Between Two Roses - Chapter XIV

“A university student? You must be so smart then.” Matsui Jurina deliberately stepped on the terracotta walking path which led to the main house in the area. It took nearly five minutes of strolling from the enormous entrance gate to the only building in the surrounding garden, passing through the beds of flowers and mazes of beautifully cut animal-shaped shrubs. No matter how luxurious the lifestyle and buildings in Roppongi were, Jurina could tell that they were nothing compared to the politician’s daughter’s house, the stunning sight that never failed to make her stood in awe.

          

The one being praised answered nothing and just marched towards the door while fumbling through her mantle pocket, searching for what appeared to be a card. Jurina thought it was a credit card or something before the girl inserted it to a device attached to the door. There was a low beep and the maple structure shifted open, revealing the aesthetics inside. The escort’s jaw almost dropped to the floor as she had never seen such extravagance before.  

“Dad is disliked by many people in the parliament. Hence he applied such kind of security system to keep me safe.” Watanabe Mayu clarified though Jurina wasn’t asking any explanation. She was too mesmerized with the lavishness in every corner of the house that she didn’t even remember to ask something she’d been so curious about.

“This is awesome…”

“Well, make yourself at home.” The long-haired girl started taking the stairs to her room; her lips formed a curve of a proud smile seeing the escort stared at everywhere in admiration. It was only both of them in that building since all she had was her father who was now probably in a hotel room with another hostess, seeking escape from the reality.     

Jurina paused to follow Mayu when her eyes caught a door that possibly made from metal, there also some tags and caution boards outside. She thought it was some kind of vault where rich people hid their valuables inside but when she happened to look at a ‘hazardous’ sign, she knew it was definitely something else.

“What’s that room?” Mayu looked at the direction where the escort was pointing.

“Oh, just my private laboratory.”

“Private what?” the answer was alien in Jurina’s ears.

“I’m studying chemistry. It’s such a troublesome joining the other students in the college’s lab. They’re noisy and good at nothing other than badmouthing me behind my back. It was nothing great, really. Dad is literally granting all my wishes from that dirty money.”

There was somewhat seclusion in her tone, and Jurina could see it clearly. Being a daughter of a corrupt politician where her father’s name was all over the newspaper wasn’t something pleasant to live with. Jurina knew the treatment Mayu got from her college mates was nothing other than a form of bullying. Though no real physical fights or vicious words being said, the silent and rather ignoring attitude they showed brought humiliation to the girl itself.    

“Sounds lonely.” Jurina’s hand unconsciously held the other girl’s ones.

“Want to take a look?” Mayu quickly let go of her hand, it was obvious that she wanted to change the subject. However, Jurina nodded, her smile was full of anticipation.

Once the door was opened, Jurina was captivated with another incredible view in the girl’s house. It wasn’t a huge room, but it was clean and somehow resembled a clinic, as Jurina caught a smell of disinfectant and other chemical substances through her nostrils, kind of reminded her of the room where she had monthly checkup for any sexual transmitted disease which she thankfully never had.  

“Wow…”

“Didn’t your school have a laboratory?” Mayu asked since the escort showed a face like she never seen any before.

“Of course it did. But I barely got into classes and I’m a dropout, you know.” The escort walked to examine the rack of various sealed tubes with colorful liquids inside, arranged well like a row of bright crayons. There were labels written on each tubes and Jurina didn’t understand a thing as she never heard any like Succinylcholine, Sarin, Tetrodotoxin, and such before. 

 

“A dropout?”

“Um, what’s this?” now it’s Jurina who was trying to switch the topic by pointing at a certain tube which had what looked merely like clear water inside. Unlike the others, this one had no label or anything written outside.

“Cyanogen Chloride or also called Prussic Acid. Famous detective stories called it by Hydrogen Cyanide. Ever heard any?”

“Wow, you really do know your stuff.” Jurina could not respond any better than that as she didn’t have any idea what it was about. All she knew was the rich girl wasn’t just an empty shell inside.

“It’s a lethal chemical substance. One teaspoon of it and you’ll be stone dead in less than twenty seconds. Odorless, colorless, and also tasteless; it’s perfect for those who want a quick and less painful suicide. Though you’ll be suffocated a bit since it prevents your body to take oxy-” Watanabe Mayu couldn’t finish her words as Jurina’s finger landed on her lips, silencing her.

