Playing with Fire (Book One of The Kazuya Series) (✔️)

十八 (Eighteen)

(Arielle's POV)

I sat there with Koan as Kintaro spoke to Asuka and Izumi spoke to Hana. Well Izumi tried to speak to Hana, she was mostly eyeballing me with the occasional lustful glance at Koan.

Apparently Asuka and Hana weren't there out of the kindness of their hearts. Their family had been doing business with the Kazuya's for years. The Kazuya's are a large part of their...income in regards to their businesses. A big hit on the Kazuya's would be a big hit to their family.

Koan's whole body tensed when Asuka said they'd be staying in the city to lend a...helping hand. He tensed more when Kintaro said that if there was room then they could stay at the house. Luckily, with Kenta and the others staying, there was no room. Since he couldn't give them a place to stay, Kintaro offered to take Asuka and Hana out to dinner.

I was going to go with them to dinner, but that changed when I went to the bathroom and Koan followed me. He slipped inside the bathroom and shut the door.

"I can pee by myself, you know." I teased.

He turned his back towards me while I used the restroom and turned back around when I was washing my hands.

"Don't go." He said.

"Go where?" I asked, drying my hands.

"To dinner with us. Go home."

There was a look in his eyes that I didn't like and it was a look I couldn't quite place.

"Hey," I said, stepping over and cupping his face in my hands. "What is it?"

"You'll go home?"

I nodded, hating the look in his eyes and the pained tone of his voice. "Just tell me why. It's them isn't it? Asuka and Hana?"

With his back pressed to the door, he slid down to sit. I went with him and ended up facing him cross legged between his splayed out legs.

"The day I sunk a fork into Kenta's hand, I also bashed Asuka's head into a wall and dumped my plate on Hana." He said, leaning his head against the door.

"The same day?"

He nodded.

"Heard Kenta liked to pick on you. Did all three of them do it together?"

"Sometimes. Hana did it less than them."

"Why?"

He shrugged. "Because I was quiet, weird, and...untouchable."

"For a good reason." I said, getting a bit angry.

"They called me weak and a little bitch because my brothers always stood up for me and I never fought back against them."

"Do they still do it now?"

"Their...aim has changed since the fork and wall incident. They bullied me because they could and saw me to be weaker than them. Now, they try to get me to do something. They try to get me to act out. Which I did when I put the spoon through Kenta."

"Because of me." I said, piecing it together.

"If I'm there, you think they'll gang up on you about me? Even with me sitting there?"

"Indirectly or in Japanese so you won't understand."

"What makes you think they won't do it because I'm not there?"

"Out of sight, out of mind." He shrugged.

"I run rampant up here even when I'm not around though, right?" I smiled, poking his forehead.

He smirked. "Even in my sleep."

I sighed. "I have one issue."

"Name it."

"Hana." I said and his jaw clenched.

"What about her?"

"The way she looks at you...it's the same way I look at you."

In an instant he grabbed me and closed the distance between us by pulling me to him. One hand tangled into my hair at the back of my head and held me to him, leaving very little distance between our foreheads.

"Don't...compare yourself to her. The way she looks at me, it doesn't even come close to the way you look at me. She looks at me like I'm a piece of meat. All she wants is to sleep with me." He said.

Instinctively, I balled my hands into fists and furrowed my brows at the thought of them together. His grip on me tightened and he pressed his forehead to mine.

"Every time you look at me, I see a fire burning in your eyes. You look at me like I'm all that matters to you. Sometimes you look at me like you can't believe I exist. You look at me like I'm some kind of miracle. You don't look at me like a piece of meat. You don't just want to sleep with me."

I felt myself blush at his last statement and he just smirked.

There was no way I could say that I wasn't sexually attracted to him, because I was, but it wasn't in the same aspect of others. Hana, I'm sure, was attracted to the physical aspect of Koan.

After seeing him dressed, half dressed, and completely naked I wouldn't dare deny his sex-appeal but it wasn't just his appearance that had me attracted to him. His voice, his intelligence, his demeanor, his little habits, his heart, his soul, everything about him was attractive to me. Everything about him had me addicted to him.

He brushed his nose against mine and smiled softly. "Don't worry about her. Okay?"

"Okay." I sighed.

"Go home and I'll come to you as soon as the dinner is over."

"If you don't, I'll come looking for you."

He chuckled. "I don't doubt it."

We eventually made our way out of the bathroom to find Hana waiting outside in the hallway. She smiled when she saw Koan, but that smile quickly faded when she saw me behind him.

He didn't look at her or say a single word as he pulled me past her. We spent the next few hours in his room before I headed out. I kissed him goodbye in the privacy of his section of the house before I left.

I didn't go home right away though. I went by my parents house since I promise my mother I'd visit. I'd promised to visit the following day, but felt like I'd get it over with.

She drilled me about where I'd been and who I'd been with. She questioned me about the clothes I wore since they were Koan's and were too big for me. She questioned me about my shoulder and if I was in any pain.

When I finally managed to escape back to my place, hours had ticked by. It was around hour five that I felt like something was wrong.

I can't quite explain it, but I just felt it down in the depths of my heart, in my bones, in my gut, and in my soul.

Something was wrong.

I pulled up my text messages as I headed back down to my car looking to see where Koan has said they went to. I didn't care if I wasn't dressed for the...atmosphere of the restaurant or whatever, all I cared about was proving to myself that he was okay.

I saw the names of the restaurant in the messages and typed it into the GPS right as my phone pinged with a news alert.

Popular local restaurant, Waterside Palace shot up. 7 dead and 13 injured. Names of victims unreleased.

My heart dropped as I frantically started calling him.

He didn't answer.

Kintaro didn't answer.

Izumi didn't answer.

No one answered.

The only other thing I could do was go to the restaurant.

So that's what I did.