Ryosuke and Mirai arrived at the palace entrance and were about to head to the kitchen to find Lady Hana when Jin-sama caught them.

“Hello,” Jin-sama exclaimed to Mirai, and she turned around. “I’m happy to see you here. It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?”

She didn’t look up at the sky. “Hai.”

“What do you say about accompanying me to this gorgeous river around sunset?” He started gesturing with his hands. “When the sun sets, the oranges, yellows, and reds of the sun reflect on the water.” He smiled. “I’d like it if you can join me.”

She could almost hear the slight tremor from his voice, which hinted to her that he was in the same amount of pain she was in. “Yeah...I’d like that.”

“Yosha!” Jin-sama immediately covered his mouth. Leaning in, he whispered, “I’m not supposed to say that. Not King-like.” His joking comment finally made her giggle, and he laughed along. Taking a step back, he said, “Well, stay here and I’ll be picking you up around sunset. Don’t forget.”

She bade him goodbye. Arigatou, Jin-sama.

*

Ryosuke peeked inside the kitchen. “Hana Obaa-sama?” he asked, looking around. Instead of Lady Hana inside the room, he found Lady Mai standing at a corner.

Lady Mai was the second Lady in the imperial palace with authority and had worked under Lady Hana. Even though she had retired, she still came over to the palace to help occasionally. She called it her daily exercising, so she wouldn’t be stuck at home sitting and being bored. Lady Mai’s personality was almost like Lady Hana’s. Both ladies loved teasing Ryosuke whenever they had the chance, and when it came to palace work, they did their very best to make sure all requirements were met.

Lady Mai turned around. “Ryosuke!”

Ryosuke’s eyes widened, and he rushed over to greet her.

“What brings you here?” She got her answer when she saw Mirai walking behind Ryosuke. “Oh, so you’ve finally found the one.” She moved from him to Mirai. “Hello, I’m Lady Mai. Consider me as one of Ryosuke’s mothers.”

Mirai bowed, greeting her back. “Hello, I’m Mirai.”

“I was worried sick that he’ll be forever trying to find his Sakura lady every day and would never show me his girlfriend.”

Mirai blinked. “Girl-girlfriend?” Isn’t that a romantic partner? She started questioning herself, slightly drifting away from the conversation. Girlfriend can be used in this situation too? She looked at Ryosuke. But we’re not even friends at all.

Lady Mai slightly touched Mirai on the shoulder. “Ah, don’t be shy. I’m just excited that I can see a girl in his life after his—”

“Ryosuke?” Lady Hana stepped in, saving Ryosuke.

Ryosuke walked over to Lady Hana with haste. “Obaa-san, uh, I brought Mirai here to complete your request.”

“My request?” Lady Hana asked, pointing to herself. Seconds later, she remembered. “Ah, yes... My request.”

“Request?” Lady Mai looked back and forth between the people around her and then gasped and leaned forward to Lady Hana, whispering, “She’s the girl you told me about?”

Lady Hana grinned and nodded. She walked to Mirai. “Uh, well, you see...” She discreetly tapped Ryosuke to finish the sentence for her since she didn’t know what kind of request to come up with.

“To get the grocery!” shouted Lady Mai as Ryosuke shouted, “To help us cook.”

This made Lady Hana and Mirai look at the two.

Lady Mai turned back to Mirai. “Um, we decided that the jobs should be switched. We want to do some ingredient testing, so Lady Hana and I will go shopping. You and Ryosuke can stay here and finish cooking.”

Mirai nodded.

Lady Mai turned around. “Jaa, we’ll be taking our leave now.” She started shoving a confused Lady Hana out the door. “Have fun.” Together. She grinned as she laughed at the thought of the confused complexion of the couple’s faces.

Out the door, Lady Mai stopped shoving her friend and whispered, “She’s adorable!”

“Isn’t she?” Lady Hana agreed. “She’s the quiet type like I told you.”

“They’re both quiet. I don’t see how they can even like each other if they hardly talk to one another,” said Lady Mai, already doubting the relationship.

“It’s she who’s quiet. Our son is talkative.”

Lady Mai frowned. “He stopped being talkative ever since that incident.” She sighed. “He’ll only talk when he finds his mysterious Sakura lady, and I’ll feel bad for her when she finds out about his Sakura lady.” Resting her hands on her hips, she questioned, “Are you sure he likes her?”

