“Oh no… Just being in the same room together is making my heart race!”
Elaina: “Not that I care, but isn’t she having a little too much fun with this?”
Riviere: “Kids these days…”
“Nooo! If I stay here, Bruno’s pheromones are going to drive me mad…!”
“She couldn’t keep it secret enough before, and now she lets it all hang out?”
“Kids these days…”
“It’s no use! I can’t stand it! I must flee!”
“Wow,” Elaina said, her mouth hanging open slightly as she watched.
Cattleya jumped up with all her strength and speed. She was trying to hide her face with her hands now. Her body language was unmistakable; she was charging dead ahead.
Except that dead ahead of her was Bruno’s chest.
“Wha…? Wh-what’s going on? Why am I…flinging myself at Bruno?!”
She was positively frazzled. Tucked into Bruno’s arms, she seemed caught between being embarrassed and being overjoyed.
She’d meant to run away but had run straight into his embrace instead. Very strange, no? Grinning, I told her the secret. “It’s a needle and thread.”
Did she know about them? They were sancta that we had here at Riviere Antiques—they made everything you tried to do go exactly the opposite of the way you intended.
“O-ooh, you’ve done it now!”
“Another dissatisfied customer?”
“The most satisfied of all!” she exclaimed through gritted teeth. For some reason, she was also sniffing Bruno’s neck intently. Her words and her actions were completely at odds with each other.
“C-Cattleya! Come on, we’re right out in public!” Bruno protested.
“What? Don’t you like me?” she asked.
“No, I don’t not like you… I mean, I do like you, a lot…”
“I’m sorry? What did you just say? I couldn’t hear you at all,” she said, pressing ever closer to him.
“She’s very proactive. I like it,” said Elaina, nodding seriously.
Riviere looked just as earnest as she offered her interpretation: “She’s gotten carried away by the effect of the sancta and is being a little too honest, I think.”
Bruno and Cattleya were growing more and more oblivious to what anyone around them was saying.
“I know I already said this, but…I really didn’t have any idea you felt that way about me,” said Bruno.
“Obviously. You’re such a dunce.”
“W-well, how was I supposed to know? You always snap at me.”
“That’s the flip side of love! How could you not know that?” Still clasped in Bruno’s arms, Cattleya nuzzled into his chest; she looked up at him and sighed wistfully. “You really do have gross tastes, and you let your appetites control you, and you’re completely hopeless. You’re the worst man I know.”
“C-Cattleya…”
“But I love you for that.”
“C-Cattleya…!”
“As long as I understand you, who else do you need?” Then she said, “I want you to look at me, and no one else.” Hiding nothing, she told Bruno everything, everything about how she felt about him. “Be mine, and mine alone.”
It was an unadulterated confession of true love. The sancta had prevented her from hiding it, then stopped her from running away; the harder she tried to run, the closer she wound up to him—but that was exactly why she could tell him these things now.
Bruno took a deep breath, as if absorbing all the feelings Cattleya had laid bare before him. He looked at her, and their eyes met. Her gaze was equal parts anticipation and anxiety. Their breath came soft.
Finally, Bruno took her hands in his. He gave them a squeeze—then gently drew away from her.
“Oh no…”
It looked like he was rejecting the young woman who had finally found the courage to tell him how she felt. Bruno turned around and then walked away.
As we all watched this unfold, he moved toward the back of the shop. He stopped in front of the table that Cattleya was always pounding.
Pointing at the teapot sitting there, he turned to me. “You called this the Water of Drawing Out True Personality, didn’t you?”
“Huh? Er, yeah, I did…”
What about it?
I was about to ask—when Bruno bowed to me and said, “Thank you very much.” He picked up the pot.
And then he took a big swig right from it.
He gulped down the Water of Drawing Out True Personality.
“Whoa, just a—!”
What was this all about? I was about to ask—but Bruno wasn’t even looking at me anymore. He just kept chugging the water. It started to spill from his mouth and soak his shirt, but he didn’t seem to care.
When the pot was finally empty, he slammed it down on the table.
“If you can tell the whole truth, then so can I!”
The Water of Drawing Out True Personality prevented the drinker from hiding what they were feeling—and Bruno had just drunk every last drop. He looked square at Cattleya. “I love you, too. I’ve always loved you.”
Outwardly, Bruno looked like a hardworking young student—but behind that facade, he was an adolescent boy with moderately questionable proclivities.
“I love how you look when you’re confused. I love how you look when you’re angry. You’ve always occupied the most important place in my head. I love how you’re so prickly, but then every once in a while you show me a little smile. I love all that stuff about you.”
“Bruno…” Cattleya put her hands to her mouth, deeply moved.
Gosh! They fit each other so well it hurt.
Bruno kept talking. “I can’t change the fact that I have to move. In a few months, I won’t live on this island anymore. But until that day comes…I mean, if it’s okay with you…will you go out with me?”
Their time as students together was going to be very brief. But then, in the grand scheme of a lifetime, the time you spent as a student was so short anyway. Just a few sweet years before you wound up as an adult.
So Bruno said, “Do this for me: When you grow up, get on that boat. Come live with me beyond this land.”
He understood the stretch of time that would be involved in making that promise, and he made it anyway. His declaration of love was so passionate, it was just one step away from a marriage proposal!
Cattleya giggled. “Just don’t cheat on me while you can’t see me.”
“I would never.”
“And no flirting with other girls.”
“Of course not.”
“And no adult shops or anything!”
This time Bruno didn’t answer.