ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ NARU AKEMI ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ
"She's not here anymore," Naru and Akemi didn't bother to move away their gazes from the orange lake. Naru found it peaceful and serene in a way, he thought that this must be the most peaceful he has yet to experience on his stay in Japan.
While Akemi just continued to stare at the orange twinkling blur on her sight to focus. "Okita Kiyomi didn't know she died— or how it even happened, so it was quite easy to talk to her..."
"Isn't that why you came here?" Akemi continued, " -You wanted to free her as well once you're finished with Hagiwara Seiichi's."
Naru remained quiet.
A sense of time didn't exist for spiritual beings. All they knew was they are just there, filled with emotion that they felt most before they died or while on their lives. After their deaths those emotions leave behind energy, if it's great enough then they turn like the spirit on the Doll House case or like Hagiwara.
But somehow, Okita Kiyomi didn't know why she was there, she has a sense of emotion that was at least strong enough for her to stay before she died.
Okita Kiyomi continually looked for her parents, but something in her just can't leave the place where her body was placed as she continued to hope that her family would find her.
"-All that was left of her— her confusion and feelings of lost." Akemi said, explaining what she saw before Naru could join her. "I spoke to her how she's dead and that it was a long time ago... She was still confused and didn't understand a word that I said but that's to be expected, so I told her that her family is waiting somewhere else."
And then Okita Kiyomi left, being engulfed by a warm light that Akemi would never get bored of seeing.
If the Spirit back on the Park case stayed at least longer like the others they faced, she would turn like one of them. Losing their proper thought, their memories and life lost as their spiritual survival remains.
Akemi wondered, if she were to die now would something inside her make her stay?
Without meaning to her thoughts went to Naru, but something forced that back and she saw two familiar faces. Her mom and dad.
"What are you going to do after this? After you've achieved your goal of finding your brother?" Akemi asked, trying to change her way of thought.
Naru glared at Akemi, a frown on his face as he stared at her in alert.
Seeing his reaction Akemi waved her hands in front to mean that he shouldn't take it in a bad way, "—Mouh~! I was just curious! You don't have to answer if you don't want to..."
Naru remained stiff and Akemi thought that he wasn't willing to answer that question of hers so she opted to change it to his favorite color but Naru spoke before she could.
"What would happen when I find Gene," Naru states, pertaining to her question. "Go back to England. Be Oliver Davis again."
That answer confused her, 'Isn't he Oliver Davis?'
"Ehh? but aren't you always Oliver Davis?" Naru glanced at Akemi, his brows furrowed not really getting her thoughts.
Which irked the boy really bad as Akemi would always knew of his. Naru rarely think illogically but Akemi isn't like that, she thought of things depending on her emotion— emotionally or logically whatever answer she may come to all depended in her thoughts.
And her thought process is something Naru can't understand.
"-Kazuya Shibuya or Oliver Davis... but really in reality you are Naru," Akemi softly smiled before turning into bountiful giggles. "Naru, the Wonderful Wizard Of The SPR~"
Naru scoffed, turning back to face the lake. "Stop joking around..."
"But you are!" Akemi grinned, also returning back to watch the sunset lake. "— I think you would make a wonderful wizard."
"Tch, that's childish."
"hmm~ how about favorite color?" And it went this way for a few more times. Ake continued asking Naru his dislikes and likes and she would answer her own as well.
It wasn't until Akemi finally got the courage to ask.
"How about a girlfriend? Have you ever had a girlfriend or do you have a girlfriend now."
'So that was your plan,' Naru's brow twitched as he glanced at Akemi. The girl remained stiff on her gazing,
"Why that question?"
Akemi shrugged, "I was curious and I asked."
"... That's a stupid question,"
Now that she thought about it, 'That was a stupid question, wasn't it?' Akemi internally gave a small smile.
Akemi thought back about Okita Kiyomi's rejection towards Hagiwara's confession. The heartbreak Akemi felt in that vision, would it compare if she were to get rejected in real life?
"Ara~ It was a stupid question..." Akemi tried saying but only being able to mutter the words.
A wall of silence filled the space between Naru and Akemi. Something unseen but considerably felt, it wasn't strong enough to separate them really— one small side step and Akemi could break the distance and be near Naru but somehow, something inside her thought things through.
'How would Naru react?' Akemi bit her bottom lip in thought, her shoulders felt heavy and her heart started jumping. She panicked. She has never felt this way before.
