A soothing fragrance began to spread throughout the room, a sweet and comforting memory flashed before my eyes and filled me with warmth from the familiar atmosphere.
As if her hair was composed of a fine and unique material, I took it between my fingers and stroked it smooth, facilitating the process of wrapping one strand with another until they were tightly intertwined repeatedly as a poetic act to give affection to Yui, my younger sister who enjoyed asking me to make a beautiful hairstyle with her long hair, which is why I always carried with me something to tie it up.
I was ready, she really looked like the most beautiful girl in the universe. However, that beautiful appearance turned into another person, precisely a stalker boy whose face was everywhere; no matter if it was a few meters or tens of kilometers ahead, I always found him.
The situation was going from bad to worse. The image I had of Kishō was getting sharper and sharper and it meant only one thing: for a while now he had been doing nothing but being under the effects of Morpheus and I hadn't noticed that I had unconsciously ended up combing his hair and even adding a refined touch with the ribbon I usually wore.
To make my lousy luck evident, the teacher advanced towards my seat with a rather serious look on her face, as if she was going to give the speech of her life for having overslept between classes, and for using the classroom as if it were a beauty salon.
"Professor, wait a minute, please." said Kishō as he stood up and let out a slight smile "I like what Inoue did, could you leave it at that?"
"He deserves a punishment, Takayama."
"I would like to be punished with him, I didn't ask him to stop."
What was he saying? He should never have mentioned that, and why did he look so relaxed if he was challenging a teacher so recklessly?
The answer came, there I understood that the word "sense" does not apply to my stalker and his environment.
"You are right, you emanate an incomparable tenderness, could I photograph you?"
The teacher used a cloying tone when she questioned him, had she really said that? Was she the usual grumpy teacher or was she still dreaming? What kind of nightmare was that?!
Why does everyone adore Kishō?!
"As you like, I thank you for changing your mind."
Kishō sat back down and turned a little to look at my wild expression, at the same time pinning his pupils and making me resume my seriousness. I felt something strange. I was trying to ignore the reasons why I was smiling out of the blue, but.... Why did I think I should only look at him at that moment?
♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡❀ ♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡
I was about to return home when the discomfort returned, I felt agitation all of a sudden and was trying to take deep breaths to neutralize the irregularities.
Kishō came from behind and grabbed my briefcase without warning; he loaded it in my place before commenting what I feared the most."I'll stay at your place tonight, I asked my parents for permission and I'm taking my pajamas with me."
"And you asked me?"
"No, I knew you were going to deny me, I know you. Besides, I was worried about you."
"It's okay," I answered, "but don't always be harassing me, sometimes my house is the only place where I'm allowed to escape from you."
"Don't worry, you can escape whenever you want, Tsutomu. But first you must give me a kiss like yesterday."
For all there is, what did I have against me! If I had known that this kiss was going to have such serious consequences, I would never have given it, even though it betrayed the discomfort that I had been carrying for three days and was getting worse and worse.
Speeding up my pace as much as possible, I ended up arriving at the door of my house next to Kishō. The strenuous walk zapped what little energy I had left and I ended up in a slightly worse state than I had when I left school.
We both went inside the house and left our shoes in the genkan. I didn't go into the house, before that I managed to notice the presence of someone else, and I couldn't think of anyone else besides Yui, who surely came home earlier.
Good timing, I had to take advantage of it.
"Yui, I have to go out, could you stay with Kishō?"
"Do you have to go with Momoka-san?"
"Yes, I have to arrive early today."
"Go, brother. Be careful!"
It was enough with his approval to go to my room and lock myself in for a couple of minutes while I changed my clothes and prepared in a backpack the clothes I needed for the expected meeting. I needed to endure the discomfort a little longer.
♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡❀ ♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡ ❀ ♡
Dinner used to be the same every day with two brothers sitting across from each other. That night became the exception, as Kishō was like a momentary substitute, with a heartwarming presence.
"Takayama-nii?" called Yui "Who did your hair?"
"You can call me "Kishō". Tsutomu did my hairstyle, isn't it cute? ♡"
"Yes, he made me the same one when I was little. ♡"
"Ah, we were talking about the hairstyle?"
The eerie silence appeared and left a feeling of discomfort in both of them because of what they were talking about seconds ago.
"It's strange for my brother to come home with someone," Yui enunciated sadly, "I thought he didn't have any friends?"
"Why?"
"Tsutomu is always running away from people in a way, trying not to be fooled. Or at least that's what he wants others to see. He's a good person who has had very bad luck. That's why I'm glad he has a friend like you."
Both Kishō and Yui paused a bit long to give each other smiles for sharing that joy even though it was totally different.
Yui emanated a hopeful aura and it was probably due to Kishō, that light that had come to me without warning, sweeping a wave of positive attitude.
Kishō had no concrete explanation, possibly his harassment was getting to be cumbersome, and anyway he continued it without ceasing to care about me, someone so simple but with good intentions.
I couldn't help but have mixed feelings about him. I hated that, since there was a chance that he would end up distancing himself, something normal in human beings.
"I'm his friend, but soon I'll be his boyfriend, I promise."
He confessed at the same time that some little sparkles were coming out of his happy face, although it was apa gado with my younger sister's comment."Great! Although if you want to win him over you should accompany him to his work."
"Work? Tsutomu never told me about that, did your parents agree?""My parents died a long time ago, and our adoptive parents are not at home, that's why he works. He's very stubborn so I haven't changed his mind. Momoka-san invited him to work at a good salary."
"Wait a minute, his foster parents aren't at home? Shouldn't they be under supervision in case the family in question doesn't treat them properly?""It's a bit of a complicated situation, Takayama-nii, I think it would be better if my brother talked to you in detail about it."
"Well, give me a few minutes, I hope to catch up with Tsutomu? I could tell a long time ago that he wasn't feeling well, but I didn't know he would risk it to go to work."
He stood up and advanced to the genkan to put on his shoes as quickly as possible; he opened the door and walked out in a straight line without knowing where he was going. He had made a mistake right off the bat by going without knowing my work address even though he had the opportunity to ask for it.
As he accelerated his walk, he began to see me coming back with a slow pace. It was surprising to see that he was approaching, and that just at that moment all that tiredness that accumulated more with the "heavy" work of that day returned to me.
Before I knew it, I was extending a hand towards Kishō, asking him for help without knowing the specific reason, since I stopped perceiving sounds and my visual capacity was not giving for more; the whole place was beginning to be tinged with a deep black in which there was nothing but confusion.
I had fainted, but my stalker was there, holding me in his arms and preventing me from falling to the ground.