The CEO's Sister

Chapter 8

Nishida's POV

The ride to Shizuki's house was a lengthsome and noiseless one. I kept my eyes on the road, and millions of questions flowed like a river in my head.

What would happen to me if I had been home at the time of the intrusion? Since when do people other than Bel and her mom care about me? Why was Shizuki suddenly nice to me? Why had he indirectly referred to me as his sister?

I had been thinking too much lately, so I decided to turn my attention to other things. Like the fact that Shizuki's car seats were snow white, and didn't have a single spot on them. I felt a little self-conscious because I still had a few ink marks from school on my skirt, so I placed my hand on top of it, hoping Shizuki hadn't seen. He probably would think I'm dirty, in contrast to him.

"You're also dirt intolerant, huh?"

Oh no, he saw me. I just nodded.

"So that means you won't be hard to live with, right?"

Okay, then I knew that Shizuki being nice to me was all in my head. He was literally the one who invited me to stay with him and then he's the same person wondering if I'll be hard to live with.

"I won't be staying long anyways, so I don't think I'll be much of a burden," I stated, slightly annoyed.

"Works for me," he responded. He looked like he was about to say something more, and I was afraid it'd be self-praise, and would result in us having another contention, so I quickly changed the topic.

"How do you drive so smoothly?" I asked.

"I do? Well, it's probably the car's quality. But what do you expect from someone who's had driving lessons since he was ten, and that someone happens to be the CEO of a car manufacturing company?" he went on.

I tried changing the subject to avoid stuff like this, but it was obviously a miserable failure. I simply rolled my eyes at him, and turned to look out of the window, making it clear that I didn't want the conversation to go on.

"Oh! I didn't mean to um...well...uh..." he trailed off.

"Didn't mean to what? Drive smoothly?" I inquired. I didn't know Shizuki knows how to stutter.

"No! I...uh..." he trailed off again, as if trying to find the correct words to use.

"Am I sensing humiliation?" I teased, raising an eyebrow.

"No! Well, yes... I mean..."

"Yes?" I asked eagerly.

"Nisha!" he yelled.

"What? I'm just shocked," I explained. I started wondering if he had heard himself. The Shizuki Takurai? Humbling himself? In front of a homeless orphan? This had to be some sort of twisted joke.

"I didn't mean to sound arrogant, I was just answering your question," he replied.

"...you're... sorry?" I repeated.

"You still haven't forgiven me," he mumbled.

"Oh," And that put paid to our conversation.

A quarter of an hour and five minutes later, Shizuki took out some sort of remote controller and pressed the digits on it. As if responding to some order, the ebony black gates in front of us opened, and into the compound we drove.

He drove, I rode.

My eyes were greeted by a beautiful courtyard, illuminated by the setting sun and some lampposts that were attached to the walls. There were three beige stone paths, one leading straight ahead into the biggest house I've ever seen. Well, that's because its the only mansion I've seen in real life. The other two paths led to the left and to the right, and before I could admire the mansion more, we turned right. I still looked out of the window, from the verdant lawn to the adjoining patio, having chocolate brown vases of white roses at the four corners. There were two counter tables, like the ones at Josée's, white on top and dark brown on the lower part. We went to the other side of the house into a garage that had three other cars inside and Shizuki parked his car. He opened the boot and I took my shopping bags.