Alinea

The recording continued to play in the room, and the two men listened attentively.

"Firstly, when did I ever say I like Sonoda-san?" Ara's voice asked. "I haven't even talked to the guy, and the reason why I knew he exists is because Koharu talked about him a lot until my ears got numb."

There was a bit of silence as if the people were absorbing her words.

"Come to think of it, it's really Koharu-chan who likes to talk about him," a girl agreed.

"Yeah, and Ara-chan looked like she didn't care most of the time," another girl said.

There was another round of uneasy silence until a girl's fl.u.s.tered voice spoke. "Oh no! I thought Ara-chan likes Sonoda-san so I've been giving her information about her crush. I didn't know it was just a misunderstanding!"

"Ah so it was just a misunderstanding," the voice belonging to someone called seitokaicho spoke. "So Suzukisan really had an unfortunate accident."

"All this time, we were thinking you fell crazy in love at first sight with Sonoda-san and was having a competition with Ichihara-san," the other guy said.

"Who falls in love at first sight? Only dumb Disney characters do that, right?"Ara's voice was so serious that Gin couldn't help letting out a chuckle.

This mean girl… he thought as he looked up to see Koutaishidenka had a similar amused tilt to his lips. He wanted to tease him but the recording hadn't finished yet.

"Ara-chan you've never fallen in love?"

"Nope."

"Not even once?" the girl asked, and Gin somehow felt nervous, because he already somewhat realized the possibility of Ryuu being jealous.

There was silence for a while, and Kazehaya could imagine that girl looking thoughtful, and he prayed she'd answer "No."

But she didn't.

"Well, I wouldn't say it was love, but I did feel attracted to someone before."

"Oh? So Suzukisan has someone she likes."

Gin nervously glanced at Ryuu, but the prince just continued to sip his tea like it was nothing.

"Not really like in a sense that I fell in love – it's just a sempai from a different school I admired before. I don't even know his complete name, I just heard someone call him Kou. They came to our middle school to perform kyudo."

At the mention of kyudo, Gin stopped and frowned at Ryuu who still had an innocent look on his face. The rest of the conversations in the recording were just mundane, so the prince stopped it.

"What?" Ryuu asked after being stared at for a while.

"That sempai Ara-chan likes,"Gin started as he pondered.

Even if the Homura prince finished his education at a very early age since he's a genius, the clan made him repeat and attend middle school to learn how to socialize with people his age. Kazehaya was five years older than Ryuu so he never attended school with him – but his little brother, Aoi did.

And Aoi, just like Gin called Ryuu "Koutaishidenka", but preferred calling him with the shortened version "Kou". His younger brother was similar in age to Ryuu, and he also practiced kyudo.

Gin's eyes glint with insight. He already knew Koutaishidenka went to see Ara in the last year of her middle school. Ryuu was even willing to announce their engagement at that time, but didn't because of the Suzuki couple's death. But after that, the news of Ara being crazy in love with a boy from her school popped up, and Ryuu became angry.

But Koutaishidenka's not angry right now.

"It's you. You're the sempai who did kyudo at her school."Gin was amazed. It made sense.

All this time, the Homura crown prince was just throwing a jealousy fit. But now that it was cleared, and it turned out that it was him who Ara-chan liked, his mood was good again.

Ryuu on the other hand didn't acknowledge nor deny Gin's speculation. He continued sipping his tea, his expression closed up again.

"Find out the bottom of this," Koutashidenka ordered softly. "Don't let that detective handle Ara's case anymore. Use one from our own people. "

Kazehaya Gin nodded. The reports they'd been receiving about Ara was from a normal detective agency. Although they're good, they didn't have the capacity to do a thorough investigation. Because they used that normal agency, they had been receiving reports that were now questionable.

The man they hired probably just did routine interview with people from the school. If someone was controlling the rumors there, then it was natural that they'd get reports about those only.

"I'm sorry about this," Gin apologized. If they used their own people from the start, they wouldn't have been blinded and would have done something to stop it. It was his oversight that the future lady of the Homura House nearly died.

"It's not solely your mistake," Ryuu said. "The bigger blame is mine," he added as he sighed heavily.

"Find out who that Koharu is. Check her background. She's totally suspicious. If she had something to do with Ara's accident, I will deal with her personally." Ryuu then picked up a file from his side and handed it to Gin.

Kazehaya opened it and was surprised. It was the engagement contract between Ryuu's parents and the Suzuki couple for Ara and Ryuu. It was signed the year Ara was born, and another one when she turned fourteen, just a year before the couple died.

"This…"

Gin flipped over the pages, and almost whistled at the clauses. It was a very, very generous contract that would benefit Ara's family a lot the moment they married.

"What do you have in mind?"

At Gin's question, Ryuu recalled Ara's voice as she talked about the sempai she admired, and his lips curved into a faint smile.

"I guess, it's about time to contact Suzuki Aki,"Koutaishidenka replied, and Gin was ecstatic.

Finally!

"I will do it ASAP!"

He stood up, much energized, and was about to leave when he remembered something.

"Koutaishidenka," he called, and Ryuu raised his head to look at him.

"If you're happy, then why did you send me away?" Gin wanted to know badly. If it weren't for him, they wouldn't know the truth.

The day after he visited Ara, he was suddenly whisked away to France to attend two gruesome days of boring meetings. That was a total punishment. Shouldn't he be rewarded instead?

As soon as he asked though, Ryuu gave him a glower. "Who told you to go see her first?" he snapped and Gin was totally scandalized at the unfairness.

"Koutaishidenka – you tantrum prince!"