"It's late, darling. Sebastian can take you home. You don't have to stay," Auntie said softly, and gently patted his hand.

"Nah, my mom's not going to care if I'm out late," Kyohei awkwardly let the older Nakahara hold his hand. The strong, confident woman he had met that night had dissolved into a terrified, sobbing mess. Ms. Nakahara gnawed on a frilly white hankie, watery eyes on the entrance of the emergency room.

After the explosive nosebleed Sunako had dealt, Auntie had something of a hissy fit and a nervous breakdown all wrapped into one. The hotel staff had carried Sunako's unconscious body to the hotel's emergency room and that was the end of that.

Or so he thought.

Kyohei should have been home at that hour, but he felt strangely inclined to stick around to see if Nakahara was okay. And despite Auntie's words, she wasn't relinquishing her grip on his hand.

Women and their mixed signals.

"Ms. Nakahara?" A male nurse in scrubs called. She immediately shot up and out of her chair, jolting Kyohei up with her. He was beginning to feel like he was in a medical drama, like the ones his mother watched. Ooh, ooh! And maybe Nakahara had a spontaneous case of amnesia to boot.

The nurse led them into the room. Nakahara's pale arm nursed an IV needle as she lay there on the reclined bed, looking a little paler than usual. Up till then, he had no idea that was possible.

"She's okay, isn't she?" Auntie asked shakily, putting a hand over Sunako's.

The nurse nodded. "I'll send in the doctor," With that, he disappeared, though not without eyeballing Kyohei. Damn you, Nakahara. He clenched his fist into the dress and fought off a scowl.

A middle-aged woman with a black bob entered the room. She bowed and addressed Auntie.

"I am Doctor Ueno," She eyed Kyohei oddly. "Your relation?"

"Friend,"

Doctor Ueno nodded. "Sunako has a mild case of hemophilia. Ms. Nakahara, are you aware of this?"

She blinked tears out of her eyes and frowned. "Hemophilia?"

"It's very rare in females. Hemophilia is a type of disorder that prevents blood from clotting. Sunako has a low number of platelets, which are the blood cells that help clot blood. Say somebody without hemophilia cuts him or herself - the blood would clot to stop the bleeding. However, somebody with hemophilia could possibly bleed to death from the same cut,"

Auntie gasped and threw her hands to her mouth.

Dr. Ueno continued. "A symptom of hemophilia is nose-bleeding without reason," She flipped through Sunako's medical files. "There are no records of spontaneous nose-bleeding or any other signs. Sunako must be a very careful girl if she's never shown any outward symptoms," Then the woman's brows puckered. "What's strange is that there was a large dose of blood thinner in her body. It's what triggered her nosebleed. Hemophiliacs are strongly advised against using blood thinners,"

"But Sunako...w-we don't have any blood thinners," Auntie breathed.

Dr. Ueno scrunched her face and closed her file. "Did she take any aspirin?"

"No. She didn't say anything about being in pain,"

"I say that guy who bought her a drink at the restaurant spiked it," Kyohei crossed his arms.

Auntie stared at him with a strained expression. "But why?"

"I dunno. But the minute after she drank that stuff, she started hemorrhaging,"

The doctor pursed her lips, nodding at Kyohei. She then turned to Auntie and admonished, "It's generally not a good idea to accept anything from strangers,"

Dr. Ueno continued with her explanation. "The blood thinner will be out of her bloodstream by tomorrow. Until then, it would be best not to move her around too much. We can't risk anything right now,"

Auntie agreed readily. "I'll watch over her for the night,"

"For all the trouble, the hotel is offering you a free room and service for tonight and tomorrow," Dr. Ueno said gently. "You two should rest. Sunako will be fine,"

Auntie stubbornly, but politely refused.

"Suit yourself," Dr. Ueno shrugged. She turned to Kyohei. The boy was watching Sunako's nose twitch in her sleep. "You need sleep. You're still growing,"

He rubbed his eyes and peered at the doctor from the corner of his eye. "Free room service?"

After enough fried shrimp to replace all of his blood with lumps of cholesterol, Kyohei stretched on the king-sized hotel bed. His back immediately fell in love with the soft but firm mattress. And oh, the support...

Kyohei wanted to take a shower, but he couldn't risk washing off the make-up or messing his dress. He grumbled. The things he did for that girl and he only knew her for a damn week.

But even though the mattress was heavenly and the food made his tummy heavy with fatigue, he wasn't all that sleepy. Kyohei found himself ambling down to the hospital ward of the Mori Hotel.

He saw Auntie's silhouette. Sunako wasn't all hooked up with wires, so there wasn't much light, save for the lights outside thieving in. Auntie spotted him and managed a weak smile. The silence was awkward until Auntie broke it.

"You must think I'm a bad guardian,"

It did cross his mind from time to time. Though he had learned that with females, being honest was always a bad thing. It often led to a life of physical abuse.

So he said nothing.

"I know I'm pushy and bossy and all that," Auntie sat up straighter and brushed a curl behind her ear. Kyohei grabbed a chair and pulled it up besides hers. Sunako's feet moved under the bundle of blue blankets. "I want Sunako to have friends and a boyfriend. I want her to enjoy her youth, you know? A normal schoolgirl's life is what I want for her,"

For the first time, Kyohei saw Auntie's age. Her brows pinched together and he saw frown lines. Her violet eyes aged dramatically. "A normal life, the kind I never had as a youth," She looked at him, her eyes studying his face. They were both silent, Kyohei feeling uncomfortable and Auntie contemplative.

"You know, your face resembles someone," Auntie stared at him directly, with a sad expression. Her voice was soft as she said, "I suppose I didn't actually know her, but she was always there,"

Huh?

