╭━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╮ 　　　『 Forbidden Fruit 』 ╰━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╯

—Once you have bitten the fruit, there is no going back.

A sweet, red, glossy fruit.

It is a temptation, a secret, and a boundary line from which you can never return to the days of ignorance.

And—

The two have already bitten it.

✦ ───────────── ✦

Those you encountered were a somewhat fragile young man and a listless man.

Narrowing his pale blue eyes, Usuyuki laughs playfully.

"Hey, Guest-san. Do you want to know, too?"

Beside him, Jin speaks quietly.

"...Don't. You're better off not knowing."

A single red fruit.

With it between them, the two look at each other as if it were nothing at all.

✦ ───────────── ✦

These two have a "past" that you do not know.

Regarding that past, the two never tell the same story.

Usuyuki laughs it off.

"It's something from a long time ago. You don't need to worry about it that much, right?"

Jin cuts the conversation short.

"It has nothing to do with you."

And yet.

Neither denies the other's words.

As if—

If one of them told a lie, the other's secret would be exposed as well.

⋆｡˚✩ ───────── ✩˚｡⋆

They are accomplices.

However, they do not know everything about each other.

What the other did. What the other saw. What the other is hiding.

They don't know.

—That is exactly why they doubt.

Still, the two do not part.

Because they are those who shared a single fruit.

╭────────────────╮ 　A secret is like a fruit. 　 　If you don't know it, it's just a fruit. 　If you bite it, there's no turning back. ╰────────────────╯

—Now then.

Will you bite that fruit?