“Then… you can belong to me.”

  Rea’s words resounded in my mind, clearing away the darkness like a sudden flash of light.

  Tears welled up in my eyes as I fell into her arms.

  I cried softly as she embraced me, placing her hand on my head as she gently brushed it.

  As the pain quickly left my body, I felt my consciousness fading. But this time, I did not resist falling asleep.

  I closed my eyes and drifted into a deep, peaceful slumber.

  Hours passed by.

  I opened my eyes to a beautiful orange sky and the quiver of a sunset on the horizon.

  Rea looked down at me with a soft expression.

  “Ah… you’re awake, Yoiya.” She murmured.

  Still half-asleep, I simply gave a nod to her.

  It was the first time she called me that, but I did not have the energy to feel embarrassed or shocked.

  I lifted my head up and sat straight, turning to look around.

  “What time is it?”

  “Comiket’s almost over.” Another voice said.

  I looked over to see Ake, her face filled with a mix of worry and relief. She smiled warmly at me, a smile similar to Mia’s.

  “Did you sleep well?” She asked me.

  “Yeah.” I said.

  For once, I slept quite well. I had no dreams. There was no visions and no darkness. Instead, as I lied there, all I felt was a cloud-like warmth enveloping me as I stared up at a starry sky.

  “That’s good.” Ake replied.

  Rea played with my bangs, pushing them to the side as she stared at my face.

  Now more awake, I could feel myself blushing lightly.

  “You looked… peaceful.” She said.

  “Yeah…” I muttered my response softly.

  I stood to my feet, handing my hand out to lift Rea to her feet as well.

  As she takes my hand to let me pull her up, the image of a page from a romance novel crossed my mind. I stumbled backwards as I pull her to her feet, almost falling over.

  She instinctively pulls on me, bring me towards her. We begin to fall back to the ground together.

  But thankfully, Ake catches Rea from behind and supports her to keep her from falling. As a result, I just end up faceplanting into Rea’s chest.

  It was rather flat, yet I could still sense her softness through her clothes. Though, it still could have just been her winter sweater.

  Chuckling nervously, she smiled at me. “Yoiya. You just woke up so you shouldn’t be helping people up so soon.”

  I quickly straightened myself out again, scratching my head as I looked away. “Y-yeah. You’re p-probably right…”

  Rea simply tilted her head, confused by what just happened.

  Ake and I smiled at each other and laughed it off, trying out best to defuse the silent weight of what occurred. This was followed by an awkward silence.

  “Yuru-kun!!! Reaa! There you guys are!!!” Mashiro’s loud voice broke the silence nearly immediately. She waved at us from a distance as she ran in our direction at top speed.

  Mashiro skidded to a halt in front of us, nearly slipping on the pavement. “Haha! Finally found you mister protagonist and missus heroine.” She glanced over to Ake. “Ah, I see you’re here too, student council support team. Anyways, Eliba said you guys ran off and we just ran out of copies so I was wondering if Yuru-kun could make us some m-”

  She cut herself off mid-sentence, placing her finger against the side of her lips as she thought. “I mean… Ahem… Raneko said to come check on you guys once we ran out of copies so here I am! Oh! And he said…” Mashiro pressed her hand against the buttom of her chin making an L shape with her thumb and index finger. She spoke in a rather masculine voice, as if she were imitating somebody. “Prepare to face consequences when you get back. Don’t worry, I’ll go easy on you guys.”

  She then smiled and waved the same hand around a bit. “Or something like that! Huehue!”

  Mashiro spoke so quickly, it was difficult for me to absorb everything that she said but I felt this sudden dread looming over me. I looked over at Rea with nervousness clearly shown on my face.

  She grabbed me by the hand and nodded at me.

  “It’ll be okay. Raneko has… always been rather… lenient.”

  Ake let out a sudden sigh and a soft, tiny laugh. “I guess you two better get going.”

  “Right!” Mashiro declared, pumping her fist into the air. “Let’s-a-gooo!!!”

