Between Two Roses - Chapter IX

Everything just passed before Jurina’s eyes like a movie being fast-forwarded.

In the first minute, she fought the crowd by swimming through the sea of tourists back to the bench where they sat before. No matter how loud she had called Rena’s name, it came out meaningless as her voice just deep sunken under the horde’s noises and festival’s ambience. Catching her breath, Jurina was awfully disappointed as she found out the bench was empty and the heiress was nowhere to be seen.

Now, it was confusing for Jurina. She was sure she’s been talking with the other Matsui for couple seconds before she mistook someone’s hand as Rena’s. What was even weirder when she realized she undoubtedly never, even for one second, let go of that hand. Jurina wondered if she hadn’t paid enough attention as excitement overwhelmed her. And as three minute passed, she didn’t even bother to care about the fireworks at all.

Jurina started running. Not even knowing where to head for.

After ten minutes, worry started to fill her mind making her chest twinge as the heiress wasn’t supposed to be far from where they had parted. Bad thoughts started invading her imaginations and tried to drive her sanity off. Her previous concern about bringing Rena out was never a right decision in the first place. She could be taken by whoever recognized her as Matsui Rena, the missing Rena whose face was on posters everywhere in Nagoya. After all, though she looked different tonight, if someone stared closely, she would be definitely identified as the particular target worth gazillion of money.

And Jurina didn’t even remember about the bounty hunting at all.

Her chest heaved for air as she stopped and trying to catch her breath. She had just finally found a nice friend, whom always brings a certain warm feeling every time Jurina talked to her, after all the time wrapped in loneliness disguised behind the feisty side she was always showing. Jurina suddenly felt a deep sadness if Rena was actually taken somewhere she couldn’t see her again, and she was sure it wasn’t because she was about to lose the reward Rena’s father had put on his daughter’s case.

However, fifteen minutes had passed.

xxx

It was a sudden pitch black and something coarse and firm was on her mouth just right after she replied the escort in the middle of the crowd. Rena didn’t know what was going on but she discerned something, or someone, had lift her body and she felt like a sack of grain being dragged away like that. She wanted to scream and yell but the firm flesh on her face gagged her in the right way. Suddenly when the darkness got off her sight and she finally got used to the light, there was a familiar figure standing before her eyes.   

“Y-Yuasa-san?!”

“Miss.” The man bowed deeply. Seeing her most loyal butler standing in front of her like that gave Rena a fright and she reflexively shouted,

“No!! I don’t want to go hom-”

“Ssshhh!” the coarse thing that was appeared to be Yuasa Hiroshi’s palm made its way to Rena’s mouth, silencing her.

“Miss, please lower your voice or Shiba’s team will find us here.” he slowly let go of his hand and couldn’t help but feeling guilty for making the daughter of the Japan’s biggest trading company scared like that. But who wouldn’t be, especially when they know they just been kidnapped and brought to a dense grove on the other side of where the festival was being held at.         

“Why…you…”

“I deeply apologize for my recent actions. I didn’t mean to make you scared. I also d-“

“Tell me why you are here!” with a seething whisper, Rena felt mad for real.

“-on’t intend to bring you home…Miss, please kindly listen to my explanation first.”

“Wait, what, you don’t?”

Yuasa shook his head.

“I was on the stakeout along with Shiba’s team but I’m glad I found you first, otherwise you would have to proceed to that arranged marriage again. And that guy was in a bad mood today after Master got angry and decided to cut him off from the Aichi Power Supply Project group.” He took off his glasses and cleaned it with a handkerchief in his pocket.

Rena was listening.

“And when I saw you earlier, luckily my team was spying in other place as well. At first I didn’t know if it was you. You look absolutely beautiful tonight. Was this her work?”

Hearing Yuasa referred to the young escort, something clicked inside Rena’s head.

“You know about Jurina?!”

“Oh, so her name is Jurina. Yes, I know everything, I pretended to lose you.”

“Does…does he know as well?”

“No, I don’t tell your father. Nor anyone.” Yuasa noticed tears welled up her eyes. If only Yuasa weren’t just a butler, he would be hugging her right now, like a father comforting his daughter.

“Thank you…I’m so…I don’t know…Yuasa-san, thank you so much…” the heiress body trembled in happiness.

And that was when Matsui Rena finally cried.

As far as Yuasa remembered, it was only three times he saw Rena cried in front of him. First, when the little daughter of his Master fell from the now demolished jungle gym behind the cottage when she was five, then the time when she acknowledged the truth that there was actually a society outside the wall, and then, now. Yuasa was sure his Mistress had silently cried countless times inside her room, not wanting everyone to know how lonely she was. But apparently she couldn’t even hide that from Yuasa as well.

“Miss, I want you to keep this.”

Rena had stopped crying though her eyes still hot with tears and his chest still pounding. She looked to what Yuasa had in his fist. It was a mobile phone.

