Youkai. To Kosuzu, it was a word with baggage. She thought, maybe, just maybe, if I were unlucky, I would have become one. And maybe, I would have been killed. Some part of her still longed for adventure and excitement outside of the human world. But every other part of her was a coward, and maybe that was why she returned to being Suzunaan's bookkeeper.
They were at the table again. Hideji was staring hard into a book, but she reached out to stroke his hand. Normally, she would have only managed for a moment before blushing and taking her hand back, but her near run-in with death made the embarrassment seem trivial by comparison. Hideji shut his book closed and took her hand in his. Kosuzu was sure that he was going to lose his page, but she got the feeling that it wasn't terribly important at the moment.
She tried to lean forward to kiss him, but wasn't tall enough to reach across, and so she slipped onto the tabletop instead, letting go of his hand to hold herself upright.
She coughed away her embarrassment, dusted off her sleeves, and sat back down in shame.
But he stood, walked to her side of the table, and leaned down to kiss her. It was brief—only enough contact for her to register what was happening, but in that moment, she understood a little more why romance novels always sold so well. By the time she was stammering out words, he was already back into his book.
Afterward, she decided that, from then on, their mutual reading time would be best done in her own home after Suzunaan closed for the day. They both took the same table, so the only thing that changed was the time of day. It worked best for the both of them—he would stop leaving the workshop early, and she would tend to the customers instead of reading at the table, making herself hard to approach.
The day after was slow, even for Suzunaan, so Kosuzu was left to her own devices. While waiting for customers, she had somehow finished the entire Unbeliever's Pledge. It was a cynical book that described how love didn't exist and, pretentious as it had been, she worried if it were right. Human life and emotions—they felt all ephemeral to her.
