✪ Boundaries || HanaNene ✪

C H A P T E R S E V E N

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《 CHAPTER 7: Tanabata 》

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Yashiro couldn't sleep.

She couldn't stop thinking about what happened when she was in that boundary with that rat. How they tried to tie her to a chair and do god knows what, and how Hanako looked when he was talking with the shadow. The two seemed to know each other a lot more than Yashiro knew.

'So why don't you tell her everything? How you killed me and father?'

'I'll tell her when I want to.'

Yashiro wrapped her thoughts around the two words that Hanako and the rat shared, snuggling and curling up inside her blankets. She concluded the two to be twins brothers. It was impossible that they weren't with how similar they resemble each other, and with what the rat told him.

Her mind drifted to what could possibly be haunting Hanako so much. He was so scared when he came into that boundary they were in. And his eyes, his eyes were filled with so much fear when Yashiro saw them. It made her shiver just by imagining them. 

Just what happened to Hanako when he was human? Who was he?

Yashiro still didn't know.

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"Kou-kun, would you like to go to the Tanabata Festival with me next week?" 

Hanako and Kou stared at the daikon girl in shock. Kou turned into a blushing, stuttering mess and dropped the mop he was holding to cover his face with his hands. He didn't expect Nene to suddenly ask him to go with her. He always thought that it would be Aoi who she was going to ask.

"I felt really guilty for making you worry about me when you heard about the news that I was taken by the person we saw in the Hell of Mirrors, so I wanted to make up for it," Yashiro explained.

A pang of jealousy hit Hanako's heart. He was the one who saved her, who spent so much energy trying to break the black cage around the boundary she was trapped in, so why was Kou the one who was asked? Even if he was an earthbound spirit who couldn't leave the school, couldn't she have asked him first?

"S-Sure, I'll go with you," Kou muttered, flustered. Hanako panicked, no way was he letting Kou and Nene go alone. He was not going to let Kou get the upper hand.

"Wait just a minute," Hanako interrupted the two, an innocent smile on his face, "You two aren't just going to a festival by yourselves, are you guys?"

Nene raised a brow, "I mean, if Kou-kun wants it to only be the two of us, then yes."

'No way,'  The thought rushed to apparition's head almost immediately.

Hanako wrapped his arms around Yashiro protectively, glaring at the exorcist who couldn't help but stare at him weirdly.

He narrowed his eyes at the kid, who was still a bit red, "But I don't trust what Kou might do to you! You're both gonna be wearing yukatas and holding hands in the crowd, and god knows what might be going through that kid's head right now?"

"Pervert, pervert!" The mokke inside the bathroom accused Kou, who looked at the mokke angrily.

"Who're you calling pervert, eh?" He pointed his lightning spear at them, creating a small spark of lightning to scare the small rabbit-like creatures. Yashiro furrowed her brows at Hanako.