"Kikukawa Kyo."
Sakiko set down her cup, lifting her gaze to meet Kikukawa Kyo's eyes. Her tone turned serious, making it clear she wasn't speaking lightly.
"What's wrong?" Kyo immediately picked up on the shift in Sakiko's demeanor, and an alarm rang in her mind.
Something's off. The atmosphere was perfectly fine just a moment ago.
"I want to talk about the contract between us." Sakiko's expression remained calm, as if she were discussing something mundane, but the way her fingers clenched the cup, knuckles turning white, betrayed the turmoil within. "First, I want to say this again—"
"Thank you."
"Huh? That's pretty sudden. If you're trying to thank your bartender, that compliment you gave the drink earlier was more than enough."
"Don't change the subject, Kyo." Sakiko mercilessly shot down her attempt to deflect.
She's getting harder to deal with, Kyo thought to herself. Did she take time to reconsider everything I said back then and finally realize the flaws in my lies?
She had always known that, with Sakiko's intelligence, being questioned about it was only a matter of time. But Kyo hadn't expected it to happen so soon. She had thought she'd at least have until summer vacation was over—until they entered high school—before Sakiko confronted her.
Still, it didn't matter. Kyo wasn't panicked. She had just been forced to use an explanation she had planned to save for later.
Sakiko continued speaking.
"I now believe that this so-called contract… is nothing more than your one-sided pity, a gift from you to me."
"Back then, when you convinced me to accept it, you argued that fairness shouldn't be judged by how difficult it is to give something away, but rather by how much the recipient needs it. That was the gist of it, right?"
"That's right. And I also told you that water holds a special meaning for me. I believe that makes our exchange fair," Kyo replied calmly.
"Yes. But even so, it doesn't come close to the help you've given me. Before that, I was at a dead end. You gave me a chance to escape my suffering, even allowing me to improve myself while ensuring my basic needs were met."
Sakiko suppressed the sharp sting of her pride. "That's why, even after realizing this was just a one-sided gift, I still shamelessly went through with the job interview… Because I need this. I have to seize this opportunity, like someone lost in a desert clinging to a cup of water."
"But the condition you set—do you really need me to fulfill it?"
"So I beg you, Kyo. Give me a new condition. A harsher one. One that will let me accept this contract with a clear conscience."
Kyo opened her mouth but didn't speak.
After taking a sip of the tea Sakiko had brewed, she understood the twisted pride lurking in Sakiko's heart. She had expected Sakiko to be furious at being deceived, to demand that the contract be nullified.
But instead, though Sakiko was still acting for the sake of her pride, she was now lowering that pride in front of Kyo.
Why?
Once again, a fog of emotions clouded the structured framework Kyo used to understand others. That fog was just as elusive as before, impossible to grasp or analyze.
The only thing she knew for certain—she had made another mistake.
A simple mistake she should never have made: she had caught only a glimpse of Sakiko's pride and had carelessly assumed it was the entirety of her.
She had merely taken the pride she knew and lumped it together with the other clues she had observed, without truly understanding the emotions behind it.
Now, something deeper—something vaster and more profound—was unfolding before her, mocking the arrogance of her misjudgment.
"Kyo?" Sakiko called out, seeing her lost in thought. The sting of her pride tormented her relentlessly, urging her to hear Kyo's answer.
Kyo snapped out of it but didn't respond immediately. She needed water—something to cool her increasingly chaotic, restless thoughts. And right in front of her was a glass.
Sakiko stared in shock as Kyo's first action after regaining focus wasn't to answer her plea, but to pick up the glass of Mojito she had been drinking and take a sip.
The cool liquid quickly calmed Kyo's mind, leaving her with enough clarity to throw in a bit of playful banter—an instinct ingrained in every seasoned bartender.
"Hey, don't look so surprised. I haven't had a single sip of water this whole time. There are two straws in here anyway… Which one were you using again?"
Sakiko was certain that Kyo had just happened to choose the very straw she had been drinking from. But that wasn't the point right now. This time, she wouldn't let Kyo brush things off with sudden acts of intimacy.
"First, I refuse to change the terms of the contract." Kyo set down the glass, her teasing expression vanishing. "Second, I admit that I deceived you before."
