❈♍❈

-Interlude-

♍

The red horizon slowly disappeared to give the night sky its shine, the cold breeze of winter harshly brushing through the warm bodies. Mi-chan hissed at another wave of wind blew at her; she tugged the collar of the coat tighter to keep the warmth in, not liking the idea of Koki teasing her for beach idea.

"Here," A warm thick blanket was being draped around her body; the girl turned to the presence on her left and found Yamaa on her side.

"Thanks" she murmured softly, pulling the blanket tighter. They stayed in silence for a long measure until Mi-chan saw the young manager was shivering under the cold.

"Come here," Mi-chan snickered at the sight as lifted up the blanket and invited Yamaa to share the warmth. The older man was reluctant at the invitation; however, the cold had won the battle. He quickly shifted into the blanket and shared the warmth with the girl. Once again, they felt into silence, it felt so natural for them to be in this silent treatment. He didn't dare to disturb and she didn't see the point of making conversation.

"Can I know what exactly going on with Jin's mind?" Mi-chan broke the silence, tilting her head to meet Yamaa's gaze.

"Don't you already know?" Yamaa questioned back; he knew the girl might have figured it out.

"Yea, only what I need to know; but not personnel details, I do know what privacy means," the girl replied, turning back to the ocean and stared into invisible horizon.

"Isn't asking me about Jin is in fact another way of invading privacy?" Yamaa asked another question.

"This is called wanting to know the person through friends," the girl struck another smart reply, "don't question my tactics," she cut loose Yamaa's next words, "I'm speaking to you as a girl who is really care about her cousin and don't want him to suffer another heartbreak that would ruin his life a second time; I just want to be prepared so when the sudden news came, I would be there for him; also I want to know if my decision to make us both moving on is a right one," she sincerely spoke her thought.

"Only if you tell me, what happened to Kazuya," Yamaa placed his bargain.

"Witty, I see," Mi-chan laughed, "but that's fair," she agreed to the deal.

"Just learned from the best," Yamaa plastered a silly grin.

"Whatever," the girl shook her head.

"So what has traumatized you two so much that it makes you hate and Kazuya scares of relationship," Yamaa asked away.

"That...was...three years ago, or was it more?" Mi-chan started unwarily.

❈

-Some Years Ago-

❈

Kame sat looking into the wide horizon of the bright sky, he loved this feeling, the feeling of free and evaporating. Yup evaporating, his worries, his anxieties, his sorrows were evaporating up into the sea salted breeze. He felt so much relaxing now, he had no idea why. He glanced over the person next to him and smiled fondly at the small sleeping frame, he brought his hand up to brush a strain of hair out of the girl's face, watching how peaceful she was sleeping. It looked like she hadn't been sleeping for days. He studied the hollow cheeks, the pale face, and the dark circles under those beautiful eyes. He could tell she had been staying up the nights, he didn't know why; it was not like they have school. The long awaited one-month break had started four days ago. Anyone would have caught up some sleep or overslept; however, his cousin had been calling him up every morning at exactly 7am to go to the beach and only getting home around midnight, or sometimes not at all. He felt like she didn't want to be home. He wondered to himself, but then he concluded that it was due to the new arrangement in the girl's household, after all, his aunt had just remarried not too long ago to a businessman. Mi-chan had always been a shy and not much of a talkative child, maybe it took her a bit more time to adjust to the new setting.

As he was lost in thought, he didn't notice the girl stirring in her sleep, one eye cracked open at the gentle caress on her cheek. Her big brown orbs stared into the boy’s ones next to her, a genuine smile adorning her petite emotionless face. She saw her cousin smiled back as whispered something that she couldn't hear due to the waves. She pulled herself up and dropped her head on her cousin's shoulder.

"Sorry for passing out again," Mi-chan apologized with a cheeky grin; she knew that her cousin wouldn't be mad at her.

"It's ok. You looked like a walking zombie when you came here this morning," Kame ruffled the girl's hair softly.

"Don't you have a date with your girlfriend today?" Mi-chan asked worriedly, she totally forgot about that when she called her cousin on a whim that morning.

