Yusuke

The school bell ringing announces that it’s time to go home and relax, much to my relief.

“Yuu-kun. Do you want to have dinner at my house tonight?” asks Emica, a beautiful girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes whom I have been fooling around with since the year before. “My dad is traveling, which means we’ll be alone…” She trails off, flirtatiously batting her eyelashes.

I shoot her a small smile. “Thank you for inviting me, but I can’t tonight.” I rise to my feet after putting my textbooks into my shoulder bag, ready to get the hell out of there because I’m annoyed with myself.

“Why not?” She pouts, scowling deeply. “You never turned down an opportunity to be alone with me before.”

I purse my lips and head to the door without looking back, deliberately ignoring my other classmates’ attempts to speak to or charm me. As much as I enjoy my status as Mori Senior High School’s most handsome and popular student, I just can’t deal with anyone right now.

“Yuu-kun, wait,” Emica yells, running after me.

I dash down the stairs and through the hallways, only stopping when I reach the shoe lockers.

“Oh, it’s you, Yusuke. What’s up with the scowl?” Tonkatsu pats me on the back. “I still can’t get over the fact that we’re not classmates this year.”

“The new girl is in your class, isn’t she?” I blurt out.

Tonkatsu gapes at me in surprise as he confirms, “Yes, she is. Her name is Nami Fukuyama, and she’s super cool and chill.”

I grumble, “Why do you look so surprised?”

I reach into my locker for my shoes, the former filled with notes from girls—either asking me to meet them or straight-up confessing their love for me. I’m not amused, though, as this type of thing has been happening daily for the last seven years. I stuff the notes into my bag, intending to throw them into the trash can at home.

Tonkatsu laughs. “I’m surprised because it’s the first time you’ve shown any interest in a particular girl.”

“Yuu-kun, why didn’t you wait for me?” Emica pants, struggling to keep up as I stomp out of the building with Katsu. “Yuu-kun! Yuu-kun!”

Suddenly, I stop in my tracks, my heart drumming against my ribcage.

“Yusuke, what is it?” Tonkatsu frowns at me before following my gaze to the school gate, his lips curving into a sly smile. “Ah, I see.”

I stare intensely at the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen as she leaves the school, a grin spreading across her face when she reaches the pathway, where the cherry blossoms are in full bloom.

“Wow,” I whisper, my eyes fixed upon the new girl’s figure. “She’s stunning,” I breathe out, unaware that my friends can actually hear me.

“What?” barks Emica, enraged. “What do you mean she’s stunning? Are you talking about the ugly new student?”

“So you really are in love with Nami-chan,” comments Tonkatsu, looking even more shocked than he did at the shoe lockers. “That’s definitely a first, and I never thought I would live to see this day.” He laughs.

“Hey, guys. Why are you all here?” Aimi approaches us, my frozen state catching her attention. “Whom are you looking at?” she asks me while following my gaze, her expression mirroring Tonkatsu’s when she spots the new girl in the distance. “Nami-chan, huh? I knew it.” She places a hand on my left shoulder. “She doesn’t talk or smile much, but she’s cool.”

“This is bullshit,” Emica snaps, slapping Aimi’s hand away from me. “Tell them they’re wrong, Yuu-kun. Tell them you don’t care about that ugly friend of theirs because you’re my boyfriend.”

I glare at her, my voice stern and cold as I state, “For the last time, I’m not your boyfriend.”

She winces. “But, but—”

“I’m going home,” I grumble before walking away from my friends without saying goodbye.

As I head toward the car where my servant is waiting for me, I keep thinking about the new girl with long black hair and dark eyes, whose delicate face reminds me of an ethereal being.

When I first laid eyes upon her, her immeasurable beauty took my breath away. However, as I gawked at her, her hair turned white, her eyes turned light blue, and majestic light blue wings emerged from her back. For a moment, I wondered if I was losing my mind and seeing things that weren’t there, but somehow, I felt in my heart that I was standing before an angel—a real angel from the Kingdom of Angels.

“Your Highness,” my driver greets me when I sit in the back seat of the vehicle. 

Like me, he’s a demon disguised as a human in Tokyo. In fact, all the staff in my mansion are servants from the Kingdom of Demons whom my father has ordered to serve me in the human realm.

“How was your day, Your Highness?” the driver, whose name I never bother to remember, asks me.

The new girl’s face pops into my mind immediately. “It was interesting,” I reply, wishing I could just fly to my mansion without the trouble of sitting in a car through the busy streets. However, I can’t grow my wings in the human realm, and on top of that, my magic doesn’t work here either, which is both disappointing and annoying, considering that my life would be much easier if it did and if I could.

“Your father would like you to have dinner with him tonight at the palace,” the servant informs me out of the blue.

“Thanks for letting me know,” I sigh, leaning my head against the seat and closing my eyes.

I hope Orochi won’t be there.

* * *

The mansion I’ve lived in since I first came to the human realm belongs to my parents, who don’t bother hiding their wealth or their need for comfort and luxury. However, despite our lavish lifestyle, we’re not a bunch of snobs who only care about power and money. As the royal family of the Kingdom of Demons, our devotion lies with our subjects, who look up to and depend on us to lead happy lives.

