Taken by surprise by Kiriha grabbing her arm Nene was whirled around to face him. He certainly didn’t look happy. In fact, Nene had never seen him like this before.
“Kiriha.. l-let go!” She exclaimed and started pulling her arm away, but his grip was too tight for her to pry free. She was actually feeling a bit scared, but heck it if she was gonna let Kiriha see that.
She collected herself after a minute or so. “It hurts,” she spat at him and gave him a solid glare. Clearly he hadn’t understood that it was just a joke, but she was foolish for thinking that he would even think in those lanes.
“It. Was. A. Joke.” Nene still glared at him and didn’t feel like explaining herself to him right now. Just get free and walk away was what she really wanted, but he would just hold her back again. “Those grey faces we both have gotten made me go and kiss you. You should be glad I did this instead of giving you a real kiss. Now let me go.”
Strangely enough Nene didn’t feel like acting in her usual ways right now. She just wanted to leave, and if Kiriha were paying close enough attention he could see that her facial expression were sadder than usual. “Need me to shove it in your mouth with a tablespoon?” She spat, trying to cover up how she really felt.
“Not until you tell me what’s going on,” Kiriha barked back, his grip still firm on her arm just as his hard gaze was. He wasn’t gonna let her walk away from him without an explanation for all that, damn it. And he surely won’t allow her to just do as she pleases just because she feels like it, even if it was Nene.
He was too absorbed with the thoughts and assumptions that ran through his mind, that he hadn’t even noticed how tense he was being. At least not until Nene snapped at him a second time.
Eyes widened by the slightest, he parted his lips to speak, but no words seem to come out; instead, he covered for himself by pursing them together into a thin line. His grip on her arm loosened somewhat, just enough for his hand to slide down to her wrist; a gesture that signaled the girl that he had heeded her words, but still wasn’t too keen on letting her walk out on him again.
Penetrating gaze still fixed on her, Kiriha kept silent as he listened to Nene’s retorts. And listening to her explanation, mixed, unexplainable emotions seemed to stir in the back of his mind; his frown deepened, and he felt his irritation grow even stronger. But this time, it was directed at both Nene and those so-called strangers. Possibly her fans, he quickly assumed.
He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Nene? The calm, dignified girl he’d come to know all those times he fought alongside her, belittling herself to going along with a mere stranger’s whims? This wasn’t the way she would have acted. At least in his opinion, there was no way she’d allow herself to follow a probable fan’s impulses; at least not without benefiting something worthwhile in return. And adding that to her apparent agitation… Somehow, this seemed all too forced to him. It was as if he could sense an underlying reason behind her toughened front. But whatever it may be, this wasn’t right at all.
“Nene.”
The expression she was making… He didn’t want to see it. It didn’t suit her at all. But, he tried to overlook it for the meantime. Disregarding her sharp tone, Kiriha gave her wrist a slight squeeze; this time more controlled. “Tell me. Have you really changed so much that you’d foolishly listen to what a stranger tells you to do?” He didn’t let her answer right away, as he continued, “This… isn’t about the kiss, or fake kiss – or whatever anymore. This is me asking you where your noble airs have disappeared to! …To think that I was captivated by that once…” he voice was barely above a whisper at those words, and he shook his head.
“…I’m disappointed in you, Nene.”
