Alice in Borderland 3 - English Version

Episode 8

We were soon back at the apartment.

"Do you think the others are already asleep?" She asked as we walked up the stairs.

"Likely."

"Then let's try to be quiet." She whispered, as soon as we were at the door.Izumi slowly opened it, then went in and took a few steps in the dark corridor, the only light was the one that came in from the hall, but it was very weak.

I followed her and after a few minutes, Izumi tripped and was about to fall backwards, but I caught her just in time.

"What the hell!" She complained, making me laugh.

We'd never been this close and I could clearly smell her scent from that distance.

I felt my cheeks burn and I was immensely grateful that we were in the dark and that she hadn't noticed it.

"Thank you." She told me, regaining her balance.

"No-no worries." I stammered, as my heart started pounding so hard I was afraid it might come out of my chest.

Then, Izumi took my hand and led me into the corridor.

"I don't want to risk falling again." She said.

"Do you want to kill me by any chance?" I wanted to tell her, but what came out was a completely different sentence. "Are you afraid of the dark?" I found myself asking her.

"Um...okay, fine, you caught me." She said, squeezing my hand as we passed one of the rooms.

"I thought you weren't afraid of anything." I teased her.

"There are so many things you don't know about me." She giggled, then once we got into the living room, where everything was brighter, she let go of my hand. "Okay, I'm gonna sleep here on the couch since nobody's around."

Izumi walked over to it, then lay down, clutching a pillow to her chest.

I couldn't help but think how pretty and vulnerable she looked in that position and started grinning like an idiot.

Then, I remembered that it was brighter now, so I cleared my throat and tried to compose myself.

"Okay...goodnight." I said softly, then turned to go into one of the other rooms.

"Chishiya?"

"Yeah?"

"Why don't you stay here?" Izumi was looking at me. "I mean...you can stay here and sleep on the carpet if you want." And there was a certain hesitation in her voice.

Was she really asking me to stay with her?

"Um..." 

She had caught me off guard and I really didn't know what to do.

"No, okay sorry." She said, hugging the pillow tighter to her chest and giggled. "Pretend I didn't ask you."

"If you lend me that pillow, I might stay." I said approaching her. "You know how it is...the carpet isn't that comfortable."

Where did all this courage come from? And what was I doing? It wasn't like me to act like that.

Izumi laughed. "Deal." And I saw her handing me the pillow.

I took it and lay down on the carpet, facing her.

"Thank you." She smiled at me. "Goodnight Chishiya."

She then closed her eyes and fell asleep shortly after.

I was enchanted looking at her for quite a while, then sleep got the better of me and I fell asleep too.