Me and Ai

Chapter 69: Sleeping Angel

"Masato, I'd like to ask you a question as well."

"Hm? What would that be?"

"Do you still have feelings for Kaori?"

Masato was a little surprised by my question. He closes his book and looks at me.

"I'm not going to lie to you. To tell you the truth, I still love Kaori; my feelings for her have not changed."

So Masato still loves her...Does this mean that he—

"However, I don't intend to interfere with your relationship with her."

"I do love her but when I look at her being with you, she's happy. I don't want to neither cause any harm to her nor do I wish to make her unhappy. She truly loves you very much, Mikaze; she's happy being with you. If she's happy being with you then I'd rather help her keep that happiness than lose it. Back then, when she told me that she didn't look at me in the same way that I look at her, she asked me if we could remain as friends. I told her that I would like that very much and I also told her then that if ever she would find someone that she'd love and enjoy being with, I would support her as long as that man would keep her safe and happy. I really do love her but I feel that it's not right to force myself onto her or to try keeping her for myself; I just really want her to be happy."

"Thank you, Masato."

"Hm?"

"Thank you for taking care of Kaori until now and thank you for approving of me; I promise that I will keep her safe and make her happy."

Masato smiles. "Thank you as well for accepting her with open arms. I will not forgive any actions that would make her cry and unhappy, you hear me?"

Ai smiles. "Yes, I'll remember that."

"You're not as emotionless as I first thought."

"She knows that very well."

"I wish the best of luck for the both of you. Please be careful of Saotome; be wary of him."

"Yes, he is quite a threat. I do worry about him a little; he might already suspect me and Kaori after watching our live performance."

"Is that so? Please, feel free to ask for my help any time; I'll be happy to help you both if needed."

"Alright, I'll remember that."

"May I know who else knows about your relationship?"

"Aside from you and Manager-san, Haruka and Kumagai Naoto know about it."

"At least our allies are good. It surprises me though that Shinomiya and Kurusu don't know about you and Kaori; I thought that they would be the first to notice since the four of you are often together."

"Yes, I'm glad that Kaori and I have support from such good people. We really are thankful for everyone's help and concern. I'm not surprised that Natsuki and Syo haven't noticed yet; they're not as keen compared to you."

"I suppose so. Good luck to all of us."

I left the lobby and was on my way back to my room but then I thought about Kaori. I checked the time and it was 8:30 am. She usually wakes up at around 9:30 am when she sleeps late; she's probably still asleep right now. She slept late last night because she was memorizing and studying some scripts and materials. I hope she didn't forget to lock her door before sleeping; I should go and check.

I went to her room and turned the doorknob; the door opened. As I thought, the door was left unlocked. Sigh.

I was going to close and lock the door when I noticed the papers scattered on the floor. I went inside to pick up the papers; it turns out they were all music sheets and script pages. As I picked up the papers from the floor, I felt a light breeze coming from behind me. I turned to look at the windows and two of them were opened; she probably forgot to close them last night. I collected all the papers and placed them into her desk's drawer; I hope that there aren't any missing pages. I then went over to the windows that were open and closed them right away.