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All Nene wanted to do was settle in for the night, but the moment she was finally snug and comfortable under her bedsheets, she received a text from the person who always seemed to appear at the worst of times.
RUI
Neneeee are you still up?
NENE
yes
why
RUI
Mind if we could watch the stars on your rooftop?
Nene felt her eyebrow shoot up in question. Why in the world did Rui want to watch the stars right now? Regardless, she sent him a thumbs up.
This was somewhat normal, so she didn’t question it that much.
She thought the sky did look particularly beautiful today too…
Rui knocked on the door and Nene ran downstairs to open it for him, tiptoeing around to make sure she didn’t wake her parents up. “You idiot… Don’t knock so loud, it’s night.” She scolded him and let him in.
“My bad,” He gave an apologetic smile, sitting down on the couch. “Do you have the things I asked you to get?”
“Yeah, I already set them up on the roof, come on.” She dragged him out of her couch and brought him up to her room.
It’s sort of weird to Nene; how if she were to bring any other boy to her room she’d be extremely embarrassed, or well, practically anybody else for that matter. But, Rui in her room felt… weirdly right. It was pretty obvious that she was extremely comfortable with him as if they both knew everything about each other—that includes their thoughts and insecurities.
Nene shook her head to get rid of these thoughts and dismissed them by thinking, That’s because I’ve known him since childhood… That’s it.
She closed and locked the door behind her and pulled the curtains away to open the window.
There was a specific—and very unsafe—way to get to the roof. By climbing the tree in front of her bedroom window. She’s only done this twice… nor is she really confident in her ability to do so.
Still, she jumps out of her window and quickly grasps the branch of the tree, nearly missing. “Are you alright?” Rui asked, concerned, as he peered his head out of the window.
“Y-Yeah…” She grabbed the next branch and climbed her way to the roof, Rui shortly following behind her. Compared to her, Rui made it seem easy.
Set on the roof is a blanket for the two of them, two pillows, and two bottles of water for the two of them. The roof was slightly slanted, but it was easy to not slip down.
Nene lay down on the blanket, lying her head on one of the pillows, Rui doing the same after he was on the other side. He was close. A little too close for comfort, but Nene tried to ignore it.
Rui lay on his back, looking directly at the night sky, while Nene was on her side, her back facing Rui, trying not to look anywhere near him. Both of them in comfortable silence.
“The sky is beautiful tonight, don’t you think?” Rui suddenly said.
“Is that why you invited me to my own roof tonight?” Nene answered.
“Of course. I mean, the view is beautiful.”
Nene sighed and turned her body to lay on her back, looking up at the night sky. She wished she could ignore her shoulder touching Rui’s, but thankfully he was too busy looking at the sky to notice her blush.
She tried to focus her attention on the stars to ignore her beating heart. And Rui was right, the night sky really was beautiful. Each individual dot in the sky seemed to shine so brightly on its own. Even from afar, the light had been able to reach such distance.
Sometimes, Nene wished she could be like one of those stars one day, shining for millions to see.
“You’re right.” Nene smiled as she stared and tried to count each individual star, not noticing that Rui was looking at her with the same amount of admiration he had on his face when he was looking at the sky.
At least to him, Nene was just like the night sky. Beautiful and shining.
“Do you usually look at the sky often?” Nene asked this time.
“Most of the time. I think it helps me calm down sometimes.” Rui smiled faintly. “I used to do it a lot back in middle school, just… staring up at the sky with Akiyama.”
“Right…” Nene felt a pang of guilt stab through her heart. Just with the mention of middle school, Nene felt like there were a million things to say. “Hey,” She turned to face Rui and noticed how close the two of them were. She stared into his eyes just for a split second and looked back at the sky, her blush deepened.
She cleared her throat, “Um… Sorry, you know… For drifting away from you back in middle school. I feel like that was mostly my fault. I… I don’t why, I just—”
Rui held her cheek softly and brought her face to meet his. “It’s okay. It’s… It’s partially my fault too, you know? But, hey,” With his other hand, he held hers. “We’re here now.”
Nene smiled, letting herself melt in him without looking away, seeing the stars in his eyes. “Yeah… We’re here now.”
“We made a lot of mistakes, but… We always find a way back to each other, don’t we?”
Nene giggled. “Somehow.”
As if some red string of fate had connected the two of them, even after everything they had been through back then—Nene forgetting her lines, Rui being shunned by his classmates—they were both here, together, in the present.
All of those moments seemed so far away now.
“I’m getting kinda sleepy…” Nene said as she moved closer to Rui.
“Then… Let’s sleep here, under the stars. Pretty romantic, isn’t it?” Rui said as he wrapped his arms around her smaller frame.
“It is.” She closed her eyes and did something that felt so unlike her, but it felt like it was the right moment, seeing how close both of them were. So, she moved even closer and kissed Rui.
Rui seemed a little surprised, but quickly closed his eyes too and kissed her back.
It felt like fiction, Nene felt how soft Rui’s lips were, how the sparks flew around them and wrapped around the two, bringing them closer than the two had ever been. The stars shined above them as they had their moment… it was such a picture-perfect moment from a movie.
Once the two pulled back, they both smiled at each other. Nene pressed her forehead on his chest as she whispered. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight,” Rui replied, holding her close in his arms.
So, there lay the two, sleeping in each other's embrace.