Minami Sei peeks at her once. "Tell me the address of your place."
"Just drop me at a bus station." Wakana is freaking out inside her head while her face is calm and composed. "I will take a bus home."
"It's late." She looks like she will pass out at any moment. "I will take you home."
"I don't want a stranger to know my home address." The tone is distant and cold.
"A stranger?" He presses the brake. Hard. Why is this girl acting so cold toward him? "I am a stranger? We know each other since we were 11."
"We might have been classmates, but we aren't friends." She gives him a chilling glare. "I am a police officer. I am not a damsel in distress. I can go home by myself."
This girl! She thinks that he's doing this because he likes her. He mutters to himself, "Why do all women misunderstand men's actions?"
"What I am misunderstanding here?" She asks in a quiet tone. The sudden change in her tone surprises him.
"You think that I am driving you home because I like you, isn't? I am doing this because you and I are working together. There's no special meaning," He replies in the same tone. "Just tell me the address."
"Your ability to assume nonsense never cease to surprise me." She laughs out once. "In middle school, you thought that I liked you. Now, you say that I think that you like me. Minami Sei, you have made it clear a long time ago that you do not like me. So, I don't 'dare' to make a baseless assumption. From now on, let's act like colleagues only -- colleagues who met today for the first time. We don't need to act familiar with each other just because we went to the same school. Also, I do not like you. It's best for us if you do not 'assume' that again."
She pushes the car door open and steps out. Instead of going to the bus station, she stops a cab and leaves immediately.
Minami Sei is too shocked to react. Frustrating. What's wrong with her? Why waste the money on the cab when he could take her there? She could just spend that money on the coffee for him tomorrow.
If she didn't like him ever, why did she keep stealing glances on him until they parted seven years ago? Did she stop liking him?
He harrumphs. She must have a boyfriend now.
Why does it matter if she has a boyfriend or not? Just drive the car and go home. Didn't she say not to assume? He will just ask her tomorrow whether she has a boyfriend or not.
He finds himself extremely bothered. Is he too late? He didn't realize it in the past.
What a frustrating girl! She manages to make him useless stuff. He needs to know now whether she has a boyfriend or not. He should have asked her number earlier.
***
Wakana doesn't go home. She goes to her elder sister's place. She punches the bell non-stop until Natsumi opens it. She is dressed in a bathrobe. Her hair is a disheveled mess.
"Wakana, what are you --"
Wakana hugs her sister. "Please let me sleep here tonight. I am too scared to go home."
"What happened?" A man walks out of the bedroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. From the top to the toes, he is a sculpted art. Wakana's eyes nearly pop out of the socket. After seeing that horrendous man at apartment number 512, seeing this man is soothing to her eyes.
Natsumi looks over her head and tells the man in a monotonous voice, "Leave."
The man walks back to the bedroom to dress himself up quietly. Before leaving, he nods at Wakana politely and closes the door behind him.
Wakana whistles, completely forgetting about the phantom artist. "Elder Sister, he's so hot. A feast to the eyes. I can stare at him for the rest of my life."
"And, that's what you are going to do." Natsumi chuckles and drags her to the couch. "Why did you run here? Did you see a bad dream again?"
"Actually, I didn't see a bad dream. I saw a bad reality." Wakana shudders when she remembers the phantom artist's promise. "I met Minami Sei today. He and I are working in the same division."
Natsumi's face turns sour. "That's why you are scared?"
"I don't like him." Wakana pouts.
"Since you are still bothered about him, I wonder if Sayuri is right." Natsumi squints at her. "Wakana, do you like Minami Sei?"
"Absolutely not." She can never forget how she was rejected before she even realized that she liked him once. It was brutal for her maiden heart. Her first love ended before she could even confess properly. "I just find him annoying."
"Is that why you came here to annoy me?" Natsumi glowers at her sister. The special night with her boyfriend is ruined because a guy annoyed her sister.
"I am not here to annoy you." Wakana gives her 'the look'. "You are annoyed because I ruined your night, aren't you? How far have you gone with him? Since when? Who is he, by the way?"
Natsumi lets out a sigh. "You did ruin the night."
"So secretive." Wakana narrows her eyes on her. "Are you going to marry him?"
"It's not that sort of relationship." Natsumi gets up. "Did you have dinner?"
"What kind of relationship is it?" Wakana won't let go. "Were you discussing how you look in towel and bathrobe?"
"Wakana, you are a kid. Stop asking questions."
"How I am a kid? I am 10 minutes younger than you are, not 10 years."
"That's my point. In 10 minutes, you lost all the IQ to me."
"I am just asking if he's your boyfriend."
Natsumi throws some noodles to boil for her sister. "We are friends who take care of each other's special needs."
Getting the clue, Wakana digs her fingers in her hair. "Natsumi... you have that kind of relationship with him?"
"You should try the same with your Minami Sei. Maybe you can get over him then."
"NATSUMI!"
"If you call my name again, I will throw you out of my house."
Wakana shuts up. She's still afraid of sleeping alone tonight.