"Hehehehehe — this is exactly the expression I wanted to see. What an absolutely priceless look on your face."
Kawakami Tomie surveyed the man's ridiculous display and laughed without a shred of restraint. Her laughter was bright and melodic yet viciously sharp — like glass beads skittering across a porcelain plate, every note dripping with the pleasure of toying with a man.
Satisfied. Thoroughly satisfied. After so many days, she had finally recaptured that delicious sensation of holding a man entirely in the palm of her hand.
Kawakami Tomie narrowed her eyes in gleeful contentment, gave a few light, leisurely claps — as though applauding a particularly bad performance — and her smile blazed so brilliantly it was almost painful to look at.
Scorched by Tomie's mockery, the man's chest heaved several times. His complexion cycled from white to red, then clenched itself into a mottled, livid purple.
His Adam's apple bobbed. He swallowed it down.
"Ha ha… I — I was joking, too. As long as Tomie-san found it entertaining…"
The muscles in the man's face twitched several times as he forced out a dry, brittle smile — the kind that takes visible effort to maintain.
"Pfft — HAHAHAHAHA!"
Kawakami Tomie doubled over as though someone had found her tickle spot, laughing so hard she had to clap both hands over her stomach.
"Joking? You? Hahahaha — have you ever considered a career with the circus?"
Aamiya Rin turned his face away to watch the slow drift of traffic on the far side of the street, and let out a silent sigh.
This scene was genuinely difficult to watch. The man was a moth hurtling straight at a flame, utterly determined to impale himself on the point of the blade — and Rin couldn't find a single gap to intervene.
He had done his best to keep Tomie's magnetism from harming innocent people. But faced with someone this stubbornly besotted, he found himself rather powerless.
Amano Sei stood with her head bowed, black hair falling forward to curtain half her face, expression unreadable. But her hands at her sides were clenched tight in her skirt, and she radiated a sadness that seemed to seep into the air around her.
She had bent herself into every shape to suit Hiratsuka Makoto's tastes — never once pushed back against a single preference of his — and yet, standing right in front of him, she still couldn't hold a candle to a woman he had met thirty seconds ago.
Hiratsuka Makoto appeared to be entirely oblivious to his companion's feelings. Or perhaps he simply didn't care.
"Hahahahaha! Is Tomie-san interested in the circus? So am I!"
Hiratsuka Makoto's gaze was glued to Tomie's face like adhesive. The moment she laughed, he seized on the thread and followed it with eager, fawning urgency.
"I know a magnificent circus — the Grand Babilus Circus. Have you heard of it? They're coming to Tokyo soon. We could go together — my treat."
He thumped his chest, making the offer with expansive self-assurance.
"If you were going on stage to perform as the clown, I might actually consider it."
Kawakami Tomie let her smile drop, gave her hair a lazy toss, and delivered the line with a breezy, floating lightness.
The contempt wrapped in every word could not have been more obvious — and yet the man called Hiratsuka Makoto's eyes actually lit up. He edged half a step closer, his face flooding with a feverish, almost unhinged excitement.
"So — does that mean Tomie-san is saying yes to my invitation?"
"She's playing you."
Aamiya Rin let out another sigh and stepped forward, planting himself squarely between Tomie and Hiratsuka Makoto, his solid frame settling there like a wall.
Right hand firm on his crutch, his stance was steady and immovable.
His face replaced Kawakami Tomie's in the man's field of vision, and Hiratsuka Makoto immediately stiffened. The smile evaporated from his face, replaced instantly by undisguised irritation and hostility.
"Even if Tomie-san is teasing me, I'm perfectly happy to be teased."
He craned his neck and angled sideways, trying to look past Amamiya Rin's shoulder, his gaze still nailed stubbornly to Tomie's face.
"Sir, the fact that you are dating Tomie-san does not make her your personal property. It also does not give you the right to speak on her behalf. Whether or not my feelings are welcome should be decided by Tomie-san herself."
What sort of nonsense was this man speaking? Was any of it even coherent? If Amamiya Rin had actually been Kawakami Tomie's boyfriend, he'd have introduced the man to the end of his crutch by now.
Aamiya Rin narrowed his eyes and was about to deploy the Evil Eye technique once more — startle the man off, do him a small mercy — when:
"Oh?"
Kawakami Tomie chose that exact moment to press herself against him.
Soft arms wound around his like a climbing vine. Warmth bled through the thin fabric, immediate and vivid.
She tilted her face up, fingertip touching lightly to her red lips, and arranged her features into an expression of mild distress.
"Even so, I really don't want to be separated from Rin, not even for a moment. If we went to see a circus performance, that would be such a long time away from him."
Hiratsuka Makoto's gaze snapped to where their arms were pressed together. His pupils constricted sharply. The muscles in his cheeks gave an involuntary, unnatural twitch.