“I’m sure. He slept out in the cold in front of her door for nights, just wanting to be the first one she sees when she wakes up.” Lady Hana shook her head. “He even snuck out when I had forced him to head back to his room.”

“The mischievous little kid,” they both said together.

Lady Hana and Lady Mai walked behind the kitchen building where there was a medium-sized wooden table. It was a resting place built for cookers who had irregular shifts on their working day. They sat there to hide.

Lady Mai pursed her lips. “We need to confirm how he really feels about Mirai-san. I don’t know how she feels for him, but if he’s just going to use her to get over his mysterious lady, we should tell him that it’s not right. He should stop before it’s too late.”

*

“What’s usually for breakfast?” Mirai asked, grabbing the knife on the cutting board. She scanned the cooking area and tried to predict the menu that Lady Mai was cooking before she left abruptly.

Ryosuke came over, inch by inch, hesitant about the correct distance he should be from her. He wanted to be near her, but not too near to make her notice, but not too far to not see her up close. “We usually have fried mackerel, fermented soybeans, scrambled eggs, and pork chops with rice.”

Suddenly, Mirai let out a light laugh through her nose and inaudibly muttered, “That’s what Haruma likes to eat when he comes…back...” Home. She finished the sentence in her head, too painful to say it out loud with her own mouth and to hear it from her own ears. He’s never coming back. If he does...it’ll be when...

“I like to eat them too.” Ryosuke changed the subject. He would do anything to change everything that reminded her of her family to attach it to him instead. That way, hopefully, he thought, it would now remind her of him. “Especially the friend mackerel.”

Catching the change of subject from Ryosuke, feeling thankful, Mirai thanked him with her eyes and light smile, not knowing the dramatic feelings stirring in Ryosuke’s heart.

“Sh-should we get started?” he stuttered. He hated that he’d get bashful around her because of her small but powerful facial expressions that he had come to love and adore. He avoided her gaze and went to wash his hands. Drying his hands, he looked at her, confidently. “I may not be good with anything, but I can assure you that I’m an excellent vegetable cutter.”

Hearing this, Mirai thought back to the day when he and his people barged in on her house and started making food when they didn’t even know how to cook. Still holding onto the knife, she pointed it at the meat on standby. She smiled. “You have to master a new level of cooking—cutting meat.”

*

“WAH!!!!” Ryosuke shouted as he touched the raw fish with its blue and silver eyes staring straight back at him. He swore that it was cursing him, blaming him for its death. It was only his second mackerel, and every time he attempted to place a hand over it, he’d let out a shriek.

Fortunately for him, Lady Mai had done a lot of the mackerel already, so he could take his time before Mirai would be requesting for more. His other dilemma was that he always looked at the diligent Mirai, who kept walking back and forth behind him, back to the sink and back to the frying pan since she was in charge of washing the insides and taking out the unwanted organs and intestines of the fish. In fact, she was in charge of the entire cooking.

As he looked at her, Mirai felt his eyes on her and turned to him. She warily asked, “Is there anything you need?”

He immediately turned away. “N-no.” He forced himself to start cutting the mackerel, but hesitation stopped him. Seconds later, he flinched when he noticed she was behind him, trying to see his progress. Too nervous to think, he accidentally pierced the knife to his index finger, making a deep cut.

Too busy to notice the pain, she was the only one who caught this and brought it to attention. She placed her hand on top of his. “We have to wash this—quick!”

Overwhelmed at his own joyful feelings, he didn’t care about anything. He was glad that she cared, even if it was just a normal thing anyone would’ve done. He looked at her gently caressing his finger, making sure the water would purify the wound and asking if it was alright. All he did was nod, too happy to speak. Even if he did, he couldn’t make a sound. Cat had gotten his tongue.

Or more like love had gotten his tongue.

*

“What’s wrong? What’s happened?” Lady Hana and Lady Mai rushed over to a small-sized window that was the opposite of where Mirai and Ryosuke were standing, thus the couple couldn’t see them. Their cheeks squished each other’s faces as they shared the window, making them see the scene through half of their faces.

Lady Hana scanned the couple. “They’re at the sink.”

“Why did she shout?” asked Lady Mai.

