One week later.
A new weekend arrived, and Randou had grown accustomed to Asou Akiya's scent, his defenses fully lowered. He slept deeply and sweetly beside him.
"Randou~." Asou Akiya leaned close, whispering against his ear.
Randou let out a soft, drowsy murmur. "Akiya?"
Utterly charmed by the French lilt in that sleepy voice, Asou Akiya smiled brightly. "Let's go on a date."
The hellish stretch of overtime had finally ended — life felt boundless and beautiful once more.
In the mobile phone shop, Asou Akiya pulled Randou inside to choose a flip phone. He avoided anything marketed as a couple's set; rather than forcing matching aesthetics, he cared far more about suiting Randou's personal taste.
Unexpectedly, Randou selected the exact same model — down to the classic black color, unchanged.
"What if I grab the wrong phone at work?" Asou Akiya fretted.
"I'll bring it to you." Randou had no particular preference for gadgets; the phone he saw most often was Akiya's, so choosing one with identical features felt perfectly natural.
Asou Akiya entered his own number into Randou's new phone without adding a name.
"If anything comes up, just dial this number. Still remember how to use it?"
"Mm."
Randou fiddled with it for only a short while before mastering the device.
Stepping out of the shop, Randou took in another facet of Yokohama's character. The lingering shadows of wartime and the recent explosion hung over the city like a pall, the economy showing signs of stagnation. Crowds of salarymen hurried past even on the weekend, no rest from relentless overtime.
Asou Akiya had deliberately avoided conventional date spots — Arthur Rimbaud had been an extraordinary man, and the soul of Randou still carried that indelible romantic spirit etched into his very essence.
Akiya had planned the entire day with care.
This was his chance to share the things he loved with the man beside him.
Their first stop was the bustling port of Yokohama. Asou Akiya gestured broadly and declared, "This is the liveliest spot in the whole city."
Randou's gaze swept over the cruise liners and cargo ships before drifting farther out, drawn irresistibly to the open sea.
The ocean… it was beautiful.
"In the years to come, all sorts of exciting things will happen out on those waters," Asou Akiya said, the words slipping out almost mysteriously. A fresh, unguarded smile lit his face, betraying his eager anticipation without the slightest attempt at concealment.
Randou tilted his head, curiosity sparkling in his eyes. "What kind of exciting things?"
Asou Akiya answered with evident delight, offering an example as though recounting a cherished promise. "Foreign organizations sailing in to stir up trouble, naval skirmishes between ships, maybe even smuggling rings trafficking protected wildlife."
Randou listened in silence, and a single thought settled firmly in his mind: this would be the perfect place to watch the chaos unfold.
The second stop was the ground floor of a modest four-story office building.
Inside the Uzumaki Café, Asou Akiya ordered two coffees. Randou waited at their table, sitting with impeccable posture — straight-backed and composed, the very image of a courteous young foreigner.
"Here you can watch the endless flow of traffic outside and feel the pulse of city life," Asou Akiya explained as he set the cups down, sliding one across the table toward Randou. Randou took a careful sip, his expression remaining neutral, a faint puzzlement in his eyes as though to say: It is simply a rich, fragrant cup of coffee — nothing more?
Asou Akiya leaned in with a conspiratorial air. "Commit this taste to memory. In time it will grow even more delicious. Every year, when we can, we'll come back here to drink their coffee and savor the flavor of the years passing."
Randou treated the coffee purely as a warming drink, sipping steadily while nodding to show he had noted the words.
Asou Akiya turned his head to watch the shop owner deftly preparing drinks for other patrons.
"Randou, do you think he'll spend his whole life dealing with coffee?"
"I don't know."
"I think he will."
The remark piqued Randou's interest. He studied the shop owner more closely, yet found nothing particularly remarkable about the man.
Randou asked, "Why do you say that?"
Asou Akiya smiled warmly. "Because I want to come back here with you more than ten years from now — still drinking coffee together, still talking about literature and creation. Don't you feel how relaxed and pleasant the atmosphere is in this place?"
Randou blew gently across the steaming surface of his coffee and took a small sip. "All right."
