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Today is a promised day that comes once every month. One year ago, I mustered the courage to make the first contact and secured a promise for us to meet periodically. That time, I was so nervous I thought my heart was going to explode, but I was also overjoyed knowing that he remembered me.

“Lady Kotone, you’ve put quite the effort into your appearance today.”
“It’s an important day, after all. Though no matter how much I try, using makeup is the one thing I can’t seem to improve on.”
“Please just give up on that. Your talent when it comes to makeup is simply disastrous.”

When I tried it by myself, I ended up looking like a completely different person. In a bad kind of way. I can never forget how mother screamed and fainted after seeing me in that state. Ever since then, Misaki has been in charge of my facial cosmetics.

“Sorry for always troubling you for this, Misaki.”
“If you think that way, then please give me a reward.”
“Sakiko will scold me for it, so no.”

Misaki loves sweets more than anything else, but her mother, Sakiko, had previously warned me against giving her more than what’s necessary. Though on the other hand, I can make Misaki do whatever I want in exchange for sweets.

“Nevertheless, I still can’t believe that you found interest in men other than the master.”
“My father is the way he is, after all. I realized that I can’t just obsess about him.”

If you want to enjoy life, you shouldn’t hyper-fixate on one single thing. This was something he taught me. It’s good to take interest in various things, to experience and learn from them.

“Seeing you grow into a proper member of the Kisaragi family makes me happy.”
“The twins are also proper, if you ask me.”
“No, those two have completely inherited the Kisaragi karma.”

They do fawn on me a bit much, but they’re otherwise normal. Though I find it weird that they, or at least my younger sister, still want to take baths with me at their age. I appreciate that my younger brother has started to refrain from this. After all, while we may be siblings, it’s still problematic with me being already a high school student and him in middle school.

“Now then, it’s almost time, so I’ll be leaving now.”
“Go and catch your future husband.”
“He’s not that kind of person!”

No matter how much I refute it, my family and our servants still misunderstand it. I’d be lying if I said that I have zero romantic feelings, but I don’t see myself being married to him in the future. It’s because he already has someone else more suitable by his side.

“There’s no place for me between them.”

I’ve already mustered my resolve long ago, but my heart still continues to ache. While they’ve been together since birth, I’ve only been with him for a year. I just want to be with him. That’s all I should want for and no more.

“No more dwelling on it. Okay.”

Overhearing my mutter, the driver doesn’t say anything. And he wouldn’t tell a soul about it. It’s not that I ordered this from him. He does this on his own volition. I won’t say it out loud, but I really appreciate it.

“Milady, we have arrived.”
“Thank you. I’ll send a message when we’re done.”
“Understood.”

There’s no set time for our playdate. There are times when we finish quickly, but there are also times when we play ourselves exhausted until late evening. It only ends when we’re completely satisfied. It won’t end until we’ve blown off enough steam.

“As I thought, he still hasn’t arrived.”

There’s only 15 minutes until the promised time. He always comes one hour earlier, otherwise he’ll be late. He was early before, so I was expecting him to be late this time and I was right. Why does he always have to have some kind of meaningless struggle just to meet me?

“Can I take your order?”
“A glass of iced tea, please.”

I sit at my usual table and order my usual drink. I’ve gone to this cafe many times now, so I’m already somewhat of a regular. At first, we came while we were searching for a nice shop, but both of us liked the mood and atmosphere, so we made this our meeting place. But there was one problem.

“Meeting with him again?”
“Yes. But it seems like he’ll be late this time, too.”
“He’s pretty loose with time.”

And that problem is that the daughter of the cafe owner is a classmate of mine. I didn’t notice it at first, but I yelled out loud when I bumped into her at the academy. While she didn’t tell anyone about it, I remember feeling so awkward about it.

“I’ve already said this many times before, but please don’t tell anyone about this.”
“And I’ve already told you many times that I won’t. I don’t want this to be the kind of shop that leaks private information.”

I’m glad she really cares about this cafe. While I do like the shop’s interior, I really love the sweets here. I remember one time we ate too much, Kaori was taken aback when she saw us.

“Still, Souji is a lot older than us, right? A working adult, even.”
“Is there a problem with that?”
“I just don’t get how he got acquainted with you, someone from the twelve families.”

Kaori and I became friends because of him. After all, we didn’t have anything in common until Mister and I came to this cafe. Even when he’s not around, I occasionally come here to relax. Kaori and I started talking at school when I asked her to keep my meeting with Mister a secret.

“He helped me out in the past.”
“Helped you, huh? I really can’t imagine it, if you ask me. After all, you can do most things by yourself.”

I always tried to do things by myself without relying on people first, and I just couldn’t. Because of that, I couldn’t blend in with the class and mostly spent my time alone. And Kaori was the one who resolved this. Once we started talking, she began proactively approaching me.

“What about the cafe?”
“I’m free right now, so it’s fine. Otherwise, Dad would’ve called me out.”

Just like now, she talks with me whenever she has the time. And through Kaori, I was able to become friends with Miyako and Harumi. Since I’m such a passive-reactive person, I was really fortunate.

“I know I’ve asked this before, Kotone, but are men like Souji your type?”
“And I’ve already said it again and again, I’m not in that kind of relationship with him.”

Why do people always try to tie it to romance? I can’t tell her that my first love was my father either, so she probably thinks that I have yet to experience love. I really do love Mister Souji. But whether this is platonic or romantic, I can’t really say for sure.

“If you ask me, the fact that you two secretly meet in private is really suspicious.”
“It’s not like we’re meeting in private. This is just where we meet at, we do play and have fun outside in public.”
“I’m impressed there still haven’t been rumors about you at the academy.”
“It’s probably because I normally give off a different impression.”

I’m generally unassuming at school, never the one to proactively step to the forefront. However, when I’m with him, I seem to let loose and match his energy. It’s not something I consciously do; other people have just told me that it’s the impression they had.

“That’s true, you do give off a really different feel when you’re with Souji,” she said.
“I’m still relatively behaved here, though,” I replied.
“Just what do you two do outside?”

We’ve gone to karaoke establishments and arcade centers, played billiards, bowling, and many other things. Since both of us are sore losers, we often get passionate when competing against each other. He’s probably the only person I can be unreserved with.

“A lot of things,” I answered.
“I’m really curious, but it’s probably not something for me to poke my nose into,” she responded.

It should be fine. He’s not the type to be bothered about that. There are even times when someone suddenly joins it. Though when that happens, things spiral out of control in a lot of ways.

“I don’t want to get in the way of someone else’s budding relationship,” she said.
“Again, we don’t have that kind of relationship.”

Kaori always teases me like this. Do we seem that way to her? Maybe it’s because I look older than a regular high schooler. It might also be why I’ve never been approached by the police even though we play around until late at night.

“Still, your partner’s really late.”
“It’s probably taking him some time to escape.”
“From who?”
“From the rogue’s den people.”
“The who?”
“They’re unhinged people.”

I honestly have no other way to describe those people. It’s not like I’ve met everyone, I’ve only met several of them and they’re already so exhausting. Most people would immediately be drained of their energy by those unique people.

“Looks like there’s a lot of obstacles in your love.”
“Again, it’s not like that!”

This is a certain “if” story. A world where mister didn’t get killed, where I didn’t change from how I originally was. A happy yet slightly sad dream of mine that could never come true.