Aochi
"Aochi-san, please stay with me!"
I snapped back to myself when I saw Oomi, his eyes brimming with tears behind his glasses.
"Sorry. I—"
"You're awake? I'm so glad you came back. I thought... I thought you’d lost your heart. From now on, I’ll protect you, so please don’t worry."
Oomi took off his glasses and wiped his tears with his sleeve as he spoke. Despite his tearful expression, the strength in his voice—something I’d never heard from him before—threw me off.
"I’m really sorry. I’ll pull myself together, I promise."
"Did that man… the one who called himself The Harvester of Hearts… did he do something to you? You seemed possessed."
The tremble in his voice as he spoke made me feel even worse. I’d made my junior this worried—how pathetic.
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"...I felt like I knew him somehow. I saw him from outside the ship, and after that… everything went hazy, like I was dreaming while walking through fog. It was strange. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you like this—"
Oomi gently shook his head.
"It’s all right. Just be careful. Aochi-san, you’re still—"
At that moment, a loud banging came from the door, followed by Oze’s voice.
"Hey! What’s going on in there? Are you okay?"
I passed by Oomi, placed my hand on the cold doorknob, and slowly opened it.
"Aochi... You seemed off, so I got worried," Oze said, standing right at the door. When he saw my face, he let out a long sigh.
"Sorry," I said again—those same words, spilling from my mouth for what felt like the hundredth time.
"You’re okay now? That corpse-looking guy seems to have disappeared. Let’s go out on the deck and get some fresh air. That okay with you, Oomi?"
The roles had completely reversed. Even in Oze’s eyes, Oomi now looked like he was the one watching over me.
"Sounds good. We can get to the deck from the stairs we just came up. I saw it earlier on the ship’s floor map in the hallway."
"You’re really calm. I couldn’t even think about floor maps back then."
Oze looked at Oomi with a slightly impressed smile. I was really glad I’d come here with these two. Feeling safe at last, I let myself sink down onto the neatly made bed behind me.
They both looked at me with the same gentle expression.
"Come on, let’s go before that guy comes back."
Oomi reached out his hand to me. It felt larger than I remembered—and so very warm.