Chapter 10: Close Comfort

My body jolts awake. I bump my head into Jiro's. Who, for some reason, is right above me.

"Ow." I grab the part of my head that made contact with Jiro's.

"Shit." Jiro does the same as me while also falling backward.

After a few seconds, he looks at me, annoyed. "Who's Ji-Hoon?"

I must have talked in my sleep again. "Nobody." I tell him in a cold voice.

Jiro grunts at me. "For a nobody, you sure do say his name in your sleep a lot."

My eyes glare at him. "Says the person watching someone sleep."

He smiles at me, which only annoys me more. "I was waiting for a good moment to wake you up so that we could eat." His hands point over to the coffee table not far from the bed.

On the table are platers full of food. Some of them I have never even seen before. Without realizing it, I walk over to them to inspect them better.

"It feels like a bit of an overkill for just the two of us." I look over at him. His eyes are still locked on me, and his smile is still plastered on his face.

"Maybe, but I figured you probably haven't gotten a good meal in the past few days."

He's not wrong. The last time I ate was when I first arrived at the academy three days ago. I sit down on the couch near the coffee table and stare at the food blankly.

Jiro sits down next to me. It's an oversized couch, but he sits uncomfortably close to me for some reason. "Aren't you gonna eat?" He hands me a plate. Then he grabs another one and starts taking food from the copious amounts of platters.

"I don't know the correct way to eat all this stuff?"

He turns to me, disgusted. "It's food. There is no correct way to eat it."

He's wrong, but I choose not to correct him. I feel as though doing so will get me nowhere. So instead, I do as he says and gently grab different types of food that look appetizing to eat.

Jiro has already gotten everything he wants and begins to shove his mouth full. For being from a rich family, he has no manners.

I set the plate down in my lap and grab what looks to be a pie. However, as I poke at it with a fork, meat comes flowing out from the inside. My face contorts at the filling. "What is this?" I look over to Jiro, who horrifies me even more with a mound of food almost spilling out of his face.

Even more repulsing, he easily gulps down the food from his mouth in only two tries. "That's a meat pie. Sounds weird, but they taste amazing." He looks at me eagerly, waiting to try a bit of it. "Come on, just try it."

I sink the fork down into a piece of meat, and then I do it again to pick up a portion of the puff pastry. I bring it to my mouth, waiting to eat it. Suddenly, Jiro takes my hand and shoves the fork in with a grin on his face. I expect the food to taste nasty, but I'm pleasantly surprised at its flavor.

"This is really good."

Jiro slicks back on the couch. "I told you."

I quickly stuff my face with the food from the rest of my plate. The two of us give each other quick glances, laughing at how ridiculous our face looks with food stuffed in our cheeks.

Occasionally I think of the dream, but Jiro quickly distracts me with descriptions of the places in the house.

Jiro sets his empty plate down and lays down on the couch. He moves my plate to the table and rests his head on my lap. I look down at him, trying not to blush. "Alright, tomorrow." he paused and looks over to my bed. "Hmm. We are supposed to start your schooling, but that sounds boring." He stops to yawn.

"We can't skip." I stop him from getting any ideas. "I don't need your parents kicking me out because I act like a delinquent."

He smiles at me with a mischievous grin. "You've got nothing to worry about. They haven't kicked me out."

I look away from him. I hope he can't hear how loud my heartbeat is. Or the fact that my face feels hot right now. Maybe he does, and he's only doing this to tease me. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised. He seems like the type.

"Fine, We'll go to the tutor. Then we can go outside. I heard the servants talking about how nice of a day it's gonna be."

I feel his hand slide against my cheek. It's hard, but I make sure to not look at him.

"You're face is so soft. Do you have some type of skincare routine?"

I cave and look at him. My whole body feels like it's on fire. "Not really. I just wash it in the shower and then put lotion on when I get out."

He slowly blinks his eyes at me. I can tell he's tired. "Ah." He stops to yawn. "I see."

I notice just how green his eyes are being so close to him. They look like emeralds. "Your eyes a pretty." The words come blurting out of my mouth.

He giggles quietly. "Funny enough, they used to be brown."

"They changed colors?"

He nods. "Yeah. It happened when I was like seven. My sister was practicing some spell and didn't realize I was hiding in a bush. I jumped out to scare her, and bam…" He shoots his hands up to the ceiling and then lets them fall down to my lap. "The spell ended up misfiring and hitting my face. One of the side effects was that my eye changed colors. It was supposed to go away, but it never did."

I gaze further into the color of his eyes. He stares back at me as I do so. "I'm glad they didn't change back. They suit you."

We look at each other in silence before he jumps up from my lap and heads for the door. "Well, I um… better get back to my room." he scratches the back of his head. "If you need me, I'm right across the hall."

I smile and nod my head. "Sleep well, Jiro."

"Thanks, you too. I'll be back in the morning to wake you up for our tutoring."

I get up from the couch. "Okay."

He rushes out of the room. Once I hear his door click, I fall to the ground. He was lying on my lap. I can't believe that he was on my lap. I rest my head on the couch cushion. It's still warm from his body.

If only my family knew where I was right now. I laugh at the thought. My mom would be losing her mind. When I tell her over the phone, she will want to see me for sure. Kaede will probably want to play hide and seek once he knows how big this place is. I can't wait to tell them everything.