  She lead the way back to the building, marching like she was in some kind of band and chanting. “Left, left, left, right, left!” “

  Rea went to rush after her, and then turned to look at me. “Come on… Yoiya.” And she continued onwards.

  I began to run after them but I stopped and looked back at Ake.

  She smiled at me and brushed me on with simple subtle gesture of her hand. “Go on. I’ll catch up with you soon.”

  Hesitantly, I nodded and moved on. But I couldn’t help but look back as I ran.

  As she fade into the crowd, I could see her clutch her fist to her chest and mouth a few words. But I could not hear those words as the noise of the crowds rushed back in, as if deliberately blocking me from hearing them.

  I began to stop once more, but I pushed myself to keep running. It was as if something inside me said I shouldn’t push it further. Even so…

  ~What was she trying to say?

  The question still lingered in the back of my mind.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  …

  We arrived back at the booth in a hurry. There, I saw a long line of customers, piling onto Raneko and Eliba.

  “Yaho!” Mashiro shouted out in greeting as she raised her hand to signal her triumphant return.

  “You’re back.” Eliba looked at us, deadeyed. Dark bags had started to form under her eyes as the booth was being swamped with customers.

  A half-finished illustration sat on table infront of Eliba. It appeared as if she had been drawing for hours.

  “Oh. Welcome back, you three.” Raneko said with a straight face as he sorted through a small stack of papers. “Your punishment will come later. For now, help us out. We’re letting people make pre-orders since we ran out of the copies we had on hand and I’m having Eliba give them a complementary illustration while we’re at it.”

  “This is hell…” Eliba groaned. “You two definitely owe me…”

  Mashiro gasped dramatically. “ELIBA! You’re doing amazing! Look at those bags under your eyes — that’s the mark of a true artist!”

  Eliba stared at her with the deadest expression I had ever seen. “Mashiro. I will draw you next. And I will make it cursed.”

  Mashiro squeaked and hid behind me.

  “Alright, alright.” Ake stepped forward, appearing from behind us as she rolled up her sleeves.”I’ll help with the pre-order forms. Just tell me what to write.”

  “Thank you, Ake.” Raneko said, giving her a clipboard without looking up.

  I looked at Ake with concern. The weight I sensed on her earlier was completely gone now.

  ~Did I just imagine it?

  Rea gentle nudged me towards the front of the booth. “Yoiya… can you help me… greet customers… again? Only if… you’re okay with that…”

  Her voice was soft— too soft, and way too cute. I could feel my cheeks warm again.

  “I-I’ll— I’ll try…” I said, sitting down beside her.

  Mashiro popped out from behind me. “He’ll do great! He’s our mascot!”

  Raneko didn’t even look up. “He is not a mascot.”

  Eliba muttered, “Doesn’t matter to me, but illustrations of him seem to be selling well.”

  “H-huh?” I stuttered at Eliba’s statement.

  She held up a finished illustration of the main character in their story.

  “I guess… It does sort of look like me…?” I blinked a couple of times, my voice quivering ever so slightly as I forced a smile.

  A customer stepped forward, waving a preorder slip. “Um, excuse me—”

  Mashiro jumped in front of me. “WELCOME! THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR CLUB! PLEASE FORM AN ORDERLY LINE OR I WILL CRY!”

  The customer blinked. “O?oh. Okay.”

  Rea stifled a laugh behind her hand.

  I took a deep breath, steadied myself, and stepped beside Mashiro.

  “W?welcome,” I said, this time without my voice cracking.

  “Awwh… S-so cute!!! You’re even cuter in person than the illustrations!”

  “H-huh?” Again, my voice stuttered as my cheeks burned in what I could only assume was embarrassment.

  “Ah. I may have gotten Eliba to post sneakpeek illustrations of you on social media to promote our manga for today.” Mashiro playfully tapped her head with fist as she gave me a wink. “Needed to make sure we’d sell out! What better way but to show off Eliba’s masterful art skills showcasing our mascot!” She looked at Raneko. “See! He is our mascot!”

