Chapter 11: X.

. . .

When we entered the house, my mother was certainly surprised to see there were eight of us instead of the usual six. Of course, she recognized Diana, Luna, and Ann right away, but since she had never met Akira or Hibiki, and also she had not seen Goryo in such a long time, she looked very confused.

“And who are you three?” My mother asked, very calmly, though, I could definitely tell she was… eager to know.

“The ginger is Hibiki Kaiyo, and the other ginger, the girl, is Akira Chikafusa!” I spoke softly. My mothers face went a little blank before moving her gaze to Goryo.

“And who is this?” She asked. I guess Goryo didn’t look quite the same as he did when we lived in Shibuya, even though I personally think he does.

“Oh, uhm… this is Goryo! You already know him…” I chuckled awkwardly as her face looked surprised.

“Goryo! It’s so nice to see you again!” My mother voiced happily, but I knew, from the way her voice flowed, she definitely wasn’t sure if this was actually him.

“Hello ma’am…” He spoke with a bit of a shaky voice. My mother gave everyone handshakes before introducing herself.

“I am Sato Okamura,” she said. Akira immediately interjected, her expression looked… weird.

“I need to use the bathroom!” She spoke very quickly. Akane pulled her aside and brought her to the bathroom.

“Anyways, you guys can call me Sato, Mrs. Okamura, whatever you please, I don’t mind formalities, and I don’t mind not using formalities either.”

After that, she went upstairs, probably to find Hisa. I doubted he would actually come downstairs to greet our friends, but surprisingly he did.

“Hello,” he spoke softly, his tone gruff and deep, but he was still greeting our friends? “I’m Hisa, you probably won’t see me much. But just be careful here. Everything is quite expensive.”

He went back upstairs, probably to work on business related things. I never saw him much when I was home either, so why I would see him much now? Besides, I doubt he’d actually be any fun to hang around with anyway.

After a moment, Akira and Akane made their way back to us. Akira looked decently worried, but I wasn’t too concerned.

“Everything good? You look like you just shit a brick,” I laughed. Akira didn’t laugh back.

“Yeah, I’m good,” she sighed as I glanced at Akane, who seemed worried.

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“You guys can go relax, if you want,” I said as everyone went to, presumably, find a place to sit. I turned my attention back to my sister and spoke with a light tone, “Akane, what was that about?”

She looked into my eyes for a moment, just staring blankly, almost without an expression. I wanted to repeat myself but I didn’t, so we just stared into each other’s eyes for quite some time before she finally spoke up, “Not sure.”

Judging by the fact that it took her so long to answer my question, something told me that she did know, she just didn’t want to talk about it.

“Are you sure you don’t know?” I asked calmly, still staring into her eyes, with a piercing gaze by this point.

“I am positive.” She looked away from the stare and walked into the lounge, assuming that’s where everyone had gone.

. . .

After some time of loafing around, we all decided to play a board game. I don’t know why we decided to do that specifically, but I didn’t mind.

“Diana, do you want to come with me?” I spoke softly as I stood up, stretching my limbs. She nodded as she got up too.

I turned to face Goryo. “Come,” I spoke gently. His expression lit up slightly, but only I could really notice it. He got up and decided to get closer to me.

He grazed my finger with his own gently, and we interlocked each other's hands. I’m certain he was blushing, but I didn’t look at him.

I turned around to face everyone. “Uh, is there anyone that doesn’t want to play?”

Ann and Luna both spoke up, I guess that meant there would be six of us.

“Are we able to go to the water and swim? We brought bathing suits!” Luna chuckled as she grabbed hers out of a bag that she was holding.

“Oh, yeah of course you can!” I spoke gently as they both ran to the bathroom. “There’s a piece of land with some sand near the harbor we came from! And there’s towels in the closet too!”

“Okay!” Ann shouted from the corridor. I turned back around and caught up with Diana and Goryo.

We didn’t keep holding hands by that point. And we didn’t go back to doing it either.

“...so what do you guys usually like to play?” I asked Diana and Goryo. Our steps together were slow and slightly out of line.

“My family is big on poker,” Diana said lightly, “we usually play card games!” Her cheery tone was lightening, inviting something from the lack of a mood.

“...Ume and I usually play Monopoly,” Goryo responded. Since I knew about his family’s wealth status, that was genuinely fucked up.

“Hm,” I hummed to myself, “...I forgot to ask everyone else what they like to play but… I’m sure we can make a good decision!” I chuckled lightly as Diana did as well. Goryo didn’t join the two of us.

“...” He was silent. Dead silent. Maybe it was because I was giving him any of my attention, but… all I know is that he certainly was silent.

When we made our way to the closet with the board games, I looked around for a moment before Diana went over to pull a game from the shelves.

“Let’s play Cluedo!” She chuckled. I sighed and Goryo did too. But, I decided that we would play that.