Tenants

Kurosaki drops his jaws and gawks at the disheveled man at Tsurara’s doorway, holding the darn cat in his arms. His shirt was ed halfway and his pants hung loosely around his waist with his belt undone.

The man sleepily rubs his eyes and blinks slowly before inquiring a, “Are you my long lost brother?” with a drunken tone.

Kurosaki tempted to peep inside, to see if that woman was awake, but he was too afraid to see her half to do so. He shudders at the mental image and glares at the person before him,

“What? Are you crazy? No, I’m the landlord. Who the hell are you?” He snaps back coldly while crossing his arms, trying to hide the way he was clenching his fists.

But of course, Kurosaki knew who that man was. He was the annoying woman's so called boyfriend; the same soymilk-loving weirdo who liked to say ‘kon-kon’ before every sentence and do that odd fox gesture with his fingers.

“Ku-sa-no-A-ki-ra, kon-kon. How may I help Rara-chan’s landlord for today?”

Kurosaki began twitching for some odd reason and felt his blood rise for the first time. This man annoyed the hell out of him, more than any swindler he had encountered in his lifetime…minus Mikimoto.

“Yeah, let me talk to Ra—I mean Yoshida. Now.”

Akira blinks in confusion and scratches the back of his head, “Yoshida? Who’s Yoshida? There’s no one by the name of Yoshida living with us.”

Did he just hear that correctly? Living with?

After standing there in silence for several seconds, Kurosaki finally registered what Akira had said and chokes on his spit. He points toward Tsurara’s room in disgust and roars in shock, “LIVING?! You’re living with her?! With that…That woman?"

The soymilk-loving man smiled brightly and nods rapidly, “She needed help with rent…And because she needs someone to snuggle with during the cold, lonely nights.” Akira sighs dreamily and squeezes the cat,

“We’re in love…Right Neko-chan?”

And for a minute there, Kurosaki swore the cat grinned and nodded along with the silly man, “Meow.”

Kurosaki wanted to hurl. Has hell really frozen over? Yoshikawa Tsurara has finally found herself a boyfriend? A real boyfriend who’s actually sleeping with her? That’s disgusting.

His brain urged him to beat this man down and give him a punch or two, but his body didn’t move. He wasn’t even sure if he was jealous or just angry anymore.

Was it jealousy? That’s impossible.

Kurosagi doesn’t need love…or sympathy or any of those touchy-feely kinds of people clinging on his arms. It was all too troublesome anyway.

He has been surviving alone for seven and half years now…So why should he start finding someone to cherish now?

“Tsurara-san, just get me that woman, please. Thanks.” He demands hastily, grinding his teeth while taking in deep breaths and letting the air out slowly.

Giving Kurosaki a croaked smile, Akira nods and skips back inside to find Tsurara.

Tsurara stumbles out to the front door giggling, “Akira-kun, stop that!” before turning her attention to her landlord. She lets out a heavy sigh and leans to the side, “Yes, what is it that you want? Is it the money I owe you? I told you, I’d have it by tomorrow.”

Kurosaki couldn’t help but stare. She was wearing practically nothing, just as he imagined. She was wearing nothing but a white long-sleeved shirt, a size too large for her that hung loosely around her shoulders and fell just above her hips.

He analyzed every inch of her body, how she curved perfectly from top to bottom. Heck, he didn’t even notice the moment when he took a step closer, enough to smell…the scent of Akira on her.

He expected a fruity smell.

That soymilk loving man will be dead and pushed into the riverbank tomorrow.

“Kurosaki-kun?”

Biting his lips he snaps his eyes away from the horrifying view of her cleavage and huffs, “Put some clothes on woman. Pink doesn’t suit you.”

Tsurara gasps and covers her chest, “You! Really, what is it that you want?”

Kurosaki narrows his gaze at her and slams his palm against the wall, “Tell your boyfriend that I want the rent by this afternoon…And please…for the love of god, stop doing what you’re doing so loudly…in the middle of the night.”

With a slight blush, Tsurara blinks in bafflement and punches the side of his right arm, “EH?! Boyfriend?! What? Baka! Akira-kun is just a friend. And we were only studying and rehearsing for a play!”

“No way! Rara-chan’s in total denial! We’re totally in love. Fall in love!” Akira interjects, appearing abruptly at the front doorway.

This causes Tsurara to blush a deeper shade of red and hide her face behind her hands, “Akira-kun! Stay out of this!”

Akira pouts and takes her hands in his, giving her the puppy eyes, “But Rara-chan, why? I thought we had something special. Akira-sad…”

Kurosaki arched an eyebrow and watched in silence as the two whispered to each other, trying to settle down the misunderstanding. Tsurara had that embarrassed but angry, flushed look, the one he loved looking at everyday.

Rolling his eyes, he began tapping his foot impatiently and let out a fake, loud cough, “Yoshida!”

Tsurara stops struggling with Akira and averts her attention back to Kurosaki, “Ok, ok, I got it. I’ll have it ready by this afternoon at your doorstep.”

With a grin, Kurosaki snaps his fingers and winks at her, “Good. Bang. Don’t be late or else you’ll regret it.”

He didn’t get an annoyed reply as expected whenever he . She totally ignored him and continued giggling with Akira, who was apparently playing the tickle game with her.

The door shut softly before him and the giggles were replaced with soft sighs and purrs.

Kurosaki’s heart began to ache and without noticing, he began clenching his chest. He stares at Tsurara’s door for several minutes before swallowing hard. He then throws his hands into the air angrily and again, slams the wall.

So be it. So what if she has a boyfriend? It didn’t interfere with his life and revenge. The tenant had her own friends to play with and the landlord had his…imaginary ones. 

Katsuragi and Hayasa of course didn’t count because to him, they were more like acquaintances, co-workers of the sort.

“Kurosaki-kun?” Yukari’s beaming voice ringed through his ears.

Again, he shudders and strides quickly over to his apartment, “Ah, she came.”

Yukari was definitely not on his close friends list either.

No matter how much he denied it, he only wanted one person in the world.

“Stupid tenants, always having a party…”

“Ah, Kurosaki-kun! Let’s have a party of our own then! I brought snacks!” 

Kurosaki rejects Yukari’s offer and quickly slips his spare key into the keyhole. Before she could even run to his side, he slips inside his home and slams the door firmly in front of her face. 

Tomorrow will be another day and he was sure that this nasty, odd feeling he felt would go away...Hopefully.

—OWARI—