Despite her best efforts she couldn’t forget his visit and she couldn’t decide if that was good or bad. On one hand he was a ray of sunlight poking through the cloudy existence of Takako’s life. She would catch herself thinking of him and smiling, daydreaming of him while doing her chores. Try as she might, she couldn’t help herself. She liked that Ryuu was a mystery. Everything else about her life felt preordained, but Ryuu had come from nowhere. Takako couldn’t shake the feeling he was different than he appeared. He dressed like the son of a lord who had lost his fortune, but he didn’t act like any of the men or boys who came into the house. He didn’t act entitled like the world owed him a favor. Most rich boys seemed to. He had also been surprised by her situation as if it had never occurred to him that not all prostitutes were volunteers. It was a rather refreshing level of naivete. He was also strong. He hadn’t acted like it, but Takako had learned to discern much about a person based on the way they wore clothes.
