Mino was so frightened his soul nearly left his body. He flung the basket aside and lunged forward, catching Nina just in time. As they fell, he instinctively adjusted his position, shielding her belly.
Nina crashed straight into Mino's arms.
Her cherry-blossom–pink lips brushed past the corner of his warm mouth and swept across his handsome cheek, tracing an intimate, ambiguous arc.
Both of them froze.
Nina's small face flushed crimson as she stared, stunned, at the breathtakingly handsome face so close to her own, her mind completely blank.
Mino's chest jolted as his heartbeat sped up violently. Heat rushed to his cheeks, turning them red like a fully ripened apple, and that warmth spread rapidly through his entire body.
The place where her lips had brushed him tingled and went numb, stirring an uncontrollable yearning.
He stared at those soft pink lips, his Adam's apple bobbing as his own lips moved closer, against his will…
"Mino!"
