Kowa froze in place, he was only going for a bath but Giselle clung to him, she was too scared to be alone, his entire body was going stiff as his cheeks turned a bright red. The feeling of her soft warmth against him was unexpected, jarring in the gentlest way.
"B-but… I was just going for a bath," he stammered, unsure where to place his hands.
She didn't let go. He sighed softly, both from fluster and sympathy.
"Alright, fine," he gave in. "You can come too. You should wash off the salty ocean breeze anyway." His voice was low, a little embarrassed. "I won't watch you bathe…i promise."
He reached down and gently took her hand. Her fingers curled around his like they were something fragile and precious.
Like a pair of shy newlyweds, they made their way down the spiral stair to the lower level, two souls, awkward and uncertain, but just a little less lonely in that dimly lit lighthouse by the sea.
The bath was located on the lowest floor of the lighthouse, it was a large, polished room modified to match the comfort of a modern luxury hotel. The walls were a blend of rustic stone and sleek, waterproof panels. A spacious bathtub sat in the center under a small, circular skylight, surrounded by elegant glass shelving that held neatly folded towels, fragrant bath oils, scented candles, and high-end toiletries. A heated towel rack hummed quietly in the corner, and a built-in rain shower gleamed nearby with polished steel fixtures. Despite being part of an old lighthouse, the room smelled fresh, carrying a light scent of lavender and sea salt.
"Since you're here, why don't you help me wash my back?" Kowa teased, laughing as he leaned against the tub's edge.
"Don't be stupid! I thought you said you won't do anything." Gisele shouted back, her cheeks burning with embarrassment.
"Just kidding, just kidding." Chuckling, Kowa set about preparing the bath. He filled the tub with warm water, adding a generous splash of aromatic oils, rosehip, chamomile, and a touch of eucalyptus. Causing the water to shimmer and release a calming scent into the air. Dried rose petals floated gently on the surface, making the bath look almost magical.
"Well then, what are you waiting for gorgeous?" Kowa said with a low chuckle, "That water's just right, it's warm, deep, and ready to squeeze every bit of that tension out of you." His eyes flicked up for a second, then back down. "Go on, I won't look... unless you want me to." a playful smirk tugged at his lips as he said that.
Gisele hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward. She gently dipped her toes into the water before slowly lowering herself in, sighing as the warmth wrapped around her body.
"So, how does it feel?" Kowa asked, not looking at her.
She sighed again, her body sinking deeper into the aromatic water. "Mmm... It's perfect," she giggled softly. "It feels like my body's healing. My skin already feels smoother."
Pleased, Kowa turned on the nearby rain shower but before he could wash his body, Giselle called out.
"Hey, can you pass me the shampoo? I think you left it over there."
"Hmm come to think of it, this isn't the first time we've been in the bath together, is it?" Gisele said softly.
Her eyes were closed, tilting her head back toward the ceiling. The warm bathwater was perfect, the rose petals gliding over her smooth skin, and the soft glow of romantic candles filling the air with a calming scent.
"Do you remember when we were kids with Lardo's gang?" she murmured to herself. "We practically lived in that old mansion, all of us were like a weird little family." A small smile tugged at her lips. "I haven't had a bath this luxurious in forever. I just... couldn't enjoy it being there without you."
She chuckled softly, nostalgia creeping in.
"Not that it was always so fancy. I still remember the time the boys locked you in the girls' bathroom, right when we were all heading in for a bath."
She laughed a little harder, her voice echoing off the tiled walls. "You were screaming like a trapped animal. so I had to hide you so you wouldn't get caught and get punished."
"In the end," Gisele continued, "we stayed late together. You were so confused, asking me to wash your hair because you didn't know how... your sister had always done it for you, you said. It was so innocent and dumb..." Her eyes opened slightly, glinting with fondness. "But I ended up washing them anyway."
A long, warm silence stretched between them, filled only by the sound of water trickling from the rain shower.
Then, Gisele leaned forward slightly, her damp hair clinging to her shoulders. Looking him straight in the eyes, though a faint pink burned on her cheeks. She said, "Why don't you return the favor... and wash my hair?"
Kowa's entire body stiffened. His hand, mid-reach for the shampoo, froze in place.
"That was a long time ago!" he stammered, avoiding her gaze as he fumbled with the bottle. "I was just a 14-year-old dumbass kid back then! We're both over 18 now... You should be more careful around guys, you know!"
