68 Ring

Of course, they're not friends.

Ara could never ever do those things she did with Ryuu with any of her friends. Just imagining it was making her feel queasy.

EEEEEW!

"You're my lover, my future wife, and mother of my children," Kou recited softly afterwards.

Silence hung between them until Ara finally asked what she'd been dying to ask for a while.

"Why me?"

There were a plethora of women he could choose from – women belonging to a far better family than hers. She tried thinking about it, but she really was not able to come up with any reason why someone like Homura Ryuu would want her as his life's partner.

"Because it has to be you," was his enigmatic answer.

After that, his face closed up as if he didn't want to elaborate, and so, Ara didn't push anymore. It was enough that she had tried to ask and he answered albeit unsatisfactorily. Just like that, their evening together ended.