After changing into yukata, we started eating the carefully decorated dishes one by one. But I couldn't focus on the food at all.
Because of the alcohol, I was feeling a strange emotion from Ai that was stronger than usual. I was so busy paying attention to every little thing she did that I couldn't even tell whether the rice was going down my nose or my mouth.
"Hide! Try this!"
For some reason, Ai was acting differently than usual. She picked up a slice of sashimi with her chopsticks and brought it to my mouth. I kept my lips tightly shut, but she forced it in with sheer strength.
"I can't even eat if you do that..."
That was genuinely depressing. Couldn't she see it in my face? I couldn't let her ruin the mood on a trip like this.
"I was savoring it because you fed me."
As we kept feeding each other, an awkward but somehow tender atmosphere began to drift between us. On top of that, now that the alcohol was really hitting me, I was grinning stupidly while accepting the food she gave me.
Alcohol always makes food taste better.
Especially when it's given to you by a beauty...? A beauty? Had I just called Ai a beauty? I really wasn't in my right mind because of the alcohol.
After that thought, I couldn't focus on eating again until dessert came out—mochi rolls and fruit sherbet.
"Waaah~ I'm full - ★"
Because I was looking at Ai, who was patting her stomach and melting into a limp little puddle, and thinking she was adorable. It was a completely different feeling from the old, "I'm full just looking at her" sensation.
If this had been before, I would've probably scolded her for lying down right after eating and gaining body fat. But now I couldn't even say that without my voice catching halfway through.
"We ate, so now we have to go to the hot spring! Hide, want to come with me?"
Lord, why are You putting me through this trial...
Today's Ai was far more forward than usual. And I, drunk as I was, was getting dragged around by her pace.
——————
"So you want us to go together?"
"Yep! It'd be lonely if I went by myself...(｡•̀ᴗ-)✧"
Come to think of it, Ai had a point. We came on this trip together, so if we spent it separately, what was the point? The reason we came here together was to make memories, not just to eat meals side by side.
"I think that's fine."
"Really??"
"Yeah."
I didn't know why she looked so flustered, but I thought it was a good idea. If anything, if you thought of it as a water park instead of an open-air bath, it wasn't a big deal. People go to water parks with friends all the time, don't they?
So we decided to take a bath, and just like before, I would change in the bathroom while Ai changed in the shower room. It felt like we were changing clothes a lot, but that's just how life goes sometimes.
'You're not supposed to swim after drinking, though.'
With that thought in mind, I changed into something light and headed to the open-air bath, where I could faintly see Ai already dressed and enjoying the water.
"I'm here firs.....?"
The outfit Ai was wearing was nothing like what I had imagined. Her top was tied up high so it wouldn't slip down, and her shorts were very short denim ones.
Her pale neck and Ai's signature violet hair swayed softly, throwing my vision into disarray. The loose strands of hair, the way her face had turned red from the heat of the bath, and the shy expression on her face made my breathing come faster.
Where had that usual wild, unpredictable energy gone? Ai had her head lowered, looking embarrassed.
"Because it's embarrassing..."
Seeing that, I found myself stepping into the open-air bath as if under a spell.
Even if I tried to control myself with superhuman restraint, this body was still that of a drunk teenage boy. And I wasn't a man with enough self-control to overcome all of that.
"Ah, it'll be hot!"
Just as Ai said, the water in the bath was hot, but I still moved forward as if possessed. Because one thought had swallowed my head whole: I had something I absolutely had to say, and I had to say it now.
"Ai, I have something to tell you."
It was a feeling I had tried so hard to deny. A feeling I had barely managed to suppress when it tried to burst out, a feeling I had kept turning away from whenever it rose in my mind.
I had kept denying it with excuses about arrhythmia and whatever else, but the truth was, I had already realized it the moment I saw her at the Grammy Awards.
During the world tour, I had suddenly found myself asking a question. If Ai were to be with someone other than me, would I be able to endure that sight?
Of course I would be able to endure it. Along with pain so sharp it would feel like my chest was being torn apart. But the fact that something that painful would come with it meant that the feelings I had for Ai were not ordinary affection. The feelings I held for Ai were romantic love.
With alcohol in my system and my body submerged in hot water, my reason had already stopped working long ago. And before I knew it, I was holding Ai's hand and meeting her violet eyes, the ones I had avoided for fear that the feelings I had been suppressing would spill out.
This was the first time I had ever taken Ai's hand first.
"Ever since the world tour started, I've been thinking about it the whole time. What exactly are the feelings I have for you, Ai?"
"Ai knew already."
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Ai, who was looking back into my eyes, was wearing an expression that seemed on the verge of tears for some reason.
"I also knew that Hide had been having a hard time lately. So I regretted it, thinking I'd put an unnecessary burden on you. Hide always tries to carry everything by himself."
I gently pressed my forehead against hers. Then we ended up with our foreheads touching, sharing each other's warmth.
"I've never carried it alone. You were always by my side."
After saying that, I paused. What I was about to say was something I definitely couldn't have said if I were fully sober.
Once these words left my mouth, our relationship would clearly become something completely different from what it had been until now. But now I could say it with certainty.
"Hoshino Ai, please go out with me."
I could now say with certainty that I loved the girl. A life without her was no longer something I could even imagine, so I could say it proudly.
Because I love you,I can do anything for you.
As my words ended, I felt Ai's strength pulling me toward her. And the sweet scent of vanilla so close to me made my body freeze up.
But I had to move. Ai had been the one to kiss me first, so this time it was my turn to meet her with my sincerity.
I closed my eyes at the soft, unfamiliar sensation on my lips. Under the beautiful light of the midsummer moon, the girl and the boy became one thread, tied together.
.
.
.
.
"Ai's first kiss... got stolen by Hide...★"
"You were the one who pulled me in, Ai..."
Under the bright moonlight, the hands of the boy and girl bickering with each other were naturally joined together.