Erina was a little shocked when her cousin came out to greet her on the garden patio. They hadn't seen each other since that very awkward night of Ryo Kurokiba's birthday party. Erina had been worried ever since but decided to pay a visit only once she knew Alice was up and running.

She noticed immediately that Alice had cut her hair.

The pale waist-length locks she'd spent years growing were gone and replaced with the crisp chin-length cut. The same cut she donned when they were teens. People always remarked on how Alice had stayed basically the same since Totsuki–how they both did–with Erina being a mature teenager and Alice a childlike adult.

"You look good," Erina remarked. She really did, considering.

"I know~" Alice grinned, running a hand through her hair. "Long hair was becoming kind of a drag so I felt like it was time for a change."

It wasn't hard to guess the reason why. Annoying quirks aside, her cousin was a pretty normal girl sometimes and she did what lots of normal girls do. Although she might not know it, Alice was going through a breakup.

"I saw your name in two magazines this week. Can't say I'm surprised but, congrats."

"Hmph. Soon they'll see they'd been barking up the wrong Nakiri!"

"Please don't disrespect our family name like this…"

"You're no fun…" Alice crossed her arms and puffed out her chest

"Speaking of no fun, I talked to Hayama yesterday."

"Oh? Didn't know you were so close with the spice freak."

"He works at the academy I run. Naturally we're bound to cross paths from time to time. Anyway—he says the new Nakiri International research center's already making a huge splash. Everyone's dying to read their published research."

"Great…" Alice muttered.

"A few other Totsuki alums were sent there too. They all say Kurokiba's doing a fantastic job heading the team."

Erina saw her cousin shutter visibly at the sound of that name.

"Is he?" She tried to shrug it off lightly. "It's not my department."

"Alice…"

"What? I'm happy for him. My former assistant is making a name for himself, that's good news."

"You don't look very happy about it."

"Am I supposed to be thrilled?"

"Of course not… just thought you should know."

Erina couldn't bring herself to press it any further seeing the obviously uneasy look on her cousin's face. She cleared her throat and tried to think of a new topic.

"Is the apartment furnished?" Alice said suddenly.

"Huh?"

Erina wasn't sure she heard right. When did the topic change to interior décor?

"Did Hayama say if they set him up in a furnished apartment? I know mom treats our researchers well but sometimes they get put into unfurnished places and have to fix it up themselves. Knowing him, he'd never bother with that…"

Erina was taken aback. Clearly Alice had thought a lot about this.

"I'm afraid we didn't go into that much detail, but I'll ask him next time," Erina suggested gently.

"No that's ok! I was just wondering," Alice laughed weakly.

Erina sighed and gave her cousin a maternal look.

"You know, you're allowed to miss him. He was your best friend."

"Hmph. Don't be ridiculous-"

"Fine. Just think about it. Whenever anything good or bad happens, who's the first person you want to tell? And whenever there's some new place you want to go, who do you want to take you there?"

Alice became quiet.

"See? We all know how close you two were. You've been together since you were kids, so it's normal to be upset that he's moving on…"

Alice was still sitting there, staring into space.

"…but holding a grudge and pretending everything's ok is not a mature way of dealing with your feelings so you––-"

"We had sex."

"…"

Now it was Erina's turn to be speechless.

"I slept with him the night before he left."

"How did it happen…" Erina mustered the courage to ask.

"I don't know, I was drunk."

Erina's eyes widened.

"Alice, he didn't…"

"No of course not! I mean, I wasn't that drunk. And I was the one who wanted it," Alice said with her head down. "I couldn't help it."

Erina's heart was practically pounding out of her chest. This was all too much information to process at once.

"So…then what happened," she gulped.

"Nothing, he left."

"That's it?"

Alice nodded.

"We haven't talked since."

Erina blinked.

"What the fuck," she spat, dropping her usual primness in her moment of shock. "You guys didn't talk about it at all?"

"I guess he didn't think there was anything to talk about. Whatever, it's not a big deal."

Alice's voice was getting quieter. Erina could hear it on the brink of cracking.

"It is a big deal! It's your first time, isn't it? How could he leave you hanging like that?"

