During the break, the class gathered around Kon and me—and the questions began.

How was Kon so powerful?

Why was my surname Kuromatsu when I was a human?

Why did we have a promise ring together, and did that mean I was Kon’s master?

We smiled away most of the questions, but the last one struck a nerve.

I was about to slam my hands on my desk and stand up to fight whoever had asked that last question, but before I could move, the air in the classroom suddenly chilled. The chilly air was coming from the yuki-onna sitting between Kon and me.

“Yuka-san?” one of the students asked, confused about her mood. I was, too. Why was she getting angry on our behalf?

Yuka-san brushed aside a silky strand of black-and-blue hair and glared at the students gathered around us. “Is this how we show our welcome to our new classmates?”

Right at that moment, the bell rang. Her ice-blue eyes landed on every single one of our nosy classmates, and the crowd went back to their seats promptly.

“Thank you,” I whispered to Yuka-san, a hand circling my mouth so that one or more of our classmates with better hearing wouldn’t hear.

Yuka-san looked at me and nodded in silence before she stood up to greet the teacher for the next class who had just entered the classroom.

I smiled as I stood up with her and the rest of the students. It looked like we wouldn’t have so much difficulty adapting to this place after all.

***

“I take that back,” I groaned as I slammed my head onto the desk in my new room. I was doing English homework, and, forget about knowing the words, I didn’t understand any of the letters.

Not to mention, the teacher for this class, a werewolf from Canada, expected me to be good at it for some reason because I was a “foreigner”, too.

Well, English wasn’t my first, or second, language! Those two were taken by Japanese and Adigabze, and I didn’t want to learn a third one.

I huffed, making the strand of light brown hair in front of my face fly upwards and then down onto the desk. With my face smushed against the English textbook, I watched my right hand as the fingers tap-tapped onto the surface of the desk. My eyes caught the promise ring on my pinky finger.

…

I was going to go mess with Kon.

***

I tip-toed down the stairs even though it would change nothing. Everyone in this dorm was yokai and would notice the slightest change in the air.

I continued to tip-toe.

There was the sound of TV coming from the living room to the left, and the rooms were to the right and behind. I considered checking out the living room for a second—TVs were really interesting—but decided against it.

I was on a mission, and I wouldn’t be distracted.

With this thought, I tip-toed to Kon’s room in the back and knocked on the door.

No answer.

Was he not inside—no, I could feel him in the room. Was he unconscious?? I immediately opened the door, shouting, “Kon, are you okay?”

And found Kon drying his hair with his back to me—his shirtless back covered slightly with a towel around his shoulders.

Kon’s right ear twitched towards me, and he froze. The hair-dryer turned off.

“I’m sorry!” I blurted and slammed the door shut. Running up the stairs followed after that, and then I slammed my own door shut before I jumped onto my bed and screamed into my pillow.

Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no—What had I done?? No, wait. Why didn’t Kon hear me anyway? Because of the hair-dryer, I know, but why didn’t he notice me anyway? We had a promise ring together!… We had a promise ring together… I sat up on my bed and punched my innocent pillow.

Punch.

Stupid Maze.

Punch punch.

Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Punch punch punch punch punch—

Knock, knock.

“Maze?”

Poo.

“Meow?”

Kon chuckled from behind the door. “Are you pretending to be a cat?”

“Meow.”

“May I come in?”

“M-meow!”

Another chuckle, and then I heard Kon slide down to sit behind the door.

“It’s okay, you know,” he started to say, and I forgot about my ‘becoming a cat to escape the guilt’ plan.

“How can it be okay?? I invaded your privacy! You should get angry at times like this!”

I heard the rustle of Kon’s clothes as he turned towards me behind the door. “Will you let me come in if I promise to get angry?”

I almost accepted his offer before I sighed, remembering that one comment from earlier in the classroom. “Don’t promise me anything.”

“…Why?”

“Because…” I whispered as I rubbed at my promise ring, feeling my pinky finger grow hotter from the friction.

Because I don’t want to be your master. I want to be equals. We’re friends, aren’t we?

“…Maze, may I come in?”

“…Okay…”

The door slowly opened, and we made eye contact. He was wearing a t-shirt now, though his hair was still slightly damp and sticking out in weird places. He looked adorable.

I looked down and felt my eyes prick with tears. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, fighting against the crying session about to come.

Kon walked over to me and sat down by my side on the bed. The usual Kon would have knelt in front of me to avoid the inappropriate action of sitting on the same bed together, but he understood that I didn’t want any kneeling right now. He always understood me.

I was so grateful, and that made me feel even more guilty.

“I’m sorry, too.”

My head snapped up so fast that I almost broke my neck to look at Kon. “Why are you sorry??”

“I…guessed what you wanted to talk about when you came knocking, and I pretended not to hear. So that you would open the door, and the subject would change.”

“I—what?”

Kon shrugged as he smiled sheepishly at me. “I don’t know why I thought it would work, to be honest.”

It had worked. For a second. Or a minute.

I sighed. “Kon, I thought we didn’t keep secrets from each other.”

“I’m sorry.” Kon sighed as well, and then he ruffled his damp hair. “I knew this day would come eventually.”

Fully turned towards him, I waited for him to explain.

“It’s because the promise was one-sided,” he explained. “I promised you something, and you accepted it without giving me a promise in return.” He raised his hands to stop me before I could say anything. Not that I knew what I would say, to be honest.

“I know you didn’t do it on purpose, I didn’t know it either until much later. We were just kids. It shouldn’t have even worked.”

“Why did it work then?”

“Because we were both powerful enough, even as children.”

“What?” I understood that Kon might have been powerful enough, but I was just an ordinary witch.

Wasn’t I?

Then, Kon said the words that would change my life forever. “You’re a goddess, Maze. A tha of the Circassian people.”