COTE | | Bound | | [Suzune x Kiyotaka]

Special || Comfort, The Past

I'm going to class this as a special chapter because realistically it should have been the chapter after Chapter 17: Trust. Anyway, let us delve into the comfort.

| | BOUND | |

It was late at night, Suzune and Kiyotaka were returning home - something they liked to call Kiyotaka's dorm room - after going to the convenience store to pick up some snacks. After all, it had been a brutal experience for the both of them the previous day, they had nearly lost each other because of one girl.

She was distraught at the thought of leaving him after finding out something excruciatingly painful about his past. She was distraught at the fact that she forced him to tell her when it was something he should have kept a secret.

"I suppose I should go into detail, shouldn't I, Suzune?" He said, sitting down on his bed, his back facing the wall as Suzune sat beside him.

"If you do not wish to, you do not have to, Kiyotaka." She replied, leaning her head on his shoulder, refusing to let go of the comfort that resided beside her.

"I've kept this from you for far too long, in fact, I should have told you sooner. A relationship is built on trust, as you said, isn't it?" He placed his hand on hers and gently rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand.

"I suppose it is, isn't it?" Kiyotaka failed to see it as her head was on his shoulder but a pained look appeared in her face as if she herself was being untruthful.

"It quite literally began when I was born. From the moment I opened my eyes, the only colour that existed to me was purely the colour white."

It's amusing, the colour white always has positivity surrounding it, it's the colour that connotes to 'holiness' and mainly the colour used to portray angels. Yet, that wasn't the case for Kiyotaka.

"I was allowed freedom, though it only remained within the white room, up until the age of four. Before I begun the devastating curriculum of my generation, I was once a happy boy."

She smiled at the thought of a small Kiyotaka running around with toys in his hand and a big grin on his face, "I remember feeling all the emotions that a child growing up in a normal society feels, and most certainly, I remember the tears that fell when the white room curriculum began."

Instinctively, Suzune moved closer than she already was to Kiyotaka perhaps wanting to comfort him in his time of recalling the dreaded past that he experienced.

"It was truly an awful experience, I hadn't been prepared. I would cry tirelessly until my father called me to witness something. He showed me what happened to the already failed students of the fourth generation. I fear it is too ghastly for me to explain in detail so I will not but that day, something within me changed."

Without realising, Suzune had tears running down her face, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be the one crying, should I?" Kiyotaka using his thumb, wiped the tears falling down her cheeks, and then kissed just underneath both of her eyes gently.

"It's quite alright, Suzune. I wouldn't expect anyone to listen to this past with a straight face. Perhaps we should open the snacks to get a more calm atmosphere going." Suzune did just that, she directly went to the strawberry pocky that she seemed to suddenly get an attraction for.

She had one in her mouth, but it was sticking out. To lighten the mood, Kiyotaka did the unexpected.

"Is that snack good?" He asked, to which Suzune responded by nodding her head up and down and offering one from the box. Kiyotaka took the box and put it down, gently grabbing her cheek and stealing the one that was currently sticking out of her mouth with a kiss, "You seem to be right, it is quite nice."