APPARENTLY, I really was given a letter of divorce—even though we aren’t actually married.
Azusa beat out her aggravation, misery, and every other vile emotion swirling inside her with the whisk.
“Azusa, the mansion has electric mixers as well, you know?”
“Yup, I know. Thanks, Ichi. But I’ll do it by hand today,” Azusa answered with a radiant smile.
“Ah, all right,” Ichi responded, her expression stiff.
Oh no, it looks like I messed up.
Azusa was making a chiffon cake. She whisked the meringue by hand. She always baked with an electric mixer, but doing it by hand worked too.
With how well this is going, maybe I’ll do the fresh cream by hand too. Ah, shoot, maybe not. My hands are cramping!
She proceeded to do everything by hand for the next hour. By the time their usual teatime arrived, her arms and hands ached.
✦ ✦ ✦
“WHAT is wrong with you today, Azusa? You baked with the fury of a rampaging boar,” Ichi remarked during the fun teatime they were having in Azusa’s room.
“Nothing much. Just self-pity.”
Azusa honestly felt too ashamed to admit she was upset with Kouya for quitting as her bodyguard.
Besides, I’m really happy and relieved Ichi is my bodyguard again. It’s so much easier to have a woman with me instead of a man. It’s just that despite how much I insisted I wasn’t afraid of him, he one-sidedly tried to end our relationship! That annoys me! No, no, no! It seemed like he never liked me much from the start! I knew that, didn’t I? Calm, I must be calm!”
“…Did something happen yesterday? Between you and Kouya?” Ichi asked gingerly.
Oh yeah, didn’t Ichi say something about it before I went out with Kouya?
“You might make some bad memories today. Please be careful.”
Ichi’s warning repeated in Azusa’s mind.
“Ichi, did you know Kouya is treated horribly in town?” Azusa asked, realizing what her warning pertained to.
“Ah, yes, I do. All the vampires here more-or-less know about the Akaoni… As I feared, you made some bad memories from the experience.”
“Nothing bad about it for me, but I think Kouya probably did.”
Kouya stayed as tranquil as always on their way home.
But there’s no one who wouldn’t feel hurt after having those things said about them. Didn’t I also force him to talk about his past, further rubbing salt in his wounds? Azusa slammed her hands on the table, pushing herself out of the chair.
“Ichi, I want to ask a favor of you. Can I?”
“What? Um, sure?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“I want you to give this to Kouya for me!”
Azusa wrapped up the chiffon cake she made and freshly baked ginger cookies in a cute package and placed a card on it which simply read, “Thank you very much for accompanying me yesterday. Sorry for asking about a lot of stuff.”
She shoved it all into a paper bag and held it out to Ichi, who reluctantly accepted it.
“You want me to give this to Kouya? I don’t mind, but I believe your homemade sweets are wasted on that sourpuss.”
“Sourpuss? …Ichi, you’re pretty hard on Kouya sometimes.”
“I am someone who believes all men aside from Subaru should perish from the face of the planet after all.”
I just heard something absurd. Apparently, this beautiful woman who dresses as a man despises all men—except for Subaru.
“Well, Kouya has been friends with Subaru since childhood, so he is still of a tolerable level, but I do not even want to breathe the same air as any other man.”
“You’re passionate about that, huh?”
“Yes, I am.”
Azusa and Ichi exchanged looks and giggled.
“I did agree to do you a favor, but shouldn’t you give it to him yourself tomorrow?”
“I couldn’t even if I wanted to. I’d probably have to play hide and seek if I tried…”
From what Kouya said yesterday, he was going to avoid running into her when they were both in the mansion. Azusa smiled bitterly, knowing she could never beat him at hide and seek.
“Is that so?”
“Yes, it is!”
Azusa pushed the confused Ichi outside her room. Another servant slipped in to the room to take her place as bodyguard.
“Okay, I will go bring it to him. I should be back in about five minutes or so.”
“Thank you,” Azusa said bowing her head. She watched Ichi turn down the hallway.
She came right back—in less than five minutes.
“He was right there so I delivered it to him.”
“What? He was right there?”
“Yes. Oh, but he did leave soon after to run some errands.”
I should have given it to him myself then. There’s no use crying over spilled milk, huh? This is totally one of those times. Azusa felt depressed. She looked over at Ichi, noticing her attempts to hold back her laughter.
“Did something happen, Ichi?”
“Yes. I am amused thinking back on Kouya’s expression as he accepted the paper bag.”
“Why? Did he look disgusted?”
“No. Just that he made the funniest expression. His eyebrows knitted together in a grimace as he inclined his head thoughtfully. It was my first time seeing him make a face. I learned for the first time today that the sourpuss has muscles in his face too.”
“I-I see.”
Should I be happy or sad? I don’t know. Well, guess I’ll just be happy I got some sort of reaction out of him.
The rest of the day went on without any trouble. Subaru dropped by and chatted nonchalantly with the girls and confirmed the next day’s plans with Ichi.
And then the next day arrived—
“Morning.”
“Uh? Kouya? Why?”
Kouya appeared before Azusa with a plastic bag.