Blue Spring Tragedy | Kou Mabuchi x Reader

21: Reluctant

With his newfound secret tucked into his pockets, Kou hoped that no one would ever go on his phone again.

His hands couldn't keep still. They were always subconsciously creeping towards the item hidden in this pocket.

His mind bullied him endlessly on what he had done, not allowing him to rest for even a single moment. He didn't know why he did it. There was no reason for him to do it anyway—the original content was fine, satisfactory. But it's been hours, and he still didn't change it back.

With the bitter aftertaste of his dream littered on his mind, memories of mother remained. He felt a sudden urge to pay a visit to her shrine, and before he realised it, he found himself standing by the doorway, peeking inside the dark room like a child not wanting to get caught.

The light hit his mother's face, as it always did. It cascaded down the shrine like a waterfall until Kou's attention finally rested upon the bundle of flowers standing pleasantly in a small, transparent vase. Flowers weren't really Kou's thing, but he was willing to work on anything if it was for his mother. Yoichi was always the one who changed the flowers when they withered: Kou only changed the single hydrangea.

At first, Yoichi thought adding one odd flower to the bunch was a strange thing for his younger brother to do. However, seeing as the bond between the two brothers frayed immensely after their mother's death, Yoichi discovered that it was the only thing he and Kou did together, even if they didn't speak or look at each other as they did so.

The older brother also knew about Kou's behaviour and the distant look in his eyes that he'd get sometimes. When Kou was staring out the window whilst helping Yoichi, the older brother was no fool. He could see the soft, out-of-space glaze smoothing over Kou's cat-like eyes. It was an expression he hadn't seen before and began to grow curious about.

Hence, the following Sunday morning, Yoichi decided to ask his brother about it.

"Kou, has anything happened recently that has... piqued your interest?"

Kou's face would rarely change, so any shift in any visible emotion was something to take note of. So when Yoichi noticed the hint of alarm on his face, he almost burnt the eggs.

"No. I don't know why you'd ask."

Yoichi forced a smile. Getting an answer out of him was not going to be easy.

"I'd just thought that you've been daydreaming more often lately." Yoichi noted his brother's quizzical look. "Maybe you're just lacking sleep and I'm worrying too much about it. But of course, you can't blame me for that. I'm your older brother, so fretting is part of my job."

Kou shrugged. He said nothing.

"Well, if there's anything wrong, you can tell me about it, all right?"

He stayed silent.

"I'm always here for you, whether you need me or not."

Kou's head jerked. He tried covering it up by scratching the back of his neck. Yoichi pretended it went by unnoticed.

Unbeknownst to Yoichi, Kou's mind recalled the following words a girl said to him once: There's always been someone who's been by your side since the very beginning.

Could his brother be the one she was talking about? Or was it someone else? Why think about this anyway? Why remember her words? Is she that important to him?