𝐌𝐄𝐄𝐓 𝐌𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐍. ʜᴀɴᴀꜱʜɪʀᴏ

2 6 : 言い表せない

Ineffable

—

What in the world were they exactly doing?

— That was the only thing in her mind that kept on swirling, as she brainstormed for answers and reasons why the hell were they standing, hand in hand, palms pressed on the window panes on their own sides, all the while, closing their eyes.

Nene had thought that maybe it was one of Hanako's pranks and dumb activities again, but when she saw the smile on his face, she couldn't help but think that maybe he wanted to show her something serious. And so, she had no choice but to obey with his every word, and now, her eyes were still closed — he told her that once he says 'go', the both of them will open them together.

"How long do we have to stay like this?" Nene asks; even if this was something stupid, she didn't mind that now. "Hello, Hanako-kun?"

"Wait for me to say it," he reasons out. "I'm trying to do what Aoi did. Aren't you doing the same?"

"Y-You mean. . .?!"

"No, not that, silly radish," he softly chuckled. "Listen to the beating of your heart. Stay quiet and listen."

"Ugh," she found it a bit irritating how he wouldn't just say why they were doing something weird like this, but she wanted to play along with it anyway. "Okay."

And so she did kept herself quiet and soon enough, she was sure she could hear it.

Inside her chest, her heart was going and beating, alive and warm. Thump, thump, thump, went her heart on. Nene couldn't believe how fast it was beating — did she run a marathon race? She could feel it vibrating from its core to her veins and to her hands that were placed on the panes — and it felt electrifying when they reached her hands that were tenderly in his.

Nene's lips curled into a small smile as she felt as if their pulse has become one with each other.

"I can feel it," he breathily says. "Go."

The moment those words gently rolled out from his tounge, they both shot their eyes open — and God knows, oh how, oh just how, did Hanako predicted this?

Outside, from beyond the boundary of their closed windows, the clouds and the mighty sun that portrayed the lovely colors and feelings of the sunset was gone — oh, it was long gone. No traces of them were seen right now from the new setting.

And it cannot compare to how much beauty the current setting has revealed to them.

The sky that they once knew was now painted dark. Countless littered stars shone brightly like priceless diamonds and Nene couldn't help but be speechless because of its beauty; words that were present in her vocabulary were far too lacking for expressing this kind of beauty — or maybe expressing this was just far too impossible as it was too great to even be expressed in words.

The spaces from each of the shining ball of peculiarities were dark, and largely empty — but even if they were indeed dark, it didn't look anything lonely. It was meant to look like that, after all. Besides, it helped to emphasize how important and perfect it looked like at a place like that.

It was the sun, the moon, the stars, the planets, and heck, wait, what — even the earth.

"Wha— we are literally out of this world, Hanako-kun!" Nene gasped sharply as she held his shoulders, shaking him back and forth with both of her eyes and mouth, wide. "What did you do?!"

Hanako's eyes were still glued towards out the window, as if he was staring at something so valuable and dreamy that he should not break any eye contact with it the moment he laid his eyes on it — but somehow, there was sadness present in his eyes. When she turned and followed the traces of his gaze, she realized what she was looking at.

"It looks like a very big pearl," she spoke up as she also gazed at it. "The moon."

"Yeah," Hanako breathes out and finally breaks his staring contest with the moon so as just to look at her fuchsia eyes. He grins at her. "Welcome to the universe setting, Nene."

She beamed at him before looking back at the intensely intriguing scene before them. The cream-haired girl couldn't say anything but to just stay quiet and stare because she felt really self-conscious and small — intimidated, rather, because of the vastness of the whole universe.

"You know, in a lot of dystopian books I've read before, the syzygy of the sun, moon and the stars usually created cataclysmic disasters that last for a long time," Hanako began as he glances at her. "Pretty scary, right?"

Nene hummed as a reply. "It is. But, Hanako-kun," she crosses her arms and turns to him again with furrowed eyebrows. "How did you know that this was going to be the next setting?"

"Just a hunch."

She nodded. "I guess you really love the moon so much."

"Yeah," he does a double take at her as he smiles. "God knows how much I love the moon." — and you.

"Do you want to be an astronaut?"

Hanako nods eagerly, but then soon shakes his head slowly. Nene felt kind of sad because even he was confused about what he really wanted whenever she asks something relevant about the universe.

Maybe he was scared that if he loved it too much, he will either lose it, or he will lose himself.

But even so, Nene wanted to change that; she wanted him to be more open to her, regarding everything.

Nene smiled and nodded as she glances at him — that's right. She'll cheer him up again.

But even before she could open her mouth and let out her voice, Nene suddenly stopped and looked as if her voice was stolen. She stood there, frozen and sweating.

"Hana. . ."

Her heart started beating so fast, she couldn't help but feel a bit dizzy. Nene clutched her chest, wrinkling her blouse as she shuts her eyes close, whimpering. She soon leaned near the window as tears swelled up to her eyes.

"Are you alright?" Hanako worriedly said, frowning, as he helped her sit back down. "What's wrong? Nene, are you okay?"

"I'm scared," she cried. "Help me."

"It's okay, it's okay," he rubbed her back and whispered.  "Tell me what's wrong."

Nene violently shook her head, bursting into tears. She gripped onto his arm, so hard, it felt like she didn't want to let go of him anymore, "I'm scared. I don't know what to do."

Hanako looked at her with clenched teeth, "I'm scared, too. But I don't know how I'll be able to help you if you don't say it."

Nene just looked at him with those glassy fuchsia eyes, filled with tears and numerous expressions.

"I can hear it."