It was a bright weekend afternoon when Izumi found himself standing at the edge of a crosswalk, waiting with Mei. She wore a simple cream blouse and a soft smile, her long hair tied loosely behind her. The city felt strangely quieter today, as if it too was giving them space for this long-awaited date.
"Where to first?" Izumi asked, stuffing his hands into his pockets.
Mei tilted her head. "Let's just walk and follow wherever the smell of good food takes us."
They spent the next few hours hopping between stalls, sharing skewers of grilled meat, laughing over a poorly made takoyaki ball that was more batter than octopus, and sipping bubble tea while watching a street band perform. Mei kept trying to poke the pearls from Izumi's cup with her straw, and Izumi kept switching their drinks just to confuse her.
"See?" she huffed. "You gave me the one with all the boring flavors!"
"You said boring was classic."
"Don't twist my words!"
As the sun started to dip, they strolled into an older part of the city filled with antique stores and quiet book cafés. Mei insisted on buying a weird-looking trinket—a small ceramic frog—and made Izumi name it.
"His name's... Kerojiro," Izumi said after deep thought.
"That's the most cursed name I've ever heard," Mei chuckled, tucking the frog into her bag.
But just as they were finishing off the last of their ice cream, clouds began to roll in. A drizzle tapped on their shoulders. Then the drizzle became a shower.
"Uh oh," Izumi mumbled, looking up.
"Run for shelter!" Mei grabbed his arm, pulling him along as the rain thickened into a downpour. They darted through narrow streets, soaked and half-laughing, until they saw a building with a bright canopy and dashed inside.
For a moment, all was calm.
Then they looked up.
Both froze.
The wallpaper was velvet red. The lighting was dim. And the gold-lettered sign above the reception desk read: Lune de Amour – 24H Cozy Private Rooms.
Izumi blinked. "Wait… this is a…"
"…Love hotel," Mei finished, her voice oddly calm.
There was a beat of silence.
"We should go," Izumi said.
"Absolutely," Mei replied.
But as they turned to the glass doors, a violent gust of wind slammed them shut. The rain had become a torrential wall. Thunder cracked nearby.
"…Okay, maybe just wait a bit," Mei said.
"But we're literally in a—"
"Just sit down, boiyo."
After a series of "I'll pay—No, I'll pay" back and forths, Mei ended up swiping her card with a sigh. "Fine, I'm paying. Consider it a memory tax."
They were given a key and a room number. And as they walked in, a wave of awkward silence washed over them.
The room was, of course, tinted in romantic colors. Rose petals were scattered across the bed. There was soft ambient music playing—why was there soft ambient music playing?
Izumi scratched his head, eyes darting everywhere but the bed. "W-Well. This is... cozy."
Mei turned her back to him, trying to dry her hair with a towel. "We're just sleeping here. Stop panicking."
"I'm not panicking."
"You're doing the leg jiggle."
"…It's a natural reflex."
Eventually, they both changed into the hotel robes and slipped under the covers—on opposite sides, separated by a vast expanse of blanket and nerves.
Mei lay facing the wall. "We've fought monsters together. Why is this the most tense we've ever been?"
Izumi chuckled softly. "Because love hotels don't come with kaijus to distract us."
There was a short laugh from Mei, then silence again. The rain poured against the windows, a soft rhythm that slowly lulled them toward sleep.
Eventually, Mei's breathing evened out.
Or so Izumi thought.
He stared up at the ceiling, the light barely peeking through the curtains. His thoughts swirled like the storm outside.
"She's scary sometimes. Wild. Stronger than me in ways I can't explain. But… I think I've started to see something more," he murmured under his breath. "She's… real. And she lets me be real too."
He turned to face her, watching her sleeping form, peaceful and unguarded. Slowly, hesitantly, he leaned in and placed a soft kiss on her cheek.
"Goodnight, Mei," he whispered. "Thanks for today."
He lay back, eyes drifting shut, a small smile on his face.
But what he didn't know—what he wouldn't know until much later—was that Mei's eyes fluttered open just moments after. Her gaze lingered on him, soft and unreadable.
She whispered so faintly that only the night could hear,
"…You're welcome, boiyo."
And as the rain continued to sing its lullaby outside, the room fell into a peaceful, quiet sleep.
Just as the night settled into its calmest rhythm, with raindrops pattering gently on the hotel windows and the warmth of that secret moment between Izumi and Mei sealed in silence, somewhere above—beyond the reach of that fragile peace—a presence watched.
Perched on the rooftop of a building directly across the hotel, a shadowy figure stood beneath the stormy sky, cloaked in darkness, barely distinguishable from the night itself. The figure's silhouette blurred in the mist and neon reflection of the city lights, but one thing was clear: the smirk curling beneath its hood.
Its voice was but a whisper against the wind.
"Ah... peaceful days," it murmured, almost with amusement. "Such a cozy reminder of the harsh future."
With an evil grin tugging at its lips, the figure took one last look at the hotel window where a dim light still glowed faintly behind the curtains.
"Enjoy... as long as your days meet."
Then, in one swift motion, it turned and vanished into the rain, leaving behind only the echo of its words and the sense that this peace… was only the calm before something far darker.
To be continued...