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There it was again. For the fifth time. The same low, ghastly sound that eerily resembled someone wailing…or something like that. A ghost? Ghosts? Yukiko sighed and propped herself up on her elbow; as much as she enjoyed those kinds of stories, there was a difference between listening to accounts of them and actually being in one. She rolled over to face the other side of the room. The other girls were taking it about as well as she expected, save for Naoto, who had fallen asleep with Nanako prior to their return from the hot-springs. Judging by the looks they were giving her, they had all assumed the same thing. Ms. Yamano had to have stayed here. It explained why such a large room would be vacant during the busy season…and the haunting noises. But still…would her mother really allow her to stay in such a room? If she didn’t let customers whom she did not know use it, why would she let her daughter and her friends?
Chie gulped. Her usual cheerful self was gone, her face now as pale as the bedsheets. “Uh…g-guys? D’ you think…”
“Don’t say it,” Rise warned.
“B-but what are we gonna do? I’m not going to be able to sleep if it keeps up.”
“I think the sounds come in intervals; it took around three minutes for the most recent one to reappear. They usually come back now and then, but they never last long. If we get lucky, we’ll fall asleep in between the sounds and it’ll be all right,” Yukiko suggested.
“How do you expect me to sleep through this? Do ghosts know to time their wails? Like, is that even possible?!”
Rise’s eyes widened. “Chie! Stop provoking them! If they hear us and continue messing with us, we’re never going to get any rest! T-this sucks...why don’t the guys have to deal with stuff like this?” she pouted.
“I guess we did chase them out of the hot-springs when it was technically their turn. Could that be why? Yukiko said.
Rise huffed. “I thought we agreed not to talk about that.”
Silence soon returned and enveloped the room. If Yukiko hadn’t known better, she would have told the other two that it was like how in horror movies the music died out before the jump scare. While it was good of her to hold her tongue, it didn’t really matter; Chie had already vocalized her thoughts for her. Rise supressed a shriek, her hands instantly darting toward her phone.
“I can’t take this anymore! I’m going to message Senpai. M-maybe we can get him over here and we can figure out what’s going on.”
Despite her frazzled state, Rise didn’t fail to notice that Yukiko turned away at the mention of their leader’s name. She could have sworn that her friend was blushing, but at what? The implications of having a guy in the girl’s room? Or maybe...wait no. It was probably her imagination. Blushes weren’t visible in the dark. Were they? Before she could push the matter properly, Chie piped up again. “Yukiko, what do we do?”
“Well, I guess we could…plug our ears?”
Chie blinked. “Uh…but with what exactly?”
Yukiko opened her mouth momentarily, but she quickly closed it after realizing how silly her suggestion was. “Never mind,” she said sheepishly.
Then the noise came. This time it was louder. Clearer. Nearer. It was also enough to freeze all three girls in place. After a few seconds, the wailing died down, allowing the deafening silence to return. It took a good three minutes, but the girls managed to recover. Or so they thought, for just as Rise mustered up the courage to sit up, her phone decided to go off. And back under the sheets she went.
“…Chie? Could you um…could you get that for me?” She asked weakly. “I-It’s to your right.” Chie, after a moment of mental preparation, shot her hand out from under her blanket and grabbed the phone. “We r all awake over here. If ur ok with it, u can stay with Sensei and the rest of us for the night. The room is beary big after all,” she read aloud.
Rise raised an eyebrow upon hearing those last couple words. “Has Teddie started to influence him or something?”
Chie kicked off the covers and bolted for the door, dragging Yukiko off with her. “Who cares? He gave us the all-clear. Now let’s just get outta here! If we stay here any longer we may never wake up!”
“But where are we going to sleep? There’s no way the guys have forgotten what we did,” Yukiko asked.
“I don’t know! We’ll figure out when we get there! And besides, wherever we get sentenced to, it’ll probably be better than here.”
“Uh…guys?”
