This was getting ridiculous.
Every day, Rei would wake up, let go of her teddy bear and get rid of the thought of imagining it was you, and decide that today was the day she would confess her feelings.
And every day, she wouldn't be able to go through with it.
Rei was left on the streets and had to study just to survive. She was proud and confident to the point of stepping on incompetence and becoming one of the country's best lecturers at a young age. She even survived a killing game!
So why did it all seem to disappear around you? You made her feel....normal. In a strange but good way. Whenever you were with her, even if it was just for a second, she felt herself become a little girl again. The innocent little girl that loved her parents and walked with them hand in hand everywhere she went.
Words couldn't describe how much she wanted to do that with you.
There were so many things she wanted to do with you, even after all her struggles to get her where she is now, it felt like it was all to meet you.
Rei was in love with you. She knew that now, but was she really ready to confess her feelings? Prepare for her feelings to be crushed?
Rei Mekaru is a genius. So why did she feel so dumb? Why was she so Stupid With Love?
It began when she handed you some paperwork, listening you complain about it every moment. The fact that your voice was still so soothing when complaining about your job was something she definitely hated. That's what she told herself at least.
It was for less than a moment, but her fingers brushed against yours, and it seemed to set off some sort of feeling in her chest. She hated how much she liked it.
When you took the paperwork behind to your desk, she slumped down on her chair, and put a hand over her heart to calm her rapid heartbeats. She wouldn't be able to get that feeling and those stupid thoughts of you out of her head for hours.
When the two of you were grabbing coffee together, that moment suddenly seemed to come back to her. She couldn't stop thinking about it, even as the coffee restarted her tired brain, and she found herself thinking of it even more.
She wanted to hold your hand. She wanted to grab your hand the moment you put your drink down, but she stopped herself. She didn't even know if you felt the same way. She just couldn't do it.
No matter what she told herself, she wasn't ready.
It happened again when you practically dragged her away from work, insisting that she needed to take a walk and clear her mind, which unbeknownst to you, was already filling up with thoughts of you. You both compromised by sitting on a nearby bench, and Rei had half a mind to confess right there. She opened her mouth, but it felt like she couldn't speak.
You were still looking around the park, oblivious to the mess she was becoming beside you. She took a deep breath and hovered her hand over yours.
She could do this. She was ready. She had to be.
"Uh, Rei? Is something wrong?"
She stiffened as you stared back at her, not realizing her hand getting closer to yours. She cleared her throat and began to pull her hand back.
"I-...I'm fine, Y/n. Thank you."
She didn't notice the fact that she glanced down at your hands a moment too late, when you had already followed her eyes and noticed how close she was. She stopped moving her hand and kept it still, both wanting and not wanting you to notice it.
You smiled back at her and giggled to yourself, before interlocking your pinky with hers.
That feeling in her chest was back, and it was exploding like fireworks.
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