Hikari was glowing in the morning. her eyes were tired, sure, and not a single part of her body felt fine, and she's earned another wound, gained more bruises, but the point was that she was glowing. her sex life was active.
she wasn't able to cook breakfast for Rin so Ran's cook did it himself. the couple had just showered and Ran was applying ointment on her wound when Rindou came walking in at six in the morning. Hikari rushed to cover herself, Ran sighed, and Rindou could only stand still.
"...breakfast," was all he said.
"yeah, got it, Rin—I'll come out in a while."
in contrast to Hikari, Ran was a chirping bird. the three of them sat on the kitchen island, Ran beside Hikari and Rin across them. however, of the three, the older brother was the only one who had so much to smile and talk about.
he'd told her a while ago when he bathed her that he always sleeps so peacefully when they do it enough times to make him pass out. enough times for him, was too much times for Hikari. but as always, she gave him what he wanted—not that she could say no to his body either—and here she was suffering the consequences that Ran seemed to never experience.
"so let's go over work later on," Ran chirps, his cheek prodded against his palm.
neither of them responded as they mechanically eat their food. Rin didn't like it so much as he's grown to enjoy meals exclusively of Hikari's cooking.
"you'll probably be stuck in the office with Kokonoi for the whole day, I don't actually know—we don't have schedules—but I'll be in and out—"
Hikari choked on her food, causing Ran to halt from speaking as he gives her a glass of water. as she coughed repeatedly, she shot him a look. with what she went through yesterday night, Ran shouldn't be allowed to say in and out so casually.
"you okay?" he asks.
"how about you just stop talking for now, Ran," she smiles at him.
"I second that, why are you even here when you're not eating," Rindou scowls.
"right, please go away, Ran."
"as I was saying," Ran continues, unfazed.
Hikari and Rin shared a groan. it was too early to talk about anything.
"my work—Rindou's work too actually, not that you should care—involves going to different places; I rarely ever step foot in the office. but I will from now on, however for today, I'll be going out of Tokyo."
"okay."
"what I'm saying is that please take care of yourself, Hikari," he says, a hint of seriousness in his voice, "Sanzu won't be there because I'm taking that shithead with me, but never let your guard down still."
Hikari looks up at him curiously. if he was this worried, he'd never allow her to go to the headquarters without him by her side.
"Rin will be with you though," he adds with a mildly bitter face.
so that's why, she thought; he still trusted his brother.
"don't you have work of your own, Rin?" Hikari asks him.
he shook his head. "we prefer to kill at night."
"ah," she tightly smiles.
"but not too early in the night, maybe around ten," Ran mutters, and Rin nods in agreement.
"is killing all you ever do?" she asks, feeling out the question in her tongue.
it didn't shake her up so much. she knows they were killers, and it's not that she forgets about it, she just doesn't care about it so much anymore. as for her morality and humanity, she's not very sure where she's placed them. all she knows is that killers they may be, but she's never felt safer with anyone else.
"we have paperwork," Ran smilingly says, as if that fact was such a redeeming quality that could somehow cancel out being a murderer.
"so you do go to the office?"
"hmm, let's see. well, before I met you, I'd stay in the office when the sun's out and I'd do the outside jobs at night."
"what changed when you met me?"
he smiled, lopsided and a tiny bit playful, "I'd do all my paperwork at home, and I'd only leave when you're asleep."
what he meant to say was that he cherished her every waking moment. it was no wonder he always had no sleep.
"Ran, get me water," Rindou interrupts.
"get it yourself."
"I'm eating."
Hikari noticed the way Rin was slightly pouting, and she can't help but feel sorry for him. the girl merely slides her own glass of water toward Rin and he took it appreciatively albeit refusing to meet her eyes.
Ran pretended not to see what he saw as he got up to get water from the fridge—water for Hikari. he didn't wear a shirt, and Hikari's face burned in embarrassment to see his back. it was full of red marks from her nails, a few scratches with dry blood, and as she trained her eyes on his back longer, she also found that red crescents formed at his nape.
it was hot to look at, she can admit that much, but it kind of compromised her dignity to have proof of how good he made her feel last night marked on his back.