  Raneko let out a sigh. “I’ll let it pass this time. Just keep your hands moving, alright? The event is almost over.”

  “R-right!” I nervously responded, trying my best to muster up confidence. “W-welcome! T-thank you for comi-ing!”

  The chatter of the line rose and I received many compliments that day.

  Rea smiled at me all the while — small, warm, proud.

  And somehow, even with the chaos, noise, and endless line of customers…

  …I felt okay.

  …

  The sun dipped lower outside the windows, casting long amber streaks across the floor.

  The crowd thinned.

  The noise softened.

  The frantic rush slowed to a steady hum.

  Mashiro’s voice cracked from shouting.

  Eliba’s hand cramped mid?sketch.

  Raneko finally stopped pacing.

  Ake stretched her arms with a tired sigh.

  Rea leaned just a little closer to me, her shoulder brushing mine as she handed a preorder slip to the last customer.

  A chime rang and a voice echoed out across the building.

  “Good evening everyone. This year’s Winter Comiket is now coming to a close. Thank you for visiting and we hope to see you again this summer.”

  I laid across the booth’s table, now completely cleared and empty. I yawned, completely drained from the consistent customer interaction.

  Raneko let out a sigh as he stretched out his arms. “Alright. Good work, everyone. Now I just need to contact the publishing company about the extra copies and work out delivery somehow…”

  “Did this happen last year?”

  Rea shook her head. “We sold out… last year, too. But… we didn’t file any extra orders.”

  “What happened then?”

  Eliba, Raneko, and Rea all immediately looked at Mashiro, who was already doing a silent celebration since her voice gave out.

  “Eh?” She muttered a short sound. “Oh…” She coughed a couple of times. “Uhhh… There was so many customers asking about our manga that I insisted we have them order a copy before hand.”

  Raneko pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head slowly as he groaned. “So I had to print out pre-order slips and hand them out by myself as Mashiro conveniently decided to go find you two.”

  I looked at Mashiro with a tired, judging look.

  Mashiro threw her hands up in surrender, smiling nervously.

  “Huehu–” She attempted her usual laugh but ended up coughing again. “S-surprise…?” She croaked, her voice barely hanging on.

  Eliba glared at her with tired eyes, but said no words. Though, the glare pretty much said it all anyways.

  Mashiro recoiled dramatically, but this time her reaction seemed totally genuine.

  Raneko let out another sigh, slipping his stack of papers into his bag as he checked his phone.. “Let’s just pack up and go home. I need sleep.”

  Eliba nodded in agreement, slowly rising from her seat to help pack the booth. Not that there was anything to pack. There were just empty boxes to deconstruct.

  Rea shook me slightly by the shoulder. “Yoiya…? Are you… okay…? You look… tired…”

  “Mhm…” I mumbled, half asleep.

  As my eyes began to close, I could see a familiar blonde-haired girl run up to the group in a rush and a heard a familiar voice to pair.

  “Yoiya! I’m here to pick you up! Sorry, we did plan to come today but the cafe was swamped with otak— Oh… he’s asleep?” Mia called out.

  The voices began to fade as I drifted further and further into a state of rest. But this time, I wasn’t afraid, though I was trying to stay awake to listen a little longer.

  I simply gave a subtle smile as their voices filled my ears.

  “Seems today ended up a little crazier than expected.” Ake said.

  “If you want a copy, you’ll have to wait til I can get copies. I can send one over to your place once I do.” Raneko’s voice replied.

  “Oh, no. That’s okay. But it’d be much appreciated!”

  The rest of the conversation blurred out.

  I can vaguely remember her meeting the club members each personally, and being especially happy to meet Rea.

  “Let’s go home, Yoiya.” —These were the last words I heard.

  …

  A faint vibration buzzed against the nightstand.

  Yoiya’s phone lit up in the dark room, the screen casting a soft glow across his sleeping face.

  One unread message.

  [From: Rea]

  [Do you want to go to the shrine with me for New Year’s?]

  The screen dimmed.

  The room fell quiet again as snow drifted softly outside the window.