Prologue
I shivered.
Cold was never been my friend in the first place. No matter
how thick already the outfit I was clad in, going out at two in the morning and
in the end of December was totally a worst idea. But I guess I couldn’t help it
because this was the last flight.
I didn’t know whether it was because of the cold air or
because I hated flying. The view of the large airplane from the glass wall in
the passenger waiting room somehow chilled me. I always hated flying. The sensation
you got around your ears when the plane takes off was horrible. Also the turbulence
and small tremor that always made me think the plane could fall off at anytime wasn’t
a pleasant feeling to suffer.
Then I heard the female announcer. It’s finally time to go.
I shrugged my revulsion of flying with the fact that this
was really the last, the last time I had ever seen Japan again, before I comeback
whenever someday.
There were only few people boarding this plane. A midnight
flight is indeed not everyone’s favorite. I relaxed my back while observing the
attendant girl who was giving flight instructions that somehow resembled one of
my acquaintances.
Once more I took a look at my phone screen before I turned
it off and I smiled.
“Goodbye, Rena-chan.”
Chapter I
It was all started around July.
I didn’t know when to decide the start of this story but I’m
pretty sure it was on the month of someone’s birthday.
Her birthday.
It was in the midsummer where wearing nothing was the best
choice, at least if your nerves were able enough to endure people’s piercing
eyes seeing you streak out in the road like that. Though if we were living in
the ancient Greek era, I wouldn’t mind dressing up like that. Probably because
the heat was frying my common sense enough to erase my sanity. But no, I could
only half doing it. I always slept naked, at least when I was with my
girlfriends. Or that was what those girls considered about me.
My name is…ah no. I almost forgot what I was being called
with. I went with many names. Womanizer, some people in the cafes and also
those who accepted me as their loyal costumer said. Kissing monster, those high
school girls whom always screamed every time they saw me smiled at them said.
Liar, my first girlfriend said. Whore, passerby and most girls I’ve slept with said.
Loner, my family said. Though the last one was like ages ago that I couldn’t
even recall their faces. Or maybe it was just my imagination about having an
imaginary family.
But at least they were right. I was alone. I was lonely.
The weather was that unfriendly that I couldn’t stand the
heat while I knew there weren’t much left in my pocket to enjoy some nice
sweets in a decent café, that of course, had some air conditioner inside.
Thanks to the girl I met last night.
The audible pop and burst of the soda can I opened drew me
back from the daydream. The only thing I could enjoy this summer was this cold
orange soda, though finally I could get myself at some ramen stall which had an
old air conditioner that sounded so horror like it was bought several decades
ago. But I guess it was the least of my problem cause the heat of the soupy
chicken broth inside some large pots which was in my unfortunate to get a seat
close to them, was already enough to get me an unwanted free sauna.
After enjoying a bowl of the cheapest menu of ramen, I
decided to go back to my small, little, little apartment that it could only fit
a single bed, a small dresser, a stool, and an old small desk which seemed like
it’s been bullied by the owner’s children with their badmouth words decorating
its surface. Sometimes they made me smile if I reread them, those kids are just
like me back then.
It didn’t mean I couldn’t let out bad, harsh words after I
became an adult. But throwing those words was considered unnecessary and it
could even affect my job. Or that’s what I called it with.
Girls and boys are really different. You can easily please
boys by dressing and behaving decently before their eyes, and voila, enjoy the
free dresses, shoes, fancy restaurants, you name it. Nevertheless, that would not
do with the girls. They are all weak in their ears. Easily fell in my arms with
some simple nice words and comforting promises of devotion, sometimes the truth, sometimes
half-truths, mostly were blatant lies. Yet, they kept coming back.
So I could verbally badmouth someone actually, but not in
front of my customers. That would be considered unprofessional. Though I’m just
saying I was an amateur. However, the girl last night was an exception.
Have you ever been bullied back in your grade school, middle
school, high school, or even college? I had one experience around middle school
anyway. The main antagonist was always the one who is stronger than you, in any
aspects. This boy was in a favor with
his big athletics body, of course I was nothing trapped inside a weak, skinny
body of a girl who always thought giving him some badmouths was already
punitive enough to make him stop mentally groping girls inside the changing
room. But I was wrong anyway.
Stealing my lunch, purposely shoving me to the lockers when
we were passing along, secretly drawing my notebooks with some vulgar pictures
of genitals, also setting some thin thread across the hallway when I was
running an errand to make me tripped and fell on my face right where they put
some stolen curry sauce from the cafeteria on the floor, these were just some
of what a weak girl received for defending their friends from some lusty
preying eyes.
I sounded so heroic though, but no, all I did was just
spitting on his face and threatening to report to the principal.
But that was just a bitter history, wasn’t it? In my age
now, those kinds of bullies are much easier to dealing with, compared to the ones I had faced when I was adult.
xxx
“Will you love me forever?”
“Eh?” I stopped scrolling down an online daily in my phone
and turned my back to her.
“Will you love me forever, Jurina-san?”