Any place Akiya loved, he would love too.
Akiya meant that the owner would keep perfecting his craft — so the coffee in the future would taste even better…
Their third stop was a railway junction.
Following the tracks, Asou Akiya walked along the gravel bed until he and Randou reached the mouth of a tunnel. He pushed open a weathered door and turned to Randou with the delighted air of a child unveiling a secret hideout. "I was just as surprised when I first found it — there's a lecture hall inside, and it's kept spotless year-round."
Randou glanced toward the dim interior. "Shall we go in?"
Asou Akiya shook his head. "No, we won't. This place belongs to someone else."
"Look over there," he said, pointing toward the platform. Above the blackboard hung a framed inscription that read: <"Unbound by principle, unbound by sentiment, unbound by shame.">
In the faint light filtering through the tunnel, Randou took a moment longer to make out the characters clearly.
Randou turned the words over in his mind, savoring their weight, until he heard Asou Akiya murmur with quiet reverence, "He must be a fine teacher."
Randou offered a faint smile. "Does Akiya envy him?"
Asou Akiya faced him fully, his gaze earnest and unwavering. "I did once — deeply. A good teacher can spare a student countless detours, shaping an entire life for the better. But now… my path no longer needs anyone else's guidance."
He had chosen his own road — win or lose, live or die, the outcome rested with fate alone.
"I only wanted to bring you here to see it."
All of it — mine, and the world's — every hidden vista and secret it holds.
This lecture hall called Late Fragrance Hall bore no surveillance cameras outside; it remained a simple, unassuming space. In time it would become the clandestine headquarters of the Armed Detective Agency.
Asou Akiya and Randou left together, their footprints fading into obscurity among the labyrinthine tunnels.
The fourth stop was the hills behind Yokohama.
Asou Akiya sighed in mock distress. "An amateur like me can't tell poisonous mushrooms from safe ones."
Randou stepped lightly across the damp earth, wandering freely, gazing about with relaxed curiosity. When he returned he asked, "Does Akiya like eating mushrooms?"
Asou Akiya, ever capable of the unexpected, replied with a mischievous glint. "No — I prefer watching other people eat them."
Poison-mushroom Dazai had left quite an impression.
Randou sensed a thread of wicked amusement woven through the words.
Or was it only his imagination?
A gentle breeze whispered through the hills behind the city, the secluded spot quiet and tender. Before they realized it, noon had arrived. Asou Akiya led Randou by the hand down the slope and into a modest Japanese restaurant where they shared a meal, talking easily as he wove fragments of everyday life in Japan — along with his own understanding of the world — into Randou's heart, drop by careful drop.
Randou switched to French, his voice soft. "Akiya knows me so well."
Asou Akiya denied it with a light laugh. "No — I don't know you at all."
Randou's eyes widened in surprise.
Asou Akiya continued, gaze steady and warm. "I know nothing of your past, nothing of your family. The you I know is only the part you choose to show me."
A faint flush of guilt and confusion touched Randou's cheeks — did his lover truly understand so little of him?
Asou Akiya gently tugged off Randou's cotton gloves. The skin beneath was cool to the touch, the fingers long and finely shaped — an elegantly aristocratic hand.
The ring on the fourth finger bound them together.
"There's still time."
With that, Asou Akiya shifted the conversation swiftly, allowing no space for melancholy to settle.
"Randou, I suddenly find myself wanting to watch your hands play the piano."
"…I don't remember whether I know how."
"That's all right."
Asou Akiya guided Randou's bare hand to his own cheek, letting the warmth of his skin seep into those chilled fingers.
"I'm a beginner myself — I can teach you."
Skills from his previous life finally proved useful.
In the afternoon, inside a specialty piano store, Randou dazzled Asou Akiya without mercy.
Seated at the grand piano, Randou's ten fingers danced across the keys — tentative at first, then flowing with effortless grace until the piece concluded in a cascade of perfect notes. Light sparked in his eyes as he discovered a talent etched deep into his being. "I can play the piano!"
Asou Akiya covered his face in mock despair. "You play better than I do…" Thank goodness he had not boasted.
