Thankfully, she'd retracted her hand before he'd had to take his own hand away. It would have been nice, before this had happened. And maybe he should let her, because this was all about making memories. But it was uncomfortable for the same reason that this entire thing was making him uncomfortable; they could no longer pretend that this was a normal night, and anything they did to that end after the fact was both a lie and a reminder of what they couldn't...be.

And he didn't want to have to see Tomoko merely pretend to be cheerful, because he knew what that was like. But there was no longer anything he could say or do to cheer her up for real.

... They were here. The walk had been simultaneously too quick and too slow. The place where he'd place parked earlier in the night was still vacant; they hadn't spent much time at the restaurant. Ryusei could have done that better. Not be so nervous. Been more reassuring to start with. But he shouldn't think about it; there wasn't anything he could do about that now.