Dream Star

Her thoughts broke off when Haruka suddenly pinched her cheeks. "H--haruka?!"

He wasn"t putting that much force in it; and yet due to her scars, it was slightly painful. 

"Your hands are covered in scratches from practicing too much, they look pink so you"ve probably been gripping the bow for long periods of time. Your face is covered in scars too, which you"ve done a great job hiding. But if you move a lot the effect wears off and it becomes visible. No doubt your body is aching from standing for a long time. Let"s see. .what else now?"

He saw right through her. From the very beginning, she could never anything from this person. He is different from Kiryu. But there is a strong connection.

"Miss Princess, you really have become quite ugly recently."

Wah! What?!!!

"Lets see aside from your wounded face and hands. You have dark circles under your eyes. Very bad ones." He removes his hands from her cheeks and pats her head lightly. "You"ve been working far too hard. Try to relax a bit. "

Her gaze softened when she heard those words. "How come he noticed?"

"We"ve spent a lot of time together since your whole journey started. I think I know you a lot better than most."

"Isn"t this where you"re supposed to say you know me better than anybody else?"

Haruka shook his head. "What use would there be to lie? Besides both of us know that Kiryu understands you the best."

At that comment her gaze dimmed. "Even if that is true, he shouldn"t admit it so easily. Does he not understand how that makes me feel?" Lila turned away from him and started to walk a few steps ahead.

She dislikes it when Haruka behaves so obliviously like this. But, it"s not like he means anything bad by it.

"Lila?"

"Ah, sorry. I s.p.a.ced out a little. I know where we need to go, so just follow me. " she turned towards the direction of the mountain path. For the next fifteen minutes, neither of them spoke.

The air felt stifling and she disliked it a lot.

"Regarding Rikka. What are your genuine thoughts about her?"

"I previously thought she was a sweet and kind girl."

Despite the woman"s cold demeanour, at some point something changed.

"And? "

"I don"t think I can like her if she actually likes you." Lila trailed off and sighed. "Do you still want to hear what I think?"

Haruka nodded.

"Truthfully speaking, I am okay with others liking you. Even though you belongs to me, I can"t prevent others from loving you. After all you really are a kind person. You"re gentleness is so warm and beautiful. For other girls to like you shouldn"t surprise me."

"I see." Haruka nodded. "Do you feel the same way if it were Kiryu?"

Lila blinked when she heard his question. But she answered him regardless of her seed of doubt.

"Even back when we were children, there were many who asked him out. He never told me about it. But I always found the letters. He was never good at hiding those. He accepted many sweets for Valentine but never ate them. Instead, he would give them to the local charity center."

The entire time, Kiryu was being considerate. He accepted the presents but never ate them. He rejected them but didn"t start hating them either; he even helped those girls out with other matters. He did all that when she wasn"t looking though; because he didn"t want her to get hurt. 

"I knew for a long time, that people stopped seeing Kiryu as a monster a long time ago."

She knew for a long time; that the only problem was her. But Kiryu always returned to her no matter what. He never left her side for long then. He was always with her. 

It"s because he was with her, that those comments and others" dissatisfaction never reached her. 

"So, did you also know he beat up anyone who said anything about you?"

"Eh? What?"

"Anything you"d hear when you weren"t together with him. The remarks of all those guys and the girls. He"d beat them up. The later though, he"d only give them a threaten them a little. Even then it was pretty frightening."

Kiryu did that?

"But his image. . .his reputation.."

"Do you think that he actually cared about any of that? Sure everyone knew he was a nice person. But they also understood that if they said anything about you, and continued to treat you the way they did then he"d never get away with it."

"When?"

"From the start."

Is that why, he was always wounded? Kiryu would always tell her that it was just a accident. " I just lost control of my powers for a bit. " Afterwards, he would drink heaps of her blood so she never suspected it. Could it be he drank a lot to regain his strength? Why? Why didn"t he tell her?

Or rather, she turned to Haruka. "I thought you didn"t contact him?"

"I didn"t, I refused his help several times too. But his persistence made me curious. So for awhile I watched over him not just you. That was when I learned how much he liked you."

Lila sighed when she heard the pain in his voice. "Did you decide to come with me because of this?"

"Well I will admit that I"ve wanted to discuss this with you for awhile now. Tell me something Lila, did you never think to return to Kiryu?"

"I did, several times." Lila admitted. She wasn"t going to deny that. "But that was already such a long time ago. You quickly won me over."

Was it when they were in London? Or was it when they came to Star Town? But at some point, her feelings for this person changed. Before she knew what was happening, she was already madly in love with Haruka.

"The two of you loved me both for so long." She mumbled. "Truthfully, I didn"t understand what romance was before. I wasn"t just pretending to be oblivious either. Things like kisses and acts of affection, none of it made any sense to me, let alone feelings of love. I"ve always thought that one of the reasons why Kiryu didn"t confess to me was because of this."

Kiryu understood, didn"t he? He understood her thoughts. "Back when mother left me, I realized something. True love is painful, it will cause you more harm than one would think. Maybe because of what happened with my parents, I unconsciously distanced myself from that word."

"Mmm."

"Did you notice it too Haruka?" Lila questioned. At the start, he acted so brazenly and bold with her. But occasionally she would see a painful look on his face. What was he thinking when he looked at her like that? She has always wanted to ask him.