Enough said.
He swiped his card without hesitation, settling the bill and adding a new instrument to their home — one Randou could truly enjoy.
On a leisure bench in Yokohama Park, Asou Akiya and Randou basked in the sun, savoring the languid afternoon. He had bought Randou a steaming-hot dorayaki.
Even though sweets were not particularly to his taste, Randou ate the treat bite by careful bite until nothing remained.
The sunlight lulled Randou into a drowsy haze.
Suddenly Asou Akiya asked, "Randou, feeling sleepy?"
Randou looked puzzled. "Are we heading home?"
Asou Akiya patted his own lap with casual boldness — quite daring for the era — and said, "Use me as your pillow."
Randou's heart skipped, tempted. He glanced around the park. "There are people nearby — it doesn't seem quite proper." To be precise… unless one was utterly exhausted or an openly affectionate couple, only the homeless typically stretched out on park benches.
Asou Akiya countered gently, "Do you care?"
Randou fell silent.
Five minutes later, Randou proved far bolder than Asou Akiya had anticipated. He lay down without hesitation, resting his head on Akiya's thigh, turning his face sideways to shield himself from the gazes of the outside world as he drifted into a sun-warmed doze.
[The opinions of the world — what are they to me?]
The thought rose unbidden in Randou's mind, an indelible streak of rebellion that no amnesia could erase.
The beautiful Frenchman slept peacefully on the lap of the Asian-born Asou Akiya, his face hidden behind the soft folds of his scarf as he exhaled a long, contented breath. His long hair spilled downward in silken strands, only to be gathered gently by Asou Akiya and cradled in his palm. From behind, any passerby might easily mistake the figure for a woman.
Asou Akiya spoke softly, his voice low and earnest. "Randou, there are so many places, so many things I want to experience together with you."
He painted their future in vivid strokes.
"I want to graffiti walls side by side with you. I want to walk along the beach at sunset. I want to spend this spring with you, then devour hot pot together in summer, admire maple leaves in autumn, and soak in hot springs during winter…"
"I want to live freely with you in an ideal world."
"No troubles, no pain, no worries — only your laughter ringing out amid a bed of roses."
These were not words a reserved Japanese man would easily utter.
Subtle, indirect expressions of love would never move a Frenchman, so Asou Akiya chose to bare his heart outright — unleashing the passion and longing he had long restrained, letting raw emotion breach the barriers of Randou's guarded nature.
Asou Akiya loved him.
Randou's very existence granted him the freedom to dream boldly of tomorrow.
On Asou Akiya's lap, Randou shifted slightly, tilting his head so those gray-green eyes could gaze upward. Sunlight pooled in their depths, and a smile — born from the joy of being confessed to — spread slowly from his heart to his lips.
Asou Akiya slipped a small red jewelry box from his pocket, opened it with deliberate care, and revealed a necklace bearing a delicate pendant.
He fastened it around Randou's neck.
The round peridot pendant — golden-green and luminous — settled gently against the soft folds of Randou's scarf.
"I'm sorry — I couldn't afford a true chrysoberyl cat's-eye," Asou Akiya confessed, a rare flush of embarrassment coloring his cheeks for the first time. He had spent every spare yen to obtain a peridot of flawless clarity and perfect size — its hue an uncanny echo of Randou's own eyes — yet in his heart he knew the stone fell short of the perfection such a gift deserved.
Randou closed his fingers around the gem, his expression turning solemn and reverent as he spoke each word with deliberate care. "I have never seen a cat's-eye stone, but I know beyond doubt that this is the jewel I would love."
Asou Akiya's smile deepened with quiet joy. He bowed his head and pressed a tender kiss into the fragrant strands of his lover's hair.
"May God bless you, my 'Leopold of the Winds.'"
In that instant.
Those dark black eyes burned themselves into Randou's heart.
Unforgettable, indelible.
The finest love can only blossom when it arrives at the perfect moment.
They had been granted a beautiful beginning.
—
Author's note:
Asou Akiya: Can a love watered with lies ever bloom into an eternal flower?
Asou Akiya: I, for one, am eager to find out.