A flash of twisted expression — jealousy and resentment wound together — flickered across his face and was gone.
If he were the one wrapped in that warmth, that softness, that fragrance right now, he'd gladly shave ten years off his life.
Hiratsuka Makoto screamed inside his own head. With great effort he dragged his gaze away from the place where Amamiya Rin and Kawakami Tomie were joined, and forced it up to Amamiya Rin's eyes.
Aamiya Rin was thoroughly unamused. His gaze grazed Hiratsuka Makoto's eyes and slid away; he turned his head toward Kawakami Tomie — who was very clearly enjoying the show — and fixed her with a look of plain disapproval.
"Haven't you had enough fun? We should go."
Aamiya Rin's voice dropped a note, carrying a quiet weight that didn't invite argument.
At that, Kawakami Tomie's smile faded. She pulled the corners of her mouth down in a wounded little pout.
Far from loosening her grip on his arm, she held tighter, tilted her face up to look at him, and let her eyes go visibly misty, her voice thickening slightly.
"What… the way you're talking, it sounds like everything is my fault."
She gave a small, petulant stamp of her foot, a delicate flush spreading across her fair cheeks.
"I'm the one who got accosted out of nowhere! I didn't do anything — I was just standing here! Honestly, it's always the same — whatever happens, somehow it ends up being my fault… Is it just because I'm too pretty? That's completely unreasonable!"
She grew more aggrieved with every sentence, her lashes trembling as though tears were one blink away, her whole manner precisely calculated to inspire sympathy in any onlooker.
Aamiya Rin watched the performance without so much as a twitch of his brow.
There is a saying: judge a person by their actions, not their intentions — because if you judge by intentions, no one in the world is innocent.
But he and Kawakami Tomie shared a mental connection.
Kawakami Tomie's desire to manipulate men was not something she could hide from him. And once she had that desire, all she needed was a few words — she didn't need to lift a finger — to lead another man step by step into obsession.
Judged by actions or by intentions, Tomie was up to no good. Since she appeared on the surface to be refusing — just barely — it could perhaps be classified as skirting the edges of the rules he'd laid down. Borderline behaviour, at best.
Facing Amamiya Rin's unmoved expression, a glimmer of smug satisfaction passed through Tomie's eyes.
She knew perfectly well that he could read every thought in her head. But that was exactly what made it thrilling.
"Hey! How dare you speak to Tomie-san like that!"
Hiratsuka Makoto erupted on cue, entirely as Tomie had expected. He glared at Amamiya Rin with furious indignation.
"Tomie-san is simply too kind-hearted — she doesn't know how to say no bluntly! How can that possibly be her fault?! She was even willing to give up a wonderful circus performance rather than be separated from you for a single moment… what a precious, devoted feeling that is! Such single-minded devotion! Such deep affection! And you — you dare speak to her like this… Infuriating! Absolutely infuriating!"
Hiratsuka Makoto's face contorted grotesquely, his fists clenching, his teeth audibly grinding as he glared at Amamiya Rin with open murderous resentment.
How could such a man exist in the world — one who didn't know what was good for him? Why did this useless cripple get to have someone as breathtakingly beautiful and devoted as Tomie-san look at him twice?
Infuriating! Maddening! He wanted to kill him! He wanted to take Tomie for himself — to keep her somewhere she could never move, never leave, never escape!
"To have Tomie-san hold you in her heart like this… you have absolutely no idea how lucky you are! And you stand here calling her a troublemaker?! That is simply… unconscionable!"
Hiratsuka Makoto's words were practically squeezed out through clenched teeth, soaked in frustrated, murderous hatred. The dark place inside him had begun to breed something genuinely unhinged.
The morning breeze drifted down the street and turned up a few fallen leaves.
Amano Sei still stood by the car with her head bowed, her slight figure pale and silent in the morning light.
Aamiya Rin narrowed his eyes slightly and met Hiratsuka Makoto's gaze.
He could feel the malice radiating off the man.
He should have driven this one away sooner… No. Once caught by Tomie's magnetism, simply driving him off wouldn't work. The only option was to knock him out cold and leave him behind.
Of course, even that was treating the symptom rather than the cause. A temporary fix at best.
Aamiya Rin felt a mild pang of regret. He shouldn't have let Tomie linger here and waste time.
"Did you hear that? You should treasure me more, you know."
The Tomie beside him laughed again — with every sign of genuine enjoyment.
"Tomie-san, it's only a few hours — just a few hours! It wouldn't take up much time at all. Every person deserves a little personal space of their own. If you love someone, you should still give them some time to themselves."
Hiratsuka Makoto addressed Kawakami Tomie with barely suppressed desperation, still refusing to concede.
Or rather: Kawakami Tomie's indiscriminate, radiating allure refused to let him go.