“Welcome home, Your Highness,” the servants greet me as I enter the foyer.

I nod lightly in return, go straight up the stairs, and into my bedroom, locking the door behind me to enjoy some alone time before dinner. I drop my shoulder bag onto the carpet and jump onto my bed, lying face down against the soft pillow.

I should turn around because I can’t breathe.

I roll onto my back and look at the white ceiling, the new girl’s face appearing in my head once again without warning.

“An angel, huh?” I mutter, linking my hands behind my head.

Never in a million years would I have imagined meeting an angel at school—a gorgeous one, for that matter. As far as I know, unlike demons, angels aren’t fans of the human realm and avoid it as much as possible for safety reasons. Although some do come to Tokyo to study and learn about human life, they return to the Kingdom of Angels as soon as the king allows them.

I’ve never visited their kingdom, but as the demon crown prince, I met the Angel Royal Family as a kid, thanks to my dad’s insistence and my mom’s nagging. If my memory doesn’t fail me, both families had coffee in Tokyo because it was viewed as neutral ground where everyone had to behave. I talked briefly to the Angel King and Angel Queen at the time, as well as their two sons. The couple mentioned something about having a daughter my age, but she wasn’t present.

“I should inform Dad about the angel and ask for advice on how to deal with her from now on. I’ll try to avoid her, but I doubt I’ll succeed, considering Tonkatsu and Aimi have taken a liking to her, and they’re two of my best friends. I can’t simply stop hanging out with them, nor do I want to,” I tell myself, refusing to admit out loud that I’m interested in getting to know the new girl better and am completely smitten with her.

It isn’t like demons are forbidden from being friends with angels, as, according to the Peace Pact formed centuries ago, peace is supposed to reign between the two kingdoms for the rest of eternity—that’s why angels and demons have developed a polite relationship. Although it has come at the cost of many lives lost to wars, greed, and thirst for power.

A knock on the door, followed by one of the servants appearing before me, snaps me out of my thoughts. “I am here to prepare your bath, Your Highness,” she says, her head lowered.

“Go ahead,” I respond, noticing her blush from the corner of my eye.

She practically runs to the en-suite bathroom, smiling shyly.

I go back to staring at the ceiling, her reaction not affecting me at all. I’m used to people ogling me wherever I go, and although I do understand that I’m considered handsome in the human and demon realms, sometimes it’s tiring and irritating, especially when they don’t leave me alone. I’ve been dealing with these kinds of situations since I was a child, and one would think that I wallow in it all. Spoiler alert—I don’t.

My smartphone pings, prompting me to fish it out of my pants pocket. As expected, it’s a text message from Emica whining that I was too cold toward her today, and I don’t bother replying.

I sigh. “Perhaps I should stop hanging out with her altogether because she’s too clingy.”

Emica and I have been having a sort of friends-with-benefits thing for the last year, which has been fun and all. But…

I’m going to end things with her tomorrow because I have no intention of dating her; I never did. Besides, it’s not my fault if, at some point, she started to believe we were serious, mainly because I’ve never hidden the fact that I’ve been going out on dates with other girls occasionally.

Like most seventeen-year-old boys, I enjoy having fun with those I find attractive—no strings attached. Why would I want to commit to someone when love isn’t what I’m looking for? If my future hadn’t already been written and I got to decide what I wanted to do, it would be a different story. However, as a crown prince, it’s pretty clear that I’ll eventually have to move back to the Kingdom of Demons to sit on the throne. My dad might be the king at the moment, but he’s a lazy bastard—a loving and caring one—who can’t wait to put me in charge so that he can retire and live the rest of his life peacefully with Mom.

The servant from before reappears in the room, still blushing. “Your bath is ready, Your Highness.” She fidgets with her hands.

I jump out of bed without uttering a word.

She swallows dryly and suggests, “If you wish, I can… take the bath… with you….”

I let out a deep sigh as I head to the en-suite bathroom. “No, and don’t suggest that again, or I’ll send you back to the demon realm,” I warn her in a cold voice.

She trembles, visibly terrified and embarrassed. “Ye-Yes, Your Highness. My apologies.” She darts out of the room, crying.

“Since when have my servants become so bold and ill-mannered?” I shake my head in disapproval and take off my school uniform.

After thoroughly rubbing and washing my body and hair in the shower, I slip into the bathtub, relishing the warm water. It feels so good that I could sleep for hours in here.

Part of me wants to skip dinner with my dad and stay home to relax and do nothing. However, even though my parents aren’t strict or anything, I know them well enough to anticipate an important conversation ahead, which is already giving me a hell of a headache.

“I wonder what they want to talk to me about,” I mutter, my eyes closed. “If only they had another baby to relieve me from the throne.”

Suddenly, I see a vision of the new girl on the other side of the tub, smiling broadly at me. An unfamiliar sensation runs through my body, unearthing feelings I’ve never experienced before.

Nami Fukuyama, who are you?

* * *