Chapter 28: A Twisted Heart

Rinna’s voice was muffled, carrying a slight rasp from the cramping pain, her tone dropping at the end like a sigh or an apology.

“Sorry, Xiao Xiao, for causing you so much trouble.”

Hisaki’s pupils contracted sharply.

It wasn’t anger—it was the sudden contraction of being hit where it hurt.

Her fingers paused on Rinna’s lower abdomen for a moment, then resumed rubbing, the rhythm slightly faster than before, as if accelerating the motion to cover up some emotion threatening to spill over.

“It’s no trouble, Rinna!”

Hisaki’s voice suddenly rose a little, then immediately dropped as she realized she was getting too worked up.

She took a deep breath, her lips moving twice as if making an important decision.

Then she looked up and met Rinna’s eyes.

“I’m willing.”

Her voice had dropped from that sudden high pitch to a low, deep tone—so low it seemed to vibrate directly from the deepest part of her chest. Each word was heavy, as if forced out with a hand pressing down on her throat.

“If Rinna needs me… I’m willing to take care of you for the rest of my life!”

After the words left her mouth, Hisaki froze.

Rinna froze too.

The air solidified for less than a second, but that second felt longer to Hisaki than the thirteen minutes they had soaked in the hot spring.

A faint, faint blush rose on Hisaki’s cheeks.

It wasn’t the pink of embarrassment—it was the red of regret, the “oh no, I let it slip” kind.

The color spread from the base of her ears, creeping over her earlobes, across her cheekbones, to the corners of her eyes, and then stopped at the crease between her brows, as if blocked by something.

Her gaze drifted sideways, afraid to keep looking at Rinna.

Her lips moved, searching for something to say to salvage the situation, but all the words piled up in her throat, and she couldn’t choose a single one.

“I… I didn’t mean it like that…”

She stopped mid-sentence.

Because she knew herself that those words had no credibility.

If not like that, then like what? The literal meaning of “willing to take care of you for the rest of my life” was so clear that there was no room for roundabout interpretation.

It was exactly what it was.

It was a sentence that peeled out the deepest, deepest part of her heart, placed it in front of the other person, and waited for judgment.

Hisaki lowered her head.

Her long black hair slid from her shoulders, covering her profile.

Her fingers continued to gently rub Rinna’s lower abdomen, the rhythm unchanged, but her fingertips trembled slightly.

She regretted it.

Not the words themselves—she had probably stored that sentence in her heart for a long time. Today it had just accidentally slipped off her tongue.

What she regretted was the timing.

Rinna was still in pain. Rinna was still lying in bed without the strength to move. Rinna had just changed the sheets, clothes, and sanitary pad.

She should have just focused on taking care of Rinna’s body, not thrown out words like this at a time like this.

Would Rinna figure it out?

Figure out her feelings for her?

Figure out the emotions hidden under the label of “best friend,” slowly fermenting into something else?

Hisaki didn’t dare look up at Rinna’s face.

She was afraid of seeing confusion, awkwardness, hesitation… or worse, seeing a gentle refusal that said, “I understand you mean something else, but I can’t respond to that.”

She kept her head down, her fingers mechanically drawing circles on Rinna’s lower abdomen. Each circle twisted her regret one layer deeper.

Then Rinna laughed.

It wasn’t the polite, courteous laugh meant to dissolve awkwardness.

It was a very light laugh, exhaled from her nose, barely moving her lips. Then she lifted her hand.

When her arm came out from under the blanket, the sleeve of her pure white sleep robe slid to her elbow, revealing a short, fair forearm with clearly defined bones.

Her hand moved slowly—not because of pain, but because she was using what little strength she had left to control every degree of joint bend.

Her arm circled around Hisaki’s neck, her fingers gently resting on the back of Hisaki’s neck.

Then she pulled Hisaki a little bit closer to herself.

The force was minimal… Her current strength was probably just enough to pick up a textbook, or hold a glass of water, or slide a white shirt off her shoulder.

