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“Kyoko!” Her father managed to catch her in the hallway, in spite of her very purposefully avoiding him. In hindsight, it was probably futile to hide from a detective of his skill level, even if he rejected that lifestyle. “There's you are, I've been trying to catch you all week”
“Yes, I know.” Kyoko said, to imply she was avoiding him.
He barreled past the implication. “I was wondering if you and your grandfather would like to have dinner with me today.”
“Likely not,” she answered bluntly. Her grandfather would not be interested in talking with her father.
He frowned. “Okay, okay. What about just you, then?”
The prospect of being alone with her father for a period of hours was… not ideal. But, he was trying, and she guessed she was trying, too, since she was at this school in the first place. Maybe there was a way to make this bearable. “Only if my partner can come.”
Her father reeled from the revelation that Kyoko had a partner; rightfully so, as she did not, nor did she want one. But if she was going to go, she was going to go kicking and screaming. “Y-yes!” He said, regaining his composure. “Yes, of course.”
And so, the dinner was set. She had a few hours to find the worst person in the school to bring home.
As it turned out, that was not a difficult task. The identity of her partner revealed itself to her almost instantly.
“Togami,” she sat down at the desk in front of him during lunch.
“Oh no,” Togami didn't look up from his book. “I'm about to be roped into something, aren't I?”
“Yes,” Kyoko responded. “Can you be my boyfriend tonight?”
“I don't like girls,” Byakuya said matter-of-factly.
“You don't like anybody,” she corrected. “That's why you're perfect.”
Byakuya frowned. “You drive such a hard bargain,” he deadpanned. “Shouldn't you be flattering me if you want me to do something for you?”
She looked at him flatly. “And, what? That'd make you more likely to say yes?”
“No.” Byakuya replied, then paused. “...Fair point. What's in it for me?”
“You get to torment my father.”
Byakuya thought about it. He sighed. “Fine.”
Kyoko smiled imperceptibly. Success.
“What are you wearing?” Byakuya frowned.
Kyoko was wearing her usual of a dress shirt, a skirt, boots, a leather jacket, and her regular gloves. “Is there a problem?”
“You didn't even dress up?” Byakuya said with disdain. “You're going to be my girlfriend and you didn't even dress up for me meeting your father?”
“You're going to be my boyfriend,” she corrected, “and you didn't dress up either.” Byakuya was wearing something pretty usual for him as well; dress shirt, slacks, loafers, and vest.
“Everything I own is dressing up,” he explained to her as though she was not aware that he had lots of money. “We are not the same.”
Kyoko really did pity the boy who would fall in love with him one day. “Let's get this over with.”
They walked over to her father's house, which wasn't far from the school. Their conversation was minimal and unpleasant when it occurred.
When she knocked on her father's door, he was not the person who answered her.
“Kyoko!” Kizakura smiled at her with arms open. “I knew you'd show up.”
She heard her father's laugh come from deeper in the house. Maybe the kitchen? “Don't say that like I thought she wouldn't.”
“No, of course not,” Kizakura said sympathetically, then turned back to Kyoko, hand blocking his mouth from view of her father, and said in a whisper, “He was worried.”
If Kyoko could describe the look on Byakuya's face… well, she could, actually, pretty easily. Disgust.
“Mr. Kizakura,” Kyoko asked, a little dumbfounded, “what are you doing here?”
“Oh, well, you said you were bringing your partner…”
“Koichi,” her father warned from the background.
“...So he thought he should bring his, too!”
…
…
…
…What?
…
What?
That… but… surely Kyoko would've noticed, if her father had been seeing someone. She knew he interacted with Kizakura outside of school hours a lot but… there's no way he kept that cat in the bag. Not from her. Was Kyoko really so personally ignorant about romance that it was affecting her deductive reasoning skills?
What were the signs she missed? Did they ever touch each other in front of her? Did they ever call each other pet names? Had the outings her father mentioned been dates?
Her father came into view. He frowned when he saw Byakuya. “Mr. Togami… What a… pleasant surprise.”
“It seems this evening will be full of pleasant surprises,” Byakuya snarked while scowling at Kizakura. He looked Kyoko's father up and down. He was dressed more casually, in a dress shirt and jeans. He grimaced and barreled past them into the house.
“He's a real charmer,” Kizakura chuckled under his breath.
They sat silently for an agonizing amount of time before her father broke the ice.
“So,” her father smiled. “How did you and Byakuya get together?”
“As you may know, Mr. Kirigiri,” Byakuya answered before she could. “The Togami clan has a time-honored tradition of selecting a multitude of suitable mothers for the continuation of the bloodline.” Byakuya pushed up his glasses. “Currently, I am auditioning Kyoko, to see if she would be fit for such a role. She has many traits that make her an ideal candidate genetically…” he looked over at her. “Though her maternal nature could use some work.”
Yuck. It was a lie so good that even Kyoko hated it.
Her father smiled tightly. “That's right, I remember now. And… you.. like that, Kyoko?”
“Yes.” She lied. “It would be fantastic if the Kirigiri Detective Agency Heir and the Togami Corporation Heir were one in the same, wouldn't it?” She leaned in. “Think of how intuitive that child would be.”
