Rudy rubbed his thumb on Aria's hand and said, "Alice, I have something to tell you."
Rudy was a little nervous as he was going to tell everything to Alice. But he had no other choice but to tell her.
'We will reach home in half-hour, and then she will go home. If I miss this chance, I am not getting another chance to tell her anytime soon,' Rudy thought. 'I should have just told her in the pool, to be honest.'
Rudy didn't tell Alice in the pool because, if, in case, things went wrong, their first date would become the last.
"..."
After getting no response from Alice, Rudy glanced at her to see her sleeping.
"..."
'Oh, come on~!' he groaned inwardly. 'But I guess she was tired after what we did today…'
'And honestly, I feel like sleeping too.'
Rudy closed his eyes to relax, but he ended up falling asleep.
The next time he opened his eyes, he saw Alice standing in front of him with an anxious look on her face.
"Hmm?"
"Thank god you are awake!" Alice sighed in relief. "Come on. Let's go! Our stop has arrived, and the bus driver is getting angry."
She grabbed Rudy's hand and took him out of the bus.
"..."
Alice glanced at Rudy and noticed he was still half-asleep.
"Wait here. I will bring something to drink," she said and rushed to the nearby vending machine.
Rudy's mind was currently blank, and he was feeling relaxed.
In that state, he couldn't bother or worry about anything in the world.
A few seconds later, Alice returned and handed the cold coffee can to Rudy.
"Here. It will help you wake up."
However, Rudy didn't react at all.
"Rudy?" Alice called out to Rudy and shook him.
"Hmm?"
Rudy finally reacted and saw Alice looking at him with a concerned look on her face.
"Ali…ce…?" he said.
Rudy moved his face close to Alice and kissed her on the lips before saying, "I love you."
"I love you too, but now is not the time for that!" Alice placed the cold coffee can on Rudy's neck and said, "Wake up!."
The coffee can that was freezing cold suddenly turned hot and smoke started coming out of it.
It turned so hot that Alice ended up dropping it from her hand.
"...!"
The hot can burst after hitting the ground and ended up spilling on Rudy's leg.
"Rudy!" Alice yelled.
After hearing Alice yell his name, Rudy finally came back to his senses and glanced around. Then, he looked at the panicked look on Alice's face.
"What's wrong?" he asked in a calm voice.
"The coffee! Your leg!"
Rudy glanced at his leg to see it was smeared by hot coffee.
'Hmm? Why is the coffee hot?' Rudy wondered. 'It's coming out from the can, and I highly doubt the vending machine would have hot coffee in the freezer. Yeah, that makes no sense. But the coffee is certainly hot.'
"Why aren't you reacting?!" Alice asked with a panicked look on her face. "Isn't it hot?"
"What do you mean? Why would it be hot? It's cold," Rudy replied.
Rudy had already realized the reason Alice was panicking, so he wanted her to calm down.
"But it was hot! It even burned my fingers!"
"It must be cold. Since a chilled thing can also produce a similar sensation," Rudy stated.
"But the smoke was coming out of it too!"
"That's what happens when things get too cold. We see it in winter all the time, no?"
"Well…"
Rudy gazed at Alice's fingers and found them red.
"Does it hurt?" he asked in a calm voice and grabbed Alice's hand.
"Not really, This happens to me all the time when I cook or heat food," Alice uttered.
Rudy kissed Alice's fingers and said, "It will get better."
"I will bring another coffee for you," Alice said and tried to break free from Rudy's grip.
"There is no need to. I am already awake."
"Then I will get some water, so you can wash your legs," she said.
"But we don't have the container to fill the water." Rudy hugged Alice and said, "We will grab a water bottle from the convenience store on our way home."
"Okay…"
Rudy and Alice started walking towards Alice's home.
"..."
Rudy looked up at the sky and thought, 'Let's not do that again.'
Since Rudy always had some sort of nightmares every time he slept, he found a solution that could let him sleep without worry. And that was to shut his mind off completely.
Rudy's nightmares weren't a major problem to Rudy; everyone in the world experiences nightmares. The problem was Rudy's powers that leaked according to his emotions.
That's why, if Rudy shut his mind off and his powers, nothing would happen even if Rudy had the deadliest nightmare.
And when Rudy was in that state, his powers subconsciously protected him by doing the exact opposite things. Just like how cold coffee can turned hot.
However, it wasn't as simple as it looked. Shutting his mind was basically the same as being brainless with no sense of anything.
The real problem with that was that Rudy had no control over it. Someone had to force him to wake up and come back to his senses. And since he usually used this technique for sleeping at night, it was Angelica who always woke him up.
After walking for a while, Rudy and Angelica came across a convenience store. Since Rudy's shoes and pants were dirty, he didn't enter the store. So Alice had to go alone.
A minute later, Alice came out with a water bottle in her hand and handed it to Rudy.
Rudy could easily wipe the stain off using his powers, but he used water and a little of his powers to make it look like it happened because he washed it off.
After walking for a few more minutes, they reached Alice's home.
'We are already here. I guess I will have to find another time to tell her.'
Rudy dropped Alice at her home, and he was about to leave, but Alice called him out.. And she asked him something he never expected to hear from Alice's mouth.