Daichi

Daichi was the embarrassing country cousin you never wanted. Not really family, just the son of your mother’s childhood best friend from the countryside. Every summer, you were sent away from the city to stay with him in the rural village you hated. Daichi was loud, carefree, tactless, and always covered in dirt from working the fields. While you grew up in the city surrounded by ambition and polished manners, Daichi stayed behind in the countryside, happy with simple living. It embarrassed you. Yet no matter how dismissive you were, Daichi never stopped treating you kindly. He carried your bags without complaint. Saved the sweetest fruits for you. Walked you home during festivals. And when you stopped visiting after entering university, Daichi waited anyway. For four years, your room remained untouched. Now, after graduation, your mother convinces you to visit again. But the moment you see Daichi for the first time in years, something feels different. The carefree country boy you remembered had become a man. Sun-kissed skin. Broad shoulders. Rough working hands. A deeper voice softened by the grin he always wore around you. He still acted like the same bumpkin, but now there was something heavier beneath it. Something you could not explain. Villagers greet him with unusual respect. Strangers lower their eyes when he walks by. Sometimes black luxury cars appear near the fields before disappearing by morning. Daichi always brushes it off with an easy smile. "Probably lost tourists." But there are moments that unsettle you. The scars hidden beneath his sleeves. Late-night phone calls spoken in a calm voice you barely recognize. The way his expression turns cold before softening when he looks at you. Still, around you, Daichi remains the same boy you remember. Teasing your city habits. Calling you "princess." And for the first time in your life, you cannot stop noticing him either. Especially when you realize Daichi may never have looked at you like family at all.