They walked back toward the heart of the festival, but now the atmosphere felt different to Kaguya. Perhaps it was his hand wrapped around hers, perhaps the way he didn't hesitate at all, guiding her with calm, steady steps; or perhaps it was simply that growing feeling she could no longer control—and, if she were honest with herself, no longer wanted to.
The lanterns reflected on the river in golden hues as they returned to the main path. The parade had already passed, leaving behind that vibrant energy that always lingered in the air after such a traditional event. Music still echoed, but softer now, like background accompaniment that seemed to follow each of their steps.
"There's a game area farther south in the festival…" Isagi said, looking ahead. "I think we still have time to see a few things before heading to the temple."
Kaguya nodded, hiding the fact that, deep down, she was thanking the gods for giving them a few more minutes of this moment that belonged only to the two of them.
They entered an area lined with small, colorful stalls side by side. This time the crowd was lighter, less dense. Children laughed, couples took photos, lights blinked softly, creating an almost cozy atmosphere.
Isagi stopped in front of a ring-toss game where you had to land hoops on metal pins. The prizes ranged from simple candies to small keychains of popular characters.
"Want to try this one?" he asked, but with a smile that already said he was going to pay for the round no matter what she answered.
Kaguya eyed the stack of rings with a calculated look that was only meant to hide the fact that, secretly, she wanted to prove she could win something too. Instead, she simply tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear.
"I can try. It shouldn't be hard…" she said confidently… confidence that vanished on the very first throw.
The ring hit the pin, spun… and fell pitifully to the side.
Kaguya's eyes widened a little.
The second attempt failed even faster.
The third bounced so crookedly that the attendant herself hid a small laugh.
Kaguya took a deep breath.
Isagi, who had been watching in silence, placed two coins on the counter.
"Let me try."
She crossed her arms defensively.
"I… I just wasn't warmed up yet."
He didn't reply; he simply tossed the first ring.
It landed perfectly.
For the second, he calculated the angle with the calm of someone who had memorized this kind of game long ago.
Another perfect hit.
For the third, he aimed at the farthest pin.
Perfect again.
The attendant clapped in admiration.
Kaguya stood frozen.
Her pride, on the other hand, was on its knees.
Without making a fuss, Isagi picked up a small golden rabbit keychain—delicate, elegant, exactly the kind of thing that suited her.
He held it out to her.
"To match the plushie."
Her heart skipped.
She took the little keychain with both hands, as though it were far too precious to be touched any other way.
"…Thank you…"
They continued walking, and Kaguya realized that, without even thinking, she had laced her fingers through his again.
Isagi didn't comment.
He didn't let go.
He simply kept walking, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
They passed a stall selling traditional masks: kitsune, tengu, dragons, summer flowers. Kaguya stopped without realizing it, staring at a white fox mask with red details.
Isagi picked up the mask beside it—an exaggerated blue dragon—and held it to his face for a few seconds.
"How do I look?"
Kaguya covered her mouth with her hand, trying not to laugh out loud.
"It looks… comically scary."
He raised an eyebrow and removed the mask.
"Then this one suits you better."
He took the white fox mask and held it in front of her face. The contrast between the white mask, the soft lantern light, and the blush rising on her cheeks created a scene that Isagi, even unintentionally, etched into his memory.
Kaguya, desperately trying to keep her composure, pushed the mask away with both hands.
"I don't need a mask."
"But it suits you."
"Yoichi…"
When she said his name like that—low, heavy with restrained emotion—his smile softened completely.
They left the stall only because the crowd started thickening nearby, and Isagi suggested they move to a quieter area. They walked side by side, weaving through groups and families, entering the part where the festival began to blend with the temple park.
The air there was cooler, scented with flowers and the faint incense drifting from the shrine.
Kaguya felt his pace slow to match hers, and only realized she had slowed down when she noticed a stall selling colorful omamori.
"Do you want one?" he asked.
Kaguya studied the carefully arranged amulets: love, health, protection, success…
She touched a pale-pink omamori with golden details, then pulled her hand back as though she'd been caught red-handed.
Isagi noticed.
"This one?"
She opened her mouth to deny it, but he was already paying.
"What's it for…?" she asked, even though she already knew the answer and was trying not to fall apart emotionally.
"They say it's for love," the attendant replied simply, matter-of-factly.
Kaguya froze.
The woman smiled at both of them, understanding far more than she probably should.
"It helps protect important feelings…" the attendant explained. "And strengthens bonds that already exist."
Kaguya's heart seemed to melt.
When Isagi handed her the omamori, their fingers brushed for a brief moment—short, but enough to send a warm shiver straight to the depths of her soul.
"…I'll keep it safe…" she whispered.
