Between Two Roses - Chapter V

“Akane…”

“Hmm?”

I glanced at the woman beside me. My hand slowly stroked her long hair that spread around my chest as she leaned her head on it. She kept running her fingers on my bare stomach, it tickled but I somewhat enjoying the attention.

“I want to ask you something.”

No answer from her as she kept playing with my abdomen, so I assumed she let me continuing the talking. The question that always hung onto my lips and rather being forgotten because of many things happened lately in my life, returned when I noticed, as her palm was still on my belly, that Akane wasn’t wearing her ring this time. I found it odd and probably the question would be too personal but I was too curious so I decided to just ask her anyway.

“You don’t wear your ring today.”

That didn’t really count as a question and instead, it was a statement. I felt she stopped when I finished the sentence. Shortly after that, I heard a soft giggle from her.

“You know, I’m always amazed with your body…” Akane suddenly shifted and hovered over me. It was kind of obvious my question overstepped her privacy as she was trying to switch the topic. Invading customer’s personal space was never been my intention, until today.

“Thank you…” I mumbled quietly. She descended downward and kissed my stomach. I reflexively moaned at the touch. Her skin felt soft against mine which I found surprising that a man would easily let go such a good-looking woman like her. But then again in this world, people really would do anything for money, wouldn’t they?     

I had been suspicious about this woman lately. Though it was none of my business to know what my client was doing other than the time we made appointments, but Akane’s lack of respect of time and the excuses she came up with, frequent sudden cancellations, also her recent habits I noticed about her wedding ring, I somehow couldn’t contain my curiosity.

“Are you really divorced?”

That was supposed to be the voice of my inner thoughts but I realized I just whispered it out when I felt her lips making contact with my stomach skin no more.

“What are you talking about?”

“Sorry, I was just…” Akane stared at me in anticipation, quickly I had to think of something that made her think I wasn’t doubtful about her upbringing, “…thinking that you’re so pretty and…” I cupped my hand on her cheek and stroke the flawless skin tenderly, “…wondering why your ex-husband d-“

“That’s enough…” Her index finger treacherously made its way to my lips, sealing the unfinished deceit shut.

 “…right now, please only think about me” I stared at her obediently and gently nodded.

Though they only come and go, I valued my clients much. Even if my work was only to wait at home for giving outcalls, this job made me acknowledge the world more. Meeting new people in different and interesting backgrounds and nurtures somewhat challenged me in a remarkable way. Through this too I could understand people’s pain, by just listening to their problems. Loneliness, seclusion, sorrow, anger, grief, you name it. I felt satisfied when I knew I could help to at least forget their problems though just for a moment. I helped them to ease their troubled mind and soul to feel the “love” they needed.         

“Such beautiful curves, do you work out?” she moved again to lay a kiss on my shoulder, breaking my short reverie.

“W-well, if you count jogging.” I groaned softly as her lips nibbled my ear. Her warm breaths assaulted my now sensitive skin in rhythmic movements. She withdrew from my ear and bit her lips. I saw hunger in her eyes as she gave me a glint of seduction. Tucking her stray of locks to her ear, I gazed at her naked body up and down for a moment before sneering in temptation,

“Looks like someone is ready for round two.”

xxx

It was only darkness.

She was standing in what appeared to be a shadowy hallway engulfed in murky atmosphere. The sensation the room gave her was chilling to the bone for an indistinguishable reason. Standing still, the girl managed to figure out the material she had been stepping on; it was a crystal clear floor made from polished glass. Unintentionally she caught a pale face staring back from beneath. The face was horrifyingly gruesome, as if losing the soul within. The eyes were dark filled with emptiness, wrinkles under the pair of orbs declaring the amount of sadness the face’s owner had been bore. Whoever looked at that face must be feeling depressed in a matter of time; just like her now, staring at her own reflection.

Out of the blue, there were voices. She heard women’s, then men’s, children’s, and seemingly old people’s. They seemed to be in sync, chanting the same sentence she couldn’t apprehend at first, almost like a gospel. Her eyes widened when suddenly the loudest voice in the choir echoed the span, reverberating inside her head, the voice of her Father, the voice of a man she had been holding grudge against at,  

“MATSUI RENA!!”

Matsui Rena gasped in shock as her body shook in sudden retreat from her dream. She had a death grip around the blanket as if not letting it to fall. The girl desperately struggle for breath she could muster, another night just consumed her sanity again.

