Ruki's Guide to Love and Fear (A JO1/Shiroiwa Ruki Fanfic)

Chapter 10

Momoko instantly blushed. "Oh hello, Shiroiwa."

He stared at her, hesitant to get into the elevator just yet. She was wearing normal, if not a little dressy, clothing—a day dress and cardigan in neutral colors. Her usual dark makeup had been swapped for a more natural, kawaii look. It was Ruki's turn to blush when he realized that she was emanating beauty. He dropped his gaze to the floor.

"Are you getting on the elevator, or...?" she hazarded, practically whispering.

"Oh yes, I'm getting on, sorry." He laughed awkwardly as he stepped into the elevator. After checking the buttons to make sure the ground floor button was already pushed, he glued himself to the opposite side of the elevator, a location that seemed like a safe distance away from where Momoko was standing. The doors shut.

A million questions surged through his brain all at once: Why hasn't she texted me back? Is she upset with me? Why is she at the company? Is Lapone seriously threatening Momoko? He wanted to just ask all these questions out at once, but he didn't want to look like a f*cking psycho. He needed to be poised. He inwardly summoned Prince Ruki.

"I still want to apologize for leaving you to walk home alone the other night. You might have seen my text already, but I figured I should also apologize in person," he said with a bow.

"We weren't far from the restaurant, so it's really okay," she said, still avoiding his eyes. "What about you? Are you okay?"

He lifted his head in shock, and glanced at her curiously. Does she really care what happened to me? "I'm fine," he lied.

If you don't count the fact that I'm probably not supposed to be talking to you right now, I'm not allowed to go anywhere by myself, and I just got yelled at by my company, yeah, I'm totally fine.

"I don't know if it's rude to ask this is or not, but what are you doing here?" I know it's rude, but I want to know anyway.

She laughed. "It's sort of a long story."

Long story?

Just as Ruki was going to ask more questions, the elevator made a loud screeching sound and came to an abrupt stop. The lights flickered before turning off completely. The elevator was plunged in darkness except for the emergency glow in the dark light highlighting the emergency buttons. What's happening?

Ruki's anxiety instantly skyrocketed. All the movies he had ever watched in which the passengers got stuck in an elevator and barely avoided falling to their deaths flashed through his mind.

"D-did the elevator just get stuck?" he asked in shock. Without waiting for a response, he wailed, "Please, kami-sama, no!"

He would have almost forgotten that Momoko was still beside him if she hadn't spoken up while increasing her phone screen's brightness up, lighting her face up in dim, blue light, "Shiroiwa, please don't freak out."

"But—" he started to protest, but she shushed him.

"Let's try all the emergency buttons first," she said, first pushing the emergency call button. Nothing happened, so she pushed the other emergency buttons. Still, nothing happened.

"Looks like the power's out," she mused.

Ruki's fear, which had been put on a sort of hopeful pause, started spiking again. The tears he had been holding in were threatening to spill out. "I can't believe this is happening! Why does everything always have to go wrong?" he shouted pitifully.

"Will you be quiet for a second?" she snapped at him. "Let's try to call someone who can help us out."

She dialed 119 on her phone while Ruki obediently did the same.

"Damn, I don't have a signal." Momoko glanced over expectantly at Ruki. He did a double take as he realized he had never heard her swear before.

He nodded his head. "Yeah, same here."

"Well, Shiroiwa, it seems like we are trapped in the elevator for the time being," she said, admitting defeat by slowly lowering herself to the floor of the elevator.

Ruki reached for his face in despair. "Ughhhh, why is this happening to me?"

"It's also happening to me," Momoko said, a chuckle escaping her lips. "Why don't you just take a load off and sit down? You never know; we might be here for hours."

Hours? F*cking hours? What about my schedule? "You have got to be joking me," He groaned as he slumped to the floor. "What if we die?"

"We're not going to die, Shiroiwa. Don't be so dramatic!"

Ignoring what Momoko said, he started imagining how horrifying it would be if the elevator suddenly shuddered and then plummeted toward the basement. He could imagine his backbone snapping on impact—

"Why are you so scared of everything?" Momoko said, promptly waking him from his dreadful reverie.

He was thankful for the darkness that hid that he was blushing. She noticed?

"I'm not," he countered, folding his arms tightly across his chest.

"Okay, so maybe you're not scared of everything, but I know for a fact that you are scared of insects, ghosts, roller-coasters...and maybe elevators now, too?" she said, counting all the items on her fingers. "It seems like a lot of things for the guy that's supposedly the gallant prince of JO1."

Oof, is Momoko really calling me out right now? Once again, what is this situation?

"That's only four things. Anyway, there's got to be something you're afraid of," he said, trying to shift the focus away from himself.

Though, now as the words left his mouth, he couldn't think of something that he knew Momoko was afraid of.

"Maybe you're afraid of heights? Or snakes? Or flying on airplanes?" he guessed.

"Nope, I'm not scared of any of those." Momoko said without a moment's hesitation.

Come on, really? There has to be something she's scared of. Ruki mentally ran through every interaction he had with Momoko looking for some clue as to what she could possibly be afraid of. It's not really that he cared whether or not Momoko was scared of anything; he just couldn't deal with the thought that he was the only one losing his shit over every little thing.

He finally landed on the time he had turned the charm on after almost getting scared to death by Momoko in the haunted house. After he had "flirted" with her, she had acted flustered and embarrassed. Bingo, he thought, commoners can't handle my handsome faced and charismatic personality—it's a lethal combination.

Using the light emanating from her phone as a guide, without warning, he leaned forward, slapping his right hand on the elevator wall next to her head. Although it was hard to see, he made sure his mouth was as close as possible to her mouth without actually making their lips meet. He could feel her hot breaths on his lips and on his nose.

"Are you scared now, Ito?" he drawled in a low, husky voice.

For an anxious moment that made his heart beat loudly in his ears, it seemed like she was going to lean in to meet his lips. He lightly closed his eyes in anticipation.

He was surprised to feel a hand on his chest pushing him away. He momentarily didn't know what to do, but he thankfully came to his senses and backed away from her, his hand pushing off of the wall and dropping to his side.

"No, that doesn't scare me, Shiroiwa-san." Her eyes were on her shoes as she spoke slowly. "But we really can't be doing this, and you know that..."

This? What were they doing? What even were they to each other? He sat there stung by her words. Did I...did I just get rejected by Ito Momoko even though I wasn't even trying to do anything?