Kotone and Haruto

We were pushed into the back of a large van.　

There were three people who kidnapped us.

One was the driver and the other was a gentlemanly-looking man in the passenger seat.

The last one was a large man with rough-looking brown hair.

Kotone, next to me, was caught by one of the rough-looking men and was screaming.

He was in the back seat like us.

I guessed he was supposed to be a watchman.

"Now that Young Lady of the Tomis is ours."

The man then reached out to touch Kotone's body through the top of her blazer.

Kotone's face contorted in disgust and fear, and tears welled up in her eyes.

But another man stopped him.

"You should not do this right now. We need to get out of here as soon as possible."

The brown-haired man clicked his tongue, but then stopped.

The van drove off.

Kotone was shaking and trembling.

I was thinking that maybe Kotone was planning something again and was staging it herself, but from the looks of it, I guess not.

And from the way the brown-haired man was acting, he might seriously harm Kotone.

I thought about it.

Soichiro Tomi, Kotone and Rei's grandfather, had said.

He said that in the process of rebuilding the Tomi Group, he had gained the resentment of people in the underworld, and that this could harm his grandchildren as well.

Although I am not certain, it seems that these men knew Kotone's true identity from the beginning, and it seems safe to assume that they were working for the people Soichiro Tomi mentioned.

"I've been watching the mansion for a long time, and they carelessly walked out of the residence. Lucky for us."

The other man said, "Keep your mouth shut.", in response to the brown-haired man's words.

At that, the brown-haired man grimaced and tried again to reach for Kotone.

"No!"

Kotone was frightened and tried to escape from the man's hand.

I quickly grabbed Kotone's hand and pulled her to me.

Then I quietly said to the man.

"You should not touch this girl."

"Who are you? Are you this young lady's boyfriend?"

"No. I'm not her boyfriend. But she's the sister of someone I care about."

The man, perhaps annoyed at being interrupted, shook his fist at me.

Kotone was trembling in my arms, but I managed to keep my composure.

"I don't think making a scene in the van is going to do you guys any good either. I don't know what your plan is, but it will only increase the risk of a failed kidnapping."

"Shut up."

The brown-haired man didn't seem to mind what I said, but the man in the passenger seat did.

"The boy is right. Why can't you just stay quiet?"

The man in the passenger seat seemed to be the leader of the group, and the brown-haired man reluctantly complied.

For the time being, the possibility of putting Kotone in danger had been averted.

I was relieved, and then I realized that I was holding Kotone close to me.

Kotone, who had tried to escape from the man, was on my lap.

The petite Kotone was trembling as she leaned back against me.

She seemed so strong-willed, so weak that I could hardly believe she was the same girl who had tried to subvert Rei-san.

Kotone looked up at me, her face reddening.

I was holding Kotone's body from behind and our faces were very close together.

In a quiet voice, Kotone said.

"Are you trying to protect me?"

"Just in case."

"…Thank you."

After that, Kotone and I, as well as the men, were silent.

Soon we were blindfolded by the instructions of the man in the passenger seat.

I guess to prevent us from knowing where they were taking us.

After a long time, we were finally taken out of the van.

It was somewhere in the mountains, and there was a tall building in the middle of the mountains that looked like a villa.

We were taken to a bedroom on the fourth floor of the building at knife-point.

It looked like a hotel room with a bathroom and toilet, but it was in pretty bad shape.

The leader of the group said to us.

"We can't let you go until we've accomplished what we set out to do."

"How long is that?"

"I can't tell you that, but, well, it won't be for a day or two, so you'll have to stay here and relax. But if you try to escape ..., you're dead."

The man shrugged and disappeared from the room.

The reason he didn't leave someone to watch over us was because they couldn't afford to do so.

We were alone and stared at each other's faces.

Kotone was exhausted.

Having grown up as a young lady in a recluse family, Kotone must never have been exposed to malicious intent like this.

If she had been about to be attacked by a man, it would have been natural for her to be frightened.

I, on the other hand, was scared, but it was so unrealistic that I couldn't really feel that I had been kidnapped.

Besides, the target of the kidnapping was Kotone.

I was more of an extra.

Well, even so, I might be killed to stop me from talking, but my position is different from Kotone's.

Kotone seemed to be trying to suppress her trembling, but eventually she began to cry aloud.

Kotone clung to me, who was confusion.

Until recently, Kotone had been my enemy, hating Rei-san and wanting her to be attacked by men.

But now Kotone was just a frightened girl.

Hesitantly, I hugged Kotone, who was leaning toward me.

As I did so, Kotone squeezed me and relaxed her body a little in relief.

As we stayed like that, Kotone stopped crying.

Then she looked at me with red eyes.

"I'm sorry I showed you something embarrassing."

"I don't think it's embarrassing at all."

“Senpai is… strong. Aren’t you scared?”

"I'm scared, but it just doesn't show up in my attitude."

"I think that's what it means to be strong. I thought I was a strong person. Unlike my sister..."

"Tomi-san, you were trying to get men to attack Rei-san, weren't you? That's the same thing that almost happened to you just now."

Ugh, Kotone was at a loss for words.

hen she looked at me uneasily.

“I know Senpai thinks ... I'm unforgivable. That's why you only think it's a nice touch when those men do something to me, don't you?"

"If that were the case, I wouldn't have defended Tomi-san earlier."

“Does that mean ... you will continue to protect me?"

“Tomi-san is Rei-san's younger sister after all."

I said, and Kotone gave me a complicated look.

"I don't like the reasoning that it is because she is my sister."

“Because Tomi-san probably doesn't like Rei-san."

“That's true. That's one reason, but ... there are other reasons as well."

Kotone looked straight at me with her big black eyes.

"I was interested in Senpai."

"Eh?"

"Don't misunderstand me. I didn't mean it like that. I was curious about the kind of person that my sister had fallen in love with. She was scared, cowardly, and afraid of getting hurt,... so when I found out that she had opened her heart only to Senpai, I couldn't help but be curious about what kind of person you were."

"So, what kind of person was I?"

“'I thought you were a kind person. I tried to do terrible things to my sister and Senpai, and you are still trying to protect me by treating me normally and not being angry with me. Is that because I am her sister? Is that all?""

"I don't know,... but for me, it's because I think it's natural."

It is not hard to understand why Kotone hates her sister.

Rei-san's mother and Rei-san herself were the catalysts for this, and Kotone was deprived of the parents she loved so much.

Of course, I could never forgive Kotone for what she tried to do to Rei-san, but then again, I never intended to hate Kotone either.

“Hmm…Hey, Senpai, can I ask you just one thing?”

"Just one? What?"

"Please stop calling me Tomi-san."

"Eh?"

"I want you to call me Kotone."

"Why?"

"Because you must."

When she said that, Kotone looked away and her face turned red.

"Ah, yes. I understand, Kotone."

Kotone shivered and looked at me again.

"Um... Haruto-senpai."

I looked at Kotone with a startled look on my face.

　I didn't think she would even call me by my name.

Kotone blushed and pointed to the bed in the room.

“Me and Senpai, we're going to live here together, right?"

"That man said so."

"But... there's only one bed... What do we do?"