The morning after their dinner, the silence in the apartment felt different. It was still there, a constant presence, but it was less like the dead quiet of a prison and more like the awkward quiet of two strangers who now knew a single, strange secret about each other. He wanted to study art history. The thought kept popping into Aiko's head at random moments, and she would have to suppress a smile.
Kaito, for his part, seemed to have erected his walls even higher, as if regretting the brief moment of humanity. He was cool, distant, and absorbed in his work. The day passed much like the ones before, a slow march of hours inside the golden cage.
The peace broke, as it often does, with a crash.
Aiko was in the living room, attempting to teach Mochi to fetch a crumpled-up piece of paper. Mochi, being a cat, was having none of it. He was bored. He'd explored every inch of the apartment a dozen times. He needed chaos.
He found it in the form of a tiny red laser dot on the floor.
Aiko turned her head to see Kaito in the doorway of his ad-hoc office, a laser pointer in his hand. He was trying to distract the cat so he could get some work done. A small, almost kind gesture.
"I don't think that's a good—" Aiko started to say, but it was too late.
Mochi, with the fury of a tiny, fluffy god of destruction, launched himself after the dot. He skidded across the polished floors, a blur of orange fur. The red dot danced up a wall and into a small, previously unnoticed utility closet where several sleek, black electronic boxes hummed quietly. Kaito, not realizing what he was doing, led the dot onto a shelf.
Mochi leaped. He landed on the shelf with a heavy thump, missed the dot, and sent a half-full glass of water Kaito had left there tumbling directly onto the main server hub for the apartment's state-of-the-art smart home system.
There was a sharp fizzle, a shower of blue sparks, and then all hell broke loose.
The lights began flashing between blinding white and total darkness. The blackout blinds on the giant windows shot up and down with violent, clattering snaps. Then, the music started.
It wasn't a warning alarm. It was a song. A painfully cheerful, high-pitched J-pop idol group song blasted from hidden speakers in every room at maximum volume.
"Kira-kira, doki-doki, my heart goes boom-boom-boom for you!"
"What's happening?!" Aiko yelled over the music.
Kaito stared at the sparking server, his face a mask of disbelief. The great and powerful Yakuza heir, who commanded shadow spirits, was being assaulted by bubblegum pop. Mochi, terrified by the noise and lights, shot out of the closet and hid under the sofa.
"The system is shorting out!" Kaito yelled back, striding towards the closet.
As if on cue, the ceiling sprinklers kicked on, showering the entire apartment in a cold, steady downpour. The polished floors immediately became a death trap.
The scene descended into pure chaos. Aiko, now getting soaked, dropped to her knees to try and coax Mochi out from under the sofa. Kaito, his expensive shirt plastered to his skin, was trying to pry open the fried server panel, his usual grace completely gone.
"My love is a rainbow marshmallow dream!" the speakers screamed.
"We have to turn it off!" Aiko shouted.
"I'm trying!" Kaito grunted, pulling at the hot metal. He slipped on the wet floor, catching himself on the wall, his expression one of utter fury.
Aiko suddenly had an idea. The konbini had taught her one thing: when the electronics went crazy, there was only one solution. "The breaker! Where's the main circuit breaker?!"
Kaito looked at her, water dripping from his hair into his eyes. He looked completely lost. This was not a situation that could be solved with a threat or a quiet command.
Aiko took charge. "It has to be near the front door! Look for a metal panel!"
They both scrambled, slipping and sliding towards the entrance. Aiko spotted it first—a sleek, minimalist panel that blended in with the wall. She yanked it open. Inside was a dizzying array of switches.
"Which one is it?!" Kaito yelled, right next to her ear, his voice a low rumble against the high-pitched singing.
"All of them!" Aiko screamed, and with a surge of adrenaline, she slammed her hand down the panel, flipping every single switch to the 'off' position.
The music cut out. The lights went dead. The blinds stopped their frantic dance. The sprinklers sputtered and died.
Silence.
The apartment was plunged into a dim, dripping darkness, lit only by the emergency lights from the hallway outside. Aiko and Kaito stood frozen by the door, soaked to the bone, panting in the sudden quiet. Water dripped from the ceiling, from their hair, from their clothes, pooling on the floor around them.
Aiko could feel the heat radiating from Kaito's body, he was standing so close. She looked up at him. His perfect hair was a mess, plastered to his forehead. Water dripped from the tip of his nose. His white shirt was now completely transparent, revealing the dark, intricate web of his tattoos across his chest and arms. He looked less like a clan leader and more like the loser of a water-gun fight.
The absurdity of the situation—the J-pop, the sprinklers, the all-powerful Yakuza heir being defeated by a cat and a glass of water—crashed over her.
A laugh escaped her lips. It wasn't a small chuckle. It was a real, loud, unrestrained laugh, echoing in the quiet, dripping apartment.
Kaito stared down at her, his dark eyes wide with shock. He looked utterly bewildered by the sound. Then, as he watched her laugh, something impossible happened. The corner of his mouth twitched. It was tiny, it was fleeting, but it was unmistakably the beginning of a smile.