Torn

Chapter Six: Friendly Conversation

Kaoru longingly eyed the luscious slice of cheesecake that sat on her plate. The creamy layer was covered in a generous portion of succulent strawberries. Wasting no time, she picked up her fork and began to eat happily.

The enigmatic man across from her raised an eyebrow. It was amusing how something as simple as dessert could make this girl so content.

Her fork stopped midway in the air, her gaze fixated on Enishi. "What?"

He caught himself staring at her, and he brushed her question off. "Nothing."

Looking down at his cup of coffee, Kaoru made a frown. "Aren't you going to order any dessert?"

"I'm fine," he asserted. "I don't care to eat anything else."

"But it's so good," she replied with a tenacity that could match his own. "It wouldn't kill you to consume anything other than coffee, would it?"

"I don't want anything else," he repeated.

Not satisfied with his answer, Kaoru separated a piece of the rich cheesecake with her fork and held it out to Enishi. "Have a bite."

Enishi ignored her and drank some of his coffee.

Letting out an exasperated sigh, she moved the fork closer to his face. "Eat it."

He shook his head resolutely. "I don't want to."

"Come on!" she impatiently exclaimed. "You'll really like it."

"I doubt that."

"How do you know that if you haven't tried it?"

"Do you have a problem comprehending what 'no' means?"

"Yes," Kaoru answered cutely. "Now eat."

He didn't answer and quietly drank his coffee.

"You're so unreasonable!" she told him. "All I want you to do is try something and you act like a stubborn little kid!"

Enishi crossed his arms. "You're the one acting stubborn—"

As soon as he spoke those words, Kaoru shoved the cheesecake-laden fork into his mouth. He could do nothing as he felt the cream cheese and graham cracker crust sliding off of the metal prongs and onto his tongue. The sugary taste of the dessert completely overwhelmed his taste buds, with thanks to Kaoru, who was smirking in her seat.

"See? It's not that bad." She said, and took another bite of the dessert.

Enishi chewed slowly, contemplating the girl who sat before him. For someone that he didn't know very well, she wasn't hesitant in forcing her will on him. Or feeding him, for that matter.

She was just full of surprises.

Washing down the cheesecake with a swig of strong coffee, Enishi cringed at the aftertaste that was left in his mouth.

"Oh, come on! It didn't taste that bad, did it?"

He glared at her, pushing his glasses further along the bridge of his nose. "The taste wasn't the problem. It was the manner in which you fed me it."

Blue eyes playfully glistened. "You're like my little cousin."

Enishi watched her as she placed her fork on her now empty plate.

"You're both the biggest brats I know."

Caught off guard by her statement, Enishi nonetheless found himself grinning. Kaoru was indeed a refreshing change; her openness to him was something that he couldn't find in the women he knew from his past.

At the remembrance of the spiky hair and the auburn eyes, Enishi was curious over the fact that the child had lived with Kaoru. Didn't she say that he was her cousin?

"That boy you dropped of at the school..." he caught her attention. "He is your cousin?"

Kaoru nodded, wondering why Enishi wanted to know about Yahiko.

"Why is it that he lives with you? Shouldn't he be living with your aunt and uncle?"

A shadow flitted across her lovely face, but it passed quickly. Propping her elbows on the table and resting her chin on the palms of her dainty hands, Kaoru sighed. "He would. If either of them was living."

The melancholy swirling in her sapphire pools and the nostalgic tone of her usually cheerful voice made Enishi regret that he had even asked. Seeing the remorse on his handsome features, Kaoru smiled reassuringly.

"It's okay, you didn't know," she said.

"...what happened to them?" Enishi was shocked at his question. Normally, he wouldn't have cared had it been anyone else that was sitting across from him.

But the pain that she tried to mask with her vibrant smile...he could sense it. He couldn't explain it, but Enishi wanted to know what had happened that had affected this girl so deeply.

"It happened four years ago," Kaoru began, her fingers playing with the fork on her plate. "Yahiko was six years old, and I was starting my first year in high school. One night, Uncle had to work late at his office and called his wife to tell her that he wouldn't be home for dinner."

Comprehension dawned upon him as she continued. "He never came home. He was shot and robbed in an alley, but no one knew at the time. The next morning, Auntie called the police station. They called back later and said that someone had found Uncle and he was taken to the hospital.

"When we heard about it, my brother and I drove to the hospital Uncle was staying at. Yahiko and Auntie were already there, waiting outside of the operating room."

