Sakura and Dairyu finally play monster hunter and learn more about each other
After seeing Aki and Chaewon off, Sakura and Dairyu made their way back to her place, the city outside finally quieting down around them.
They dropped onto the couch, and Sakura stretched out with the satisfaction of a job well done. “Okay. Now Monster Hunter.”
She turned to tell him to grab a controller and found him already out cold, head tipped back, mouth slightly open, dead to the world.
She groaned and gave his shoulder a light shake. “Wake up, Dairyu.”
He jolted upright like he’d been electrocuted, blinking hard against the light. For just a second, before he caught himself, she saw it — the exhaustion sitting heavy behind his eyes, the kind that didn’t come from one long flight. Her teasing expression softened into something closer to concern.
“Okay. No Monster Hunter tonight.” She stood, already deciding for him. “You’re staying here.”
“I should head back to my place,” Dairyu argued, though even the protest sounded tired.
“Absolutely not.” She crossed her arms. “I’m not having you wreck a rental car, or get hurt, or worse, just to prove some point about not being a bother. Come on.” A small, almost shy smile. “I don’t bite.”
She didn’t wait for him to agree. She got up, took his hand, and led him down the hall to her room. She climbed into bed first, then patted the space beside her, an open invitation that left no real room for argument.
Dairyu hesitated in the doorway — long enough that Sakura reached out and yanked his arm, pulling him the rest of the way in.
“Goodnight, Yabai yatsu,” she teased, already half into the pillow.
“Goodnight, Kura,” Dairyu said — and there was nothing teasing in it at all.
In that hazy space of hypnogogia, Dairyu felt a featherlight touch wrap around him. Gentle. Familiar, somehow, in a way that didn’t quite make sense yet.
He leaned into it. A low sound escaped him before he could stop it.
Then came the whisper: “Wake up, Ryu. I need you.”
The touch moved, and the pleasure of it sharpened, pulling him toward consciousness even as the rest of him fought to stay under. His body won the argument, but his mind kept losing. He opened his eyes.
Sakura was curled up to him, fast asleep, a small contented smile on her face — utterly unaware of whatever his half-dreaming brain had just done with the situation.
Dairyu huffed a quiet laugh, shook his head, and let himself drift back off.
They woke up around the same time the next morning.
Dairyu cracked his back with a satisfying pop. “So. Monster Hunter?”
“Food first.” Sakura stretched, then fixed him with a look that left no room for negotiation. “You’re cooking.”
“Really?”
“Your ramen last night was great. Congratulations, you’re the designated chef now.”
He groaned. “Okay, Kura.”
She just smiled and followed him into the kitchen.
Dairyu took stock of what she had — chicken, vegetables, eggs, bread — turning each item over with the look of a man assembling a plan out of incomplete information.
“Fair warning, this is gonna be a bit of a mishmash. I don’t know what half of these taste like.”
“I trust your palate.”
So he got to work the careful way — tasting every seasoning and sauce before it went anywhere near the pan, building flavor by trial until it came together into something that could best be described as Korean BBQ chicken tacos.
Sakura took the first bite and went quiet for a second too long.
“Impressive,” she finally said. “I might have to hire you as a personal chef.”
“Anytime, Kura.”
She smiled around her next bite. “Okay, Yabai Yatsu. So — where are you from?”
“North Side Long Beach.”
“Is that supposed to mean something?”
“Yes. Very much so.”
She nodded, chewing thoughtfully. “What’s there to do out there?”
Dairyu grinned. “Better question is what there isn’t.”
Sakura nodded then flatly said, “So what isn’t there to do?”
“K-pop concerts, corn husking, cow tipping mostly,”
Sakura smiled and sarcastically said, “No K-pop concerts how will I live?”
Dairyu laughed and shrugged equally facetiously and said, “It sucks,”
After breakfast and Dairyu washing the dishes the two went to Monster Hunter.
“No schedule today?”
“No unless it’s group or sub-unit activities I don’t really get solo stuff?
“Why not?”
“I’m not really the it girl of the group,”
Dairyu looked at the Japanese woman and said, “It’s because you're the IT lady,”
Sakura smiled and said, “Thanks, Dairyu I needed that,”
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