Sakiko was speechless at her rejection. She was the one receiving charity—what right did she have to demand anything from the person helping her?
Her expression darkened, but Kyo offered no words of comfort. Empty reassurances only worked on drunks too far gone to think rationally. Hollow words couldn't serve as medicine.
So instead, Kyo offered something much stronger—something burning.
"I deceived you. But I didn't do it just to save you."
"Sakiko, I'm no saint. I'm just a middle schooler, the same age as you. A bartender shaking a cocktail shaker behind a counter."
"I have my own desires in this contract."
"What I want—"
"Is your future."
The sudden and wildly unexpected declaration hit Sakiko like a rollercoaster ride of gut-punching revelations, leaving her stunned. She instinctively lifted her head, searching for even the smallest hint of falsehood in Kikukawa Kyo's eyes.
But there was none.
Kyo's eyes were as enigmatic as the deep sea—calm and unruffled, revealing nothing.
"Sakiko, you and I are different. You have a driving force that pushes you toward your goals—that twisted, suffocating pride of yours."
"I'm certain that even if you hadn't come to me today asking to revise our contract, you would have eventually sought to destroy it yourself. You'd never be content with working a part-time job while relying on someone else's charity."
This was the conclusion Kyo had drawn after adding Sakiko's pride as a new variable to the "archive wall" in her mind. Though she now realized her understanding of Sakiko's emotions had been riddled with errors, missing countless unknown factors beyond just pride—
The result, at least, wasn't far off: Sakiko wanted to alter the terms of their deal.
And thankfully, since her conclusion was correct, the speech she had prepared was still valid. That meant she could avoid today's confrontation leading to an irreparable rift between them.
"Your pride will always push you to climb higher, never settling for mediocrity."
"At the same time, you possess the talent and ability to do so—intelligence, diligence… and, I'll admit, you're even quite beautiful. Sakiko, I have no doubt that you will reach whatever peak you set your sights on."
"And when that day comes, when you've achieved everything you desire—make me a drink."
"Your ambition, your struggles, your triumphs, your growth… all of it will become the unique ingredients for a cocktail only you can create, one that no one else could possibly replicate."
"That's the one-of-a-kind experience I seek—the very thing I told you I've been chasing all along."
—And perhaps, it may even be the drink that finally allows me to understand emotions completely.
"Then… why did you propose such an unequal contract in the first place?" The sheer weight of information had left Sakiko at a loss for words. With nothing else to say, she could only grasp at the next question that came to mind.
But this, too, was something Kyo had anticipated. The answer wasn't difficult.
"Because of your pride, Sakiko."
"If I only ever helped you unconditionally, your pride would never let you forget the debt you owe me. But if our relationship were purely transactional, balanced and fair, you could walk away at any time."
"And if that happened, my goal would be lost."
"As you yourself once said, I'm binding you to me."
"We are a shared fate."
Silence settled over the bar.
Sakiko sat there, processing the audacity of the deception that had just been laid bare before her, while Kyo waited for her response—though a small part of her worried that emotions might once again interfere in unexpected ways.
Finally, Sakiko spoke, her voice quieter than usual, the weight in her heart seemingly lifted. She let out a resigned sigh, like someone conceding defeat.
"Today, I saw many sides of you I never noticed before."
"But somehow, I feel like I understand you even less than I did before, Kikukawa Kyo."
"That's fine," Kyo replied. "I don't think I understand you all that well either."
"Is that so?" Sakiko chuckled dryly. "And yet, you managed to back me into a corner and set up all these traps for me?"
She shook her head, a small smirk tugging at her lips.
"But that's alright. I have a feeling we'll be stuck with each other for a long time. And I won't let you keep getting the upper hand forever."
"So, does that mean you accept the contract?"
"Yes."
Sakiko nodded, finishing off the last sip of her Mojito. There were many things she wanted to say, but in the end, only one sentence made it past her lips.
"Thank you, Kyo."
"No need to thank me."
"This time, I was thanking you for the Mojito."
"It truly was unforgettable."
"Mm-hmm. Well, that's a thank-you I'll gladly accept."
Because that is what a bartender does behind the counter—
Mix drinks, and change lives.