It began with a simple favor, but somewhere along the way, it became something else entirely.
Aoi had casually mentioned it over breakfast, the last-minute shortage of hands for the school festival, how someone had dropped out unexpectedly, and how the homeroom teacher remembered I used to be good with painting backdrops. Before I could finish my rice, Mom had already volunteered me, as if I were still the middle schooler with nothing but free weekends ahead of me.
Now, here I was, standing in the middle of a gymnasium that smelled of masking tape, sweat, and cardboard, surrounded by students in aprons and bandanas who regarded me with an odd mix of curiosity and mild skepticism, as if I was either too old for this or just another temporary hand to get the job done.
Aoi spotted me from across the room and waved. "Over here!"
She was wearing jeans and a white T-shirt, speckled with blue paint, her hair loosely tied back, a pencil tucked behind her ear. In that moment, she looked... different. Less like the carefree sister from my childhood and more like someone real. Someone grown.
"Sorry," she said as I approached. "It's a bit chaotic."
"I noticed," I replied dryly, sidestepping a kid hustling by with a fake tree.
She laughed, the sound easy and light. "You'll survive."
We worked side by side for hours, sketching outlines for the booth, painting panels, arguing over whether the castle door looked too crooked. The hours blurred together, the messy work distracting me from the creeping sense of time moving far too quickly.
But in the quiet moments, it felt too real. Too close.
At one point, as she leaned over to grab a brush from the far side of the table, her arm brushed against mine. It was brief, barely noticeable to anyone else but I felt it. I felt the warmth of her skin against mine, the slight tension in the air, and I couldn't quite shake the odd fluttering that stirred inside me.
Later, I passed her a bottle of water, and as our fingers brushed, she didn't pull away immediately. Instead, she held my gaze a beat longer than usual, her smile soft, almost... unreadable.
The tension tightened.
And then there was the ladder.
We were hanging banners by the entrance, and I was balancing on the third step, my hand reaching up to steady the banner. Aoi was below me, holding the ladder, her hands firm on the sides. Or at least, that's what she was supposed to be doing.
"Careful," she warned, her grip tightening. "If you fall, I'm not strong enough to catch you."
I tried to joke. "I'm trusting you with my life."
Her fingers pressed into the metal. "Then don't get used to falling."
I glanced down at her, catching the way her eyes weren't playful, but steady, focused in a way that unsettled me. The warmth of her hands on the ladder, the subtle firmness of her touch... suddenly, I wasn't so sure I could keep my balance not on the ladder, and not in that moment.
Later, as we walked home, the sun had dipped low, casting the sky in rich hues of orange and lavender. Aoi looped her arm through mine, casually, as if it meant nothing.
But my heart skipped. Just for a moment.
"Thanks for helping today," she said, her voice light, her head tilting toward my shoulder, her closeness unmistakable. "I had fun."
"Yeah," I murmured, struggling to find my words. "Me too."
I couldn't say anything else, couldn't find the right way to express what was lingering in the silence between us.
Because the way her hand lingered on my arm, the way her body shifted just a fraction closer, none of it felt like the casual closeness of siblings. And what terrified me more than anything was not her actions.
It was the fact that I noticed.