“A dream…?”

The heiress sighed as she realized the other company wasn’t in the place where she should be, after glancing at the wall clock. It was three in the morning.

“Jurina…”

It’s already a week after her escape and things weren’t going as smoothly as she had predicted. Though the other Matsui always switched channels every time the news updates about missing people coming up, the same nightmares that came and haunted her sleep every night made her heart twisted in despair and her stomach churn in anguish. There was always something nagging inside her head that pledging her to just come back and be a good girl her father had wanted her to be. Yet her instincts kept telling her to stay and pursue her liberation.

Unable to go back to sleep, Rena switched the lights on and tried to buy time with whatever she could do at the moment. Ever since Jurina let her stay in her place, Rena didn’t dare to step out an inch from the entrance, therefore she had to get used to the place which at first she had an aversion to live in. The small bathroom that only consisted of a tiny of what Jurina called with a tub, which she could only sit and fold her legs in order to fit in, and a stool, a toilet and small cabinet beside the shower. The situation which only made her see nothing but tiled walls made Rena wonder if she actually is a claustrophobic.

With Rena not being able to go out, she could only help Jurina with the chores of cleaning which she carried out on daily basis. She didn’t matter as she used to do it back then she still lived in the cottage. Thus the whole place wasn’t too big for Rena could handle as she was too, doing this because of her gratitude towards the other Matsui.

Her eyes laid on the closed laptop on the table. Rena didn’t remember what motives initiate her to perturb other people’s privacy but here she was, turning on the device and stared at the desktop wallpaper of what appeared to be a picture of puppies. Soon she found out that the flat area was surrounded with a wireless fidelity connection, Rena started to surf in.

It looked like Jurina hadn’t really turned off the laptop and just putting it in a hibernate situation. The minimized window showed a home page of what seemed to be a personal blog. Uncertain of what she was doing, Rena started reading.

“Escort?”

There was a profile picture in the page that Rena sure it was Jurina’s, a line of mobile phone number also written on the side of it. Basked in vagueness, Rena didn’t know why she felt slightly embarrassed reading the whole page. After a quick read of few paragraphs, she happened to read between the lines and started blushing for no particular reason. She scrolled it down more and found other photos of the other Matsui, posing in different outfits. Few of them were a bit provocative. Rena hadn’t really taken good look at Jurina’s face before but after seeing these photos she had to admit her savior was really stunning no matter how she looked at it.

Now Rena began to understand why Jurina never come home at night and why she always found her fell asleep on the floor in the morning. At first she thought Jurina was having sleepover at her friends’ house just like what she always said when leaving the place. That reminded Rena to the conversation she had with her few days ago,

“Eh, you’re leaving again?” Seeing the other Matsui was busy picking her clothes, Rena couldn’t help but ask. It was half past ten at night when a normal girl like her wouldn’t go out unless there was something she needs to buy in nearby convenience store.   

“Yeah, but I’ll be back tomorrow morning. The stir-fried vegetables I just bought it’s on the table, please help yourself.”

Rena mumbled a thank you although she wasn’t quite hungry at the moment. Ever since Jurina let her stay in her place, Rena noticed the daily routine the younger girl was doing. It was always the same; she would disappear during the day and coming back with a handful of lunch and dinner. There were quiet moments between them as Rena herself wasn’t used talking to people and didn’t really want to initiate the conversation. Jurina too, she rather busy with her phone so Rena wouldn’t dare to bother whatever business the younger girl was engaged in. However, that didn’t mean Rena wasn’t eager to talk to her savior at all. She just hadn’t found the right time to do so.

“I’m sorry, Jurina.”

“Yes?” the latter diligently sorted the clothes in her hand, being indecisive of what to wear.

“Could it be…you always go out at night because I’m taking your bed?” Rena hesitantly asked. She was always been curious about this as the matter of fact that there was only one bed and Jurina didn’t own any Japanese sleeping mat. In addition, sleeping on the wooden floor wasn’t a good option either.

Jurina laughed.

“Of course not. Well, actually I don’t sleep much in that bed. So, I’m happy it has a dweller now, haha.”

“You must be working, huh?” Rena sighed as she came back to reality. Staring at the younger Matsui’s photo in the page, she began wondering what kind of person Jurina was. As they rarely talked, there were speculations and theories coming up in Rena’s head at the moment.

