The next day, I found her again, this time in the place only we knew, where the world felt lighter, softer, as if it belonged to just the two of us. The hill behind the school, where the sakura trees bloomed with quiet grace, untouched by time or anyone else. We used to come here when we were children, and back then, it felt like the edge of the universe.
She was there, sitting beneath the largest tree, her knees pulled to her chest. Her eyes were red, swollen from crying. The sight of her hit me like a physical blow, my chest tightening in a way I couldn't explain.
She didn't flinch when I approached. Didn't even look up. Her gaze remained locked on the horizon, as though she'd already left me in every way but physically.
I sat beside her, the space between us heavy, suffocating with everything unsaid. For what felt like hours, we didn't speak.
Finally, her voice broke the silence.. small, fragile, as if she wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer. "Why are you here?"
I drew in a shaky breath. "Because I had to see you. Because I'm tired of pretending I don't feel anything."
She slowly turned her head, her eyes meeting mine. The pain in them was still there, but this time, it was mingled with something else, something too delicate to name. Hope, maybe. Or the ghost of it.
She swallowed, trying to steady herself. "You don't get to say that unless you mean it."
"I do," I whispered. The words left me before I could stop them. It wasn't easy. I had to force them out, as if they were chained to my heart.
Another long pause. Then she asked, her voice barely a whisper, "Do you love me?"
The question hung in the air, suffocating us both. I hesitated, not because I didn't know the answer, but because saying it meant no going back. There would be no unringing this bell, no pretending anymore.
But the truth had been eating me alive for too long, clawing its way out from where I had buried it. If I didn't say it now, I would never have the courage to say it at all.
"Yes," I finally managed, the word slipping out of me like it was the only thing left I could offer. "I love you."
Aoi's lips trembled, and she looked at me with those same tears in her eyes... not just sorrow this time, but something softer. A mix of relief, of yearning. "I love you too," she said, so quietly I almost couldn't hear her. "I always have."
And there it was, the truth laid bare between us. The words we had both feared, the confession we had both kept hidden for far too long.
But this wasn't like in the stories. This wasn't some grand moment where love solved everything. No, this was heavier, darker. A burden we had carried without ever asking for it.
"We can't," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. I looked away, unable to meet her eyes. "We're siblings. Everyone would hate us. They'd never understand."
"I know," she whispered, the acceptance in her voice cutting through me like a blade. "But it doesn't stop it from being true."
A silence fell between us. The wind rustled the sakura petals above, and they fell like soft, pale snow, the world moving on while we stood still, caught in a moment we couldn't escape.
"I wish we weren't born this way," I said, my voice breaking.
"I used to wish that too," she replied, her tone tinged with sorrow. "But lately... I just wish you'd stayed. Maybe then it wouldn't have hurt so much."
I clenched my fists, the guilt, the regret, all of it crashing down on me at once. "I'm sorry for everything."
"You always say that," she said with a quiet, broken laugh, the sound barely a breath. "But this time... I needed you to say you love me. Just once. And you did."
We looked at each other then, really looked. Not as siblings. Not as something forbidden.
Just two people. Two souls. Two hearts that had grown up together and somehow, impossibly, fallen into something they never meant to.
"I don't know what we're supposed to do," I said, my voice small and lost.
Aoi reached out, her pinky brushing against mine. The contact sent a shock through my body, a spark that felt both like salvation and damnation.
"Neither do I," she said, her voice trembling. "But... I'm glad I'm not the only one lost in this."
Tears welled up in both of our eyes, and neither of us wiped them away.
Maybe the world was too cruel for people like us. Maybe love like this wasn't meant to bloom. But in that moment, under the sakura trees, amidst the falling petals and trembling hands, we held on anyway.
Even if just for a little while.