Before my eyes, was a face of someone I wouldn’t want to see
in my entire life ever again, Fujita Nana.
“World has its doomsday, people can die, even a simple thing
such a movie can end. I can’t guarantee there is forever, honey.” She took my
hand and put the palm on her cheek, feeling my warmth.
“You said you love me…a week ago…”
“I didn’t say anything about forever, right?” I was used to
dealing with this kind of conversations.
“Are you one of those kinds of people who don’t believe in
eternal love?”
Honestly I didn’t believe in love itself.
“When we die, we cannot be sure we meet again in other world
dear, you can be in heaven while I’m in hell.” I camouflaged my itch just to
pull my hand off of her skin. I started to feel disgusted.
“I’m sure we both will be in hell.”
“Hell isn’t a nice place to be living in. Don’t belittle it
as if it was just a sauna place with much hotter atmosphere.”
“So does this world. People aren’t nice and making it like a
living hell. They come and go without even considering my feelings. I had them
paid of what they did to me.” A sharp tone of her somewhat chilled my back, I
could feel a cold sweat rolled down my neck.
“You know what exactly I’m doing for a living right?”
“I would be a fool if I didn’t know.” She poked my nose. The
sneering eyes started to irk me.
“Then why are you asking something impossible?”
“I’m sad you have to pay for this, Matsui Jurina-san.
Literally.”
“Wait, that’s my line!” I suddenly got up and dressed as
quick as I could. Getting off of this girl was my important mission. But first,
I had to get out of this room.
“You can get out then. But don’t be surprised if someday
there are flyers everywhere of your face in the streets, asking for a bounty of
your head worth thousand yen. Sexual abuse to an underage high school girl, how
was that sound?” She said the last sentence with a giggle.
“You said you were twenty?!”
“Well I need new bags, shoes, perfumes, and other normal things a girl in my age. Who's fault for not checking my ID in the first place?”
Her victorious giggle seriously irked me to the bone.
“Whore!”
“So are you.”
“Go to hell.”
“I’m already a VIP of it.”
In the end, all was left was some hundreds in my hoodie
pocket.
xxx
The room was slightly dark. A large burgundy curtain was
purposely closed shut, looking so out of place in the current weather; as if not
allowing the sunlight to fully give the room a summer feeling. Probably the
owner of the room hated summer. Or likely that person hated the heat, maybe
because there wasn’t any air conditioner? Or it was possibly a property of a vampire.
The last testimony was perhaps right, judging by the one
that was currently occupying the room. It was appeared to be a woman in her
late 20’s. Lying in a bed with her long hair spread on. Though dim, anyone
could see her uncovered skin was bright, like glowing in the dark. Or her skin
was just that inhumanely pale.
She kept turning around in her sleep as if she was dreaming
unpleasantly. It could probably that, as she kept voicing out her anxiety,
muttering words that only God knows, almost sounded like some spell. Her thin
white night gown was getting even tattered the more she moved. The sweat
started to run down her forehead, down to her cheeks, down to her neck, not
sure if it was because of the summer heat or her current body temperature.
Suddenly there were knocks on the door. Loud knocks that
sounded angry and almost turned into a bang. Sounded like, whoever was that,
wanted to immediately meet the girl in the room. As if there was a murder, a
fire, or an accident. Whatever was that, it seemed something urgent.
“Miss! Miss!”
It wasn’t that hard to predict that something wrong happened
to the pale girl on the bed. The voice of the man who was banging the door
quite explained everything. Yet the one being called was still struggling with
her nightmare, her face looked like she was in pain.
It seemed like there was no other choice than to break the
door with force, because apparently she had locked the room from the other
side. With a single kick, the man in black suit that had his bodyguard training
for years successfully opened the door with ease, as if kicking a soda can.
In a swift move, just like in the movies, he took the girl’s
body and carried her in bridal style. The pale girl had her arms limp and fell
to each side, making him looked like carrying a dead body. For a brief moment,
the girl had opened her eyes, and she caught a familiar face before she fell
back into darkness.
xxx
It took seconds and even minutes to get her realized she was
in an unfamiliar bedroom. Her eyes started to get used with the dim lightings
of the room, after battled with her own consciousness and the terrible headache
since she opened them for the first time. Then she felt comforting chill around
her head only to find there was a wet towel covering her now warm forehead. She
removed the towel to check her own temperature and sighed in relief when
finding it wasn’t that high as before. But at that second, an instant frown
formed on her face, as if something was wrong. As if something was not going
exactly like what was already planned. Then she threw the towel across the
room.
“Why am I still alive…?”
There was supposed to be a girlish, high-pitched voice
saying that out but instead she sounded like a hundred years old cannibal witch
in some fantasy movies she loved to watch. She tried to clear her throat by
making some noise but it didn’t work and successfully making it even drier. Luckily
though, it seemed like someone already predicted this was going to happen by
putting a glass of drinking water on the end table beside the bed, making it
easily to reach. After finishing in one glug, she laid her still dizzy head
back and continued to examine the room.