Working as an escort girl in such young age, must be tough for her, Rena thought. She probably came from poor family with an unpleasant background that made her having this kind of life, while normal girls in her age should be studying in university, going out for a karaoke with friends, pursuing her dream and having fun. 

Suddenly Rena felt like she was the luckiest person on earth.

“Ehh 27?! You look so young!” Jurina’s eyes bulged out while chewing on an omelette.

“I take that as a compliment? Thank you though.”

“No, no. You really do!”

Gulping the last piece of radish in her mouth, Rena returned the question.

“Ah, I just turned 21 this year. Do you want more soy sauce?” Jurina was about to add more to her own bowl but she decided to offer Rena first.

“No, thank you. And you look really mature…”

“Now, that’s a compliment.”

They both laughed.

Rena decided to leave the laptop like the previous state, not wanting the other party to find out she had just trespassed into her personal belonging. She went back to bed, waiting for the memory of her nightmare to clear from her mind. Even so, it took a considerable while for her to get back to sleep.   

xxx

I woke up with a pain in my neck.

This probably sounds ridiculous but I wasn’t used to sleep on my stomach while I was actually sleeping like a rock not moving one inch last night. Faintly I heard voice of a woman talking in the other side of the room. I turned my back only to find that Akane was nowhere in the room, and in the bed. So it must be her on the phone with whoever it was in the bathroom.

Yawning a little, the first thing my hand reached out for was my mobile phone which was hidden under the pillow. Squinting my still sleepy eyes, I deliberately read the incoming messages. What made me wide awake in an instant wasn’t some boring messages from former clients who wanted a morning call; it was the row of numbers in the corner of the screen.

“Rena!!”

I cursed myself for the foolishness I had done this morning. The numbers showed me it was 9 in the morning which means I was two hours late to go home when I should be. First thing that came up in my mind was to apologize to the new occupant in my place for the late breakfast. Since a week ago, my daily schedule had changed from the time when I decided to give her my place as her hideout. I didn’t complain about this new duty of buying extra food and going back home more frequent than I did before since I knew these all would be worth it in the right time. Because nothing goes for free in this world.

The bathroom door creaked open, revealing Akane in a white towel while still talking on the phone. She probably heard my small scream before and decided to check me out, I waved and gave a faint smile at her as a good morning greeting before watching her threw a silent kiss with a wink at me as a reply. The scenery of her who seemingly had just taken a bath where I could see her half damp hair and her curves perfectly wrapped tightly was amazingly gorgeous. I couldn’t help but budging my index finger, gesturing her to come to the bed.

“Fukuoka? When are you going to come home then?” with the phone still attached to her ear, she walked towards me with a smile. I got up and took her hand to welcome her, bringing it to my lips. She blushed and stuttered a bit when I purposely kissed her hand while staring at her eyes in passionate gaze. From my past experiences, women tend to have their mood escalated for a whole day if they get romantic treatment like this in the morning.

“Y-yes. U-umm, can we talk again later? Yeah. Yes. I do too. Bye.”

Akane threw the phone to the bed and clung her arms to me. I gave her a slight kiss on her cheek and moved aside. Then I shifted so I could embrace her from behind. I felt her twitched when I naughtily whispered things to her ear,

“Was that…your husband?” I asked jokingly.

“Y-what? No! I’ve told you I’m divorced.” Without changing my witty tone, I continued teasing her.

“But it doesn’t matter if that’s your husband though…” I put my chin on her shoulder.

“What are you trying to say, Jurina?”

“Nope, it’s just…” I paused to blow a breath to her neck; it was fun seeing her shivered in pleasure like this, “being together with someone who is hiding her actual relationship is kind of sexy. Especially…let’s say…a married woman?”

“I-I’m not hiding anything!” she tried to break free from my embrace; I giggled and decided to stop teasing her.

She was terrible at lying, obviously. Actually I hugged her like this so I could know who she was talking with without being suspected of eavesdropping. And just like my prediction, I faintly heard voice of a man. Surely it was her husband and they haven’t divorced yet. This one client was undeniably interesting.

I had some experiences with married customers before so but the most exciting part about this was Akane is the first married client who hid her relationship from me when she actually didn’t have to. Clients’ background was the least I could care about since my priority was my service and how they wanted to be treated. However, I was curious about her reason behind this; I made sure I would find it out later. But for now there was a hungry stomach waiting to be fed and I couldn’t care less about.

