Gradually, the sounds of the festival fade into a distant hum compared to the steady sound of his breathing. Kido runs her thumb along the crook of his neck.

"...Yeah. It hurt." An understatement to say the least. She didn't want him to beat himself up over it. But pretending otherwise might just be worse. "...It really, really hurt. I don't even know... when I started to like you this way. I think it's been a while, before we came here. I used to just get irritated and upset and not know why. Knowing why made it worse. Trying to talk to you about it and getting pushed away... yeah, it was horrible."

Even though right now, a gentle warmth stays in her chest, she can remember that pain. It only ceased today after all.

"I didn't get it. I didn't understand why I kept trying... except that even though it hurt so much, ah..." She recalls certain words and shakes her head. "...Happiness isn't easy. You have to work for it. ...So I didn't want to give up. I said it'd be okay if you turned me down and it would've been but... I wanted to be happy with you." Her face burns. What a stupid, cliche sounding thing.