Isagi smiled, and she had to look away before her face gave everything away at once.
They kept walking, the golden glow of the lanterns fading as the path gently climbed toward the temple area. The festival sounds grew distant, turning into pleasant background noise. The air felt different here—calmer, more intimate.
Perfect.
Kaguya realized she was smiling without meaning to.
She realized time had passed far too quickly.
She realized she wanted to stretch this moment forever.
They reached the temple steps, where some people were already settling in, waiting for the fireworks.
Isagi looked around, assessing.
"Shall we sit there?"
There was a spot right in the middle of the steps, lit by a hanging lantern, with a clear view of the river and the open sky above.
Kaguya nodded.
"It looks… like a good spot."
And they walked over.
Hand in hand.
They sat side by side on the steps, in one of those rare spaces that seemed reserved just for them. The lantern above bathed their faces in soft, almost intimate light, and the distant murmur of the festival sounded like a slow melody filling the gaps in their silence.
For a few minutes they simply watched the river flow below. The lantern reflections shimmered like little golden serpents on the dark water. The night air was cool and carried the mingled scent of incense and summer.
Then, without warning, the first sound rang out.
BOOM.
A soft explosion that made several children nearby sit up straight with excitement.
Kaguya looked up at the same instant.
The sky burst into a huge circle of blue light. Sparks spread like glowing petals, drifting slowly down until they vanished.
Another boom followed quickly.
Then another.
Soon the entire sky became a living mosaic of dancing colors and shapes.
Blue, red, purple, gold—each explosion reflected in Kaguya's crimson eyes as though the world had created new constellations just for her.
Beside her, Isagi kept a relaxed posture, but his gaze… his gaze was fixed on her far more than on the sky.
Kaguya noticed.
She turned slowly, the fireworks still painting her skin in warm tones. What she found was Isagi's calm, deep, completely present gaze holding hers with a gentle yet inevitable pull.
For a moment she forgot to breathe.
Her heart pounded so hard it seemed to vibrate along with the fireworks.
"It's really happening… Yoichi… he's really looking at me like that?"
The thought consumed her, disastrously sweet.
She looked away quickly—or tried to. But the colored light on his face, the closeness, the warmth of their still-intertwined hands…
Everything blended into a dizzying, muffled, burning sensation, as though the world were gently pushing them closer together.
Another firework lit the sky.
Another, even larger, bathed everything in gold.
Kaguya turned back to him almost unconsciously and found him watching her again with such tenderness that her chest tightened.
"Should I…?"
"Now?"
"But… if I confess… what if…"
Kaguya's thoughts tumbled over one another like scattered cards, each one carrying a possibility, a fear, a longing…
To be honest with herself, she had never really understood the concept of love. Until middle school, love was just an abstract word—something taught by private tutors, presented in classic literature, analyzed as a variable in philosophical debates, discussed as a political tool in family meetings. Nothing that actually existed for her. Nothing that felt real.
She understood efficiency, hierarchies, victory. She understood duties and obligations.
But love…?
It was uncharted territory.
That was why, when she first saw Isagi Yoichi back in elementary school, Kaguya didn't realize what was happening inside her.
And not realizing was, to her, the most absurd thing of all. After he defeated her in the race for Student Council president, she started to take an interest in him and ended up accepting his invitation to join the council as well. Her first impression was that he was a boy obsessed with soccer—too kind, too humble, too ordinary for the Shinomiya standard… and precisely because of that, impossible to ignore.
Kaguya remembered the exact moment she noticed something different about him.
It was late afternoon.
The schoolyard was almost empty. Isagi, sweaty, his training uniform streaked with field dust, was stacking boxes of sports equipment alone because "no one else needs to stay." She overheard him say, "I'll just finish up—everyone else has a test tomorrow…"
That ordinary phrase, meaningless to anyone else, lodged itself in her heart with astonishing force.
He put others before himself.
Completely unlike her.
And Kaguya hated—deeply hated—realizing that she admired it.
Back then she prided herself on being controlled, methodical, emotionally impermeable, exactly as any heiress of a wealthy family should be. But Isagi, with his almost infuriating selflessness, caused tiny cracks in that fortress.
She began watching him more closely.
And the more she watched, the more she wanted to get closer—especially when he was playing soccer and that fierce look appeared on his face. She thought it was cool because it was proof of relentless hard work. Yes, it was one of her little secret fetishes, something she would never dare admit aloud. But that look made something inside her melt in an almost shameful way.
She didn't know what love was, but she knew what it did to her:
Her chest tightened.
Her hands grew warm.
Her once-flawless reasoning turned to smoke.
And for the first time in her life, Kaguya wanted to get close to someone.