But that little bit of force in her arm was just enough to lift Hisaki’s head from its lowered position, pulling it up to above her chest.

“Thank you, Xiao Xiao.”

Rinna’s voice sounded from above her, soft and gentle, carrying a hint of lingering illness, but every word fell clearly into Hisaki’s ears.

The end of her tone rose slightly, as if saying, “I know,” without actually saying it.

Hisaki’s breath stopped for an extremely brief moment.

Then her body, following the direction of Rinna’s arm, sank down gently and slowly.

She pressed her cheek against Rinna’s left chest.

It wasn’t a full body press… Her body was sideways, most of her upper body weight supported by her elbows on the mattress, leaving only the contact of that small patch of skin on her cheek.

The top of her head lightly nudged Rinna’s chin. Her black hair spilled over Rinna’s collarbone and shoulder, the ends brushing against the sleep robe’s collar, ticklish.

She could hear Rinna’s heartbeat.

Very light, very steady, beat by beat—much steadier than after the hot spring soak.

But the frequency was slightly fast… Probably the leftover waves from the cramps, probably because the conversation just now was too embarrassing, probably both.

She could feel Rinna’s body heat coming through the sleep robe.

Rinna’s body temperature was usually cool, but today, because of her period, her basal body temperature was higher. Through the thin sleep robe, she could feel a warm softness.

She could smell Rinna’s scent—the skin’s natural fragrance mixed with a hint of herbal shampoo from her hair, and a very faint trace of sulfur from the hot spring water the night before, mellowed by a night’s sleep, now warm and gentle.

Hisaki’s nose was right at the edge of Rinna’s sleep robe collar. With every breath, those scents slipped into her nostrils one by one, and she carefully stored them in her lungs.

It was too comfortable.

Hisaki closed her eyes.

Her mind—that brain that was always running at high speed, always thinking about “how much force to use,” “will this hurt Rinna,” “is this distance safe enough”—fell silent in that moment.

As if an invisible hand had slowed down the gears one by one until they almost stopped.

Then, from a very, very deep place, a thought slowly surfaced.

It didn’t pop out suddenly. It was like a bubble at the bottom of a hot spring, silently rising from the deepest part, and it wasn’t until it was halfway up that she realized it was already there.

‘Maybe… it’s a good thing when Rinna is sick or on her period.’

Hisaki’s eyelashes trembled slightly.

She was startled by her own thought.

But not by the thought itself… The thought had been in her heart for a long time; it had just finally floated up to a place where she could see it clearly.

What startled her was that she didn’t immediately push it away.

She let it stay there for a moment.

Because if Rinna was sick, she could take care of her.

If Rinna was on her period, she could help her change her sanitary pad, rub her belly, bring warm brown sugar water to her lips, take a full day off for her, let her lie in this bed all day without worrying about anything.

If Rinna’s body was always weak, she could take care of her forever.

Just like now.

Right now… Rinna was holding her against her chest, fingers resting on the back of her neck, breathing coming down from above, her body under the blanket warm.

Hisaki was completely surrounded by Rinna’s scent, like an invisible thin veil wrapping around her from all sides, separating her from the cold, vast mansion outside, from her father’s stern gaze, from the organization’s people who were always sizing her up, from all the pressure and expectations that came with the title “Young Lady.”

‘Not going to school.’

Not today. Rinna’s period usually lasted several days. For those several days, Rinna would lie here, would need her care, would stay quietly within reach like this.

Hisaki turned that thought over in her mind, then gently placed it into a corner of her heart.

She didn’t throw it away or push it aside. She just put it there and closed the lid.

She knew this thought was wrong.

She knew that no normal best friend would think “it’s good when the other person is sick.”

But today, she didn’t want to be a normal best friend.

She just wanted to be Hisaki.

Just wanted to be the Hisaki who had set the center of her world on Rinna since she was six years old.