"It's ok," Kame gently assured the girl, "she cancelled the date last night," Kame said sadly.

"I'm sorry to hear that, "Mi-chan sadly said, "is it due to school work?" she tried to push further.

"That's what she said," Kame laughed, not convincing with the excuse his girlfriend given him.

"You're too nice," Mi-chan sulked at her cousin good nature, "you should have pushed her on the matter," she added.

"I don't want to put pressure on her; if she wants to tell, she would have done so without I interrogate her," Kame spoke his logic sense.

"But Kazu-chan~," she whined, "love is not about ALWAYS understanding," she pouted cutely, "I know you love her and want to give her space, but it would be better that you press her on once in a while," she added.

"I'm her boyfriend, not father," Kame laughed, "I can't just force her to do something," Kame reasoned.

Mi-chan pouted, “I really want to see her once, introduce her to me next time you guys are on a date,” the girl grinned. Kame rolled his eyes.

“Only after I go on three continuous dates with her first, and then I will share our times with you,” Kame smirked. Mi-chan sulked at the reply.

“But I still think you should press her on the matter, I mean she cancels the dates way too many times,” the girl tried to avert the topic. 

"Don't be mean, I know you mean well, but there is nothing as right and wrong method in relationship," Kame smiled as he gave the girl his piece of thought, "plus shouldn't you be worried about your last school year? I mean you haven’t been in any relationship to be giving these advices," Kame laughed again.

"Hey!" the girl shouted pouting.

"Anyway, let's go back, your mom and stepdad must be worried sick by now," Kame stood up and took the girl's wrist with him.

"I don't want to," Mi-chan mumbled under her breath.

"Did you say something?" Kame asked as he couldn't catch what the girl was mumbling.

"Nothing," Mi-chan looked up with a bright smile as continued, "can we stay for a few more minutes?"Mi-chan pleaded with her puppy eyes. Kame didn't want to obligate but seeing the glint of hopeful in those deep sorrowful orbs, he just didn't have a heart to say no.

"Sure," Kame gave in, "only 10 more minutes," Kame gave the time limited, Mi-chan's smile became brighter as she chanted 'thank you' to him with a tight hug. He couldn't hide his happiness at seeing her genuine smile again.

By the time the two teens reached Kame’s home, it was already ten passed nine in the evening. The dark sky filled up the blue in Mi-chan’s thought, she didn’t want to lift another step towards the door. She didn’t want to end the day too early. Kame sensed the slow paces; he stopped at the door and turned to look at Mi-chan with furrowed brows.

“What’s wrong?” he asked concerning.

Mi-chan shot up her head to stare at Kame, eyes filled with uncertainty. Kame could tell that she wanted to tell him something, and he was sure that his cousin was at the verge of tears. Mi-chan took in a deep breath and lifted up her gaze again and parted her lips to utter her wish when…

“Thanks God! You two are home!” Kame’s mom uttered in joy when she swung the door open to see Kame and Mi-chan just standing on the other side.

“Huh?” Kame turned to look at his mom with confused expression.

“Your aunt is worried sick about Mi-chan, she didn’t see her when she got back home and had been calling all relatives for news of Mi-chan,” the woman replied, pushing Kame to the side and moving towards Mi-chan, arms hugging the small frame.

“I’m glad you are ok, if anything happens to you, I don’t think your mom can live another minute in this world,” Kame’s mom said with relief as brushing her hand through the girl’s hair. Mi-chan bit her bottom lip at the statement. She thought to herself that her aunt was right, whatever happened, her mom would be the one that got hurt the most.

“I’m sorry,” Mi-chan spoke softly as she snuggled her face into the woman’s chest to seek that warm comfort of a mother.

“Come in, and I’ll call your mom to let her know you are here, before she turns lunatic at everyone,” Kame’s mom ushered for the two teens to get into the house. The two obediently followed the order. Kame made way for his cousin to enter the house; he didn’t miss the glint of disappointment on the girl’s features. Something was really off about Mi-chan. He just knew it.

