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“Aaand… Done!” Kohane exclaimed, finally putting down her pen as she finished writing. Homework had taken her a little longer than usual today, due to the nearing exam season, but Kohane had elaborated a time schedule with Minori and Haruka that allowed her to study enough to get a good grade while also attending practice with Vivid BAD SQUAD, so she wasn’t too worried about it. She put away her notebook and gently threw her pen in a pen holder on her desk (it fell perfectly inside, circling a tiny speck of the rim with a metallic sound before stilling), then she stood up and stretched. She glanced at her clock and realized that she still had quite some time on her hands before her parents would come back home. Might as well head to the Sekai and practice a bit, or maybe even have a cup of hot chocolate with Meiko and Len.
Humming a song she was planning on trying out, Kohane grabbed her phone and opened her music app to play Ready Steady. In a second, she was teleported to the Sekai, right in front of Crase Cafe. She walked up to the door and pushed it open, already smiling and opening her mouth to greet Meiko when she heard a low, teasing voice whine: “come on, let me read it! I promise I won’t tell anyone!”
It was Luka, Kohane realized as her stomach squeezed in a tight knot. She wasn’t used to Luka’s presence in the slightest: out of all the Vocaloids, she was the one she saw the least. She was much more accustomed to Miku, Meiko and Len’s presence, and occasionally to Rin’s or Kaito’s. Luka only popped up when Touya visited the Sekai, as if she had a Touya-sensor implanted. Whenever Touya visited the Sekai, Luka would emerge from her endless disappearances and drape herself on the boy until he had to leave. Kohane had noticed a pattern in the Vocaloid’s behavior, over time. Besides Meiko and Miku, each of them was closer to one of the Vivid BAD SQUAD’s members: Kohane had noticed how Len would always rush to greet her first and hug her whenever they visited, how Rin would always ask about An and seek out her approval, or how Kaito always ruffled Akito’s hair and tried to rope him in his antics. While their gestures where barely noticeable, the gap between their behavior and Luka’s was enormous. Luka was incredibly close with Touya and always checked up on him even outside of Sekai, always tried to cuddle him and poke him whenever he came over to spend the time, or had endless conversations with him. If you needed to get a hold of Luka, all you had to do was take Touya to Crase Cafe.
Now, it’s not that Kohane didn’t like Luka, but she was slightly annoyed by the way she would always hoard Touya’s attention, up to the point that Kohane could reluctantly admit that she was jealous of her. She hadn’t told many people – just An and Akito, really – but the truth was that she had developed quite a big crush on her teammate, a couple of months after forming their group. She really couldn’t help it: Touya had supported her all the way, he was always ready to listen to anything she had to say and he let her vent her worries whenever she needed, he was incredibly sweet and kind and genuine and beautiful and- Kohane shook her head and gently slapped her cheeks. Not now, she told herself. If Luka was in Crase Cafe, Touya was in there as well. She had to keep it cool – God forbid Touya worried about her!
“Hi, Meiko!” she greeted as she entered, since Meiko was the first person in her line of sight. She then turned to the couch area, where she found Touya sitting neatly in his seat, holding a sheet of paper as far as he could from his body, while Luka was sprawled all over him and trying to reach it. “Oh, Touya-kun, Luka-san, you’re here as well,” she added.
Touya dodged a lounge from Luka and hummed. He turned to Kohane and at her sight, Touya’s eyes shone. “Kohane, good evening,” he said with a smile, as if he wasn’t half-wrestling with Luka at the moment. “Why are you here? Have you finished studying for today?”
Luka flipped her hair over her shoulder and pushed against Touya even more until he was leaning on his side, away from her. She pouted at him. “Mean, mean!” she exclaimed, poking his cheek, to which he simply smirked. “Mean, mean, mean! Let me read!”
Kohane hesitated a bit, seeing them struggle like that, but eventually answered, over Meiko’s giggles: “o-oh, uhm, yeah. I had some free time, so I decided to come here to practice. What… What are you two fighting over?”
Luka jabbed Touya’s side, making him huff out a breath, and only then did she notice Kohane standing next to the counter. “Oh, Kohane-chan, hi! You see, Touya is being extremely mean and he’s gatekeeping some lyrics he’s written. I wanna read theeem”.
