123 Missing (18)

Once her hunger was appeased, Iris wondered what to do next. Her usual answer to that was go watch TV, so she returned to the living room and sprawled out on the sofa. A series she was familiar was showing, so she kept the channel and relived the familiar scenes.

It was good and all, but time swiftly flew past, and there was a noise near the door. Surprised, she quickly turned off the TV and rushed to the door. He wouldn't be too angry, would he? She so didn't want to be kicked out of here. What would she even do then?

"What are you doing?" Kyro asked the moment he came in, his cold eyes traveling down her form.

Uncomfortable under his seeking gaze, she took a step back and pulled the bathrobe closer around herself. For an instant, she wished she had at least real clothes. It was hard to feign confidence when all you had was your own body and that's it. Not even the robe on you belonged to you.

He passed by her as if she wasn't there, going straight for his bedroom. There, he threw down his suit jacket, freed up his tie, then went into the kitchen to start boiling water.

Iris didn't know whether to follow him or stay still. What would he react better to? He had stayed up late and woken up earlier than her… Her eyes went wide with terror at that thought. He was a sleep addict!

Their conversation wasn't going to be an easy one, and he just had to start it in a bad mood, too. 'How am I going to make it work?' she wondered, a sense of unease spreading through her.

At first, she'd had a lackadaisical view on it, believing that Kyro wouldn't be cruel enough to just throw her out. But at this moment, when her fate was about to be decided, she couldn't help but think she was acting like a fool.

Who would allow a stranger to just stay in their house for their whole life without any reason? It was one thing to pick up a stray dog or cat, but a whole different to take in a human. Something like this just wasn't done. Money didn't grow on trees, and every human had to work for themselves.

Unless they were family. And she and Kyro were clearly not family. They were no better than strangers, if one ignored the fact that she had lied her way into his house for a month.

'I'll be lucky if he doesn't send me to an asylum.'

"What are you doing there? Come over, we need to talk."

Kyro's words woke Iris up, and she jumped to obey. He was coming to sit on the sofa, so she moved around it to sit down opposite him. Her heart was beating at twice its normal speed, but she pretended that it had nothing to do with her. There was no way she was going to let him see how nervous she was when facing him.

"Are you finally going to answer my questions?" he asked, taking a sip of the coffee he had just made for himself.

She nodded. What else could she do? With her human identity exposed, it wasn't like she could just leave. There was simply nowhere for her to go.

"Who are you?"

"Iris Warren."

'This is simple enough,' she thought with a bit of hope. If all he asked were these kind of things, she might actually get through the conversation without sounding too insane.

"Why did you appear before me that evening?"

And the hope for easy questions was out the window. How did he expect her to answer that?

She raised her head to see his expression, but it was inscrutable. Truth it was then. "I didn't appear before you. Not on purpose, anyway. I actually tried to run away, but you wanted to be the good Samaritan and save the poor creature."

"Are you saying I brought it upon myself?" he asked, his voice sending a chill down her back.

Clearly, he was angry about something she said, but… what? "Brought what?" she asked in puzzlement, not getting it.

It wasn't the most truthful of her to just live in his house without saying anything, but she didn't do anything exceptionally wrong, did she? She even acted like a cute pet for him all the time!

"So you want to say you weren't planning to take advantage of your situation?"

His voice was mocking, and dripping with disbelief. If she didn't get it still, she would be a fool. But the mere idea of what he was suggesting was preposterous.

"Take advantage? You know what, Kyro, go to hell." She stood up and left for the first room in her sights, throwing its door closed with a bang and locking it.

While standing in the middle of the room, she closed her eyes and forced the tears back. She focused her mind on her uneven breaths, pulling it away from the hurt in her heart.

Only a moment ago she had realized that she actually wanted to be liked by Kyro in her human form as well. In her mind, they were friends, that's why she hadn't been seriously worried about getting kicked out without a word.

But he seemed to think of her as a gold digger… or a thief.

It was good that she had left the room, at least. Otherwise, she might be tempted to claw his eyes out so they wouldn't see deceit where there was none.

…

In the living room, Kyro looked around with befuddlement. 'What just happened?' he asked himself. But his mind was blank.

He had said those words to test the girl, to see if she would admit or deny it, give some excuses or apologize. Yet she had done neither. Instead, she became angry enough to tear him apart. As she rushed away with burning fury in her eyes, he didn't miss how her fingers flexed into claws.

"And that's my bedroom," he muttered while looking at the locked door. His gaze then shifted to Lucy, who was napping on the backrest as always, but the cat didn't have any pity for him. He could almost hear it saying, "Your own fault, man, your own fault."