Chapter 3:
Into the light: In a new dawn
"Hey, it's surprising seeing you this late, do you need anything?" He says gently, a voice that made all of Eliza's anxiety vaporise once she heard it.
Eliza breathed a huge sigh of relief, happy that her journey here was not a useless one.
"Well, I was just wondering if you would want to do something?" In a rather quiet tone, she is embarrassed to ask. " I just wasn't able to sleep and was wondering if you were also awake, it's okay if you don't wa-"
"Sure, why not, I'm not doing anything better right now," he replies.
Eliza's face glows up, along with her eyes. Such an unexpected answer was shocking for her.
"Are you just going to stand outside, come inside," says Kuroseki in that same gentle tone that would make anyone comfortable from hearing it.
"Oh, yeah sure, thank you for letting me in!"
Eliza sat down on one of Kuroseki's sofa and began to perform a thinking stance. His room was like no other, not the largest but was still cozy, and awfully similar to Elizas. It was as if the person who designed the apartment copy and pasted the design for every room. He had a Tv parallel to his sofa with a small coffee table in between. Kuroseki lights a vanilla scented candle which fills its aroma in the room, further boosting its cozy feeling.
"What did you have in mind about doing?" Asks Kuroseki.
"Tell me Kuroseki, what sort of movies are you into?" She says, as she maintains the thinking stance.
"Well, I was once dragged to watch this romance movie called 'A Fault in Our Constellations', I haven't watched many movies since then."
"I know exactly what to do then," slamming the side of her fist onto the palm of her opposite hand. "You just give me a moment I'll be right back".
Eliza immediately stormed out of his apartment, leaving Kuroseki dumbfounded. Five minutes later she makes a return, carrying a cube-shaped box in her arms. The box was small, only capable of fitting a few movies into it, yet Eliza was still enthusiastic about sharing the content in the box.
"This box contains some movies I bought back in England, but I never actually got to watch!" She said, struggling to hide her excitement. "Go on, pick any movie in this box".
Kuroseki dips his hand into the box, grabbing the first thing he makes contact with. He looks at the cover for a moment, instantly disapproving of the movie genre. He immediately drops the movie back into the box, doing a redrew. Once he grabs the next movie, it hits him. He realised all the movies in the box were the same genre.
"Are these all rom-com movies?"
"Maybe," Eliza answers, with a smirk.
Kuroseki takes a breather and lets out a sigh.
"Well, if they’re all the same genre let’s go with this one,"
He takes the CD out of the box and puts it into his game-station. With Eliza's assistance they both prepare snacks from both Kuroseki's and Eliza's cupboards and get comfortable on the sofa, sitting beside each other and hitting play on the move.
Thirty minutes pass, and Kuroseki is beginning to doze off. He could sense his eyes trying to slam shut, while Eliza was as energetic as ever watching the movie with enthusiasm. Kuroseki eventually fails to maintain the stability of his consciousness, begins to tilt to one side, falling right onto Eliza's shoulder. Eliza, completely flustered, freazes in one spot as her mind rushes in circles searching for a solution on what she should do. After moving in extensive care, getting him off her shoulder and swiftly slid a pillow before his head landed on the sofa. In search of a blanket, she ran into Kuroseki's bedroom, grabbed his bed sheet and laid it on him.
"What on earth do I do, should I just go home?" She whispers to herself as she walks in circles.
After a series of ideas, she decides to stay at the apartment. It didn't feel right for her to just leave in the middle of the night. The time was abit past midnight now. Eliza takes a seat on the floor and continues to watch. A short while passes, and it doesn't take long for her to fully pass out on the floor.
Kuroseki jumps up, with sweaty palms and in complete shock. Only realised it was a dream a few seconds later. He checks the time, it was around 6am. After further inspecting his environment around him he feels his gentle blanket on him and Eliza lying on the floor. After coming to his senses, he attempts to carefully get off the sofa, trying not to step on Eliza in the process. As he stands there glaring down at Eliza, he begins to think about his options and realises he doesn't have many. He proceeds to pick up Eliza, putting his arms under her legs and the other on her back, and then lifting her. He lies her down on the sofa, gets her a spare blanket, and covers it over her. He looks back to check his clock and realises he has been asleep for multiple hours. Grabbing his blanket, he goes to his bedroom and goes to sleep. The morning sun hits Eliza's face causing her to wake up. in complete surprise, looking around rapidly as Kuroseki watches from a distance in the kitchen.
"Good morning, looks like you're awake," Says Kuroseki, with a smile on his face. "Want breakfast?"
"I mean, sure I guess," She mutters blushing hard in the process.
After Kuroseki finishes the food preparation, he prepares the plates, laying them gently on the table. Eliza begins to try to be helpful and begins cleaning up Kuroseki's living room. After Kuroseki completes preparing the food, he calls over to Eliza to come to the table. The two sit on the opposite side with each other, face to face. The prepared food looked like a quickly prepared omelette rice. Despite the basic food choice, that didn't stop Eliza from absolutely adoring his cooking.
"This is amazing as usual," Eliza says in her usual happy voice as if nothing has ever happened. Kuroseki thanks her with an unusual smile. It doesn't take long for Eliza to eat her plate clean.
"I'm going to pack my things and go back home," says Eliza. "I appreciate the meal you prepared for me!"
"It was no problem, feel free to stop be whenever."
She quickly picks up her belongings, thanking Kuroseki for the food once more and dashes out of the apartment. The moment Eliza enters her apartment, she slams her front door shut, rushes to her bedroom, and collapses into her bed with a shriek from the crazy night she has just lived through.
"I can't believe it, that was basically my first ever sleep over at a guy's place!" She says in embarrassment, trying to stay silent but failing miserably.
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