a tiny blush dusted her cheeks. But with her head held high, she said, “That doesn’t count. I refuse to let it count.”
“Yashiro?”
“Hanako-kun,” she said firmly. He flinched at his name. “Be my first real kiss.”
And Hanako stopped breathing—in fact he was positive his heart had stopped beating as well. Time no longer existed, and the whole world was fading away rapidly. And suddenly, nothing existed except for Nene and Hanako.
Absently, he trailed his fingers down Nene’s cheek, and she shivered. “Are you sure?” he asked, his voice hoarse.
“Yes,” she said breathily, and Hanako’s stomach lurched in the strangest of ways. He gently brushed his thumb over her bottom lip, and her eyes fluttered shut. Her skin was so soft, so warm—so Nene.
And Hanako closed his eyes and kissed her.
Nene’s lips were softer and warmer than he’d ever imagined. He’d meant it to be just a peck—something short and chaste—but then she gasped against his mouth, and suddenly the kiss deepened in ways Hanako never imagined.
It was like a blazing inferno burning inside him—urging him to go faster and slower all at the same time. To savor every touch, and every sound, and every bit of Nene that he can.
His fingers were tangled in her silky hair, and slowly moved down her back, while Nene tugged on his own hair and pulled him even closer than before—and yet it still wasn’t close enough. He felt like he was drowning in all that was Nene, and yet he never felt more alive. It was as though each kiss and each touch restarted his heart.
And while the school bells went off, they didn’t stop.
Because for this tiny moment, nothing else mattered except for each other.
The End~