The gravel moved under my feet as I moved to the entrance of Sunshine Residence. On my way in, I passed by Kaname who glanced at me and kept a wide berth. Some brothers still remembered that they had promised Ema to stay away from me, lest more harm befall me.
Fuuto hadn't kept the promise for more than a few hours, I mused. Inside, Fuuto laid sprawled on the wooden floor of the hallway, listening to music.
"Hey," I said, waving with my free hand.
In one elegant movement, Fuuto lifted to his feet, pulling off his headphone.
"We have finished compiling songs for the album," he said as a greeting. "Here, you should give it a listen."
Before I could even remove my shoes, my arms were already full with my crutch and Fuuto's iPod.
It looked a lot more expensive than my mp3-player, so I put it on the floor carefully.
"I'm looking forward to it," I said with a smile.
"Okay," he replied as he nodded. "Then, I'll leave you and Ema alone."
The elevator doors had just closed behind him when Ema appeared from the stairwell.
"More zombie games!" she exclaimed as she waited until I had untied my shoelaces.
"I have never been called 'more zombie games' before. Being unable to greet people in a normal way runs through the family, doesn't it?"
Ema cocked her head when she saw me scoop Fuuto's iPod from the floor.
"I thought you had a pink one," she commented. I stared at the white device in my hands, wondering what I should say in response.
When I didn't react fast enough, Ema returned her attention to the important matters: the zombie video games.
She dragged me to the elevators.
"Now that you're here, I think I can get more people to play," she revealed in a hushed voice although we were the only ones in the hall.
Confused, I stared at the back of her head and the squirrel perched on her shoulder. Who were these 'more people' Ema had mentioned?
In retrospect, I could have known what tactic Ema would use. After living with her stepbrothers for months, she had become skilled in manipulating them.
She knocked on Fuuto's door.
"Hey, Fuuto, [Y/N]-chan is here. Do you want to play with us?"
After a moment of silence, Fuuto answered. "Sure, I'm on my way."
"See you upstairs in the living room," Ema said with a big grin. After this, she moved to another door. I had never entered the room behind this door, so I waited both patiently and cluelessly, as Ema addressed the occupant.
"Want to play games with us?" she asked gently.
"Who're us?" someone asked, and it took a while before I realised that she was talking to Yuusuke.
"Well, [Y/N], Fuuto, and I, of course."
Immediately, Yuusuke opened the door to give Ema a hard stare. Their hostility was the first sign that gave away that yesterday's fights weren't over. Although everyone acted civilly, the smell of an argument lingered in the air.
Ema took his wrist to pull him out of his room, and Yuusuke's expression softened right away.
Now that the three stooges, as Natsume had coined us, had reunited, Ema moved to the fourth floor.
"Do you know who're home?" she asked Yuusuke.
"I saw Masaomi, Ukyo, and Kaname this morning during breakfast," Yuusuke recalled.
"Kaname passed me on my way in, so he's no longer here," I supplied.
"Two more players," Ema mused, "but neither is seasoned."
"Considering the baggage you're already dragging along, I don't think two additional noobs are going to worsen our situation," I remarked drily.
"You're correct," she beamed.
Fuuto joined us as we entered the elevator to the fourth floor. Yuusuke's expression contorted into one of pure hatred, while Fuuto remained oddly stony-faced. Yup, yesterday's fight had been far more impactful than usual.
Ema ignored the mounting levels of hostility behind her as she pressed on the button for the fourth floor. Meanwhile, I carefully stayed in a corner in the elevator. For extra measure, I clutched the iPod to my chest as a last line of defence.
I was relieved when we piled out of the elevator, glad that I could leave the cramped space filled with an oppressive silence behind. I had the vague impression that the human camp would have a civil war today. The zombie lucked out on this one because I knew for a fact that at least two players wouldn't be exterminating zombies.
Taking your anger out on each other in a video game was probably the healthiest way to get over a conflict, I mused. Hopefully, they wouldn't slaughter the rest of the team too.
"Ukyo," Ema chirped, "can you help us with something?"
"Of course," Ukyo said through the closed door. "Do you have any forms I should fill out?"
"Something like that," Ema lied through her teeth. Unimpressed, I gave her a deadpan stare. Ema shrugged in response and whispered: "It works."
"I can see that," I said when Ukyo opened the door to see the bizarre group of people in front of his door.
