When Noelle paused before she could take hold of Felix’s hand, the smile on his lips wavered. He tilted his head to the side, which caused the silver bell attached to his earring to chime. Noelle had been so lost in her thoughts that the sudden sound of the chime caused her to jolt, and in turn, Felix retracted his hand.

“You good? You’ve gone quiet again. Has my flirting managed to leave you speechless?” Felix said while the corners of his lips curved up into his familiar playful smile.

“As if! And you finally admit to being guilty of flirting with me? I was just lost in thought about whether time would pass the same here compared to the human world,” Noelle said with an annoyed tone, quickly coming up with a believable excuse.

Regardless of whether she could trust Felix or not, she didn’t want to bring up the fact that she felt an icy chill that was nothing compared to when a spirit passed through her. She wanted more time to think about it on her own.

“Admit to what?” Felix said innocently, shrugging his shoulders. “Such an odd question. I thought you had a more interesting question in mind, but time doesn’t pass here at all, believe it or not,” Felix said, reaching up to tuck his hands behind his neck as he headed toward the pond. He was careful not to walk too fast, since he wanted Noelle to walk next to him.

A dumbfounded look eventually consumed her features as she looked over at him and walked alongside him. Then, a thought dawned on her.

“Wait, if time doesn’t pass here, then what time is it in the human world right now? As if I would want to be late for class because of you,” Noelle said in a low, serious tone.

“Beats me, but my guess is that it’s still nighttime in the human world, so maybe just an hour ahead of when you first left,” Felix said innocently while he softly shrugged his shoulders.

Noelle let out a small sigh as she looked straight ahead, “Why do I get the feeling that you aren’t certain about what time it is?” she complained.

A soft chuckle left his lips as he tilted his head back.

“Sorry, it's not something I pay much attention to,” Felix said, but he didn’t seem to be paying much attention to Noelle at that moment. Instead, his blue eyes glanced over to the right, as if looking for something off in the distance.

“Why’s that?” she asked as she looked over at him, but by the time she turned her head to look at him, he was already looking back at her instead of looking off into the distance.

“I guess it’s because I tend to forget sometimes. But I’m getting bored with all this time talk. I'd rather pay much more attention to you,” Felix said flirtatiously, his mischievous grin returning.

“Should’ve guessed that you couldn’t last a minute or two without saying something flirty,” Noelle grumbled, but her cheeks were stupidly dusted with another blush.

“Says the girl who wouldn’t hold my hand a moment ago; I’m offended,” he said playfully before speeding up his pace so he could walk a bit in front of her and look over his shoulder at her.

“You’re kidding right?! You’re upset because I didn’t hold your hand?” Noelle said as she raised an eyebrow at him, and her tone clearly implied that she knew he was just messing with her again.

“I am, and so much so that I might not fully recover from it. Maybe a hug would cure my wounded heart,” Felix said with an unwavering grin as his eyes twinkled with amusement.

“Tough luck, kitty. Maybe next time,” Noelle said as she crossed her arms. This time, she tried to get under his skin, but her comment only drew a chuckle from him.

“Oh, so tonight won’t be the only time, and there’ll be a next time. So bold,” Felix said, chuckling. His flirty tone returned, causing Noelle to turn beet-red from his comment.

“J-just be quiet already. Are we at the pond yet?” Noelle said, trying to change the subject and calm down her blush.

“We’re almost there, but if you hold my hand, I bet we’ll get there faster,” Felix said. He offered her a one-sided grin.

“Sounds just like another excuse to me,” Noelle grumbled before she reached out to take a hold of his hand.

“If you know it’s an excuse, then why play along?” Felix teased with a smug smile. But this time, Noelle pouted and turned her face away from him. He rewarded her with a chuckle..

It wasn’t long before they finally reached the pond, which was responsible for the giant bubbles that Noelle had seen in the distance from the town earlier.

Noelle couldn’t help but stare in awe at the medium-sized chubby frogs, whose slimy bodies glittered when small rays of light shone upon them through the trees above. The frogs were positioned near the pond's edges, and it wasn’t long before one of them spit out a large bubble.

Noelle’s eyes filled with wonder at the sight before her. She was so stunned that she hadn’t noticed that Felix had released her hand to step closer to the pond.

“Don’t be too much in a daze; you should take a closer look,” Felix said with a smile before walking over to the pond and entering the water. His comment snapped Noelle out of her reverie.

“Why would you want to step into the pond water…” Noelle started, but she paused when she saw Felix grin.

He leaned backward and fell into the water. She gasped and ran over to the pond's edge. A look of concern crossed her face when tiny water bubbles floated to the surface. How was the pond this deep when it looked shallow to her?

“I swear, if you’re going to drown just to get me to save you, that is crossing the line!” Noelle yelled.

A surprised look crossed her face when a giant bubble rose to the surface, with Felix lying on top of it. His eyes sparkled with amusement.

Noelle couldn’t help the blush that rose to her cheeks when the bubble rose higher, to the point that she realized just how close Felix was to her.

Her eyes locked with his, and she could feel his breath softly brush against her face. It was then she realized how close their lips were to each other.

“If I was drowning, would you come to save me?” he asked playfully. His image was distorted, since he was upside down and lying on his back on the surface of the bubble.

With a small roll of her eyes, she eventually extended her hand forward, hooking her fingers underneath the collar with the charm that had Lucky engraved into it, and pulled him even closer.

She was playing a dangerous game right now; any sudden movement would indeed cause their lips to touch.

“Of course I would,” Noelle stated as she looked deeply into his blue eyes.“Also, Kitty, I think it's time to head back now. If you ask me, I think I spoiled you enough.”

Her sudden action seemed to have caused a slight blush to dust his cheeks, but then his grin widened at her. He seemed amused that she had finally decided to join in on his flirting game.

“You’re getting bolder, Miss Gatekeeper. But, alright. If you say so, we’ll head back now,” Felix offered in a soft tone. He swiftly moved his body up into a sitting position, popped the bubble he was sitting on, and gracefully landed on his feet.

“I’ll lead the way,” he said, then started walking away from the pond toward the portal.

Meanwhile, Noelle was trying to stop her heart from pounding against her chest at the little flirty stunt she had just pulled. She was surprised she had done that without blushing.

The two made their way back to the portal almost peacefully, even though Felix couldn’t resist flirting with Noelle a couple more times before they were finally standing in front of the path between the worlds.

“Well, it looks like we’re back. Too bad. I wish we could’ve had more time together. But then again, there is always next time, right?” Felix said with an amused grin, his tone completely flirty.

Noelle felt her right eyebrow twitch in annoyance, “I already told you, there won’t be a next time. You hear me?” she grumbled. She walked over to the portal.

But while her back was turned, Felix looked over his shoulder and off into the distance, as he had done before.

“I guess we’ll just see about that, won’t we, Miss Gatekeeper? Either way, you wouldn’t wanna be late for class, right?” Felix said playfully before pushing her through the portal without warning, nearly causing her to fall on her face as she stumbled back into her own world.

“Geez, what was his deal? I could’ve just walked through,” Noelle grumbled to herself before walking toward the gate door.

—--

After she was gone, Felix narrowed his eyes, and his smile turned into an agitated frown, “Were you following me?” he said, turning around to face someone. “Something tells me you were.”