Lolita Love Story

When school let out, Saikai didn't linger. She didn't even go to art club. Afraid of seeing Kougou again with Fumiko, she hurried home and kept her eyes on the ground. She knew that for now, there was probably nothing going on between the two, but it didn't stop her from doubting herself in nearly every facet possible. It seemed that Kougou wasn't completely interested in her anyway. Her heart stuttered as the thought entered her mind. Maybe he didn't feel for her at all.

Sliding the front door open, Saikai called out, "Tadaima." She slid on her house slippers and went upstairs to her room to put her things down when she realized that there had been no response. Setting down her briefcase, she searched the house for her grandma, but she was gone. Saikai stood in the kitchen for a moment, wondering where she could have gone. Her sobo only shopped for groceries at night when Saikai was already home so that they could go together. There weren't many other places for her to go. Saikai sat on one of the cushions by the table. As time passed, she found herself dozing off and soon, she fell asleep.

When the front door slid open, she rubbed her eyes and sat up. Her sobo had returned with someone else, but it was already too dark to tell who it was.

"Obaasan, who did you bring over?" Saikai asked as she searched in the dark for the light. When she flipped the switch, the answer was clear. It was her grandpa. She hugged him tight and he laughed softly, hugging her back. "When did you come back?"

"I wasn't sure if I could stay, so I didn't say anything until this afternoon," he explained, smiling with tired eyes. "I'm sorry to take your grandma from you, but it was a sudden thing."

"I was a little worried, but I'm glad you're back." Saikai stood, taking his briefcase and setting it near the couch. "I'll make some tea."

"Thank you, dear," her grandmother said happily, sitting in a cushion across the table from her husband. "Now, you must tell me how the business is coming! I've been reading the news as much as possible, but there's never much in the paper about it. Sai-chan has been helping me..."

She lost the rest of the conversation as she busied herself in the kitchen with making tea. She felt as though she was intruding when she eavesdropped on her grandparents' conversation, so she decided to keep her mind focused on the task at hand. Just as she poured the tea into the cups and set all of them on a tray, a rock hit the kitchen window with a soft thump. Flinching in surprise, she stood on her toes to see through the window and into the street. Of course, it was Caym. She signaled for him to wait and took the tray out to her grandparents who were deep in a conversation. When she set the tray down without interruption from her grandparents, she slid the door open and went outside.

Caym bowed politely to her. "Konban wa. Genki?"

"Genki desu," she said softly, moving to the stairs, where she sat only half-comfortably. "Would you like to sit with me?"

He sat beside her on the other side of the step. Today, he was wearing a strange white jacket without sleeves. Its asymmetrical hem reached to his knees and had several black accents. It looked like something from a video game, Saikai thought as she stared. Beneath the jacket, he was wearing black skinny jeans and tall shoes. When her eyes finally reached his face, he was looking at her curiously. "You think I'm strange, don't you?"

"I've never seen anyone dress that way before," she admitted, looking away quickly. "Except cosplayers."

He gestured to her lacy, poofy dress. "Not many girls dress like you do, either."

"Why did you come back?" she asked. He smiled, and Saikai found herself blushing. He was kind of cute when he smiled. She quickly looked away and focused on something on the ground.

"I told you before, I wanted to meet you. What's the point if I don't try to make conversation now and then?" he asked as if it were perfectly natural. "You probably aren't very comfortable around me yet, but you seem to be okay with me being here. You aren't scared of me."

"Should I be?" she asked seriously, unable to keep her eyes off the ring of kanji on his wrist. She had been told that it was common for Yakuza to have tattoos. He held his arm out to her for her to see more easily, but she looked away with a flare of embarrassment.

"Probably," he said casually, leaning back as if they were talking about the weather or something equally boring. "I'm not dangerous to you, but I'm not always such a nice guy to everyone else around here."

"What do you mean?"

He smiled, and she noticed that he wasn't wearing his lip ring today. "I'm always nice to women. I suppose I feel like I should protect them, but I have a hard time with other guys. They usually do something piss me off." He looked at her for a long time, the silence making her uncomfortable.

"You don't... hurt them, do you?" she asked timidly. He looked capable of hurting people. His arms were bigger than the boys' at school, even the strongest of them, but he wasn't as muscular as a bodybuilder or people like that. She hadn't really noticed how dangerous he could be if he wanted to.

He just smirked. "What about you, Princess? Do you get along with other girls?"

"Um..." she looked at her feet. "I guess so."

"They pretend to be your friends, right?" he said, suddenly serious. She looked up at him, surprised that he had nearly taken the words from her lips. "They don't really understand you though. They don't know you as well as they pretend to." His eyes looked sad and far away. "They are your friends only when others aren't around and they act like they're doing you a service by pretending to be your friend."

A realization slowly trickled into Saikai. "It was you... wasn't it?" He looked at her blankly. "My notebook..."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said seriously. She probed his eyes for the truth, but she could only see blankness there. It seemed that he was telling the truth, but she had been so sure for that moment and even now that it was him...

"My notebook about psychic powers. You found it."

He looked at her like she was crazy.

"I-I'm sorry," she said, standing suddenly. "I need to think. Goodbye, Caym."

"Wait!" he called just as she reached her front door. She didn't turn. "What's your name, Princess?"

"Saikai," she said, slipping into her house before she could embarrass herself further.