Between Two Roses - Chapter XIII

Matsui Rena squeezed her legs tighter to her chest as she felt the surface of the sponge rubbed her back, massaging the tissue underneath, giving her nerves a warm and relaxing feeling. Quite the reverse, she was actually holding her shyness as her chest started pounding when the gentle strokes began. She didn’t dislike being clean or something, but the idea of her taking a bath with someone else other than her mother was something very bizarre to her standard, let alone being washed by someone she had slept with; it was too much for her to take. However, the one sitting right behind her was remained calm and kept tenderly rubbing the porcelain perfection as if the awkward silence between them didn’t exist.

“Say…don’t you have a family?” the heiress attempted to break the tension by creating a conversation. 

Though Jurina had seen her bare body before, she still couldn’t get used being exposed like that, especially in a well-lit room where the other girl could clearly ravish her body with her eyes. Jurina pause her action as she heard such out of nowhere question.

“I did.”

“What happened to them?”

Rena couldn’t help but twitch as the soapy material traveled to her shoulders. Her legs unconsciously stiffened making her chest almost hurt as she wasn’t used with the tender touch the escort was giving, which now slowly asked for access to her front. She wasn’t that oblivious to know that sometimes Jurina attempted to catch a glimpse on it.

“Turning into monsters I don’t want to know anymore.” In Jurina’s tone was a slight of irritation and at the same time the heiress felt the rubbing became somewhat rough. Made her wonder if the other girl felt annoyed with the meddling issue she had brought up. 

“Sorry, I was being too intrusive…”

“No, no. It’s normal for you to be curious about it.”

“But…isn’t there anyone you want to meet?” as soon as she finished the sentence, a small yelp came from her lips as Jurina’s hand nudged her legs, gesturing the need of permission to clean the other side of her body. At first Rena insisted the younger Matsui to do the rest by herself, but after battling with her own sense towards Jurina’s attentive and caring demeanor, she couldn’t help but gave in, loosening the clutch allowing the younger girl to graze all over her body.    

“I miss Mom.” Jurina deliberately scrubbed the underside of Rena’s breasts, carefully not wanting to rush to the girl who constantly bit her lips as if being hurt. She wasn’t sure whether the red in Rena’s face was because of the warm bathwater or she just blushed. However, she thought it was adorable seeing the rare flustered Matsui Rena like that.  

“T-then go see her.”

Rena didn’t want to know what kind of face the girl behind her was wearing but one thing she was sure; Jurina was enjoying every minute of it, watching her trapped in her own shyness as she kept holding herself not to let out any embarrassing noises as her body contrarily surrendering to the escort’s gentle caresses. 

“It’s been years, Rena. I’m not sure.” Resuming her movement, Jurina went down to the other girl’s stomach. Slowly, teasing the nerves, trailing heat to the skin.

“It’s better than never.”

“How about you though?”

Rena almost shuddered as Jurina’s breaths blew her neck. Then when she thought it couldn’t get any worse, she felt Jurina lean against her body; her front touched her back so closely she could feel the mounds pressing against her skin. Their slick bodies were embracing each other, warming each other, comforting each other, inseparable. Jurina then shifted slightly to lay a kiss on Rena’s damp cheek.

“M-me?”

“Well you sort of worried about your father.” The sponge was dropped and Jurina’s free hands went up to Rena’s shoulders, massaging them in a sensual motion before slowly, fingertipping down her arms, tracing lines to the burning skin, before finding their way to Rena’s own hands and entwined them with hers. 

However, the heiress answered nothing. Seeing all the affection the younger girl was showing, left Rena completely speechless. Even if she was to talk, it would only be her now pounding heart that could voice her thoughts. 

They stayed like that for peaceful seconds before Jurina stood up and reached for the shower hose.

“Close your eyes.” whispered Jurina.

Rena, who remained seated on bath stool, kept saying nothing when suddenly she felt stream of water sprayed over her head, rinsing the remaining shampoo and soap from her body. Jurina’s dainty fingers returned to wash away the obstinate bubbles on the pale surface. Rena slightly shivered at the touch.

“You can go first, the tub wasn’t designed for two people, you know.” Jurina said with a mild grin after she had washed herself, teasing the again flushed Rena. The heiress silently witnessed Jurina wrapped herself with a towel before walked towards the door. 