He nagged, trying to mask his flustered state with an annoyed tone, but even Gisele could see the way his fingers trembled slightly, betraying just how much she still affected him.
"So you won't wash me?" She said, almost acting like she was crying.
"Argh, fine! I'll do it."
Despite all his complaining, Kowa didn't argue anymore. With a heavy sigh, he squeezed a bit of shampoo into his palm, then gently lathered it into Gisele's damp hair. His fingers moved slowly, massaging her scalp with surprising care as he sat beside her near the bathtub.
"Awh... you have nice hands," she murmured, her eyes fluttering closed. "I didn't know you were this good at washing hair now."
Kowa chuckled under his breath, feeling a little proud despite himself. "Guess I learned it after you and my sister weren't there for me to wash it."
Gisele smirked mischievously. "Hey... wash my back next."
He froze, hands still buried in her hair. Slowly, he leaned in close, his voice dropping into a deadpan grumble.
"Absolutely not," he said flatly. "I know where this is going, lady. I won't fall for your seduction."
Gisele laughed quietly, amused by how easily she could fluster him.
"I have to wash my own body too," he added quickly, stepping back and rinsing his hands. "We should be in bed already anyway. Tomorrow's school, you don't have to go if you don't want to, it's understandable given your sister's death but I've got a lot of things I want to attend to."
Without giving her a chance to tease him further, Kowa left her there, grabbing a towel and heading to the other side of the bathroom to finish up alone.
They both took their time, washing away the day's exhaustion, the old memories lingering like a warm mist around them, before finally stepping out, drying off, and leaving the polished bath behind.
A moment passed quickly after they returned from the shower. Kowa entered the room first, the candlelight flickering across his damp skin. Giselle followed behind, cheeks flushed, not just from the heat of the bath, but from him.
His back was too wide, too strong, carved like stone and marred by history. There were scars, faint, deep, jagged, etched across his shoulder blades and spine. She hadn't noticed them before. Not until today.
Something inside her kept aching with curiosity… and guilt.
She wanted to reach out, to trace them with her fingers and ask what kind of pain made you like this?
But her lips stayed sealed.
Kowa tossed his towel over the couch and stretched slightly, not even realizing how much of himself he was exposing. "You alright? You didn't say anything after that little hair wash at all" he asked without turning.
Giselle froze, her heart caught mid-beat. "Y-yeah… I just, I was thinking—"
She looked away. "You have a lot of scars."
He paused for a moment, then he looked over his back and gave a small, tired chuckle.
"Yeah I do… don't i? Some of them I received back in the lardo's gang. I guess some memories stay on the skin."
He grabbed a fresh white sleeveless shirt and a pair of shorts hanging neatly on the wall beside several other clothes. Turning back briefly, he caught her gaze before she could fully look away.
"Oh, and sorry, I don't really have any clothes for girls," he added with a soft grin. "But there's a clean shirt that might fit. Trust me when I say this but sleeping after a hot rinse with the ocean wind… it feels amazing."
They both dressed quietly, the silence between them filled only by the distant crashing of waves and the hum of the lighthouse.
Kowa's clothes fit him perfectly, snug over his broad shoulders, comfortably loose around his waist. But on Giselle's lean, delicate frame, they fell like a curtain. The shirt nearly reached her knees, sleeves slipping past her hands. It was baggy, oversized but warm and comforting. It smelled faintly of salt, smoke, and him.
She held onto the hem of the shirt for a moment… then clutched it tighter, as if it was kowa she held onto and felt.
They moved to the bed in a gentle haze, the warmth of the bath still clinging to their skin. Their breaths were heavy, not from exhaustion, but from something unspoken. Anticipation? Nervousness? The closeness of the moment had draped itself over them like another layer of the fog outside.
As soon as Giselle's fingers sank into the bed, her serious expression melted away. She giggled genuinely, like a carefree child. Then without a second thought, she rolled across the soft surface, arms out like she was swimming in clouds.
Kowa blinked, caught off guard, then immediately turned away the moment her baggy shirt shifted just a bit too much, revealing the bare softness of her inner thighs, she wasn't wearing anything else other than his baggy shirt. He clenched his jaw, shook his head, and muttered to himself.
"She better not be doing this on purpose just to mess with me."
Giselle, of course, didn't respond, either she genuinely didn't hear, or she's just really committed to the 'innocent act.'