“I have to leave now.” I buried my face to her neck, puckered my lips and pretending to be sad. The smell of her shampoo was way much better than her perfume.

“Ehh, so fast?”

“Yeah, just some personal stuff.”

“Want me to help you with it? I have much time.”

“No, it’s fine. It’s just some shopping.”

“Can I go with you? I also have something to buy.”

 I couldn’t argue more if she kept insisting like this. Despite the fact that she would be willingly to pay everything which put me to a benefit if I asked her to tag along, I didn’t want her to find out my actual address since it was kind of overstepping the ethic code I made for myself. Also, actually for I was being secretive for private things was because of some former clients who became passionately obsessive with me as if forgotten who I was to them to begin with. And I didn’t want Akane to find out someone who had been on the national news all week was secretly hiding in my place. That would be destroying my whole plan. However, I hummed an agreement and decided to leave this matter later on.

Sighing as the heat mercilessly assaulted my still tired body, I walked lazily while carrying two plastic bags of complete sets of Japanese breakfast. Eel dishes are considered too fancy for my standard even though I had quite large sum of money to buy some. Having Akane to come along without a doubt wasn’t a bad idea.

The bus came, and in about ten minutes we reached the busy shopping district where Akane wanted to go in the first place. I couldn’t really say I didn’t like places where there were crowds, but the district happened to be full of people when we arrived. I felt like going home immediately without doing any shopping.

A small promotional cartoonish poster in front of a certain bakery shop caught my attention. The picture was colorful with a caricature of a little man wearing patisserie outfit and looking happily pointing at what seem to be melon bread, when I saw the word in katakana decorating the rest of the space of it, I knew I was right.

“Wait, I think I’m going to buy some of this.” I pointed at the deliciously looking sketch. Akane nodded and waited outside.

I intended to buy Rena some sweet treats as an apology for being late. Actually it almost felt like I agreed to own a lost pet but forgot to feed for days and I couldn’t help but buying extra food to prevent it from dying of malnutrition. Even though in fact I quite worried seeing how thin she looked.

“Are you a vegetarian?”

Rena shook her head, “I just hate meat. I don’t like eating them.”

“That’s bad, we can’t eat spaghetti with meatballs together then…”

“Why is that?”

“Because that’s my favorite dish!”

“Ah, I feel bad now.” She giggled.

Though we didn’t talk much, we usually had small conversations like that. To be honest, it had been a real pleasure for me to have these light conversations when I didn’t have to pretend to be someone else and just carried along the topics about daily activities I rarely had. I somewhat felt like home.

That went well actually, I tried for her to remain calm and feeling safe under my protection. The reward her family offered was tempting but I had to keep things serene and made her sure being with me is the right choice before I found a right time to hand her out. Therefore I wouldn’t do anything that made her feeling insecure and having her way out again. Hence I needed to figure out how to make her feeling comfortable being around me.   

“Let’s go.” I poked Akane who was busy texting from her phone. Was that her husband again? I wondered.

“Eh? You’re done?” She quickly closed the device shut and put it back to her bag when she caught me attempting to peek at it.

“What? Your husband is going to go to Fukuoka for a business trip?” the mischievous side of me returned in time I didn’t plan it. Akane stuttered in an instant, trying to answer me in the most proper manner she could go. I kissed her cheek and smiled,

“Just kidding!”

We walked out the district, to take a bus from here back to Sakae. I intended to part from here and went home immediately. As I thought about any lie I could use to prevent Akane from walking me home, I felt a head lean on my shoulder.

“Hnnn…”

“What is it?” I asked softly. She leaned closer and circled her arm around mine, nuzzling herself like a cat.

“I wish we could stay like this, forever…”

The sentence that sounded tedious to me, as I often heard it thousand times, becoming more like something I had to automatically answer with a gentle refusal, however I remained silent at the moment.

What I couldn’t comprehend is, when they decided to contact the numbers on my blog, shouldn’t they know and realize that anything so called “love” would not going to happen between me and them as my presence was only a temporary, giving them provisional emotions and experiences they couldn’t get from reality?

