The cedar trees shifted outside.

Something moved underneath them.

Kaito ignored it and folded another shirt into the suitcase.

He only had one more night in the estate.

"Kai~~~."

Soft voice. Right outside the shoji screen.

He did not look up.

"No."

"Kai~~~."

"Still no. You can’t come with me."

A pause outside. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Then.

"I have something that will change your mind."

Kaito snorted quietly and kept folding.

"It won’t."

Silence.

Then scratching.

Then tapping.

Then scratching again.

Pestering.

Kaito closed his eyes briefly.

Annoying.

He crossed the room and slid the shoji screen open.

"WHAT!?"

Shizuka stood outside waiting for him.

Pale pink yukata. Loose around the collar.

Silver hair hanging down around her shoulders. Red eyes catching the lamp light from his room.

Bright.

Settled.

Smiling already.

She stepped through the opening immediately without waiting for permission.

Kaito stepped back automatically.

Shizuka came straight toward him.

Fast.

His hands came up, but she was already inside his reach, already leaning toward his face with that same smiling expression.

Kaito shoved her back hard with one palm against her forehead.

She pushed against his hand stubbornly, still grinning.

Spiritual energy burst through his arm.

His fist cracked against the side of her face.

Shizuka rolled backward and disappeared through the open shoji.

A heavy thud sounded outside.

Silence followed.

Three seconds later she climbed back through the opening.

Her silver hair was slightly dishevelled now.

The smile remained completely intact.

"You hit really hard today," she said.

Kaito stared at her.

"This is exactly why you cannot come with me."

Shizuka shut the screen behind herself and sat beside the suitcase with her legs crossed loosely beneath the yukata.

"You wouldn’t die."

"I would absolutely die."

"You worry too much."

"You keep trying to bite me."

"It’s just a love bite. I want to give you one."

"I am not debating this again."

Shizuka tilted her head slightly.

"I brought the thing."

"The thing."

"The thing that changes your mind."

Kaito sighed.

"You said that already. Show me."

A huge grin spread across her face.

"Hehe."

Her fingers slipped into the front of the yukata.

Kaito realized what she was doing one second too late.

Pale skin flashed.

Soft white curve.

Deep cleavage.

Something black tucked between her full breasts.

"What the hell are you doing?" Kaito turned around immediately, face already burning.

Shizuka giggled behind him.

Fabric rustled.

"You can turn around now."

Kaito glanced back carefully.

The yukata was closed again.

Shizuka sat cross-legged beside the suitcase holding something black across her palm.

A thin choker.

Simple.

Kaito walked over and took it from her.

Still warm.

He immediately dropped it onto the tatami.

"What is this."

"A choker."

"I know what a choker is."

"It’s special."

Kaito stared down at it.

"Special how."

Instead of answering, Shizuka picked it back up and fastened it around her own throat.

The black band settled against her pale skin neatly.

Too neatly.

Against the loose pink yukata, it looked strangely good on her.

Kaito noticed immediately.

Annoying.

Shizuka smiled wider.

"Does it suit me?"

Kaito nodded before thinking about it.

Shizuka lunged at him instantly.

"So honest today! Are you falling for me!?"

Kaito kicked her squarely in the stomach.

She rolled backward across the tatami, laughed the entire time, then returned to her original spot beside the suitcase with her lower lip pushed out dramatically.

"So mean."

"I’m busy. Leave if you’re wasting my time."

Shizuka leaned toward him instead.

Her silver hair slid over one shoulder. The yukata collar loosened slightly again from all the movement. Pale skin showed above the black band wrapped around her throat.

"Look closely," she said.

Kaito frowned and leaned in slightly.

There was a tiny latch built into the side of the choker.

Almost flush with the material.

Easy to miss.

"What does it do," he asked.

"Pull it and find out."

His fingers closed around the latch carefully.

Cold steel.

Normal weight.

Kaito frowned harder.

"What does it do," he asked again.

Shizuka watched him quietly.

"Self defense," she said. "For you."

Kaito hesitated.

He did not like surprises.

Especially from her.

Shizuka stayed close instead of backing away.

Too close now.

Her red eyes stayed fixed on him. Bright. Patient. Silver hair spilled forward around her face.

The loose collar of the yukata still hung slightly open.

She had shown up on his last night here with something meant to protect him.

Suspicious.

Kaito hesitated.

