Midoriko's Feelings

Midoriko looked at the photo of Ryouma and herself at the aquarium and sighed—he was just so sickeningly good-looking. What exactly did he see in someone like her? Since when did handsome men like hyper-independent women with bad eyesight that could only talk about their special interests?

“Oh my, Miss Suwa! Who is that?!” exclaimed Dr. Tanaka, looking over Midoriko’s shoulder.

“It’s nothing! He’s no one!” Midoriko sat up straight and frantically locked her phone.

“Hmm?” Dr. Tanaka raised an eyebrow. She sat down opposite Midoriko in the break area. “The way you were sighing doesn’t seem like it’s nothing.”

“That’s–” Midoriko swallowed her pride. “It’s complicated…”

“Does he have a wife?” asked Dr. Tanaka, lowering her voice.

“What?! No!”

“Then a girlfriend?”

“No! He’s single!” Midoriko felt her face turning red at the line of questioning.

“...Is he gay?”

“Th-that’s not it either!” she stammered. Midoriko took off her glasses and covered her eyes. “He likes me!”

“Then what’s the problem?” her mentor asked cheerfully.

Midoriko let out a loud groan. She put her glasses back on and looked around to make sure no one might have been eavesdropping.

“Dr. Tanaka, you said I could come to you for parenting advice. Does that extend to love advice?” whispered Midoriko.

“Of course, it does!” she excitedly confirmed without missing a beat. Dr. Tanaka’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.

Her mentor was the last person Midoriko wanted to talk to about this, but she really had no one else that she could talk to about this. Maybe talking about it would help sort out how she was feeling.

“I just…I don’t know how I feel about him…” Midoriko mumbled.

Dr. Tanaka put her hand on her chin and sighed. “That’s tough. How long have you known him?”

“Not long. We met for the first time on the opening day of my exhibit.” It wasn’t even a lie. She could just omit the parts about his magical disguise and theft, and it would be a perfectly mundane story.

“Really?! I feel like I would have remembered a hottie like that passing through that day!”

Midoriko’s eye twitched as she smiled politely. Damn him and his memorable face…

“It’s true!” she insisted. Dr. Tanaka furrowed her brow and scratched her head in disbelief, but Midoriko pressed on.

“There were a lot of people that passed through, but he stuck out to me because I thought he was really annoying and rude!” she continued. Even if Midoriko just omitted the more unhinged parts, all of it was still the truth. “We happened to run into each other again after the exhibit, and once we got to talking, I realized we had a lot in common!”

Framing it like that made it sound like a meet-cute. Midoriko couldn’t help but laugh at herself.

“Then, what’s he like?”

“He’s completely abrasive! Pushy! Stubborn! And way too reckless!” lamented Midoriko. He was aggravating sometimes, but lately it seemed like his redeeming qualities outnumbered his flaws. “But he’s kind and gentle. And he’s so selfless—there were so many times where he helped me even when he didn’t have to.”

There were so many more things she liked about him that felt too personal to share. The way his eyes crinkled up when he smiled. His laugh. His scent. The soft way he said her name. How safe she felt in his arms…

She sighed and held her head in her hands. “He treats me with nothing but honesty and sincerity. Yet it feels like I can’t do the same for him.”

Midoriko recognized that she’d grown closer to Ryouma more than anyone else in her life. She’d been able to tell him things she thought would follow her to the grave. He made her feel loved in ways she’d never experienced before. So why did it still feel so wrong to her?

Dr. Tanaka patted Midoriko’s head and chuckled. “It sounds like you love him.”

Love…? Her eyes widened, and she raised her head.

“B-but I feel like I have knots in my stomach constantly–!”

“That’s love!” Dr. Tanaka smiled brightly.

She was in love with him? Suwa Midoriko was in love with Enishi Ryouma? When did it happen?

“W-what do I do?! H-how do I tell him?!” cried Midoriko, jumping out of her seat.

“If he already likes you, then just say it!”

“I can’t!” she whined, sitting down again.

Dr. Tanaka clasped her hands around Midoriko’s in a motherly gesture. “If you’re having trouble telling him, then maybe your feelings will reach him through your actions.”

When Midoriko’s face turned red due to the direction her mind ran with that suggestion, she hastily excused herself while thanking Dr. Tanaka profusely.

Midoriko found her resolve. There was no need to test her feelings if she was sure of them. She was just leading Akira on at this point. When I see him at the train station tonight, I’ll turn him down firmly and come clean.

