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It’s not an easy thing to admit that you have feelings.
Despite the encouragement from her friends, the words tie knots in Aoi’s throat. Her heart thumps in her chest, her hands sweat and she gets light-headed just from the thought of it.
It’s Sakura she’s talking about! Her best friend.
Who knows what a confession will do to that?
She doesn’t want to throw that away.
But there’s that part of her; it longs, it wishes, it imagines the warmth of her lips, the tenderness in her eyes as she looks at her.
She finally makes up her mind.
With shaky hands, Aoi scribbles a quick note that tells Sakura to meet her after class behind the school, and pokes her shoulder. She taps on Sakura’s shoulder two times and as she turns, and drops the tiny piece of paper in her palms. She carefully watches her as her large hands fumble to unfold the note. Her cheeks feel so hot and her heart races in her chest as the girl reads with her eyes squinted (she probably should have written it a little bigger for Sakura’s sake). Once she’s finished reading, she looks up and nods at Aoi, a small smile on her lips.
“Is everything alright?” A voice from behind her makes Aoi jump. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“I-it’s fine!” she quickly responds, already feeling her throat dry, “I-I just… wanted to tell you s-something.”
“I’m listening.”
“Well, um…” It’s hard, so hard to even speak when Sakura’s looking dead in her eyes. “I wanted to tell you something.”
Sakura hums in acknowledgement. “Take all the time you need.”
“Alright—“she nervously chuckles ”—this has been on my mind f-for a while. I totally understand if you don’t really uh… feel the same way, and if you don’t, I don’t want our friendship to be damaged. But, I just want to get this off my chest.”
“Sakura, I… I like you.” Aoi looks down at her feet, her heartbeats are ringing in her ears and her face burns.
“Aoi, truth be told, the feeling is mutual. I… like you too.”
She looks up again to be faced with a gentle smile and a tender gaze, and she feels relief spreading throughout her chest.
“I-I’m glad!” she manages to say through her dry throat. “A-and I’d like to uh… go out with you sometime! You know, we might go to a café, or see a film…”
“I’d like that.”
“G-good! I’ll talk to you later then to hash out the details.”