VII.

. . .

The food had been pretty good for a McDonald’s, I had only eaten a burger as I had lunch just a handful of hours ago. Akane ate some chicken nuggets and then there was Kazuki and Akane.

It hadn’t occurred to me until now that I had no clue where Goryo was, was he here with us or was he back at his house?

“...Akane, did you see Goryo anywhere?” I spoke as my sister stopped talking to her boyfriend, Kazuki, and began to converse with me instead.

“Yes, he ran off into an occultic store, not sure why you didn’t go with him,” she spoke very snobbishly, perfectly out of character for her, the kind-hearted, slightly childish Akane Okamura.

Though, I will admit, she had a good point, I usually would always stick with Goryo back then, so it would make sense for me to continue to do that even now.

But I have Diana, and I haven’t seen Goryo for a long time. I’ll have to talk to him a lot more when we actually get to the island I suppose. He’s probably going to freak out when he sees it.

Hisa is loaded with money, but honestly, I’ve really never felt… rich, and that’s quite odd considering the place I used to be in life.

I live in a town where everyone is considered comfortable, though I would say everyone is upper middle class, I suppose, yet I live on a private island, an island where only my family lives.

I’ve never really boasted about it before and quite frankly I’ve never felt a need to either, I mean, sure, if I did, everyone would love talking to me, trying to get to my money and all that shit but… I don’t want my relationships with people to be fake, and I mean, sure, they probably will be once they realize they have to go to Hojimi to actually see my house, and they can also tell because of the fact that it is massive, and we have a guesthouse, though I will admit it is quite small, but the fact is that most of the people that I know exist that know about me, will want want to know that I exist purely because of my money. And they will definitely want to use it too, that is for certain.

“...Diana, where is the occultic store?” I inquired quite, well, with quite the bossy attitude. I didn’t want to come off as bitchy because that just ruins everyone’s mood, but it did seem like I was a little ticked off.

And that I can only blame it on Akane, why was she being so bitchy with me? All I did was ask if she saw him anywhere.

“It’s… uh… I… I don’t know…” Diana mumbled lightly as I glanced back at Akane.

“Akane? Do you know where the occultic store is?” I spoke as if I were a kids show character towards her, which made her expression shift to one that made her seem even more aggravated.

Stolen novel; please report.

Maybe it’s because of the party I want to throw, she probably wanted to spend the weekend with… well… me…?

I waited for an answer from my sister, who was thinking for a moment. I know she knows where it is, because that is where she’s spent some time before.

“...yes… it’s near the tech store, you know where that is, I’m sure of it,” Akane answered softly, a hint of aggravation in her tone.

“What is your problem right now?” I snapped back at her, I glanced into her eyes. Her brows furrowed as she glanced into mine.

Her lack of a response caused me to turn around and head towards the tech store. Diana didn’t follow me and neither did Akane or Akira. I was actually quite happy that no one did follow me, I wanted some alone time with Goryo. Some time to catch up with him, some time to understand him.

I glanced at the surroundings, the buildings with their big flashy signs and windows that clearly showed what lurked inside the grounds.

My breath let itself out automatically as I found the tech store. I had to resist the urge to go in and buy something, my mother would definitely get mad if she saw a big charge on my bank account.

I let my eyes advert themselves to a different store, trying to spot the occultic store that Goryo was supposedly at.

Then I spotted it. It didn’t really scream occultic or witch-like, but I guess it was a little spooky looking.

Seemed like a store that should’ve only been open around Halloween time, but I mean, it’s still a pretty cool building regardless. It has an old shack exterior and it seems quite… burnt? That does seem appropriate, but I wasn’t entirely sure.

“Well, he should be in there,” my voice was slightly shaky, but I didn’t really notice. I took a deep breath and began to walk inside.

. . .

Most of the stock they had in the store was genuinely pretty cool and interesting. They had the collection of mythical stories that we bought at the clothing store, which made me question why they had it at the clothing store to begin with, but I digress.

“Ryo!” I let out, trying to not be as loud, I didn’t want to disturb any of the other customers shopping, and I felt like it would’ve been very rude. But, I don’t know. I’ve never been in here and it was cool, but it was also making me slightly uncomfortable.

I couldn’t find Goryo anywhere, it was quite odd. Where was he? I mean, he definitely couldn’t’ve been that far, right? This place isn’t that big.

I inhaled the air, smelling some incense that had or rather was burning, it was a nice scent.

I looked around once more, still not able to find Goryo. “...hm, well if he still likes the same stuff I would assume he would be-”

And there he was, in all of his… glory?

He was looking at some of the witchcraft books, and also some of the fantasy books as well.

“...Ryo…” I sighed in relief as he looked over at me, his eyes locking into mine as he started blushing.

I wasn’t sure if I was or not, but I most likely was. We stayed in that position for a moment, just forgetting about everything as we stared.

If I was someone else, my eyes would’ve shifted to the marks on his face. They were black spots, he didn’t know why he had them, meaning I never knew why he had them.

I thought they made him look prettier, but that was just my approach to the whole ordeal. His hair was messy too, which made him more adorable too.

He is cute, he always has been cute. He still is cute, even after all this time.

I blinked a couple of times to get myself out of my daze, “...uhm, we’re… gonna go… do some stuff if you… want to come with…”

He didn’t answer me immediately, he just blushed at me before blinking and glancing away. “Y-yeah, I’d… like that…”

And then my phone started vibrating in my pocket.

It was Hibiki.

Which meant it was time.