Rindou saw it too, and he glanced at Hikari who was gazing at Ran the way she never did with him.
"Hikari," he says for no reason at all.
"hm?"
"why don't you try me?"
Ran froze in disbelief and turned to look at them, already having understood what Hikari was still processing. Hikari raised her brows.
"try what?"
"having sex with me. I can do you better."
"excellent last words, Rin," Ran beamed, "I too, would want to die by being a whore for Hikari."
+++
"they're both insane!"
Hikari was now in Koko's office, her desk adjacent his. but neither were working. they only sat at the couch to drink tea as he listened to the girl's early morning disaster.
"you just noticed it now?" he asks.
"no, for real, they were talking about threesomes, Koko! at six in the fucking morning while I was eating breakfast!"
and it wasn't just a threesome they talked about. she wasn't so surprised that Rin prompted they should all have sex since 'you both are getting all the fun without me.'
but her jaw practically fell open with Ran's response.
"you can do her better? really? all the girls we fucked together before forget you're even there."
and it was around the time when Ran was seriously starting to consider a threesome just to prove he's better did Hikari burst.
she doesn't even remember what she told them, but it was something along the lines of 'you're both insufferable, misogynistic assholes that forget to ask for my opinion all the damn time' and 'Ran, you have some fucking nerve boasting about your past sex life right in front of me.'
"how about a foursome?" Koko smiled innocently.
Hikari almost threw her tea at him if he didn't burst out laughing. if he was serious, she would have really killed him.
"I'm half serious," he adds.
"I fucking hate men," she groans.
the morning reminded her of what Ran had said regarding her choice of friends. how about friends you haven't kissed yet?
for her peace of mind, and also for Ran's peace of mind, she really needed friends that aren't interested in her in any way. it's a good thing she regularly texts back Ella now, and she'd even promised her she'll go out with her even before the wedding.
Hikari and Koko got to work productively after they finished their tea, and they both adores each other's skills so much. he loved that Hikari was so intelligent and smart, and Hikari loved him for the same reasons, because unlike her, Koko didn't have to study in college like she did to be this good at his job.
she doesn't know how he managed to survive with the amount of things he had to do though. Bonten had a lot of businesses and a lot of deals—with politicians, the police, rich people, and businessmen. they also had two companies that they secretly ran, or she's not sure if they're secret, maybe the police just shut their eyes.
"wait, I'm not getting this," she says, looking at Koko for help.
the man stood up from his desk as he approaches her, leaning in over her shoulder to see the document on her laptop—which guess what?—Ran had bought for her.
"what don't you get?" he asks after studying it.
she chuckles ironically, feeling less smart with how quick his eyes scanned the page and understood it.
"it's not adding up to me. am I just dumb?"
"oh, it's not supposed to add up. this," he says, scrolling through the pages, "this is the manipulated version wherein it's all added up correctly."
"...wait..."
"yup," he grinned, "welcome to Bonten, your trusted number one criminal organization. we evade taxes and are corrupt."
Hikari was just stunned. again, it wasn't because of her morals, she was just amazed. the previous document didn't add up because Bonten had taken too much of what they should, leaving the remaining money supposedly for the partnered companies smaller than it should be.
the magic comes in in the second document wherein Koko had manipulated it so that things seem balanced, and that the shares percentage even had the audacity to increase when they'd already stolen right off the bat.
"so one's the legit proof of what Bonten actually steals—I mean earns—and the other's a fake?" she asks.
"yup. documents of our tax evasion and theft are all written in paper for records' sake. I still check them since those under us could sometimes pocket and steal from us too."
"so basically you're a master thief who has so much to compute and check in order to prevent being thieved?"
