misogynistic - naoya

chapter 21

naoya zen'in

"As far as I remember, you were part of my killing Naoya." "What if?" "You make no sense. What are you even mad for? Weren't you the one insulting me the whole time? The one that never accepted me?" "You know what, screw you. There are things you don't understand Toji." "Oh, what type of things are those? After all, we are still from the same family aren't we?" "You ran away from it, don't you get it? You lived the way you wanted until you died. What am I doing here? Living my life the way I want? I don't think so." Naoya had raised his voice but Toji's was still cold, calm and had a sassy undertone.

Tears were forming inside Naoya's eyes, not only being unusual for the brunette standing between the two mem, staring at them, also for his cousin. The longest time Toji knew him, Naoya was proud and never cared about others. He was the best choice as the head of their clan. But this, he was sure that none other than the two, himself and Kayo, had seen the man like this before. "Just- Tell me why you never came back. You promised me to be by my side." "That was when?" "You know what Toji, I deeply hate you." He stood up, wanting to go outside, when he was suddenly sucked into the water. "What's this." Kayo smiled at him. "I want you to sort your problems out, that's why you need to stay, you dumb fuck."

Moving back to the place he was standing before, he looked with his usual face of disgust. "What do you want?" He was implying at the way Toji was looking at him. "You look so ugly when you show humane emotions Naoya." "Shut the fuck up. That's being told to me by a man who is as cold as ice." After a minute of silence, they all started to laugh, as the water under them slowly disappeared, as well as Toji.

"You can do stuff like this?" Kayo slowly nodded, sitting down on the couch, as she felt a tear slowly rolling down her cheek. "You spent your time like this?" She again nodded. "You know you have to stop doing this, right?" She again nodded. Naoya sat down next to her, "You know, I haven't laughed like this for quite a time. Gotta thank my cousin for that one." She got offended by that one. "Excuse me? Without me, that wouldn't have happened." "As if I'd thank you." "The fuck does that mean? Because I am a woman or because I am me?" "Both." She just rolled her eyes, thinking about the things she heard about Naoya from that maid and the Naoya sitting next to her. They were different. Completely different.

"How is Mina?" "She has a kid now." "You're an uncle??" "I was Megumi's uncle before so?" "Yeah, whatever." She thought about what he had said about Mina. A "slut", why would he say that? "Why did you call her a slut?" "Excuse me?" "When I first came back, a maid told me that you were referring to your sister as a slut." "Oh, about that, she's still married to the same man, but got a kid from someone else. She made our name impure and calling her a slut was one of the less things she deserved. Althoigh the thing years ago, she shouldn't have treated her husband like that. He did care for her after that incident." Kayo widened her eyes. "You know, sometimes I just want to disagree with you, because it's you but the things you're saying make sense." He evilly smiled at her, making her shake her head.

———

"Do you want a coffee?" "Now?" Kayo looked at her clock, it was a little past 10pm, making her laugh. "Really? It's just 10, come, I'll make you some." He shrugged his shoulders, waiting for her to make the coffee. Taking both cups, she walked outside into their green garden, looking around, she looked for Naoya, who was sitting on the bench by the cherry blossom trees.

It was night, under the trees, blossoms were falling down. It wasn't annoying at all, it looked beautiful. The starry night above was shining at them. As if the whole world had waited for them to unite again. Just to be happy.

They hadn't realized yet, but both of their expressions had changed. Smiling more, Kayo looked at Naoya and his eyes were giving off a warm shine, as well as hers. Their eyes were full of hope and were less dead, tired and alone. Even though the last ten years were rough, they found each other again. They were completely different from each other, their aims were different, the way they talked, acted, their personalities in general. But they had one thing in common, that was Toji and their loss. Just like Toji and Kayo had gotten friends through Naoya, Naoya and her became closer through Toji.

The loss they shared, the grief, they were each other's comfort.