︶꒦꒷ Second Chance ꒦꒷ ⌇ rainiiqx

𝙖𝙘𝙩 𝙫𝙞𝙞𝙞.

act viii.   regret

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I shifted awkwardly, trying to get comfortable in my seat.

I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow I ended up making coffee for Rose and Nozomi.

We sat in awkward silence, the only sound being the clanks of teaspoons against the mugs.

"Nozomi— Ah, Lekami! Lekami...", Rose started, "I'm really sorry, I'll make sure nothing like that ever happens again, and I—", she continued.

"I'll be off now.", the monochrome-haired girl excused, pushing her seat away as she stood.

We only watched as she started to walk away.

Rose frowned, taking a deep, frustrated exhale. "I'm starting to feel more sympathetic for you, Zan.", she stated. I gave her a pitiful smile, at least sort of relieved that I'm not alone on this.

"Mmm... I'm sure she's not that mad at you, probably just a small grudge.", I reassured. She nodded, some sort of relief taking over her, as she took a sip of coffee.

Though my main concern wasn't the brunette girl.

It's been around two days since the argument.

Nozomi was getting more and more distant, more focused on her work.

I told her about the heart, she didn't seem to be too disturbed. But she did find out that the heart belonged to the owner's daughter, Hanae Shio, whose death had just been recently announced. It was like their bloodline was cursed, really. Most, if not all of the Shio's had died from unnatural deaths - assassinated and such.

I haven't heard from the Takahashi siblings either, though Mana had told me that Nozomi was seeming more and more stressed out, as well as checking in on her for me. In exchange, I told her about the argument, and why her "favourite detective" was injured.

Needless to say, I was severely worried for her. Everyone was.

It's like she wasn't even doing this for justice, just for revenge. Some sort of coping mechanism, perhaps?

Though no one was disguising anymore, they were openly solving the case, or cases now due to Hanae's death.

She was cold, very closed-off after what had happened. The only people she would talk to was Anne and Millie, of course, the Takahashi siblings as well. Even then, she was still somewhat kind to me.

I could tell she also held a grudge on Ryoto, though. I'm guessing she has mixed feelings about him. I understand, he stayed with Rose and didn't bother helping her or even apologising for Rose's actions. While I understand that she's his lover, and that of course he'd side with her more, it's still kinda a dick move doing that. Nozomi saw him as an older brother, so of course, she'd be heavily disappointed in him.

I felt pitiful for her. The girl had gone through so much grief after her brother had died, she endured the bullying from my ex-friends, and actually, now that I think about it, I haven't heard from either of her parents after they moved away; had something happened to them as well? I didn't even want to know at this point.

The moon glowed, soft moonlight rays seeping through the curtains.

"Do you think she'll be alright?", Rose asked, finishing her coffee. I shrugged, "I'm not sure, it's already late, it's like they extended the time for investigation or something.", I answered, noticing Nozomi had gone out to investigate again.