She couldn't believe he would do something like that. As careless as he looked, Ryo Kurokiba would be the last person to hurt Alice like that. There must be some misunderstanding.

"Alice," Erina turned to her cousin. "I know you wanna act like it's no big deal, but I really think you should talk to him. Just tell him you're mad. He might have his reason for disappearing like this."

"But that's the thing though," Alice looked up at last, there were tears in her eyes.

"I'm not mad."

She blinked softly and big teardrops rolled down her face. She brushed them off and stared down at the warm shiny droplets lingering on her fingertips.

This was the first time she'd talked about Ryo, or even said his name, in months. No one brought it up with her, and she never asked. She thought after the time she spent keeping herself distracted that she was over what happened. But as soon as she heard his name, all the memories had come flooding back. She couldn't help it if she tried.

"I'm not mad," she said again, her voice breaking. "I know I should be but I'm not. It was what I wanted. I just wanted to make him mine once before he was gone. That's all I was thinking. If he wants to move on from me and live the life he wants, he should. I don't want to be a nuisance for him anymore. I just want him to be happy."

Alice didn't even notice that tears had started streaming down her cheeks until she heard the droplets landing onto her lap and the bench beneath her.

"Alice…" Erina reached over and squeezed her shaking hands. "You dumb bitch."

Huh?

Alice's crying stopped. Did she really just hear that come from the God's Tongue?

"You always think you know what's best for everyone, but you don't even understand how Kurokiba feels, do you?"

"The stew that night. Do you remember it?" Erina prodded.

"Of course."

It was so delicate, but powerful…and free.

"It's freedom he wants, isn't it?"

Freedom –there was that word again.

While listening to Alice's confession, Erina realized that those two really were perfect for each other. She remembered that cream stew Kurokiba had made at Alice's party, that taste she couldn't get out of her head. She never fully understood it until now.

"You're right," Erina smirked. "He wants freedom, but not for him, for you."

Alice stared blankly as she went on.

"Just like you, Kurokiba doesn't want to hold you back anymore. And this was his dumb way of making sure he could never have you."

What was she talking about?

"Can't you see? Kurokiba's only doing this–and all the stupid shit he's ever done for you–because he loves you. He wanted to do what's good for you, even if it meant hurting you."

Alice blinked. Erina's face drifted slowly out of focus as her head spun faster and faster.

"You know butting into people's love lives...And its' not like you have to listen to me or anything..." Erina blushed, "but I'm only doing what I know you'd do for me."

Alice felt her eyes swelling up with tears once more.

All that time she spent quietly perfecting her cuisine and hoping one day she'd step out of Erina's shadow... She never realized how much her cousin actually cared about her. How much love she'd taken for granted. Especially...

She felt like kicking herself.

How could she have been so stupid?

All those years, when everyone was only looking at Erina, he only looked at her. He stood by her quietly, knew her every whim, and gave into every one of her endless unreasonable requests. Yet she was too dumb and arrogant to realize how much he'd meant to her, and how much she'd loved him. He'd become such a natural part of her life that she couldn't imagine what things would be like without him. But she knew that now.

It was true she could get along just fine without him. She could be just as smart, just as functional, and accomplish as much–––but something would always been missing. Without Ryo Kurokiba next to her, supporting her, pushing her, none of those things mattered as much or gave her the same sense of joy and accomplishment that they used to when he was around.

The tears she'd been holding back streamed down her face all at once. She looked up helplessly.

"How could I've been so stupid... It's too late..."

"Hmm..." Erina crossed her arms. "Maybe, but we don't know that yet. Do we?"

"Huh?" Alice sniffled.

"The Alice I know never takes no for an answer. Am I wrong?"

Alice broke into a soft chuckle and shook her head.

"So, it seems like you've made up your mind. The question now is–what are you gonna do about it?"

Erina was right. If all those years of daily shokugekis taught her anything, it was that she could never go down without a proper fight.

Alice looked up at her cousin with blood-red eyes gleaming with a familiar determination.

"Tell grandpa I'm taking the jet," she smirked.

"I have some unfinished business to take care of."