"We're playing games," Ema said, "are you going to help us?"
Ukyo breathed laughter, seemingly at a loss.
"I guess I can join you for a while."
He followed us as Ema approached the last door with a triumphant grin.
"Hey, Masaomi," she called.
"Ema's frightening," I whispered from my spot in front of Ukyo's door.
"That's one hell of a belated realisation," Fuuto said, standing by my side. All of us watched Ema knock on Masaomi's door until he opened.
I couldn't overhear the conversation, but he ended up following Ema to us.
"We have six players," she informed us, "enough to form a true party."
Ema ushered us to the living room, which she had already transformed. The fact that she had planned such a stunt became apparent when she had enough consoles prepared for all of us.
Fuuto and I ended up on one of the couches, my left leg draped over Fuuto's lap.
"I'm not using a gun this time," I vowed as I inspected my options. This time, my character would be far more deadly.
"A wise choice," Fuuto commented from his side of the couch.
"Stop insulting me from over there," I told him calmly. If I were going all out, I would want to use bombs, I decided.
"Your cold attitude is going to give her a chilblain," Masaomi supported me from another couch.
"So, that's why you're always cold," Fuuto pondered.
"I'm not even sure what I should say anymore," I muttered as I finished creating my well-rounded character.
Once everyone had somehow managed to select a character, the game started.
Soon, it became apparent that we would die. By some miracle, Yuusuke and Fuuto cooperated, but this didn't change our fate to which we inexorably moved with every second that passed.
Ema struggled to keep up out of danger, but not everyone obeyed to a sense of self-preservation. Right of the bat, Ukyo tried to get himself killed, and I was sure that he had done so on purpose. From that point on, Ema had kept a close watch on the suicidal part of our group.
Masaomi wasn't faring any better, but he tried to stay alive at least.
Finally, Ukyo managed to die, after which Masaomi's character kicked the bucket too.
"What happened?" Ema asked in surprise.
"He pushed me," Ukyo explained, pointing at Masaomi who sat next to him.
"I lost my balance," Masaomi claimed, which made Ema quirk an eyebrow.
"You lost your balance?" she echoed, her voice laced with disbelief.
"And then I accidentally pulled him with me off the ledge," Ukyo continued the explanation.
Ema's puzzlement grew and turned into suspicion.
"I think I understand what happened," she said. "I'll restart the game so that you can join us."
She looked devilish as she held up her console to show that she would act upon her words.
"Ah, no need. You're already so far into the game. We don't want to be a bother," Masaomi reassured her.
"We're still in the middle of the introduction," Ema reminded them.
After some light-hearted bickering, Masaomi and Ukyo managed to escape.
"That was brief," Yuusuke commented absentmindedly.
"Now that we have the core left, we can start the real game," Ema said.
With the four members who took this game seriously, we ended up playing.
Ema took Yuusuke under her wing since Natsume wasn't present. She led him through every wave of zombies with ease. Fuuto and I, however, ended up in our previous predicament.
Together, we stood in the hangar.
"I pushed a container in front of the East entrance," I said.
"I took care of the other one," Fuuto informed me.
"So, what are we going to do about the zombie in the ceiling?" I asked him, remembering the zombie who had led to our untimely demise last time we played.
"I think we should wait."
Thus, we waited, which meant that we didn't trigger the zombie who was hidden snugly on a beam in the ceiling.
"This's getting boring," I whispered after a while.
"It's a zombie apocalypse. Boredom is good," Fuuto pointed out.
"Guys, what are you even doing?" Ema complained from the couch opposite ours. Finally, she had taken note of our lack of activity.
"We're waiting until it's safe to leave," I explained.
"I'm personally going over now, so you had better be prepared," she bristled, running in our direction. Since Yuusuke couldn't keep up, he was the first one to die.
Fuuto's lips curled into a smug smirk. With faint disbelief, I looked at his triumphant expression, not quite getting why he thought that winning while using an unhanded tactic merited such a grin.
Then, Ema busted into the hangar, kicking the container over.
"Stop wasting your time here," she said, driving a crowd of zombies inside the hangar.
"What weapons do you have on you?" she asked us belatedly.
"A rifle," Fuuto answered, "but no ammunition."
"I have a brick," I said.
Ema shot us a deadpan glare. "Are you serious?" she asked.
