Chapter 294 - A "Heartfelt" Interaction

The park was rather empty. There wasn't a single person to be seen. Not even cats or dogs could be seen roaming around. It was an usual winter evening with an overcast sky that covered the park in a certain monochrome.

Chilly winds were blowing every now and then, moving the dry leaves along them. There was a sonorous sound of metallic chains clinging to each other coming from the empty swings which were swaying because of the wind.

Suzuha was sitting on a bench rubbing her freezing hands against each other to warm them up. She was looking at the guy standing in front of her. It was her boyfriend, whose face wore a rather plain expression with droopy eyes.

Suzuha knew that Saishi had something important to talk about. Otherwise he wasn't the type of guy to be interested in meeting with someone just to discuss something that could be done over a text as well.

She had a conversation with Saishi last night. But she had absolutely no idea what he was about to tell her. Albeit, from his cold demeanor and sharp look, she knew that it wasn't going to be something pleasurable.

She was also observing some things for the last few days and few things caught her attention. She had a gut feeling that Saishi was going to discuss something she was trying to avoid all this while.

But only time could confirm whether her intuitions were correct or not.

Even though she hoped that it wasn't the case.

Saishi's dark eyes were staring at Suzuha as well. Only building up more tension on her. She smiled awkwardly to break the ice between them and finally asked, "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"What do you think?" He replied with a follow up question.

His tone was so certain that it almost sounded like he was well about everything and was just messing around with Suzuha like a predator playing around with it's prey before pouncing upon it.

"I have no idea. Tell me?" She smiled nervously.

Listening to her reply, a smirk formed on his face. His hands ruffled through his messy dark hair. He was amused and wanted to see how far she was willing to push herself to save this masquerade she was hiding behind.

"That's interesting. Anyways, we haven't talked in a long time." He said in a rather calm tone.

Suzuha was perplexed by the sudden change in his tone. From a deep and chilling voice it changed to a rather calm and husky one. His eyes seemed relaxed and there was a soft expression on his face.

"Tha… that's true. The last time we had a heartfelt exchange was before the vacation, right?" She said, hesitating a bit.

"If by heartfelt you mean us kissing, then yeah." Saishi retorted quickly, which made Suzuha raise an eyebrow. She narrowed her eyes at him and asked, "Hmm? You still remember that?"

Saishi gave her a side glance and replied in a plain tone, "I mean you don't really forget your girlfriend kissing you."

Saishi was indeed enjoying this. Listening to him saying things like that, Suzuha found herself relieved. She was glad that her gut feelings were wrong and decided to play along with him.

"Oh, you're making me blush. Idiot!" She puffed up her cheeks and let out a smile the next moment.

She thought that Saishi indeed wanted to have a casual conversation with her. It was quite a while since they last talked. She was trying to end this conversation by letting Saishi hear what he wanted.

Saishi shrugged his shoulders and worded his opinion dripping sarcasm, "Now if you've met guys like that, then I don't know."

Though, the sarcasm bounced off her head which made a frown form on Saishi's face. 

Her ember eyes were watching even the smallest of Saishi's movement. Noticing his sudden change of expression, she assumed that she might've done something that ticked him off. 

With an indistinctive smile, she softly spoke, "I've met a lot of guys, but you're quite smooth among them."

By that point, she was making Saishi dance at the top of her palm.

"Ah, yeah I've heard it before." Saishi said with an indifferent tone. Even though he was referring to a song he used to listen to quite a lot.

"Well… we are talking after what? Like a week? You missed me?" Suzuha asked, but Saishi asked her back, "Did you miss me?"

"Sort of. There were these sudden moments when I'd feel your absence." She said with a momentary nod and looked at him, "What about you?"

"Yeah, that's why I asked you to hang out on Christmas Eve." He replied casually, but his tone ticked her off. She sighed and mumbled under her breath, "And yet you ended up with Adacchin?"

"What?" Saishi looked at her and asked even though he heard it for the first time only.

Suzuha glared at him with her fiery ember eyes and asked in a rather loud tone this time, "Yeah! What were you doing with Adachi?!"

Suzuha watched Moriko's story on Christmas Eve where she posted pictures with Saishi. Albeit spending such a day with a girl other than his girlfriend, he had the audacity to expect answers from her.

"I don't think you're in any position to ask me questions." Saishi calmly replied, and added, "Where were you?"

She wasn't expecting him to question back. This caught her off guard. All this while she was controlling the conversation yet it took a turn towards what she was desperately trying to avoid. 

"I had something important to attend to." She replied with much certainty. But her answer didn't seem appealing to Saishi. His sharp glances were still piercing into her.

He gasped and nodded while continuing sarcastically, "Ah, that makes sense why you lied to me and Moriko."

Suzuha's eyes grew wider as those words escaped his mouth. She felt like sinking into the bench she was sitting on.. There was no going back from that point, and she was confirmed that her gut feelings were not wrong, after all.