Chapter 54: An Inconvenient Destiny

For a long, terrible moment, the only sound is the gentle lapping of the water and the frantic, panicked thumping of my own heart. We are both frozen, two statues in a tableau of ultimate, forbidden awkwardness. My brain has ceased all higher functions. All I can think is: This is it. This is the single most mortifying moment of my entire existence.

Rina is the first to unfreeze. But instead of screaming and running away, which would be the normal, sane reaction, she does something completely insane. She smiles. It is not a mischievous smile. It is a slow, dawning smile of pure, unadulterated delight, as if she has just won the lottery.

"Well," she says, her voice a calm, cheerful whisper in the steamy air. "This is a fortunate accident."

She takes a step towards the bath.

"What are you doing?!" I squeak, my voice an embarrassing, high-pitched noise. I instinctively try to sink lower into the water, as if I can somehow become one with the hot spring and disappear. "Get out! Go away!"

"Why?" she asks, dipping a toe into the water. "The sign said it was unoccupied. Technically, you are the one who is trespassing in my bath." She steps in, the hot water rising up her body. She moves with a grace that is completely at odds with the sheer insanity of the situation. She comes to a stop on the other side of the small bath, sinking into the water so we are face to face, only a few feet of steam separating us. "Besides," she adds, her voice dropping to a low, intimate murmur, "I think this is destiny."

My brain is screaming. This is a five-alarm emergency. "This is not destiny, this is a nightmare!" I hiss, trying to cover myself with my own hands, which is both useless and ridiculous. "We have to get out of here before someone finds us!"

"Who is going to find us?" she asks, leaning back against the stone wall of the bath, looking completely, unnervingly relaxed. "Kenji is probably still trying to figure out how to open the door to the women's side, and Miki and Hana think I am looking for a towel. We are all alone, Onii-chan."

She says the last part with a soft, purring quality that makes every muscle in my body tense up.

She is right. We are completely, utterly alone. Trapped in an intimate, hot, steamy… situation.

She looks at me, her eyes, dark and shining in the lantern light from the garden, full of a deep, sincere emotion. The teasing is gone. "Rui," she says, her voice soft and serious. "I know you told me to stop. And I tried. But I cannot. Being here, like this… it just feels so… right."

She pushes herself off the wall, the water swirling around her as she moves closer. "I am so lucky," she whispers, her voice thick with feeling. "I have the best brother in the world. And the best knight. They are both the same person. And I love him. I love you, Rui. More than a sister should."

Her second confession. Delivered while we are both completely naked in a hot spring. My brain, which was already on fire, simply dissolves into a puddle of molten panic.

She is right in front of me now. The steam swirls around her, making her look like a dream, a beautiful, impossible, and deeply forbidden dream. Her hand comes up out of the water, and she gently touches my cheek. Her skin is warm and wet.

"It is okay," she whispers, as if she can read the terror in my eyes. "Just for a second. Let's just forget everything else."

She leans in, her eyes fluttering shut. Her lips are inches from mine. This is it. The point of no return. My mind is screaming "NO," but my body is frozen, caught in the undeniable gravity of the moment. It is happening.

SLAM!

The door to the changing room is thrown open with a force that makes the entire structure shake.

"BANZAI!" Kenji's voice bellows, a war cry of pure, unadulterated chaos.

He bursts through the inner door to the bath, followed closely by a horrified Miki and Hana. They are all still in their yukatas. Kenji is holding a ladle like a sword, Miki has her phone out as if she is about to call the police, and Hana just looks like she is about to faint.

They all freeze, their eyes going wide as they take in the scene before them: me and Rina, naked, face to face in the hot spring, her hand on my cheek, our lips inches apart.

The silence that follows is a thing of profound, earth-shattering awkwardness.

It is Kenji who breaks it. He looks at Rina. He looks at me. A slow, idiotic grin spreads across his face. He lowers his ladle and starts to clap.

"Bravo, my friend! Bravo!" he cheers. "You finally did it! You embraced the forbidden love! I am so proud of you both! The wedding will be beautiful!"

Rina and I both let out a shriek of pure mortification and simultaneously try to submerge ourselves completely under the water, a desperate, futile attempt to escape the reality of being ambushed at the climax of our own deeply problematic love story. The romantic moment is not just shattered; it has been nuked from orbit.