Ink Stained

89: breathless*

Sorry what. Run that by me again.

"That is not possible." She bluntly declared.

He shrugged. "Ask Kouta – I've tried, but I never get drunk, no matter how much I drink." He chuckled drily. "You have no idea how many times I've had to pretend I'm as drunk as everyone else when they're all acting like idiots."

She blinked at him, mouth opening and closing as she tried to take in what he was saying and make sure she understood him correctly.

Shin couldn't get drunk. When with the other Daitengu, he only pretended to be drunk to not spoil the mood. If that was actually possible, then it meant he was sober right now. Sober enough that he knew what he was doing when he kissed her on her cheek.

Did he...did he know? Did he actually know about her feelings for him? Had she slipped up somewhere and he figured it out?

The flare of excitement in her stomach was doused in a bucket of ice-cold water when she unwillingly recalled Shiori's phone call on Ukabarenairei. She remembered what she'd told Pai about why Kouta had taken so long to tell her what he felt about her, about why Shiori wanted her to be careful with how close she got to Shin.

Shin noticed the dampening of her mood, saw her shoulders drooping in disappointment she tried to hide behind a fake smile he hated seeing her don.

"Why?" she asked softly, dropping her eyes to her hands again. She began picking at her fingers, knowing she was doing something that would cause her only grief later on. The wound from what skin she tore at would swell uncomfortably for a week before it healed. It would hurt. She kept at it. "Why did you do that?"

She didn't want to look at him when he let her down. She knew he would reject her kindly, because that was the kind of man he was. He'd just kissed her cheek to...she didn't know.

She needed to know, though. He would let her down, but she needed to know why he'd kissed her just now. Even if he did it the way he would if she was his little sister, it would be better than letting her imagination run wild.

But remembering Shiori's phone call reminded her why she had decided to keep her feelings to herself.

"It's like two sides of a coin. One side, it's amazing to be in a relationship with Hengen because if they're with you, they're with you."

I won't get hurt, she thought to herself resolutely.

"But then," she closed her eyes as she waited for the impending blow to her heart. "Hengen can't be in a relationship with someone their True Ayakashi doesn't accept. It just won't work, no matter how they both try."

"Because," Shin tilted his head to the side, eyes twinkling in merriment at the way she tried to avoid looking at him. "I care about you. And not just as a friend."

She blanked.

Her hand jerked and she winced as she pulled a bit of loose skin completely off, but she ignored the pain as her eyes darted up to his in child-like befuddlement, unable to understand what he'd said. There was no way she'd heard him right. No way at all. She was hallucinating.

"What?" she repeated, for what must've been the millionth time in the space of barely half an hour.

Shin looked like he was fighting to keep himself from laughing at her stupefied expression. He leaned forward again, but this time it was to tap the end of her nose. She blinked owlishly at the move, nerves tingling where he touched her.