“I didn’t know.” She gasped. “Look! Look! That’s the look I told you about!”

Look? Lady Mai looked up from the sink to Ryosuke’s face and saw the expression her friend had mentioned. Lady Hana had told her that on the nights that he came to guard Mirai at her bedroom door when she was still unconscious, he’d sometimes sneak inside and just looks at her, intently, with sparkling eyes, visually caressing her romantically with the biggest care in the world. The expression she was witnessing now perfectly fit the expression Lady Hana had explained. She looked at him giving his sole attention to Mirai, who was busily cleaning his wound.

Every now and then, his lips would curl at the side, forming a light smile.

She witnessed him mouthed small replies to Mirai’s worried questions. She turned around and leaned on her back. Now, she wasn’t peeking anymore.

Lady Hana saw and did the same, leaning her back on the opposite side. She whispered, “What’s wrong?”

Lady Mai didn’t look back. With her indifferent but shocked expression, she exhaled in disbelief. “He’s really in love with her.”

*

Ever since Ryosuke had gotten his wound, he had been ordered to abstain from touching or doing work that would wet his finger.

“Finished,” Mirai said, letting out an air of relief.

For a quick moment, he caught a glimpse of her satisfied smile and became satisfied too.

She turned to him and looked at his finger. “Now, we can get you bandaged properly.” She said with a tint of unexpected excitement. She looked around. “Are there any bandages kept in here?”

He skimmed around the room. “They should be up there, on top of that shelf.”

She walked to it. Even without raising a hand to reach it, she knew she was too short to retrieve it. As she jumped to reach for it, his arm had already extended to it, grabbing it. She, in the process, accidentally grabbed his wrist instead. She pulled her hand away. “Gomen.”

He pulled away too. “I should’ve told you that I could’ve gotten it myself.” Not wanting to see the heart-tugging expressions she would subconsciously make, he turned and walked away to sit in a chair. He concentrated on bandaging his wound to avoid his eyes wandering off to secretly admiring her.

“Here, I’ll help,” she suggested when it was minutes later that he hadn’t been successful. She sat beside him with a palm reached out for his hand to place. She tossed him a smile, hoping that it’d assure him that she could be trusted.

His heart pounded, hard, and his breathing became short. He was going to hold her hand. Well, his hand was just going to be resting on hers, but still, it was skin-to-skin contact. Once again, he looked at her intently focusing on his wound and found it cute that someone would be diligent with something as trivial as this. He had had a lot of scars, bruises, and scrapes that he had ignored and did not care for. Not even his own father had shown any kind of sentimental care or worry regarding them. Yet here, his own childhood friend who couldn’t recognize him and only knew him as a person who was always on her tail was caring about him.

It was touching to him, so heartfelt.

“Why did you decide to become a Demon Slayer?” he asked, purposely trying to hint to her about his other existence. There was no one to stop him from trying to reveal himself, especially Haruma, the one person who had stopped him in the first place.

She flinched at the answer. So many reasons and memories flashed into her mind. “Here, done,” she deliberately said, rudely. She let go of his hand and cleaned up the area before standing up to put the bandaging kit away.

“I wanted to become a demon slayer because I wanted to meet my friend,” he explained as he answered his own question. He stared at her, who was still quiet at his comment. With curled lips, he continued, “This friend and I, we promised each other that we’d be great demon slayers to protect our friends and family.”

“Let’s promise to grow up and be great Demon Slayers to protect Jin-sama!” The words from when Mirai was a child saying to Momoka popped into her mind. She too had made a similar promise to a friend, a friend she couldn’t save in time just like her own grandmother. Just like her friends who left her. Eyes glistening with an answer to the stress she had been building up, she turned around with a bright smile. That’s it! The answer was here all along!

He saw her smile and wondered what was up.

She glanced over at the window, the same window that Lady Hana and Lady Mai were secretly sitting under, and finally answered his question. “I wanted to be a Demon Slayer to protect the people I love. And…” She let out a laugh. “The only person who can keep peace—Jin-sama.” She walked to him but remembered to keep some distance from him. “I’ll be leaving now.”

“B-but—” He tried to stop her, but she left with a haste expression of contentment. “What has gotten into her? She’s so happy all of a sudden.”

“Don’t you mean what’s gotten into you?” It was another voice that didn’t belong i