After a long while, Shun felt a faint dampness spreading across the front of his shirt.
Well, he did not need to guess to know the girl in his arms had started crying.
He raised a hand and gently stroked her hair, slow and careful, like he was petting a cat.
At this moment, honestly, he had no idea what he was supposed to say.
"Liar..."
Kurumi's voice was muffled against his shirt, soft and sulky.
Shun let out a quiet laugh.
"Yes, yes, I am a liar. I am terrible."
Kurumi suddenly lifted her head. Her eyes were red and swollen, but the tears had already been wiped away by his shirt.
"My shirt is very expensive, you know," Shun reminded her.
Kurumi puffed up her cheeks in anger.
She looked exactly like an angry little hamster.
"Are you still thinking about your shirt? I will bite you."
She bounced up in indignation.
Shun reflexively caught hold of her legs.
He had to admit, her skin felt very smooth.
"Chomp."
Kurumi bit down on his shoulder in righteous fury.
Good grief, they really were both Tokisaki Kurumi. Same spot every time.
Shun shook his head.
He did not stop her.
On the one hand, the girl was surprisingly restrained. She called it biting, but her teeth were only lightly pressing against him.
Completely different from that cursed Kurumi from earlier.
On the other hand, he really had not handled things very well before.
Besides, he had been through this many times.
His previous girlfriends had all ended up like this after encountering curses.
So he was, unfortunately, very practiced at dealing with it.
Letting her vent a little was good for her too.
Thinking about it carefully, there probably was not a sorcerer anywhere more gentle than him.
This damned kindness.
Kurumi did not bite for long before she let go and looked up at him pitifully.
"Does it hurt?"
Shun shrugged and smiled. "Hurts like crazy."
Kurumi snorted. "You liar. I did not even use any strength."
"If you knew that, why ask?"
Shun shook his head and set her back down on the bed.
Seeing that he wanted to leave, Kurumi instinctively grabbed the hem of his shirt.
Shun chuckled. "So now we get to that cliché plot where you ask me to stay and sleep with you?"
"In your dreams."
Kurumi glared at him.
"Relax," Shun said. "I will sleep on the sofa over there. I am not going anywhere."
"Um... is that really okay?"
Guilt flashed across Kurumi's face.
Shun nodded. "I do not think so either. How about you sleep on the sofa and I take the bed?"
"Thunk."
She threw a pillow straight at his face.
"Go."
Shun caught the pillow and laughed as he lay down on the sofa.
To be fair, high end apartments really were different. Even the sofa was ridiculously comfortable.
Lying on it felt almost the same as lying on a bed.
Shun suddenly thought that married men absolutely needed to invest in a top quality sofa.
That way, if they ever got kicked out of the bed by their wife, at least they would sleep comfortably.
He lay there, using the dim light to send a few messages to certain people.
The room fell quiet for a while.
In the end, Kurumi could not hold it in.
"Gojo san," she asked softly, "are you not afraid? Always fighting those monsters?"
Still typing, Shun replied, "When I was a kid, I was terrified. Now, not really. I actually kind of like dealing with them."
"Like it?"
Kurumi's face was a mix of confusion and shock.
"Why?"
"The reason is simple," Shun said. "As I grew older, I realized they cannot kill me."
"On top of that, studying them lets me learn a lot, and I can make good money from it. So I started liking it."
"That is such a mercenary reason."
Kurumi was speechless. So it really came down to money.
Shun nodded. "It is a bit mercenary."
There were other reasons, but this really was the main one.
Being able to research curses and make money from it was all he needed.
Kurumi was quiet for a moment, then asked, "Was I really pathetic just now?"
Shun did not hesitate in the slightest. His tone even carried a hint of mockery.
"Super pathetic. From how you were acting before, I actually thought you were fine. Then... hahaha, you almost killed me laughing."
"..."
Kurumi fell silent for a long time, then ground her teeth.
"I am starting to think your ex-girlfriends probably did not break up with you because they were afraid of curses."
"Uh huh."
Shun shrugged, completely unconcerned.
Kurumi let out a long breath.
Being talked to like that by him, the tight knot of fear in her chest had loosened quite a bit.
After that, she no longer felt like talking.
She closed her eyes.
"Good night."
"Good night," Shun answered quietly.
His voice was rich and soothing, like it could smooth out the ripples in a person's heart.
Without a doubt, he had used his technique again.
After all, that was why he developed these things in the first place. To make his own life easier.
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