"Really Aneki, why couldn't you call me later or not call at all?"

"Eh, why are you so grumpy Houtarou?"

"It's— 4:16 a.m. I'm going back to sleep—"

"Wait!"

"—bye—"

"I can only call at this time! How could you be so rude to a girl especially your own sister?"

"I wasn't being rude.. "

"What?"

"..."

"You what?"

"Well Aneki.. "

"What's wrong Houtarou?"

"When— when did you.. "

"When did I WHAT?"

"When did you have.. ugh, your first kiss?"

"AHHH—"

"Aneki?"

"..."

"What happened? Aneki!"

"Sorry, sorry. I'm just so EXCITED!"

"What?"

"My little brother kissed a girl, aww!"

"I didn't—"

"Is she someone I know? Wait a minute, she's a girl right? Or is it HE—"

"She's a girl."

"Of course, I know. If I didn't ask you that, you wouldn't admit it. So who is she?"

"Damn it."

"Hey! Tell me already!"

"..."

"Hou-ta-rou!"

"She's.. in the Classics Club and whenever she's curious about something, she always drags me along to figure it out."

"Awwwwww, so you like her?"

"I don't—"

"You denied it too fast Houtarou."

"—know."

"What?"

"I don't know!"

"Haha, you're so obvious! See what happened when you listened to me and joined the club!"

"That's not the point Aneki."

"So why did you kiss her? It wasn't like you at all."

"Because you've been calling at this time."

"Wait, it was because of ME?"

"I needed to go home and sleep but she found me first so I had to do something before she could say she was curious."

"Opps."

"That's not funny."

"Sorry, haha. Then what?"

"I left."

"You just left? LIKE THAT? And you said you weren't being rude?"

"What was I supposed to do then? It shouldn't even be counted as a kiss.. and what do I do when I meet her again?"

"Well, listen Houtarou. I know you like her so you have to apologize to her and.. "

" ..and?"

"KISS HER AGAIN LIKE YOU MEAN IT!"

He shouldn't have talked to his sister or asked her for advice or even mentioned about all that stuff.

Actually, he shouldn't have listened to her and joined the Classics Club at the first place.

It was too late to think about that though and now Oreki Houtarou was mentally cursing himself for wasting such a ridiculous amount of energy over such a simple action called waiting because in reality it was more like sitting here in the empty club room, pretending to read whichever page the book had offered to him when he first opened it on the table without even understanding a thing while hundreds of scenarios of what ifs kept playing in his head and made him think more and more about what to do when the time came.

Despite that, his sister was right about one thing — that wasn't like him at all. Truth be told, it wasn't that hard or might as well say it was indeed very easy for him to commit such a thing as kissing Chitanda Eru because at that time Eru was just like her usual self, energetic and ever so curious and then their faces were suddenly so close that the only thing he had to do was dipping his head down slightly for their lips to touch. However, Houtarou still didn't know what exactly had gotten into him in that moment to make him so impulsive that he merely leaned forward and silenced all the words that were about to escape from her lips.

But it should be called an accident. It was an accident — a slip of his mind, a wrong direction of his movement, a miscalculation resulted from his lack of sleep. It shouldn't be counted as a kiss — a real kiss — so everything should be back to normal once he apologized to her,

Right?

Houtarou ran a hand through his dark hair and could only wish he didn't already have the answer for that.

Of course, it wouldn't be that easy considering the way she was rendered speechless like being struck by lightning and how much both of their faces had burned bright shades of crimson from sheer embarrassment and even though Houtarou definitely didn't want to admit it, there was a part of him — the smallest and tiniest one that might be hiding itself in the far deepest corner of his heart — that was completely changed after that kiss.

No, he would not call that a kiss and he just called it again so he had to stop now.

Houtarou let out a long frustrated sigh and dropped the act of reading. Ticking sound of the clock seemed too loud and clear in silence and somehow, it tired him out even more. He felt like all of his energy was already drained out of him after only thinking of all this stuff and what was worse was that Eru still had not even shown up yet or more exactly the question was would she really come to the club today regarding that she knew he might be here too. So maybe he shouldn't be doing this now. Maybe he shouldn't be waiting. Maybe he could do it tomorrow after he was already sure that she would come. Maybe he should wait until he was more ready.

Or maybe never.

About the same time when that thought had crossed his mind, the door of the Geology room was slightly slid open, so slowly and quietly he wouldn't have noticed it had the room not already filled with overwhelming silence. Despite that, nobody entered so he knew the time had already come. He knew it was her. It could only be her. So he waited, sitting rigidly in his seat but still nothing happened and before he could even properly arrange his thoughts, Houtarou blurted out in his typically indifferent tone.

"I don't bite."

From the corner of his eye, he could see Eru wince slightly at his words.

Bite. Lips. Kiss.

Damn it.

"I mean you can come in." he quickly corrected himself, feeling like smacking his head against the table.

"H-hai." she responded very meekly before making her way over and sitting down at the seat opposite from him. After that, it was like his own hands were the most interesting thing in the world which he had never seen before so Houtarou just had to stare down and didn't dare to say anything. Eru was the same when he sneaked a glance at her.

