𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐄; DIABOLIK LOVERS

ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʀᴜᴛʜ ʙᴇʜɪɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀꜱᴋ

Lies.

Truth is, I never really had any friends, at least before Yui. I have always kept to myself training, reading, or studying. And then there was also the bullies, constantly berating me and spreading lies about-

"I'll tell you what," he said, giving me a characteristic smirk. "How about you come over for dinner, we can finish the assignment, and then we can talk more?"

"Um uh-"

Red alert. Right now my brain was screaming at me with a million different excuses that I could use to get out of that situation.

My sister's friend's grandfather's fish just died. Yes, it was tragic. The funeral is today.

My uncle escaped again. I have to go find him.

I can't go. I have some hard words I need to look up in the dictionary.

But instead all I could mutter out was, "Yes."

Kou laughed before standing up and placing his hand on top of my head. He leaned closer to my ear.

"Let's make a lot of memories tonight Sayaka-chan."

I shuddered from the immediate closeness and Kou left to join the other side of the classroom from where his adoring fans were calling out to him...

"Ne, ne, I'm coming!"

As soon as the fans noticed his presence, strings of compliments and gushes of praise erupted. Kou seemed to bathe in the admiration as his "idol personality" cranked up to 100. Even though he was smiling, I sort of felt bad for Kou. It must be hard trying to keep up this facade with the whole world telling you who to be, and how to act all the time.

I stared blankly at the empty notebook on my desk. Even though it may have been a bad idea to agree to go, I hope Kou will feel comfortable enough to show the sides of him he has to keep hidden. He deserves at least that.

━━━ ₊˚. ☾ ˎˊ- ━━━

"Heh! Kou? Kou Mukami?!" Yui whisper-yelled in the hallway

"Yeah! He told me he knows the Sakamaki's, and with that information it may give us the leg up in an escape plan-"

Yui pulled me to the side and grabbed my shoulders.

"Sayaka! You can't go!" Yui urgently said, shaking my shoulders.

"What? Why not?" I asked, furrowing my brows in confusion.

"They're vampires too!"

Vam-pire?

Vampire!

VAMPIRE?!

"What?! He's one of them too?!" I yelled, grabbing and shaking her shoulders as well.

"Yes! He's a Mukami, they're vampires as well!"

That means Ruki?

That's why he knew that wooden stakes don't work!

Now at this point, if you were a stranger, you would just see two girls violently shaking each other at the end of the hallway. Though strange, you would be able to continue about your day just noting it as an odd moment.

But if you were living this nightmare, like me, all you could think of is one thing.

Well crap-a-doodle-doo I'm screwed.

━━━ ₊˚. ☾ ˎˊ- ━━━

Turns out there are four brothers in the Mukami family, Kou introduced them to me. There was Ruki who I already knew, Yuma who seemed to be scowling 90% of the time and lastly Azusa he was pretty quiet and had scars on his face and bandages all over his arms. The brothers seemed so different from each other yet they got along better than the Sakamakis did.

Directly after school we took a limo to their home which was more like a mansion if you ask me. Kou brought me to his room and told me to wait while he got his stuff for the assignment and some refreshments for us while we work.

I stayed on the bed for several seconds before finally convincing myself he was gone.

Okay Sayaka, deep breath. Time to sleuth around.

I scanned over the items on the table and picked up the different magazines and quickly thumbed through them.

This didn't exactly feel right in my moral compass, but I need to know more about the Mukami's and their relations with the Sakamaki's. This is for the better.

There was nothing hidden or written in the magazines. Crap. What next?

I hurried over to the nightstand and ripped open the drawer. Inside, there was a silver blade, a letter, and a... condom?

I'm going to pretend like I never saw that.

I picked up the letter, surprised by how delicate and soft the envelope was. It was saturated in an aged cream color and had beautiful calligraphy addressed at the top.

To: Emilio, from Leona

Who are they?

"Having fun?"

Uh-oh.

My throat immediately knotted up and a sinking feeling erupted in the pit of my stomach. The letter in my hand started shaking from my trembling hands and I could feel the tips of my fingers go numb. Kou came from behind me and snatched the letter from my loose grip.

Words. I need to say something, but right now my mind was blank while also going a million miles per hour.

"I- I'm so sorry-" I stuttered out.

"Well," He sighed, gazing at the letter in hand, "I think you need to be taught a lesson."

His right eye started glowing red before slamming me against the wall.

The room started spinning from the immediate impact of my head crashing into the wall, but even in my dizziness, I could still see and practically feel  his menacing gaze.

"Let's call this lesson-" He wrapped his hands around my throat, "what happens to bad kitties when they snoop around my stuff," he growled at the end.

The pressure on my windpipe was growing stronger and Kou bared his fangs leaning in closer.

"Look," I choked out in a barely audible whisper. Kou paused for a second and I took it as a sign to continue. "I know we don't know each other that well, but I'm still worried about you. No one deserves having to hide who they are, day in and day out. I want you to feel free."

His red eye was staring into my soul, and he released the grip from my throat before using it to trap my wrists above me.

"Don't ever  try to get inside my head," he snarled, decreasing the distance between our bodies. For several beats we stayed there, his grip crushing my wrists. Finally, his mismatched eyes softened, "You'll get hurt if you do."

I realized then that the massive weight on my chest wasn't because I was scared of what he was going to do to me.

I was scared of what happened to him.

Kou pushed me to the ground and put his knee in between my legs, hovering over me. I knew where this situation was going to lead to but for some reason that was the least of my worries.

"How do you do it?" I meekly whispered.

"How do I do what?

"Pretend you are okay."

"I'm not pretending."

"Yes you are, every single day. And it breaks my heart."

Kou looked down on me with heavy eyes and leaned further into the crook of my neck.

"You are going to be the death of me."