The rest of the class time goes by painfully slow. While Jiro ignores me the whole time, I can feel Takeshi's gaze on me. I need to make sure that I catch Jiro before he runs off somewhere.
Takeshi slams the book in his hands shut. "I think that we can leave it off there." Jiro gets up from his chair, and I quickly follow. "Mako, can I speak with you before you go?"
My eyes which were once glued to Jiro, pull away to look at Takeshi. I reluctantly nod and rush over to him. "What do you need, sir?"
He chuckles at me. "You are too kind with your honorifics, Mako."
I keep my head turned toward Jiro, who pays us no attention and opens the door to leave. "Sir, is it alright if I curb this conversation till tomorrow?"
With his hand, he pulls my head to look back at him. His mouth is too close to mine. "I just wanted to inform you that you and I will be leaving the house to get you a new wand on Saturday." His hand falls from my face, and I step back slightly.
"I thought I wouldn't be getting a new wand until two weeks from now."
Takeshi picks up my training wand from my bag. "That was going to be the case. However, with the state of your wand now, it's sure to break before then."
He's not wrong. The creation spell from the academy took a toll on it. "Will Jiro come along with us?"
His face furrows in annoyance. "You sure have taken a liking to my brother. But, to answer your question, no. He has other business to attend to."
"I see. So it will be just the two of us then?"
He nods his head and places my wand in my hand. "Yes, will that be a problem?"
I shake my head. "Of course not."
His face lights up with a smile. "Splendid." Before I can leave, he uses his hand to ruffle my hair. "You have the most gorgeous grey hair. I have never seen anything like it."
I shoot him a smile. "Thank you. May I go now?" I wouldn't mind talking to him for longer, but I have to speak with Jiro. By now, it's probably going to be impossible for me to find him.
Takeshi's face disappears from his face once he hears my question. "I suppose. Of course, if you need anything, please find me."
My legs burst from their idle stand and take off to the door. As I run, I turn the upper half of my body towards Takeshi. "Thank you, Takeshi! I'll see you tomorrow."
He grins and waves his hand at me.
I twist the knob to the door and rush outside. My eyes violently search around the corridors for Jiro. However, he's nowhere to be seen. I follow the same route that the servant led me earlier this morning. Hopefully, he was heading back to his room, and I can find him there.
The air in my lungs begins to feel heavy. Soon enough, it gets hard to breathe, and my legs start to hurt. I stop in the middle of the hallway, gasping for air.
"You aren't the athletic type, huh."
I slowly spin around to see Jiro. "Jiro… What- where did… Where did you come from?"
He gradually walks over to me. "I was at the door the whole time. I would leave you there, but then I figured you would probably get lost."
He grabs my arms and raises them above my head. "Keep your arms there. It helps you breathe better. Also, start walking with me. Stopping right after a run with no slow down is bad for you." He gently pushes me forward, and the two of us walk together.
"Why didn't you tell me you were there when I left the study?" I pant to him.
"I would have if you weren't running away so damn fast."
That's fair. I feel his hand rummaging through my bookbag. "Why did you bring a bookbag to a tutoring session?"
I glare at him. "Because, unlike you, I care about my grades."
He pulls out a textbook on plants. I wonder if Juniper knows where I am. I doubt it. Principal Rose made this whole thing seem out of the blue and secret. "You like plants or something?"
"You know the whole reason I'm here is because of you."
"Wow, you sound like my mother now."
I yank the book away from him and shove it back into the bag. "I was planning to give you a valeomile root as a gift. Of course, that didn't work, and it kind of went haywire."
"Why in the hell would you give me valeomile root?"
I look at him, annoyed. "Because you threw nightshade powder at me, and some people told me that valeomile was used to make nightshade powder."
He breaks out into a laugh. "I completely forgot I did that to you."
Why am I not surprised that he forgot about our first encounter. The sound of his laughter rings in my ears. "It's that funny to you."
He leans himself against me, trying his best to catch his breath. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's just so adorable that you would give me the main ingredient of the thing I used against you."
I push him off my shoulder. "Haha. Yes, so funny. You know I did it because of how hard you are to approach."
He nods, and his laughter becomes silent heaves of air. "I guessed that much. Nobody has ever done that much to just talk to me." He wipes a tear from one of his eyes, and finally, his laughter dies down.
"You're an ass."
He gasps. "Oh my. You're telling me that you actually swear?" He asks in a sarcastic tone. His hands wrap around my upper arm in shock.
"I can't believe I wanted to be friends with you." Or the fact that I think I have a crush on you.
"You know it's funny because I'm starting to understand why Merlin likes you."
I forgot about Merlin. "Does Merlin know what happened to me?"
He shakes his head. "Yeah, there's no point in keeping secrets with him. He says he's not a psychic, but I think that's a lie." he wiggles the tips of his fingers in my face. "He can read the future."
I flick them away. "Everyone knows psychics haven't existed for millennia." The reason why is a mystery, but that doesn't change the fact that they're still gone.
"That's what everyone says, but magic always finds a way to exist somehow." Before he can say anything more, his stomach growls. "Wanna get some food with me."
