Ayame pursed her lips determined to take action. Her heart felt heavy and seemed hollow when she saw him about to walk away. This could signify so many things. An action that symbolises what their future entailed. It felt like if she let him walk away now, that would be it. She would never see him again. She did not want that.

Without even thinking her body moved before her brain even process the thought of doing so. She held on to the hem of his shirt. She almost wrapped her arms around him pressing herself close to him. To stop him from leaving but she couldn't.. not now.. not yet.

His steps faltered and freeze in place, his left heel was raised about to complete a step. He seemed stiff and radiating this nervous energy. Can't blame him she thought. She was too. Extremely so.

So what now? 

***

So what now?

Luce thought. If this was a game of chess, it would be his turn to make a move. But this isn't chess; no this is more important than that. So much more important. But he couldn't just leave her hanging there. Could he ?

So he slowly.. hesitantly turned to face her. Her dark bangs covered her eyes. To be honest this made it easier for him, lowered the hurdle a little. He feels that if he was to come face to face with her, her eyes staring directly at him, he would freeze up and just get lost in their brilliance. Eventually he would want to, eventually. Luce wants to get to know her. After all eyes were the window to the soul and he wanted to devour all of her.

Still the worry of him just being another victim to one of her lustful whims was still etched at the back of his mind. But there was this hope that maybe he was just over thinking stuff, won't be the first it happened but he did not want to get his hopes up. Because if that wasn’t the case it would destroy him completely.

"....ehh.." he started. His throat felt extremely dry for some reason so he cleared his throat and tried to start again.

".. ca-..can.. can we talk?!" 

He jumped in surprise when he hears her utter the same thing.

He nodded and for a brief second her lips quivered and turned into a dazzling smile. It was so bright. So warm and so infectious that he couldn’t help but return the gesture.

He scratched his head awkwardly and cleared his throat again.

The heck is wrong with me?

“Umm.. shall we get out here.” He said softly.

She seemed confuse at first, her eyes widen in disbelief then her face came alive as she grinned at him and chirpily grab her things from the table.

He put his hands in his pocket as he waited, he couldn’t help but glance around. His heart hammering wildly against his chest.

Calm down!

He scolded himself, but his body don’t seem to listen as his hands became clammy with sweat and he couldn’t help but wiped it off against the pocket of his jeans anxiously.

***

They both exited the library together. They have always exited the library together at the same time  for the past year but today it was different. For the first time in 12 months since they met, they were finally getting somewhere.

The pavement buzzed with the movement and the noise of walking pedestrians. The hum and beeps of car engines and chilling breeze of the autumn air greeted them as they walked down the steps.

Ayame was happy. She couldn’t stop smiling, it felt as if a certain burden had been lifted off her shoulders and she felt ten times lighter. She felt as though she could float.

There were finally going somewhere, something was happening. Not like it was before. Constantly stagnant. But now there was movement. Slight but it was movement nonetheless.

The cold autumn wind fiddled with her hair brushing it back slightly. The browning leaves twirled and danced at the whims of the breeze. And together they embraced the uncertainty of their future.