“Wow,” her father said tightly. “That would be…” he looked at Byakuya briefly and looked back at Kyoko. “...quite the sight to behold.”
“Of course, they may not necessarily become the heir to the Togami corporation. Someone with better genetics than Kyoko may overtake her child,” Byakuya added. “It's likely— I had a one in sixteen chance personally, but I'm always seeking to outdo my predecessors.”
“Let's… talk about something else,” her father desperately tried to change the subject.
“Do you drink, Mr. Togami?” Kizakura asked. Her father facepalmed.
“Nothing you would have here,” he responded. “Not even the water. You're lucky I'm eating the food.”
Kizakura laughed. “Well, okay then! More for me. You want some whiskey, Kyoko?”
“Koichi,” her father said his name like a warning again.
“No.” Kyoko couldn't think of much worse than getting drunk with her father's boyfriend.
Kizakura placed a hand on her father's back. Her father looked embarrassed by this gesture. “C'mon, you all need to lighten up. It's a family dinner, not a rager. Nothin’ wrong with a little supervised under age drinking.” He winked. “It's better if you two do it here safely than unsafely somewhere else, right? Though, not that I can judge.”
“You two went to Hope's Peak together, did you not?” Kyoko asked, desperate to stop this line of conversation. “How was… that?”
Her father perked up. “Yes, we did. I was always bailing Koichi out of trouble.”
Kizakura looked at him fondly. Maybe it wasn't so crazy to imagine they were together… “It’s true,” he chuckled, placing his hand on her father's shoulder. “That's why I asked him out.”
Kyoko and her father both nearly choked on their waters. “Have you been dating since high school?” She asked.
“Yep,” he smiled and gave a peace sign. Her father looked like he might die. “On and off. Real dramatic. Y'know, we have whole lives you don't even know about?”
She knew that, but… she hadn't really considered it much before.
“Koichi, could you entertain Byakuya for a second? I want to show Kyoko something,” her father asked, removing himself from Kizakura's grasp.
She followed him out of the dining room, but caught Kizakura's voice saying, “So, Byakuya, what do you do for fun?”
Bad question. She could hear Byakuya smile like a cat. Hopefully Kizakura wasn't squeamish.
Her father led her to his bedroom, where he had a shrine of… a woman. Her mother, she presumed.
“Have you ever seen her before?” He asked.
Kyoko looked more closely at the picture. She had light hair, light eyes, and a warm smile. “No.”
He smiled sadly. “I figured. That's why I wanted to show her to you. Sometimes, I feel like looking at you is like looking at a photograph of her…” He put his hands in his pockets and sighed. “She would've handled all of this so much better than me…”
“Is that why you invited Mr. Kizakura?” She asked bitterly. “Did you need someone to replace her? To pull you along?”
“N-no!” He raised his hands defensively. “I just… I just felt outnumbered. I needed back up.” He leaned against the bed, wiping his hand down his face. “I'm sorry, Kyoko. I promise I'm not replacing your mother. The truth is…” he looked down. “Koichi and I aren't even dating.”
…
…What?
Kyoko was starting to think her father must be really stupid, because there was no way she was an ultimate detective when she was this easily fooled. “Why…”
“It was his idea,” he groaned. “He thinks I'm too stuffy about love. That if you were going to bring someone over, then I needed to seem more cool and approachable about it.”
“Well, I guess that's alright…” She sat down. “I lied too. Byakuya is not my boyfriend.”
“Oh, thank you, God,” he sighed in relief. She laughed, lightly. She didn't get to laugh often. “Kyoko…” he looked at her. “I will support you when you find someone who you really like. But please, just, not him.”
“I…” she looked away. “I don't really think I want to find a person like that. Not that I'll be upset if I find one, but… it's not necessary to me.”
Her father was silent for a while. “I think… I understand. Maybe not completely, but…” he looked at the photo. “I haven't felt that drive to find someone since your mother passed. Sometimes I feel like… like I'll never be okay with loving another person like that...”
Kyoko paused. Ugh. She did not want to give love advice to her father. But… “Would you say no if it fell into your lap?”
He scrunched his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
“You do seem close with Mr. Kizakura,” she pointed out, “who wants to date you.”
“Gh—!” Her father spluttered. “He doesn't—!”
“That was a genuine performance,” she said flatly. There was no way he had fooled her like that without there being some truth to it. “Would you say no to him, if he asked?”
“I—” he paused. “Maybe… no… probably not.”
Kyoko thought. “I think… I think I might.” She decided. “If somebody I was close to wanted a relationship. I think even then, I'd still say no.”
“Well,” he sighed. “I guess we are pretty different then, after all.”
When they returned to the table, Byakuya was tormenting Kizakura with the gory details of the latest cold case he was studying. Kizakura's face, when they entered, screamed ‘help me.’
“Well, it's getting late. You two should head out.” Her father announced.
As they readied themselves to leave, she noticed her father had pulled Kizakura to the side.
She smiled lightly. It felt weird, but for once, she was rooting for her dad.