❈

It was a beautiful Sunday, Kame had been anticipating for this day to come. It had been more than two weeks since he and his girlfriend last went out on a date. School works had kept his love busy, and his cousin had kept him occupied for the past two days. For some reasons, Mi-chan had become a bit too clingy lately. She wouldn’t let him go anywhere. She would always want to tag along to all places that he went to. After making his aunt worried sick about Mi-chan’s whereabouts, Kame felt the lingering guilt of keeping the girl away from her family. It was the time for Mi-chan to get used to her new family. She couldn’t just always hang around him all the time. As much as he loved his cousin, he had a life too, and so did she.

Shaking his head from those thoughts, Kame checked his reflection one last time before left the bathroom and to the entrance. He walked into the kitchen and stole a piece of food from his six-year-old nephew, who growled unhappily at him for stealing the baby’s food. Kame just chuckled and ruffled the boy’s hair with a teasing smile. He spun around and gave a quick kiss to his mom’s cheek, which gave the woman a startle at the sudden happy mood of her third son.

“Someone is happy today,” the woman commented lovingly.

“I’m going on a date with Mei-chan,” Kame replied, humming a soft melody.

“I see,” the woman nodded approving, “when I get to see this lovely young lady?” his mom added.

“Soon,” Kame chirpily said, making the last stop at the dining table to place down the orange juice for his niece, who was whining for juice. “Gotta go!” Kame hurriedly exited the kitchen and to the door.

“Have fun! And don’t be late,” the woman voiced out after him, rolling her eyes contently at the silly boy. “Ah~puppy love, how much I miss them,” she sighed dreamily as fixing the food for her grandson and granddaughter.

Kame skipped his way to the meeting place, the bubbly happy feeling had been making him giggle like some dumb idiots. However, he didn’t mind. He was in an awesome mood today and people’s strange stares were nothing in his eyes. From afar he could already see his girlfriend who sat waiting patiently at their favorite café, he smiled brightly and looked left and right, he decided to surprise the girl. He snuck his way around the entrance, and walked towards the girl from the back. He quietly tapped the girl’s left shoulder, which had her turn to the left as predicted and he moved to the right and settled down on the chair in front of her. The girl turned her head back and smiled softly at him.

“Have you been waiting for long?” Kame asked lovingly.

“Nuh uh,” the girl shook her head with a toothy grin, “just got here five minutes ago,” she replied.

“You should come late once or twice, you’re always technically early,” Kame pouted.

“I don’t want to be late for any meeting,” the girl pouted back.

“But we are on a date, and you are forgiven if you’re to be late,” Kame reassured her.

“I know, but I don’t want to make it my habit, you know how quickly I adapted to bad behavior,” the girl laughed lovingly.

“Ok ok, you win,” Kame gave up his hands and scooted closer to her. “What do you want to do today?” he asked.

“Anything is fine,” the girl replied shrugging.

“Com’on; pick a place, I’ve always been the one picking,” Kame whined.

“I really don’t know,” the girl tried to think, “shopping?” she threw out whatever on her mind.

“Sure,” Kame immediately agreed.

“Not sure what I’ll buy though,” the girl was quite hesitated.

“You might find something when you’re there,” Kame tried to support her suggestion.

“Hm…I guess then,” the girl nodded, “but first, I need to finish this chapter of the novel,” the girl said pointing to her unfinished book. Kame nodded and let the girl be. He looked towards the cashier and decided that he wanted something while waiting for her.

The wait was a bit longer than Kame had expected; his girlfriend was so into the detective plot that she decided to finish the next two chapters of the book before put a stop to her reading marathon. It was around three o’clock that they both headed out to Shibuya. Kame was not going to complain about her love for books, because he fell in love with her at first sight when the girl was indulging in a series of Sherlock Holmes; the geekiness in the girl made him feel at ease and attracted him in the strangest way.

They had been going out for over two years now, and every time the girl would always come to the date with a book. It was her hobby and he was not one to tell the girl to change her hobby for him, but once in awhile he would love her attention to be on him, and spending time at the café with meaningless talks. Being silly for once could be the most wonderful thing.