But to cling on to this extent, right in front of his own girlfriend — it only confirmed that this man was a serial charmer who fell for a new woman every time he turned around.
If it had been that other one — the pure-love stalwart who had held out without falling for Tomie right up until the moment his memories were rewritten — a single encounter's worth of her charm would have been nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
"Excuse me — do you not speak human?"
Kawakami Tomie cut him off. Her smile was sweet as honey; her eyes were cold as knives.
"I said. I don't want to go."
To her, Hiratsuka Makoto was nothing more than a prop — something to use for a bit of flirtatious sparring with Amamiya Rin.
Now that Rin was bored and irritated, the game was over.
Tomie turned her head and rested her chin lightly on Amamiya Rin's shoulder.
"Rin and I have somewhere else to be shortly. We don't have time to waste on you. Be a good boy, step aside, and stop pestering us."
With that, she took Amamiya Rin's arm and steered them both around Hiratsuka Makoto.
"Stop!"
Hiratsuka Makoto lunged forward with a sharp cry and cut across their path again. His chest was heaving violently, a vein standing out on his forehead, his face flushed crimson. He fixed Amamiya Rin with a look of raw savagery, his clenched fists white-knuckled and trembling, lips pressed so tightly together they'd gone bloodless — as though he were physically restraining something monstrous.
"Still?"
Tomie's footsteps paused. She didn't even bother to lift her eyes. The only answer she gave Hiratsuka Makoto was her voice — laced with cool, perfect contempt.
"I've seen quite enough of this particular clown act. It's gotten old."
Aamiya Rin's brow furrowed. He cast Tomie a cold, sideways glance, then planted his feet and readied himself. He was prepared for a fight.
This man had probably been goaded to the edge of something unhinged by Tomie. Whether he launched himself at Rin right now, or waited until they walked away and came at them with the car — both were entirely plausible.
Knock him out. Then leave.
The decision made, Amamiya Rin's right hand tightened on his crutch, his body shifting subtly into position.
But Hiratsuka Makoto made no move to attack.
His face cycled through purple and red. After Tomie's bored, dismissive reply, he seemed to reach inside himself for the very last dregs of his strength — and then forced words out of his throat in a raw, self-lacerating rasp.
"I… if… if Tomie-san is really worried about leaving this… this gentleman…"
His eyes were nailed to the ground, as though lifting them would mean looking at something that burned.
His voice dropped lower and lower, and yet it trembled with a kind of desperate, all-in recklessness.
"If… if it's because you want to stay together with your boyfriend…"
He paused. The muscles along his jaw clenched and released violently.
"I… I could treat both of you. Both of you — both! The circus, or — or breakfast, anywhere at all is fine!"
Having said it, he seemed to collapse inward — veins standing out at his temple, his eyes a tangled mess of humiliated burning and lunatic, all-or-nothing desperation.
"…Huh?"
Aamiya Rin's mind went blank.
He blinked several times, staring at Hiratsuka Makoto in genuine bewilderment. His hand moved on instinct — reaching up toward his ear, about to fish inside it, to double-check he'd heard correctly.
"I said — I'll treat, both of you together! Whatever you want to eat, wherever you want to go — think of it as… as getting to know each other. Meeting new people is always nice, isn't it?"
As if hearing Amamiya Rin's wordless confusion, Hiratsuka Makoto repeated himself to fill the gap. He lifted his head and looked Amamiya Rin directly in the eyes — and what came through in his gaze was pure, naked pleading.
Please. Just say yes.
Aamiya Rin involuntarily took a step back.
He had read about this type before — in novels and online posts — the bootlicker who volunteers to pick up the tab for his crush's boyfriend, who runs errands nobody asked him to run. He'd read about them.
He had not expected to meet one in the flesh.
"Makoto… what are you saying?"
Amano Sei nearly convinced herself she had misheard.
Her face, already drained of colour, went a shade whiter still. Her eyes went wide — stunned, uncomprehending — and fixed on Hiratsuka Makoto's profile.
In those eyes: shock. Bewilderment. And then, slowly, something sinking and settling into a grief that looked on the verge of shattering.
She had surrendered every preference she had, every streak of temper, just to accommodate him — and this is what she got in return? Him, in front of another woman, reduced to this? Was this some kind of joke?
For a moment, tears threatened to spill from the corners of Amano Sei's eyes.
Aamiya Rin looked at her, and opened his mouth — then said nothing.
"Oh?"
Kawakami Tomie's footsteps stopped. Her voice was drenched in gleeful mockery.
"Treating him, too? My, my — aren't you generous. Hehehehehe."
She looked Hiratsuka Makoto up and down — drinking in every detail of that expression: the mortified endurance, the desperate dignity — and her eyes narrowed to pleased, glittering slits, a light of pure, exquisite delight kindling deep within them.
____
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