“Honestly though, don’t you want to go home as well?” Jurina called over her shoulder with a low voice before slid the door closed, leaving Rena all alone.

The same question she had been asking herself and tried to cease to exist, came to surface as the other Matsui brought it up again. But this time it felt different; there were neither pain nor sting in her chest like the last time she tried to ponder and denied the unspoken truth that always been poison in her heart. Not after she finally acknowledge the real answer that always hung onto her lips, being left unsaid. 

That’s why I’m still here. Home is wherever I’m with you, Jurina.

xxx

The frantic groans and desperate plea mixed with the sound of erratic breathing, as two bodies twisted and limbs tangled, adding the mess to the licentious heat in the air. Shoddy and rushed, no one seemed to care about the pain as nails grazing the skin, scratched at the flesh, blurring with ecstasy.

“Harder.”  

Matsui Jurina only smirked in glory hearing the fraught demand. She was glad her patience for the girl who was on all fours beneath her, wasn’t running thin quick. Ignoring the stinging scratch the long-haired girl had made on her back earlier, she resumed to furiously rub where the girl wanted to be touched the most. Louder moans escaped from the girl who was shuddering in her arms, the time Jurina finally granted her breathless wish to be pushed over as she couldn’t hold the pressure any longer.

“You love it rough, eh, Mayu?” as soon as she finished the sentence, the girl who was being talked to, turned her body facing Jurina and landed her palm on the escort’s cheek, creating a blazing sore in the skin. However, when she should be infuriated or angry from the violence, oppositely Jurina wasn’t. She even took this as a compliment as she knew she was doing it just right. Just like what her client had wanted to do from the start. 

“You love me talking dirty too, don’t you?”

She leaned down to---though she actually didn’t like this kind of play---harshly bite down the girl’s ear and felt Mayu’s body twisted as she couldn’t laid a hand on her body anymore. Not when Jurina had pinned it up and her other free hand chained to the headboard, much a surprise for the escort that a merely university student and someone who didn’t seem like sex could have kinky taste of play. She even owned some of the devices in her neat bedroom. If it wasn’t because of her client’s wealth, she wouldn’t want to join in a callous game like this. Appearance truly is deceiving.

This time, she felt a ruthless kicking on her stomach, replacing the hand that always giving her scratches and bruises since then. Jurina looked down and witnessed the other girl’s face flushed red with heat, while still attempting to break free from her grip. Once Jurina finally let go, Mayu’s palm returned to her face, grasping with all might, aiming to her mouth in order to silencing her.     

“S-shut…up…just shut…up…”

xxx

“Aren’t there times when you get really lonely?”

It was this question, posed by Jurina, which precipitated Rena’s decision to pick up the fallen white rose on the ground. Autumn at its best as it was nearing the end of October when people began to walk outside without wearing something warm was considered crazy. The wind was quite strong as usual, shedding leaves and flower petals to the ground and to somewhere unknown they would end up at. Just like the white rose that was ended up lying next to Rena’s feet, asking to be picked. The public flower park where bed of hydrangeas, roses, lilies, and carnations were well-raised by the local neighborhood made Jurina wanted to bring Rena here, witnessing the last of them before winter cold crushing them away entirely.    

“I had bunch of them in my cottage’s backyard back then.” Rena referred to the half dying rose in her hand. It had lose some of its petals and covered with dirt. Jurina wondered how many pair of ignoring feet had stepped on it before. “When I did, I always looked at them. I felt they talked to me, trying to comfort me with their calm movements. You know, when the wind blows slightly and they look like dancing before your eyes.” 

“You like roses?”

“Not particularly, just the white ones.”

“I simply like the red one.” Jurina picked up one of the remaining red roses in the park; the only survived ones, blossoming still until the autumn wind wiped them away. She was amazed how the park had almost all of roses colors, neatly grown by their types; white, red, pink, yellow, even orange ones. “It’s thrilling by just looking at them. They gave me courage and passion whenever I was feeling insecure.”