She looked away quickly and laughed. "Ah, what am I saying after all this time?" Auntie looked up and blinked rapidly. Kyohei realized she was blinking away tears and felt his discomfort increase.

"Ah, this is nothing. Why am I crying like this? It's been eight years since I've been Sunako's guardian and I've been a bad one for eight years," She rubbed her eyes. "Maybe, because the circumstances in which my darling Sunako came to me were not ideal and maybe I was still so hurt and ovewhelmed then that I couldn't bring myself to be as good to her as I could. And honestly," Auntie's voice broke. "Honestly, I don't know if I ever can get over what had happened or be good to her,"

Kyohei's eyes narrowed to slits. Eight years ago...he knew exactly what had happened then. That was why he was here.

"I'm sorry for saying strange things, Kyoko," Auntie patted his hands and smiled weakly. "I'm feeling very emotional right now. Seeing my loved ones getting hurt because of me always does,"

Kyohei had no words of comfort for the older woman, so he nodded and said that Sunako would be okay.

After that, Auntie excused herself to her room to rest.

The teenager glanced over at Sunako's flickering eyelashes.

"I know you're awake,"

She opened her eyes and grinned at him. "You're a lot smarter than you look. Like, a lot,"

"Shut up," He flicked her nose. "How much did you overhear?"

"Auntie was saying she was feeling emotional. You're really bad at comforting. Like, really bad,"

He flicked her again and sat back in his chair. "Any ideas why you got your drink spiked?"

"Nope. Don't know the guy. How about you?"

Kyohei looked into her eyes for a moment, then looked away and said cryptically, "I have my ideas. You ought to be more careful, Nakahara. Rich folk like you always have enemies,"

"Whatever. If I see that punk again, I'm going to beat him up," Sunako declared.

He smiled faintly at her. "Get some rest, Nakahara,"

"I'm not sleepy," She rolled onto her stomach and reached for the phone on the nightstand. Sunako handed it to him.

"You know what I want right now?" She flashed him a toothy grin. "Room service. Chocolate pudding. You know what to do."

Kyohei rolled his eyes.

Time skip to Sunday!

"That's a lot of shrimp for a little lady like you," The shop owner chortled.

Sunako shot him down with a flat look.

"...that's 800 yen, please,"

She grabbed the shrimp and stalked out after paying. It was starting to get dark, but Sunako only had one more store she needed to visit. She pumped her fists. Yes, she was so going to drive a hard bargain for a pound of tofu, yes ma'am, she was.

The store was out of the marketplace. She had heard a gaggle of pregnant women gossiping about the store, so Sunako decided she would check it out. It was a little out the ways, but Sunako was fearless. She had ovaries of iron - no, no, platinum. Indestructible womanly parts were what Sunako Nakahara had.

Thugs be damned! They couldn't touch her. No way, not her. She would twist their balls and break their windpipes and smack them.

Yeah. That was so her.

She roamed the streets at night because she had the physical means and the fabulous reproductive organs to do so.

Sunako puffed her chest and swaggered over to the store.

Fried tofu? No, I can fry it myself. Less expensive. Wait - I'm filthy fucking rich...but I'm such a cheap-ass...

"Sunako?"

Her dark head snapped up at the voice addressing her.

"Oh. Hi, Yuki,"

The blonde boy smiled sweetly at her. He nodded to her hand. "Grocery shopping?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Same," He cleared his voice. "I saw what happened at the restaurant yesterday. Are you okay now?"

"Hm?" She "hm"ed distractedly while she inspected the price tag. That wasn't a nine she was seeing, was it? Or was it a zero? "Oh, I'm fine. Thank you for asking,"

"No problem, I'm glad you're okay. That was really scary. A lot of people thought the end was coming and then you face-planted on the table really hard," Ah, so that's why her face hurt. "Then your aunt freaked out and your friend looked angry,"

Her ears prickled. Kyohei? What would he be so pissed about? Blood on his food, she suspected.

"I hope you don't hemorrhage while we're on our, um, date," He peered at her hesitantly with his brows pinned together. "You do remember that we're going out on Friday, right?"

Sunako looked at him blankly. "Yeah, I remember,"

"I was going to call your house to talk about the details, but now that we're here, we can talk now," Yuki smiled. "How about after school? I'll pick you up at five,"

"Where are we going?"

"Where would you like to go?"

Video store. Underground fight club. Cemetery.

"Uh..."

"Movies?"

Sunako winced at his gorgeously cute face in hers and then she imagined his face after watching an illegal German slasher film.

No, she couldn't do it. Not to Yuki, at least.

"Where do you want to go?" She asked in a pained voice.

Yuki tugged at the plastic shopping bags in his hand. "Um, well, I like animals so-"

"We can go to the zoo," Just get out of my face, please!

Yuki perked visibly. For the first time, he graced her with a genuine smile that knocked the air right out of her lungs. Holy Buddha, this kid was so cute...

"I'd like that," His eyes were sparkling at her. Was that a nosebleed coming on? Luckily, Yuki turned and waved over his shoulder. "I'll be seeing you then. Bye Sunako!"

"B-Bye," She mumbled. Her hand went to her pocket to fish out her hankie. Blood dribbled out. Sunako pity-tripped for the tofu (half-off!) by moaning about hemophilia and its miseries. There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Sunako walked home and reflected on her weekend. She went out to dinner with the most beautiful specimen of man and her aunt, unsuspectingly drank blood thinner, abused room service, bought cheap tofu and shrimp for the bentos she had to make for herself and said beautiful specimen of man, and was going to the zoo with the cutest specimen of...man?

Whatever.

Sunako had illegal German slasher films to watch.