We both nodded.
"At least, Yuusuke tried," she sighed. Yuusuke perked up under her praise.
"But we did outlive Yuusuke," Fuuto bragged.
"You didn't do anything at all. Both of you, I mean," Ema quipped.
Since the game was effectively over, we wrapped things up for the day.
"Don't forget the date tomorrow," Fuuto whispered in my ear.
"Are we still sticking to the initial schedule for tomorrow?" I whispered back.
Fuuto nodded.
"Where and how late do we meet?" I asked him.
"Around noon in front of the cinema."
"Roger," I said, barely refraining from saluting.
Then Ukyo peeked around the corner of the kitchen. "Fuuto, your manager called."
With a sigh, Fuuto lifted to his feet and sauntered to the kitchen.
Both Ema and Yuusuke turned to me.
"There's something we need to discuss," Ema blurted.
"Is something wrong?" I asked, sensing that I would discover more about yesterday's fight.
"It's about the bet," Ema sighed, "and some other stuff that I don't want to talk about."
As far as I could tell, the latter had caused the new rift in the Asahina family. The former sounded more like a verbal jab used in the fight.
"Fuuto has already completed the punishment game, so what's the issue with the bet?" I asked, hoping that my specific phrasing would show that I supported Fuuto.
"He didn't complete anything," Yuusuke fumed.
"Because he didn't approach Ema, but told me a secret instead?" I wondered, wishing that they wouldn't wear their feelings on their sleeves. Neither believed that Fuuto could potentially like me over Ema. Although I knew he was out of my league, I hadn't expected such a reaction from either of them.
Both rolled their eyes as if I had something that was beyond the realm of stupidity.
"Of course not, you dork," Ema chastised gently, giving me a forgiving smile.
I was glad that she could still accept me despite my idiocy, I thought sourly.
"He didn't reveal any secret whatsoever. You did beforehand that he felt guilty, didn't you?" Ema asked me then. "Everyone knew. He did apologise before, after all."
"Yes, he did apologise several times before," I admitted eventually.
"So, he hasn't told you a secret. Therefore, he hasn't completed the game yet," Yuusuke said.
"I think that this's something you have to discuss with Fuuto," I argued.
"That's what we thought too, but we couldn't proceed until you knew what was going on," Ema explained, her smile a tad frightening.
"Are you trying to force me?" Fuuto drawled behind me. He leaned heavily on the kitchen counter, a mocking expression on his face. "Did you decide to bring this up because of yesterday?" he sneered then.
Yesterday's events remained a big elephant and mystery in the room.
"I knew this before, but I didn't care because you didn't cross any lines," Yuusuke snarled.
"Okay, guys," Ema said with a calming gesture, "we already went over this yesterday."
They both glared at her, but Ema looked unbothered by their glowers.
"Fuuto, [Y/N]," she addressed us, "let's go. I'm sorry for forcing this on you, but the circumstances require it."
I allowed Ema to shove me into the bathroom.
"I'm sorry, but things are going to stay like this until you show the willingness to compromise, Fuuto," Ema said before she closed the door. "This's what you agreed on, Fuuto. I have no clue why such a heavy punishment game is involved, but you lost. I don't mind about what happened, but the others do. Your refusal to apologise had complicated everything. Work along for once, please. Okay? By the way, I'm sorry about this, [Y/N]."
"Eh?" I said, still shocked by this turn of events.
Ema closed the bathroom door with a click. Confused, I turned to look at Fuuto. He looked like he was about to explode. Uncomfortably, I leaned with my back against the sink, waiting for Fuuto to say anything.
"A secret, huh?" he snickered. Then his gaze shifted to me, so focussed that it made goosebumps rise on my skin.
He looked torn, visibly struggling with what he wanted to say. Patiently, I waited, wondering what would happen if someone needed to use the bathroom before we finished talking. Besides, who was to tell whether Fuuto told me a secret or not?
Fuuto narrowed his eyes, which could mean that he had made a decision. Nervously, I blinked, unable to look away but too anxious to keep staring as well.
With a few steps, he had cornered me, his lips moving to my ear.
"Would you believe me if I said that I want to hear you sing?"
"Sing?" I croaked.
"Do you know that your lips move along when you listen to music?" he continued. "I can tell when you lip-sync to one of my songs."
"I can't sing," I said, my voice hoarse and breaking twice. With difficulty, I cleared my throat.
