"To think you two experienced that kind of thing… to think that kind of thing is real in the first place."  

Mom said before stuffing another dumpling down her throat. I ate the last of the dumplings and set the plate aside, putting it on top of a collection table where hotel staff would come and take it. I then took a tissue out of the suit I wore, not really sure why I was wearing one, and used it to wipe my mouth. 

"Yeah, it's really weird." 

I replied. I put the used tissue on top of the plate that I had just put down. 

"Simon hadn't tried anything funny, right dear?" 

"Mom, of course not!" 

"Thank you for your concern, but no, not yet." 

"Don't say not yet!" 

Emily let out a chuckle after hearing my words. Up on the stage was the happy couple, Emily's parents sitting beside them. We had given them our congratulations, and were now seating our meal in the corner. 

Beside me was Emily, eating the pasta on her plate. We actually tested the ability before, with me and Emily weaving in and out of the crowd. The ability wasn’t triggered when our sights were blocked by a person, probably because humans weren’t large enough. When something bigger blocked our line of sight, like, an entire stand for example, then Emily would disappear and reappear around me. 

As long as we stayed within each other's orbit, we could be separated by anything. When one of us moved away and left the other's orbit, assuming we were then blocked by something, the phenomenon would kick in, causing us to be beside each other again. We accidentally crashed into each other a couple of times because one of us kept appearing and disappearing, and it became quite a headache. Not wanting to make trouble for anyone, we decided to just stick together. 

I waited for Emily to finish her meal before heading back to the crowd, in search of more food. Once she was done and set her plate aside, we moved again. 

"Simon?" 

"Yes?" 

I felt something holding my hand. I turned around and found Emily's right hand on mine. She held mine tightly, her face looking down, her cheeks read. 

"Umm… If we hold hands, we won't get separated." 

"Good idea. Where do you want to go?" 

"I'm fine with anything." 

"How about we each get one plate of something, and then share the food?" 

Emily looked up, her cedar-brown eyes looking into mine. She noticed something and looked away, her lips opening and closing. 

"Al… right…" 

"Okay."

I pulled her slowly, weaving in between the crowd. She followed my steps. We went up to a food stall serving meatballs and waited in line. While we waited, I let go of her hand and she moved beside me. As planned, I only take one plate. After that, I'll take Emily's hand once more, but this time, I let her lead. 

"We really look like a couple…" 

She said, her words covered by the sounds of the murmurs around us. I could still hear her words, though. 

"Yeah, you're right." 

I wonder if anyone here actually saw us and thought about us in that way. At weddings, I rarely saw people other than the main couple and their parents holding hands, but it was not like I actually paid attention to my surroundings. Parties like these are meant for eating, chatting, and congratulating the couple, after all. Who cares about what others do? I surely don’t. 

I let Emily's hand pull me around, until we reached a different stall. This time it was an ice cream stall. We waited in line. I took a bite out of my meatballs and handed it over to Emily. 

She looked surprised at first, but meekly took the bowl into her hands. 

"Thanks…" 

For a moment I felt confused by her reaction, but quickly realized the mistake I made. 

"Sorry." 

I completely forgot about indirect kissing. I couldn't believe I made that mistake again. 

"It's fine."

I glanced at her and decided against commenting. She then returned the bowl to me and took the ice cream. This time, she made sure to not repeat my mistake and took two spoons. We made our way back to where my parents stood and shared our food. 

Once we returned to our position, it was my parents' turn to go ahead and take some food, leaving us two to guard our fort. We ate in silence, surrounded by people dressed in formal attire around us. I glanced at Emily. She wore a captivating brown dress that complimented the color of her eyes and hair. 

“... What do you think?”

She asked. We had been busy up till this point, so I could only pay attention to her looks now. 

“I think you look great.”

“Thanks.”

She muttered. She looked away bashfully. 

“I think the way you look shy is cute, too.”

“How could you say that?”

She let out a slight complaint. I didn’t put much thought into it, though. I then brought the empty bowl to a plate collection point. It wasn’t far from our standing point, so I didn’t need to take Emily with me. We didn’t break line of sight, either, so she stayed in her position. I thanked the person arranging the dirty plates and returned to Emily’s position. My parents arrived not long after. 

Emily finished up the ice cream in her hand and we went for another round. As we made our way, I thought about how my parents didn’t seem to find it all this weird. We proved our situation to my parents the same way we did to Emily’s, by using the wall. Emily’s parents claimed that they went through the same thing prior, so they believed us, but my parents didn’t say anything. I asked if they experienced something like this before, and the answer was no. 

“You really do never lie…”

Emily said while dragging me around. 

“Huh?”

“Your parents seemed to believe you even without us proving it.”

While it was true that they didn’t need much convincing, and I rarely lie, I still think the way they accepted this almost immediately was weird. 

Am I the only one that didn’t know about this? Maybe this is more common than I thought? Why, though?

I tried thinking about anything. My past, my feelings, my belongings, anything and everything. I couldn’t remember something that could trigger this. I had been pondering about it a lot ever since I first got stuck with Emily, but I still couldn’t bring up anything. 

“Emily?”

“Huh?”

Emily stopped. She looked back at me, noticed something, and pulled me the other way. We ended up lining up in the line for grilled goats. I checked the clock. It had been an hour since the wedding began. 

“After the wedding…”

“Yes?”

