Chapter 48: Volume 1, - 48: The Night He Wanted to Kiss Her
By eight in the evening, the back of Suzune Akiyama’s neck ached with a dull, persistent throbbing.
The Equinox surge had bled straight into Thursday’s commercial orders. She had spent seven hours balancing dough hydration in the humid back room, carrying twenty-kilogram sacks of unbleached flour, and managing three separate wholesale deliveries. Her apron was dusted with white starch, her shoulders felt stiff, and her feet burned inside her canvas work shoes.
She had every right to send a quick text, cancel their plans, and sink into a hot bath upstairs. Ren would have understood. He never demanded her time.
Instead, Suzune untied her apron, washed her hands thoroughly at the stainless steel sink, and took down her cardigan from the locker. She chose to go because she wanted to see him.
Down in the alley, Ren was leaning against the rear bumper of his pearl-white Crown.
As Suzune walked down the concrete steps, she took him in under the amber streetlamp. The change in him over the past six weeks was undeniable. He was still heavy. His thick frame firmly set at 176 centimetres, but the softness around his jaw had receded as the exhaustion-induced puffiness faded. His dark suit jacket draped cleanly across broad shoulders, his dark hair was neatly trimmed, and his posture held a quiet, grounded confidence that hadn’t been there when he first stumbled into the bakery burdened by debt.
He looked striking. More than that, Suzune noticed the sharp, focused intensity in his dark eyes whenever she stepped into his field of vision. He didn’t just look at her; he watched her.
"You look tired, Akiyama-san," Ren said quietly, his voice dropping an octave as she reached the bottom step.
"I am," she admitted, smiling as she met his gaze. "But I didn’t want to stay home."
They drove to a modest ramen shop two stops down the line, away from the familiar faces of the Kawaguchi shopping arcade.
Sitting across from each other in a narrow wooden booth, the atmosphere between them felt markedly warmer than it had weeks ago. The hard truths about his finances and her family’s commercial reality were already out in the open; there was nothing left to hide behind.
Ren took off his coat, revealing the fitted lines of his navy dress shirt. As he reached for the condiment tray, Suzune watched his forearms flex against his cuffs. When he caught her looking, he didn’t look away.
"I dropped Kawashima-san’s proposal revision off this morning," Ren mentioned between bites, a slight grin touching his mouth. "Now I have to wait."
"You?" Suzune teased gently. "Wait voluntarily?"
"I’m experimenting with it," Ren replied.
After dinner, they picked up two hot cans of milk tea from a vending machine and walked down toward the embankment overlooking the Arakawa River. The cool night air carried the crisp scent of spring rain and opening cherry blossoms.
They sat on a wide concrete bench near the quiet water. The physical distance between them was less than ten centimetres.
Every time Suzune moved, Ren felt hyper-aware of her proximity. He caught the faint, sweet scent of citrus shampoo and warm tea lingering around her neck. Sitting next to her, his gaze kept drifting to her lips. Soft, slightly parted, and pink from the cold. Beneath her coat, he could see the curve of her waist, the line of her throat, and the smooth contour of her legs where her wool skirt rested against her dark tights.
A hot, explicit surge of attraction hit him. He wanted her. He wanted to feel her weight against him, to slide his fingers through her chestnut hair, to pull her close and kiss her until neither of them could think about spreadsheets or inventory schedules.
Suzune seemed to notice the shift in the air. Her gaze dropped briefly toward his mouth before returning to his eyes, but she didn’t pull away. The stillness between them grew heavy, almost embarrassing in its intensity.
"Your hands are cold," Ren said, his voice gravelly.
"They usually are after work," Suzune replied softly.
Ren reached out and took her right hand in his. His palm was broad, warm, and slightly calloused at the base of his fingers. He didn’t just hold it politely; his thumb rubbed slow, deliberate circles over the back of her skin. Suzune leaned in slightly, her shoulder pressing firmly against his chest.
Ren lifted his free hand. With slow, tentative care, his fingertips brushed a loose lock of chestnut hair away from her cheek, tucking it gently behind her ear. His fingers lingered against the warm skin of her jawline.
Suzune’s breath hitched. She looked up directly into his eyes, her lips parting slightly.
Ren’s heart hammered against his ribs. The distance between their faces closed to a breath. Three centimetres, then two. Every impulse in his body urged him to close the gap, to press his mouth to hers and take the moment completely.
He hesitated for a single fraction of a second, overthinking the boundary.
In that fleeting pause, a freight train on the nearby elevated tracks thundered past, its heavy iron rattle shattering the quiet night air.
Suzune blinked, a soft, breathless laugh escaping her lips as the tension broke. She didn’t retreat entirely, but she tilted her head back slightly, her smile warm and teasing under the passing lights. "We should probably start heading back before my father comes looking for his delivery space."
Ren swallowed hard, the heat in his neck lingering as he let his hand drop back to his lap. "Right. Of course."
When Ren finally unlocked his apartment door, the silence hit him like a cold towel.
He tossed his keys onto the small table, kicked off his shoes, and dropped onto his bed. His body was wired, taut with unspent desire.
Every detail of the evening replayed in vivid, relentless loops behind his eyelids: the soft curve of her throat, the heat of her skin against his fingers, the way her eyes had darkened when he touched her hair, and the exact physical sensation of her shoulder pressed against his chest.
’I should have just kissed her,’ Ren thought, frustration burning sharp through him. ’I had the chance.’
His mind replayed the way she had leaned against him, the catch in her breathing, and the smile she’d given him after the train broke the moment.
’I think she wanted me to.’
That thought did absolutely nothing to help his body calm down. Ren dragged the blanket over himself and shut his eyes tightly.
At eight-thirty the next morning, Ren sat at his kitchen table with coffee cooling beside his laptop.
Two client notifications had arrived overnight. Okada Stationery had confirmed receipt of the completed follow-up scope. A second message concerned the Akiyama Bakery paperwork review due for final approval that afternoon.
Ren opened his running company ledger and stared at the projected total.
Close. Irritatingly close.
He knew better than to count either amount before the work was accepted and Nanami reconciled it properly, but that did not stop him from doing the arithmetic twice.
If Friday’s client sign-offs held, Kisaragi Business Support might finally cross ¥100,000 in verified earned revenue.
For several seconds, Ren stared at the figures on the screen.
Then, completely against his will, his mind went straight back to Suzune’s mouth.