Yukiko and Chie whirled around to see Rise gesturing to the two sleeping figures on the far side of the room. “Do we take them with us?”
“I think the best course of action will be to take Nanako with you. I believe I will be all right on my own; there are some things I would like to examine, and it would be best if I was allowed to work undisturbed.”
Upon hearing the unfamiliar voice, Chie instantly leaped out of the room. “What the—Naoto?! Don’t do stuff like that! How long have you been awake?” She whispered, her face peeking out from the other side of the sliding door.
“Long enough to understand our current predicament,” the detective replied. She then turned to the girl sleeping beside her. “Can you carry her, Rise?”
“Yeah, I think I’ll be okay,” she smiled. Gingerly, she picked up Nanako and joined the other two at the room’s entrance. “Naoto, will you be all right here? The guys’ room isn’t exactly close to ours,” Yukiko asked, trying to talk her out of staying. Naoto hesitated for a moment before shaking her head.
“No one’s asking you to stay you know,” Chie added, “you sure you don’t want to come?”
“No, it’s all right. I assure you; I-I’ll be fine.”
(Guy’s Room, 2:34 A.M.)
“Uh…this is their room right? We didn’t like…mess it up or something?”
“I don’t know!”
“Didn’t they say they were awake? Why aren’t the lights on?
Yosuke winced as the feeling of pain started to return to him; that bucket must have done more damage than he initially thought, because he could swear that he was hearing voices. Voices that sounded exactly like the girls’. Weird. Man, they torture us in our sleep too?! I didn’t even do anything this time…
The door creaked ever so slightly. Yosuke’s eyes shot open and darted towards the door. Were those…people he saw? He…he didn’t imagine that, did he? The door creaked again, this time sliding open entirely and revealing the three shadowy figures behind it. The Magician’s eyes slammed shut. It’s just a dream. Just a dream. Just a…Yukiko, this is going way too far!! What did we ever do to deserve this?!
“What the—they’re asleep?!”
Wait a second. He wasn’t dreaming at all. That voice was too close to him to be his imagination. His eyes shot open to confirm his suspicions. And sure enough, there was Chie, standing in the middle of the room, her hands on her hips. Rise was already dozing off on the couch, with a sleeping Nanako leaning on her shoulder. And there was Yukiko by the entrance, somewhat hesitant to go in. But then…where was Naoto? She was probably hiding behind Yukiko; breaking into the guy’s room in the middle of the night didn’t exactly sound like her. It didn’t sound like Yukiko or Chie either, but technically they had done it before.
The words left his mouth before he could stop them. “H-huh? What are you guys doing here?” For some unknown reason, the question seemed to annoy the girls. Then again, anything that came out of his mouth would probably be enough to earn him some sort of kick or punch from them. Chie especially.
“What do you mean? You told us it was okay if we came over, idiot!”
Yosuke sat up. “We fell asleep almost two hours ago! After what you guys pulled, we figured we should just get the night over with,” he grumbled and buried his face into the pillow.
“Would you just quit with the charade? Your acting skills don’t do you anything if we’ve got proof.”
“What proof?”
“I got a message from Senpai a few minutes ago. He told us that you guys were all awake and if we wanted to come over, we could,” Rise said drowsily.
“Huh? But that’s—wait. Why would you even want to come over?”
Chie’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t try to change the subject Yosuke. The point is that you were all awake just now, and when you heard that we were coming, you decided to make it look like you were all asleep so we would have to walk all the way back to our room. Just admit it. I might let you off easy if you own up to it this time.”
“I’m telling you dude. I don’t have anything to do with this. If anything, blame Yu; he was the one who sent the message, right?”
“And why would I do that?”
“What?! Why wouldn’t you?”
“Because Narukami isn’t the kind of person to wake me up at 2 in the morning to tell me some dirty joke?”
“That’s beside the point!”
