By this point, he was desperate; he didn't care if this action of his was frightening her. He wants to know; he wants to get some answers from her. He wants to hear words from her that don't follow along with what another person has said. 

"The truth, huh?" Sumire mumbled as she placed her hand on her bandaged one, as she looked down. "Then Yuhi, will you also tell me the truth? "

At that comment, his eyes went wide.

"Do you truly love me?" 

It was a stupid question, of course. He has loved only her for the longest time. But for her to ask him, this must mean he has heard something from another person. Who was it? Who was it that put this crazy idea in her head?

"I met with some people from the organization recently. They told me already what their reason for avoiding me was. It's because they all thought I belonged to Aki-san."

So it was those stupid guys. However, he also shared those thoughts. Back when he first joined, Sumire behaved coldly and pretended that she didn't know him. The girl had a stoic attitude towards everybody, which would have consoled him a bit. But she was kind to one particular person.

"When I first heard the reason, all sorts of emotions welled up inside me. I couldn't help but laugh, thinking it was amusing. I am nobody's possession; how could they think I belonged to anyone? They thought they'd soil me if I went near them. But I stopped being pure a long time ago."

Yuhi felt his heartbeat speed up at those words. Is she talking about those other guys she had to seduce? To what extent, how far did she get with them?

"Aki and I are just friends, although we've ended the friendship. He has told me twice that he has liked me and twice I've turned him down. Both reasons are to do with you, the one I have always liked you." Sumire exclaimed.

At that, his eyes went wide, leaving him completely speechless. 'Did she just confess there?' When he first asked her out, he didn't expect her to say yes. When she turned him down, it did not surprise him. When she came here to Tokyo and gave it another shot, he still thought it would be a no. Even if she did have a small crush on him, Yuhi did not think anything would come out of it. 

So when she accepted his hand, he truly thought there was some type of catch. 

'Because I liked you.'

The reason why Sumire rejected Aki was because she liked him.

She liked him.

He repeated those words endlessly in his head. But even so, he still doesn't understand what this sort of situation was. 

'I figured she had a small crush on me, but a crush is small. I didn't think that she also returned my feelings. How do I react to this?' If it is like this, then her odd behaviour and desires towards him make sense now. 

But still, what is this?

"Hey, take that thing out," Yuhi muttered. 

"That thing?" Sumire repeated, confused.

"That thing you always take out."

"Oh, this?" Sumire said, pulling out a toy hammer from her bag.

Unbelievable, she does still carry that thing around with her. In a sense, that part of her hasn't changed at all, huh?

"Let me use it."

He didn't bother waiting for a response and snatched it from her and immediately hit her across the head. 

Sumire immediately turned to him with an annoyed expression on her face. "That's it; you have gone too far."

"You said you liked me. What a joke." Yuhi mumbled.

How is it possible for her to have had feelings for him that time?

"Eh?"

Yuhi looked at her with a serious expression on his face. " Don't joke around with me!"

All of this has to be a joke. It has to be. Because even though it wasn't Aki, she was close with Mamoru back then, and there was Atsuro too. At the very least, it reassured him that there would be somebody else even if he left.

"Why are you so mad? I only said it because you wanted to know the truth." Sumire seemed genuinely confused.

Does she not realize the weight behind the words she just said to him?

"But why all of a sudden?"

If that is the case, why is she only just saying it now? Why didn't she say it when he confessed to her? No, he has given her plenty of chances after they started dating too. For her to say something like this now, what has changed?

Yuhi tried to wrack his brains for an answer, but he could not come up with one. 

"I only realized it six months ago. Even though I thought it was a mere crush, I realized something after I started to date you. The feelings I had for you back then, those feelings were love."

Is she serious? Only when she saw him again did she -- argh he was irritated. He is irritated by this; what on earth is wrong with her? How can she only just realize this now? 

"So stupid and slow, you never understood my feelings." Yuhi felt very irritated.

What on earth is with her? If they had mutual feelings back, then why the hell did she turn him down? Yuhi assumed that her feelings for him back then were minor; that is why he did not question her turning him down. But now, he is learning that isn't the case.

"How am I supposed to know your feelings?"

"That's why I said you're slow. I've always loved you. But I've just never said it, at least till that time."

She suddenly grabs hold of his collar. "If that's true, then why didn't you tell me earlier."

"How could I say such embarrassing things?"

"What? You said it just now?"

"Yeah, it just slipped out. It's embarrassing." Yuhi said.

At that comment, he noticed the girl's face turn a bright shade of red. Oh, she just realized that herself? Sumire snatched the hammer away from him and attempted to hit him with it once it was in her grasp. 

Yuhi swiftly dodges it.

"How would I have known if you didn't say it?!!" 

"Well, now that I've said it. If you were normal, then you would have understood."

"I'm just not normal then, "Sumire exclaimed, trying to hit him. 

But Yuhi dodged every single one of them. When she ends up in a situation that makes her feel embarrassed, she ends up lowering her guard down. 

"Yeah, you're not. Truly abnormal, different, strange."

"If that's what you think, then I am leaving."

"I wasn't talking about that."

Suddenly the atmosphere between them becomes tense, causing Sumire to walk away. Yet he wouldn't allow it and grabbed hold of her wrist, stopping her in her tracks.

"Hold on a minute. I haven't finished talking." The moment he spun her around, he got a look at her expression and saw her red-stained cheeks.

Oh man, whenever she looks at him like this, he would end up losing control. But he knew better than to do that now. She truly knows how to stir up his emotions.