“DID you read my mind...?” Shindo breathed, his brows slightly furrowed. Despite his best efforts to sound calm, his voice trembled.
“No...” Satsuki answered with a slight shake of her head. She peered at him with the same intelligent and inquisitive eyes that he always found irresistibly captivating. “I remembered during the incident... There was another person who rejected my powers... He also called me a ‘monster.’”
“You don’t need to remember that!” Shindo suddenly raised his voice. He stooped over and scooped up Satsuki’s hands. He held her hands gently as he begged in earnest, “You don’t need to remember any of that! Why would you want to? Even if you did, this isn’t the sort of thing that will guide your heart down the path to recovery! Why would you want to remember?!”
“Because I want to know... Please tell me, Shindo.” She leaned forward, drawing closer to Shindo. “What did I do? ...Who did I kill? How did you make me forget about it all this time? ...Tell me! Please!”
“You’re better off not knowing!”
“Shindo!”
Shindo refused to let her know the truth, but Satsuki wasn’t about to back down. She flung her clasped hands towards his chest and pulled closer as if to unleash a verbal lashing. She demanded, “If I order you, will you tell me then?! Will you tell me if I order you to as your mistress?!”
For a retainer such as Shindo, an order issued by his mistress—by Satsuki—demanded absolute obedience. If his little lady ordered him to talk, he had no choice but to tell her. Even so, Shindo refused to acquiesce. For her sake, there were some orders he could not obey.
“I cannot obey that order, Miss!” he cried.
He took Satsuki’s hands firmly pressed against his chest and pushed them back toward her. She must’ve been pushing with greater force than he realized, for the moment he pushed back, her whole body rocked backward as if shoved. He tried to pull her forward to keep her from falling, but lost balance in doing so.
“Miss...!”
Shindo frantically let go of her hands and wrapped his arms around her shoulders to provide more support in a vain attempt to keep her upright. But having lost balance himself, far from keeping Satsuki from falling, he collapsed onto the bed with her clutched to his bosom!
Perhaps their violent collapse onto the bed was to blame. The vase decorating the nightstand fell over with a loud crash, spilling Miharu’s beautifully arranged ivory roses along with water across the floor.
“I’m terribly sorry! Did I hurt you?!” Shindo fretted. Accident or not, a full-grown man just fell on top of Satsuki! He was afraid he hurt her. Afraid he caused her pain... Shindo was sick with worry as he started to get up, but Satsuki latched onto his arms.
“Come...” she whispered in a tiny voice, pulling him toward her. “Come...Shindo...” Satsuki pressed her hands against his cheeks, slowly drawing his face before hers.
Their faces drew so close, Shindo could feel Satsuki’s breath. She looked into the depths of his gray-tinged dark eyes with her piercing eyes that could see through anything.
“...Shindo...” she said in a melancholic voice that echoed sweetly in his ears.
“Miss...”
“Tell me...” Satsuki commanded with closed eyes. With a bump...she pressed her forehead against his. “Tell me...Shindo.”
As if Shindo were disclosing all, scenes played before Satsuki like a movie... A single memory flowed into her mind. She had begun searching through Shindo’s memories...
✦ ✦ ✦
“DO you seriously intend to pull Mr. Shindo away from Satsuki?” Tsubaki Tsujikawa asked, gently laying her slender, lily-white fingers along the shoulders of her husband, Tsukasa.
“Hmph, so what if I do? I don’t have your seal of approval?” he probed.
“Not at all,” Tsubaki answered without a moment of hesitation. It was a truly crisp answer.
Tsukasa’s wife, Tsubaki, was probably the only person in the whole world capable of barking her disapproval at him without batting an eye. Tsukasa put the stack of documents he was holding down on his lap and placed his hand over the one his beloved wife rested on his shoulder.
“This is best for Satsuki, and for the Tsujikawa line in turn. Can’t you see that?” he cajoled.
“I fail to see how this is best for Satsuki,” she replied. Known as “Princess Camellia” for her beauty since her youth, Tsubaki’s attractive face grew dark as she glared angrily at Tsukasa. “I’ll admit finding a fiancé for her is important for the Tsujikawa legacy. After all, Satsuki is our only child. If she doesn’t get married and produce an heir, the Tsujikawa name will end with her.”
Phew! Thank goodness the woman sees reason, Tsukasa thought as he nodded in satisfaction. Releasing his wife’s hand, he reached out for the cigar case on top of the table.
“Having said that, I don’t approve of separating her from Mr. Shindo,” his wife persisted. His hand fell short of the cigar case at the sound of her repeated disapproval.
“If you try to take him from her now, I have no doubt she’ll make the same mistake she did all those years ago,” Tsubaki insisted, making Tsukasa frown in consternation. “As it is, the incident from the other day is still too fresh...”
Tsubaki recalled the report she received from Shindo regarding the incident at school. It said Satsuki lost control of her powers and accidentally killed someone. It was heartrending for her as a mother. She was agonized by her daughter’s pain, feeling it as if it were her own.
“If what happened back then were to happen again, she would lose her grasp on sanity... She will commit another crime so she ‘doesn’t lose Shindo’! Do you want to make her repeat the mistakes of the past?!” Tsubaki shouted in warning.