167 Lily (3)

Iris watched every minute change of Kyro's face. It hadn't been in her plan to startle him like this, but she really wanted to know what had happened. Although his expression was normal, as always, his body language expressed that something was wrong.

"Is it something that will be endangered if I learn of it?" she asked softly.

Kyro opened his mouth to answer, but the doorbell rang at that moment. He swiftly stood up and left, his actions more hurried than usual. 'Does he not want to tell it to me that badly?'

They ate in silence, and Iris wondered if she had overstepped her boundaries. Was he angry at her? So far, she had avoided asking him anything private, and it seemed to suit him just fine. And now that she asked, he didn't look too happy.

Yet she couldn't regret it. If they were to ever become anything more than just friends, how could that happen if they never talked about anything that mattered? Life consisted of more than just having fun.

After Iris cleaned up, she stopped in the middle of the living room. Kyro was still sitting on the sofa, having turned on some random movie. 'Should I sit with him and watch? Or would that be too awkward?'

"Come," Kyro called at that moment, glancing at her from over the sofa's backrest.

"'Kay." She came to sit near him, but not close enough to touch.

Her eyes instantly focused on his face, but he wasn't looking at her. "Do you still want to hear it?" he asked.

Delighted, Iris nodded eagerly. She had already stopping hoping for it and was just thinking about how to avoid awkwardness in the future.

"How much do you know of me? Of what I've done?" he asked, still not looking at her.

There was a heaviness to the question, and Iris didn't rush to answer it. In truth, she knew little. There was his diary-thing and then the newspaper article she'd read. Besides that, she somehow never got around to looking about him online. It just seemed weird, inappropriate somehow, now that they were friends.

If he wanted her to know something, he could just tell her. And from that newspaper article she was certain that anything she could find online would be biased, second-hand knowledge. The Kyro she knew was nothing like the one described by others.

"I know that you weren't friends with Gale at first, found him quite annoying actually. I also know that there was a Jane in your life, which may or may not have been the reason why you pledged to destroy Brons-something."

The expression on Kyro's face stiffened when she started speaking, and he finally turned to her. The cogs in his brain seemed to be working swiftly, and he said in a moment, "You read my journal that time?"

"I was quite bored without having access to your computer," she explained a bit sheepishly, but Kyro didn't seem to be angry.

"Anything else?"

"Not really, just what I heard between you and Gale, and your guests."

"Right." After that, Kyro looked away once more. He was doing a lot of that today. 'Is he still choosing whether to tell me or not?'

Moments later, he spoke up again. "I not only pledged to destroy the Brons family, I did it too. Until there was nothing left of them. Now, Frank Brons, someone I knew as a two years junior of mine, came to work at my company."

"Did you talk to him today?" Iris asked softly, moving slightly closer. Having always lived alone, she wasn't certain how to console another person, but listening to the full story had to be the first step.

Kyro nodded. "He screwed up last week, somewhat, and everyone thought that I was gonna fire him just because of my hate for his family. Even he himself was certain of that and came to tell me what a bastard I am. Then he told me all the details of why that is so."

There was no inflection in Kyro's voice, like he was telling someone else's story. "That's probably what you noticed. It's something I have to deal with often, so don't mind it too much."

'Don't mind it too much? So why are you minding it so much?' Iris refused to believe that he wasn't affected by that meeting. Although she didn't know the details of what had transpired today, she was certain that Kyro hadn't planned to fire Frank.

The Kyro of six-seven years ago was not a person she knew, but the one that was next to her now wasn't someone that would act without thinking. He didn't go by emotions, but what he thought was the best course of action for everyone.

"Those people don't seem to understand you well," she said, smiling lightly. "Firing him never even crossed your mind, did it?"

"Mhm," he agreed noncommittally.

This reaction told her that something else was on his mind. It wasn't about firing Frank and him coming over. "If you really were a bastard as he said, would I still be here?" she then said instead.

That caught Kyro's attention, and she scooted next to him, raising her head so they were looking at each other eye to eye. "I don't know what happened in the past, or why you did what you did, but you're not that person now. I'm a living proof of that. It would have been easy for you to never pick me up, or throw me out the moment I became troublesome, but you never did that. Instead of making it easy for yourself, you allowed me to stay until I could solve my problems. So never doubt that you're a good person."

Kyro didn't say anything right away, and Iris suddenly realized just how close they were. If she moved just a little bit, their lips could touch.

Just as she thought that, she noticed that Kyro's eyes were piercingly bright. There was some strong, unreadable emotion within them, and her heart picked up speed. Her breath grew ragged, heat rushing up her cheeks.

His head moved lower, and her eyes fluttered close.

And then the doorbell rang, clear and sharp in the silent room. As if electrocuted, Iris jumped back, rushing to the other side of the sofa. While her thoughts scrambled for anything legible, Kyro stood up, threw her a complicated gaze, then walked away to the door.