For the first time since she entered the room, he stopped trying to push her away.

"Got you!" Shizuka leaned in the rest of the distance and kissed his lips.

Soft.

Warm.

Kaito’s fingers jerked instinctively.

The latch clicked.

Her head exploded.

Blob!

.

.

Ayame set her tray down across from Mei and stopped.

One second.

Two.

Her eyes narrowed slightly.

"Something happened."

Mei’s chopsticks slipped against the side of her bowl with a loud clack.

Her face turned red instantly.

"N...nothing happened."

Ayame sat down slowly without looking away from her.

"Something happened."

"Nothing happened. I don’t know what you’re talking about."

Daiki leaned halfway across the table and pointed dramatically with his chopsticks.

"Your face says otherwise."

"My face doesn’t say anything."

"Your face is giving a full confession right now."

"It is not."

"It absolutely is."

Riku looked up from his book.

His eyes moved to Mei first.

Then Kaito.

Then quietly back down to the page again.

Mei was falling apart in real time now.

She adjusted her tray.

Moved her tea.

Straightened her chopsticks.

Adjusted them again.

The more carefully she avoided looking at Kaito, the more obvious it became that she was thinking about Kaito every second.

Kaito kept eating his rice.

Honestly, they were handling this badly.

He had never told her to keep it secret.

Mei also did not have the kind of personality built for hiding things.

Everything showed on her face eventually.

She had texted him last night.

At first it had been normal.

Assignment deadlines. Revised notes. Complaints about Daiki talking during lectures again.

Then the conversation had kept going anyway.

Every message from her carried this strange carefulness to it. Long pauses before replies. Typing bubbles appearing, disappearing, then appearing again.

Kaito had caught himself checking his phone repeatedly waiting for the next message.

Eventually they had run out of things to say about class entirely.

A few minutes later, another notification appeared.

good night boyfriend

Three words.

Kaito had stared at the message for a minute, smiling more than usual.

Then he typed back:

good night girlfriend

Mei had gone offline immediately afterward.

He had spent the next minute imagining her face when she read it.

Daiki was still talking.

"It’s a boy, isn’t it."

"No."

"It is absolutely a boy."

"It isn’t."

"Someone at this table?"

Mei inhaled so suddenly she nearly choked on air.

"No."

Daiki pointed around the table one by one.

"Ayame? No. Riku? Emotionally impossible. Me? Obviously tempting, but no."

"Please stop talking," Mei whispered.

Daiki pointed directly at Kaito.

"It’s Kaito."

Mei froze completely.

Ayame turned toward Kaito immediately.

Riku flipped another page.

Kaito set his chopsticks down carefully beside the bowl.

"We’re dating."

Nobody spoke.

The cafeteria noise seemed strangely distant for a second.

Mei looked like she wanted to disappear into her own sweater.

Her eyes were huge behind the thick black frames.

Then, very softly:

"Y...yes."

Daiki slammed both hands onto the table hard enough to rattle every tray.

"I KNEW IT."

Several people looked over from nearby tables.

Daiki ignored all of them.

"I absolutely called this first."

"You said her face was suspicious," Ayame replied.

"Which means I was right."

"That is not how evidence works."

"It is to me."

Riku turned another page calmly.

"I also knew."

Daiki pointed at him aggressively.

"You don’t get points for that if you never say it out loud."

"I don’t care about points."

"That’s because you would’ve lost."

Kaito looked across the table toward Mei.

She was still red all the way to the ears.

Still trying to hide behind her bowl slightly.

Still failing to stop the smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.

Kaito smiled at her before thinking about it.

Mei noticed immediately.

Then looked down so fast her bangs shifted crookedly across her glasses.

That only made his smile worse.

Cute.

Kaito rested one hand on the table between their trays.

Mei looked down at it.

Then at him.

Then back at the hand again.

Her brow furrowed slightly while she processed what he was asking for.

Recognition reached her face all at once.

Slowly, carefully, she slid her hand across the table.

Her fingertips touched his first.

Warm.

Slightly trembling.

Kaito turned his hand over and closed his fingers around hers.

Mei’s shoulders jumped faintly at the contact.

His thumb brushed once against the side of her hand.

She nearly stopped breathing.

Daiki made a loud wounded noise from across the table.

Ayame kicked him under it immediately.

He made the noise again anyway.

Louder this time.