Unlike hers which was plain white, the wall paint of this
room had more theme and decorations. The ceiling was even adorned with a
beautiful Michelangelo-styled painting which depicted some angels taking a bath
in a hot spring. And looking by the furniture, the owner of this room must be a
kind of person who ran some huge companies and having personal butlers and
bodyguards around their house. Even the glass she just had her drink from
couldn’t be just an inexpensive utensil judging by the handle which was
decorated with some colored crystals.
The more she examined the room, the more deep the frown and
sigh she showed. The more she recognized the room, the more miserable the look
on her face. This room wasn’t that strange to her. Instead she was too used to
see this kind of luxury before she lived in that small cottage of hers. In that
brief moment, she knew she wasn’t supposed to be here. She knew she was going
to face again one of her nightmares. She knew she wasn’t taken back here for
nothing.
Matsui Enterprise. Who wouldn’t know that name in this
country? Owning dozens of some big companies and corporations that Japan
couldn’t live with. Say, some car companies which their advertisements you
could see every day on the TV were just like their minions. Then most of the
electrical utensils you could find in your house were most likely manufactured
by the company’s behalves. Not to mention large local fast food chains that rivaled
those unhealthy international brands of restaurants you probably had spent your
lunches at. Matsui Enterprise was like the icon of Japan’s trading and
business. It was almost like the heart of Japan economic itself.
Like any other story, there is always a flaw in perfection.
The head of the company seemed only had business in his life dictionary, just
like what most of rich traders and corporation presidents always do. Knowing
this, the mother of the young Matsui Enterprise president, decided that an arranged
marriage would be the best decision in order not to repeat her history of
failed marriage. She realized she didn’t teach her son much about being a fully
human, being sad, and even being in love. Yet, her expectation had come into a
failure as her son had become even like his dad, her husband, which getting
even greedier at working and expanding the family’s company without even
finding the true meaning of having a family. Until now that she had rested in
peace after years battled with the cancer, he never even once hugged his own
and only daughter, Matsui Rena.
A drop of tear rolled down Rena’s cheek, her hands reached
the nearby pillow and immediately hugged it hard, as if not letting go. And from
some silent sniffs, it gradually developing into massive stream of tears drenched
half of the pillow. At times like this she just wanted to hear the soothing
voice of her mother she didn’t even had. A comforting voice that would tell
everything will be okay, that would tell that her marriage arrangement would be
cancelled.
Being raised as the only daughter of a head of Matsui
Enterprise didn’t mean she get to taste going to school every day with some
bodyguards secretly spying, ringing a bell every time she was hungry and a full-course
meal just appeared before her eyes in seconds, or pointing at bags and shoes
she wanted to get them into her personal wardrobe in a blink of eye. Those were
what a Matsui’s descendant should’ve got, which was her younger brother, the
legal heir of Matsui from his father’s arranged marriage with a president of Tableware
Company’s only daughter. She was just nobody in Matsui family. Not even worth
using the last name just because her father was a Matsui. She was just an
unwanted mistake of what his father did to a barmaid more than two decades ago.
Rena always wondered why her father didn’t just erase her
and her mother from this world many years ago which would be an easy job with
such power of his. Instead, he chose to torture them by letting them live in a quarantine,
that’s what Rena called it with, which appeared to be a small cottage in
somewhere unknown, segregated from citizens, hiding their existence from the
world. When she was six years old, her mother was stricken with a mental
illness, the result of yearly isolation with no one to talk to other than her
own daughter, the gardener woman, and two bodyguards who always visited once a
week to deliver daily goods or some things from her father.
“You could be a use of
Matsui Enterprise someday.”
Those words always came as an answer of her lifetime
question to the point that it sickened her. The first time she saw her father’s
face was when his father paid her a visit. She saw the detailed wrinkles on his
aged face, behind there was lined every story of a single man’s life. He looked
tired but his eyes were sparkling with hope once they met Rena’s. Then behind
his back, was a young man in a decent outfit whom she was believed was her
younger brother. In that time, every rage that had been built up her chest for
years burst out uncontrollably, which in return she got the said answer. An
answer that now she finally understood after his father’s once and only visit
five years ago.
So what was she, a tool? A machine that being forced into
studying economics daily for the sake of the company? Then what if her brother
wasn’t deceased a year ago? Wouldn’t she just become a useless device raised by
her father?
One day when she was peacefully reading a magazine, a
bodyguard that always paid monthly visit came with a handful of newspapers from
different publishers which the headlines were the same; printed in capitals and
some mournful titles announced his brother was poisoned by an unknown person in
a dark alley. He was left for dead by the murderer in his car. No clues or
evidence making the case become unsolvable and in the end, the police decided
to leave the case closed.
Before even she folded back the newspapers, the bodyguard
gave her a letter from her father saying that now he wanted her to help him.
She was to marrying a man his father had chosen and becoming a successor of
Matsui Enterprise replacing his brother.
Then she finally knew a good use of the pills she found
inside the cabinet.
xxx
nice prologue~
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