“Yes, it’s beautiful as well…”

“They’ll look even more beautiful if standing together like this I think.” Jurina took Rena’s hand which still had the white rose in her grip. She then stuck her red ones closely to it and saw how two different colors could be looking so beautiful together.

“Ah, the thorns are getting in the way, Jurina; don’t press it so hard.” Rena warned as the dirtied white rose’s already crushed spike battled with the still firm red’s ones.

“Right, the thorns are getting in the way.” Jurina said as she threw the red rose to the ground. 

 

xxx

Humming her favorite tune of a song, she diligently cut the unwanted reeds that protruding between her morning glories, one of her favorite flowers which she had patiently raised from seed. Just like any other mornings, her activity wouldn’t be far from a small patch of garden in the front yard, gardening or just taking a look at her growing dandelions and jasmines, or simply busying herself in the kitchen, experimenting with her own recipes of pastries. Morning was her most favorite time of day because that’s the only moment she could be alone without her husband or her sons around as they went for work and school already. Furthermore, it also the time she could find peace before being engulfed with the tension again when her husband coming back from work with a mood of destroying things around.

 

Since four years ago, her husband had been changing jobs from one into another, right after being fired from his former company. Since then, the family condition had been unstable and she couldn’t help but remained patient whenever he came home constantly complaining about the condition and the one who had caused it all. The one that he thought he had made the right decision as he knew there would be one less mouth to feed when he kicked her out.

Done with cutting all the disturbing grasses, she glanced at a brown poodle which was sleeping in its wooden house near the garden patch. She noticed the bowl was empty and as she didn’t remember having fed him today, she decided to go back to the house to fetch some canned dog foods.

Neither her husband nor her sons liked him; they even often asking why not deserting him in a box in the forest or somewhere far away when he was still a puppy years ago to cut the monthly expenses. The reason could be considered compelling as it grew up becoming a very lazy pet doing nothing other than eating and sleeping inside his small house as if losing all motivation to live. He never even let out a sound more than a low grunt when she rubbed his head once a day. Despite all that, she still insisted to keep what’s left of the person she’d been longing to see for four years. At least she would still feel like the person was always there, looking back the time she was always watching her returning from school and playing with the dog like she used to do.

When she was about to walk into the house, her eyes caught a figure standing near the fences, only meters away from where she stood, and unconsciously dropped the small shovel she’d been holding. Thinking her eyes were deceiving her, she lightly shook her head. But the person was still there, smiling softly at her action. She finally realized what she saw was real, that her daughter which whereabouts unknown and she tried hard to pretend that she was never having any, standing before her eyes.                 

“Good morning, Mom.”

The face didn’t change much for someone she had not seen for four years. In fact, nothing really changed except the way she dressed and her hairstyle. That was her thought before she happened to notice the look in her eyes. She was almost startled knowing that there was different mist in them, as if seeing the eyes of someone who had been gone through painful journey for a long time; they were dark and filled with grief.

The young girl marched towards the sleeping dog and caressed his head. In her face was a bitter smile and there was water welled up her eyes.  

“Coron-chan is big now…”

And for the very first time after a long time, the brown poodle barked.

xxx

Rena was finishing her melon bread when an unusual tone rang in the room. At first she thought Jurina had forgotten her mobile phone but the more she heard the ringing, the more she’s convinced that it wasn’t the younger Matsui’s ones. She barely used the device, let alone turning it on as she usually hid it somewhere in the flat Jurina wouldn’t find out. Thinking that it was unusual for Yuasa to call her, she decided to pick it up anyway. Suddenly her heart skipped a beat as she predicted something vital was happening. 

    

“What is it?”

“Miss, please keep your eyes on that Jurina girl. She’s dangerous.”

Rena’s eyes widened in an instant. She was indeed in a situation where being suspicious towards everyone was something tolerable to do but hearing the spoken name to be the one in the list was the last thing on her mind she could think about. Yuasa was really bad at joking, she thought.  

“What do you say?!” she released the breath she’d been holding, asking for confirmation of the disparaging statement from her loyal butler. However, after some moment of silence, Rena caught a sound of sigh from the other side of the phone. Realizing something might have gone wrong; she held her breath once again to hear what Yuasa was going to say next.

“I’ve done some researches about her. She was more likely the one who had murdered your brother.”

xxx