Light pressed against his eyelids, waking Eiji Kuze.
A single ray of sunlight slipped through a gap in the wooden shutters, casting a narrow ribbon of light across the right side of the bed. It was the exact spot where faint moonlight had fallen the night before. It seemed the only thing that had changed overnight was the light shining down upon it.
(...I overslept.)
The angle of the light told him as much. Since arriving in this other world, not once had he slept in late enough for the shadows to tilt like this.
(What time is it?)
He looked around for a clock before remembering there were no such things here.
It was hardly something worth pondering with a sleep-addled mind. Yet the very fact that he had the leisure to entertain such trivial thoughts meant his head was clear.
Sleeping in a proper bed truly was wonderful.
For starters, his back didn't ache. Neither his waist nor his neck creaked in the slightest. The night before last, he had slept propped against a wall, leaving his neck sore before he had even sat up the following morning. Today, there was none of that. On top of that, his body felt strangely light to its core. It was the kind of morning where it felt as though he had sunk to the absolute depths of slumber and gently floated back to the surface. It was the first time he had slept so deeply since coming to this world.
Just as he began to wonder why, the events of last night came rushing back. Instantly, the back of his ears burned hot.
(Wait... come to think of it, where's Yuna?)
Rolling over, he found the space to his right empty.
Seeing the vacant spot, Eiji rested a palm against the sheets. They were still faintly warm. It seemed she hadn't left all that long ago.
He took a single breath to savor the lingering warmth, then sat up.
Swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, he noticed two sets of clothes neatly folded and set side by side on the frame at the foot of the bed.
On the left were Eiji's uniform trousers and shirt; beside them lay Yuna's gym clothes. The corners were squared away, the seams aligned, and the sleeves tucked neatly inward. Even the hemlines were so straight they looked as though they had been set against a ruler. Eiji knew only one person who folded clothes with such meticulous care.
She must have woken up first, folded both of their outfits, and stepped out of the room.
Following that thought, the reason why both sets of clothes were piled together on the frame immediately dawned on him.
Right... last night, those clothes had been strewn all over the floor under the bed.
It had been the first time for both of them, and with their passions running so high, neither had possessed the presence of mind to care where the garments landed as they stripped and were stripped in turn.
For now, he peeked under the blanket.
Naturally, he was buck naked.
(...It wasn't a dream after all.)
Pulling the blanket back up, he stared up at the ceiling.
Though the room had been dim, perhaps because his eyes had adjusted to the dark, he remembered everything with vivid clarity.
Two childhood friends who had apparently harbored mutual unrequited feelings for years had finally laid their hearts bare and sought each other out.
Her sweet scent, the softness of her skin, and the overwhelming bliss the moment they first joined as one—every single memory surged back into his mind with merciless detail.
(Did I... do okay?)
Kissing and making love were, of course, firsts in his life. He had simply yielded to instinct and reached for her.
He was fairly sure he had checked in with her at every turn... but just how many times had he asked if she was all right? How many times had he whispered that he loved her, that she was cute? And how many times had she returned those words of love? When he calmly recalled the sweet nothings they had shared, he flushed with pure embarrassment.
Far from just his ears, his entire face was blazing. He felt mortified enough to roll around on the floor.
(Ah, damn it! Folding them like that just makes it a hundred times more embarrassing!)
His bashful grumbling didn't last.
The fact that she was the kind of person who couldn't ignore a scattered mess was nothing new. Whether it was mending a torn shirt or rinsing out a toothbrush, she had always been that way.
(Still... that's just like Yuna.)
His expression softened into an involuntary smile.
The realization that he had shared both his heart and his body with that very same girl sent his chest fluttering uncontrollably.
Reaching for his clothes on the frame, he slipped his arms through the sleeves. His fingers brushed against the seam on the shoulder of the shirt Yuna had mended. The stitches were fine and even, just as they had been yesterday. Reassured by that small, unchanging detail, he pulled on his trousers, buttoned his shirt to the collar, and stepped out of the back room.
When Eiji stepped down onto the dirt floor, Yuna was nowhere to be seen.
Embers still rested in the hearth, untouched from when they had been banked with ash last night. No new fire had been lit.
A single bowl sat on the table. The shelves were just as they had left them yesterday.
(Huh? Where is she?)
Glancing toward the entrance, he saw the wooden crossbar had been lifted.
