WHY is Kouya treated like a monster? Is it true he doesn’t drink blood? What’s all this about him killing his older brother? Is the monster known as the Akaoni actually Kouya?
Various doubts, along with the greengrocer’s words, swirled in Azusa’s head. But none of them seemed like easy topics to bring up, making her hesitate to ask him. Kouya’s eyes focused on her as he waited for the question she had wanted to ask him.
“Why don’t you guys start by eating this before getting to the serious stuff?” Takeru offered, interrupting the grim mood. He carried a tray with sandwiches and corn soup for two. He gracefully placed the plates on top of the dainty acorn-shaped table.
“You didn’t look like you were in the mood to order, Azusa, so I prepared our special for you. I got you the same as Kou…along with this.”
Ichigo walked up behind Takeru carrying two gigantic parfaits. Takeru took them from her and placed them in front of Kouya.
“Here you go—the usual. Want me to pour chocolate sauce on it?”
“No need.”
A wall of parfaits formed between Azusa and Kouya. Azusa drew a blank upon seeing it. Kouya and chocolate parfaits—somehow those two things didn’t go together at all.
“Kouya…do you possibly have a sweet tooth?”
“…I don’t hate sweets.”
“You have a sweet tooth then.”
Kouya’s face twisted with disapproval, but he didn’t deny it as he picked up his spoon. He took a huge chunk out of the parfait and plopped it into his mouth expressionlessly. There was something funny about what she was witnessing—an adult man was munching away on a delicious-looking, gigantic parfait with an expressionless face that said it wasn’t delicious.
“Pft! Ahahaha!”
“……” Kouya put down his spoon and glared at Azusa who burst out laughing at him. It was his most displeased expression yet; coupled with two ginormous parfaits ruined any chance of it scaring her.
“I’m sorry! I wasn’t trying to laugh at you!”
“Your statement loses all credibility if you say it while laughing.”
“I really am sorry! It was just too funny! Plus, you’re eating two at once.”
“…I don’t drink blood after all. I eat a lot more compared to most people,” Kouya replied, touching on one of the main topics she had wanted to ask about.
“So it is true you don’t drink blood, Kouya?”
“Yeah. Everything the greengrocer said is true.”
“Then!”
Even the part about you killing your older brother? Azusa swallowed the words before she asked. She wanted to believe it wasn’t true, and even if it were true, she didn’t want her question to hurt him.
Aware of her thoughts or not, Kouya slowly began to speak, “The Akaoni he spoke of is me and it is also a fact I killed my older brother.”
“……”
Kouya returned to silently eating his parfait as if to say he had nothing further to say on the matter. The sight of him eating a parfait no longer evoked the desire to laugh. She carefully sipped her cold coffee and ate her sandwiches in silence.
✦ ✦ ✦
THE little bell hanging over the door jingled. Kouya and Azusa left Sumida Coffeehouse once evening arrived. The setting sun brightly illuminated the road home. Neither of them had said a word since Kouya’s confession.
Kouya broke the endless silence first, “I’ll talk to the Patriarch about taking me off guard duty starting tomorrow.”
“What?”
“Things will simply return to the way they were a week ago. Ichi will be your primary guard. Well, the Patriarch will likely order me to stay in the same building even if I’m off duty as your main guard, so you’ll have to endure that much.”
“Huh? What? What are you talking about, Kouya?”
“I’m trying to tell you that starting tomorrow Ichi will be your primary bodyguard, not me,” Kouya grunted. She was utterly confused.
“Wh-Why is that?”
“…Are you unhappy with that? Would you have preferred Subaru?”
“No, that’s not the problem here. Why won’t you be my bodyguard anymore?” Azusa asked.
Then it suddenly dawned on her—her initial impression that Kouya hated her. The woman he hated, to the point of not wanting to walk beside her, laughed at him for having a sweet tooth and dug up his painful past. Honestly, no one would be happy with someone after that. In other words, she was handed divorce papers. They weren’t married, but that’s what it felt like.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing? That’s the natural reaction. It’s my fault for carelessly thinking you’d be okay because of how thickheaded you’ve been until now.”
“Huh?”
I feel like we’re talking about different things.
Kouya continued on indifferently, only glancing at Azusa as she tilted her head in confusion, “I’ll do my best not to run in to you inside the mansion grounds as much as possible. Well, it’s the same mansion, so I’m sure there’ll be times we pass by each other, but I’d be grateful if you could stomach it.”
“Do you hate me that much? To the point you don’t even want to see me inside the mansion?”
“Huh?” It was Kouya’s turn to be confused. “How did it come to that? Aren’t you afraid of me?”
“Excuse me? Aren’t we discussing the fact you hate me so much you no longer want to be my guard?”
“……”
“……”
A short silence fell between them. They stood frozen, looking into each other’s eyes.
“Let’s get things straight. I’m not wrong that you’re afraid of me, right?”
“You are SO wrong! Why would I be scared of you?! What part of you are you saying I should be scared of? Is that something someone who scarfed down two gigantic parfaits with a straight-face should ask?” Azusa shouted without pause. Her intensity overwhelmed him.
“You don’t mind that my eyes are red?”
“You’re asking the person who thinks they are pretty?”
“…I’m the infamous Akaoni in this town though?”
“What a healthy vampire you are to not need blood!”
“I killed my bro—”
“I thought of asking you about that a little at a time!”
“……”
“Did you possibly bring up making Ichi my main guard again because you thought I was afraid of you?”
“I thought that’s what I told you at the start of this conversation.”
Azusa’s mouth fell agape at Kouya’s attitude that seemed to say, “Don’t say such confusing things.” At the same time, she got the sense he was skilled at pushing others away. He was someone who could say, “I’ll leave you forever if you are scared of me,” with his trademark expressionless face. It was very sad to think he had pushed people away like that until now.
“I am not the least bit afraid of you, Kouya,” Azusa declared.