Chapter 4

Unspoken tension

“Itadakimasu!” Kazuki said happily before disappearing behind a large bowl of rice, eating rapidly. Kahoko noticed, though his frenzy was quite impressive, not a single grain of rice spilled. Then out of the corner of her eye, she smiled to see that Haruki was eating rapidly as well, though much more calmly. She hid her widening smile by nibbling a piece of fish.

            Next to her, Len was calmly, and ever so daintily, chewing his food and was watching the two brothers across the table with the faintest thing to amusement on his handsome face. The calm over the dinner table was only broken by the brisk clicking of chopsticks against bowls.

“Seconds, please!” Haruki and Kazuki suddenly shouted together, thrusting their empty bowls towards a startled Kahoko.

“Hai, hai,” she smiled, recovering faster than earlier and scooping more rice into their bowls. This time when they ate, they ate like Kahoko and Len, calmly.

Haruki and Len began to chat together. They argued about something Kahoko didn’t understand. She just watched from the corner of her eye, comparing Len’s different facial expressions to Haruki’s much more prominent ones. Now, Len seemed even more composed and stoic by contrast.

Kazuki, who was directly across from Kahoko, glanced up at her. “So you go to Seisou Academy, too?” he asked, setting the bowl down.

She nodded as she laid the light brown chopsticks down.

“What instrument do you play?”

“Violin,” she replied, remembering her precious violin fondly.

“Cool,” he said, smiling again. “I play the trumpet.”

“Trumpets have such a beautiful sound,” she commented. “How it resonates through the entire body.”

His grin widened. “I know, doesn’t it?” He rested an elbow on the table, eyes focused on her. “I can play for you sometime.”

“That’d be great,” she enthused.

Then those liquid gold eyes took on a gentle look. “I heard from” he glanced briefly at Len who had stopped talking and eyeing them with slight distaste “someone that you are an exceptionally good player, even though you are from the Regular Department.”

             She blushed deeply. “I-I’m still an amateur…”

            He leaned a little closer towards her, beaming and causing her to blush deeper at their growing closeness. “I want to hear you play.”

            Hesitating briefly to relax, she nodded. “Sure. Any requests?”

            Another quick peek at Len. “Ave Maria by Schubert,” he said. “If it’s not too much trouble…” he added.

            That’s too much of a coincidence, she thought. But instead of speaking her mind, she smiled. “Not at all. I’d love to play it for you.”

            Leaning forward one more time, he winked and said, “That’s a promise.”

            Again, she was caught in the spell of his infectious laughter and charm. She giggled.

            Then, so fleetingly that she would’ve missed it if she had blinked, she glimpsed Kazuki look at Len again, with something of a smirk on his attractive tanned features. In response, Len’s slender eyebrows weaved together in his usual frown. Only this time, she felt the rage and powerful feelings overflow in the room. Only Haruki, who got up to wash his dishes with a quiet “Gochisosama”, seemed oblivious to the waves of negative emotions.

            Even though she was known for her uncanny ability to sense and identify emotions, Kahoko was at loss. And all that went through her head, as her honey-colored eyes glanced nervously between the two men, was “What is going on?”

Author's Note

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