'What is happening to me?' Akemi squeezed her fingers touching the cold barricades tighter, trying to keep her expression as calm as she could.
Naru sighed, already finished with his thoughts. "The others are waiting. Let's go."
Naru started stepping on his feet without pause.
'Wait...' Akemi wanted to say, but she let out an internal sigh. 'Why wasn't she good at these things? Was confessing one's feelings always this hard? This was nothing compared to Hagiwara's,' Akemi winced— what he felt might not be love at all.
But in the end she made a choice.
What she considered to be minutes of thinking, was only a second in comparison.
She'll regret it. Akemi sadly smiled, watching Naru took a step away from her with a soft gaze. As expected, she can't say it now.
What she has done wasn't enough, it's not enough for Naru to acknowledge her as something more and she'll regret it if she does it now.
"Why are you just standing there?" She heard Naru ask making Akemi clench her fists, trying to focus in the blurred environment. She is trying so hard— but nothing could change her mind.
'Just go before I actually yell out your name— before I regret....' Akemi bit her lip,
She cannot do it now, "No—" Akemi's voice broke, pausing to clear her throat before continuing. "-I'll... I'm thinking of staying with Moe and Hiroko, keep them company..." Akemi smiled,
She didn't mind the distance her and Naru have between them as they stared at each other's way,
She lifted her hand and waved, "See you tomorrow at work~!"
Naru remained where he stood, not really understanding why she was acting this way.
and Akemi was close to blowing up wanting to just say it or she would be wasting time. 'Argh. Just go!'
"..." Naru paused, somewhat hesitating on whether to speak or just leave.
Akemi smiled, clenching her teeth behind her lips.
Naru turned to face his back towards her, his expression blocked from her sight, not like she could actually tell but Naru knew it best to just avoid it.
It took a second for him before he finally walked away.
They were not ready yet.
She'll wait... She can wait...
because in the end, he became worried.
~~~
[Start Of Flashback
"So anything going on with you and Shibuya-san?" Moe teased, a suggestive grin on her face as the short-haired girl noted Akemi's warm cheeks back at the dorm.
"Eh?" The heiress innocently blinked, this time Hiroko was the one to let out a condescending laugh— all for tease of course.
"Arara~? Maruyama Akemi has a secret love life?"
Waving her hands that was filled with ornaments for the session, tinkled and jingled as Akemi shook her head at her friends with a red face knowing that if it's her friends, they would certainly come up with something inappropriate to hear. "Chi—chigau tte! I just work for him!"
Hiroko and Moe glanced at each with fake shock before turning back to give the girl a suggestive grin, making the heiress even more flustered. "Like I said, it's not like that!"
Hiroko and Moe giggled, Akemi was usually so calm and straightforward in things such as relationships and the fact Akemi was flustered and all over the place proved their thoughts.
Akemi's flustered appearance turned solemn, her lifted hands slowly went neutral. "Besides... I don't think he sees me that way..."
Her friends blanched, their eyes widely gaping at their friend. Maruyama Akemi, the very person that looks like a fantasy princess with Arabian get up. Her. The heiress that bloomed in just days of her career and youngest model to ever place herself in billboards without modelling experience. HER.
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Moe stared at her friend in shock, her hands waving all over Akemi's appearance as if it was enough to explain.
Akemi, understanding what they were getting... At least somewhat. "He's not like that—everything that I am doesn't matter to him..."
And that is what made Akemi notice him, she didn't knew when
but she noticed him because he is, well him. He felt so familiar and at the same time different,
"I don't know, maybe it's also because I can't..." Akemi hesitated, her friends especially Hiroko understanding what she meant.
"You think that you shouldn't be the only one happy?" Hiroko sadly smiled, Moe's shoulder slumping as Akemi nodded at what Hiroko said.
Akemi tilted her head, a small smile of her own. "Family first, right?"
Moe shook her head with a worried frown. "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb... you told me that,"
Akemi was silent. 'I did, didn't I?'
Moe and Hiroko pouted, crossing their arms and turning away from Akemi. "Can't you at least confess your feelings or something? We rarely get to see you so worked up and you're not gonna do anything about it!" The girls muttered under their breath, while Akemi worriedly stared at them as they sounded like muttering a curse.
End Of Flashback]
"That's why you were so temperamental earlier, weren't you?" Akemi whispered to herself as she watched a few ducks swimming by the pond. "How cute..."