“What if the ghosts were the ones who sent that message?” Yukiko asked. She had long since entered the room and settled down by Yu’s bedside, a move that didn’t go unnoticed by Yosuke. Her speculation caused Chie to spring up several feet in the air. Fortunately, she was the only one seriously affected by it; Rise had already fallen asleep, though it was a bit unnerving that she could sleep through such constant bickering. Nanako too, for that matter.
“Ack!! I can’t take this anymore!” Chie lunged for the light switch, turned it on and, at Yukiko’s suggestion, dimmed it slightly to avoid waking up anyone else. It only partially worked though; the brief flash of light was enough to cause Kanji and Yu to stir.
“Aha! So you were in on this too?! I knew it! What do have to say for yourselves?”
Kanji yawned and sat up. “Chie, how high are you right now?” he muttered, still half-asleep.
“Dude, they just woke up! And I thought I already told you! We. Didn’t. Do. It,” Yosuke snarled.
“Well it’s either you or the ghosts,” Chie shrugged with feigned nonchalance, “a-and we know that ghosts don’t exist so…”
“Yukiko, are you all right? Did something happen?” Yu inquired.
Yukiko smiled sheepishly; their reason for sneaking over was a bit far fetched after all. “W-well…um….we heard these strange noises back at our room a-and…they were keeping us up, so we asked you if it was okay if we came over.” Yu scratched his head. “I guess I said yes?” Yukiko nodded.
“Really? I don’t remember getting a message like that from Rise. Let me check.”
After flipping the phone open, Yu scrolled through his messages and quickly found that he had indeed received a text from Rise that matched Yukiko’s description. However, what stood out to him was that he had replied to it. “What in the…did someone…?”
Chie sank to the floor and brought her arms around her knees. “Maybe the ghosts really did do it...”
Yosuke glanced over Yu’s shoulder, trying to get a peek at the message on the phone. “You sure you didn’t like…send it in your sleep? Sleep-text?”
“No. The chances of me texting an entire sentence in my sleep are almost impossible. A coherent sentence even less,” Yu replied absent-mindedly.
“Can I see what was sent?”
Yu shrugged and handed him the phone. “Yeah, sure.”
It took no more than two seconds for Yosuke to figure it out. “Gah, that dumb bear! How’d he figure out your password? Yo Teddie, wake up! I gotta ask you something.”
“SorryI’masleepandIcan’thearyouuu!”
“Uh…come again?”
No response came, save for the boy’s snoring, which only seemed to get louder. It was as if he thought that the louder he snored, the more that proved he was actually asleep. Yukiko frowned. Teddie wouldn’t be able to respond to a question if he were asleep. Unless it was due to him not being a human, but even then, it sounded a bit out there to give him the benefit of the doubt. Unlike the other guys (except maybe Yosuke), Teddie actually had a motive for bringing them here. Chie seemed to be following her train of thought; Yukiko practically saw the gears turning in her friend’s head.
“Hey! You were the one who sent it, weren’t you? Now that I think about it, how did we not figure it out sooner?! The dumb bear pun is a dead giveaway!”
“N-nope! Nope nope nope. It wasn’t me. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“It was you! You’re in beary big trouble now, Teddie!”
In a flash, Teddie rolled out of bed and fled for the washroom; the door did have a lock, and it would keep his assailant from pursuing him. He would probably be spending the night there, though he was certain that it would better than facing the full wrath of Chie. She was about kick down the door, but any attempts at a full interrogation were cut off when Kanji suddenly spoke up. “Hey…uh, guys? Did you forget Naoto or something?”
“She decided to stay back at our room for a little bit. I think she wanted to figure out what was going on,” Yukiko answered while doing her best to suppress a yawn. “I didn’t think it was a good idea for her to be alone like that, but you know how stubborn she can get when it comes to these things.”
“You mean you guys were fine with leaving her!? Shouldn’t we go check on her?”
“W-well…I’d—We’d rather not go back over there. And she made the decision on her own; it’s not like we didn’t let her come with us.”