Touya sighed. “Luka, I told you, they’re not finished, there’s no point in reading them”.
Luka finally let go of him, turned away and crossed her arms, feigning hurt (or maybe she really was; Kohane wasn’t good at reading people, or in this case, Vocaloid). “You hate me,” she declared boldly.
Meiko sighed fondly from behind the counter. Kohane turned to her and the woman whispered, almost with complicity: “she keeps saying that dear Touya hates her, even if he’s her favorite person besides Kaito”.
Kohane hummed. She knew that last bit already, unfortunately. Was she being petty? Very. Was it rational to get jealous over a Vocaloid? Of course not, but that didn’t stop Kohane anyway.
Touya laughed. It still floored Kohane, hearing his laugh or seeing his smile, considering how blank and inexpressive he used to be when they had just met. Time really did fly, huh? Kohane was proud of all his progress up until now, how he had grown more comfortable in his skin and freer to express his emotions without fear. Kohane already liked him when he was still a bit clueless about emotions, but seeing him navigate his feelings with growing ease over time made her fall deeper each and every day. “That’s true, I hate you. The truth is that Meiko-san has been my favorite Vocaloid all along,” he teased.
“Oh?” Meiko perked up, resting her elbows on the counter and her chin on her palm. “This is new,” she said. “He usually doesn’t tease back”.
Kohane put her elbows on the counter, right next to Meiko. “Are we talking about the same person, Meiko-san?” she asked. “Touya is constantly teasing us, it’s time Luka got her fair share”.
Meiko threw a surprised glance at the blonde. “Kohane, are you-”
“Touya!” Luka gasped dramatically. “How dare you break my heart so! I will never forgive you for this insult”.
Touya put the sheet down and raised his hands in surrender. “That was not my intention, my fair lady,” he declared. “I shall beg for your forgiveness, for I understand how hurt you must be because of my words”.
Kohane pouted. Meiko moved closer to her and whispered in her ear: “Kohane, are you jealous of Luka?”
“No!” Kohane screeched, loud enough that Touya and Luka stopped their little scene and turned to the girl. “I’m not, Meiko-san, I- I swear!”
Meiko gave her a look that clearly said she didn’t believe her.
At that moment, the doors of Crase Cafe were thrown open, making the bell ring loudly from the strength of the movement. An and Akito appeared in the entrance, excited smiles shining on their faces. “Kamishiro’s finished it!” An loudly declared, while Akito held his phone up for the others to see. Miku walked in from behind them, a satisfied smile pulling her lips and her hands shoved in her pockets. She made her way behind the counter and sent Meiko a smirk that the woman somehow was able to read, since she laughed. Meanwhile, Touya had frowned at An’s words. Kohane felt as if she had been left out of a giant inside joke. Her hands covered in a thin layer of sweat and she had to calm herself. All she had to do was ask for an explanation, right?
It came before she could ask for it. “Kamishiro has created a filter,” Akito said, looking at her, “that- well, it basically has a bunch of kiss stamps that appear on the face of the person using it-”
“You’re shit at explaining,” An huffed. Akito looked at her, indignantly, but she ignored him and picked up the conversation: “it’s a kiss filter! A kiss stamp appears on a person’s face and someone else has to kiss them in that spot”.
Kohane closed her eyes, hoping to disappear from the face of the Earth. A kiss filter? If they were to make her play with that… That could’ve ended badly for her poor heart.
“That’s what I was saying-”
“No you weren’t”. An grinned at Akito’s offended expression, grabbed his wrist and pulled him to the sofa where Touya and Luka sat, then beckoned Kohane to join them. Touya looked as if they were walking him to the gallows.
“No way,” Luka said. “Meiko, can I get a kiss~?”
Meiko laughed again as Luka stood up and skipped towards her, throwing herself in her arms once she was close enough. “Why don’t we leave them to it?” she suggested instead.
“But I want a kiss…”
“I’ll kiss you if we leave them alone”.
“Yay! Touya, see you later! You others too!” Luka waved, then ran to the stairs, followed by Meiko, who had to drag Miku along with her while ignoring her protests.
Kohane tentatively sat next to Touya as he made space for her on the low sofa-like seat. An and Akito shared an accomplice glance. “Okay, okay, me and Akito will go first, so you two can see,” An said, hitting the record button. A kiss stamp first appeared on her forehead and then started popping up around random places on her face on the screen, until it settled on her cheek.