Kowa couldn't help but watch her for a moment, a quiet smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, before turning his attention to the couch. He slowly settled down, pulling a blanket over himself, and lit a cigarette. The faint glow of the cigarette tip illuminated his face as he stared out the window at the lonely ocean, its waves crashing relentlessly against the shore. The wind tousled his hair, and for a brief moment, his mind wandered.
"I hope she's doing okay…" His voice was low, almost to himself, as thoughts of Randa filled his head. The wind howled against the windows like a distant whisper, cold and constant, as the last of the candlelights flickered low. Shadows danced on the walls, long and swaying, while silence filled the gaps between each breath.
Kowa lay still on the couch, arms folded behind his head, eyes open to the ceiling but mind miles away.
There was a long silence between them.
Then Giselle spoke, almost too softly.
"So, uh... is it true you sell your ass for a living?"
Kowa blinked, caught completely off guard. He pushed himself up a little from where he had been lazily leaning on the couch, staring at her like she'd grown a second head.
"What the hell kind of question is that?" he said, half-laughing from disbelief. "What made you even ask that?"
Giselle fiddled with her fingers nervously.
"Well... you live with prostitutes, don't you? In that brothel? All the women there sell their bodies for money. People say things about you behind your back. I just don't understand why you stay in a place like that, Kowa. It's... filthy."
She hesitated, then added, "Come back with me. Let's go back to Lardo's gang. You could apologize for leaving, lardo still respects you, you know. He'd take you back."
Kowa's expression hardened, a cold laugh escaping his lips.
"Yeah, right. 'Respect.' You mean the days he forced me to be a killer when I was barely even a teenager?"
He leaned forward, his voice low but sharp now.
"Lardo's gang was into smuggling, theft and trafficking women... Hell, they didn't even blink when it came to murdering anyone who stood in their way. Control and fear, that's all they cared about. they wanted to conquer everything and everyone."
He shook his head slowly, his voice firm.
"If I walked away from that life, it was because I chose to stand against it. And I have no regrets."
"But nah, I don't 'sell my ass.' If we're being professional about it…" he raised an eyebrow with mock elegance, "…the term is gigolo."
"How is that any different?" she asked, her voice had no emotions.
Kowa was a little angry but he chose to stay calm, he leaned back on his couch, one leg swung casually over the other, one hand behind his head, holding his cigarette in the other, wearing that familiar cocky grin that made people roll their eyes and still want to listen.
"Yeah, I'm a gigolo," he said, like it was the most normal thing in the world. "It's not just about sleeping around like people think. It's way more than that for me."
He leaned a bit forward, eyes bright with genuine pride.
"My job's to make lonely and abandoned women feel wanted and needed. Some of them live their whole lives without anyone really seeing them. Without anyone touching them like they matter. It's not always about sex for me, sometimes it's just being there for them, listening to them when nobody else does, holding them when they think they don't deserve it."
"You ever seen someone cry just because you hugged them like they weren't broken? I have."
He shrugged, his tone a little more serious.
"Sure, sometimes it gets physical. And yeah, I'm good at that too not gonna lie. But even then, it's not mindless. It's about reading what someone needs and giving it without judgment. For a lot of people, that's the only real thing they get."
He smirked around the cigarette between his lips, pulling in a long drag before blowing the smoke out in a lazy puff.
"This is who I am. This is my job and I don't look down on it. Hell, I'm proud. I made a living giving people a little happiness they couldn't find anywhere else. Maybe it's not the life everyone would pick, but it's mine. And I'm damn good at it."
"I was just a little boy when I lost the only family I had, my sister and I was found by the lardo's gang and I was naive so I thought I belonged there but I was nearly killed and they threw me out like trash because I refused to get my hands dirty for that coward lardo."
"It was my madam who found me. She gave me everything when she had nothing herself."
Kowa's voice softened, his usual cocky edge fading for a moment.
"I'm just doing what I can to survive... the same way she did. I owe her more than I can ever pay back. She's a good woman, Giselle. She's been through hell, she and the other girls know real suffering and abandonment but they refuse to give up."
He glanced at her, his gaze steady.
"So I don't like it when you look down on them. They're not what you think. I'll never go back to Lardo's gang. They stand against everything I stand for now."
Kowa leaned back, a small but real smile tugging at his lips.
"My madam and those girls... they're my family now."
Giselle went quiet, chewing on his words for a moment. But the truth was, she didn't care about his madam or the other women. Right now, she only cares about herself. She shifted closer and asked,
"Hey… I was wondering about this morning. I know you said you hated me… but you also said a lot of nice things. Did any of them mean something real?"
To be continued.