She went and sat in the chair in front of me. I asked her to come and sit near me, but she rejected me, saying that she was comfortable there. I couldn't convince her. I felt like she was hurt. Before starting what I wanted to say, I apologized to her. She asked me the reason, still not looking at me. I replied, saying,
"For not giving the first priority to you in our relationship and not discussing or saying anything I wanted to do. From here on, I will discuss everything with you and report to you, ask your permission, so don't be like that. It is just our sixth day together."
"Sixth day? Don't make me laugh. I didn't see or hear from you. I was kept in the dark. I know it is a habit for you to share everything with Kenji. I am not asking you to change or give me the first preference. I am asking you to just share with me. Tell me directly; if it is not possible, give a call or just leave a message," she gave me an earful.
I know that she was just expressing her concern, so I just promised her that I would prioritize her, share everything, discuss everything that I would be doing, even though she might not be the first person, and love her more than anything for the rest of my life.
She didn't react much for most of my promise, but when I said my last sentence, she looked at me with eyes that had found something that they had been looking for or longing for a long time. It's as if she had caught the sky. To put it in simpler terms or in my way, a blade which I dreamed of forging for a lifetime has finally been finished. You get the joy of accomplishing something, the high you feel, that happiness. We can't put it into words, just stare at it with those eyes.
I looked back at her, reciprocating the feeling, as if saying it's mutual.
She got up, came to me, sat beside me, caught my collar, pulled me towards her, turned my face to the right, closed the distance between us, both our cheeks brushed slightly. She gave out a sharp, warm breath, turned her lips towards my cheek. Finally, I thought I could get my first kiss, but she went near my ear and spoke,
"Me too. I will love and give my first priority to you for the rest of my life."
The way she said it was cold yet warm, teasing, and mostly full of love. It was my first time feeling something like that. My mind went completely blank for a few seconds.
She got up and went near the door. Before opening it, she looked back and said,
"I will take that as a proposal for the engagement, and I will properly show my true self, so don't chicken out."
The way she said it got me excited. She was cool, like a baddie.
Then she opened the door and called the other two inside. All three sat down. Akiko refrained from asking anything, but her face was red, and she couldn't lift her head. The hot guy also seemed a little bit red.
I then thought, the weather wasn't that hot outside, or I couldn't feel it as I was in an AC room.
Keiko then began explaining why she called them in. It was regarding Mr. Ken. Why she felt sorry for him, the story goes as such.
He didn't come to the training for three months as he was in the hospital, recovering from the physical and mental damages I provided him.
He arrived at the training a month before my return. He was good with his friends, with others, everyone except the three of them. At first, they didn't care about him, as that's common for kids who were pampered. As the time went, he started to become aggressive with them, sending others to fight them using training as an excuse, rage-baiting Akiko.
Come to think of it, rage-baiting her was a nice idea. With the short temper she got, it should've been successful, but it seems Kenji stopped her every time.
After my return, my grandpa announced about our duel. Keiko felt something wrong with that. She didn't understand why he was nice to the others and a shitty ass to us.
So, Keiko and Akiko confronted the elders, including Kamoo Sumiko, Ken's grandmother, and it seemed like it wasn't a small revenge issue. It was a grudge against our families. Both the grandmother and grandchild seemed to have a grudge against our grandpas. As they couldn't fight properly with them, they started to target us.
The reason for their grudge was the incident in which Kamoo Ken's father and Kamoo Sumiko's son died.
As she asked them the reason he died, Elder Sumiko replied, the mission was a very difficult one. She didn't share the details about it as they were classified. Her son and his team were dispatched. They got caught while returning back.
Before they were taken away, they sent a request, asking to send reinforcements, but our four grandparents didn't approve of the request, as it will be like sending the rest to their deaths.
The rest of the elders also sided with them because that seemed like the best option. Finally, they didn't send the reinforcements.
Since then, she held a grudge against them and raised her grandson to extract revenge from them.
That's what Kamoo Sumiko said.
'Same old common story,' I thought to myself.
But Keiko didn't finish her story right there.
There's more to it. Ken has two siblings, twins, a male and a female, two years younger than him, same as my brother. He loves them very much.
Their mother passed away while giving birth to them. Their father raised them with love. That's what everyone would do.
When Ken turned ten, he lost his father, which made him feel disgust towards our grandpas. It seems he didn't want to hurt us even during the years, as he felt that grandchildren are not responsible for it, at least until his sister fell ill last year.
To be precise, it isn't called falling ill but rather falling into her demise without knowing.
Ken brought up his siblings without instilling them about the revenge. They were good, intelligent, brave, but lacked knowledge about the outside world.
I am saying this because his sister found a classmate of hers using drugs for competitions. As her sense of justice was top-notch, she reported it to the board with a formal complaint.
She didn't say anything to her twin, her big brother, or even her grandma.
The board didn't take action on the other person and informed the other party, as the one who was using the drugs was the daughter of one of the funders for the current government and the JSA.
They took care of the matter in a few hours before it could even reach the press.
The same day evening, she was kidnapped and was beaten to the brink of death for two days. Even though Kamoo Sumiko knew who was behind it, she couldn't go against the other Elders and the government.
This time again, the ones who stopped her were the three old monkeys.
After two days, the little girl was sent to their house and was in a coma for the past one year.
This was the reason why Ken targeted us. He had info on us and followed us that night and hit on them, to make our grandpas feel the pain, suffering.
With that, Keiko finished her story.
Akiko's face has withered, even though she knew the whole story beforehand. Kenji is a sentimental guy. I thought his anger would flood out, but he was calm with a serious face.
As for me, I couldn't bring myself to believe the story, so I asked her whether the story was legit or not.
She said it was genuine as the three of them agreed to it. They felt guilty about not helping her in those situations, as they were the most effective ones.
After hearing that, I felt some kind of feeling, which made me feel sad, bad, and angry.
I thought about all the things I did to Ken. After all that suffering, he had gone through, what I made him feel, it ate at me.
I couldn't bring myself to even raise my head.
I suddenly realized and asked Keiko when she found out about it. She got up and came to me and said,
"Don't blame it on yourself. Anyone in your position would have done what—"
"I didn't ask about that. I asked when did you find out?" I interrupted her.
She replied, saying that she found out two days ago.
"You should have told me to go easy on him before the match," I said.
"I didn't think you would go that far, and even if I told you, you wouldn't have listened to me without hearing the story. If you had listened to it, you would've have lost your spirit to fight," she answered with a low voice.
I couldn't argue with that, as what she said had a point.
Kenji interfered, saying not to fight on what happened and to think about what to do next.
All the members became silent. My head felt a little heavy, so I asked them all to leave.
They all left the room, saying, "Don't think hard on spoiled milk. Think about what to do next."
After they left, I was all alone in the room once again.
But the one thing I couldn't understand was, they thought I was feeling bad for Ken. They are not wrong. I did feel bad for him. That's for the things without my involvement. For the things I was involved, I don't feel bad, but I do feel that I overdid things.
I heard that he was admitted in the same hospital as me and hasn't woken up yet.
I thought of visiting him once he wakes up.