“If anything happened or you need something, please let me know. I’ve also put important numbers there. If you felt like someone acted weird around you, please immediately contact me, Master’s men are everywhere.”

“Why?”

“Eh?”

“Why are you betraying my father…for me?” Rena asked in a rhetorical tone. Yuasa only smiled.

“I’m not doing what is smart; I’m just doing what is right.”

xxx

The fireworks were over.

Jurina stared at the last flares of colorful explosions in the sky. In the end, everything was messed up. With a deep sigh, she drowned her head between her arms. Someone had definitely captured the other Matsui away. Taking away her only friend who she thought she had finally got along with. It was beginning to be like before, coping with the deceptive life where she had no one she could wholeheartedly becoming her own self with.

Suddenly Jurina felt so lonely like she was never before.

The room was like usual, dense with heavy dose of intimidating atmosphere every time she walked in for dinner, only this time was much more intense, and quiet. Three pairs of eyes greeted her in a daunting gaze when she showed her face in the doorway.

“Jurina-chan, your father wants to talk to you.” A woman wearing apron greeted her when she took off her shoes in the genkan. Thinking that it was rare since the man her mom was talking about was usually avoiding her in the first place, let alone initiating a conversation, Jurina only raised brows.

“Okay.”

And father, huh, Jurina scoffed. It was more like a stranger who got into their family by remarrying her mother. As the eldest daughter, she had seen enough drama and lies behind her family. When she was five, she was forced to see her mom beaten into bloody pulp by the same man she was going to meet. Then two years later when her brother was born, things were getting worse, he started to bring women to their house, shamelessly giggling and romantically talking to each other as if her mom wasn’t there. Jurina had to witness her mom silently crying while trying to put her little baby brother to sleep.

When she was old enough to understand adultery and had her second brother born, Jurina started to confront him and successfully got her first slap after only being yelled at because of everything. And for the next years, though he never directly put his fist on, she already had everything landed on her body; books, bottles, shoes, and everything nearby her father could reach. The only thing made Jurina happy was when he decided to divorce and left her mom with all the children. But it was only lasted for a year before one night she happened to eavesdrop conversation between her mom and a stranger who apparently to be him.

“I’m a different person now.”

“No, please. I-I’ve had enough with everything.”

“I know you still love me.”

“No!”

“Look at my eyes. I know you still do.”

“No!”

“I still love you! I promise I will do better for you, for our children too. Please let me make up for the past.”

“I-I’m going to think about it…”

Though he never hit anyone or bringing women home now, the intimidating attitude still stayed, especially towards Jurina. He made things as if everyone became his family and Jurina was merely an outsider, when she started being a rebel child in her teenager, everyone was trying to kick her out, including her brothers, only her mom she was able to talk to. However, her mom was quieter and liked to spend most of her time in the kitchen rather than talking to her daughter. Jurina was alone all the time.

“What is it you want to talk about?” while chewing the already tasteless gum, Jurina asked.

“Don’t get all cocky. Sit!”

Jurina rolled her eyes and sat down.

“What have you done out there?”

“What are you talking about?” Jurina replied with a mocking tone. Her first brother gave her a white paper which had a sentence in large fonts printed on it. Taking a quick glance, Jurina’s heart skipped a beat as she immediately knew what that anonymous letter meant. More than that, she knew exactly who had sent such threatening words to her family. There was only one person in this world that could.

“Nee-chan, this was faxed to Dad’s office this morning.”

“Do you believe in such thing? Seriously, you won’t lose your job because of this.” Jurina was about to walk away when a hand grabbed her wrist.

“You, since you were kid you’re nothing but trouble for me! Finish whatever you had with that person and if I happened to lose my job…you’ll see.”

“Let go of my hand.” Jurina coldly said and stood up, “And you too, you’re nothing but trouble for Mom.”

A month later, Jurina got kicked out the house after her father got fired.

That boy who was madly in love with her, just who was he, Jurina never thought that something as rejecting confession could actually put her in chaos like that. Just what kind of power he had to be able to make her father got fired from his job. She didn’t bother to attend school anymore, let alone taking revenge on the boy whose threat was happening for real. Angry? Of course. But she decided to shrug it away after knowing that got involved further with the particular person would bring greater unfortunates to her.   

Jurina had nowhere to run to except her girlfriend, Mukaida Manatsu. The amicable Manatsu was certainly accepting her for couple of days before Jurina noticed that there was practically no one there except them both and almost all the house belongings were packed inside cardboard boxes. With a great disappointment, she had to swallow the fact that her girlfriend would be leaving for Europe in two days.

After breaking up with Manatsu, Jurina couldn’t help but trying to live by her own. In one rainy night, when she was waiting in the bus stop, a black SUV stopped in front of her. The door opened and a woman who was in her late twenties came out bringing an umbrella. She was taller than Jurina and had her short hair dyed dark blonde. At first glance Jurina thought she was a foreigner before she greeted her with a sharp voice.

