10 <Different POV: Yamamoto Chiaki> Probing Ryunosuke's Fiancée

Gently placing her tea cup onto its saucer, Yamamoto Chiaki gracefully looked outside of the open window to her right. The sun was setting and its beauty could not compare to the young girl's face.

However, just like her brother, Yamamoto Chiaki's smiling expression could not hide the deep emptiness that she felt inside.

Tilting her head up to get a better view of the fading rays of the sun, Chiaki sipped her tea once more as she waited for Toujou Hana to arrive.

Hana had received their... special guests tonight, and Chiaki wanted to know whether or not the girl had followed her instructions carefully.

Taking another sip of tea, Chiaki was about to roll her wheelchair closer to the window to close it when the door to her room opened with a loud 'bang!'.

"Chiaki!"

Turning her head, Chiaki first heard Hana's heaving breaths before she found her disheveled appearance. Raising an eyebrow, Chiaki turned her wheelchair towards Hana instead. "What happened?" Her voice was like a gentle brook, but the steel within could intimidate even the strongest of folks.

An audible gulp could be heard from Hana before the young girl took a deep breath, calming herself down. "I met them."

"And?"

"I took Hirayama Tougi to his room."

"And?"

"I left Hirayama Yukiko by herself."

With every word that left Hana's mouth, Chiaki's expression darkened and the temperature of the room plummeted ten degrees. Chiaki had to stop and take a sip of tea before she could return to her smiling facade. "You couldn't have just left her," Chiaki's eyes bore holes into Hana's face. "What else happened?"

Hana's voice was smaller than a mosquito's as she twiddled her thumbs before her. "Um."

"Speak up!"

Like a frightened cat that knew it had done wrong, Hana guiltily looked up at the wheel-bound girl. "I stuck my tongue out at her."

"What?"

"I stuck my tongue out at her. Like this." Hana stuck her tongue out and closed her eyes, the exact same expression that she used on Yukiko before she turned the corner to leave.

Chiaki, exactly like a deflated balloon, hunched over her chair in frustration. Even a sip of tea could do nothing to ease her anger as she looked at her cousin in dismay. "Leave."

Hana stared at her for a few seconds as if she couldn't understand what Chiaki was saying, but then a lightbulb seemed to go off above her head. The younger girl scurried away like a squirrel.

Sighing, Chiaki watched as Hana left before she glanced down at her teacup. There were only the tea grains left and a few spoonfuls of tea, but she had lost her thirst. Hana had ruined her plans. If she acted like Chiaki wanted her to, then getting rid of the new fiancée would have been a walk in the park.

Now, however, Hana had warned the girl of her actions and of Chiaki in the background. She could only hope that the girl was stupid, but considering how she managed the situation with Hana... Chiaki could only sigh in defeat.

It was her own fault.

She shouldn't have given such an important task to someone as incompetent as that second cousin of hers.

Taking a deep breath, Chiaki returned to her previous task- closing the window. With practiced ease, she rolled her wheelchair over and reached high above herself to tug the window closed. The window creaked shut at the same time the last rays of sun disappeared.

Once again, Chiaki was left alone in the dark.

.......

<Different POV: Toujou Hana> Probing Ryunosuke's Fiancée

Hana left Chiaki's room in a hustle, almost falling over one of Chiaki's decorative vases. In a panic, she quickly caught it, heaving a sigh of relief at the close call.

She carefully placed the vase back before she glanced back in the room, hoping that the loud noise hadn't alerted Chiaki at all.

Patting her chest, Hana walked further down in the hallway before she entered a room that was thirty feet away from Chiaki's.

Turning on the lights, the first thing that Hana saw was not her dinner that she had left on the counter, but the shadow of a figure sitting down on her couch, the television turned to old sit-com television shows.

She blanched and turned on the lights, only to be relieved to see her younger second cousin before her. "What are you doing here?" her high-pitched voice only amplified her relief.

Yamamoto Eiji stared at Hana with his dark eyes and with no expression on his features. Hana could only stare nervously back, her eyes drifting away before she forcefully made eye contact with her cousin once more.

"How is she?" Eiji's voice was deeper than his features would lead you to believe, and in the dark, Hana was frightened at the sudden sound.

"She?" her voice quavered. "Who do you mean?"

"Ryunosuke's fiancée."

"Her?" Hana's voice was filled with disgust. "Why do you want to know about her?"

Eiji growled, and Hana's face blanched even further. She blinked away the tears that filled her eyes- Chiaki would punish her for crying.

She took a deep breath before she said, "She reached the family house safely."

"How was she?"

What was she supposed to say? What did this boy want from her? Hana wished that these cousins of hers would leave her alone. She was just a small fish in an ocean, so why would these sharks bother her? Inwardly sighing, Hana thought of the next best thing that she could say, "She was healthy."

Eiji growled again and Hana could feel her resolve crumbling. What did he want her to say? Her eyes darted all around before she realized the answer was right before her eyes. "Ryunosuke seemed pleased."

At that, it seemed as if a dam had gone loose as Eiji stood from his seat on the couch to throw the coffee table in front of him towards the flat screen TV.

The TV broke with a large crack! and Hana broke along with it too- it took her a whole year to scrounge up the money to buy that TV.

Seemingly not enough, Eiji stared at Hana and Hana could feel as if he wanted to throw her too. She flinched as the boy moved towards her menacingly, and then she fell down onto her butt when he went past her and left without even closing the door.

That settled it.

Hana was much better off working for Chiaki than any of the Yamamoto brothers.

They were all insane.