rika sat on the windowsill with hanako, who was playing koi-koi with the mokke again. she sat in between his legs as she tried to help him but had such a bad hand.
hanako groaned as he once again lost against the mokke, pulling a chuckling rika back as he hit the back of his head against the wall. "hey, where's ren?" he asked.
"he's with nene. apparently he's been worried sick about her after the hell of mirrors incident. she's been worrying over kou." rika said, playing with her gloved fingers.
hanako gently grabbed rika's wrist and pulled off one of her half-palm black gloves, making her blush as red as akajoudai. "w-what are you doing?" she asked as the material slipped off her fingers.
"i don't know why you cover your hands... they're so soft..." hanako muttered, bringing rika's hands up to gently kiss her fingers. "amane... you... you know why..." she mutters, looking away.
"i feel disgusted everytime i look at them..." she says. "they're like a painful reminder of why i died like i did." hanako laced his fingers with rika's. "don't. don't you dare say it was your fault." he said sternly.
"but it is... because of me loving you, ren and i..." rika said, her voice shaking. hanako turned the pigtailed girl around to look at her. "i don't care. you didn't do anything." he said, holding her face in his hands.
"if...tsukasa...can't handle the truth about you loving me and me loving you, then that's his problem." he said. "he shouldn't have done things like that to you." he said softly, rubbing the scars on rika's hands.
hanako gently kissed rika, making her smile and kissed back before pulling away to put her glove back on just as yashiro, kou, and riku came to clean the bathrooms.
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"something's not right." riku said with a pout, catching everyone's attention. "huh?" kou asked. "what do you mean?" yashiro asked. "d-don't pretend you don't know!" riku said.
rika raised an eyebrow as she looked over at hanako who simply shrugged. "look at this! this! right here!" riku said, bringing up a festival poster and patting it.
"oh are you two are gonna go?" rika asked, tilting her head. "just the two of you? you're gonna wear a yukata and stuff aren't you? you're gonna hold hands in the crowd!" riku cried, holding yashiro.
'ah. he's jealous.' rika and hanako thought at the same time as a sympathetic smile came to the apparitions' faces. "i'm bound to the school.... i can't go to festivals outside..." riku whined.
