✪ Boundaries || HanaNene ✪

C H A P T E R T H R E E

•

《 CHAPTER 3: His Fear 》

•

Nene fluttered her eyes open, instinctively squinting them as the bright ray from the fluorescent ceiling light hit her eyes.

She was lying down in a firm, uncomfortable bed. The blankets and the bedsheets were white, so was the room she was in. She recognized the bland smell of the sheets and pillows as the ones in the nurse's office. Slowly getting up, she noticed the presence of her two friends on both sides of the bed.

"Senpai!"

The middle-school kid couldn't help but say her name in a breath of relief, tears at the brim of his eyes. Nene smiled as she sat up, her head throbbing from the sudden change of water flow in her body. She saw Hanako to her right, leaning against the bed, his right cheek resting on his knuckles which were supported by his elbows.

"Good morning."

"W-What happened to me?" Nene asked the two.

"I found you on the floor of the first-level of the old school building and called Hanako. What were you doing there, Senpai? Can you remember what happened?" The exorcist explained before throwing the question at her. Nene remembered fainting and waking up in that black world with that black apparition.

"I remember fainting since my head was spinning, then I woke up in this black world with a black apparition-" Nene was cut off when Hanako's carefree demeanor was immediately replaced with a much more serious attitude.

"What apparition?" He asked her in a serious tone, "It was black? What did it tell you?"

"That it was what was going to kill me..." Nene chose not to tell him about the curse. She didn't want to reopen deep wounds if it really was true.

Hanako narrowed his eyes, cursing himself for allowing this to happen so soon. How could he have let his guard down?

"So you met it," He sighed, Nene couldn't help but assume that he was disappointed. Hanako just frowned, he didn't think that the curse would appear to her sooner, but he was mistaken.

He got off the wall and walked to Nene before embracing her tightly. The girl blushed a bit, her heart starting to beat faster. Hanako then pulled away, a relieved smile on his face.

"I'm just glad you're okay," He told her, patting her head.

Nene couldn't help but smile and feel warm about what he said. She felt safe and secure with Hanako and Kou, and not with that black apparition.

Kou watched as the two shared a moment together, silently accepting the fact that what he had for Yashiro was only one-sided. He knew for a while, how blindly in love the two were. The exorcist just watched, trying to bear the pain in his chest that was erupting.

Soon enough, Nene and Kou both left the school since it was already sundown and the moon was out. Watching them from a far distance, Hanako couldn't help but punch a wall and hit his head on the bathroom door.

He felt angry at himself. He was furious as to how he let it happen so easily. If only he didn't make that agreement that changed his fate, then maybe, Yashiro wouldn't die. He could've done something to keep Yashiro from dying. He could've distanced himself, but he chose not to instead.

It was all going to be his fault. He had to do something.

• • •

Three of the school wonders were in the Science Prep. Room to discuss what happened with Yashiro Nene.

"What troubles you, Honorable Number Seventh?" The custodian of the 4 PM Bookstacks asked the bathroom ghost, who seemed to be troubled and deep in thought, seated by the windowsill.