He looks into her eyes to see whether she's joking or not. She seems pretty serious. Sei manages to reply after a long moment, "You can't."
When he sees her lips quiver, his heart twitches abnormally. What is this feeling? It's like he just kicked a puppy and he is watching that puppy in pain. His heart is filling up with guilt. He steels his gaze and looks away. This is too much to handle. When will the morning come? This woman is driving him crazy.
She sighs as if she has lost all the reasons to live. The ghosts are moving away from the kitchen. She takes the bowl from the kitchen table and bends down on her knees.
Sei creases his brows. Before he can stop her, she grabs the fistful of salt with her both hands.
She flinches when the shards of glasses pierce into the flesh. He grasps her wrists. So far, he's been putting up with her nonsensical actions. This woman doesn't even care about dying from blood loss.
"Nakashima Wakana, you are an absolute idiot."
The blood gushes out of her hands. The salt seeps into the wounds. She hisses in pain. He drags her to the sink and washes off the salt mixed with her blood first. The gloves need to be taken off. When he pulls her sleeve, she pulls back her hands and covers her wrists again.
He grimaces at her. "Calm down. I am only taking off your gloves off, not your clothes."
He wouldn't mind taking off her clothes. He shakes his head. When did he turn into a pervert? She belongs to someone else.
"I will take care of it by myself." She looks down on her shoes. Her mind is pretty occupied with other things to retort back. There's some salt that managed to get inside her shoes. Mixed with her sweat, it's making her skin itch. She can leave now. As long as she has the salt on her body, the ghosts probably won't touch her. Right? She's not a hundred percent sure. She's weak in this field. She will ask Morita Aiko tomorrow. "I am going back home. Thanks for helping me out tonight."
He glares at her. The drops of blood are falling on the floor one by one. It's messy. He hates the sight of the blood.
In any case, he can't just let her leave at this hour of the night. He has to give her the first aid. He doesn't want to waste his breath arguing with this woman.
Wakana lets out a startled scream when he lifts her in his arms. "Do you wear gloves because you are a clean freak?"
"Let me down!!!"
"Shall I?"
He loosens his grip as he walks toward the living room. She screams and clutches his collar. She winces in pain. Her blood smears on his shirt.
"You are quite a woman. You are lucky that you have me as your partner. At this hour of the night, I might be the only person on this planet who would take care of you after the mess you made at my house."
"That's not true at all." Her gaze falls on his jawline. Her despicable heart palpitates despite the pain in her hands. She ignores the feeling and looks away.
He hears her mumbling. "My sisters will do the same."
"You have caring sisters, but you shouldn't be a burden to them. People's hearts are unpredictable." He puts her down on the couch. "Sit here. If you move, I will find you and shoot your head."
Wakana stares at him blankly.
He chuckles lightly. "That's a joke."
"I am not afraid of being shot in the head." Wakana looks at the ghosts floating around from the corner of her eye. "I am afraid of..."
He opens the cabinet and brings out the first aid box. "Of...?"
"Seeing what shouldn't be seen," She adds.
He pauses his movement. Her gloves are drenched with her blood. Whenever she's around him, she always makes him wonder what she means by her words. He ignores the stifling feeling that's been pricking him since the moment she grabbed his hand that day and lost her consciousness. He pulls up her sleeves and pinches the edges of the gloves.
"Don't do that," She screams at him.
He looks at her calmly. "You are bleeding, moron. We have to stop this blood before I take you to the hospital. We need to get the shards of glasses out."
"I will take them off." She moves her body away from him, turning her back to him. Slowly, she tries to peel off the gloves. The wet gloves are sticking to her wounds. It feels like she's peeling off her skin. Sei looks at her shaking back for a good one minute before picking up a pair of clean gloves from the box. He takes the scissor next.
He walks around the couch and sits on the other side, facing her. He takes her hands. "There, I am wearing gloves now, you clean freak. You need therapy, woman."
She lets out a cry when he tries to cut away the glove. He stops and asks, "Have you ever been shot?"
She shakes her head.
"It hurts a lot more than this." He walks away from her. "If you move, I will really shoot you."
"Threatening is a crime." He hears her yell.
"She has so much energy that she can still yell, but she can't bear a little pain." He looks at the rice wine. "If you don't work on her, I will have to tie her to get those damn gloves off."