After that embarrassing display, Waa just wanted to leave and die. That was absolutely the most humiliating thing she had ever done, and of course it had to be with him of all people. She was lucky that he’s not the teasing type, or else she’d never live that down.

“I wonder when Teru’s getting here?” Kojiu wondered aloud. His current caretaker had packed up and was ready to leave. All that they had to do, was wait for the next one.

“Oh, you know her.” Waa hinted at Teru’s supposed unreliable reputation. Though, Kouji knew if Waa took the time to get here, then so was the girl they were waiting for.

That said, it’s not like he would’ve minded if she didn’t’ show up. He really didn’t feel sick at all anymore. Just a little weak on the feet, but nothing a day off couldn’t fix. When Isako returned from her trip, he was going to tell her that care was no longer needed.

“If she’s not here in five minutes, I’m leaving.” Waa said, she was gearing up to go. That would be fine with him. If she left this instant, he wouldn’t complain either.

A knock came to their door. It looked like their wait was over.

“Hey, looks like my job’s done here.” While he wouldn’t say that she did much of any job here, especially since he had to carry her at one point. Kouji was glad that she was going to be out his day. Unfortunately, he wasn’t confident about the next girl showing up.

Teru didn’t bring anything other than her trusty skateboard that she usually lugged around. Mostly because it was her main mode of transportation.

“See you guys later.” Waa was already out the door without a care in the world. “Go have plenty of boredom without me.” From the way she wanted to leave so quickly. He was certain that she either had something planned for the day, or just wanted to push the embarrassing moment away as far as humanly possible.

“Okay…” Kouji slowly said once it was just him and Teru. “So what do you got for me?”

“Nothing?” She gave him a cold glare. “I’m here to keep an eye on you, not play with you.” Maybe it was because the last three girls set him up with expectations, but he was disappointed to hear that.

“All right, I guess I can just watch some TV.” He resigned to the only mode of entertainment he had to himself. Too bad it was the middle of the day on a weekend, so there wasn’t much he could find to watch.

He stopped on a one of those magical girl anime that little girls usually like to watch. It wasn’t his cup of tea, but when he turned to look at Teru for a moment, she looked as though she took an interest in it. Considering how long he stuck to it, he was surprised that she hadn’t insulted him yet.

“Do you like this show?” He asked, prompting her to realize what she was doing.

“N-no, of course I don’t!” She turned her head to face the window instead. In the reflection, he could see the telltale sign of a blush on her cheeks. “It’s just some lame show for little girls. Do I look like a little girl to you?”

“No…” He responded slowly. “But, this show looks like it was made when you were one.” It wasn’t a big deal to him if she liked some show like this. If there was any childhood memories to it, then what was the problem. “If you want, I can keep it on.”

“Pff, I won’t complain if you decide to watch some girly show.” He took it as a yes, and stuck with this channel. For a little bit, he didn’t say anything to her. Kouji only looked at the show, but when he thought she wouldn’t notice, he glanced back at her. Sure enough, she had her eyes glued on the screen.

“You know, I have plenty of shows I liked as a kid.” He said to her, again making her look away from him. “Come on, at least look at me when we’re talking.” When he said that, it felt like he was sounding like Isako.

“Whatever, but you better not tell anyone, or else I’ll kill you!” Well, there was the usual death threat he had heard a million times. However, something different happened after that. “But, you really aren’t going to make fun of me?” She asked, her tone much more softer now. There was a lack of confidence that she normally had.

“Don’t know why I would.” He replied, as she went to sit next to him.

“It’s just that… Well, it’s not cool or anything.” Teru had a reputation to uphold in her mind. Everyone at school, and her other delinquent friends would’ve given endless teasing if they ever found out what she was doing at this moment.

“Not everything you do has to be cool.” He remembered back to when he turned a new leaf back in junior high. There was a lot of times he had to contend with people feeling disappointed with his sudden lack of bite or bark. There even were a lot of people that tried to mess with him, trying to provoke him.

But he stood his ground. Kouji wasn’t about to let some people he hardly knew force him off the path he wanted to walk.

“I would’ve thought that some rebel girl wouldn’t care about what strangers thought about her.” He informed her, as if trying to convince her not to be worried about that sort of thing.

“Well, what would you have done to me? I mean, before we became friends.”

“Sure, I might’ve teased you whenever we fought.” He answered as honestly as he could. “But, I probably would’ve stopped caring after a day or two… You know, because I didn’t like you.”

“…” She fell silent at hearing that. It was hard to think of anything to comeback with. “Still though, I’m sure you understand secrets. Seeing what you hid from us.”

“That’s different.” He tried to explain himself. “Yours is just some silly things nobody actually cares about. But, when people learn about me… It changes how they see me.” There was still a part of him that felt that’s how the girls treated him. It certainly changed their tunes a bit when they found about his parents. Funny enough, without realizing it, he pretty much used the same reasoning that Teru did for her own secrets.

“Right, when you saw your uncle, you got pretty messed up.” She reference the whole reason why she’s here in the first place. “He must’ve been some pretty bad dude, wasn’t he?”

“Well, it’s not like he ever hit me for anything.” Compared to what people would consider abuse, there wasn’t really any of that with that relationship. “And I guess, he never really insulted me either.” Or perhaps it was abuse, not in the direct sense, but in the indirect sense. More accurately, one would call it neglect.

Yokakura practically never cared when Kouji got in trouble. During those times when he would run away from home, there was never a call for any authorities. It was like that man gave up on him. So much so, that he almost never wanted to look at him. The only things he ever did for him, was to make sure there was food to eat, and a place to sleep.

“Sounds a little hard to believe.”

“Well it happened, so believe it.”

“No no.” Teru clarified what she meant. “It looked to me that he cared about you.” That’s what she would’ve assumed given the few actions she saw from the man. The biggest being that he came to town to check on Kouji, the other being his concern over the arrangement they were a part of. Obviously, a lot of people would take issue with Kouji being in a rich all-girls school. “why else do you think he showed up?”

“Probably just wanted to see me fail, and rub it in my face.” Kouji abhorred the reminder of his uncle’s short time here.

“Or maybe he wanted to see you succeed, or if you really did fail. Then maybe he was there to take you back.”

“What are you trying to get at?” Kouji gave her a death stare. He felt like he knew where this conversation was heading. “You can’t honestly be suggesting that I try to work things out with him.”

“Well maybe you should.” She stopped beating around the bush, as soon as he confronted her on that point. “You’re always spending so much time trying to teach us stuff, and I know you think people can change. But you won’t even try to work things out?”

Teru said that, and did indeed mean it. However, there was more her pushing him in that direction, than simple learning.

“Yeah right. Unlike with you guys, I don’t really need the advice, I know him better than you.” He raised his voice to her, this topic was getting on his nerves. Some caretaker she turned out to be. If he wanted advice, he would’ve asked for it.

“You really don’t care to listen to me…” She got up, her hands balled into fists. “Whatever.” She picked up her skateboard with little regard to the fact she was in a small room. “If you don’t want my help, then you probably don’t need me here either.”

“You’re right I don’t.” With that, she stepped out and slammed the door as she left him alone.