𝐑𝐎𝐀𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐘𝐎𝐔⭑.ᐟ 𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐔 (✔)

chapter 04

Haruchiyo.

The name echoed in my mind before I could even fully process what I was seeing, my gaze locked onto him as if looking away would somehow make him disappear. He was standing right there, only a few steps away from me, close enough that I could see every detail clearly—his posture, the tension in his shoulders, the way his breathing wasn't as steady as he probably wanted it to be. My brother. The same brother I had convinced myself was gone, buried somewhere in a past I could never return to. And yet here he was, alive, standing inside Bonten as if this was where he had always belonged.

My chest tightened as another realization hit me just as hard. Takeomi was here too.

What about Senju?

The thought came so suddenly it almost knocked the air out of me, a quiet panic settling deep in my chest as all the worst possibilities began to surface at once. If both of them were here, then where was she? Why hadn't I seen her yet?

Please don't tell me she's dead.

"Where's Senju?" I asked, the question slipping out before I could stop it, my voice quieter than intended but carrying enough weight to shift the entire room. The reaction was immediate.

Not loud. Not dramatic. But heavy.

Silence fell—not the calm kind, but the kind that pressed down on everything, thick and uncomfortable. I didn't like it. I didn't like it at all.

"I... don't know."

Haruchiyo's voice came out lower than I expected, stripped of its usual edge as his hands dropped to his sides, his gaze falling to the floor like he couldn't meet mine. That alone told me enough to make my stomach twist.

Something wasn't right.

Before I could push further, Mikey's voice cut through the tension, light but observant. "Do you two know each other?" he asked, glancing between us with mild curiosity, like he was watching a scene unfold rather than being part of it.

I let out a quiet breath, forcing myself to steady my thoughts. "...Yeah," I said, my eyes flickering briefly back to Haruchiyo before settling again. "We're siblings."

There was a brief pause before someone snorted.

"Well, at least she's not another useless distraction," a long-haired man muttered, leaning back slightly with a careless expression that didn't quite hide the sharpness in his tone.

"Watch your mouth," another voice snapped almost immediately, tension sparking again, though this time it felt more familiar, like internal conflict rather than something directed at me.

"Relax," the taller man with slicked-back purple hair cut in smoothly, stepping between them just enough to diffuse it. "You're getting worked up over nothing."

Their voices blurred into the background. Because without meaning to, I looked at him again. The jellyfish hair one. This time, our eyes met fully.

His gaze didn't shift away, didn't falter or hesitate. Those violet eyes held mine with a quiet intensity, something unreadable lingering beneath the surface as if he was studying me in ways I couldn't quite understand. Up close, the details were clearer, the soft fall of his curtain-styled hair, the faint purple tint catching under the light, the way his droopy eyes gave him a lazy appearance that didn't match the sharpness behind them.

There was something about him that didn't sit right. Not in a bad way. Just, too composed. Too aware. And annoyingly—attractive.

What the hell is wrong with me?

"Staring is rude."

His voice pulled me out of it instantly, calm but direct, like he had been waiting for me to realize it myself.