(Ekko's heart skipped a beat and almost broke, though there were still cracks left even after she clarified. She didn't love him, but she was starting to. Leave it to Ekko to almost have the win, and then at the last second have it blow up in his face. Living in the second, meaning that in that moment things tended to go great, but when there was a longer game, a big picture sometimes you needed to live beyond just the moment. And so he'd take the partial win for now, and hope that he hadn't screwed up to prevent it from becoming something more.

At least he knew now that she at least didn't have any serious feelings for Venti. Though Ekko still didn't trust or like the guy. In a way he couldn't help but laugh and bury his face in the palm of his hand.)

I'm just an idiot. But I do love you, always have and always will.

I got it. Anyways, you don't have to be scared about what's real and what isn't. There's no way something that's just in your head would this dumb.