What I was doing for living wasn’t as easy as it sounded. I had faced couple of former obsessive and possessive customers who most likely would trap me in their chamber or secret basement and do things I wouldn’t dare to imagine to me. I almost got raped once, being followed on my way home though they failed because I can ran faster that they could imagine, had my hair pulled and physically harassed when I insisted to walk out their door because they forced me to stay longer than the contract without paying the extra fee afterwards, or if they were not quite crazy to chase me over, though sex was the least thing in my job, they would harass me in bed; biting, scratching, and other rough activities I don’t want to recall. Hence I always being extra selective about the calling clients and also liked to keep my real identity personal.

I actually considered joining a certain agency where my safety could be guaranteed but then again it made me shiver how they possibly would take away my freedom and forced me to work at time I’m not in the mood to, and I would have a set boss where rules are essential. And I hated rules because I’m an independent person who has high free will to fight for. For this reason I deemed joining an agency has more drawbacks than benefits of working alone.    

The pavement to the bus stop was quiet as I didn’t see many people around, much of a contrast from the shopping district we just visited. Akane hummed a tone that probably her favorite song, we walked like a married couple since I let her nestle around me.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, I felt a rough grab on my shoulder, strong enough to make my body turned over. The culprit was appeared to be a man in his thirty, wearing a pair of suit pants and a white long sleeved shirt that rolled onto his elbows, revealing a pair of masculine arms which explained the strength of the touch he just gave me. I was a bit scared seeing the unexplainable look on his face. He looked extremely angry.

“AKANE!!”

The said woman even tightly wrapped her arms around me; I could feel her trembling for a particular reason I didn’t understand. But that must be something related with the man as he seemed to be an acquaintance of Akane. For a brief moment, an idea just popped in my head which could be possibly determines who he was.

“Mr. Takayanagi?” I asked firmly, not wanting to look weak though I was actually scared.

Just right after I finished saying his name, a punch landed on my stomach, followed by a blazing sore in my cheek as his muscular fist hit me mercilessly. I fell down in an instant, losing balance, taking Akane with me. My sight went blur all of sudden and I felt like the orange juice and toast I had this morning slowly went up to my throat. Then I heard someone screamed.

“Enough!!! It’s enough, she’s just a girl!!”

This was something I never predicted would be happening. An encounter with her husband was likely to happen but not this way. Nobody ever hit me like this, let alone my Dad who threw me away years ago. I tasted a coppery drip in my mouth; it was the taste of humiliation and disappointment.

“Jurina! Jurina!” Akane shook my body in tears. The blood dripped staining my clothes I could taste nothing but the crimson liquid. I wanted to vomit.

I’ve had enough of harassment and pestering deeds people throw at me. Since I was a kid I knew my parents never wanted me, especially Dad. When I’m turning into a teen people bullied me at school. Then when finally I’m an adult, I had to face same horrible things again. And now, I got beaten and knocked down for something I couldn’t be put at fault. I just wanted to end this.

“Let go!” with all energy I could muster; I snapped Akane’s hand and stood up. In the corner of my eyes, I could see the man still have the anger look but not as burning as before. I hereby took the fallen shopping bags I carried and glared at the woman who now looked scared of me and her husband.

“Don’t call me again, Akane.”

 I heard her screaming my name times when I walked away as fast as I could. Spitting blood I had in my mouth, I didn’t look back to check her out or anything, I kept walking. They both shouted at each other and I heard Akane cried. Once I turned at an intersection where I couldn’t be seen nor hearing their voices again, I quickly ran to catch the bus.

All the way home people gave me peculiar stares which I predicted was going to happen. I couldn’t help but shrugged it off and staring out the window, avoiding their questioning eyes. A middle aged woman looked extremely concern seeing my condition and decided to sit beside me and started asking explanations.

“It’s okay, I just fell down.” I replied with my most uninterested tone. Hoping that she would leave me alone but what happened was the opposite. I was saved by the conductor who announces my stop. Without trying to be polite or anything, I just got up and walked past by, leaving the still staring people in silence.

My flat was in third floor. To get there I should walked using iron spiral stairs which supposedly functioned as emergency exit since the broken old elevator was still under construction. I had a hard time going my way to my room, agonizing in every step. The side of my stomach where it got hit was really painful I couldn’t help but frown and bit my lower lip to endure the internal bruise I probably had.

Once I got in, my sight got blurred again all of sudden. And the next thing I knew, I let out an excruciating sound as my stomach couldn’t bear it anymore and I vomited on the clean wooden floor of my room. Then I heard a woman shrieking,

“ARE YOU OKAY?!”

xxx