"not just me, Hikari, that's your job too, now. and we don't always steal—our deals are good enough for us to not steal, we just do it because we can."
she didn't quite know how to feel with all the illegal things going around. as hours drew by, she's known more dirt on Bonten than she could ever have imagined. there was a politician on the news just a week ago who got killed, and now she finds that guy's name in here, because Bonten had been payed to kill him past all his security.
instead of being appalled, Hikari's heart fluttered upon seeing Ran's name on the document. he was the killer.
so that's why he was so busy last week
and wow does he get payed a lot, she thought, finally understanding why he had so much money to spoil her with. it was blood money. the clothes he bought, this damn laptop he bought—it was money he got from killing.
Hikari couldn't decide what she's afraid of more, if it had been the fact that she was so different from the virtuous woman she was before, or that she didn't even think Ran was horrible.
maybe she's always been selfish, and Ran was right when he's said long ago that both of them weren't so different—that she had been afraid of him the first night they met not because he was a killer, but only because he might kill her.
and now that Ran killing her, or even hurting her for that matter, was as impossible as a white crow, she couldn't find anything to despise. because he didn't kill anyone Hikari cared for, and he most certainly won't kill her.
by lunch time, Hikari's decided that she was a bad person. and that the world was full of bad people, and she wouldn't have been so bad had the world been not so bad either.
she wasn't excusing herself, but she embraces the fact that she's not good and that Ran's not good either. all that mattered to her now was that they were good to each other.
missing Ran, she's finally decided to unblock him (she'd unblocked him earlier because she was pissed off). she calls her so called husband, and to no one's surprise at all, he picks up by the third ring and his first words were:
"wow, why don't you just block me forever?"
"okay," she responds, about to the end the call just to frustrate him some more, but before she does, she says, "I miss you by the way, goodbye."
Koko finally woke up from his nap as he rose up from the couch. he glanced at the clock then glanced at her.
"should we head out for lunch?"
"where?"
"we'll look around."
when they stepped out his office, she found Rindou on his phone, sitting on a chair that stuck out in the empty hallway.
"what are you doing here?" she asks.
"nothing."
"nothing?"
"I usually stay here."
"he doesn't," Koko skeptically says.
Hikari only pinched Rin's cheek, causing him to scowl at her. it wasn't hard to figure out that he was only trying to look out for her, which made Hikari forget about this morning.
"let's have lunch, Rin."
he nods, getting up from his chair as he pocketed his phone.
+++
Ran bashed in his prey's head with his gun a little too hard after Hikari ended the call. if she didn't tell him she missed him and then cut off contact right after, he might be able to not take out his frustrations on his enemies. maybe they were just unlucky that he decided to pick up her call in the middle of their fight.
Sanzu whistled as he killed the others, both him and Ran looking like they were taking a stroll at the park as they killed everyone in the warehouse. the drug deal which Ran was supposed to secure was going smoothly at the start.
then Ran saw the Red Flower symbol on the dealer's wrist in a split second of him stretching his arm; he decided to eradicate all of them on the spot. Sanzu didn't really know why they were killing instead of dealing but he won't complain.
after the whole ordeal, both men went into their separate cars and Ran tried to contact her again. the girl really did block him.
the thing about him being away was that he missed her, at the same time he was worried about her, and then he was also worried about Mikey having a few loose screws in his head he might tell her his sins out of the blue, and he was jealous Rin and Koko get to spend time with her instead...
the list goes on, but in the end, what drove him completely was that he missed her. he'd briefly went in the headquarters with her and Rin in the morning but she wasn't talking to them, and she closed the door to Koko's office before he could even kiss her goodbye.
but he really wanted to kiss her, because when he opened her wallet to put in his black card and a few cash, he found a picture of him.
a picture of him in her wallet.
he would've teased her about it if she wasn't so mad that he 'bragged' about his sex life before her. he truly wasn't bragging though, none of them could amount to even a half of where Hikari takes him when they made love.
Ran groans to himself as he rubs his face. he was itching to see her so bad.
