The Formula of Love [10/10]

[honou_no_izumi]

Title: The Formula of Love
Series: ガリレオ/Galileo
Characters: Utsumi Kaoru, Yukawa Manabu, Shionoya Akari
Summary: She'd waited almost six years without much result. Another year wouldn't have made any difference. But still, one can't help wondering...

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"But you know what, Utsumi-san..."

Utsumi turned around as she looked towards Shionoya Akari, the young friend she somehow was able to meet by chance in Oklahoma. "I could totally relate to you about that. Yukawa-sensei could be so clueless about things like this,"

"Hmm?" she started to say before realising something else. Utsumi frowned at her. "By the way, Akari-chan... did you happen to know Yukawa and Kusanagi before? I've only just described them briefly, but you sounded as if you've already known them. Even earlier, the way you responded at hearing their names sounded like you're already familiar with them,"

Shionoya grinned. "Well... it's a long story. But the two of them were the reason I decided to become a police officer. If you haven't guessed already... before studying forensics here at the forensic school, I've been a physics student at Teito University,"

Utsumi gasped. "No kidding? Whoa... what a small world!" She paused. "Wait... does that means that you're one of Yukawa's students?"

The girl nodded. "Yes, sorry about not telling this earlier... but I didn't expect to find out that you're Kusanagi-san's colleague."  She suddenly stopped smiling. "Ne, Utsumi-san... what if Yukawa-sensei really did like you as a woman?"

Utsumi glanced at her, taken aback. "What? Yukawa? Was that even possible...? Because if he did... it's already more than six years, how could he not even say anything to me if something like that actually happen—"

"But we're talking about Weirdo Galileo here, Utsumi-san! His logics don't apply to normal men!"

xxx

"That's... impossible! Even if it was him, how could this even slightly be called anything but abnormal logic?"

Yukawa kept holding her body tightly as Utsumi sniffled. She pulled away hesitantly, before looking up at his face. A thought suddenly crossed her mind. It was silly to still want to cling to the earlier, semi-intellectual conversation they had earlier, but she couldn't think of any other way to talk about it. "Let me get this straight again. When you... hugged me and kissed me at the lecture hall earlier, was that an experiment? Not just because Kusanagi told you to do it, but was it because you wanted to test yourself if you could actually confess your feelings for me? Because you cannot just accept something as truth without backing up the hypothesis with solid proof?"

Yukawa's eyes were unreadable.

"Perhaps..." he eventually replied after a long silence. He sighed. "Perhaps you could say it as me being a... a coward. I was scared... about the feelings I get whenever you were around. About the meaning of those feelings. I'm not sure how our relationship would change if I ever allowed you to know how I felt about you. Whether or not that you would feel the same for me. I'm afraid to find out what kinds of consequences would happen if I tell you... but I didn't want you to stop coming to ask me for help with your investigations. I suppose... that leads us to now, in the present."

Utsumi sniffled again, before slowly wiping away the tears on her face. "I guess, that makes the two of us. I was afraid that if I told you my feelings, our relationship would change. I already did began to depend on you too much to help me with my cases back then, I didn't want to accidentally manipulate you as a mere tool to help me rise in rank in the police force. I didn't want to force you to help me... just because I liked you. Even more, if you liked me in return."

"Was that why—" Utsumi looked up towards him, "—you kept avoiding me and refusing to talk to me, back then when you were investigating that case involving Kijima-sensei?"

She nodded slowly. Utsumi sighed. Guess that one case really affected both of them a lot.

"Yes, that was correct." She smiled weakly. "Kuribayashi-san told me about your relationship with Kijima-san, back then. I realised that I might have acted selfishly... without realising. It made me realise that I didn't want to force someone I loved to do something that they didn't want to do. Especially if that something could hurt them. A lot. Which is why I decided to stop depending on your help."

Utsumi looked up to meet Yukawa's eyes, as she stressed on her last few words. "That case was very painful to you, right? But despite that, things still turned out badly, wasn't it? Kijima baited me in his trap and both of us nearly died in a bomb explosion. I shouldn't have stopped contacting you that time. Else, we wouldn't have been in that situation."

"But after that incident, you still kept coming to ask for my help." Yukawa reminded her. Utsumi chuckled.

"It's because of the same reasoning as yours, professor. I didn't just want to stop seeing you," She smiled before shrugging, "Of course, there was also the fact that I needed to solve my cases and you're the only smartest person that I know. I'll admit that but I'm not really comfortable in asking help from anyone else but you."

She smiled weakly. "I suppose... in the end, I've always thought of you as my partner."

"Your old detective partner would probably be offended if he heard that. Wasn't it... Detective Yuge?"

Utsumi snorted. "Heh, Yuga-san wouldn't mind. He's already being partnered off with another officer after I left for training." She gasped. "That reminds me... perhaps me going to Oklahoma had also been an experiment. To test my own feelings as well."

Yukawa raised an eyebrow at her. Utsumi snorted, "Because of that, not only that was I able to learn some new skills..." she cocked her head towards him, "I was able to realise that I really do love you. Oklahoma might have been a grand new work environment with a good share of attractive people, but I didn't feel like it mattered much. Even if there ARE quite a few handsome detectives there—Chief Mamiya lied, not everyone there walked around in cowboy attire!—no one there has ever captured my heart the way you did. I guess I'm just hopelessly in love with you, Yukawa-sensei,"

Yukawa made a face at her. "Really? No one there caught your fancy at all?"

Utsumi folded her arms together at him. "Then, what about you... professor? While I'm gone, have you met any other beautiful women around that might catch your interest?"

The man gave her a look of mock surprise.

"I'll have you know that none of those women has made me feel even the slightest bit of attraction to them. Even when one of them was a beautiful lady scientist who has murdered her younger colleague out of spite, an old friend who've poisoned her husband to his death, or a young lady with a dark secret."

"Oh, really?" Utsumi asked testily, "Not even the young lady whom your friend Kusanagi picked as my replacement? If I recalled, she was quite smart, pretty and young. I thought those were your type, considering all of the many female students that flocked your lectures..."

Yukawa clicked his tongue at her. "You're clearly underestimating my taste in women. Despite that young lady's insistence that she was considered cute if not beautiful, she's still below my standards to what I would call 'beautiful' for a person—" Utsumi started backing away from him as Yukawa started to walk slowly towards her. She kept doing it until her back hit a wall. Yukawa took that chance to slam both of his arms on the wall at her sides, totally blocking her escape.

Utsumi blinked at him. "D-double... kabedon?"

"Are we done with your presentation, detective?", Yukawa drawled, leaning his head closer to hers.

Utsumi felt as if all of her blood was racing up into her head, making her feel faint. "I-I..." she stuttered before closing her eyes as Yukawa closed the gap between them.

xxx

Utsumi pushed him away suddenly as Yukawa let out a loud groan.

"W-wait... shouldn't you still have other more important things to do right now, s-sensei? I-I thought I remembered seeing something else written on your schedule today after your lecture earlier. K-Kuribayashi-san might make a big fuss over this—"

"I already told him that I'm taking the day off. It's just another laboratory study lesson after all. Kuribayashi could handle it by himself. Now, can you stop stalling—"

"B-but... did you have to do it now? People might see us—!" she stuttered out, panicking. Yukawa rolled his eyes at her.

"Lunch hour's already passed long ago, and you happened to run over here where it's quite secluded..." he countered as Yukawa leant again towards her for that really, long-awaited kiss.