Block A 「Nishimura Riki」

32

"Do you think it is?" Riki softly asked.

Eiko looked over at him, breaking her focus on the blank canvas before her. "Do I think it's fate?"

Riki seemed shy to speak about something so childish, the way he looked away like a kid caught red-handed. He slowly nodded his head in agreement with her question.

"Y'know, I really don't believe in fate, to be honest," she said first but began to think about the mysterious book. The one with her very own name, narrating her very own life. It said that word somewhere in the beginning, Eiko recalled that statement the most. Fate. "But...I think this just may be it."

She smiles at him, the radiance of it like the rise of the sun above the horizon. Riki could admit that his belief in fate wasn't powered by the idea that it existed, but he would agree with Eiko that this might just be it.

"Come here," he said, stationing his palms on his knees as he fixed his posture. Eiko looked a bit confused, as lost as a duckling without its mother–and it was quite cute–yet she approached him despite not knowing why she should.

"What is it?" Eiko inquired.

Then his arms wrapped around her waist, tight like he didn't want to let go any time soon. When he laid back, pressing himself against the bed, she fell to the bed as well. He caught sight of the shocked look on her face and chuckled, his voice as soft as a serenade. "Ditch the painting for now. I just..." he trailed off in his speech randomly and tugged Eiko closer. "I just want to hold you."

The blush raging up her neck to her cheeks was as hot as a fire, traveling across her skin like arson in a forest. Her heart thumped against her chest as if thunder and Eiko puffed her cheeks to resist the smile sneakily pulling at her lips.

She relaxed into his hold, the warmth completely comforting. Eiko shuffled until she could fix her arms around Riki's torso until her nose was just a small space away from Riki's chest. "Yeah, let's stay like this for a bit."

"I..." He sighed and closed his eyes, getting as into the moment as he could. "I like this."

Eiko giggled, the sound slightly muffled by Riki's shirt. "The hug?"

"Mm. Yeah, that too, but I meant us," he began. There was a shift in the atmosphere, like that in movies where the two characters would share a moment they'd never let go of, just a dip into a romantic mood. "I like us...like this. I like feeling comfortable with you. You got to know me without any first impression from things you knew about me prior. I value it...it makes me feel like I was able to show you me every step of the way."

"It's still hard to think that you were the same person I knew just almost a month ago. Who would've thought."

Riki stilled for a second. Eiko could feel his arms tense around her before she raised her head from his chest to catch the uneasy expression on his face. "What is it?"

He sighed. He knew he would have to talk about it eventually. "Can you tell me that you won't get angry over this once I tell you?"

Eiko pulled out of his hug before he could tighten his embrace to make sure she wouldn't leave. No, not this. He felt like he needed something to assure him that Eiko wouldn't leave just yet, not this fast. "It depends on what you're going to say, Riki," he heard her say.

He had no time to think about his words before he admitted the truth, afraid that taking too long would make her trust in him diminish, or that if he struggled to explain it, it would make Eiko think he was still not telling her the truth. "we fall in love with the first person we see on a blood moon."

"What?"

Riki shoved his hand through his hair, unsure of how to tread the water. "It's some type of fate–I don't know. We just...whoever we see first, if they aren't killed within that night, we fall in love with them."