***

Akira checked his watch once more. The museum had already been closed for an hour. He knew from the experience of traveling to and from that direction how long it should take Midoriko to reach their home train station. Where is she? She should be here by now…

He felt more nervous for this one than for any other date he’d ever been on while he waited for her outside the station. Probably because it wasn’t a date. Probably because it was a soon-to-be kidnapping.

There was no way she was going to just ghost him, right? She wasn’t that kind of person, was she? Between Midoriko being a neutralizer and her father being the leader of a major yakuza syndicate, Akira realized there was probably a lot about her that he didn’t know. And it was because of the latter that he absolutely could not afford to fuck this up.

Before his thoughts could spiral any further, Midoriko made her way through the turnstile. Feeling a wave of relief, Akira happily trotted over to her.

“Miss Midoriko! Over here!”

“Oh! Akira! Just the person I wanted to see,” she said, meeting him halfway in the direction he was coming from.

“Reallllyyyy?” Akira forced his Cheshire grin to keep up the act. She couldn’t suspect anything was unusual.

“Yeah! Um…Actually…” Midoriko fidgeted with her purse strap. The way she was always so bashful with him was one of her main points of appeal.

“Hm? What is it?” Akira put his hands in his pockets and waited patiently for her to finish her sentence.

“I don’t think we should do this,” she said, looking down at her feet. “I don’t think it would be appropriate for the two of us to go out for drinks alone.”

“...Pardon?” Was he hearing that right?

“The truth is I…I am seeing that man!” She bowed swiftly in apology. “B-but I wasn’t lying to you before! It’s just…A lot happened recently…”

She was actually turning him down?! What about the fucking plan?!

“Um…Could we please just go for one drink? Platonically?” he begged. Akira tugged Midoriko’s hand. “I was gonna take you to this one particular restaurant and–”

“Could you please let me go?” she snapped, yanking her hand back. She looked at him in disgust. “I thought I made myself very clear—I am seeing someone already! I don’t want him to misunderstand anything!”

“Fuuuuck!” Akira groaned, startling Midoriko with the sudden and uncharacteristic curse. If this plan was going to work, he had to pivot hard and fast.

“Look, I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings, but I never said we couldn’t be friends!” She turned around and started walking away. “When you’ve cooled your head a bit, I’m happy to talk–”

“Don’t you want to know about your father?”

Midoriko stopped dead in her tracks. She whipped her head around to look at Akira—eyes wide with shock and distrust.

“Are you messing with me right now?”

She tried to remember if she’d ever told Akira about her family. It wasn’t really something she talked about with people until she became really close to them, but maybe she’d let slip at some point that she never met her father.

“If you’d just fuckin’ come with me, then you can hear it straight from him!” he snapped. They never said the reunion with dear ol’ dad had to be a secret. He just had to rely on her trust and get her there.

Her face contorted with anger. He really was messing with her. He was trying anything to get her to go on this stupid date with him. How fucking pathetic…

Midoriko stomped up to Akira and slapped him hard across the face.

“Don’t fucking lie to me!” she shouted, now startling Akira with her uncharacteristic anger and swearing. “My father is dead! Just like everyone else in my family!”

“I assure you, he’s very much alive,” Akira said, rubbing his cheek. Man, she put some force behind that slap…

She was understandably suspicious. He could just stretch the truth a little.

“Well, anyway, it really is one helluva small world. I’ve technically been workin’ for him for months,“ he explained with a shrug. “I found out you were his daughter very recently, so I offered to orchestrate a surprise meeting for the two of ya.”

She just stared at him in disbelief. Not only was Akira claiming that her father was alive, but he was also claiming her father was his boss?!

Although… Her mother never explicitly said he was dead, but she never said he was alive either. Midoriko had always just assumed he died in the fire that killed everyone else.

“What’s his name?” she asked with a sigh. If he was telling the truth, then surely he knew that.

Akira scratched his head and furrowed his brow. “I mean, I don’t know his given name, but his family name is Shishiba.”

Shishiba Tsuneo—that name was the one piece of information Midoriko had on her father. Her mother had only told her once, but it was something she committed to memory. It was always strange to Midoriko that she didn’t share her father’s family name, but given her mother’s sensitivity to the topic, she never pressed her on it.

If that man really was her father, had he been searching for her all this time? What kind of person was he? She had so many questions for him—about himself, her mother, and the fire.

“Fine. I’ll go with you,” she said, clenching her fists. “But, if you’re lying to me or trying to trick me, then I’ll never forgive you!”

“Here. This is where he asked me to bring ya.” Akira pulled out the paper with the address and handed it to Midoriko. He had no idea if Shishiba was actually there. All he had to concern himself with now was getting Suwa Midoriko to that address.