When Miyo put everything together like this, it was pure madness.
In truth, Tadakiyo had behaved so aberrantly from start to finish that arriving at the motivations behind it seemed totally impossible for Miyo.
As she stood there baffled, Kiyoka lightly placed his hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t toy with my wife, you perverse old man.”
“She was just trying to come up with the answer for you since you weren’t answering yourself. Also, ‘perverse old man’? That stings a little, you know.”
A throbbing vein popped up on Kiyoka’s temple.
“It looks like you’re asking for an objective perspective on your perversion, so I’ll give you one. I’m sure you’ll claim that breaking the doll was some way of affirming Fuyu’s love for you or something. That way, you could watch her get sad that the doll was broken, reaffirm that her feelings haven’t faded at all, and gloat to yourself. Utterly childish.”
“See, you do understand.”
“I wish I didn’t.”
Tadakiyo clapped his hands several times, looking satisfied. Then he turned around.
“What’s the problem? Fuyu and I have always had this sort of relationship. This is just the shape our love takes, and all my gifts are proof of it.”
Letting out a bashful, deeply pleased giggle, Tadakiyo departed.
Miyo couldn’t move from where she stood, shocked by the chaotic series of developments. These revelations had entirely destroyed her image of Tadakiyo and Fuyu’s pure romance, leaving only a horrid, unpleasant aftertaste behind.
Of course, it wasn’t the relationship her mother-in-law and father-in-law shared she found unpleasant—it was because she couldn’t fully process it all.
There was a weight in her chest, as if she had forced herself to swallow a big, fatty piece of meat.
It felt like she had ingested something that would put a great amount of stress on her stomach to fully digest.
Even after listening to everything, there was still one thing that bothered her. It was Tadakiyo’s comment about him and Fuyu “being on the same page.”
If she took this at face value, that meant they had both agreed to this arrangement of Tadakiyo giving Fuyu arts-enchanted presents to spy on her…
Then Mother also knows the truth of those gifts…
Miyo trembled.
The feeling that she had observed something terrible came over her, something she never should have seen.
“Miyo. You don’t have to remember anything about our conversation just now. Actually, just forget it entirely.”
Kiyoka said this out of consideration for Miyo, who was trembling all over. But he didn’t need to have said it; Miyo had already driven everything from the past several minutes deep into the recesses of her mind.
Finished with her bath, Miyo headed for the bedroom.
Inside, Kiyoka was sitting on the bed in his sleeping yukata, having already bathed.
“Kiyoka, I’m finished washing up.”
“Got it.”
Kiyoka cleaned up the documents he was reading for work and beckoned her over. Miyo obeyed and gently sat down next to him.
“Kiyoka.”
“What is it?”
During her bath, Miyo had thought back over various things.
Like the fact that perhaps Kiyoka’s words in the park that day, which had seemed so incomprehensible, may have been alluding to Tadakiyo’s behavior. And the fact that Hazuki, who hadn’t been around for their conversation with Tadakiyo, knew it all, too.
However, none of that was what weighed on Miyo’s mind the most.
“Um, it’s regarding…the doll you gave me.”
That appeared to be enough for Kiyoka to surmise what Miyo wanted to say. Vigorously turning to Miyo, he swiftly answered her.
“It’s not like that. I absolutely didn’t have those thoughts in mind when I gave you that doll, and I wouldn’t resort to any tricks like that. I swear to God.”
“Okay…”
At times like these, she was certain that if Hazuki were here, she would have said her brother was just making himself look more suspicious by being so frantic.
But Miyo found Kiyoka’s panicked display heartwarming and endearing.
“I’m serious.”
“Yes, I know. You don’t need to emphasize it so much, I understand.”
As if to continue from that morning, Kiyoka laid Miyo down on the bed as she failed to hold back her giggle. He looked so serious.
“I do think that it wouldn’t be a bad thing to have at least one arts-enchanted item like that among your belongings, though.”
“What…?”
Kiyoka suddenly buried his face in Miyo’s neck. His breath felt hot and ticklish. Before she knew it, her chest was filled to the brim with his scent.
“You’re always at risk. If I don’t give you that, at least, I’ll be worried to death about someone taking you away or hurting you.”
“K-Kiyoka, please don’t talk so much…!”
A strange sound threatened to escape her lips each time Kiyoka spoke, and his breath caressed the back of her neck. She somehow managed to endure it, wrapping her arms around Kiyoka’s head and softly hugging him close.
“If you really think that’s necessary, please just say so, Kiyoka.”
In the end, Miyo would be probably the same as Fuyu.
She might have her activities spied on all day, have all the sounds and words she said listened in on. Even knowing all that, she was sure she’d accept it.
After all, I belong to you.
If that was enough to prove it, if that was enough to put Kiyoka’s mind at ease—she wouldn’t mind if Kiyoka observed her daily life to his heart’s content, even if she found it embarrassing.
“Are you serious about that?” Kiyoka asked in a husky voice, rubbing his face into Miyo’s nape like an indulgent child. Miyo stroked Kiyoka’s hair.
“Yes, I’m serious.”
“I’m not joking, I might actually do that.”
“I know. I don’t mind.”
Slowly, Kiyoka lifted his head. Their lips drew close and brushed against each other. They leaned into a deep, passionate kiss.
They melted in their love together.
“…Darling, I love you.”
“And I, you.”
No one object, no piece of evidence, could capture the totality of their love. But the tokens of their bond, in all shapes and sizes, proved that a small part of the love they shared was real, no matter where the two of them may be.
Miyo yielded herself to the warmth that enveloped her whole body and closed her eyes.