“Can we talk?”

She caught my eyes before averting her gaze.

“Yes.”

 

Under the night sky, we sat on the table of the rooftop bar. Three people played in the pool behind us, a glass of water in front of me. I heard the sound of an airplane flying over me, its lights shining through the darkness of the night sky. 

“So, what is it that you wanted to talk about?”

Below us, the wedding had finished. Emily’s family was probably spending time doing the clean-up or something. I had told them that I wanted to borrow Emily for a while, and they let us go. Emily twirled the spoon in her cup of tea. We both decided to go for something on the light side. 

“It’s just… it’s been bothering me…”

“The thing my parents said?”

“That too.”

Emily’s parents claimed that the Torii gate reappeared when her dad confessed to her mom. 

But what? What kind of confession?

Did he make a mistake that he hid and needed to confess? Or was it something else? Was it that meaning, the one where one person admitted their feelings to the other? I wanted to ask more, but based on how Emily’s mother immediately brought our attention back toward the wedding made me wonder if she wanted to talk about it. Was it something that we needed to find for ourselves?

My parents had been friends with Emily’s for a long time, or so I heard. Even before I and Emily were born, if I wasn’t mistaken. I didn’t know the details, but could it be possible that the reason my parents weren’t surprised was because Emily’s parents went through the same thing in the past and told my parents about it?

“It’s just… I can’t think of anything, really.”

“Do you really need to?”

“Of course.”

I folded my arms and looked up at the sky. The moon shone brightly, illuminating the darkness with the light that it reflected. 

“It’s cold, isn’t it?”

Emily said. I looked back at her. I did invite her up here. I didn’t have a jacket with me, but I did wear a suit. I stood up and took my suit off. I made my way toward her and put the suit on her shoulders. 

“Are you sure it’s alright?”

She said while pulling the suit closer to her, letting it cover her exposed shoulders. 

“It’s fine.”

After letting my suit off, I felt the cold night breeze on my skin. It wasn’t freezing cold, but still a bit chilly. I could handle it just fine and made my way back to my seat. 

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”

I sat down and took a sip from the mineral water before me. It stuck out in the environment, we were in a rooftop bar, after all, not a place you get your mineral water from. I really didn’t have the mood for anything else, though. 

“Anyway, back to the topic. You have any idea?”

“Any… idea?”

“Your parents never told you about this?”

She shook her head. She stretched her hands and put them into the suit, wearing it. 

“No. They never touched on the topic.”

“Confession, huh?”

It reminded me of the Eddit comment we read a long while ago. Well, it hadn’t even been a month yet, but it felt like a really long while ago. Time sure passed quickly when you weren’t paying attention. If we combine the comment about wanting something with confessing…

Something deep buried within us, things that we didn’t realize we wanted…

“You think your parents fell in love but didn’t realize it?”

Emily visibly shuddered. 

“Are you still cold? Sorry, I shouldn't have asked you to go up here.”

“Ah, no. It's alright, it’s not… that.”

“Are you really alright?”

I feel like I was missing something. Something that I myself didn’t realize. She glanced between her drink and me, before taking it into her hands and gulping it down. She slammed it back to the table, stood up, and turned around for the elevator. 

“Emily!”

She stepped away briskly, before stopping. 

“I…”

She tried to push some words out, but said nothing. She turned around and sat back down. 

“Emily, are you really alright?”

“I just forgot that even if I left, I’ll still be with you.”

She said with a wry smile. 

“Why do you want to leave in the first place?”

Emily shook her head. 

“It’s nothing.”

I realized that the mood wasn’t right and stood up. I extended my hand toward her. 

“Let’s go back.”

“But about-”

“I think we’re both too tired to think. My bad, I should have noticed earlier.”

She smiled and took my hand.

“Fine, then. Let’s go.”

I took my mineral water and with my hand holding hers, we made our way back toward the hotel. We entered an empty elevator and pushed the button, returning to our room on floor seventeen. The door closed shut and the lift started moving down. 

“Hey, Simon…”

“Yes.”

Emily leaned on the metallic walls, a blurred reflection looking back at her. 

“Say… if hypothetically… just a hypothetical situation… someone would confess their… love, to you, what would you do?”

She asked while stammering. 

“Are you still cold?”

I asked. 

“No, why?”

“The way you talk is-”

“Please don’t think about that. So… your answer?”

“Well… It’s impossible to say without knowing who’s confessing to me in the first place.”

Even if I knew who confessed, I still didn’t have an answer. I hadn’t been thinking about romance up till this point. No one ever showed interest in me, so I couldn’t tell how I would react.

“You have no one you like?”

“Romantically? I don’t think so.”

I don’t feel like I’m attracted to anyone yet. It’s just… it never entered my mind. The only girl I found constantly thinking about was Emily, so if someone else confessed to me… I really have no answer.

“Why are you asking anyway?”

“Just… my parents' words.”

So despite not showing it, she had been thinking about it as well, huh?

“How about you? You have someone you like?”

I asked, but the elevator let out a ting, telling us that we had arrived at our floor. Emily stepped out. She then glanced at me, her finger on her lips. 

“I have someone I like. It’s just that person hadn’t noticed it yet.”

She said with a slight blush, her lips moving playfully. 

“Ah, good luck. I wish you success.”

She let out a sigh and muttered something under her breath. 

“Good night.”

She said as she walked off.