Chapter 465: Break Up Song
Cecilia looked out of the window as the Hijet drove away.
The city blurred past in soft morning colors. Cream and gold and the pale blue of a sky that didn’t care what had just happened inside a second-floor cafe.
Her reflection hovered in the glass, translucent and tired, her eyes still rimmed with red and her cheeks still damp with the last traces of tears she hadn’t finished shedding.
When she had walked out from Arzhen, she hadn’t gone out the front door. Some instinct had guided her feet. Just the human instinct of a woman who didn’t want to be chased, to be honest.
She had walked straight through the cafe’s ground floor, past the counter, past the abandoned espresso machine and past the kitchen door that swung open with a soft pneumatic hiss.
The cafe staff had been huddled in the back, clearly briefed by their billionaire patron to stay out of sight, and they had stared at her with wide eyes as she walked through.
She ignored them. What was there to say? Sorry your boss is having a breakdown upstairs, I’m taking the back exit, have a nice day?
The tears had been streaming down her face by then. She hadn’t bothered to wipe them. What was the point? They would only be replaced by fresh ones.
She had heard the shattering glass from the second floor. Then the honking cars. Then the distant roar of her name, muffled by brick and distance and the closing of a back door.
And at the back door, she had immediately seen—
Beep, beep!
The Hijet was parked in the alley like it belonged there. Its bug-eyed headlights flashed once in greeting. And leaning out of the driver’s side window, one arm draped casually over the side mirror, was Momo. "Hey, cutie."
"Hop in," Bunny called from the truck bed. He was still sitting among the shovels, his back against the cab, his arms crossed over his chest.
Cecilia had circled the truck without a word, pulled open the passenger door, and climbed in. The cherry blossom air freshener swayed, the engine purred, and they drove away.
It was nice.
Being picked up and driven away, not having to explain anything, because they already knew.
Not having to ask for anything, because they were already here.
She had told Oathran and Arkai that she wanted to meet Arzhen by herself. She had braced herself for the argument. The furrowed brows, perhaps, or the careful negotiations about backup plans and emergency signals and "at least let us wait outside."
But they had just... nodded. Arkai had squeezed her hand. Oathran had pressed a kiss to her forehead. And they had let her go.
Because they were nice, and they respected her. They trusted that she knew what she needed.
Well... perhaps... also because they knew she had a power of her own. If not, they might not let her go.
She had also decided not to involve Gregor and Thalia. Not yet. She didn’t want to turn this meeting into a legal battle or a deposition.
So she had only told them that she would meet Arzhen alone, and not to worry.
She had been ready to order an Uber and handle the whole thing herself. Get in, get the necklace, get out. Quick and clean and done.
But then she had met the gods in the elevator.
"Cancel the Uber," Momo had said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "We’ll drop you off."
And they had. They had dropped her off exactly where she needed to be, exactly when she needed to be there.
She just hadn’t thought, or expected, that they would also wait. They would circle the block and park in the alley behind the cafe and sit there with their shovels and their cherry blossom air freshener, ready to pick her up the moment she walked out.
As if they already kne—
Of course they already knew. They were gods.
More than her boyfriends or her legal team, or even any friends she could’ve called for some emotional support, they were...
They were better.
And now, once she was inside, as they drove off into the morning traffic, she just looked out of the window in silence. The radio was playing something Japanese, a vintage melody that crackled softly through the Hijet’s modest speakers.
A woman’s voice, sweet and wistful, singing about lost love or something else entirely. Cecilia didn’t know the words.
She wiped her face completely clean of the tears. Both hands, pressed against her cheeks, dragging sideways. The moisture smeared across her fingers. She wiped those too. Then she folded her hands in her lap and took a long, slow breath.
"I won’t help you dig graves again, by the way," she said suddenly.
Her voice was hoarse, but steadier now.
Momo didn’t miss a beat. "Sure. Let’s drive around until dark in case you change your mind."
"We dig graves at night anyway," Bunny added from the truck bed, his voice slightly muffled by the wind but still perfectly audible. "To avoid suspicion."
"Sitting on the truck bed is more conspicuous for an illegal activity, right...?" She whispered to herself.
She remembered her brief Googling session from last night about open truck beds.
Momo shrugged, one hand on the wheel, her expression serene. "In this state, there’s actually no restriction. As long as you’re not a minor." She paused, tilting her head thoughtfully. "Bunny is around 360 galactic years, so we’ll be fine."
Cecilia fell speechless.
Galactic years. Of course. Why would gods measure time in anything as provincial as Earth rotations? She had no idea how long a galactic year was. She suspected the number was either terrifyingly large or completely made up.
"Okay," she managed.
"Momo is around 600 Earth years older than me, by the way," Bunny said from the truck bed, his tone conversational. "I was 27 Earth years when we first met. So, not like your two husbands and Momo, I wasn’t dating a bab—"
"YOU ALREADY DATED AND SLEPT WITH MULTIPLE WOMEN WHEN WE FIRST MET, WHILE I WAS A VIRGI—" Momo suddenly yelled—
"COUGH—" Bunny panickedly coughed. "Ahem, I-I’ve repented, alright? Don’t be mad like that..."
Silence settled over the Hijet. The vintage Japanese song continued to play, oblivious to the divine marital dispute it had just witnessed.