It wouldn't hurt to get some food in my stomach. I haven't had anything to eat since last night's buffet. "Sure, but you better not go overboard with the food like last night."
He flops his hand up and down. "Yeah, yeah, whatever." he grabs my hand and interlocks his fingers with mine.
If only he knew how this made me feel. He guides me around the corner and into the kitchen. Inside are a few cooks and what looks like the head chef. They stop what their doing once they see Jiro. The three cooks bow their heads in his presence. However, the head chef smiles widely at Jiro. Her thick black hair is pulled back into what looks like box braids.
"I'm not cooking you a whole damn restaurant like I did last night." Her dark skin glows brightly in the sunlight that flows through the window. I have never seen a woman as beautiful as her.
"I'm surprised you even let me do that."
She sets the towel that was resting in her hands on the table. "Yeah, well, it's not like I can afford to not have a job." Her eyes travel over to me. "Oh, who's this cutie?" I can feel my face blush a little.
"This is Maki." I punch Jiro in the gut.
"It's Mako."
She rushes around the corner and pulls my face close to hers. "Oh my goodness. I have heard so much about you from Jiro. He does not do your looks justice." She then quickly pulls my face away from hers. "I'm sorry. I like to get a good look at people's eyes. My Ma always told me that they are the gateway to the soul, so you gotta make sure it's a good gateway."
I can feel her warmth and kindness radiating on me. "Jiro talks about me?"
She walks back around to the other side of the counter. "The boy doesn't shut up about you. The first day he met you, I swear I thought you were a girl that used a love potion on him."
"She's exaggerating." Jiro sits down on a barstool and waves me over.
She throws a wooden spoon at him, but he dodges it with ease. "I am not. Anyway, I can see why he wouldn't stop talking about you when you're that handsome."
"Thank you for such kind words, umm."
"You can call me Georgiana."
"You can call her an ass." Jiro butts in, but I quickly punch him in the gut again.
"I swear, I oughta starve you to teach you some manners." She looks around the counter to throw something at him again but finds nothing.
"You have an English sounding name, are you from Japan?"
She grabs the towel from before and whips it over her shoulder. "Oh goodness no. My family is from the United States. The south, to be more exact, but I didn't like staying there, so I moved to New York. I catered for Lord and Lady Sasaki's wedding. Thankfully, I was able to speak with them, and they asked me if I wanted to work for them in Japan. The rest is history."
"If you ask me, she should retire already." Jiro chimes in.
"Now, what would you like, sweetpea?"
"Do you serve cold udon?"
She picks up a bottle of soy sauce, the bottom of the glass bottle scraping against the counter. "For you, I can make anything."
What a kind person. I turn to Jiro. "What are you having?"
He looks away from his phone and stares at me. "Oh, I'm just having a bowl of rice and some salmon. Georgia always knows what I want."
He messes up her name. At this point, I'm starting to believe he has a bad memory with names.
For a while, we sit in silence. Jiro is scrolling away at his phone, and I'm entranced by the way that the cooks move so fast in a relatively small space.
"How come you were late to class today?" I break the silence.
"Don't worry about it." His response is dull.
"You can't you expect me not to worry when you told me that you were going to walk me to class last night and then when you showed up alone and angry."
"Mako, I'm serious leave it be."
I don't understand why he must be so distant about these things. One second I think we're on good terms, and then the next, he refuses to open up.
"I just wish that you could talk to me more. I barely know you, and you're really the only person I can rely on here."
His nose curls, and he turns to me. "It doesn't seem that way."
"What?"
He turns off his phone, putting all his attention on me. "When I walked into the study today, and when I was leaving, you and Takeshi seemed pretty buddy-buddy with each other."
Is he getting angry at that? "Jiro, I was only talking to him because he's my superior."
"If I told you to stop, would you." He waits eagerly for my answer.
I have a feeling he won't enjoy my response. "No." I pause, waiting for him to burst out in anger. However, he doesn't. Instead, he waits for me to say more. "I don't want my relationships to be in someone else's hands. No matter how much that person means to me."
He turns away from me. I can tell he didn't like my answer, but not to the point of running out of the room. "I suppose that's valid."
"Of course, if you told me why I shouldn't hang around your brother, maybe I would put it into consideration."
His eyes light up slightly, but they quickly fade away. He opens his mouth to say something but is interrupted by Georgiana slamming down my bowl of cold udon noodles and Jiro's plate of salmon and rice.
"Alright, boys, you better enjoy the meal."
Jiro says nothing and begins to dig in. I nudge him in the shoulder.
"Thank you for the meal, Georgiana." I lean over to look at the three other cooks in the back. "Thank you for cooking for me."
"Why did you nudge me, Maki?" He asks with a mouth full of rice.
"Thank them, Jiro." He stares at me confused and annoyed. "Don't be rude."
"Fine, Fine." Some rice falls out of his mouth. Then, with a large gulp, the rest of it in his mouth is gone. "Thank you, Georgiana, and um, the three cooks in the back." He waves his chopsticks around.
It's still rude, but at least it's a start.