Chapter 71: Chapter 70: Will This Be the End of Takeshi?
Takeshi was asleep when he heard voices in the hallway.
They weren’t alarmed voices. They were normal conversation voices. He stayed still with his eyes closed, trying to identify who they belonged to.
One was Akari.
The other took him a second to recognize.
’Nyx?’
He opened his eyes.
The light coming through the window indicated it was early. No alarm had gone off. He checked the time on his phone: 7:14 in the morning.
He closed his eyes again.
The voices continued. Takeshi couldn’t hear the words clearly from the room, only the general tone. Akari sounded animated, as she always did whenever she had someone to talk to before he was awake. Nyx sounded calmer, responding with short sentences.
’What is Nyx doing here this early?’
He had no answer for that. He decided it would be best to get up before the conversation in the kitchen went on for too long.
He heard Akari’s voice clearly enough to understand the entire sentence.
"Oh, yesterday he got back late because he had a date."
Takeshi opened his eyes completely.
A brief silence from the other side.
Then Nyx’s voice, quieter than before.
"A date?"
"Yeah, he went out in the afternoon. He didn’t tell me who with, but he came back looking tired."
Takeshi was already sitting up in bed.
’Akari!?’
There was no malice in what his sister had just said. Akari simply processed information out loud without filtering which parts of that information were convenient to share and with whom.
He heard footsteps approaching down the hallway.
[AKARI SOLD HIM OUT IN 10 SECONDS]
[unintentionally but she sold him out anyway lol]
[takeshi sitting on the bed with a "calculating damage" expression]
[the day is barely starting]
The bedroom door opened without anyone knocking.
Nyx stood in the doorway. Her hair was tied back, and she wore the expression she used whenever she was processing something she didn’t like but hadn’t yet decided how to handle.
"G-Good morning."
Said Takeshi.
Nyx walked in, closed the door behind her, and remained standing by it with her arms crossed.
"Who was the date with?"
Takeshi calculated his options in approximately two seconds. Denying it was pointless because Akari had already confirmed it existed. Telling the complete truth was impossible. Giving a fake name was risky because Nyx could verify it.
"Good morning, Nyx."
He repeated.
"I’ll ask you one more time."
She paused.
"Who was the date with?"
"Do you want to sit down?"
"No."
["do you want to sit down?" LMAO]
[she doesn’t want to sit down takeshi she wants answers]
[nyx with crossed arms is a terrifying image]
[takeshi buying time however he can]
[no visible escape route]
Takeshi ran a hand through his hair and got out of bed as calmly as possible.
"I went out with someone from school."
"I already know that. Who?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"I’ll pay her a little visit..."
That did not sound good at all.
"A visit...?"
Asked Takeshi.
"Yes, and depending on what you did, the visit could last hours..."
"Take it easy, Nyx."
"I am taking it easy."
Takeshi knew what was at stake in this conversation.
["take it easy nyx" TAKESHI NO]
[every answer is worse than the last]
[he’s digging himself deeper with every sentence]
[nyx is about to go into cold mode which is the worst mode]
[confirmed: nyx’s cold mode is more dangerous than direct anger]
Nyx walked over to the desk and leaned against the edge. She didn’t sit down, but she stopped standing by the door, which, in terms of body language, wasn’t necessarily an improvement.
"Yesterday I sent you a message."
She began.
"Yes, I know."
"And you didn’t reply."
"I was busy."
"With the date."
"Yes."
Nyx stared at him.
"The day before that, you turned down my invitation."
Takeshi didn’t answer.
"To go out with another girl."
Nyx continued in a voice that remained calm.
"That means the date had already been planned beforehand."
’Way too analytical.’
Takeshi understood he wasn’t going to get out of this with evasive answers. Nyx wasn’t Akari, who accepted incomplete responses because her attention quickly moved on to something else.
Nyx built arguments from every piece of information she received and wouldn’t let go of a topic until the argument was complete.
He needed to give her something.
Something real enough to work, but false enough to protect what he couldn’t reveal.
He thought about Sable, the café, and yesterday afternoon’s conversation.
Then he found the angle.
[takeshi just had an idea you can see it on his face]
[uh oh]
[uh oh but in a positive or negative way]
[depends on how good the idea is]
[with takeshi you never know]
"I went out with Sable Kuroe."
He finally said.
Nyx’s expression didn’t change immediately as she processed the name.
"The girl from the school band?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Takeshi looked directly at her.
"Because I needed her help finding a place."
Pause.
"A place for what?"
Asked Nyx.
"To ask you out. She knows this part of the city well, and I don’t."
The silence that followed lasted several seconds.
Takeshi watched the change in Nyx’s expression. It wasn’t a big change, but the angle of her shoulders shifted slightly, and something in the line of her mouth changed.
"Are you telling me you used one girl to find a place to ask out another girl?"
"Yes."
Another silence.
"That’s..."
Nyx stopped herself and took a short breath.
"That’s a very inefficient way of doing things."
"Probably."
[NYX IS BLUSHING]
[SHE’S BLUSHING]
["very inefficient way" is her way of saying it worked]
[HAHAHAHAHA nyx processing the situation]
[takeshi saved by the most elaborate lie of the year]
Nyx looked away toward the window. From where he was standing, Takeshi could see that her ears were slightly red.