“Yeah. If anyone can handle that room, no doubt it would be Naoto. And she’s a detective for crying out loud. She’s probably solved many mysteries involving ‘ghosts’ before. I think she’ll be okay,” Chie added.
Kanji stood up and slid his hands into his pockets. “I guess…I guess that means I’ll be going by myself then,” he said under his breath. Yosuke grinned; he had noticed (along with everyone else) that the younger boy had kept his eyes glued to the ceiling the entire time, and there was an unmistakable blush lighting his cheeks. He was practically asking to be teased.
“Just don’t tell her you tented with Hanako before her.”
Kanji’s eyes darkened. “Say that again?!” Yosuke pointed to Rise and Nanako, who were still sleeping peacefully, cheekily reminding him to keep his voice down.
“He does have a good point though,” Yu noted. The door shut rather forcefully.
(Girl’s room, 2:38 A.M.)
Naoto Shirogane was no stranger to paranormal activity; her reputation as the Detective Prince(ss) often put her in charge of solving many a mystery involving them, and she made sure that not one case remained unsolved. There really was no reason to fear this particular case either, but here she was curled up in the corner of the room, trying her best to fight the tears. Perhaps it was the discovery of the TV World that caused her to redefine the line between fiction and the real world. Or maybe it was the fact that she had the chance to go with the rest of the girls but turned it down in favour of trying to maintain her image as a cool, level-headed detective. A part of her wanted to bolt out the door and run as fast as she could over to the guys’ room, but the other told her to stay. “You’re not a child anymore, Naoto. Come on. You know better than anyone that they aren’t real; staying here will prove how much you’ve grown.” Her reasoning had made sense to her initially, but after dwelling on it for some time, the girl concluded that her pride was the real offender here.
The most rational course of action would have been to leave the room and search for the rest of her friends, but that option was quickly forgotten once Naoto heard the ghost for the first time. The haunting sounds froze her in place; it didn’t matter how many times her brain would tell her to move; her body simply wouldn’t budge. But as frightening as it was to her extremely vivid imagination, Naoto found that the worst part occurred after the noises died down. Sleeping was nigh impossible when she knew that the ghosts could return at any moment, and she was too distraught to take note of how long the moments of peace lasted. She couldn’t even bring herself over to the light switch. Instead, she tried to remedy the problem by surrounding herself with a protective fortress of pillows and bedsheets. It was childish, she knew, but it did offer her some kind of physical reassurance at least. They couldn’t reach her if they couldn’t find her, she told herself. And judging by the lack of wailing and hushed screams, it seemed to be working. Naoto’s eyes closed, letting the long overdue sleep overtake her. It was good; if she could over-exhaust herself, she wouldn’t wake up even if they returned. However, she had forgotten how heightened a person’s senses could get in high-stress situations.
Footsteps. She was certain of it. At this hour, no one should have been up; as much as she hated to admit it, maybe she did have a reason to be afraid after all. Naoto fumbled around for a minute, her hands searching for the blanket’s edges. She drew them up over her head, bracing herself as the sounds grew closer and closer. Then they stopped. The detective let out a sigh she didn’t realize she was holding in. Maybe another inn guest had heard the noise and was going to notify the staff. Cautiously, she peeked her head out from under the covers. The second her eyes landed on the room’s door, Naoto froze. Her teeth clamped down on her tongue as she bit back a shriek. There was someone or something standing outside her room. Judging by all the noise it was making, Naoto could tell that it was already working on getting inside; her eyes slammed shut as the door suddenly gave way and slid open.
The figure burst through the door, right into the barricade she had set up. Kanji landed on the floor with an unceremonious thud, the wind knocked completely out of him; a sharp curse followed shortly after. Just like that, any fear she had melted away at the sound of the familiar voice. Naoto immediately threw off the covers and sat up. “Kanji?! What are you doing here? A-are you all right?” Kanji groaned in response.
