“He says his name is Kamisato Ayato, dad.” You whisper into the receiver of your mobile phone, having locked yourself into your bedroom, pushing a chair against it for good measure. The tall stranger was in your living room. Truth be told, it was entirely your fault in the first place for letting a stranger into your house.
“Ah, you must be Ms. (L/N). Hm…” Ayato gives you a smile, followed closely by him reaching a hand up to his chin and looking you up and down, as if assessing your current state. “Aaaaand who are you? Can I help you?” You’ve never seen him before, not at your apartment complex, not at uni, nor at your part-time job at the library.
“I’m a friend of your father’s. He’s asked me to come and check on you, after…those emails you received,” You opened the door to him almost immediately. After all, no one knew about those emails except you and your parents, so tall blue-haired guy must have been telling the truth, right?
It only dawned on you how wrong of an idea it was when Ayato stepped into your house, blinked at you, exceptionally surprised and said “Well, coming into your house was remarkably easy. If it had been anyone else, you could be murdered by now, Ms. (L/N). Luckily, it’s just me,” he chuckled in an almost amused and mocking way but strolled into your apartment and looked around.
Your ego was hurt. You had prided yourself in being a very careful and independent person, deciding not to live off of your father’s money and wanted to experience the “raw essence” of being a university student in it’s most authentic form. Well, of course, it wasn’t all sunshine and daisies. Studying psychology, juggling school work, social life and your part-time job was not the easiest of things to do, you realized, but you were stubborn enough not to ask for help from your parents, because that’s what you had decided to do when you moved and went to university in a different town, miles away from home.
“I-Sorry, what did you say your name was again?” You closed the door behind you and locked it for good measure, but the deed was done. There was a stranger in your house. A stranger looking around your living room as if inspecting it for any speck of dust. He doesn’t even turn around as he offers his name. “Ayato. Kamisato Ayato,” he proceeded to walk all around as if he was at home, moving to the kitchen and standing at the open entryway. “I’m not actually a friend of your father’s, I was merely hired to watch over you, miss,” he explains and finally turns around to look at you. Once again sweeping the entirety of you up and down, as if committing your face and frame to memory.
“Watch over–? Why do I need– Okay, give me…a minute, will you?”
And it brings you here, on a phone call with your father who confirms that you must be in some type of weird dream. “Yes, yes! That’s the man! He’s there early! What a surprise, his agency is top tier Y/N! You don’t have to worry about–”
“I’mnot worried about anything,” you glance at the chair on your door, obviously contradicting your statement. “It’s just an email with some photos of me in it, dad, it’s probably just some, crazy, bored university student playing a prank on me. I’ve already made a report to the local police, that’s more than enough!”
Whispering in your bedroom was rather strange, you move over to your bedroom window, up on the 23rd floor, from up here, everything down there looked tiny.
“Y/N, this type of thing is the exact set-up of a murder documentary–”
“You’ve been watching too much Netflix!” you hiss back at your dad, plopping down on your bed with your hand on your face.
“Well, hear me out, I’ve hired him for a month, that’s all. Just to be safe, Y/N. Just a month, you’ll hardly notice he’s there! I hear he’s a master of espionage! If nothing happens then he’s off the grid and all’s well and fine. Alright?”
“I–” you bite back a sigh and finally give up, massaging your forehead with your fingertips. “Okay, but am I sure this is the right guy? He just–He looks…He looks fragile, dad. I feel like I have more muscle than he does,” you communicate your worry and your father is silent for a moment on the other side.
“Is he tall, rich-looking with the pale-blue hair?”
“Yes,”
“Yeah that’s the guy,” You groan and sigh, finally ending the call with your father after a brief goodbye. You pull the chair away from your door, take a deep breath and swing your door open only to jump up and yelp in surprise to see him standing right there outside of your door. “Wh-What are you doing?” You’re just about ready to knock this guy out with how alert you are.
Ayato blinks at you and tilts his head a little to the side, smile crawling up his face. “I was just looking at the do not disturb sign on your door,” he points a finger at it. It’s…a childish plastic pink plaque decorated with unicorns and the words “STAY OUT!” were printed in bold and black lettering. “Quite peculiar, seeing as you don’t live with anyone else,” he observes and steps back to make space for you.
