When we arrive at my apartment, it's already half past nine. I take off my coat, and yawn from sleepiness. Hoshi does the same with his dark coat, and I observe if he yawns too.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Hoshi asks suspiciously, as he yawns.
"Ha, you yawned!" I exclaim. Hoshi observes me with confusion, one of his fluffy eyebrows literally raised, creating a nonunderstanding grin.
"When somebody observes you when you yawn, he is most likely to yawn too" I say. "It's a technique to find out if a person is looking at you"
"So you wanted to see if I am looking at you?" Hoshi asks with a sneer. The way he looks at me so teasingly, yet still confused about what I just did creates some weird energy of him being in the position of teasing me.
"I just wanted to see if it works on you, I knew you were looking at me, moron" I rolled my eyes, shooting him an annoyed, teasing look. He tried to act all teasing too, why not make fun of him then?
"D-did you just call me a moron?!" He stutters with disbelief. I grin and I quickly try to walk away from him, but as he actually follows me, I begin to run. Hoshi drops his heavy coat, and rushes behind me, but I have no place to run to, as my apartment is indeed very tiny. I can't hold back a smile, as I turn to Hoshi, sighing with hopelessness. I'm trapped, but this whole situation is so funny. Hoshi observes me, a sly grin on his face and he slowly walks closer. "What, can't run no more?" He scoffs, but I remember I have a second floor, and a ladder to it right behind me. I quickly turn around and try to escape upstairs.
"Don't you think you can run away!" Hoshi rushes, and catches me by my arm, firmly gripping my grey hoodie. I blush, and all flustered turn to him, my light brown hair brushing against his face. He is really close, still holding my arm. As I'm standing on the ladder, I am now the same height, if not taller than him. We just stand like this, panting, staring into each others' eyes. It's like we both had so much going on inside us, yet didn't know how to express it. Hoshi still holds me against the ladder. If he let go, I would've fallen. His slim hands are stronger than they look.
I suddenly break the silence, laughing at this odd situation we ended up in. Hoshi starts laughing too and his grip loosens a little bit. It's dangerous for me to stay in a position where I can't grab the ladder, but at the same time I can't turn around and climb down. The only way to get down without falling is for Hoshi to put me down. So I put my hand on his shoulder, feeling the soft fabric of his dark blue sweatshirt.
"Can I…?" I ask, as I look into his chestnut eyes. Hoshi slightly nods, as I put my other hand on him, jumping on him. I hold him firmly, so I don't fall, my legs wrapping around his waist. I can smell a soft perfume on his neck mixing with the tender smell of his hair. I feel even more heat accumulating in my cheeks, my heart beating like crazy. I wonder if Hoshi can feel it, as my chest is tightly pressed against his. And he can. "Y-your heartbeat is… fast" Hoshi puts me down, and looks at my flustered face, his own cheeks in a hue of pink. He lifts his hand up to my cheek, slightly caressing it with his thumb. "It's adorable-"
My face is burning, I don't know what to do, I feel like if we continued this, I'd pass out from just the way he looks at me. And so I try to change the topic.
"Shall we watch a movie?" I ask, still breathing heavily. Hoshi slightly smiles, observing me with a gentle, admiring expression.
"Of course we can" He chuckles, his hand still lingering on my face, slowly sliding down to my chin.
"I'll choose today!" I giggle, and run upstairs. I have a horror in my mind that I've been wanting to watch for a while.
"Hey but it's my turn-" Hoshi retorts.
"Get the snacks from the kitchen!" I shout as I'm climbing the ladder.
I prepare the blankets, and put each on our separate bean bags. I give Hoshi a dark blue, fluffy one, and I snuggle in a light, grey one too, except mine's got stars on it that glow in the dark. Hoshi soon comes with a few snacks, getting comfortable in his place. He scoots closer, putting snacks in the middle.
"So what are we watching?" Hoshi asks, already eating his very favoured popcorn.
"A horror" I say.
"A horror?!" Hoshi blurts. "I'm not watching a horror…" He shoots me a serious glare.
"What, why? Are you scared?" I scoff, as if anyone in our age was actually scared of horrors.
"Well, yes… I am" He admits. "Like, I can never sleep alone afterwards. I just feel… well, scared" Hoshi says with a neutral expression. I am a little surprised as I would never expect him to be the type of person who would be scared of creepy, fictional stories.
"Oh, well…, I am here so you don't have to be scared. If it comforts you" I look at him with a slightly confused look. Is he making fun of me? I still don't understand it. How can he love sci-fi movies, but be scared of horrors. I feel like sci-fi is mostly even scarier than horrors. All the aliens and monsters, weird creatures and psycho people combined with science always send shivers down my spine.
"But don't you find sci-fi scary as well?" I ask curiously.
"Don't you even dare start a conversation about sci-fi" Hoshi frowns, but I find it pretty adorable.
After all, we (I) still decided to watch a horror movie. Hoshi is never too emotional while watching movies. I can safely say that unlike me, who is maybe too emotional sometimes, he's the type of person who just quietly sits, and is so in his head that he doesn't show much emotions. But today, he is leaning back on the beanbag, nervously playing with an edge of the dark blue blanket. Everytime the tension rises he, strained, is firmly gripping the blanket, motionlessly observing the screen. And when a jumpscare comes, he always gasps out of surprise. He's definitely not bored, but he looks like a black little scaredy cat. I don't think he'd be happy if I'd tell him this right now.
Later that night, Hoshi indeed brought a tatami mat down to sleep close to me.
"Nikko, pssst. Can I sleep next to you?"