Hate was such a big word. Utilized to denote one's indignance towards something, or someone, if you may. Per contra, it wasn't enough.

It wasn't enough to gratify your sense of neediness to express just how much you abhorred this world. Ah, yes. Abhor. But even that seems like an understatement to whatever it was that had encapsulated your heart.

You didn't hanker for any of this. You didn't covet for your wealth as of the moment, you didn't desire to be with this group of males who were so sick in the head that any moment now, if you whisked your head away from them even just the slightest bit, you would once again be faced with that gruesome sight from awhile back, and you didn't pine for a life that greatly contrasted with your former one. 

Sure, it was mundane. And sure, you'd even attest that you were insidiously losing the will to live in each passing day... But the state of your life there was head and shoulders above compared to this juncture. To the 'now' that you were greeted with no matter how much you wanted to awaken with the site of your rundown apartment.
.
.

Kozan saw the way how your eyes twitched, so with that, he prepared himself for your forthcoming bestirring. He'd managed to drive Enki out of this room, so at present times, it was just you and him. Alone. Together.

It's been an hour now yet he was yet to stand up and follow after that ginger-haired boy's footsteps. 

Did he even envisage himself enacting that?

The reply was a definite 'no'.

He'd already tried countless of times to render you alone with him. Yet no matter what tactic he'd procured, none of it was able to promptly entice you enough to the point that you'd acquiesce your way en route to him. It was frustrating, yet it made things all the more entertaining for him. The more you'd attempted to slip away from him, the more envigorated he became. A play of cat and mouse, that's what he'd call this.

A game wherein he was the predator, waiting for the perfect time to pounce on you, and you were the prey, too weak and immobile to go against him.

He smiled to himself. The odds were really in his favor now, huh?

"Ah, shit," you cursed as you tried to sit up, now roused from your small bout of unconsciousness, but the pounding inside your head turned out to be worse than what it was initially due to your abrupt movement causing you to halt your ministrations and just decided to lay down on the mattress. 

"Ain't that idiotic of you."

Kozan's voice was the instigator for you to finally and completely support yourself on your rear. "Why are you still here?" You croaked out, voice a little husky due to your lack of intake of water.

"I take it that you want nothing more than for me to leave right this instant?" You narrowed your eyes at him once he'd responded. And as he offered a glass of what seemed to be the liquid that your throat was in dire need of right now, you remained reluctant to accept it from him. Anything coming from him was bound to contain something in it, and you weren't certain whether you'd want to risk your safety for it or not.

"Need not brood. I didn't put anything in it," and to justify his statement, he drank it himself. Even if the bobbing of his adam's apple wasn't legitimate, the rational part of your brain was dominated over your instincts to survive, and thus, without a word, you took it from him, not before nodding your head in slight gratitude.

It was quiet for a moment, before the scoundrel had chosen to run off his mouth. "Ah, we indirectly kissed."

For that, you spluttered. The liquid entered the wrong pipe, so you were here, looking like a dunce as you hacked for the remainder of the day. The laughter that'd erupted from his lips induced a glare from you.

"What do you want?"

"Would it be immoral for me to pronounce 'thou'? Ah, I suppose that it would, considering the fact that you're indeed engaged with the Lovelle."

"Almost, but not yet. And you didn't say anything to Enki about that. did you?" You gritted your teeth as annoyance flickered within you like a candle. "You were hunched up on the floor subsequent to you passing out. Do you think that I'll have the time to gossip like your run-of-the-mill noblewoman?" His tone held no bark to it.

Your mind drifted to his first sentence. He's playing these mind tricks with you and you didn't like it. Not one bit. You weren't as much of an intellectual as Hideaki was, so your gears weren't exactly comprised of the best quality. Guess that you just need to try and wing it out and anticipate for whatever outcome this meeting would hold for you.

"What do you mean by 'thou'?" 

"You're slowly getting agitated, aren't you?"

"Don't change the subject, Kozan."

"Hm, it appears that you already are. You'll always pick the skin that surrounds your index when you're in that particular state of emotion."

His words struck something within you. A chill running down your spine as you took in what was behind his proclamation.

"You... Are you-"

"Paying close attention to you? Why yes. Your lack of attention to me made it a not-so-difficult feat to achieve." He was slowly inching toward you and you started to lean sideways, choosing to have your back facing the door. It felt as if a phantasma was looming over you, and you had to remind yourself to breathe since your lungs were starting to constrict.

"I'm just wondering though, why? Won't you want to have another boy to your already growing collection of harem? Am I not up to your standards, is that why? But if so, then why will you let someone such as Enki coddle up to you like that? That good-for-no-" And as he was only a hair's breadth away from you, you braced yourself for the impact as you let yourself fall on the floor, your back receiving the brunt of it all. You used this chance, Kozan's shock, to make a break for the door that was beckoning at you with wide arms whilst disregarding the ache that had been given rise to by the fall.

You didn't look back, not once did you do so.

"I don't know what it is that you're up to, but to be frank, I don't really give a damn. Stay the fuck away from me," you fumbled the doorknob before successfully twisting it open. You didn't hear even a peep coming from the salmon-haired boy, but you decided that it was for the best. You weren't in the right state to be dealing with this person's shenanigans when you tried your hardest to avoid him like a plague.

If only you weren't so desperate for the damned medicine... If only this migraine didn't attack you in the first place, then mayhaps things wouldn't have transpired like this. It's been months since you'd arrived in this world and not once had you even been granted with a streak of luck. Why was that? What was it that you did wrong in your past life for you to be reincarnated into a dimension much worse than helldom?

Once you'd widen the door enough for it to accommodate a person, you readied yourself to leave, not until coming face into the countenance of an individual that was on the last number of the list of people that you wanted to see. Ever.

"Found you."

Not now.

"I heard that my sweet, little fiancee was feeling under the blue, so I've come to see you."

Just why?

"Step aside, Yukio. I'm not in the mood to play games with you."

"When are you ever in the mood for things that concerned me?"

Fair point.

"At least you're aware of it," you placed an arm on his shoulder, trying to push him with what you hoped was a force that was hard enough to move him yet not enough to cause him harm. But that was a far-fetched dream of yours since he didn't budge, like what hit him instead was the pressure of the air and not a shove coming from a person.

"You really should be doing something about that attitude of yours, Lovelle. Look, even your soon-to-be betrothed loathes you," Kozan commented with mirth as he stood up, having gotten over the shock of your struggle to escape just minutes ago. Yukio raised an eyebrow at him, and what flitted his purple hues was a glint that you were familiar with.

"Why shall I take notes from someone who she takes a dim view of?"

Your eyes roamed all over the place. On the furthest corner of the room, there was a window just wide enough to let a person go through it. If you could just leave them to argue as discreetly as possible, then you could use that as your escape route. There was no guarantee that you would make it out alive since this was the third floor, but for all the troubles the heavens had caused you, you should at least have even the tiniest bit of plot armor, right?

Okay, a plan was made.

They were in a world of their own, throwing a rebuttal one after another and the sight would've been quite an entertainment for you had you not been caught up in the middle of it. 

For each passing second, you moved towards the window for an inch, ensuring that your actions wouldn't be caught by the naked eye unless their whole attention was on you...

Well, that was what you aspired for things to be-

"Where are you going?" Both voices chorused.