"No way. No freaking way!"
"What?" Ren asks, sounding a little light-hearted as his stomach fills with an unnamable dread.
"When are you going to let her know that you were...are Corn, 'Ren'?"
"Corn as in the-"
"The fairy prince from her childhood way back when. Who is, so conveniently, me."
"There is a long two minutes of silence as they just stare at one another before Ren decides to speak. "How...uh, how did you figure that one out?"
"Well, it wasn't that freaking hard. Any idiot could see the whole thing perfectly with the right data, and lucky enough for you, Ren, your little girlfriend here is quite the collector!"
"Data?"
"Physical data. Any information picked up here and there. And then there are things that don't quite match up with what she says and she thinks." The memory of her reaction after figuring out he was Cain and the memory of her confusion while thinking about the likeness between him and...well, him himself.
"Oh. Wait, so she knows that I...?"
"No, she doesn't bloody know!" Kuon pinches the top of his nose between his thumb and middle finger like when someone gets a headache from a situation. "She is too dimwitted by the notion of fairies and all of this to get it!" He narrows his eyes at Ren. "And you sure as hell didn't fix anything back in Guam."
"I thought you were supposed to be the ten-year-old me. I didn't swear then," Ren gives a half-smile. It wasn't until a year and a half later that my language deteriorated.
"Then I guess you didn't really realise she was aiming for a young teen version, so after Father told her the age group, she adjusted me herself to what she thinks the 'natural progression' of a teenage boy in American living in the area of Los Angeles with parents like mom and dad are."
"Can you tell me what she thinks she knows then?"
"I'll tell you how I found out first." Ren nods and Kuon continues. "Father's description of the younger me matched the fairy prince she met a decade ago in that clearing in Kyoto. The fairy prince grown up and waltzing around Guam matched you in physical data and little nuances in your guys' speech and specific 'Cain-like' behaviour. What she calls your 'divine smile' as Ren matched smiles she got from Guam Corn. The 'puppy-dog eyes' are seen for all three of you guys. Now, Father praised her acting as little Kuon, a.k.a. me, and said it matched perfectly his son from around ten years ago, confirming the thought that little prince Corn was me. Little Corn matched little Kuon, big Corn matches you. You just provided the stitch from 'Ren' to little Corn that cinches it all nicely together. Easy, peas-y, and wrap a bow on it."
"That is...perfect. You got it perfectly. And now that we bot get I'm essentially talking with myself, why doesn't she get it then?"
"Because of her quirk about believing in fairies so strongly, you have kept Corn all to his own self. He is his own person and in her mind, does not connect with me or you."
"How is that even possible? She found me out as Cain with that proportion scale thing she has going on, so why not Corn?"
"There was a second or two where she almost considered it an explanation for the matching smile you guys had. The grudges were trying to help her solve the issue and was holding a whole meeting over it. They had the whole group on it with a side-by-side comparison that nearly broke it all wide open right in the middle of the street and in front of others. But they listened to her at the last moment and decided to follow their master on her thoughts."
"What was it that she thought up?"
"My friend," Kuon puts his hand on Ren's shoulder and looks into his eyes in sympathy, "she thinks you have fairy blood in your bloodline."
It sinks into Ren's head, and he just face-palms. "Of course. That's it."
"Yeah." Kuon pulls back and smiles brightly. "Said it also explained your handsome good looks and standing in society as an actor and the country's most desired bachelor."
"She hasn't said anything about this to m though...Considering it as to do with me and her favourite fairies, you would think she would say something about it."
Kuon just shakes his head. "Nope. She figured you didn't even know and that you wouldn't believe her if she told you anything. But she did promise Corn in her head that she would look after his people's possible descendant and try keep him from harm."
"You know what, that sounds just like her actually."
They sit like that for a while, letting the new revelation sink in. "So why are you 'Ren'? What happened to me to do...this?" He points to the brown locks. So Ren tells him the story from leaving Japan from that fateful trip ten years ago, filling him in on the gap of time. By the end of the tale, it is three-thirty in the morning and Ren shoots a text off to Yashiro to go ahead and clear the schedules like he had planned a couple hours ago. "Wow."
"Yup," Ren says, twirling the empty glass in his hand from when he poured himself a stronger drink to get through the story. Seeing the mark on his finger from earlier had faded, he presses his thumbnail into his finger again.
"It's going to turn out fine though once you tell her."
Ren looks up at Kuon. "What?"
"I'll help when you tell her everything, Ren. I'll soften the blow if I can. She's going to think that you were laughing at her the whole time with the fairy thing though, so you'll have to figure out how to counter that, but she won't be mad with you being Kuon. She's too compassionate for that."
"Thanks."
"No problem. I want my love to work out too. And before you ask, I do know you love her. Which means I do too."
"I fell for her when I was your age."
"I think she fell for you too, but the loyal bone in her body kept her from admitting it to anyone. Even herself."
"So...what does that mean for right now?"
"That means it is time I tell you...about the box."