“Came to…see if…if you’re all right.”
“Oh. I-I see. Thank y—I mean, you have my gratitude.”
Kanji looked up at the girl and smiled weakly; his cheeks were already beginning to heat up. “It’s no big dea—what the…hey, Naoto? What’s wrong? Y-you’re shaking.”
The girl stiffened at his remark. “H-hmm? Oh, that. It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.”
Kanji looked at her skeptically. “Y’know, I heard that the reason the other girls left was because of the weird noises they were hearing. I was worried that…that you might be bothered by them as well, y’know?”
“I’ll be okay. I’ve been through worse,” Naoto fibbed. Unfortunately for her, Kanji wasn’t completely oblivious to the concept of body language. Despite him being just about the densest person on the Investigation Team, he found it very hard to believe what the girl was saying, especially when her voice, as well as her entire figure, was trembling.
“Are you sure about that?”
“Y-yes. I’m fine, Kanji.”
Kanji sighed and peeled himself off the floor. He wasn’t exactly expecting his leg to smack into whatever Naoto’s barricade was made of, and he wasn’t expecting the entire thing to come crashing down. And he certainly wasn’t expecting the sudden commotion to cause Naoto to scream and lunge for him, sending the both of them crashing to the floor. Kanji’s cheeks erupted into a brilliant red hue; his entire body grew rigid when he became aware of the weight resting on top of him. “N-Naoto?” he stuttered. Naoto only clung closer to him in response, the tears falling freely now. Kanji scratched his cheek. “I guess…I guess it was a good idea to check in on you?” Hesitantly, his arms enveloped her, holding her smaller frame securely against him in a warm embrace. He felt her suddenly stiffen, and for a moment, he feared he had stepped over the line. He immediately released her. “I uh…I mean I—sorry.”
In truth, Naoto did not know what she was doing. To say she was confused was an understatement. What was that she had just felt when he had held her? It felt…nice. Comforting. Safe. Why did it feel that way? Was it because she had someone with her? Someone who would brave the terrors of the night together with her? Or was Kanji himself the reason? Naoto blushed at the thought; she never considered that before. Her feelings were not a topic she dwelt on frequently, or at all for that matter. It didn’t bother her though; the detective dismissed such trivial matters as a hindrance to her work. But then Kanji came into her life. Their relationship as it stood was rather perplexing to her. She knew of his feelings for her, and deep down, she knew of her own feelings for him, but she didn’t exactly know what to do about it. She would have to talk to Yu or Rise about it once she had the courage to ask them, but for now, she knew what she wanted to do. Kanji was in the middle of coughing out an excuse for his behavior when she placed her hand on his arm and guided it back to where it was previously resting. Naoto closed her eyes in satisfaction. Figuring out her feelings would have to wait for another day, but for now she was content to rest knowing he was right there with her.
(Guy’s room, 2:38 A.M.)
“So, you good with taking the floor Chie?”
“W-what? Wait, why can’t we just share two beds, like during that camping trip?”
“Did you forget how awkward that was? I seriously don’t want to experience that a second time.”
Chie paused for a moment, mouthing an “oh yeah” shortly after. “Okay…fine fine. We’ll take the beds, you guys get the floor.”
“Are you for real? You rob me of my time in the hot-spring, hurl several wooden buckets at me and give me a black eye, and now you’re trying to steal my bed?!” Yosuke said indignantly.
“The first one was your own fault. You guys were trying to get a peek, so it serves you right.”
“Nuh-uh! The staff called to let us know that the hot-springs were open to men before we left. You were the ones who got the times messed up.”
Chie was cornered now. To save face, she tried changing the subject; hopefully he wouldn’t notice. “Ehehehe…so um…about those sleeping arrangements…could we just split the bed and have stuff in the middle to separate us or something?”
