At the Port Mafia headquarters in the afternoon, Chuuya came into Mori Ougai's office and placed a box of cake on the table.
His boss stared at the box of cakes, then glanced at his executive member.
"You buy Elise-chan another cake?" he asked.
"Yes, because I think it wouldn't hurt to buy it, boss." Chuuya nodded then looked at Elise who walked over to the cake box and looked at it.
"Nozomi Bakery again, you're a regular customer of that cake shop now?" the girl asked with a smile.
She took the cake and ate it as usual with her fork. Elise really liked Aiko's cake, because she thought it was softer and sweeter than the cake she was used to.
Chuuya actually bought the cake as an excuse to come and see how Aiko was doing.
But as time went on, he came to Aiko's shop more and more often. So he was forced to buy cakes at the shop often to give to Elise or other members of the Port Mafia.
"Since you bought cake for Elise-chan, she rarely eats the cake I buy. She prefers the cake you bought," Mori said.
"I guess that's not surprising since the cake tastes good. I'm sure that's the reason why she likes it so much," said a woman who was so elegant in the pink kimono she was wearing today.
"Kouyou-kun." Mori looked at his other executive members who walked into the room.
"I guess buying cake at that place wasn't the main purpose, right Chuuya?" asked Kouyou while glancing at Chuuya.
Chuuya was somewhat surprised when Kouyou asked him that. He felt like he was caught off guard by 'Anee-san' at work.
He cleared his throat softly, then replied. "Not really, I just come to that place often because the cake is delicious. There's no special reason for me to come there other than that."
He was worried that they suspected him of meeting Aiko who had dangerous ability. He did not want them come to that shop, directly to meet her.
"Is the one selling this cake a woman?" asked Elise.
Chuuya reflexively replied that it was indeed a woman selling the cake.
That immediately raised the question for Kouyou, was his suspicion correct?
"What's that girl like?" she asked calmly.
"She's just a nice ordinary girl and can be said to be quite pretty and cheerful," Chuuya replied as he sipped his wine.
"Very pretty?" Now it was Mori who asked, as if they were deliberately bombarding him with questions as Chuuya tried to be nonchalant.
"Her face is cute, her smile is sweet and when she speaks- Wait..." The man came to his senses and immediately turned to the three of them.
A faint smile appeared on the face of the elegant woman sitting nearby.
"It looks like you're starting to like that girl, Chuuya. You even called her cute," she said.
Although she seemed to be trying to tease the man, but her face still looked calm.
"I-I didn't say that I liked her!" Chuuya became somewhat panicked with his face turning red.
He was trying to look cool, but it all came crashing down when Kouyou said that.
"If you really don't like it you don't need to react like that. Usually you would respond coolly," said Elise who was busy eating her cake.
Chuuya sat back in his chair while drinking his wine to ease the embarrassment he felt.
But it was hard to lie to himself that Chuuya was already quite attracted to Aiko.
Aiko was like a light in the midst of the darkness of Chuuya's life, she smiled and was very considerate of him even if it was small things that he usually took for granted.
But when he was with her, Chuuya began to appreciate the little things that weren't bad to notice.
Even when Aiko found out that Chuuya was a mobster, the girl wasn't overly afraid. But she did admit that she felt a little scared.
However, there was one conversation between them that made Chuuya feel like he was shaken inside.
Flashback
"It's true that your job looks very dangerous and I'm a little scared of it. However, to me you don't look like someone evil or like the mafia they say. Ruthless, dangerous and all that," she said.
"I seem harmless to you?" asked Chuuya with some surprise.
"Do you intend to hurt me? If you were dangerous and intended to hurt me, you wouldn't be sitting here with me and eating cake together in the first place," Aiko replied with a sweet smile.
She believed that Chuuya wouldn't hurt someone who didn't want to deal with him. As long as that person didn't treat Chuuya badly or do anything else bad, Aiko was sure Chuuya wouldn't attack someone for no apparent reason.
"Why do you trust someone like me so much? I'm just someone you've known for a few months, you don't even know what my life has been like," Chuuya said.
He tried to tell Aiko that maybe he wasn't as good as she thought. But instead she reached out and grasped Chuuya's hand that was on the table.
"Maybe you're right, we haven't known each other long and I could be wrong about you. But I see and Dazai-san trusts you a lot, which means I can trust you too."
He raised one eyebrow, feeling confused by Aiko's words, which meant that she trusted him just because Dazai trusted him?
"That means you don't really trust me!" Chuuya said, pulling his hand from Aiko's grasp.
Aiko froze as Chuuya pulled his hand away. He was worried that he was being too harsh with her.
However, Aiko opened her mouth again and it made Chuuya's heart beat faster when he heard the words she said to him.
"Then will you open yourself up to me so I can see who and what you really are?" she asked.
A sweet smile returned to Aiko's face afterward and she continued with her words.
"Let me trust you in my own way and vice versa. Trust me in your own way and not because Dazai-san introduced us both."
The now silent Chuuya listened as he looked into Aiko's red eyes. His blue eyes met with the beautiful red eyes, just like the beautiful red roses met with the blue hydragea flowers.
"Aiko..." murmured Chuuya calling her name.
"Chuuya-san!" replied Aiko with a wide smile.
FlashbackEnd
Kouyou watched as Chuuya continued to daydream while looking at his wine. She was pretty sure Chuuya was currently debating with his inner self about his feelings for the girl he had talked about earlier.
It certainly made her feel curious as to what that girl, the owner of the bakery Chuuya used to go to, was like.
'Should I try to meet her?'