Akito first poked her cheek before grabbing her face in his hands and kissing it. His nose nudged the supple flesh from how soft her cheeks were. “See? Like that,” he said to Touya and Kohane as An saved the video.
Touya nodded, looking a little reluctant yet focused. “I think I understand,” he said.
“I tried that once with Shiho and Minori,” Kohane said. She folded her hands together as more sweat pearled on them; she knew that this kind of filters could lend on your mouth, especially since it was Kamishiro who had apparently created this filter specifically. She would be lying if she said that she wasn’t hoping for a kiss on the lips to land on her and Touya, but at the same time, the idea of kissing her crush made her cheeks boil in embarrassment. Touya must have noticed that, because he put a hand on her shoulder and said: “Kohane, you don’t have to do it if you feel uncomfortable”.
An and Akito whipped towards him, the former looking furious and scandalized, the latter proud and as if, honestly, he was expecting it. “It’s a team bonding experience,” An whined. “You can’t chicken out like that, Kohane-chan!”
Kohane took a deep breath. It was fine, she could do it. These were her best friends, after all: she had nothing to be scared, or ashamed, of. She shook her head. “It’s- It’s fine, Touya, really. An-chan, can I try it?” she asked.
An perked up at that. “Of course, of course! Akito, do it for her”.
Touya gave them a disappointed look as An passed the phone to Akito and he started recording. He moved the screen so that it was facing Kohane and the filter activated. Various stamps flashed over her red skin for a bit, until they decided for a stamp over her nose. Akito laughed and grabbed her face in his hand as he had done to An and reached over to kiss the tip of her nose before saving the video.
“I wanna do it with Touya,” An said, stealing Akito’s phone from his hands and fixing her bangs in the camera before starting to record again. She grinned at Touya and he shook his head – once again, Kohane felt as if she had been left out of something. Her heart ached, oh, why did she always feel like she was a step behind, unable to grasp something that any teen understood in a heartbeat? Why did she feel so rejected and pathetic anytime she felt she was being left out, even if that wasn’t true in the slightest? The stamps started flicking over An’s face once again until a small stamp lit up on here temple. “Boooring,” she whined.
Touya chuckled and stood up, reaching for An’s face with his hands across the table, over the paper sheet with his lyrics. He was gentle, Kohane noticed as he slowly drew closer, her heart speeding up, as he pulled her hair back and tucked it behind her ear with care and softly pressing his mouth on the small indent that was An’s temple; his lips were full and he must have been wearing lip balm, judging by the transparent smear that he had left on An’s skin. He pulled away and gave her a sheepish smile while he sat down. “I’m sorry for leaving lip balm on you, An,” he apologized.
With that slight blush on his cheeks, his rosy lips and bright eyes, Kohane reckoned, he looked beautiful, almost unreal. An shook her head, saving her video and tutting at the same time. “It’s fine, it’s fine. I’m used to Mizuki and my mom leaving straight up red lipstick on my face”.
Akito looked at her, shocked. “Mizuki kisses you? Since when?”
“Are you jealous, Akito?” An teased.
Akito grunted. “Kohane, it’s your turn with Touya,” he said, dodging An’s question, to which Kohane’s breath itched. Oh God, she was really doing this. She was going to kiss Touya, although she didn’t know which part of his face. Okay, she could do this. She had never kissed anyone, and the only people who had kissed her face excluding her parents were An and Minori. Surely not any crush she had ever had.
An and Akito exchanged the hundredth devilish smile that day when Kohane took the phone from An. Touya shifted closer to her, perhaps to make it easier to see, perhaps to record both of their faces, and Kohane felt his thigh press against hers, his arm slot comfortably behind hers, their shoulders brushing together as she fumbled with the device to start the filter. He was so, so close, Kohane felt each millimeter of skin touching through their clothes burn relentlessly and her breath quicken. Her face on the screen was rosy and her eyes wide, but she noticed that Touya had a slight pink tint as well. He moved so that his head rested against her bicep in order to fit better in the framing. Kohane gulped and started the filter.
