She only nodded, strain evident on her face. A part of her had been wishing that maybe he would concede and allow her back into his arms but she scoffed at her own ridiculous idea. He would never and neither would she. Pride and determination would make sure of that.
As quickly as she could Akako turned on her heel, clumsier than usual, but managed to keep herself upright and striding away. There wasn’t any confidence ormalice in her step, just exhaustion and disappointment. “Try not to overwork yourself,” she called back hesitantly, not sure if she should say anything at all. But the deed was done. Now they could go back to normal…
Yes… back to normal.
The detective waited until she was gone, steeling himself against that compulsion to go after her, to stop her, to grasp her as he’d thought about countless times… and then he calmly gathered his things, checked the time on his pocket watch, and headed out for the day.
He had a friend/classmate to pick up for a trip to Tokyo. An afternoon to get away and distract himself from, well, himself.
Happy birthday, indeed.