Chapter 29 – Fireworks and Confessions

The final night of the trip arrived like the soft end of summer—warm, a little bittersweet, and humming with unsaid things.

Students gathered on the riverbank, squealing with excitement as sparklers hissed and rockets lit up the sky in brilliant bursts of color. The sound of laughter echoed through the night air. But just a little farther back, where the shadows stretched longer and the noise felt softer, sat Haru and Aya.

They didn’t need words.

Aya pulled her knees to her chest, glancing sideways at Haru, who was fidgeting with the hem of her sleeve. The younger teacher’s eyes were on the sky, but her thoughts were somewhere else.

> “You’re quiet tonight,” Aya said softly.

Haru gave a small smile. “It’s beautiful.” Then, after a pause:

> “But I can’t focus on the fireworks.”

Aya tilted her head. “Why not?”

Haru looked at her—really looked. The way the light caught in Aya’s eyes, the way her hair moved with the breeze, how calm she seemed even in the chaos of fireworks and students running wild.

> “Because you’re next to me,” Haru whispered. “And it’s scary… but I want this. I want you.”

The words hung in the air, trembling and brave.

Aya didn’t flinch. She reached out and linked their pinkies together. A promise.

> “Then don’t let go.”

Haru looked down at their fingers, pinky to pinky, and smiled like it hurt in the best way.

Then—under the cover of darkness, their faces lit by flickers of red and gold and blue—they leaned closer.

It wasn’t desperate or rushed. It was quiet, deliberate, tender.

Their lips met, and for a moment, everything else melted away.

They kissed beneath the fireworks, hidden from the world—but hearts fully exposed.

As a firework burst into a ring of golden stars, Haru felt her chest tighten—not with fear, but something else.

> “So this is what it feels like… to be chosen. To choose back.”