Kiyohiko's apology plan

Morning at the Butterfly Mansion brought fresh air, birdsong, and the scent of flowers.

But in Kiyohiko's eyes, the Butterfly Mansion today was practically the frozen soil of Siberia.

Ever since their argument in the dining room yesterday, Shinobu Kocho hadn't said another word to him.

So, just now, Kiyohiko had "happened to run into" Shinobu Kocho around a corner in the hallway.

"Hey! Morning, Miss Shinobu! Your butterfly hairpin today is..."

"..."

Shinobu Kocho kept her eyes straight ahead, her steps not pausing for even 0.1 seconds.

She still wore that standard, flawless smile, but her gaze passed straight through Kiyohiko as if he were air. She walked past him as though he had never existed.

In the sunlight, white bedsheets fluttered in the breeze. Aoi Kanzaki wore an apron as she briskly beat the wet laundry, humming an unfamiliar tune.

Then a figure sneakily poked his head out of the shadows in the hallway beside her.

"Um... Miss Aoi? Busy?"

Kiyohiko rubbed his hands together, wearing an ingratiating smile.

"Miss Aoi? Why aren't you calling me Sunflower Seed anymore?"

"Oh, come on, how could I give Sunshine Girl a rude name like Sunflower Seed? I've always been very polite, Miss Aoi."

Hearing "Sunshine Girl," Aoi Kanzaki smiled inwardly, but outwardly she acted as though she didn't care. Without turning her head, she gave the sheet a hard shake, making it snap. "If you've got something to say, spit it out."

Kiyohiko immediately put on a mysterious expression and lowered his voice. "Actually... I'm here to ask about something for a friend. It really is a friend. You know, I have a wide circle of friends."

Aoi Kanzaki finally stopped what she was doing and turned around, looking at him as though he were an idiot. "This friend of yours wouldn't happen to be you, would he?"

Why is that exactly what Shinobu Kocho said on the roof that night?

Kiyohiko grumbled inwardly, but immediately argued back. "How could it be? It's definitely a friend!"

Kiyohiko guiltily looked away and spoke at breakneck speed.

"Well... this friend of mine accidentally made a female friend angry. It started because he didn't listen to her and did something pretty dangerous, but it was actually a good deed to save someone. Now she's ignoring him, treating him like he's air. Tell me, how should he make it up to her in this situation?"

Aoi Kanzaki narrowed her eyes and looked Kiyohiko up and down.

She had been in the emergency room yesterday too, and had seen exactly how Lady Shinobu and Kiyohiko were acting there. Later, she heard that Lady Shinobu had even cooked a meal herself...

And yet this guy had the nerve to ask how to make it up to her?

"Haah..."

Aoi Kanzaki let out a long sigh and planted her hands on her hips, looking just like a worried old mother frustrated with her hopeless child.

"Did your 'friend' get his head caught in a door?"

"That girl didn't even mind that he was... that kind of person, and she cooked for him herself. But he didn't appreciate it and insisted on doing the opposite of what she wanted. Someone like that deserves to get scolded."

Kiyohiko tried to defend his "friend." "Hey! I told you it was to save someone! It was for the greater good! Don't you understand the greater good?"

"The greater good, my ass!"

Aoi Kanzaki grabbed a laundry basket and shoved it forcefully into Kiyohiko's arms.

"Idiot! Girls don't care about the greater good or whatever. All she knows is that you don't care about yourself! If you don't care about yourself, why should she waste her feelings caring about you? That's why she's angry! You don't even understand that, yet you call yourself emotionally intelligent?"

"Go! Wash these sheets! Stop getting in the way of my work! Just looking at you annoys me!"

Getting scolded by Aoi Kanzaki was a little depressing, but Kiyohiko felt she had completely missed the point. What did she mean, "didn't care about himself"? He thought he cared about himself plenty. Hadn't he come asking for help with a full stomach and nothing better to do?

It looked like he needed to find someone gentler.

So he turned his attention to Kanao, who was sitting on the veranda in the sun.

Kanao sat quietly, holding a coin between her fingers. Her purple eyes were like a pool of still water, reflecting the drifting clouds above.

"Ahem, little Kanao."

Kiyohiko came over from the shadows, taking care to keep a gentlemanly distance.

"Um... I'd like to ask you a profound question about human emotions. Suppose... I mean, suppose a gentle, cute girl like you got angry. What should the other person do to calm her down? Give her flowers? Or something delicious? Or... some other way?"

Kanao slowly turned her head and looked at Kiyohiko.

She didn't speak. The corners of her mouth merely lifted slightly, revealing that signature, perfect smile that meant nothing at all.

"Uh... does that smile mean all you have to do is smile?"

Kiyohiko asked tentatively.

Kanao continued smiling.

"Oh... you mean I just need to be myself and leave it to time, right?"

A few dark lines appeared over Kiyohiko's head as he tried to decipher Kanao's smile.

Kanao was still smiling. Even the frequency of her blinking hadn't changed.

Kiyohiko: "..."

I'd better go find someone else. I should've thought of this before coming to Kanao.

In the Butterfly Mansion's storage room.

The three little girls, who were sorting bandages, all raised their heads at once. Blinking three identical pairs of beady eyes, they stared at Kiyohiko, and he stared back.

Kiyohiko had met Kiyo, Sumi, and Naho on his third day at the Butterfly Mansion, and he played games like eagle catches chicks with them. True to the fact that the three were always together, their Bond Values with the protagonist were now all the same: 75.

After a long while, Kiyohiko spoke. "Everyone... big brother has a difficult problem in life..."

"If someone started ignoring you, what would you do?"

The three little girls looked at one another, then tilted their heads in perfect unison.

"We'd give her red bean buns!" Kiyo said.

"We'd play cat's cradle with her!" Sumi said.

"We'd blow on it and make the pain fly away!" Naho said.

"..."

Kiyohiko looked into their innocent little beady eyes and imagined himself holding red bean buns and a cat's cradle string, saying "Pain, pain, fly away" to Shinobu Kocho's coldly beautiful face...

He might die.

That bad woman would probably smile as she stuffed the red bean buns up his nostrils, then strangle him with the cat's cradle string while saying, "Pain, pain, fly away."

"Sorry to bother you."

Kiyohiko pressed his palms together, fell into despair, and lay flat on the floor with a serene expression.

The three little girls blinked their beady eyes at the big brother lying on the floor, who usually played games with them. Then they silently walked around him and went back to carrying bandages.