The Sea of Tranquility (MayuzumiXOCXAkashi)

Part 12

"Aoyama-sensei."

The elder man's hand suddenly froze in the air, dumbfounded with what he just heard. "Sensei...?"

He was holding a teacup, preparing something to drink when he decided to face the girl who was sitting behind. "I'm sorry, did you just refer me as 'sensei'?"

The girl nodded innocently.

"No." He let out a rough cough as he fixed the wrinkles in his suit. "I'm no 'sensei'. I'm just like you, a fellow staff of this mansion." he explained.

The young Hotaru blinked.

A minute of silence filled the room.

More importantly, something was wrong with the current set up. The girl was holding something, like a picture book.

Aoyama closed his eyes to ponder the situation. He was in the middle of tutoring the girl. The sight in his front should be something like a quiet girl sitting in a couch, attentively absorbing all the words that he was saying regarding the rules of the house. Or at least, should be jotting down all information he was saying and reviewing it while he was busy preparing their snacks.

He only turned his back for a while and she was already doing something else.

"Then, Aoyama...?" the girl went on, unsure.

This made his brow twitched in annoyance. And now, without honorifics? "That is...too casual, Hotaru."

"Aoyama-dono?"

The head attendant raised a brow.

"...Aoyama..." The girl slowly pronounced his name while steadily looking at the older male, looking for any hint or clue as if she was playing some guessing game. "...san...?"

He nodded before stretching his lips into a thin line. Well, "Let's just go with the usual, yes."

She smiled, wiggling the legs that failed to reach the floor. "So Aoyama-san, this, who is she?" she pointed on and on at the image of someone in the album she took from one of the shelves in the house.

The surface of the photo booklet was old, the plastic cover, if not worn out, were already sticking at the photo itself.

She really wasn't listening from the start. The elder man could only frown. "We're in the middle of studying, get that away—"

"But I'm curious." The black haired girl insisted, taking her own fancy of turning the booklet on to the next page.

There it was again, the woman was everywhere. Most of the time, she was beside the young Akashi Seijuro.

No use.

Kids these days... really.

Left without a choice, the girl won't focus unless he told her.

As the older person, Aoyama must be patient and so, he went beside the girl and peeked a little.

He was probably the one who kept those albums in the shelf.

Years had passed since then. He already forgot the photos inside that album.

The senior attendant made a slight tilting of his chin as he gave a quick look at the photos.

Squinted eyes were formed.  Ah... came to his thought the instant his eyes landed at the pictures. It felt like forever since he last saw that face. Suddenly, he was in deep nostalgia.

Should he reveal the identity of that woman? Would she even understand if he did?

Maybe or maybe not.