Kaoru's fingers stopped playing with the fork, allowing her hand to brush away the bangs from her eyes. "I remember her holding Yahiko in her arms, saying that it would be all right even if she didn't know that for sure. A few hours later, the doctor came out and told us that Uncle was dead."

Memories flooded into her of a heartbroken woman wailing in the waiting room as her bewildered child could only watch. "Auntie went into hysterics. After the funeral, she began to stay in her room. She would just lay in bed without moving, leaving my cousin to look after her as best as he could. It got so bad that my brother and I had to take care of Yahiko ourselves.

"Auntie wasn't eating or sleeping, so we had to take her to the hospital. When a week had passed, she had died, too."

Enishi was speechless. He would have never known that the disobedient young boy in Kaoru's care had gone through so much, or what the girl had to suffer after seeing her aunt breakdown from the sudden death of her uncle.

"After that, we took in Yahiko. Since my brother was twenty-one, he was able to become our cousin's legal guardian. And Yahiko has been living with us ever since."

He didn't know what so say...what COULD he possibly say? Like Kaoru's cousin, he too had suffered the loss of someone dear to him. Like this 'Yahiko', he was forced to endure the unbearable pain of never being able to he held in the arms of a loved one.

...however, unlike him, Kaoru's cousin had lost TWO people he loved, and at six years old. Not that it belittled Enishi's loss, it was just that by looking at the boy, he would've never guessed that he had lost his parents at so young an age. It took so many years for Enishi's emotional scars to heal. Even now, there was not a night that his sister's death didn't fill him with grief.

But Yahiko...at first glance, he looked like a normal ten-year-old boy. How is it that the death of his parents did not seem to affect him? Why wasn't the boy plummeting into his own personal hell as Enishi had done when his sister had died?

What did the brat possibly have that could ease his suffering and allowed him to live his life peacefully, whereas every day that Enishi endured was torture?

"You're doing it again!"

Enishi was reeled from his thoughts by the familiar, vivacious voice. "Doing what?"

"Phasing out," Kaoru said. "Like you did last night."

His hand ran through the feathery white locks of his hair. "I apologize."

Kaoru stared at him in concern. "Are you all right?"

He curtly nodded. "Yes, I'm fine—"

"No, you're not," she insisted, a stern tone in her words. "You shouldn't lie, you know?"

Turquoise met sapphire as Enishi felt her eyes on him.

"And what authority do you have to accuse me of lying?" he said, offended.

"It has nothing to do with authority," Kaoru said bluntly. "I'm only saying what's true."

"What makes you think that you know my feelings better than myself, Miss Kamiya?"

"By the way you look."

He dropped his act of cruelty and sat back stunned. Kaoru didn't take any notice, though. She only leaned closer so that he was the only one that could hear her words.

"You look so sad, Enishi. And when you do, you lie about it like you did in the restaurant."

She gave him a meaningful look that expressed curiosity mixed with worry.

"You don't have to lie. I'd like it if you were honest with me instead."

...honest...she wanted him to be honest?

"Besides, you know more about me than I'm comfortable with," she teased, her appearance lighting up with an amiable smile. "It's only fair that I get to know a little more about you, don't you think?"

A moment of silence, and then an amused chuckle. "I'm not so sure about that. I never liked making negotiations. Especially with women."

"Mou!" Kaoru huffed. "You're such a jerk!"

He smirked arrogantly. "You said that you wanted me to be honest," he goaded her.

Kaoru sulked angrily and looked away from him, refusing to make eye contact. "I still think you're mean."

The roguish glint in his eyes softened at the humorous sight. He found her temper to be quite adorable, as strange as that sounded.

Kaoru glanced at her watch and realized that her break was almost over. She stood up from the table, taking out a few bills from her purse.

As she did, Enishi was disappointed knowing that she had to leave.

"This should cover the tip," she said, placing the yen next to her empty plate.

"That's not necessary—"

She wouldn't listen. "You hardly had anything besides that sandwich and some coffee. I had dessert, too. Remember?"

How could he not? She practically crammed a piece of her accursed cheesecake down his throat.

"If you're paying, the least I can do is leave the tip." She concluded and then walked to the exit.

Enishi was still coming to terms with the defeat that Kaoru had just handed him. He wanted to take the yen on the table and shove it into her purse, but doing that would probably earn him another argument.

He gave up and paid for their meal at the cash register. Afterwards, he joined Kaoru and they both left the café.