Before silence could be more suffocating, Houtarou decided to say something and apparently Eru had the same idea.

"O-Oreki-san—"

"Chitanda—"

Like love-struck teenagers in movies, they talked and stopped at the same time then got even more embarrassed at the fact that they just did that. Houtarou felt like his whole body was ready to explode at any second from this intense atmosphere and it was too much for him to bear after what he had all done today. The whole thing took way too much energy. So he suddenly stood up and voiced somewhat of an incoherent sentence that was intended to mean he had to go now then grabbed his bag and started leaving. To his surprise, Eru rose up and stopped him by grasping his shirt from behind.

"Oreki-san," she began very quietly, leaving him no choice but to turn back to face her. Eru took a deep breath her eyes darting about at anything that was not him as she tried to say something but still couldn't muster the courage to do so and Houtarou just waited. He didn't blame her a bit because he too was struggling just as hard to find the right words to say to her.

"A-about yesterday, when you.. " she trailed off.

"I—" he tried to say something but was cut off when she finally looked straight up into his eyes and struck him with one single word in her quivering voice.

"Why?"

I don't know what was wrong with me but I just wanted to do it. I don't know why I haven't done that before. I like how your lips felt against mine.. All those unfamiliar thoughts unconsciously rushed across his mind and Houtarou was completely stunned but the only thing he said to her was the first step of his sister's advice.

"—am sorry." he looked away, avoiding her eyes, "It was an accident."

She whispered to herself, "So you didn't mean to.. "

Houtarou was going to leave but then he saw hurt flashed through the depths of her purple eyes when he risked a glance up and his heart was tugged so strongly. Honestly, he never wanted to see her like this especially when he of all people was the cause of it.

'KISS HER AGAIN LIKE YOU MEAN IT!'

The second step of the certain advice echoed in his head.

Maybe his sister was really a genius or even a fortune-teller for this matter. Maybe she was right when she said that he liked her. Maybe he did.

Hesitantly, Houtarou dropped his bag on the table and edged his way toward Eru. It looked like she was about to say something again but with one motion, Houtarou grasped her shoulder, his other hand tilting her head up from behind her neck and then he kissed her square on the lips.

This must have been the rose-colored high school life he had been avoiding for so long.

His heart was beating so fast like it was ready to burst out when Eru had recovered from her initial shock and shyly pressed her soft lips back against his. Something in his chest was snapped and Houtarou felt like he was helplessly falling deeper and deeper into those beautiful eyes. Instinctively, he started to move pulling her in closer because he wanted to feel more and more of her. Eru shut her eyes tight. She fisted the front of his shirt and let out a gasp of surprise when Houtarou was bold enough to give her lower lip a soft nibble. Both of them were blushing madly when their lips parted, breathless and delirious.

Not wanting Eru to see how red his face was, Houtarou gently drew her in and rested her forehead against his shoulder before he stated clearly beside her ear.

"I mean it this time."

"Hai." Eru answered softly with a shy and happy smile on her face.

At that moment, the door was slid open once again. Both Houtarou and Eru automatically sprang away from each other. Satoshi and Mayaka were chatting briskly as usual when they entered the room, oblivious to what was going on inside until they noticed that Houtarou and Eru were squirming with slight blushes on their faces. Satoshi tossed them an apologetic smile while Mayaka's expression turned from happy into utterly horrified.

"Uh.. sorry, worst timing." Satoshi said sheepishly before he started dragging Mayaka who was about to scream bloody murder at Houtarou out of the room.

Absolutely awkward.

After Satoshi and Mayaka left, silence filled the room yet again. Houtarou watched as Eru started fidgeting with her hands. Her cheeks were still beet red. Her eyes glowed brighter from the sunset light that was staining over the room and he just wanted to kiss her again, plain and simple as that but at this point, he might as well finish his task first.

"Chitanda."

"H-hai!" Eru flinched at the sound of her name before she gazed up at him with an expectant look on her face.

"I think.. " he paused looking back solely into her eyes and said, "I do like you."

Eru gasped as her cheeks turned into an even deeper shade of red. Slowly, she took a step forward and stopped right in front of him before giving him that beautiful smile of her then said, "Oreki-san, you're very special to me too."

And yes, he wanted to kiss her again.

"Can I.. " Houtarou gulped and looked away, "kiss you again?" he bluntly asked without thinking, making her eyes widen in surprise.

Eru quickly shifted her gaze away, her hand fumbling clumsily with the hem of her shirt, "B-but Oreki-san," she said, trying so hard to not stutter but failed miserably. Her face looked like it was going to explode from embarrassment, "Y-you said you don't bite."

Houtarou blushed but simply replied, "I lied."

Regardless of the energy-saving matter and all, he leaned forward and kissed her.

"So how was it~?"

"Good."

"Did you do as I said?"

"Hmm, exactly."

"That's my little brother! And she's your girlfriend now right?"

"Well.. kinda."

"Awwww, when is the wedding then?"

"I'm gonna go to sleep, thanks Aneki."

"Hey, don't hang up on me! HOUTAROU!"

"Bye."