The bar Yuna had secured last night was now resting against the wall beside the door frame.
Sensing no trace of her anywhere inside the house, an icy chill gripped his chest.
Pushing down that sudden anxiety, Eiji pushed the door open.
"Yuna?"
Calling her name as he stepped outside, the sounds of the morning washed over him all at once.
The chirping of birds. The whisper of the wind. The rustling of grass. To ears accustomed to the silence indoors, the world outside felt wonderfully alive.
She was standing by the well.
Dressed in her uniform, her back turned to him, she was busy washing up. His voice must have reached her, as she paused and looked back over her shoulder.
"Ah, Eiji-kun. Good morning."
She offered him a radiant, blooming smile.
The morning light caught the curve of her face.
In one hand she held a toothbrush, and in the other, a linen towel. She must have just washed her face; her damp bangs clung to her forehead.
(She's so cute...)
He couldn't help but stare, completely captivated.
She was wearing the exact same uniform with the exact same hemline as yesterday, and her features hadn't changed in the slightest. The only difference was her wet fringe.
Yet he couldn't tear his eyes away.
Forgetting to return the greeting, his feet remained rooted to the spot.
(...The one who changed is me.)
Until now, he had always viewed her through the lens of a childhood friend—precisely so he wouldn't get mesmerized like this. Even when he thought she was cute, he had unconsciously hidden behind that childhood friend barrier, keeping his true feelings at bay.
Now that the barrier was gone, this was the result.
It was one of the reasons he had told her last night that he wouldn't be able to hold back anymore.
Seeing Eiji standing there frozen, Yuna tilted her head slightly.
"What's wrong?"
"N-No. It's nothing."
Dodging the question, Eiji walked over to the well.
Stepping around the wet stone rim, he came to a stop directly in front of her. At such close quarters, starting the conversation anew felt a little awkward.
"...Morning."
"Morning!"
She returned his greeting with a bright smile.
In the four days since arriving in this world, this was the first time they had shared a proper morning greeting. On the first morning, they were still in Japan; on the second, they had spent the dawn rattling along in the back of a wagon. Though they had exchanged words yesterday morning, both of them had been a bundle of nerves, their voices strained and flustered.
A simple greeting was enough to leave him feeling ticklish inside.
Facing her like this, a thought he had held back slipped out.
"You should've woken me up."
"You looked like you were sleeping so peacefully. I felt bad disturbing you."
Yuna tucked her toothbrush back into its travel case before adding:
"Besides... I was a little embarrassed."
Blushing, she looked away.
"I-I see."
He couldn't bring himself to press any further.
Asking what had made her shy would only force him to put the exact same things into words. The embarrassment cut both ways.
A quiet hush fell between them. Eiji kicked a stray pebble with the tip of his shoe, while Yuna lightly traced the rim of the well with her fingertip. Both searched for somewhere to place the words they couldn't voice.
It was Yuna who broke the silence.
"Did you sleep well?"
"...Thanks to you."
"Me too."
A brief exchange passed between them, followed once more by silence.
He couldn't help but feel there were many layers packed into those simple words—'Thanks to you' and 'Me too.'
The relief of finally securing a place to call their own in this unfamiliar world.
The quiet joy of feelings reaching each other after so many years kept apart.
It felt as though both of them had poured the very same emotions into their replies.
Perhaps that was why the quiet between them no longer felt stifling. The wind caressing the grass, the birdsong, and the trickling water from the channel filled the gap between them. It was a comfortable, easy silence.
Eventually, Yuna let out a soft breath, her brow softening into a gentle curve.
"Sorry. Every time I remember last night, I just get so flustered. I feel like I blurted out all sorts of things..."
"T-That goes for both of us."
"...Yeah."
Yuna offered a happy, tender smile.
"You told me you loved me. Over and over."
As expected, she remembered every single word he had said.
Just recalling it earlier had been agonizing enough; hearing it straight from her lips was almost more than he could bear.
"Please, stop. I'm going to die of embarrassment."
"And you kept calling me cute, too."
"I said stop!"
Though he protested, there was no real bite to his voice.
The memories were simply too vivid. The more he remembered how much had spilled from his mouth last night, the hotter his face burned.
There wasn't a trace of mockery in Yuna's voice. She simply sounded happy, as though she were savoring each of those memories one by one.
