Chapter 238 - Just You

"I'm thinking about…you."

Huh?

Asou Chiaki inhaled sharply right after she spoke, as her wild eyes zeroed on Aki's face. He looked… stunned .

Well, she was stunned by her own words as well, so she could completely understand what he's feeling right now. However, surprising as it might be, those words were something she wouldn't try to get back. She didn't regret saying that one bit. In fact, she felt…better.

It was as if a heavy weight had been lifted off her back, like something within her was suddenly free.

"What… did you say?"

Suzuki Aki stared at her as if he'd never seen her before. His brown pair of eyes were wide, his mouth hung slightly open before his lips pursed together as he tried to speak, but speech failed him. He continued on like that for several seconds like a fish gasping for breath, making Chiaki laugh at his expression.

"Stop that. You're like a carp," Chiaki said as she continued to laugh at him.

She placed a hand on her mouth to cover it as she snickered.

"Oh? I'm a carp?" Aki challenged, finally able to say something at last.

Chiaki ignored his words as she turned towards the street below, watching the cars as they drove by before letting out a sigh.

"Is it bad?" she asked coyly.

"That I look like a carp?" Aki countered sarcastically making her chuckle again as she shook her head.

"No. I'm asking about my other words," she said as she turned and squinted at him. "Is it bad to say I'm thinking about you?"

Aki stared at her again as he looked like he was trying to analyze her words. "Well, it depends on whether it's a good kind of thinking or not."

He placed a hand on his chest as he mimicked her voice. "Oh Pres, you're so handsome again today. Please get that contract or I'll kick you so hard, you won't be able to sit down for a week," he said dramatically before shifting his expression into how Chiaki looked like when she's angry, and placed his hands on his hips. "Oh, this idiot of a boss forgot to call the client again. What am I going to do with you?"

Asou Chiaki let out another round of laughter. Aki was totally able to mimic her actions and her words at work.  She called him handsome but only when he was going to close deals and it's also a threat so he'd work better, and unlike other secretaries, she's the only one who had the gall to call him an idiot to his face.

Just with that, Chiaki once again realized how much Aki put up with her. If it were not him, she'd have been given the boot for her insolence.

"It's a good kind of thinking okay?" Chiaki protested comically and he laughed with her.

"Oh yeah? Like what?" Aki's voice sounded like a jest, light and cheerful, but his eyes turned sharp as he waited for her answer seriously.

"Like how I'm so awful for making you wait for long," Chiaki answered honestly. "I made you angry right?"

Silence hung between them as Aki continued to look at her. Chiaki noted how his smile vanished and she felt a bit anxious. She wondered if it was too late to give him a reply.  She was suddenly afraid again, but she decided to properly look at him this time, and so she returned his gaze.

"Are you?" she asked again. "Are you angry at me?"

"Very," Aki answered after a while, his words coming out terse.

It was as if he let out all the frustrations he'd harbored within the years in that single word. To Chiaki, it felt like a knife in her heart. She couldn't take it, she looked away.

"Are you running away again?" Aki then asked, and she had no choice but look at him again.

Of course, she couldn't go even if she wanted to. Her fear had made her legs weak.

"I'm not," she answered softly.

"Good. Because I'm not sure if I'll still be able to run after you after today," Aki answered, and the fear in Chiaki's heart amplified.

She was correct. Aki was indeed giving her up.

The chase was over.

"I see," she murmured and was about to turn away again when Aki suddenly whacked her head.

"Ow!"

She rubbed her head as she glared at Aki. "What was that for?"

"That's for being stupid again. Chichi, until when are you going to make me suffer?" Aki gave her a full-blown scowl.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about you doing a complete retreat just because I said I'm angry!"

Aki's voice came out a notch higher than usual. He huffed as if his words made him breathless. His brows met in the middle in a deep frown, but his eyes were questioning – accusing. It was as if he was asking her how she still dared to escape even now.

"But what do you want me to say?" Chiaki had no idea why the other was even like this.

She was prepared to accept her just desserts for making him suffer. It was her fault after all for pulling him around the leash for years, making him go round and round in circles just because of her own insecurities.

She wanted to face her feelings tonight. But he was already angry and even said he'd stop going after her. What else would she think? What else could she do?

"How about telling me how you really feel and end my suffering once and for all?" Aki countered.

Frustration emitted from his body, and Chiaki felt equally so.

"What's the use if you've already given up?" she scoffed, her lips twitching bitterly. "It's fine. It's my fault anyway for making you wait for so long. I'm so sorry about that."

Aki shook his head.

"I understand anyway. You were angry I lied to you, right? I wonder what would have become of us if I had been honest with you from the start," Aki mused out loud.

This time Chiaki was the one who shook her head. "We'd probably be strangers now," she confessed, confusing Aki.

"What do you mean?" It was Aki's turn to be confused.

It was obvious that he was thinking that things would have been better between them if he had told her that he's a real-life prince from the beginning and not let her believe he was just a normal guy. But that was wrong.

Chiaki knew herself. She was a woman who had pride as tall as Mt. Everest. If she had known about him from the beginning, she'd never try to get close to him. It was totally better that he did what he did. Why?

"Because you gave me time to get to know the real you, without the trimmings of your family name. Just you."

Chiaki then turned to him with eyes filled with warmth, and she watched as his face that had been scowling earlier started to clear replaced by stupefaction, most especially when she finally smiled again. It was like the argument they had just earlier didn't happen.

"Suzuki Aki, I like you. I've liked you for years…"