Chapter 43: The Stolen Hero

Beep... Beep... Beep...

No.

That's a lie.

I hear waves.

And muttering.

"This is all your fault, Sparkles."

"I know! I know! Stop saying that!"

"If she's not okay..."

"She is okay! Fuji-kun said her pulse is fine! She just swallowed half the ocean and is exhausted!"

Daiki and Hiroto.

My head is a rock.

My throat is sandpaper.

I am ... in a bed.

It's soft.

I groan.

The muttering stops.

"Twilight?"

Daiki.

I pry my eyes open.

I am in a room at the beach house.

The sun is setting.

I've been asleep for ... hours.

Daiki is by my bed. He looks awful. His hoodie is damp. His hair is a mess.

Hiroto is peeking around the door. He looks terrified.

"What... happened?" I croak.

"You... you almost drowned, Angel!" Hiroto wails from the hallway. "It was my joke! It went wrong! It was a terrible plot device! Please don't sue me!"

He's an idiot.

"You're okay," Daiki says. His voice is shaky. "You scared us, Twilight. You scared me."

He looks... guilty. And scared.

My mind is foggy.

The cramp. The water.

The panic.

And then...

Fuji.

Fuji's face.

Fuji's lips.

I blush.

I am lying in bed and I am BLUSHING.

What is wrong with me?

"Where... where is...?"

"Fuji?" Daiki mutters. His face darkens. "He's outside. Making phone calls. To his stupid family, probably."

He sounds... jealous.

"You*...* what happened?" I ask again. My memory is a mess.

Daiki looks at me.

He looks at Hiroto in the hall.

He looks at his hands.

He is making a choice.

I can see him making it.

"I... I pulled you *out," Daiki says, quietly. He's not looking at me.

"You... and Fuji," I correct.

"Yeah," he says. "Yeah, him too. But... I got to you first. I... I saved you, Twilight."

He says it.

He says the words.

And my stupid, foggy, romance-novel brain.

It believes him.

He saved me.

When I was weak. When I was panicked. When I was that scared little girl again.

Daiki Hanata.

My 'Rival'. My 'Simp'.

He saved me.

I don't remember the CPR. It must have been a dream. A fever dream.

Daiki saved me.

"Oh," I say.

He finally looks at me.

He sees the look on my face.

(I don't know what it is. Gratitude? Confusion? ... 'Like'?)

He likes it.

His guilt disappears.

His 'King' smirk comes back. Just a little.

"Yeah," he says, trying to be cool. "So... you kind of owe me, Twilight-chan."

He is an idiot.

But he is my idiot 'hero'.

I look past him.

Out the door.

In the living room... I can see Fuji.

He is not on the phone.

He is sitting in a chair. Staring at the wall.

Rika is handing him a towel.

He doesn't take it.

He looks... broken.

My stomach twists.

Why?

I don't care.

Daiki saved me. That's the story.

And I am sticking to it.