As days passed, our classmates stopped gawking at us and murmuring. We even had two new friends—one was Yuka-san, the yuki-onna who had helped us when our classmates cornered us. She was cold like ice at a glance, but she carried a warm and fluffy heart underneath. She never smiled but went along with us whenever we called her out.

And the other one was Yamada Daichi-kun, the one who had asked the rude question about me being Kon’s master.

Surprising, right?

I was surprised, too, when Yamada-kun suddenly bowed to us by the shoe lockers, apologizing in front of everyone. People whispered, some even snickered, but he refused to lift his head until we accepted his apology.

Then, he raised his head with a goofy smile, and it was behind us already. Anyways, he seemed to know a lot about promise rings, and I had questions I wanted to ask him.

“Yamada-kun,” I called to him during lunch break that Friday. “Wanna eat with us?”

He looked up after he put away his textbook and said, “Sure!”

Then the four of us went outside to sit under the shade of the giant sakura tree of our school. It was crowded there, lots of students and even teachers enjoying the view, but we managed to find an empty patch of grass to sit on. We said “itadakimasu” and started eating. The chattering around us was lulling me to a peaceful state, but I hadn’t forgotten my question. “Yamada-kun?”

“Hmm?” he said, his cheeks full with a sandwich bite.

“How do you know so much about promise rings?”

Yamada-kun chewed on his bite and then gulped it down.

“Oh,” he said with a goofy smile. “It’s because I’m a shrine’s heir.”

“Really? Which one?”

Yamada-kun waved his hand in the air. “Oh, you wouldn’t know its name. It’s a really small one, in the mountains.”

“Why are you so far away from your home?” Yuka-san asked with a tilted head, showing interest.

“Because only Tokyo has high schools where the supernatural and humans openly study together.” He looked serious under the shade of the sakura tree. “I believe I need to know more about the supernatural before I inherit our shrine.”

Then he smiled one of those goofy smiles again, and the serious conversation turned playful again. “What better way to mingle with the supernatural than eating with them? Thank you for inviting me!”

I blinked. “You know that I’m a supernatural?”

Yamada-kun hummed around another bite of sandwich.

“Everyone knows,” Yuka-san said in his place.

“E-everyone knows?” How could everyone know something I myself had only learned recently?

Yuka-san blinked slowly in confusion as she took a dainty bite of her octopus-cut sausage, one hand holding her lunch box. She chewed and then swallowed inaudibly. “Of course, everyone knows.”

“Of course??”

She tilted her head to one side again. “Is it so surprising? It’s not like you’re trying to hide it. You’re emitting this foreign and powerful aura everywhere you go.”

I was emitting an aura… I looked at Kon. “Is this true?”

“Yes. Ever since you found out you were a…um…supernatural, you’ve started to emit a strong aura.”

I hummed around a bite of fried rice with vegetables in it. I didn’t know how to feel about that, to be honest.

Anyways, this wasn’t what I wanted to focus on. I could feel Kon watching me, but I didn’t let it discourage me from speaking.

“Yamada-kun, do you know how to break promise rings?”

Kon flinched beside me, but I still refused to look at him. I wouldn’t have the resolve to go through with this if I looked at him and saw how my words affected him.

Yamada-kun looked at my left hand covering my right as if it was protecting the promise ring and said, “Are you sure you wanna remove it?”

I squeezed my right hand tighter. “I am.”

Yamada-kun nodded thoughtfully as he rubbed his chin with one hand. “Hmm, if you’re really sure, you need to go to the kami-sama who bestowed the ring in the first place.”

I frowned. “How do I figure out who did it?”

“Well, since Kon-kun is a kitsune, I would start with Inari Ōkami-sama. Go to the Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto and seek an audience with the kami-sama. They just might accept it.”

At that moment, Kon chose to say, “Gochisousama, thank you for the food.” And after closing his nearly full lunch box, he stood up.

“Ah, thank you!” I said and, after clasping my hands together and saying my thanks for the food as well, I ran after Kon, leaving Yamada-kun and Yuka-san there.

***

“Kon. Kon! Kon-san!”

Kon stopped walking suddenly, and unable to stop, I hit his back. I rubbed my nose as I looked up at Kon who was looking down his nose at me with icy indifference.

“What is it?”

“I don’t understand. Why are you so mad?”

He blinked slowly like he couldn’t understand the question, so I insisted. “You are! Or else you would never leave like that by yourself!”

He chuckled but the sound was without humor. “You seem to understand me well.”

“I—wait!”

He had started to walk away again. When I called out to him again, he spoke without even looking at me this time. “Please, master. I would like some time to myself.”

I froze.

Did he just call me…? Before I could come back to my senses, Kon had already disappeared into the building, leaving me behind.

***

The morning after that was Saturday, and I was planning on using the weekend to go to the Fushimi Inari Shrine and back. Kon still wasn’t talking to me, and while I wasn’t fine with it, I decided not to try and talk him out of his silence.

I was hurt as well, after all—how could he call me master when he knew I hated the idea of it? Didn’t he see I was trying to remove the precious rings because of that?

I shook my head as I looked into the silent house behind me, and closed the front door. I was going to find a way to remove the rings.

And I was going to show him that this was the better choice.

BONUS CONTENT: Kon after Maze left the house

I listened to Maze leave the house with my hand on the door handle of my room and sighed when I saw the promise mark on it.

What was I doing?

I frowned in determination as I left my room, ready to chase after Maze and apologize, to beg her not to remove the rings—and I would have, if not for the unexpected visitor I bumped into when I left the small garden.

“Hello, Kon,” the kitsune said when we made eye contact, and I felt my whole being shiver.

“…Otou-san?”