Episode 21: Impatience
In the quiet of the night, we walked side by side and eventually found our way home.
When I opened the front door, the warmth of the room seeped pleasantly into my skin.
“…Come in.”
The words came out naturally, and yet somehow awkward.
“Yeah…”
Honoka smiled, a little tense, and followed me deeper into the apartment.
We made our way to the living room. I opened the fridge and took out a bottle of water.
I reached for a glass — but my fingertips were trembling faintly.
“…Here.”
I sat on the sofa and passed the water to Honoka.
She took it with a small nod. “Thank you,” she said, and nothing else.
We just sat quietly side by side.
But I found myself pulling back, just the smallest fraction.
We were close enough that I could feel her warmth — and yet some part of me was drawing an invisible line, without meaning to.
There was still wavering in me.
Is it really all right to close the distance between us like this — that thought was smouldering somewhere at the back of my mind.
“…Yuna.”
The voice saying my name carried a faint heat in it.
Honoka was looking straight at me.
The emotion trembling in the depths of her eyes made something stir uneasily in my chest.
“…Honoka?”
I turned toward her, uncertain — and in that moment —
Something soft and gentle touched my lips.
“…Oh—”
I caught my breath in surprise.
Honoka was kissing me.
Usually it was almost always me who reached out first.
Her lips were trembling, just slightly.
Even so, she made no move to pull away.
“…Honoka…”
A flustered sound escaped me.
Her hand came to rest softly against my cheek.
And then — deeper.
“Mmm…”
My lips were parted, and a moist sensation seeped inside.
Honoka’s tongue moved slowly, tracing through me as if searching.
“……Mmm, hmm……”
Her warm breath tangled with mine, and a sensation close to numbness spread through my head.
Unsettled as I was, I couldn’t resist the heat of it.
Honoka’s tongue moved over mine, again and again.
A soft, wet sound rose faintly between us.
“Haah…Yuna…”
Her breath was close.
In it I could hear something desperate, something yearning.
As if losing this moment — letting it slip past — would be enough to make everything fall apart.
The heat was enough to make breathing hard.
My heart pounded violently.
I felt the distance I’d been trying to keep dissolve quietly away, somewhere inside my head.
“…Honoka.”
I drew back just slightly to say her name, and she looked at me, breathless.
“…Hey, Yuna…”
A hoarse voice fell softly into the quiet room.
Honoka’s eyes were wet.
Each time her heated breath touched my lips, my heart ached with how hard it was beating.
“…I…”
She shaped words slowly, trembling fingertips tracing gently over my cheek.
In those fingertips was a faint heat, and a faint hesitation.
“I love you, Yuna.”
— I know.
Words I’d heard so many times before.
And yet the way Honoka’s voice sounded now was so desolate that something deep inside my chest creaked with it.
“…I love you too. Honoka.”
I kept my eyes on Honoka’s, and slowly reached out my hand.
When I touched her cheek, the softness of her skin trembled faintly beneath my fingers.