Chapter 7

"Hey Yui, how was school?"

Yui came out of her room when she heard her name. "Hey Aunt Halle!" she immediately noticed the bag in her hand. "What's that?"

"Sweet pea this is for you. I made it for you!"

"Mom! Look what Aunt Halle brought me!" her eyes sparkled.

"What did she bring, love bug?" her mom came out wiping her hands in a hand towel.

"Hey, I made these cupcakes in the café today and they tasted great, so I brought them home." Halle told her.

"That's nice, let me have one." Yui's mom crouched beside her. "Can I have one?"

"Sure." Yui dug in and pulled the box out. She opened it and squealed looking at the dozen cupcakes all tinted in rose color. She picked a cupcake and gave to her mom. And ran to the other room. "Grandma, have one, Aunt Halle brought these cupcakes for me!"

"You look tired."

Halle was startled. "Do I?"

"Yes, you do." She pointed at her. "And you look like you've seen a ghost."

"Is it written all over my face that bad?" Halle smiled wryly.

"So you have seen a ghost, then."

"Not a ghost, specifically." Halle answered. "But I definitely wish it was." On second thought, it was better that he was not a ghost, and then he would have stalked her into her room and tortured her and made her dive to her death. Definitely this was better.

Probably, she thought.

"Who was it?" she pulled her sleeves up. "Let me punch them back to hell."

"Kairo."

She stopped half way and the sleeves fell back down. "Oh. I thought he left abroad, didn't think he'd be back. He didn't even tell me . . . or visit."

"You guys are in contact?" Halle asked surprised.

"Yeah, until he left."

"Not funny, Shizuka, not funny at all."

"But still, I really did expect him to come visit."

"Why would he do that . . ." Halle paused. "Come to think of it, why didn't he?"

"Exactly." Shizuka repeated. "Why didn't he?"

"He didn't want me to know. I would have left the town if I'd known he's coming."

"And leave the café?" asked Shizuka. "Doesn't sound like you."

"If it's a week or two, I definitely would have. It is so much better than having to be here and see that face. That face. I wanted to forget it so badly and yet I recognized it like the back of my hand that it's awful."

"Where did you see him?"

"He came to my café!" Halle started crying. "He knew I was the one running it."

"He spoke to you?" Shizuka asked shocked.

"No, I hid in the Baking Room. I don't think he saw me." Halle wiped the tears.

"If he knew that café was yours, I don't think he would have left without talking to you."

"Yes, Pace shooed him off saying that I was on a trip and won't be here for a week."

"Like he wouldn't have noticed you open the door to your café in the morning."

"What?" Halle started sweating.

"Just be careful." Shizuka patted her shoulder. "That's all I'm saying. We don't know why he came or what he wants or if he'll be leaving abroad after a short span of time. So you have to really be very careful. And also, it also seems that he knows someone here, since he got this information about you easily after all these years."

"Or he used money. It is easy for him as long as that's what he wants." Halle sighed. "I don't know what to do."

"Yeah, but there's one thing you definitely should do. Don't give in and do his bidding and become what he's expecting of you. Don't do it like last time."

"Okay."

Shizuka left to do the dishes. Halle sat down. This was a lot to take in. If he knew she was there and still left, what did he gain from the visit? He wouldn't do something that was not worth his time . . .

She put her head in her hands and groaned. It made total sense now. He left because he got the result to his tiny experiment sooner than he expected. He must have been so happy with the result.

She got up. She's gonna lose her mind otherwise.

"Hey, what happened?" Shizuka called from the kitchen. "Did something fall?"

Halle realized she got up abruptly and the books on the side-table had fallen.

"It was me! I was distracted. I'll put them back." Halle picked the books and stacked them on the side-table again.

"The cupcakes were delicious! Grandma thinks the same too!" Yui crouched next to her as she picked up the books.

"You love it?" asked Halle.

"Very much." Yui said excitedly.

"I'll bring some more next week too, then."

"Cool!"

"Love bug, you need to go to bed now. It's getting late." Shizuka scolded.

"No!"

"Go to bed, Sweet pea." Halle gave her a tight hug. "You have a whole day of school tomorrow, right?"

Yui became disheartened. "Alright."

Shizuka ushered Yui to bed. She looked to the side at Halle. "Don't overthink."

"Sure, that shouldn't be a problem." she lied.