Evening and Winter (夕方と冬)

Our First Lead

Roland was in the living room when Eve opened the door, making her stand at the opened door way, exchanging eye contact with her brother from the distance.

"Hello, Eve." Roland took a newspaper to read, escaping from Eve's eye contact.

"Hello, Nii-san." Eve also averted her eyes, as Taylor stopped behind her with a confused expression.

"Why are you two silent with each other?" Taylor had no idea what was going on.

"I'm going to go for a walk outside," Eve walked to the front door nearby to put on her shoes.

"Take your brother with you," Taylor told her.

"I'm fine going alone," Eve forced a smile to convince her father, then rushing out the door.

"Did you do something to your sister?" Taylor gave Roland a sharp gaze.

"As if, she's just that dramatic, Dad." Roland rolled his eyes in annoyance, continuing to read the newspaper in his hands.

"Why come back with that attitude, humph!" Eve pouted, stumping her steps with her eyes focused to the road, then bumped her forehead followed by her body into a warm surface.

"Look forward when you're walking, Miss Evening." Chifuyu lifted up her chin as he lightly puffed his right cheek, their eyes met.

"Chifuyu-kun..."

"You're not paying attention to your surroundings and you're walking alone, you're asking to get kidnapped at this point." Chifuyu moved his hand up to pinch her cheek.

"Sorry..." Eve sighed heavily.

"What's with the pouty face? Did you argue with your old man or something?" Chifuyu asked her, gently poking her cheek with his finger.

"Um..." Eve threw her face into Chifuyu's chest, making him confused. "Please hide me..." Eve sounded genuinely troubled.

"From your old man?" meanwhile Chifuyu was genuinely confused, patting her head.

"No... from my brother, he's at my house right now." Eve lifted up her head with pursed lips, "He's not someone I want to be around right now, please take me somewhere." She begged.

"Are you scared of heights?" Chifuyu asked her.

"No," Eve shook her head, and Chifuyu smiled before picking her up to carry her in his arms.

"Then hold on," he gave her a wink, then jumped up to a roof to start sprinting towards a 300 feet tall building, stopping on the top. "Don't go too far to the edge, okay?" Chifuyu placed her on her feet, allowing her to explore the flat roof and seeing the view from the high ground.

"You love heights, do you?" Eve asked him, knowing how often he travels and stops on high platforms.

"It's much cooler up high," Chifuyu was enjoying the breeze as he sat down next to Eve, his silver earring swaying with the wind as he turned to Eve. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked her, and Eve hugged her knees as the wind blew her hair and her purple ribbon on the left side of her head.

"My brother used to be really nice to me and I was really happy to see him, but he started giving me verbal insults that always makes me uncomfortable since he came back a few days ago." Eve began to explain in a rather gloomy tone of her usual graceful voice, "He always does that when we're alone, where Dad isn't around. I don't know why he he's like this now; I don't know what I did wrong to him... I hate him..." she buried her face to her knees, while Chifuyu was silent.

"Don't say that, Eve." Chifuyu's calm and cold voice made Eve lift her head, turning her attention to him to see his straight but upset face, feeling his disagreement despite his eyes were averted away. "I'm sure your brother has his reasons, there's no way he does that for no reason." He told her.