Stealing Spree

"Suzuki, please take us to that place."

"But young miss, your father said…"

"Forget what my father said about not letting me use that place again. There's no one living in it and it's the only private place I can bring Ruki to. We only have less than an hour so…"

With her eyes looking at us from the rearview mirror, Suzuki-san eventually nodded, "I understand. Please put on your seatbelts."

"Mizuki…"

"Shut up for a minute, Ruki. I won't let this rare chance pass. To save you time, I'll have Suzuki drive you to your school… Will you overlook my selfishness, this time?"

I tried to interject but was immediately cut off by her.

Compared to the first half of her voice that was riddled with her coldness, the latter half was filled with warmth as I watched her amethyst yellow eyes tremble as if it's holding back her tearglands from leaking out.

"Like you said, it's a rare time. And there's no need overlooking it, you're not being selfish when I also wanted to be somewhere private with you… Sorry for troubling you, Suzuki-san." I pinched her nose before I stretched my arm across her shoulder and rested her head on mine.

This girl… She still remembered that time when I somewhat flipped because of her show of selfishness. It's a small incident and I also didn't think too much about it but right now, that's what I've seen from her eyes.

On the driver's seat, Suzuki-san responded to my words by raising her left arm and waving it.

On the other hand, Mizuki pouted again before reaching for the seatbelt to buckle us together. "I told you not to pinch my nose."

"I see, you like it better if I bit it instead."

"That's not good either!" This time she covered her nose and lowered her head to hide it from me.

However, along with it, I felt her arms encircling my body in her embrace, resting her body completely towards me.

I looked down and saw her extremely comfortable expression as she rubbed her face on my chest.

Seeing her act adorably like this, I'm now looking forward to our time together. A place where there's no one that can disturb us.

She might have some kind of flaws at how she seemed to be inconsistent at how she's treating me but this girl was originally like this. Despite not seeing her for more than a year, she's the same Mizuki in my memory.

Well, not exactly the same but at least how she acts now was in line with how I remembered her.

She's not a tsundere like Satsuki. One moment she would try to one-up me and the next moment she would act like a tame kitten in need of head pats.

-

-

Around five minutes of driving, we reached a familiar ten-story Condominium Building. It was located in between their high school and the middle school we attended from.

Back then this was the place we often hang out and more often than not, with that Shield of hers.

As soon as the car we were riding reached the front entrance of the building, the guard manning it recognized the car as he immediately left his post to greet us.

Ah. Not really us… But Mizuki alone.

"Good morning, Miss Hasegawa." He bowed respectfully without lifting his head to meet her gaze.

Mizuki neither answered nor glanced at him. She only waved her hand and pulled me by the arm as we entered the building, walking past him and leaving Suzuki-san to deal with that security guard.

When we reached and entered the elevator that would take us to our destination, I heard the voices behind us. Suzuki-san talked to the security guard, strictly instructing him to keep it to himself that Mizuki arrived here.

Although that guard was different from the one from more than a year ago, at least he knew Mizuki's identity.

This Condominium Building named Hasemizu is a property of the Hasegawa Family and is being directly run by their branch family, specifically, Mizuki's father.

Around two years ago, this was a place with only a handful of occupants but thanks to Mizuki's one brilliant idea which she passed to her father, the business of selling the units boomed until the situation was reversed that there were only a handful of units unoccupied yet.

The sudden prospering of this Building was also what led for the main family to notice her talent.

Nonetheless, her talent wouldn't change the fact that she's not from the direct line of succession. That's the only thing limiting her rise in the Noble Family she belonged to.

Perhaps in the future, she would be given a high enough role to utilize her talent for the benefit of the family but it's nowhere close to being the heir.

Fortunately, the Noble House of Hasegawa wasn't known for promising their younger generations to political or business merging marriages.

As long as they don't cross the interest of the Hasegawa family in the future, they're free to choose what they want to do with their lives.

That's also the reason why Mizuki, despite her young age, was focused on bettering herself to land herself to someone with a higher standing.