Kame enjoyed shopping, he once believed it is one of the best trait a man can attain, in situation of them hanging out at the mall, then he and his girlfriend would have a thing in common, a common thing that EVERY girl loves: SHOPPING. But oh boy, he was so damn wrong. His current girlfriend’s ONLY enjoyment is BOOKSTORE, not shopping. The girl would only go on a shopping spree at season changing time: meaning from Summer to Winter, or Winter to Summer; when the need for new clothes is calling upon her.

He was lucky that today happened to be the time the girl was in need for clothes, it was almost changing season anyway. They had been in and out of many different stores, yet their hands were still empty.

“You should buy something,” Kame said as they exited the nth store that day.

“I don’t like any of them,” his girlfriend answered shrugging.

“At least trying them on, you can’t know whether it looks good on you or not without trying it on,” Kame tried to reason out; he knew he was being a push-over.

“Fine, I’ll try one on at the next store,” the girl sighed and gave in. They had always been like this whenever they were on a shopping date. Kame would be nagging about her fashion-ignorant while she was forced to walk throughout the shopping area aimlessly.

“I’m sorry,” Kame apologized when he noticed a bored expression on his girlfriend’s face.

“No need to, I need time to get used to this,” the girl said, faking a gentle smile. “Where is next?” she tried to avert the guilt-talk.

“Ageha?” Kame said.

“I don’t think they would be my style,” the girl deadpanned.

“What do you mean?” Kame questioned.

“That store is filled with princess-ie accessories, and overly frill dress, and overly exposed shirts, and super short skirts,” the girl grunted her face at the description.

“Are we talking about the same store here?” Kame asked, wondering how the girl knows about the OTHER Ageha store.

“Huh?” The girl questioned dumbly.

“I think you mistook it with the Ageha magazine store online, this Ageha is different. Indeed it has girly clothes but not princess-ie,” Kame guaranteed. The girl looked at him with doubts, “Trust me, I’m an expert at this stuff,” Kame smiled. The girl nodded warily and decided to trust Kame’s words. Kame smiled at the nod and took his girlfriend’s hand to lead her to said store. The girl’s steps were cautious and hesitant as they slowly reached the store. Once they entered, Kame saw a relief on the girl’s face. He smiled at the girl’s silliness of not wanting to turn into a doll.

It took them awhile to finish their shopping and once they were done. Kame was happy to see two bags dangling on the girl’s wrists at least they made some progress today. They both were waiting at the station, and Kame was still talking about the stores they were in, and what goods those stores having are good and what not. The girl didn’t pay attention. She was busy. Her eyes kept glancing over to her watch.

! I’m late! She thought to herself. Every once and now she would turn to Kame with a “really” and “sounds good” answer to avert Kame’s suspicion. She tapped her heels on the pavement in an impatient rhythm. She wished for the train to hurry and arrive like RIGHT NOW!

FINALLY!The girl cheered in her mind  once the train had arrived.

She waited for Kame to stand up and follow him, so Kame wouldn’t suspect that she had wanted the date to end. She was late and the train better be at a fast speed or she would kill a ! She quickly bade Kame a goodbye, pecking him on the lips and then going in the opened door in a hurry. She didn’t catch what Kame was voicing at her, she didn’t have time for this. Checking her watch again, the girl groaned in irritation, now she had to make a reroute at the next station. It would be another thirty minutes before she could reach her appointed time with her client. This ‘normal’ dating was slowly getting on her nerve, she would quick the next time this boy is being a fussy about everything! Right at that moment, a vibration woke her from her thought.

---
From: Annoying brat Kamenashi
Text: Have a safe trip home! ^^v
---

The girl scoffed at the message, almost laughing at the boy’s innocence. She would be the last person on earth to get into any trouble with like rapists, and thuds. She pushed the phone back into her pocket and then headed to the restroom; she needed to change into the appropriated costume today.

It was an hour later when she finally reached the house of her client. She knocked on the door lightly and waited as footsteps approaching and the door was opened, revealing her usual customer. 