A multitude of kiss stamps lit up Touya’s face as the filter decided Kohane’s fate: if only she were bold enough to confess, she would have planted all of those kisses on Touya’s face, pepper his face until she couldn’t feel her lips anymore, but she wasn’t. She was weak and shy and scared of rejection. Touya tilted his face a little more into Kohane’s arm as the filter took a little longer than expected and his pretty gray eyes widened as the final, decisive stamp finally appeared right in the middle of his lower lip.
Kohane swore her heart stopped right then and there. A kiss on the lips. She almost cursed herself for hoping in such an outcome earlier, she was going to die of embarrassment or leave the Country, to never be seen again, adieu! Her heartbeat was skyrocketing and the phone almost slipped away from her hands when she looked away.
Noticing her discomfort, Touya put a hand on her knee. “Kohane,” he spoke slowly and sweetly, “listen to me. I have no problem in kissing you, but we don’t have to do this if you don’t feel comfortable, okay? Your feelings are important to me”.
Kohane turned to him, her throat closing from the nervousness and fear. She stared at him, at his kind and warm eyes, at the slight smile that formed on his lips when he got to see her face, and she decided. She didn’t want to be scared of the possibility of grasping what she had dreamed of for so long just because she was embarrassed and anxious that Touya would reject her. She gulped and nodded. If it was Touya, she could do this. “I can do this,” she said out loud, then brought her free hand underneath Touya’s jaw. His skin felt like silk to the touch, cool and smooth, devoid of any blemish or imperfection. She saw his Adam’s apple flutter, An and Akito held their breath, Touya drew closer to her. She closed her eyes and kissed Touya.
Anything about him was soft. His voice, his gaze, and now, Kohane found out, his lips. They were plush and sweet because of his lip balm, pleasant against her mouth. She took a trembling breath during a second where their lips disconnected just slightly, but Touya chased her mouth and continued the kiss, soft, supple flesh stealing that insecure breath away. Kohane felt herself burn and tickle all over, Touya’s hand still on her knee being the only anchor she had to the real world. Everything faded around her until nothing was left but Touya and his warmth.
He moved away to breathe, almost panting, painted in red and Akito retrieved his phone, pressing the button to stop the recording. “Nice,” he huffed out begrudgingly. “Now I have a video of you two lowkey making out on my phone”.
The blood rushed in Kohane’s ears as she looked at Touya straight in the eyes. Her throat closed up, her diaphragm painfully squeezing her lungs, and she felt tears spring up in her eyes. She couldn’t deal with the embarrassment, she had to get away, away from their gazes, from Touya’s gaze-
“Eeh, that’s blackmailing material, Akito,” An reprimanded, waving a hand. Touya’s eyes were so gentle as they held her gaze. She couldn’t think. She had to-
She shot up, much to her teammates surprise, and stumbled out of the booth. As soon as she was out of it, she ran to the door of Crase Cafe and out in the streets of the Sekai, without a precise destination in mind. She heard someone call out to her, but her heartbeat rushing in her ears covered it. “Give me some time,” she wanted to scream, but her throat was closing up, tighter and tighter, until she could barely breathe and her head spun. She patted down her pockets, looking for her phone – where was her phone? She had to get out of the Sekai, back to the safety of her room. “Give me a few minutes, and I will fix all of this”.
Her legs gave out underneath her and she fell to the ground, her knees absorbing most of the impact with an acute pain that shot up to her hips and teeth. She crawled on the ground until she found a wall, where she somehow turned and sat against, tucking her head in between her knees. “A few minutes will be enough,” she repeated in her mind, although everything was spinning and she couldn’t think straight. “Give me the time to calm down. Just a few minutes”.
She stayed like that, rocking and gasping for breath, until she heard steps approaching her. “Ko-ha-ne?” her brain sluggishly perceived. She struggled to understand, so she shook her head, “a minute, a minute,” she repeated over and over.
The voice fell into silence.
She sat there for who knows how long, all perception of time lost to her, until the fog over her brain seemed to clear. She had kissed Touya and this was the effect? Damn, she was bad at romance, Kohane thought. She breathed out and finally pulled her head out of her knees. She looked around. She was on a veranda, one from the larger streets in the Sekai, and someone was sitting next to her. When she glanced over, she found Touya next to her, a dozen of centimeters separating them. “I’m sorry for freaking out,” she croaked.