Although it's still early to be sure, she told me how she wanted to escape the shadow of the Hasegawa Family and go off on her own…

Unfortunately, she met me and her outlook changed, instead of aiming for someone that high. She started mentioning about building something with me from the ground up…

As usual, being how I was at that time, I ignored her blabbering about that plan of hers. Only now that I'm also aiming to build something almost impossible that her words started to make some sense.

"Ruki, when you cut me off, I had the unit we were using to be sealed. I also told my father to accept someone from buying it and transfer it to my name… Should I change it and transfer it to your name?" While the elevator was on its way to the highest floor, Mizuki who still had my arm clutched by her suddenly spoke.

This girl… I only thought that we would be using that unit again for our alone time… But this… Judging from how she seldom utter a joke and how certain she sounded, she would make it happen if I answered yes.

"It's already under your name. Why do you want to pass it to me?"

Although I somehow understood her reason, I still couldn't help but put out this question.

"With your plan of making a place wherein we can all be together, only your determination will not be enough. Life is still all about one's starting line. I was born to a Noble House while you were born to a couple of salary workers."

She's right… Her family could give what she wanted while what I was planning was to work for it from the ground up…

"No matter what, with your starting line, there's only an infinitely small chance that you can instantly be successful in life, successful enough to realize that plan of yours. Furthermore, knowing you, you will stop imposing at your parents' house to also go off on your own. As much as you want to carry everything, it's impossible to achieve at this current rate. Will you let us wait for more than 10 or 20 years? Or will you let us help you in realizing that future?"

She's correct again. If it took that long to realize what I wanted to build for us, some of them would've given up already. Love alone wasn't enough to continue to bind us together.

"Although this is only a single unit, having something that can be called your own will serve as a start. Let this be my contribution. If you can't find a place to stay when you're with one of us, even if it's not me, you can take them here…"

"Mizuki…"

I get what she's saying but… the value of this unit, even if I toil myself away to that part-time job I got at the Boxing Gym, I won't be able to earn the amount needed to purchase this…

Being someone who's still undecided on what career I will pursue, owning a house or even a room for us is still out of my reach.

Moreover, with her voice trailing at the end… it's easy to pick up how conflicted she was by saying that last sentence.

This place is special for us… This is the place where we spent the most time together. This is also where our first time happened. But for our future, she's opening this place up to the other girls.

"Don't make that confused expression, it doesn't suit you. You also don't need to answer immediately. You're someone with a bigger pride than me after all. However, Ruki, you took us back into your life. We're not just exquisite dolls who will wait for you to build everything by yourself. I'm certain some of them already mentioned this but let me repeat it, let us build that future together."

As soon as she finished her sentence, the elevator rang, indicating that we finally reached our designated floor.

Without waiting for my answer, Mizuki pulled me out of the elevator as we took the final steps towards that special condominium unit.

When we arrived at the familiar door that still appeared as good as new, Mizuki pulled the key in the shape of a card from her bag and swiped it to the electronic lock.

Along with the beeping sound which indicated that it accepted the key, the door was unlocked accompanied by a clicking sound.

Upon entering the room, perhaps seeing me out of focus, Mizuki gently tapped my cheeks, taking my attention back to her. "Look at you being lost in your thoughts. I should've held back and told you about that after we're done."

And she's successful at taking my attention back to her.

I admit. I really got lost in my thought about what she proposed that the real purpose of our visit here was pushed to the side.

As I focused all my attention to this girl in front of me, I shook my head to clear my thoughts.

"Mizuki, feel free to hit my head to wake me up." I bowed my head, waiting for her fist to land.

However, instead of a smack in the head, what I felt was her opened hand being gently placed on top of my head, followed by her fingers before gently brushing my hair. "Where's that hateful guy from earlier? Did I take the wrong guy with me?"

With a meaningful smile on her lips, Mizuki held my chin and lifted it to have me face her.

"Shut up for now, Ruki. I'm going to clear your head with this." Mizuki's lips parted slightly as her head dropped, overlapping her lips with mine.