“You’re 10 minutes late,” the man said in a firm voice.

“Oh I’m sorry, some stuff keeping me up,” she smiled sweetly at the man, as inviting herself in.

“Whatever, the little is in her room, bring her out when you’ve done your preparation,” the man said darkly, closing the door and secured locking it.

“You’re one sick bastard you know that?” the girl said loudly from the man’s bedroom.

“Well, this sick bastard pays you well, doesn’t he?” the man smirked as he replied.

“The very reason I haven’t reported you to the police yet,” the girl shouted back a reply, laughing loudly in the process.

“I dare you to,” the man retorted, “I wouldn’t mind to have a mind-blowing in prison if you are to be in the same cell as mine,” the man slowly walked to his room.

“So what game we are playing today?” the girl asked once she was finished with her preparation in the room.

“Bring the little over,” the man said, settling down on the bed.

“Be in a minute,” the girl smiled knowingly, heading to the room across from them, knowing her every step in this house. She had been here for god knows how many times. She burst the door from the other room opened, shocking the occupant of the room. The little girl on the bed shuddered at the loud bang and a loud horrified voice greeted her.

“Mi-chan! It’s time to enjoy the night baby!” The girl grinned at the tear-filled eyes. The cruel animalistic in her arose at the shivering form. She loved to make little girl becoming a submissive piece of trash, succumbing in pleasure and purely blinding in bliss, despite their deafening screaming of protest.

❈

Kame gritted his teeth as he waited at the emergency room. Why didn’t he sense it? Why didn’t he notice the terrified in his cousin’s eyes? Why didn’t he see the bored and ruthless expression on his girlfriend’s face? Why didn’t he glue the pieces together? He hated himself more than anyone right now. His heart was broken as his mind was filled with the flashbacks of the memories of that night. The night he discovered the blind spot of his life; he was going to pay his cousin a visit because he didn’t see her for weeks since he ignored her for his date. His aunt told him that his cousin had turned autistic and not socialized with anyone. She had locked herself in the room. He was worried.  

That night, his aunt was on a business trip and had asked him to look after Mi-chan. Seeing the good opportunity for them to bond again, he decided to pay her a visit and stay with her throughout the night; knowing the girl didn’t get much sleep at night, maybe with his presence she would at least getting some quality rest. The moment he reached the house, he could hear the muffled sobbing and loud screaming from inside the house. He wondered why no one had come out to see what was going on in the house. The screams didn’t seem to stop and they continued on for minutes later. He tried to unlock the door but it had secure locked; he didn’t know his aunt had installed such lock. The woman hated to have to remember many passwords, and if she ever did, she would have given him a password. Kame sensed something was off; the yells turned horrified and Kame quickly dialed the police. He sensed no safeness in the house.

Only when the police came knocking on the door that his uncle came to open the door with an angelic smile and replied with a nothing went wrong, but Kame couldn’t believe such thing. He ran into the house and followed the trail to Mi-chan’s room, calling out his cousin’s name desperately. His uncle followed him into the house, worries showed on the man’s face. The police also followed Kame into the house, and tried to take the young maniac out of the house. However, a muffled scream was heard, as if someone was trying to get out of something, and then a loud crash followed. Kame along with the police followed the burst into the man’s room.

Kame didn’t know what to make out afterward. His cousin was bind to the bedpost, legs kicking anything within her reach to make sounds, because was clogged by a gag, and another person was on top of her, and was that the strap-on that he saw penetrating his cousin? Kame was pissed and ready to land a punch to whomever the that was; only when he turned the person around that his body went numb at the recognition. His form was stoned on the spot, he didn’t know what to make out of this. The police immediately took their actions by seizing the man from escaping and taking the “” down in order to rescue the victim.

The following minutes were all blurred as more police forces came rushing into the house and then the loud piercing siren of the ambulance. Kame only held onto his cousin dearly as they transported the girl out of the house and to the ambulance for immediate medical care. He only stared at his cousin in blank pained expression; one thought occupied his mind:

His girlfriend was his cousin with the consent of his aunt’s new husband.