please check out this code in jsfiddle
HTML:
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Get rid of the spaces themselves: this may look messy but actually it's the cleanest thing you can do. Anything you achieve with CSS tricks is just putting the spaces there and then denying their existence. Instead, you might want to omit them; the only problem to solve is readability.
So let's make it readable:
Again, I know it seems weird, yes, but think about it. The real weirdo here is HTML itself, not giving you a clear way to do this. Consider it a special markup! It could as well be part of the HTML standard; technically, btw, it is 100% standard, you are free to use comments...