Chapter 3: Surprise Encounter
He opens the door in nothing but a towel, stares at Kougyoku and says, "What do you want?"
Kougyoku stares at him and his chest. He notices her gaze, and he grins, "Like what you see, hag?"
Kougyoku blushes as she averts her eyes and says, "I came to give you this. Thank you for helping me with my box and sorry for being snappy earlier."
He pulls her into his apartment, grabs the bag and peeks into the bag, and is about to say something, but Kougyoku squeaks still looking away, "I'm going to go now, but y-y-you should get dressed. "
Putting down the bag, he steps closer to Kougyoku and asks, "Is the hag uncomfortable?" Lifting up her chin to face him, resting his arms on her shoulders, leans in and whispers in her ear and said, "Or are you thinking dirty things"
"N-no, no, you pervert," stuttering, turning crimson, and finally breaking free from him.
He laughs, pats her head and says "I guess, you do have a cute side."
Taking her chance to escape, Kougyoku makes her way towards the door, but as she is about to leave, he grabs her hand and says, "Thanks for the peaches, Kougyoku."
Recollecting herself, she asks him, "Wait, how do you know my name?"
"It was on one of your boxes," he responds.
She tries to ask for his name, but he quickly shuts the door.
"Hey, wait! I wasn't done talking to you! What's your name?"
One of the senior neighbors peeks out from her apartment unit. Kougyoku sees her staring at her and realizing she was being loud in the hallway, hurries into her apartment.
Closing the door, slapping her cheeks a bit. It's been awhile since anyone has taken my breath away like that. Ahh, I can't think about that! She thought. "Ah, I need to make dinner!"
Looking around her apartment, Kougyoku thinks to herself, I'm so glad Koumi and Kouha brought the heavier items over. A couple more boxes, and then I'm done with unpacking.
-Knock knock -
Is someone knocking? It can't be him right? Kougyoku turning red thinking of the events today.
Kougyoku peeks her head out from the kitchen, and hears someone continue to knock. Reaching her door, she opens it slightly to see who it is.
"Hey Kougyoku, just wanted to check-in on you!"
"Kouha!" she says with excitement and opens the door to let him in. "Ek! I thought you were someone else!" As he walks in, she tackles him and gives him a hug. "It's been such a long day! Come in. I just finished making dinner. Are you hungry?" she asks.
"Sure, I can eat." Kouha looks around the apartment, and then tells Kouyoku "I'll help you unpack some more after we're done eating dinner. And then, we can go outside on your balcony to have some drinks!" Kouha says grinning as he holds up a wine bottle. "Let's chill this for now."
"I completely forgot there was a balcony! I've been so focused on unpacking and getting everything together."
During dinner, Kouyoku tells Kouha about her day, but leaves out the story about her incident with the guy next door.
With Kouha's help, all the boxes were unpacked. "Thank you so much, Kouha! This would have taken me the entire week to finish"
Kouha replies, "How about we celebrate with wine? Go out to the balcony first, and I'll be out shortly. It's hot. I'm going to wash my face first. "
"You're the best brother ever. Don't let Kouen and Koumi know." Kougyoku said giggling.
Kougyoku makes her way outside to the balcony and notices the guy next door is also outside reading.
She stares at him for a while before saying anything, since he looks so focused on his book.
Before she was able to ask him for his name, he notices her and says, "Stop staring. It's distracting, or did you want to pick up from earlier today?" while flipping another page.
Blushing and pouting, Kougyoku says, "I didn't want to disturb you since you were reading! Also, you're so rude! I was trying to ask you for your name earlier, but you closed the door on me!"
He ignores her and Kougyoku asks, "What are you reading?"
"God, can't you leave me alone for a bit? Do you really want my attention that bad?" He says as he closes his book shut and gets up to stand facing her. As he reaches out to pinch her cheek, Kouha comes out, not noticing what was happening and says, "Kougyoku, sorry for taking a while!" Setting the wine and glasses down before hugging Kougyoku around the waist.
Judal retracts his hand and mutters to himself, "You're just like other girls."
Kougyoku noticed he said something, but she didn't catch what he said and asks "Did you say something?"
He stares at her and at Kouha and says with venom dripping in his voice, "The name is Judal, hag."
Before either of the siblings could respond, Judal had left and went back into his apartment.
Looking at Kougyoku, and seeing her make upset face, Kouha asks, "What was his problem anyways? Do you know him? "
Shaking her head, she looks at him and says "No, I didn't get his name until now."
"Hm, maybe he's having a bad day. Anyways, let's celebrate! You're all moved in!" says Kouha as he pours some wine into each of their glasses.
"You're right, cheers to having my own place!" but before they clanked glasses, Kougyoku looked at Kouha and asked, "You're going to visit me often right?"
I'm starting to miss living away from you and everyone else.
"Of course! I wouldn't have let you move otherwise. "
Laughing, "I know, I know." responds Kougyoku.
Soon after, Kouha says goodnight and tells Kougyoku he'll see her later. Kougyoku hugs her brother goodbye and looks around the apartment grinning widely. I'm so glad everything is done! I'm exhausted time for me to go take a shower and wind down for tonight.
Judal's POV:
As Judal goes back into his apartment trying to continue reading his book, but he feels so irritated. He doesn't know why. All he wanted to do was tease her, since her reactions were so cute. Did I just think that she was cute?
Judal scowls. Women are all the same. He puts his book down and moves from the living room to his bedroom attempting to go to bed. Letting his thoughts drift for a bit, he falls into slumber.
"Hey, stop teasing me! I'm not an old hag!" "Old hag, old hag, old hag" says the boy. The girl pouts and starts hitting him. Laughing for a bit, the boy starts to notice her forming tears at the corners of her eyes about to cry. "Hey, stop crying" says the boy. The boy feels bad for teasing her and embraces her. The girl slowly stops sniffing, and says, "Why are you such a jerk sometimes?" He responds, "I know, but you know I only tease you." She looks up at him, and he cups her cheeks and whispers in her ear, "Only you." Inching closer about to kiss …
Judal abruptly wakes up. That guy in the dream seems like me. Was that the past? But who is that girl? Her face wasn't clear, but she was dressed all in royal garments. Her voice sounds like...but before he finishes that thought he groans: It can't be her. I just met her. Ignoring the dream, he pulls up his sheets and tries to go back to sleep.
It'll get more interesting, I promise! I've been settling in my with my new job, but more updates soon!
~xpandachuy