Touya looked at her, surprised. “It’s fine,” he smiled. “Did I overwhelm you? I shouldn’t have pushed it like that”.
“A bit,” she whispered. Then, looking for all of her courage, she added: “but it’s fine. I liked it. I just… Wasn’t expecting it”.
There was a beat of silence, then Touya hummed: “I did like it, too”.
More silence. Kohane breathed deeply, flexing her fingers as she gained back the feeling in them and got the control of her body back. Could she do it? Could she tell Touya why she enjoyed it so much? Could she finally admit what she was truly feeling? This was her chance, it almost felt scripted. If Touya liked the kiss as well, then… “Touya?”
“Yes?”
“What do you…” Kohane’s voice died out. She cleared her throat and fiddled with her fingers for a second. “Touya, you, uhm… H-how… How do you feel about- about me?”
Touya stared at her with wide eyes, as if he couldn’t believe what she had just said. Then, he chuckled. “Am I that obvious?” he asked, his cheeks darkening into that cute hue of pink yet again.
“H-huh?”
“You know, Kohane…” he trailed of, moving closer to her, until their elbows brushed together. “I thought you’d find me out sooner. I've had a crush on you for the longest time now”.
Kohane felt like her world stopped. “Y-you do?!” she gasped, feeling her eyes water.
Touya hummed. “Of course. What is there not to like about you? You are brave, sweet, honest, pretty… the list goes on. I was waiting for the right moment to confess, but it seems that our teammates beat me to it,” he said. He grew a little shier, then he looked directly at her. “And… You? How do you feel about me?” he hesitantly asked.
Kohane looked away, and from the corner of her eye she saw Touya’s expression fall. She took a deep breath, panicking at his reaction, but she managed to get out: “I- I honestly can’t believe this, I- I mean, I had been- been fantasizing about this for… Quite some time, r-right? I… I have had a crush on you for a lot as well. It’s just- I was so scared you wouldn’t feel the same…”
Touya laughed at that. “Nonsense,” he declared, reaching for her hand. Kohane accepted it and turned back to him to gift him a tiny, wobbly smile. “Aah, it’s such a nice feeling, being reciprocated…”
“That’s true,” Kohane murmured through a small smile, reclining her head until it touched the wall behind her.
“Kohane?” Touya called, resting his head against the wall as well and turning to her.
Kohane turned to him as well. “What is it, Touya?”
“Can I kiss you again? Or would that be too much?”
Kohane blushed vividly, but as she looked at the pretty face of her teammate, she found it in herself to tease: “only if I get to be your girlfriend”.
Touya smiled so wide that he almost blinded Kohane. “See?” he said. “You can be so confident when you gain the courage to”. Before she could reply, he took her chin in his hand and pressed his lips on hers, although for just a moment as they both burst out laughing again.
“Was that a yes?” Kohane asked between giggles, feeling Touya’s lips press once more against her burning cheeks.
Touya hummed in his kiss. “Of course,” he said, so close to her face that she felt his mouth move on her skin, “as long as I get to be your boyfriend as well”.
Kohane tilted her face so that he would kiss her lips again. “It’s a deal”.
-
(“You know,” Akito said out of nowhere, a few days after Kohane and Touya had started dating, “that kiss was all staged”.
Touya stared at his partner in disbelief, his hold on Kohane’s hand under the table tightening. “What do you mean?”
An grinned at the fresh couple. “We were so sick and tired of watching you two pin for each other, so we elaborated a plan”.
“We asked Kamishiro to create a kiss filter,” Akito picked up the explanation, “but a very special one that, every four uses, would guarantee a kiss on the lips. That’s why we stalled with the second and third ones”.
Silence reigned between the two unawares as An and Akito laughed like crazy.
“I recommend sleeping with one eye open for the next few days,” Kohane said in a chilling voice.
“Eeh?! Kohane-chan, what do you mean?”
“I would be scared if I were you,” Touya simply said, pulling his girlfriend closer and drinking his coffee as if nothing happened.
“Aaah, Akito, she’s gonna kill us!”
“I knew I shouldn’t have gotten involved with you, An!”
“What the fuck, Akito?! I thought we were on the same side!”
“Adios, Shiraishi. You’re on your own”.
“Waaah!”)