“That’s enough.” Mayu’s cheeks turned crimson as she saw the seductive glint in the escort’s eyes. Jurina stepped backwards to lock the door then lifted Mayu’s body to sit on the empty counter which had no utilities on it. The escort’s deep stare weaken her knees as she let Jurina’s experienced hands started to remove her sweater, asking for the first barrier to get lost.  

“No one is home right?” Jurina’s smirk gotten even wider as she saw Mayu bit her lips, clearly wanting to be taken as well. However, what she saw and what she heard from the girl was completely different. Obviously was a blatant denial.

“S-stop, what do you want?”

“Granting the wish in your eyes.” Mayu surrendered to Jurina’s warm kisses that she didn’t realize her cyanide tube had been moved into the escort’s pocket. 

xxx

Matsui Jurina was overwhelmed by the smell of steamed rice and freshly broiled mackerel her mother had generously put on her bowl. She had been offering her daughter nearly everything on the table and the fridge as if Jurina was in malnourishment after not seeing her for years. Even before the bowl was empty, she proposed her to take more pickled plums or refill her miso soup cup once again.    

“It’s tasty as ever, Mom.” Though it was just a modest Japanese breakfast she usually had before going to school, Jurina ate like she had never before. The taste of her mother’s cooking brought back memories in her taste buds and she couldn’t help but feeling nostalgic.  

“Do you want second’s? Want some ofuro? Anything?” the middle-aged woman started attacking her with conscientious attention once she saw Jurina had emptied her bowl and finished all the soup.

“Mom, I’m fine.” Jurina calmly smiled. This made her mother slightly nervous for a reason she couldn’t explain.

“S-sorry….I’m just…” she stuttered as she couldn’t find any exact words to describe her feelings right now “…so glad to see you again.”

Jurina held her mother’s shaking hands and calmly telling her not to cry, as she saw tears were again welled up in the pair of her aged eyes. Eyes that looked exactly like hers. In fact, everything in her mother could be found in herself, as they indeed resembled each other so much.    

“I have to go now.”

Her eyes widened hearing that her daughter would be leaving again.

“Why so fast? Where are you staying now? I can always visit and bring you some food.”

“No, Mom. I really appreciate that. But it is better that nobody knows. I don’t want to cause any more trouble.”

Though she really wanted her mother to do that but her father’s face always came to mind whenever she thought about it. Jurina didn’t want that man to lay a hand to the woman she loved so much. She didn’t want the past to repeat itself all over again.

“Would you come again someday?”

“I don’t know, Mom.”

She exhaled a sigh, knowing that she had to respect her daughter’s decision no matter she wanted to break it down. As a mother, her instinct kept telling her to find out where Jurina lived but seeing the seriousness in her daughter’s eyes, she couldn’t help but gave in. However, something reminded her to a mysterious guest that visited their house some time ago.

“Actually someone was looking for you last week.”

“Who?” Jurina raised her brows.

“I don’t know. It’s a man in his forty or so. He wore glasses and black suit that look expensive. Did you get a nice job in the city? He seems to be interested in your background a lot.”  

xxx

Jurina really wanted Rena to eat her mother’s cooking so she couldn’t help but smiling happily all the way home while bringing some broiled fish and grated radish her mother had packed earlier. The heiress must be waiting in her room like usual, munching on her bread while watching TV or browsing around her laptop, since Jurina had allowed her to do so. However, she stopped and walked to a corner as her phone rang. Wondering whether it was a client, she decided to pick it up fast.

“Hello?”

“Jurina-san…”

The escort’s eyes squinted as she recognized the voice on the other side of the phone. It was nothing like Jurina never heard before. The somewhat raspy and cracked words like someone’s crying refreshed Jurina’s memories as there was only one person she had met in life who must be having that voice.     

“Matsumoto…Rina?”

“Can you come over? Please…please…” though it was almost three months after the last time of their encounter, Jurina didn’t expect Matsurina’s condition to be the same, lamenting her life and crying in desperation. She didn’t expect the girl would be still stuck in the past, let alone calling her again like that.

“Hey, are you okay?” she couldn’t help but getting even more worried as she could hear sobbing voice on the other side.

