Once I got home, I was surprised to find Kyoko waiting there for me.
Luckily I had separated from Veronica and Yasmin before coming home, or else they would have bumped into each other and caused a large mess.
That was the benefit of getting Yasmin as a partner, she helped me in situations like this.
In truth, Veronica had wanted to follow me home with the excuse of making sure that I was safe, but Yasmin whispered something to her and she immediately stopped.
It seemed that Yasmin really did understand Veronica well since she was able to control her like this.
But the fact that Kyoko was here wasn't a simple thing…
After seeing her, I stood out of sight for a bit, trying to figure out what she wanted.
But she just stood there without doing anything, as if she was patiently waiting for me.
Seeing her like this, I just couldn't let her keep standing there. It was getting quite cold at nights now, so I couldn't just leave her there, even if she was a powerful onmyoji that shouldn't have been bothered by the cold.
It was the principle of the matter.
When I walked over, she immediately noticed me.
In fact, she had even been looking in the direction that I had been coming from before I had arrived.
It was just that I had caught sight of her from around the corner before she could catch sight of me. Otherwise, she definitely would have seen me before I could see her.
Still, it was strange that she was looking in this direction even though I hadn't arrived yet. It was as if she already knew that I would be coming from this direction…as if she had a general idea of where I was…
That tracking talisman!
It had to be the tracking talisman!
I thought that it had been taken off, but it seemed like she had put another one on me before I even knew what happened.
Though even if I wanted to resist, it wasn't as if I would have been able to stop her from putting the talisman on me. I wouldn't even be able to get rid of it if it wasn't for Yan Ling getting rid of it for me.
Maybe Yasmin could do something about it?
That was for later.
For now, I should go and see what Kyoko was up to.
As soon as I turned the corner, Kyoko immediately noticed me and started walking over.
As we came closer, I waved at her and asked with a smile on my face, "Hey, what are you doing here?"
Kyoko didn't answer as she calmly came over before saying, "My parents wanted to invite you over for dinner since it's been a long time since you've come over."
I couldn't help being surprised since I didn't expect this to be the reason that she came over. I had really thought that it would be something much worse, but this was something that I could accept.
Since we were childhood friends and our parents were also friends, it was normal for her parents to care about me.
Especially since my parents were usually overseas for work.
In the past, they used to invite me over almost every week.
It was just that as I got older and became more independent, I felt awkward going over every week since I felt like I was mooching off them.
They respected this and pulled back, only checking on me once in a while.
Thinking about it, it really had been a long time since I've gone over to Kyoko's house.
No, there was the time that I had appeared out of the portal and met her dad again, but that shouldn't count as visiting her house…
Since she was inviting me, I had no reason to decline.
With her parents there, it would be impossible for her to do anything.
It was better than her suggesting that we go to my place and she'd make me dinner.
I've seen her cooking…I would rather not die today.
Though the real danger would be what she might try to do after dinner…
Since I agreed, the two of us headed off to her house.
To say it wasn't awkward would have been a lie.
There were things that we could talk about before, but Kyoko was acting strange because of what happened over the weekend. I could see the blush on her face and how she peeked at me from time to time.
But…I avoided it all.
I made sure to put some distance physically between us so that nothing could happen even though I did try to talk to her.
It was a good thing that she didn't live that far away, so it didn't take long for us to arrive at her house.
Though we arrived at the temple, we didn't go in.
Instead, we went to the house beside it where she and her parents lived.
When we arrived, we met her mom who was just coming out of the kitchen to get something.
Her mom waved at the two of us to come in before saying, "Lin Fan, it's been too long since you've come over for dinner. Come let me see how you look. You've gotten thinner, have you been taking care of yourself?"
I couldn't help revealing a warm smile before saying, "I'm fine, I've just been working out a bit more, so maybe that's why I look thin."
Kyoko's mom shook her head and said, "Still, you shouldn't let yourself get too thin. It's not good to starve yourself."
She pushed the two of us to the living room where Kyoko's dad and brother were sitting. Both of them were still in their formal dress from working in the temple during the day.
When her brother saw me, he came over to greet me as well before leaning in to whisper with a somewhat naughty smile, "Did you see the new issue?"
I said with a nod, "I bought it just yesterday."
Kyoko's brother gave a nod before giving me a look like he was telling me to talk to him later about this.
After a while, the dishes were brought out and we all sat down at the table to eat.
However, before we could start eating, Kyoko's father who had been silent the whole time finally spoke.
"So you know everything now. Can you tell me that you will protect her?"
There was only an awkward silence that followed.