You heave a sigh of relief, getting a bit of your space back and mumble about the plaque being from your younger sister, you didn’t elaborate on the fact that you had just wanted to bring a piece of home with you and put it up on your door for when you were homesick.
“I take it you’ve talked to your father?” Ayato follows you to the living room and sits on the armchair just as you sit on the nearby sofa. You don’t answer, mostly because you’re apprehensive. Bodyguard or not, he was still a stranger and it was a little unnerving that he…had shown no awkwardness towards you at all. As if he’s done this multiple times before.
Well, it is his job, after all.
“I apologize, Ms (L/N), perhaps it was a little rude to intrude on your space so suddenly. But it’s part of my job to assess how I can better protect my client. It’s all just business, nothing personal,” he explains and finally there is some semblance of humanity in him. For a moment you thought that he was just insensitive, strolling around the apartment like that and welcoming himself in. He shows you his work ID card as well, confirming his identity.
“…It’s…fine… Let’s just…talk about how this is going to work, alright?” You sigh and lean back into the couch, already feeling a headache coming through.
“There’s nothing to worry about, you may go ahead with your life as normal, I won’t be in the way. Ah, I do require clients to save my number though, just in case something happens,” and so he dictates his number, and he’s quite confident that he’ll pick up if you ever call. “One other thing. Before you enter your apartment, for any reason and at any time whatsoever, after a party, after class, or if you merely forgot your keys, I’ll have to enter it first, just to make sure no one’s inside and I’ll leave right after doing the necessary checks,” he smiles.
But, you realize that he’s the type of person who looks like he’s always smiling and yet…there’s something a little eerie about the way he does that. Like he’s practiced plastering and tacking on that fake smile on his face.
That first meeting was quick, though rather strange.
It hadn’t crossed your mind at all the next day that he might be watching you and that he might be around, just following you from a distance. It was ironic, because in some ways, this was how that weirdo got photos of you as well, by tailing you and watching from a distance. Now there was a prospect of TWO people doing that. No matter how many times you told yourself it didn’t bother you, it secretly still did. With this “Ayato” person, you would admit that there was a little sense of safety in your mind.
“Please tell me you got coffee on the way,” Yoimiya pleaded when you met her at your usual meeting place just before your PSYCH 3002 class. “I stayed up late all night just playing that new video game and now I’m dead on my feet, you HAVE to be awake for the sake of me copying your notes Y/N,” You give your friend a lopsided smile. Yoimiya was quirky. Certainly a free spirit. You’d like to think you yourself were a free spirit, but, after meeting Yoimiya, you really can’t compare her energy levels to yours. You were milder, somewhat toned down and was definitely not a spontaneous person.
“Yes, I had coffee on the way,” you tell her with a roll of your eyes, walking towards the lecture theatre together and chatting throughout the remainder of the time until the professor walked in. Files of students poured into the lecture theatre, a little late and yet not rushing to get to their seat. You were a little preoccupied with taking out your notebooks and everything, unable to see the new face that strolled into the room.
“Did you see that?” Yoimiya whispered at you as the professor started sorting out the computer. You glance at her, “See what?”
“That guy! That guy who just came in. I think he’s new!” Yoimiya was one to get excited, and she turned around to catch a glimpse of the guy, then turned again to you. “He’s definitely new! Y/N, just take a look!”
“It’s probably just someone from the education programme wanting to sit in on a psychology course ‘Miya,” you say, while taking out the pen you needed.
“Ugh, okay, I know the university is big and all but I swear I’ve never seen someone like him around here before, I’m tellin’ ya,” Yoimiya nudges your side and keeps flitting her eyes towards the back of the room, urging you to look. For the second time that day, you roll your eyes, and maneuver your body around to look at who exactly she was referring to.
Your breath catches at your throat.
There, sitting on the last row of the lecture theatre with some other university students, totally blending in wearing a casual button up white shirt, sleeves rolled up to his elbows and blue slacks, was Kamisato Ayato. As if sensing your gaze on him, his eyes travel towards yours, and your gazes meet.
He gives a knowing smirk, puts a finger up to his lips, and winks.
Your heart clenches and you slowly turn back around with a sigh, addressing Yoimiya. “…Yep… He’s definitely new,”