“That’ll make it even more awkward! Argh! Just forget it…I’ll…take the floor,” Yosuke grumbled. “What about you, partner?” He asked hopefully. There was no way he was going to be the only one to suffer.
Yu cast his friend a sympathetic smile. “Sorry Yosuke, but I think I’ll be staying right where I am tonight.”
“Huh? But what about Yukiko?”
“I—That’s the thing.” Yosuke tilted his head and sat up. Oh. Oh. That…was unexpected, though with the kind of luck his friend had, he should have seen it coming. There in the middle of the bed lay Yukiko, sound asleep on Yu’s arm. She was leaning heavily against him, her own arm hooked possessively around him. If Yosuke hadn’t known better he would have mistaken her for Rise. “She’s been asleep for some time now. I don’t think it would be good to wake her either; she looks exhausted,” Yu said defensively. Yosuke raised an eyebrow; a few minutes ago he would have said it was physically impossible for his best friend to blush, but here he was, with his entire face tinged pink. Chie glared at him.
“You’d better not try anything funny, got it?”
Yu recoiled slightly at her tone and nodded, more so out of fear than out of agreement. Yosuke sighed. I always gotta be the unlucky one, huh? At the very least, it was better than being locked in the washroom. It served Teddie right though; if it weren’t for the stupid bear, he wouldn’t be in the mess he was currently in. Oh well. Might as well get the night over with. “Come on. Let’s…let’s just get some rest. Night partner. You too Chie.”
“Night, Yosuke.”
“Goodnight! Oh, and um…if you find it too uncomfortable, just wake me up and we can trade places. I feel kinda bad for putting you through this, you know,” Chie replied softly.
Too tired to argue with her, Yosuke nodded and flipped the light switch. “…Thanks.”
Despite his drowsiness, Yu managed to stay awake longer than the other two; when it became clear that everyone in the room had fallen asleep, the young man turned his attention the girl sleeping beside him. Carefully, he freed himself from her grip and repositioned himself so that he was on his side. His arms then encircled her, gently drawing her closer to him. Yukiko seemed to react positively; unconsciously, she snuggled closer to him and let out a content sigh. Yu felt his lips tug upward; hesitantly, he leaned forward and softly kissed her forehead. “Sweet dreams, Yukiko,” he whispered almost inaudibly.
“…ove you too…”
(Guy’s Room, 3:22 A.M.)
Chie Satonaka was no deep sleeper; even the slightest of disturbances could take her out of her slumber. She had told herself countless times that it was good, and that such alertness meant that it would be easier to defend herself in case of an emergency. It did have its downsides though; the washroom faucet didn’t exactly put her in immediate danger. She couldn’t fix it either, because a certain bear had taken up residence there for the night. Chie groaned and sat up. There was no way she was going to get any sleep now. Her eyes quickly adjusted to her surroundings; the first thing she noticed was the pair sleeping a little farther down. In his sleep, Yu had ended up with his arms wrapped tightly around Yukiko. The girl didn’t seem to mind—quite the contrary actually; even in the dark, Chie could clearly see the outlines of a smile etched across her face. She grinned. Can’t say I didn’t see it coming. Chie had known of Yukiko’s feelings for him for a while now; it was one of those things she knew of but never drew attention to out of consideration for the other girls on the team. The hard part was figuring out Yu. He rarely spoke to her or anyone about his personal life and the problems he faced, so getting him to open up on who he fancied proved to be nothing short of hard. Speaking to Yosuke never yielded any results either; their leader was quite the reserved individual. Chie smirked at the sight before her. Guess he owes me steak now. Speaking of…
Yosuke’s light snoring quickly caught her attention. The poor boy was propped up against the wall, with nothing but a thin blanket (which was clearly intended to be used by someone smaller) to keep him warm. Chie shook her head and silently rose to her feet, making her way over to his sleeping form. She knew that with so many people in the room, Yu had cranked up the air conditioning before he fell asleep to keep everyone from overheating, but with how poorly Yosuke was covered and how thin the blanket was, she worried that he would catch a cold. Contrary to the image she tried to convey to her friends, Chie did worry over Yosuke frequently, though she often used their near-endless bickering to voice her concerns without raising suspicions.
