Eternal Melody

"Sorry." Yuhi apologized as he moved away from her. "The last request was a few drinks. I guess they wanted to get me drunk so I could do something to them."

"You didn"t?"

"Heh, don"t underestimate me. I held back for so long with you, do you think these girls could easily get to me?"

"Oh, you--" Sumire trailed off when she felt her vision blur. Huh?

Yuhi extended his hand out and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Lean on me."

"Yuhi, I feel a bit strange these days. Im sick in the morning, I"m sleepy and ---"

"Ssh, just listen to my heartbeat."

"Say, do you know what"s wrong with me?"

She watched as he averted his gaze and sighed. So he knows, huh? "Well, if you won"t tell me, that"s fine. But you have to support me."

"Heh, alright." Yuhi tucked a strand of loose hair from her. "You hungry? I snuck some food in here."

"I haven"t had lunch."

Yuhi nodded and stood up. "Wait here a second."

She watched as he walked over and picked up his bag. "Say Yuhi, what else were you doing in here?"

"Only a few people came, relax, yeah?"

"Well, I was against this event. But since you planned this before I came here, it was hard for me to say anything."

"Yeah, sorry." Yuhi walked back over with a few paper bags and extended one towards her. "It should still be warm."

"Did those girls give this to you?"

His sweat fell. "You sound scary when you"re mad."

"That"s because---" Her sentence fell short when she felt his lips on hers. "Yuhi...."

"Mmm, you taste nice."

"Stupid."

He brushed his fingers across her lips. "Indeed, it seems like I can"t control myself around you any longer. June, huh?" Yuhi mumbled.

"July."

Yuhis eyes twitched; he didn"t like this suggestion of hers.

"July?" He repeated.

Sumire nodded. "That"s right, maybe mid-July."

"Sumire dear, do you plan on driving me crazy?"

She laughed when she saw how frustrated he looked. "Teasing aside, is it okay for me to stay here? I slacked off all morning and slept, so now I am in this lazy mood."

"Mmm, perfect, then let me offer you some service, miss customer."

Service? Is he going to do something weird to h-- her sentence fell short when Yuhi reached over and switched on a projector. Stars suddenly covered the entire tent. Her eyes widened. "Ah?"

His lips curved to a smile as he sat down beside her and wrapped a blanket around her shoulders. "Sitting down and watching the stars with you, another thing on my list of things to make you happy."

Her gaze softened when she heard those words. Yuhi is truly foolish, isn"t he? She rested her head on his shoulders. "This is better."

"I see. Hey Sumire, do you remember what I told you last year?"

"You told me many things last year, Yuhi-san, please elaborate. I am no mind reader."

"Indeed." Yuhi trailed off. "It was during the hijack incident."

"Ah, I remember."

The hijacking incident Yuhi refers to is the a.s.sault of the main headquarters for the underworld society. People refer to it as Kyofu. A man named Narumi coordinated an attack using a famous hacker, and some a.s.sa.s.sins from abroad. The enemy team was not large, and yet they managed to infiltrate the building. During that time, she was in the building with Yuhi-san fixing her report"s mistakes from work earlier in the day.

She was together with him when the attack happened, so it was natural they stuck together. The enemy got into the control room, hacked the system, and locked them inside the building.

"That was quite a messy situation."

Yuhi nodded. "Yeah, and yet Mamoru was so casual about breaking the doors to get inside."

Sumire sighed. "You probably don"t know. But he was asked to pay for the damage of the broken doors."

"He did it to save you, so I am sure it was nothing to him. I wonder why I couldn"t do anything even though I was with you then."

"Yuhi-san, you were hurt."

"Heh. Don"t underestimate me too much. I could have saved you even in that condition. But Mamoru, who was outside, got to you first." Yuhi sighed. "That was the first time I felt threatened by his presence."

"Threatened?"

"Yeah. I was confident that you liked me, and even if you didn"t, you would not say no to my confession. So when I saw him that way and then your reaction, I realized there was somebody other than me who could save you."

Sumire blinked when she heard those words. It seems like he already knew about her grievances and pain. So that was why he said something like that to her. "There was nothing wrong with being confident. I did like you then, Yuhi-san, but I chose Ru."

She chose Mamoru because she understood something. Yuhi and her, no matter how close they get, could never be together. They could sit around and talk about books all day, work together, and learn each other"s secrets. But there will always be a wall that separates them.

That was why she put a lid on her feelings and took Mamoru"s hand instead. It was a selfish decision. If she did not do that, then Mamoru would be alive even now. There would be no complications between Yuhi and her either. It was because she made the wrong decis- she felt Yuhi brush his lips against her ear.

She could hear the sound of her heartbeat and feel the warmth of his lips against her earlobe. "Yuhi?"

"You chose him, but you loved me?"

Sumire quickly realized what she said and covered her mouth with her free hand. How could she say something like that so carelessly? Indeed she lightly mentioned something like that before, but not seriously. It seems like she lets her guard down too much when she is around Yuhi.

She wondered when was the last time she got so comfortable with another person like this. Even when she was dating Mamoru, there were many things she could not say to him.

I wasn"t this honest...

"Yes."

"Thank you, and I wanted to hear that. There were times where I thought you liked me, but I couldn"t be sure."

So he noticed it? She thought she behaved normally around him, but there was something off about her behavior for him to notice.

"Is this what you wanted to discuss?" Sumire questioned.

"Well, you know back then I told you a lot of stupid stuff about my past, right?"

"Do you think I would judge you?"

Yuhi shook his head. "The thing is so far n.o.body else knows about it. But you know how the media are. This is the first time I have seen such a persistent group of people. They will do anything to bring you down Sumire, and I mean anything."

Sumire a.s.sumed that he wanted to discuss something related to him, but it turns out it is about her again? It seems like, for Yuhi-san, everything is about her. She feels flattered but at the same time. "I keep taking advantage of you."