"drive faster," he scolds his driver.
a picture of him in her wallet.
he just couldn't move on. she was so adorable and she loved so quietly. it was only right that he put so much money in her wallet.
unable to stand it, he opens his phone again, his wallpaper obviously Hikari. then he opens his gallery, and also obviously, it was all Hikari. pictures and videos of her reading a book, drinking coffee, eating ice cream, asleep, her graduation pictures and pictures of when she was a kid (he got these illegally).
as he scrolled to the recent ones, there was the selfie they took with Haru, and then he found a video he's sure he didn't take. he plays it in curiosity, the screen dark. then his heart practically leapt to find that it was a very naked Hikari, but it was dim, the only light coming from the moon.
"look at you sleeping like you didn't rail me for four hours straight," she says, grinning.
in the screen, he could see her body waist up as she held his phone high, and there he was living his best life, his face nuzzled in her breasts. but he couldn't even be horny—only a little bit if he were honest—because it was intimacy that radiated off the video. Hikari's smile, her fingers in his hair as he hugged her.
"do you really still need pills, Ran?"
her voice was low, and also painfully soft.
"god, look at this handsome face of yours," she gushed, nearing the camera to his face.
"so peaceful, this is what Haitani Ran looks like when he gets proper rest."
he stirred in his sleep and Hikari purses her lips.
"Hikari?" he mutters.
"was I too noisy? just sleep, Ran," she coos, kissing his forehead.
after a very short while of gently stroking his hair, she looks at the camera again and whispers, "I'll end it here or else you'll wake up. love you, Ran."
who really would've thought that the ice cold, emotionless Hikari had so much love to give, and she gave it in ways he never expected—in ways that made him catch his breath. he won't be able to take it if one day she finds out about the truth and leaves him.
he replayed the video more times than he can count, and when he looks up from his screen, he was so annoyed that he still wasn't anywhere near Tokyo. it was already seven in the evening, and with the traffic jam ahead, he could only guess he'll arrive not earlier than ten.
he tried calling her again, and he could only scoff out a laugh to find that he remained blocked. the man calls Rindou instead, and when his brother couldn't pick up, and Kokonoi also couldn't pick up, he was starting to worry.
before he could call Mikey, he received a text from Rin.
Mikey called us for a meeting, and all of a sudden he says he's paying for a night at the club. to celebrate Hikari's first day on the job. what the fuck is going on? don't call any of us btw because he's just here.
Ran short-circuited. this morning, the reason he dropped by the headquarters apart from seeing Hikari off was that Mikey wanted to talk to him. he was just being a little bit crazy as usual, saying things like 'are you happy?' and 'we'll have to talk about how she can infiltrate Red Flower.'
the last statement, Ran had warned him that he'll allow her working with Koko but he never agreed to sending her in enemy territory.
Mikey had said they'll all talk about it when he comes back.
but he wasn't back yet, and now he's taking them to a club?
what club, Rin?
idk, it's a neutral club. no criminals own it, at least not in our records.
don't let her go there.
we're already here. and I don't fucking know what Mikey and Hikari are talking about but they're fucking talking and I can't listen in.
migraine after migraine, Ran tried hard to think of his motives. but then it clicks—he curses himself for being so distracted lately that he wasn't as thorough and cautious as he would've liked.
three facts are clear: A neutral club means anyone and everyone can freely go there—especially people from Red Flower. next, Mikey had asked him earlier if he was happy, sounding like he wanted to destroy such happiness, and he also insisted on getting Hikari to spy immediately. lastly, and also the most obvious thing that Ran should've thought of, he was far away, unable to keep Hikari from harm.
so three things may happen: Mikey's instructing her how to approach people from Red Flower, what to say, what to ask, what to get. Hikari could get hurt if she comes across a Red Flower lackey and Rindou might not be there to protect her. lastly, Hikari could find out about who killed her brother.
Ran looked out the window, anxiously picking at his lips.
Hideo, I'm fulfilling your wish—I'm protecting your sister. so don't you dare crawl out of your grave and ruin all that we have.