When they were in the TV World, Yosuke was always the one forming a plan of attack for each battle; when their backs were against the wall, he often was able to save them by using strategies so outlandish that even the enemies couldn't account for them. While he never was the one to make any of the team’s more important decisions, he was essential for helping them work efficiently; at first, Chie had believed that to be the reason she was so protective of him. It was strictly work-related; if something were to happen to him, battles on the other side would suddenly become that much harder. It took a lot of time and (more than) a few conversations with Yu for her to come to terms with it, but she eventually realized that her feelings for the Yosuke had blossomed into something far more than a business relationship, regardless of how annoying he could be at times. Not that she would let anyone know. She would rather die than let people think that.
As quietly as she could, Chie readjusted the blanket around Yosuke. To her dismay, she quickly discovered that he too was a light sleeper. I guess that’s why he was the only one who woke up when we crashed into their room. She didn’t have time to run away and pretend to be asleep; he was already up. “Chie…? It’s still dark. Go back to bed…” he chided.
“W-well I couldn’t sleep, and I saw you over here. You look miserable, Yosuke.”
“I wonder why…”
Chie crossed her arms. “You can’t change what’s already happened; just get over it.” Her tone then softened. “Anyway, now that you’re up, we’re switching places.”
“Huh?”
“I can’t sleep there knowing you’re dying on the floor here.”
“Yeah, well…what makes you think I would be okay with you sleeping here?”
“You asked me if I was fine with taking the floor,” Chie deadpanned.
“O-oh yeah. That was a joke.”
“Uh-huhhhh. Welp, come on. Let’s get you to bed.”
“I’m fine Chie. Just...go back to sleep,” Yosuke murmured, smiling to himself when no response came. Huh. I guess when things really matter she’ll listen to me. He was about to doze off again when he heard shuffling followed by a sudden warmth enveloping his body. Guess I spoke to soon. His eyes reopened, and sure enough, there it was. A second blanket. Her blanket. Chie was standing next to him, examining her handiwork; once she was satisfied, she turned to Yosuke.
“Scoot over.”
“H-huh?”
“Yosuke!”
Yosuke nodded quickly and shifted sideways to make space for the girl standing over him. He quickly felt the heat rising to his cheeks as Chie sat down and slid under the covers beside him. What was she thinking, exactly?
“I told you already. How do you think I’m gonna sleep over there on the bed when you’re freezing over here? I mean, what if you caught a cold or something because of me? I didn’t really like having that on my conscience, but it didn’t look like you were going to move,” she replied, answering his unvoiced question. Yosuke was going to point out that she was able to fall asleep with that knowledge earlier, but he let it slide.
His eyes softened. “You didn’t have to do that, Chie. But…thanks anyway.” To his surprise, he felt the girl shift closer to him and rest her head against his shoulder. His eyes widened; if he wasn’t blushing before, he certainly was now. His pulse quickened to a rapid pace, something he desperately hoped Chie wouldn’t notice.
“Mmm. Just go to bed, ‘kay?” she mumbled, seemingly oblivious to the boy’s flustered state. She did notice that his head was practically hovering over hers though. That much was hard to miss. She found it cute; it was as if he was asking for permission to lean against her. For a guy who flirted to the point that it was obnoxious, Yosuke was surprisingly reserved when it came to physical affection. Chie smiled and placed her hand in his, squeezing it gently.
“It’s okay.” she whispered. “Goodnight, Yosuke.” Only when she felt his head on hers did she close her eyes.
“Goodnight, Chie,” he replied. He was going to have a lot of explaining to do in the morning, but it was something he didn’t mind at all. After all, he wasn’t the only one who would have to do it.