They stepped into the bustling city, people rushing past them in endless, disorganized lines.

"If it isn't any trouble," Enishi spoke, "I'd like to do this again."

Kaoru blushed a bit, but agreed. "Sure. I don't mind."

A ringing sounded from Enishi's pocket, and he muttered a curse under his breath. "Excuse me for a minute."

She nodded, walking beside him as they approached her car.

He flipped up the moveable cover of the cell phone and brought the receiver to his ear. "What is it, Heishin?"

Kaoru stopped at her car door, waiting patiently to say good-bye to Enishi.

She saw the creasing of white brows and the agitation that sparked in his turquoise eyes. "When...this week?"

Enishi's eyes caught hers during the conversation, a slight frown on his face. She looked away hurriedly, feeling as if she was intruding on his privacy.

"Are you certain?" An irritated sigh and another curse. "Fine, I'll be on the plane tonight."

He shut off the phone and snapped the cover shut, stowing it away into the pocket of his jacket. "I'm sorry, Miss Kamiya."

Once she knew that he was finished, she turned to face him. He looked quite dissatisfied with something.

"What's wrong?"

"I have to go on a business trip," he explained in monotone. "I'll be out of the city for the rest of the week."

She reassured him with a kind smile. "That's okay. You've already paid for two of my lunches."

Even her optimism failed to cheer him up. Enishi clearly didn't want to board a plane tonight.

"When you get back, I'll give you a free lunch for a change."

A sense of childish joy lifted his spirits at Kaoru's words. He looked at her to see that she was still smiling.

"It'll be my treat!" She added enthusiastically.

He paused, but then his thin lips curved into a small smile. "I'd like that."

* * * *

A few days later...

Kaoru organized the files that Aoshi had promptly handed her when she had walked in. Even after working for him for almost a week, she knew that her boss was a perfectionist. He was a very hard-working person who wasted no time to complete his work, and he demanded the same thing from Kaoru as his secretary, even if he had yet to actually say it.

The waiting room was occupied with a few teenagers that clearly didn't want to be where they were at the moment. Kaoru was always friendly to them, offering candy and books that Aoshi's past secretaries wouldn't even bother to bring in. An expression of gratitude or a shy smile was what she got in return, and Kaoru was always happy to receive either one. She was glad to be able to do anything to lighten the burden of sitting in boredom for so long.

The phone rang and Kaoru immediately picked it up. "Dr. Shinomori's office. How may I help you?"

"Is this Kamiya Kaoru?"

Surprised that the caller was not asking for the psychologist, Kaoru answered, "Yes, this is she."

"Ah, it is very nice to finally speak to you Kamiya-san," the feminine voice said over the phone. "I am Nakamura Aiko, Yahiko's teacher."

Kaoru stopped all other actions, anxiety getting the better of her. "Has something happened to him?"

"No, Yahiko is fine. I'm calling because of something else."

Relived that her younger cousin's physical well being was not at stake, she let out a little sigh.

But then she realized that if Yahiko wasn't hurt, there was only one other reason why Kaoru would be receiving a call from his teacher.

"What did he do?" she bluntly asked.

* * * *

Kaoru practically threw off her shoes onto the door mat and shut the shoji behind her. Glancing around the surroundings, she found that Sano was absent.

'Probably gambling,' she thought to herself. She moved past the living room and kitchen and stomped up the stairs. The loud blaring of a videogame was heard, and immediately informing her of Yahiko's presence.

Kaoru stood motionless for a second, took a deep breath, and then as calmly as she could, pushed aside the door.

Her cousin was too distracted with his videogame, his fingers pressing the buttons on his controller and rotating the joystick around.

"Yahiko."

At the sound of the familiar voice, the boy glanced at the college girl that had addressed him.

"Oi, busu," he said, and then returned to his videogame.

"We need to talk."

"Hang on," Yahiko replied, paying no attention to the serious tone of Kaoru's voice.

Clearly not in the mood, Kaoru walked behind the television set and promptly pulled the extension cord out of the outlet. The screen suddenly went blank, leaving an annoyed Yahiko in its wake.

"Hey, I was playing that!" he yelled.

Kaoru dropped the cord onto the floor. "I got a call at work today. It was from your teacher."

Eyebrows raised, Yahiko let the controller to slip from his grasp.

"She said that you aren't doing very well in school lately," Kaoru stated, her voice a steady calm. "Is that true?"

