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"So soft…"
Blake's body tensed on instinct, his brain instantly short-circuiting until only one word remained.
Soft.
The thin fabric was usually thin and breathable, so he could clearly feel the state the girl on his back was in right now.
She wasn't wearing a bra, was she?
Seriously, if you're not even wearing underwear underneath, how can you casually ask someone to carry you like this? Have some self-awareness!
"…Maybe you should walk on your own after all?"
Blake cleared his throat twice, quickly breaking the silence.
"No…" After hesitating for two seconds, Yanami finally answered in a shy little voice. She quietly tightened her arms around his neck, still using her eyes as an excuse. "My eyes still hurt. I'd definitely trip if I tried walking. Just carry me back, okay?"
Back at the hot spring inn, everyone else got to hold hands and flirt around while she sat there alone like some losing heroine.
So yes, she absolutely wanted Blake to carry her.
"Alright, let's head back."
Blake let out a helpless sigh and started walking toward the inn.
Silence settled between them.
The faint sweet scent drifting from the girl, her warm breath brushing softly against his ear, the soft fullness pressed against his back…
Every bit of it made his heartbeat speed up.
It couldn't be helped. He was still a healthy teenage boy. There was no way he could stay completely unaffected.
Just as he was trying to think of something to say, Yanami spoke first, her voice soft and gentle.
"Blake, do you remember when we went on that spring outing as kids? You carried me home back then too."
"I remember it very clearly." Blake's face stayed expressionless. "You had a bag of koala cookies and promised to share half with me if I carried you. Then you secretly ate almost all of them on the way home. In the end there was only one cookie left, and you still tried to split it fifty-fifty."
"Cough—!" Yanami instantly choked in embarrassment. "Forget details like that already!"
"I never will. I'll remember it for the rest of my life."
"I'll buy you a whole box of koala cookies tomorrow," Yanami hurriedly said, trying to change the subject. "Your shoulders feel way broader now. They're even broader than my dad's."
"People grow up." Blake walked steadily, completely relaxed. With his current physique, carrying Yanami was even easier than he expected. "Like you. You're way heavier than when you were little."
Thunk.
Yanami tilted her head and lightly bumped it against his. There wasn't much force behind it. It felt more like a kitten acting spoiled.
"I'm already sixteen, okay? Obviously I weigh more than when I was a kid."
"…"
Chatting like that, they eventually arrived back at the inn before they realized it.
"You can get down now," Blake reminded her.
"Huh? We're already back?" Yanami widened her beautiful eyes in surprise. "When we walked to the convenience store it felt super far away, but coming back felt like it ended in an instant… I guess happy moments really are short."
The street was quiet and empty.
Under the pale streetlights, their shadows stretched long across the ground, just like the tangled emotions in the girl's heart.
Yanami quietly glanced up at Blake's clean, handsome profile, and suddenly understood something.
She would never forget this moment.
Human memory was like an ocean. Some seashells simply kept shining forever on the shore, no matter how many years passed.
Late spring, early summer.
An empty street in the middle of the night.
The scent and warmth of the boy she loved.
All of it would stay sparkling inside her memories forever. Even when she was old and gray, she knew she would never forget.
So…
She couldn't hold it in anymore.
"Haa…"
Yanami suddenly took a deep breath and quietly clenched her fists.
Over the past few days, she'd been updating her "Losing Heroine Diary" every single day. The contents were all pretty similar: getting her home stolen by some sneaky cat, then ending up as the losing heroine in the end.
Besides complaining in it, she'd also seriously reflected on why she always lost.
And eventually, she realized something.
In all those diary entries…
She had never once confessed first.
She wanted to wait until she became a popular beautiful author before confessing.
She wanted to wait until Blake finished making his game and stopped working so hard before confessing.
She wanted to quietly stay by his side until he confessed to her instead.
But after Mahiru and the others appeared, an overwhelming sense of crisis quietly rose inside her chest.
At this rate, she'd become the losing heroine long before they even graduated college.
So she had to be braver.
More proactive.
"Blake…"
Yanami slowly tightened her arms around his neck as courage gathered in her chest, rising higher and higher until it finally overflowed.
"What is it?"
Blake casually turned his head.
And then—
Something soft and warm gently pressed against his cheek.
It lasted only a second.
The softness vanished almost immediately, so fleeting it almost felt like an illusion.
Then, beside his ear, came the girl's cotton-candy-soft voice.
"The moon is beautiful, isn't it?".
"The moon is beautiful tonight."
"…"
Blake instinctively looked up at the sky.
Clouds covered everything overhead. Only a few scattered stars were visible.
There wasn't any moon at all.
"Heave-ho~"
Yanami quickly jumped off his back and hurried toward the hot spring inn in a panic.
"I-I'm going to sleep now! Good night, Blake!"
"…"
Blake raised his right hand and touched his cheek.
There still seemed to be a faint trace of moisture left from the girl's lips.
With mixed emotions swirling in his chest, he returned to his room.
After a quick shower, Blake lay down to sleep.
Unfortunately, he couldn't sleep at all.
Every time he closed his eyes, Yanami's face appeared in his mind.
From elementary school to middle school, and from middle school to high school, they'd always been together. Because of that, Blake often forgot that "Old Eight" was actually an incredibly cute and popular girl.
But at the same time, they were too familiar with each other.
So familiar that he never really felt that heart-skipping sense of excitement around her.
For example, he clearly remembered that during the winter of second grade, Yanami caught a cold and spent ages walking around with a runny nose. She used to sniff the snot back up instead of wiping it with tissues.
And there was also that time she believed some nonsense from her deadbeat dad and curiously ate—
Nope.
Can't think about that.
If he kept going, Old Eight would stop being cute entirely.
"Haa…"
Blake exhaled softly and filed today's events away into the section of his heart labeled:
[Yanami Folder]
Love wasn't a game.
Relationships needed constant care and effort. Feelings born from a moment of impulse alone could never last.
Right now, his goals were clear.
First, finish making the game.
Earn money.
Pay off his aunt's debts.
Then properly answer Yanami's feelings.
"Sleep. Seriously."
Blake closed his eyes again.
But after tossing and turning for ages, he still couldn't fall asleep.
Finally, he sat upright in frustration, got out of bed, and started doing push-ups.
"Helping purify magic earlier gave me a ton of universal EXP today," Blake muttered while doing push-ups and checking the game interface in his mind. "Just a few points left before leveling up. Time to grind."
If you want to do your job well, you first sharpen your tools.
After leveling up, Blake had noticed a major improvement in both his memory and thinking speed. He could gain more skill experience in the same amount of time.
So investing in leveling himself up was definitely worth it.
"....."