"I have wanted to hear you sing for a while now," Fuuto confessed, "and I'll pester you until you give in."
"I'm tone-deaf," I argued weakly.
"Then, I'll take the second-best option," Fuuto said, closing the distance between us to kiss me.
His soft lips pressed against mine, letting all my nerves flare to life. When I didn't react fast enough, he moved his lips a fraction. Regaining my senses, I tipped my head back to give him better access to my mouth, hesitantly moving my lips too.
One of Fuuto's hands buried deep in my hair to keep my head steady as he tried to deepen the kiss, giving my lips a small lick to ask entrance.
I had thought that my lips were sensitive since the rubbing of our lips had already made me feel lightheaded. However, this paled in comparison to the moment our tongues touched. A strangled sound escaped my mouth, making my cheeks heat up in embarrassment.
After a lick over the roof of my mouth, Fuuto pulled away, a new sort of determination in his eyes.
"Tomorrow will be the penultimate date," he said, using the moment to give me more details about tomorrow. Unfortunately, this was extremely ill-timed.
"You just kissed me, and now you want to talk about your date with Ema?" I asked in disbelief. "You can't be serious, Fuuto."
"I think you're misunderstanding me," he said.
"You said that before," I grumbled, referring to the first time he had told me a secret. Back then, he had also told me I was under a misconception because I had believed that he had shown the entire nation the secret meant for me.
"If that secret wasn't meant to fulfil the condition of your punishment game, then what was it? Tell me what I misunderstand, Fuuto."
"You always focus on the wrong thing," Fuuto accused.
"I don't," I protested. "I'm well aware that this's a game to seduce Ema in which you aim to get Ema before your brothers."
"That's where your misconception starts," Fuuto stated icily. "Who do you think I wrote the song for?"
"Ema, of course," I answered, not missing a beat.
"I wrote it for you," he said, suddenly calm again. "I wrote that damned song for you, [L/N] [Y/N]."
Speechless, I watched Fuuto as he raked a hand through his hair.
He likes me, my heart sang.
I love you too, I thought.
An unintelligible gurgle left my mouth, but Fuuto didn't pay attention to me anymore. With a scowl on his face, he stormed off, slamming with the bathroom door. Meanwhile, my mind was busy with catching up on reality.
In the span of a handful of minutes, Fuuto had wanted to hear me sing, he had kissed me, confessed to me, and stormed off in a fit of rage.
Fuuto had told me four secrets, which all led to the same conclusion: if I dared to use my heart as a chip, I could win it all.
Slightly dazed, I left the bathroom.
Ema and Fuuto sat on the couch next to one another, acting innocent.
"Fuuto looked very angry," Ema stated as I walked past them.
"He didn't stop to answer our questions," Yuusuke added.
"You're monsters," I sighed, "but I can assure you that he completed the punishment game – several time too."
"Should we tell her what happened yesterday?" Yuusuke asked in a low voice. Since I stood right behind the couch, I could overhear them easily.
"Right now?" Ema asked him with a hint of concern in her voice.
"Let's not," Yuusuke agreed.
"I'm going home," I said, too tired to keep up with the Asahina family. "I'm going to operate under the assumption that Fuuto fled to his room, so I'm going to bother him, and after that, I'm going home."
"Good luck," Ema wished.
After thanking her, I went to the third floor, where Fuuto presumably hid in his room.
"Fuuto?" I asked, knocking on his door.
"Come in," Fuuto said, which surprised me. I had figured that he would prefer to stay in isolation to sulk for longer than two minutes.
"I'm coming in, then," I warned, pushing the door open.
Fuuto sat on his bed, tuning his guitar.
"I would like to straighten out our misunderstandings," I explained my presence. "And I wanted to apologise."
"There's nothing that requires straightening out," Fuuto argued stubbornly.
"Okay," I conceded, knowing that we could talk about this topic later on. For now, Fuuto liked me, and that was enough - for now.
"Are you going to sing the mermaid song?" I asked him.
"Adore me?" Fuuto guessed.
I nodded, which made Fuuto smile. "If you sing along."
After he had confessed so many things, it was the least I could do. Besides, Fuuto would soon regret his terms and plead me to stop singing.
Thus, we both sang the mermaid song together, and Fuuto didn't cringe once. He didn't stop me either.