Chapter 456 - Saying His Goodbyes (II) (1/2)

Kyle had already anticipated the spray, so he had moved before his sentence was done. Thus, dodging the splurt of hot chocolate easily, with a grin.

”That's certainly going to leave a stain,” Kyle said with a tut-tut.

Watching her shocked face, with the hot chocolate dripping a bit at the side of her mouth, he laughed softly. He certainly was going to miss this. He had to admit, teasing Sayuri had been kinda fun even though he didn't do it often.

”Wha-” Sayuri began, when Kyle interrupted her, raising a hand up.

”It's one of the rules in the test, actually,” Kyle said, ”If a target is chosen, that said target is ... get ready for this ... part of the ninja family as well.”

”After all, what will happen should you fail in the mission and the target found out about our hidden world?” Kyle pointed out.

Sayuri groaned, hiding her face in her hands, ”Oh gosh. That's so obvious!! Why didn't I think of that?!”

”Because you never thought you'd fail,” Kyle said, ”And even if you did fail, you never considered the possibility that I'd find out about it.”

She sighed, her head still in her hands, ”This is so embarrassing. So you knew the whole time?”

”Well, yeah,” Kyle said, ”Part of the test was to see if you could actually remain hidden. I'm one of the assessors, after all.”

Sayuri was mortified.

To think that she had once been so arrogant as to dismiss Kyle as a useless rich kid when he was actually part of the ninja clan as well. For him to be an assessor meant that his skills were higher than hers.

It was another face-slap, but not as hard as it would have been. It only served as a reminder to her to never judge a book by its cover ... and that there will always be a higher mountain.

Didn't mean she wasn't still feeling bad about it, though.

Kyle took her hands in his, and forced them open, to reveal her face. He looked at her closely, bringing his face near to hers and tilted his head a bit, smiling gently.

”You are good, Sayuri,” Kyle said, and she could hear the sincerity in his voice. He wasn't just saying it. He truly meant it.

Sayuri was touched.

”I wanted to tell you that personally before I left,” Kyle said seriously.

He let her hands go and she sat back, not caring to admit that having his face so close to her just now had affected her a bit. She hadn't noticed it before, but he also smelt nice.

She couldn't identify the smell, though. It was just ... nice ...

”Where are you going?” Sayuri asked, shaking her head, ”Is it a ninja mission?”

Kyle shook his head, ”No. Personal mission. I've decided that it's time for me, to do something for me.”

”I've lived my whole life for others, so this time, I'm going to be selfish a bit,” Kyle said.

Sayuri nodded in understanding.

The past few months here gave her a sense of liberation that she hadn't had before. However, unlike Kyle, she couldn't afford to just leave it all behind on a whim.