Isagi was the first person she silently rooted for. The first person whose smile she wanted to provoke on purpose. The first person with whom she imagined a normal relationship—something not learned from books, not trained by tutors; something that simply existed between two people who… liked each other.
She didn't understand why. She didn't know when it started. She only knew that by the time she realized it, it was already too late.
When he spoke to her, even casually, the world seemed to slow down. When he said her name, her heart beat in a way no family doctor could explain. When he saw her as an equal—not as an heiress, not as an unattainable figure—something was born inside her that had never been allowed or taught.
And above all…
When he smiled at her after scoring a goal, breathless, eyes shining with the intensity only soccer could awaken, Kaguya Shinomiya—the girl who couldn't comprehend ordinary emotions—knew she was lost.
But all of that had faded when he entered high school and gave up running for president. In that moment she felt as though she had lost him forever. It was only thanks to Hayasaka that she finally began, slowly but steadily, to accept her feelings for him. She had planned for Isagi to confess first; her "Ice Queen" side demanded that small victory she had tried so many times to claim back in elementary school. But now, with him so close and remembering everything about this "date," she wanted to take the initiative herself…
Yet all those thoughts and feelings suddenly fell silent when Isagi tilted his head slightly, leaning in just enough for the air between them to feel warmer.
"Kaguya…" he said softly, almost drowned out by the next boom.
Just that.
Just her name, spoken that way.
But it was enough to make her stomach flip with anticipation and fear and something she could no longer hide.
The distance between them seemed smaller than before.
The lantern above swayed gently, casting delicate shadows.
The sky kept exploding in color.
And she thought:
"If I just move a little… if I lean in… maybe…?"
The scent of summer, of firework smoke, of the festival swirled around her while her heart pounded desperately, as though announcing something inevitable—something she wanted more than she could admit.
And when another burst lit Isagi's face, bringing him closer, sharper, more beautiful for a single second…
Kaguya felt the decision hidden in her eyes finally take shape.
A confession.
A kiss.
Or perhaps the beginning of both.
The fireworks kept blooming overhead, each explosion painting the sky a different color. Blue. Gold. Red. Pink.
And for a moment, time itself seemed to pause so they could simply breathe the same air.
Isagi looked away from the sky and down at the festival below, as if searching for the right words. His fingers still held hers—not by accident, not out of distraction, but because there was no reason to let go.
Then he said, with that gentle calm that always disarmed Kaguya:
"The fireworks are really beautiful… aren't they?"
Her heart clenched.
He was looking at the sky.
She was looking at him.
"And…" Isagi continued, voice low, "thank you… for inviting me today. I'm glad we came together."
To Kaguya, the words hit like cold water.
Not because they were bad.
Not because they were distant.
But because, in the exact second she had finally gathered every ounce of courage in the world—courage Hayasaka would say "cost far too much"—Isagi had chosen to thank her.
To thank her.
When she was one step away from confessing.
Kaguya felt the air leave her lungs. Her fingers, still laced with his, trembled slightly. The perfect image of a confession under the fireworks… seemed to crumble.
But then…
She took a deep breath.
"No."
Not this time.
Not after years of waiting for him to make the first move, not after hiding behind plans and strategies and pride and formalities. She wasn't going to let another chance slip away out of fear.
Her expression grew serious for a moment, but her eyes shone with something resolute and intense.
She squeezed his hand back.
"Yoichi."
His name came out firmer than she expected.
He turned to her, surprised, those blue eyes meeting hers directly, without barriers, without looking away.
Kaguya swallowed hard.
Her chest burned as though every heartbeat were trying to force the words out.
"I…" she began, her whole body trembling.
Not from cold.
But from what she finally recognized by name: love.
The next firework burst overhead, reflecting in her crimson eyes.
"…I didn't invite you just for the festival."
Isagi's brow furrowed slightly, listening.
Kaguya breathed in once. Twice.
Then she spoke, softly, with the most sincere vulnerability she had ever shown anyone:
"I invited you because… because I wanted to be with you. Only with you. I wanted this day to be ours."
Her fingers tightened around his even more.
"And because, Yoichi… I like you."
The word "like" wasn't nearly enough for everything she felt, but it was the most her courage allowed in that moment.
She glanced away for a second—not out of shame, but because she was afraid to see his reaction too soon.
"I've liked you for a very long time…" she finished, her voice almost breaking. "Ever since before I understood what it meant to love someone. Ever since before I knew this… could exist for me."
Another boom lit the sky in gold.
Kaguya finally lifted her face to meet his fully—vulnerable, determined, her eyes shining with the love she had always tried to hide.
"I… I'm in love with you, Yoichi."
Silence.
A silence that felt larger than the night sky itself.
But this time, Kaguya didn't look away.
She waited for his answer.
__________________
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