Chapter 3: Library Lock-In

...Tokyo University Library, late evening...

The storm had arrived without warning.

Rain splattered angrily against the library windows, thunder rumbling like the world was clearing its throat. Nobita stared out the fourth-floor window, regretting every life choice that led him here with no umbrella, no ride, and exactly 3% battery left on his phone.

“Of course,” he muttered, tapping the screen. Dead.

He slumped into the nearest chair and dropped his forehead onto the library table. His notes fanned out beside him like paper snowflakes—half of them smudged from the light drizzle he got caught in earlier.

“Nobi-kun,” came a familiar voice. “You look like a drowned cat.”

Nobita lifted his head just enough to glare. “Don’t start with me, Dekisugi.”

Dekisugi stood there in a tailored coat, dry as ever, holding two paper cups of something warm. He slid into the seat across from Nobita like he owned the space.

Nobita sat up, squinting. “Wait. Did you get me something?”

Dekisugi shrugged, placing a cup in front of him. “It’s hot chocolate. You looked miserable. I assumed caffeine would just make it worse.”

Nobita blinked. “Okay… thanks?”

Dekisugi didn’t reply. He just opened his sleek laptop and started typing, brows furrowed like always.

Nobita watched him for a second longer than he should have. How was it fair that someone could be both emotionally constipated and weirdly considerate at the same time?

---

Twenty minutes passed in semi-silence. The storm outside only got worse.

The library lights flickered once. Twice.

Then—

CLICK.

The overhead lights went out with a soft thud. A second later, the emergency glow strips lit up in pale blue, humming faintly.

The two boys froze.

“…Did we just get locked in?” Nobita asked slowly.

Dekisugi checked his watch. “Library closes at ten.”

Nobita checked the wall clock. “It’s ten-oh-three.”

They both looked toward the stairwell, where the main doors sat, probably already locked tight.

Dekisugi sighed. “There’s a sensor-locked panel. Power outage likely disabled it.”

“Wait—are you telling me we’re stuck in here overnight?”

Dekisugi tilted his head. “Unless the power comes back. Or the guard remembers to sweep.”

“Oh great,” Nobita groaned. “I’m going to die in here. In a library. With you.”

Dekisugi smirked. “You say that like it’s a tragedy.”

Nobita threw a crumpled sticky note at him.

---

Half an hour later, they had moved to the reading nook near the windows—partially because it had padded benches and partially because the generator lights buzzed less there.

Nobita had curled into one corner, clutching his hot chocolate, hoodie pulled over his head like a sad goblin.

Dekisugi sat across from him, legs crossed, coat folded beside him like a pillow.

“You’re really taking this well,” Nobita muttered, blowing into his drink. “No panic? No frustration?”

Dekisugi shrugged. “It’s just a storm. It’ll pass.”

“You always do that,” Nobita said before he could stop himself.

Dekisugi raised a brow. “Do what?”

“Act like nothing touches you.”

There was a pause.

The rain whispered steadily against the glass. Somewhere in the distance, thunder rolled low and long.

Dekisugi’s voice, when he finally spoke, was quiet. “Things touch me, Nobita. I just don’t let them wreck me.”

Nobita blinked. “You think I let things wreck me?”

“I think you feel things more openly than most people. That’s not weakness. It’s just different.”

Nobita looked away, warmth rising to his cheeks.

Was… was that a compliment?

---

Silence stretched between them. Not awkward, not exactly comfortable—just thick with something unspoken.

Nobita watched droplets race each other down the glass. “I used to hate the rain.”

“Used to?”

“I don’t mind it as much now,” he admitted. “Feels like an excuse to slow down.”

Dekisugi hummed. “I always liked the rain. It's honest.”

“That’s a weird way to describe weather.”

“Not really. It doesn’t hide how it feels.”

Nobita snorted. “So you do have emotions.”

Dekisugi’s lips quirked. “I never said I didn’t.”

Their eyes met again.

This time, neither of them looked away.

---

Time passed like a slow drip.

Eventually, Nobita slid down from the bench to sit on the floor, back against the shelves. His legs were starting to cramp. Dekisugi followed, stretching out beside him, a respectable distance away—but close enough to feel the quiet tension between them.

“I still don’t get it,” Nobita murmured.

“Get what?”

“Why you’re even here. I thought you’d end up at MIT or Harvard or something. Why Tokyo U?”

Dekisugi was quiet for a long moment.

Then, softly: “Not everything I want is across the ocean.”

Nobita’s breath hitched.

He turned his head, slowly. “What do you mean by that?”

Dekisugi’s gaze didn’t falter. His eyes looked darker in the dim lighting—soft and sharp at once.

“Nobita,” he said, voice lower than before, “do you remember the day before I left middle school?”

“…Yeah.”

“I waited by the river after class.”

Nobita’s stomach dropped. “You… what?”

“I thought you’d come. I even brought—” He shook his head, the corner of his mouth twitching bitterly. “Never mind.”

Nobita stared at him.

“I didn’t know,” he said, voice small. “I thought you left without saying goodbye.”

Dekisugi looked away. “Maybe we both misunderstood.”

---

A beat passed.

Then another.

Then—

Nobita laughed. Not a big laugh. Just a small, disbelieving puff of air.

“I used to think I hated you,” he said.

Dekisugi looked back at him. “You didn’t.”

“No,” Nobita admitted, voice barely audible. “I didn’t.”

The space between them shrank by an inch.

---

A particularly loud crack of thunder made Nobita flinch. Dekisugi instinctively reached over—hand brushing against Nobita’s arm.

They both froze.

Dekisugi didn’t pull away.

Neither did Nobita.

His skin buzzed from the contact. His heart beat faster than it should.

“Are you… cold?” Dekisugi asked.

“Are you… flirting?”

“Maybe.”

“Seriously?”

Dekisugi smiled. “You said I never show emotions. I’m trying something new.”

Nobita didn’t answer. Couldn’t. His brain had short-circuited.

And then Dekisugi leaned in.

Just a little.

Just enough.

His hand came to rest against the shelf behind Nobita’s head, barely brushing his hair.

“Can I…?”

The words were unfinished.

But the meaning was clear.

Nobita’s breath stuttered. “I—I don’t know.”

Dekisugi’s expression softened. “Okay.”

He didn’t push. He didn’t move closer. Just stayed where he was, eyes gentle, waiting.

And for the first time in a long while, Nobita didn’t feel small under that gaze. He felt… seen.

---

The moment passed. Their proximity lingered, warm and electric, but untouched.

Eventually, they both leaned back, hearts racing, silence thick with everything that could have happened but didn’t.

Nobita rested his head against the shelf. “I should’ve gone to the river.”

Dekisugi replied quietly, “Yeah. But maybe this was better.”

---

When the storm finally passed and the emergency lights flickered off, the guard found them both half-asleep, leaning side by side against the same wall.

Nobita’s hand was inches from Dekisugi’s.

Almost touching.

Almost.

---

To be continued...

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