Shoulders slumping over, Yahiko bowed his head. He refused to look at her, but he felt the weight of her stare upon him.

"Well? Is it?"

"...what's the big deal?" he answered defiantly. "It's just a bad grade."

"Yahiko, she said that you're close to failing!"

"So what?"

Kaoru sighed in frustration, not believing how unreasonable the boy was being. "Why are you acting like this?"

His hands tightened into fists on his lap. "Acting like what?"

"Like you don't care!"

"...maybe I don't."

"Quit being such a brat! You know very well that you DO care."

"No, I don't," he repeated. "Why would I care? It's not like I'm gonna use any of the crap that they teach in school anyway."

"That's not true—"

"The hell would you know!" he yelled at her, his auburn eyes lifting from the floor to Kaoru's face. "You don't know ANYTHING, so quit bugging me!"

Kaoru was shocked by the sudden change of the boy's mood. It wasn't like him to sound so aggravated.

Yahiko left the floor and sat himself on the mattress of his bead, his face looking towards the window. He could see the reflection of his cousin embedded in the glass surface, so he had to look away.

"...Yahiko, what's wrong?"

The gentleness of her voice made him regret yelling at her, but he childishly held on to his anger.

He wanted to be mad at her. Even if she hadn't done anything to deserve it.

He heard the sound of her feet shifting on the floor as she approached him. The springs of his mattress strained slightly after Kaoru sat down on the bed beside him, adding to his weight.

"What's wrong?" she asked again. "Did something happen?"

Yahiko continued to sulk. Placing a feminine hand on his shoulder, she persisted.

"Yahiko, what's bothering you? If you don't want to tell me, we can wait until Sano comes home."

The unwavering silence was her answer. Kaoru felt that he wouldn't tell her anything, until he finally spoke.

"I'm...having trouble with school," he admitted. "The teacher is always moving onto the next lesson because she thinks that the entire class understands. But I don't."

Kaoru noticed the shame in his voice. "Why didn't you say anything? I'm sure your teacher would've helped you."

His shoulders slumped over at the question. "...because...I didn't want the other kids to know. I didn't want them to think that I was stupid..."

She understood now why Yahiko didn't inform her of his dropping grades in the first place. "There's nothing stupid about needing help."

Yahiko snorted. How typical of an adult to say.

Kaoru took his silence as confirmation that she wasn't getting to him. "If you don't want to ask your teacher for help, then I'll tutor you."

A scoff. "How can you? You work almost every day of the freaking week—"

"I'll help you after I come home from work," Kaoru insisted. "Or if you really needed to, you can come down to the office and I can help you with your homework."

"What's the point? I'm never gonna understand this stuff—"

"Because you keep thinking like that!" Kaoru argued. "Listen, you're not stupid. You just learn at a different pace than your other classmates. But if you keep putting yourself down, then you really will flunk out of elementary!"

Yahiko stared at her from the corners of his eyes, doubt still hanging over him like a dark cloud. The uncertainty lingered over him, and he was forced to look away from his cousin.

'What does she know?' he thought to himself. 'Even if she does help me, what if I still don't get it? Will she think I'm the dumbest person in the world if I fail?'

'...would she be ashamed of me if I did?' the boy bit his lip at the question, his stomach doing flips.

All thoughts left him when he felt feminine fingers wriggling under his ribs. He had to breathe through sharp gasps as he came alive with laughter. He looked up to see the mischievous smile on Kaoru's face as she assaulted him with tickles.

"You're WAY too pessimistic," she declared.

"Get...off...me!!!!" he cried, his feet trying to push her away.

"Sorry, can't hear you!" Kaoru yelled over his laughter.

"Stop it!" he yelled, unable to restrain his chortles and the huge smile on his face. "I-I mean it, busu!"

"I'll stop if you repeat after me: I won't fail."

"Quit it!"

Kaoru was relentless, ignoring the boy's demands. "You have to say it!" she said in singsong.

"Fine, fine! I won't fail!" she smiled and ceased her torture, giving Yahiko to sit upright from the mattress.

"Happy now?!" he yelled, both his fists clenched at his sides as if he was going to strike his assailant.

But he knew just as well as Kaoru that he couldn't hurt her. At least not intentionally.

"Yes, very," she answered, "Now you have to keep your promise."

Yahiko smirked. "I didn't promise."

Her eyes grew ominous as they glared at the ten-year-old. "Do you want to be tickled again?"