Cecilia stared at the cherry blossom air freshener.
"Oh," she said.
She pursed her lips, holding something that bubbled up from her chest. How could they manage to lift her mood just by fighting among themselves?
These two ridiculous—ahem, bickering gods.
"Goddess," she said gently, turning slightly in her seat to face Momo. "How did you two meet?"
She had meant it as a peace offering. A return to safer ground... or a question that would let them tell a story together, the way old couples did, finishing each other’s sentences and pretending to argue over minor details.
But apparently, her question was somehow wrong.
"Ask him!" Momo spat.
O-oh—huh...?
T-the venom in her voice was startling...
Cecilia turned toward the truck bed and saw Bunny through the small glass window, shaking his head rapidly, his golden eyes wide with horror. He clasped both hands together in a desperate plea, his shovel abandoned beside him, his lips forming a silent no, no, please no that was more expressive than any scream.
"Wh—" Cecilia blinked, caught off guard. She recalibrated. "H-how did you two fall in love, then...?"
"Hmph!" Momo scoffed. Her perfect nose tilted upward, her perfect lips pressed into a pout. She looked like a Renaissance painting of divine displeasure—
"I FELL IN LOVE FIRST!" Bunny’s voice exploded from the truck bed, desperate and panicked. "I BEGGED FOR FORGIVENESS BECAUSE I DID SOMETHING STUPI—"
"Dumbass," Momo hissed at the muffled begging yell.
She reached for the radio dial and twisted it sharply. The vintage Japanese melody cut off mid-note, replaced by a burst of static, and then—
"Well, good for you, I guess you moved on really easily—"
The singer’s voice filled the Hijet’s cabin, crisp and accusing and perfectly timed.
"You found a new girl and it only took a couple weeks—"
Bunny let out a long, defeated sigh. "Momo, that’s not—"
"Remember when you said that you wanted to give me the world?"
Momo didn’t even sing along. She just sat there with a pout on her devastatingly beautiful face, her blue eyes fixed on the road ahead.
The pout made her even more beautiful, which was deeply unfair. It was the kind of pout that could launch ships and sink them. The kind of pout that made Cecilia want to apologize for things she hadn’t even done—
"And good for you, I guess that you’ve been working on yourself—I guess that therapist I found for you, she really helped—"
"Now you can be a better man for your brand-new girl..."
"Baby..." Bunny pressed his forehead against the glass window separating the cabin from the truck bed. His breath fogged the glass. He had lived for 360 galactic years and still hadn’t figured out how to win an argument with his wife—
"Well, good for you, you look happy and healthy, not me, if you ever cared to ask—!" Momo suddenly leaned toward the speaker and sang along violently.
"Good for you, you’re doing great out there without me, baby—God, I wish that I could do that!"
Wait. The song was so...
"I’ve lost my mind, I’ve spent the night, crying on the floor of my bathroom!"
...Satisfying!
Cecilia fumbled for her phone, her fingers flying across the screen as she Googled the lyrics. She had to know what this song was—
Damn!
This song was just—
"But you’re so unaffected, I really don’t get it, but I guess good for you—!"
—the perfect song for her own situation.
The anger. The pettiness. The catharsis of telling someone who had hurt you that you saw them moving on and you weren’t over it, you weren’t over it at all, and they didn’t even care.
It was everything she had wanted to scream at Arzhen. It was everything she hadn’t known how to say. And here it was, playing on a random radio station in a kei truck, while a goddess pouted in the driver’s seat and her husband begged for mercy from the truck bed—
"I’m right here, Momo—" Bunny’s voice came through the glass, muffled and desperate. "I’ve never stopped thinking about you since we met..."
"SINCE WE MET?!" Momo’s head whipped toward the truck bed so fast her blonde hair fanned out like a golden wave.
"BABY, I WAS WRONG—"
"Well, good for you, I guess you’re gettin’ everything you want—You bought a new car and your career’s really takin’ off—"
"It’s like we never even happened, baby, what the fuck is up with that?"
Cecilia started to hum along. Softly at first, then with more confidence. The lyrics were harsh and bitter and completely perfect.
"And good for you, it’s like you never even met me—Remember when you swore to God I was the only—person who ever got you?"
"Well, screw that and screw you—You will never have to hurt the way you know that I do—"
"Well, good for you, you look happy and healthy, not me, if you ever cared to ask!"
Cecilia and Momo sang together now, their voices blending together. Cecilia’s head began to bob with the beat. Momo’s pout had transformed into a grin that was all teeth—
"Come on, girls!" Bunny’s protest was weak and helpless...
"Good for you, you’re doing great out there without me, baby, God, I wish that I could do that!"
"I’ve lost my mind, I’ve spent the night, crying on the floor of my bathroom!"
Cecilia and Momo screamed the lyrics. Their heads bobbing in perfect synchronization, their voices filling the tiny cabin, cathartically belting out a breakup song at maximum volume.
The cherry blossom air freshener swayed violently with the vibrations. The shovels rattled in the truck bed. Somewhere on the street, a pedestrian turned to stare at the kei truck full of screaming women and one defeated god.
"But you’re so unaffected, I really don’t get it, but I guess good for you———!"
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