"So, your place or mine?"
Twilight was breaking around the young couple. She had her arms twined around his neck; he had his around her hips.
He smiled impishly. "Mine's closer."
It had been a long afternoon for the both of them. They had had much time to talk, and even more time for not talking.
He kissed her gently. "Are you in such a hurry to leave?"
"Not if you aren't," she murmured into his chest.
He whispered her name softly.
"Eri-chan…"
"Subaru-kun…"
They began another passionate kiss, and Hazelnut had the overwhelming desire to walk over and whack them.
"Young love," Ryou remarked dryly. "It's sweet, isn't it?"
The two still relaxed on the same grassy hill as the last rays of the sun struggled against the creeping night, both feeling a dutiful sense of returning, but neither of them felt ready to end the afternoon. The ardent young couple standing on the path in front of them was the third such in the past hour.
She shot him a look. "It's stupid. They should find somewhere less public."
Ryou merely shrugged and said nothing.
A silence played itself out. Eri-chan and Subaru-kun eventually meandered off, still entertwined.
"It's getting dark," Hazelnut said finally. "We should head back."
"So soon? The night is young and so are we."
Hazelnut scowled at him. "What are you saying? C'mon, my bike is this way."
Ryou shook his head. "I can walk."
"I have a new one, you know. It's a beast."
"That's nice."
Hazelnut grabbed his hand and pulled. "Come on. I don't get to show it off too often."
Ryou only put up a halfhearted effort to resist. Hazelnut dragged him back to the clearing where she'd left her motorcycle that morning.
She froze. Twenty or so heavily tattooed gangsters stood alongside the man she had stabbed yesterday. A slow smile curled around his lips as he fiddled dangerously with a knife longer than Hazelnut's forearm.
His black eyes glittered. "Thought I'd find you here, kitten."
***
"Ryou, you're a baka, but I love you."
Ryou stood in silence. Hazelnut wanted to run away and hit him and kiss him all at the same time. But she felt paralyzed, as though all time had stopped to wait for his answer.
"No. You don't," he said.
A roaring heat rushed back into her veins. "Shut up, Ryou! What would you know about my feelings? I love you more than-"
"You don't. It's not real. You only think you do," Ryou continued tonelessly. "I shouldn't have taken in a girl from the streets. It was inevitable that you would have developed some sort of attraction to me. It's my fault. I shouldn't have let this get so far." He turned to go inside. "Consider yourself released from your position, Edowara-san."
Hazelnut's throat closed up. "St-stop being such an idiot. What are you even saying?"
He was halfway through the door.
"Don't leave me here, Ryou!!"
Ryou paused, but didn't turn around. "Please go home now," he said firmly.
The garage door clicked in the darkness, and she was alone.
***
This chapter's pretty short; It's more like a half-chapter. But I've put up more than one this time. I wanted this one to stand alone as an answer to the last chapter's cliff hanger.
Just keep going to the next chapter, guys.