That only made it hit harder. If she were teasing him, he could have fired back with some snappy retort, but with her looking so genuinely overjoyed, he had no defense.
And then—
"I was really happy, you know?"
With that blissful confession, Yuna delivered the final blow to his heart.
"—-~~!"
A strangled, wordless squeak escaped him.
He had run completely out of ammunition. It was total defeat.
As he hung his head in quiet surrender, the ribbon at the base of Yuna's throat caught his eye.
The knot was tilted ever so slightly.
Her ribbon had always sat perfectly straight against her collar. From the day they entered high school until now, he had never seen it crooked. Not in the classroom, not in the hallway, and not even after they had been thrown into this world. That knot had always been dead level. Yet this morning, it was canted just a fraction to the right.
Before he could overthink it, his hands reached out.
"...Hold still."
"Eh? What are—"
His fingertips brushed the fabric of the ribbon. Yuna gave a small, startled jolt.
Without paying it any mind, Eiji pinched the knot, straightened it out, adjusted the bows, and let go.
"It was crooked."
"...Ehehe. Thanks."
Blushing bashfully, Yuna touched the straightened ribbon with her fingers.
It seemed he wasn't the only one still struggling to find his footing.
Wearing that same sweet expression, she held out the toothbrush case toward him.
"Here. Take this."
She practically thrust it into his hand, then turned her face away. The handle was pointed toward him.
"...I made sure to wash it."
"O-Oh. Thanks."
As he took it, Yuna let out a soft, relieved breath.
Yesterday, just passing this toothbrush back and forth had turned them both into stammering messes speaking in stiff, overly polite tones. 'May I borrow it?' 'Of course, go ahead.' Yet this morning, they had managed it in just three casual lines.
Considering everything that had happened between them last night, neither of them had any right to get embarrassed over a mere toothbrush. Yet here they were, still blushing over the smallest things. It was almost funny.
(...Well, I guess it makes sense.)
The usual order of steps had been thrown completely out the window.
Things would have been entirely different back in Japan. Even if they had started dating, they probably would have taken their time, checking every milestone off one by one.
Walking to school together, going on dates, sharing their first kiss... it would have taken far longer to reach the kind of intimacy they had shared last night.
Yet the reality of being summoned to another world, and the dire circumstances they had been thrown into, had bypassed all of that in a single leap.
"Make sure you wash it properly, okay?" Yuna called out with a playful lilt before turning to head back toward the house. Before ducking through the doorway, she glanced back over her shoulder one last time and gave a small, gentle wave.
(Man... my girlfriend is way too cute.)
It still felt entirely surreal that he had shared such an intimate night with a girl as wonderful as her.
Realizing his thoughts were spiraling back toward last night's memories again, he gave his head a vigorous shake.
If she ever figured out what was running through his mind, he would never live it down.
Trying to distract himself, Eiji began brushing his teeth with the cold well water, letting his gaze wander across the village.
Houses with caved-in roofs. Crumbled walls. Weeds faded to an ashen gray from the roots up. Every time the dry wind swept through, that sea of gray rippled like waves. Twenty years of accumulated dust and decay weren't something they could undo in just three days. By no stretch of the imagination did this place look fit for human life.
Only three things had changed.
The damp rim of the well. The lone house with a thin wisp of smoke rising from its roof. And the small shed with a chimney standing beside it.
That was the extent of what they had managed to repair. Everything else remained the same desolate, abandoned ruin they had found on their first day.
After rinsing out his mouth, Eiji began organizing the day's tasks in his mind.
Salt. A kitchen knife. Tableware. Aromatic and medicinal herbs. A toothbrush for himself. A change of clothes. A second bed. And eventually, a garden plot.
He didn't have a solid plan for any of them. Still, if he ventured into the forest, he ought to make some progress. With the right stones and sturdy branches, he could craft basic tools and cutlery, and finding edible plants would add much-needed variety to their meals. He also wanted to keep an eye out for fragrant herbs they could use as a substitute for soap or shampoo.
(First things first: the forest.)
Drying the toothbrush with the linen towel, Eiji turned his steps toward the house—toward the one home breathing with smoke in a village where no one was supposed to live. Through the doorway, the quiet crackle of the hearth and the sound of soft humming drifted out to meet him.
There were only two people in this entire village.
For the very first time, that thought didn't feel lonely at all.