"What a pain." Shuichi Akai clicked his tongue and glanced at Scotch. "You go find Bourbon first. I'll get this brat out of here. If she keeps following us, she might blow our mission."
With that, Shuichi Akai walked quickly toward the girl and grabbed her arm, intending to drag her away.
The girl seemed unwilling, however, and their dispute drew the attention of the surrounding crowd. Hiromitsu Morofushi stepped close to Rye, using his back to block the onlookers' view, and shook his head at him.
Shuichi Akai let go of Masumi Sera's arm, and without the cover of his body, a frightening circle of handprints was visible on the girl's forearm.
"Damn it!" Shuichi Akai glared fiercely at Masumi Sera on purpose. "Hey, brat, where do you live?"
Masumi Sera stammered out an address, and upon hearing it, Shuichi Akai hurried away.
Watching Big Brother walk away, Masumi Sera finally felt a trace of fear, and tears welled up in her eyes.
"Little sister, don't cry." After a moment of hesitation, Hiromitsu Morofushi walked over and handed the girl a handkerchief.
"Thank you." Masumi Sera wiped away her tears. She didn't understand why that person, who was clearly Big Brother, had to be so mean to her.
Watching the sobbing girl, Hiromitsu Morofushi squatted down and asked with a smile, "Do you like music?"
"Music?" Masumi Sera looked up blankly, staring at Hiromitsu Morofushi in confusion.
Hiromitsu Morofushi opened his guitar case, took out a guitar, and gently plucked the strings, producing a beautiful melody from his fingertips.
Masumi Sera stopped crying and stared wide-eyed in curiosity at the man playing the guitar. "It sounds amazing."
"Want to learn? It's very simple."
"Really?" Masumi Sera stopped crying completely, looking at the man who smiled so gently at her.
"Come on." Hiromitsu Morofushi handed the guitar to Masumi Sera and guided her to pluck the strings.
"That's awesome!" A flash of surprise crossed Masumi Sera's eyes as she tried plucking the strings herself.
When Shuichi Akai returned, he happened to catch this exact scene, and a vein twitched on his forehead. He never expected that in just this short amount of time, Scotch would strike up a conversation with his own sister.
Fearing that his sister might blurt out something she shouldn't, Shuichi Akai roughly pulled Masumi Sera from Scotch's arms and shoved a train ticket into her hand. "Go home right now!"
Without waiting to see Masumi Sera's expression, he signaled to Scotch with his eyes that it was time to go.
"Little sister, I'll teach you other fingering techniques next time." Hiromitsu Morofushi smiled and said goodbye to the little girl, and Masumi Sera smiled and waved back.
After the two of them had walked a certain distance, Shuichi Akai spoke up, "Where's Bourbon?"
Hiromitsu Morofushi frowned slightly. It was true that Zero had been gone a bit too long to buy a ticket—could he have run into some trouble?
Rei Furuya, who was assumed to have run into trouble, currently wore a dark expression as he glared at the blonde woman in front of him. "Miss, I'm busy right now, so please stop pestering me!"
Just as he was buying a ticket, this woman had suddenly rushed up to him and, without a word, pulled out a rose and thrust it toward him. "Hello, would you like to go out with me?"
Rubbernecking was human nature, and upon hearing that confession, everyone nearby turned to look in their direction. Rei Furuya lowered the brim of his hat, muttered an apology, and walked away quickly.
As an undercover agent, he had no desire to expose himself to the public gaze, let alone when he was in the middle of a mission.
Yet the woman acted as though she hadn't heard his refusal at all and immediately followed him, asking as she walked, "Why won't you say yes? Do you already have a girlfriend? If you do, it doesn't matter, I don't mind joining you two."
The corner of Rei Furuya's twitching mouth tightened. He stopped in his tracks and stared at the brightly smiling woman in front of him. "Miss, if this is some kind of truth-or-dare game, you're finished. I have things to do, so please stop hanging around me."
"But I genuinely like you." Mao Akai grabbed his hand.
Rei Furuya was startled; he hadn't expected to fail to dodge in time.
"The moment I first saw you, my heart started pounding wildly. I figured I must have fallen in love with you at first sight, so I want to be your girlfriend!" Mao Akai recalled what Shukichi-nii had told her when they parted: if you meet someone who makes your heart beat faster, it means you've found love.
She figured she must understand now—she must have fallen in "love at first sight" with the man right before her eyes!
With that thought, the gaze she fixed on Rei Furuya was filled with a sense of possessiveness.
Rei Furuya did not like that kind of look.
"Sorry, we're not the same kind of people, and I don't even know you." Rei Furuya shook off Mao Akai's grip, sidestepped her, and continued walking forward.
"It doesn't matter, we can get to know each other now. My name is..."
"Listen!" Rei Furuya stopped, grabbed Mao Akai by the wrist, and unleashed a wave of killing intent. "I don't care what your name is, and I don't want to know. Do me a favor and stop following me!"
Sure enough, once he finished speaking, the strange woman stopped following him and simply stood there in a daze, staring at his back. After all, any beautiful woman subjected to such merciless words would surely find the shame unbearable.
However, Rei Furuya, who had already left, had no idea that his fierce words and the accidental burst of killing intent had not made Mao Akai back down at all.
After a moment, standing alone in the spot with her head lowered, Mao Akai's face flushed with a bright blush as she covered her face with her hands. "Oh no, he's so hot. My heart is beating so fast. Is this really what Shukichi-nii called love at first sight?!"
Thinking this, she set off in pursuit once more.
Rei Furuya wove through the crowd, casting a glance out of the corner of his eye to look back. The strange woman was nowhere to be seen, and with a sigh of relief, he walked briskly toward the rendezvous point.
It was all that guy Rye's fault, he thought bitterly to himself. If it weren't for Rye, he never would have been delayed by that woman for so long.
"Scotch, Rye." Spotting his companions standing ahead, he waved at them. "It's time to go."
Yet the looks those two directed at him were rather strange. "What's wrong?"
Rei Furuya was baffled.
Hiromitsu Morofushi opened his mouth, seeming unsure of what to say, and finally just pointed with a peculiar expression toward the side of Rei Furuya's head.
"Bourbon, what were you just doing?" His voice trembled slightly.
Rei Furuya: ???
A blank look swept across his face as he glanced at his childhood friend. Hadn't he just gone to buy tickets? Didn't Hiromitsu know about that?
"Ahem." Rye coughed. "Bourbon, you..." His expression contorted as if he were struggling to form the words.
Rei Furuya: ???
What on earth had happened while he was gone to make these two act so weird?