But the girl could have also been stronger.
All this time, Kazeyuki had heard those words and dismissed them. He had carried the first half —you could have been gentler— like a stone around his neck, and he had let it define him. He had built a life around it. A mask around it. A twenty-three-year sentence of performed kindness that had slowly, methodically suffocated every honest impulse he had ever had.
But his father had said something else that day, and Kazeyuki had refused to hear it.
Until now.
Because Katherine was not Inori.
Katherine was the girl who could have broken and didn't.
And knowing this changed everything. Not the facts of what he had done—those would always be what they were. But the verdict he had handed down to himself, the self-inflicted sentence to wear a mask of gentleness for the rest of his life, even if it ended up killing his soul—that verdict had been issued by a seventeen-year-old boy who had never once considered that cruelty and evil were not the same thing. That a single act of coldness did not make him a monster. That a girl's death, as devastating as it was, did not make him her murderer.
He had been his own judge for twenty-three years, and the sentence had been absolute: to never be cruel again, even if it meant never being honest.
But Katherine had changed him. Freed him. And through this, she had also given him the power to be what he used to pretend he was.
And that was why, when Katherine had finally steered the conversation toward Matt’s condition, Kazeyuki did not even think of holding grudges on his fiancée’s behalf. What happened in the past was done. It was time to move forward, and right now, what Matt needed was for him to be both his doctor and future brother-in-law.
It was already almost three in the afternoon when Matt's phone went off against the tablecloth, and Kazeyuki saw the screen light up with the name of his office before Matt flipped the phone over and took the call with a grimace.
“Is everything alright?” Katherine asked.
"I’m sorry about this...” Matt was already rising when he said it. "There's a contract closing and they need me to sign before four. I'm sorry to cut this short."
“It’s fine,” Katherine assured her brother. “You should go ahead. It might take a while for the valet to bring your car around.”
As Matt gratefully went ahead, Kazeyuki pulled the chair out for Katherine, who was now smiling up at him like he had done something heroic.
Her lips parted, but before she could say a word—
"Kitty?"
Kazeyuki’s gaze narrowed as he saw the younger man approaching them. The boy was about Katherine’s age, boyishlygood-looking, and just as boyishly infatuated with the way his whole face lit up when Katherined turned to face him.
“Brad, hey!”
“Hi, um—” Brad was visibly distracted by the way Kazeyuki casually placed his hand at the small of Katherine’s back. "I...”
Kazeyuki adjusted his hold to the curve of Katherine’s waist so he could pull her closer to him.
Katherine finally noticed the way Brad was staring, but Katherine being Katherine—
“Oh gosh, where are my manners? Brad, this is Dr. Kazeyuki Collington—”
The boy looked torn between relief and concern. "Is this a health consultation over lunch?"
“It is,” Kazeyuki said gravely. “But I’d like to think that my fiancée believes her older brother is in good hands.”
“Of course, I do!” Katherine was so earnest in making sure Kazeyuki knew she had no doubts of his capabilities as a doctor that she failed to see the way Brad looked as if he had been hit by a bus, the moment he heard Kazeyuki refer to Katherine as his fiancée.
Kazeyuki glanced at Katherine. "Your brother's waiting outside."
The reminder was enough to get them going, and throughout the quick exchange of goodbyes, Kazeyuki held her close. It was not that he was jealous, but he just wanted to make sure she...she didn’t trip.
Yes, just that.
Katherine could be remarkably clumsy at times so it was important that he kept her close.