“My, aren’t you cold?”

“M-me?” Jurina answered with tremble as she had been standing under the rain with nothing to protect from the downpour for three hours straight. The woman had worried look in her face and led Jurina to get into her car.

“Where do you live? I’ll drive you home.” She took a dry towel in the backseat and wiped Jurina’s face.

“Home?” Jurina weakly answered. Her head felt heavy and the question felt like alien to her ears which she couldn’t even mutter a single answer.

“Your face so red, um, I’ll take you to my place then.”

The woman was Shinoda Mariko, a respectable hostess who had high reputation and also, love hotels in Roppongi area, Tokyo. That night she was attending a wedding party of her friend’s in Nagoya and decided to drive back to train station to Tokyo before she caught a glimpse of a wobbly figure standing in the rain, as if about to fall down at anytime. Jurina was introduced to Japan’s nightlife thanks to this woman, she began to know lots of things she’d never think she was going to live with everyday.

Working as a staff in one of Mariko’s love hotels, she learned the easy way of making money. Roppongi areas where pubs, clubs, bars, massages, karaokes, cabarets, and love hotels are literally everywhere just like shopping district making everyone could easily make a living here. From overhearing the hotel guests in the elevator, Jurina found out that strip clubs and peep shows were quite promising for young girls who were desperate to looking for a job. Taking off clothes without being touched by the customers for two thousand yen was a splendid idea to her, even though in the end she didn’t choose that because she was looking for more highly-regarded kind of work despite of Tokyo’s uniquely distorted sexual rhythm. But she didn’t need long time to find one that quite fit her standard, that’s when she finally learned the world of escorts.

A light touch grazed over her shoulder and Jurina turned to find Matsui Rena staring back at her,

“Re-“

“Why are you…crying?”                                    

xxx

Rena couldn’t remember how and why but here she was, hugging the younger Matsui who was crying. After going back to the festival, she had no idea where to go as she lost Jurina and found out the fireworks were over. Also the place wasn’t as crowded as before since the whole event had ended half an hour ago. Her intuition somehow told her to walk back to the bench where the two Matsui sat before and she had to be grateful because that was right thing to do.

“Are you okay?” Rena softly asked, not knowing what to do with the crying girl. Despite her playful and flirtatious attitude, that Jurina actually could cry was a new side Rena never seen from the girl before. Deep down her heart, though wicked, she admitted that Jurina was kind of cute in this state. Rena couldn’t help but silently giggling.

“I’ve been looking for you, you know!”

“I was,” Rena remembered that Yuasa had told her to pretend their meeting was never happened by any chance, and for the other Matsui to not acknowledge Yuasa’s existence at all, “…going to the toilet”

“You should’ve told me before!” Jurina let go of the hug and wiped her tears.

“I’m really sorry for bothering you. But you don’t need to cry anyway…”

“And strangely I didn’t even feel like letting go of your hand…how come?”

“Ah, the fireworks are over, eh?” Rena quickly switched the topic. She secretly admired how skilled Yuasa at doing his job, no wonder he was moved up becoming her personal butler.

Jurina sighed.

“I’m sorry, in the end I can’t take you seeing one.”

“That’s okay…Today was fun, I was able to experience the real summer festival, thanks to you.”     

“Next year, I will definitely take you here again!”

“Next year? I wonder…”

Jurina just realized that Rena couldn’t be staying at her place for forever though she was willing if the heiress wanted to. With the current mess and all, she couldn’t predict what will happen in the future. She was too afraid to even think about it.

“Ne, Rena…”

“Yes?” the older Matsui was slightly startled seeing Jurina’s face was so close to hers that she could see the dilated pupils clearly. A particular heat immediately crawled onto her cheeks and she shifted her head backwards a bit.

“Don’t disappear like that again.”

“I…” Rena was at loss of words, her face was getting warmer and now, following to that, her chest pounding in an indescribable way as Jurina brushed a stray of hair to her ear without breaking the eye contact. If the escort got any closer than this, she didn’t know if she could manage herself to stay alive.

Everything was strange to Rena. Her heart pounding faster and she felt like she could hear it for real. Never had she felt like this before, and she couldn’t comprehend what she was feeling right now. She really wanted to avert her eyes but as if bedazzled, she couldn’t take them off of Jurina’s own. The escort never looked at her this way before and it was strangely calming her mind and soul.

“Don’t leave me alone.”

There was pain and loneliness in her voice, Rena somehow could see that. She wondered what kind of hardships the escort had been facing that she could make a voice like that. The heiress lightly gasped as Jurina’s hand made its way to cup Rena’s cheek, her face was getting hotter and Rena was sure it wasn’t because of the weather. Jurina’s face was getting closer and Rena somehow wasn’t against it.

“Am I going to be slapped again this time?” Jurina lightly grinned.

The heiress shook her head.

“I see.”

Rena then closed her eyes as she felt Jurina’s warm lips were touching hers.

xxx