A reluctant smirk flickered in her mind, quickly suppressed. [Hmph. Fine. I'll apologize. But I'm not going to make it easy for him. If he thinks he can just tease me and get away with it, he's got another thing coming. I'll give him a hard time—make him earn every bit of peace he wants from me.]
She was fighting it, I could tell. Yuko wasn't someone who surrendered easily, especially not to something as dangerous as her own heart.
But it was happening anyway.
She was falling, and the irony was, she didn't even know it yet.
Then, I deliberately let my footsteps grow louder as I approached, the sound echoing just enough to make her tense. When I finally stepped into her line of sight, I let my expression shift into one of exaggerated surprise, my eyebrows lifting playfully.
"Sister-in-law," I said, drawing out the words with a teasing lilt, as if savoring the way they'd make her react.