His sides still exhausted from laughing so hard, Yahiko grudgingly shook his head.

Giggling a bit, Kaoru settled a hand onto his head and began ruffling his black hair. A bit stunned by the compassionate gesture, Yahiko looked up at her.

"You really are silly, you know that?" she chided softly. "You could've just asked me to help you in the first place."

Yahiko scowled, but did nothing to swat away her hand.

"You've got nothing to be worried about, Yahiko. No matter what you think, you aren't stupid."

This was a side of Kaoru that he had rarely saw, and it was only moments like this that he had seen the affectionate person that was concealed behind the screaming and over-emotional girl that he was so used to.

Instead of the ugly hag that he was so accustomed to teasing, a mature young woman was in her place.

"No, you aren't stupid at all," she repeated, lightly tapping her knuckles on his head. "Just a little hard-headed."

"You're one to talk," Yahiko replied with a happy grin on his face. With that, he grabbed one of the pillows resting against his headrest and swung it at Kaoru's stomach.

Seeing how he had just made a declaration of war, she grabbed the other pillow and made contact with Yahiko's side while laughing.

Kaoru could never refuse a challenge.

* * * *

His fingers drummed against the large pane of his window, which overlooked the city lights beneath them. The neon signs and traffic signals shone softly with an artificial, but all too familiar beauty.

Enishi had spent so much time in city life that he had gotten used to never seeing the light of the moon or stars in the evening. Even if he had the chance, he would be too busy with heaps of files and documents that needed his signature.

The all-too-familiar ringing of his cell phone sounded. Turning away from the view, he took it from his nightstand and activated it.

"Well?"

"It's done," a snide voice answered through the speaker. "The delivery has been made, and the evidence has been taken care of."

"You disposed of the bodies then, I take it?" Enishi questioned collectively, as if he was in discussing a simple business matter.

"Yes, Yukishiro-sama. Everything has been taken care of."

"Good. I will be returning to Tokyo shortly after I finish business here. Make sure that everything is in order at my office before then."

A click, and he placed the device on the nightstand again. Rubbing his temples, he went back to the glorious splendor of the city outside of his suite window. He focused on the neon lights, ignoring everything else.

But no matter how hard he tried, he didn't find what he was looking for. The brightness of the light pollution was nothing compared to the pair of vivacious sapphire eyes that he had longed to see.

They did not possess the life and emotion as she had, and he felt that nothing in this world ever could.

Enishi reached into his pocket and got out his wallet. His fingers parting the folds of black leather, he found what he had wanted. He pulled out a wrinkled black and white photograph. The picture had a ragged and flimsy texture to it, so unlike the crisp feeling of the newspaper that he had removed it from. He had taken it out of his wallet and held it in his hands so many times that the photograph was beginning to look worn out.

Nonetheless, he couldn't help but stare at the lovely face and the long raven hair, even if it was mussed up a bit after the encounter that she had with his former employee. Although the black and gray color of the photograph lessened the vibrant shade of blue in her eyes, he still found her to be beautiful.

He sunk back into the softness of his bed, resting his head on one arm while his free hand held up the photograph. His eyes then left her image to the digital numbers of his electronic clock.

It was going to be Saturday morning in Tokyo soon. She would probably be waking up and driving her younger cousin to school. Then she would go to her college until it was her lunch break.

An unsettling sensation made his heart ache. He couldn't explain it, but he felt guilty for leaving her. The guilt only increased with the fact that he wouldn't be able to return to Tokyo until Monday or Tuesday night. Knowing that he wouldn't see her until next week made him depressed. He wanted to have lunch with her. He wanted to hear her voice, to see her smile...

"Yukishiro Enishi, you are a fool," he scolded himself out loud. College girls like Kaoru probably weren't interested in a workaholic businessman such as himself. She probably had a boyfriend away at some other university. He gritted his teeth in jealousy at the thought.

...but then again, Kaoru wasn't like college girls her age. There was an independence about her manner that distinguished her. She also seemed innocent in his eyes. He often wondered if she had ever kissed or been kissed.

Kaoru was, without a doubt, different. But that just made her all the more attractive.

The night waned on as he laid awake in his bed, the photograph still in his grasp.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Yay, another chapter! Thank you once again for your feedback and support: it is much appreciated. Believe me! ^_^

I'm happy to be able to write more Enishi/Kaoru interactions, even if it was a bit minor. Sorry if I went a little too dramatic with Yahiko's past, but I love angst.

Have a good weekend!