"You could’ve asked me directly."
She said.
"I didn’t know how."
"By asking."
"It’s not that easy."
Nyx looked back at him. Her expression was more controlled than a minute ago, but the color in her ears hadn’t completely disappeared.
"And do you already have the place?"
"More or less."
"Does more or less mean yes or does it mean no?"
"It means I have options."
Nyx nodded once. It was a small and completely controlled nod.
"Alright."
She finally said.
That was all. She didn’t add anything else.
Takeshi slowly let out a breath.
["alright" TWO WORDS AND THE CHAT EXPLODES]
[nyx accepted. nyx accepted the implied date]
[takeshi survived the hardest conversation of the morning]
[the day is barely starting remember]
[he still has to get out of the room]
"Want to have breakfast?"
Asked Takeshi.
Nyx stepped away from the desk and walked toward the door.
"I already had breakfast. I came early."
"Why did you come so early?"
Nyx opened the door and stopped in the doorway with her back to him.
"Because yesterday you didn’t reply to my message."
She walked out into the hallway.
Takeshi waited a moment before following her.
’Alright, that could have gone a lot worse.’
He mentally reviewed the state of things. He had found an escape route that worked for now.
The problem was that this escape route had moving parts. If Nyx ever talked to Sable, the story would fall apart. If Sable mentioned the café to anyone, the story would fall apart.
But that was a future problem, because the present problem was the kitchen.
Takeshi entered the kitchen behind Nyx and found two things he wasn’t expecting.
Aoi was sitting in a chair by the table with a cup of tea, and Ophélia was leaning against the edge of the counter with both hands around a mug, looking out the kitchen window.
Akari stood by the stove with the expression of someone who had had a more active morning than usual and wasn’t entirely sure when that had happened.
Aoi looked up when they entered. She looked at Takeshi, then at Nyx, then back at Takeshi with an expression that wasn’t friendly.
Ophélia turned her head away from the window. She looked at Takeshi with her usual calmness, but her eyes briefly dropped toward Nyx before returning to him.
"Good morning."
Greeted Takeshi.
"Good morning."
Aoi replied in a completely neutral tone, which was not a good sign.
Ophélia didn’t answer immediately. After a second she said,
"Good morning."
Also in a neutral tone.
[THERE THEY ARE]
[AOI AND OPHÉLIA IN THE KITCHEN]
[takeshi walked in with nyx and they saw everything]
[aoi’s "good morning" sounded like a silent interrogation]
[and ophélia’s did too]
[takeshi just got out of one problem and walked into two]
Akari placed a cup of coffee in front of the empty seat at the table without saying anything.
Takeshi sat down.
Nyx took the seat beside him, which was the only one available, meaning she was sitting between Takeshi and Aoi.
No one spoke for several seconds.
Aoi set her cup down on the table with a small, precise sound.
"Did you go out yesterday?"
She asked Takeshi.
"Yes."
"You didn’t reply to any messages."
"I was busy."
Aoi nodded once. The kind of nod that didn’t mean she accepted the answer, only that she had recorded it for later use.
Ophélia turned slightly away from the counter.
"I messaged you too."
"I know. Sorry."
"Who were you with?"
Asked Aoi.
The question came directly and without any detours.
Takeshi picked up his coffee.
[aoi asked the same thing nyx did]
[takeshi is going to have to tell the same lie twice]
[or a different version]
[if he tells each of them different things the problem multiplies]
[and ophélia is listening too]
[this breakfast is going to be long]
Takeshi set the cup back down on the table and looked at Aoi.
The story he had told Nyx worked with Nyx because Nyx had heard it alone, without witnesses, and because at that moment all her attention had been focused on the detail that the date was for finding a place to ask her out.
But now Nyx was sitting beside him. Ophélia was listening from the counter, and Aoi was asking the same question.
If he told the same story with the same words, Nyx would confirm it. If he told a different story, Nyx would correct him.
Which meant the only way out was to tell exactly the same story in front of all of them and deal with the consequences for Aoi and Ophélia in real time.
He took a breath.
"I went out with Sable Kuroe."
He began.
"I needed her to show me some places around this part of the city."
Aoi stared at him.
"Why Sable Kuroe?"
"Because she knows the area well."
"Why did you need to know the area?"
Takeshi glanced at Nyx for a moment. She was looking down at her cup, but her ears were still slightly red.
Then he looked at Aoi.
"To have options."
Aoi processed that answer. Her expression didn’t change, but something about the way she held her cup shifted slightly.
Ophélia, from the counter, said nothing, but she stopped looking out the window.
["to have options" TAKESHI IN DIPLOMAT MODE]
[nyx with red ears in the middle of all this lol]
[breakfast just started and there are already three active problems at the same time]
[takeshi survived the bedroom and now faces the kitchen]
[welcome to the real final boss]
Akari placed toast in the center of the table with her usual carefree energy and sat down in her usual seat.
"Does anyone want jam?"
She asked, but no one answered.
Akari looked at the four people at the table and then at Ophélia by the counter.
"What a peaceful morning."
Said Akari, completely serious.
