Chapter 41
The month of love had begun already.
Ena had been thinking, considering something for a while at that moment.
She'd always been fond of Kanade, even before they actually met outside of Nightcord.
Searching for Mochizuki, Akito, Mizuki and Mafuyu with her only made her realize that maybe she wanted more with her.
Lately, every time she’d look into Kanade's blue eyes her heart would start inexplicably racing. Her voice would become strangely flustered and, according to Fuuta and Airi, her cheeks would become red all of the sudden.
Every time Kanade called her name, with her soft and gentle voice, it'd make Ena's entire day. Just being around her or talking to her in that empty Nightcord VC.
So she'd made up her mind. One faithful Saturday evening in February, she made up her mind about her group mate.
She opened Nightcord on her computer like she did every night. There was nothing but messages between the two to be seen, Mafuyu and Mizuki's last messages were long buried.
She would be truthful with Kanade. She'd tell her everything she felt, no doubt about it.
------------------ February 13rd, 2024 ------------------
Enanan
@k
You there, K?
K
Hi, Enanan.
Did anything happen?
Enanan
Are you free tomorrow?
Ena waited for Kanade's response nervously. Her hands started trembling as her fingered hovered idly, awaiting to type whenever Kanade did.
Kanade started typing.
Kanade stopped typing.
Kanade started typing again.
K
Yeah
Enanan
Great!
… what now?
“Shitshitshitshitshit”
Ena didn't plan that far ahead. She looked through her messy room to find her phone, which she found moments later.
She dialed a number immediately, there was no time for messaging.
“Shinonome?”
Kohane picked up the phone fairly quickly, she sounded out of breath but not worried at all.
“Azusawa! Hi! Do you… y'know… knowanyplacesfordates”
Ena muttered, looking back at her computer screen, making sure Kanade hadn't gone offline or said anything in the channel.
There was nothing but silence from Kohane's end for a bit.
“Ah?”
“PLACES FOR DATES.”
Ena yelled over the phone in a desperate manner.
“Oh! Well, that mainly depends on what you and Yoisaki like to do, and I mainly ask Shinonome for this type of thing…”
Ena was caught completely off guard by the mention of Kanade.
How the hell did Kohane know who she planned to go wherever with?!
“HOWTHEHELLDOYOU- nevermind, actually. Is Toya with you?”
“Hello, Ena.”
Toya calmly greeted her from the other side of the call.
“As for the date thing you mentioned, Akito and I went to a nice place to stargaze once.”
Good. That gave Ena an idea.
The perfect idea, in fact.
“THANKSTOYAANDAZUSAWAGOODBYEHAVEAGREATDAY”
She hung up on the two before they had a chance to say anything else.
Enanan
Actually, nevermind
Are you free tonight?
Ena had gone to run errands already (something she would’ve made Akito do if he was there) she needed to get everything for her date with Kanade after all.
It was getting dark outside, so she hurried up to her room, putting a blue cardigan over her outfit, one Kanade, Mizuki and Mafuyu had bought for her birthday.
Grabbing her phone, bag of groceries and a bouquet of carnation flowers, she walked out of the empty Shinonome household.
Thankfully, the place they'd agreed to meet at was somewhat near her house. However, that made Ena even more nervous.
What if she didn't reciprocate her feelings? Would it ruin her friendship with Kanade? What if something came up and they had to cancel? Or something happened to Kanade? Oh god what would happen if something happened to both of them and they died before she could say anything-
“Ena?”
Her rapidly crashing train of thought was stopped by the soft voice of Kanade Yoisaki.
Ena stopped walking entirely, trying to find her anywhere. She couldn't see her.
She turned around, and there she was, out of breath, her long hair braided neatly, she was wearing the same outfit Ena and Mizuki had helped her pick when meeting Mafuyu's mother under a light brown coat.
“Kana! Hi!”
Kanade looked to the side, covering her face before slowly waving at her. She had a white cardboard box on her other hand, and she was clearly struggling to carry it.
Ena ran across the street dividing them, jumping into the path right beside her.
“Hi, Ena…”
They started walking to a nice spot to sit together.
“So… How was your day?”
Kanade asked quietly, giving Ena a small smile.
“Oh, yeah good. How been good, I about you?”
…what did she say?
“Huh?”
Shitshitshitshit-
“I've been good, how about you?”
Shit, she definitely noticed. Why did she have to mess up now?! Couldn't she mess up in VC, where she could blame it on her computer or something?
Whatever, it was better to mess up at that moment rather than later.
“It's been a… nice day, I think. I've been waiting all day for this, though- Ena…?”
Kanade stopped walking, looking at her with slight concern.
“You're red, are you alright?”
Ena quickly covered her face with embarrassment, figuring she was probably blushing intensely. She grabbed Kanade's wrist as gently as she possibly could, signaling at her to start walking again.
After that, not much happened. They got to a nice, isolated spot under a tree on a hill, with a lovely view of the lit up city below them, as well as the starlit night sky above them.
The perfect place, the perfect weather, the perfect moment.
They had been sitting for a while, chatting about the songs they were making, about Mizuki and Mafuyu's whereabouts, etc.
Their hands were relatively close to each other's, Kanade's pale hand resting calmly besides her own. They'd been sitting in a comfortable silence for a couple minutes, so Ena checked her phone for a bit.
Her eyes widened slightly as she gulped with clear nervousness.
February 13th, 11:57 PM.
It was time, now or never.
Well, not actually, she could always-
Nevermind, no time to overthink it.
“Kanade.”
Ena got Kanade's full attention.
“I don't know how to do- how to say this but…”
Kanade hummed, questioning quietly what it was Ena wanted to say.
“You're one of my best friends, you know that, right?”
She reached out to her bag with her other hand, making sure she hadn't forgotten anything.
“You're… one of the only people that understands me. I feel good around you, y'know?”
Okay, no going back now, she glanced at the time again.
February 13th, 11:58 PM.
“Kanade, you're an incredible person. I admire you so much I can't even believe it.”
She could see Kanade's entire face turning red, but she couldn't stop now.
“Ena…”
“What I mean is… god, okay… I need to get this through…”
February 13th, 11:59 PM.
Ena grabbed the bouquet, reaching out to place her hand on hers.
“So I'm just gonna say it, okay? I like you. No, I love you, Kanade Yoisaki,”
February 14th 12:00 AM.
“I love you more than you could ever imagine.”
She shut her eyes closed, not daring to even look at her.
She'd done it, she'd confessed her love for Kanade, all she needed to do was wait.
But the wait was agonizing. She couldn't hear anything from her but she could imagine her flustered, speechless face.
The nerves were killing her, she wanted to run away from this.
But before she could, a familiar, robotic voice came out of Kanade's voice in a romantic melody.
She opened her eyes, her hand still intertwined with Kanade's.
With Miku's melodic and calm humming to accompany it, Kanade finally spoke up, with a relieved, small grin on her face and her eyes shining brightly.
“I love you too, Ena… so much…”
Kanade let go of Ena’s hand, grabbing onto her shoulder instead, hesitantly leaning closer and putting her lips on Ena's.
Ena is caught off guard, but reciprocates almost immediately.
The moment was almost unreal, the magical atmosphere made both Ena and Kanade think for a whole second none of this had been real.
But it was very real. And Ena knew this as soon as she pulled away from Kanade to look at her.
This was real.