“I beg you…I can’t take it anymore…”

“Ah, hang on, hang on! I will be there in few minutes.” Jurina immediately hung off the phone and started to run. The bento was dropped to the ground.

xxx

Yuasa Hiroshi opened the dark curtain that preventing the sunlight to get through the room. It’s been a year the last time he visited the place, the electricity had been broken ever since. Once the sunrays enlightened the whole hall, he could see clearly that everything still stayed the same, as nobody would ever lay a hand on anything, let alone knew the place since the only person who was allowed to enter other than the owner was Yuasa himself. Everything was still like a year ago when he tidied the place for the last time after the death of the owner, after the unnatural death of the only Matsui Enterprise’s heir and also his Mistress’s younger brother.   

One by one, Yuasa unveiled the pieces of cloths that covered every painting in the room. Though everything was dusty, the paintings were not. They were still looking like they just had been left for days rather than years. They were all the same, depicting a face of a certain girl, which until now Yuasa wasn’t sure who it was, because they were never finished.  

  

“Why don’t you finish one first then start painting another?” Yuasa put a stack of new canvases on the desk, just like what the young Master had wished him to get. The man wearing black t-shirt which had paint colors stained all over, mumbled a thank you and went to check whether Yuasa had brought the right amount like he had asked. The butler could see his eyes were tired, as he must be painting all night instead of studying for his college exam. Yuasa understood the young man must be stressed because of the pressure the Matsui family had burdened on him, demanding to be a successful businessman like his father, the head and founder of Matsui Enterprise.

“No, I just can’t.”

He slipped a cigarette in his mouth then lit up. With a genuine exhale, he brushed his hair aside with his hand and Yuasa could see a pair of mismatched brown eyes, looking exhausted and misty with unexplainable grief. The same eyes he always found when he returned to the isolated cottage.

“How’s Onee-chan?”

“Rena-sama is doing well.”

“Glad then. I wish I could meet her again. I want to paint her someday.” With the cigarette still in his mouth, he turned to the canvas he was doing and continued brushing it with autumn color; it was appeared to be similar like the other unfinished works that scattered around the room. This ticked Yuasa’s curiosity.

“Is it the same person?”

“Yeah…”

It was oddly funny that all the incomplete paintings were having same thing in common, no matter how various the poses the girl was depicted; she had no lips in her face at all. Yuasa really itched to ask.

“Why it’s always in the same part?”

“Because she never gives me another smile just like the first time we met in the rooftop.”

That was the first time he saw the young heir talking about a girl like that. It must be something complicated that even when his hand didn’t stop brushing, his eyes were teary; as if about to weep.  Couldn’t be camouflaged by the somewhat uncouth attitude he’s always showing.  

“Why so?”

“Probably because I love her too much?”

Yuasa wondered what kind of person could turn a discourteous person into a fragile being like this, looking vulnerable and sad despite of his habit of partying and sleeping with many girls all the time just to drive off the pressure his family had weighed him with.

“What’s her name?”

“Matsui Jurina.”

xxx

She wasn’t sure whether it was the right decision or not to come to Matsurina’s place but she’s just doing it anyway. Moreover, Matsurina never paid with anything other than frustrated stares and sorrowful sex as she’s always crying all the time, thinking about her ex when Jurina made love to her. She didn’t really want to get involved with her again since she’s just being used as a free escape, rather than actual escort she was. With a deep sigh, she finally knocked the door.      

“Matsurina?”

There was no answer from inside. Jurina’s heart skipped a beat as she was afraid something might have happened inside. When she found out the apartment’s door wasn’t unlocked, she decided to walk in.

“Matsurina, I’m coming in…”

The first thing greeted her was a sight of medicine bottles scattered around the floor, some of them were opened and the pills were everywhere like colored marbles decorating in dismay. There also a smell of coppery fluid in the air which Jurina couldn’t figure out what it was. As the room was relatively dark, Jurina’s hand tried to find the switch and once she finally found one, the escort almost fainted finding out the source of the smell was. There, in the corner, Matsumoto Rina was sitting and shaking and with a huge amount of crimson color in her shirt, also her hands.    

“W-What the hell? Hey, are you okay?!”

“Jurina-san…” Matsurina finally looked up, her face was worse than the first time Jurina met her near the cliff, when she attempted to commit suicide back then. The escort ran to her and examined whether she was still alive or not.

“Blood?! What’s the meaning of this?! Are you hurt?!” Jurina panicked as she was afraid she might come too late.

“I….killed him…” hearing the spoken sentence sent chills to Jurina’s spine. There was relief but also anger stirred together in her spine knowing that the blood wasn’t Matsurina’s but her ex’s.

“WHAT?!”

“He…he…I just…I didn’t mean to…what should I do…”

“Shut up! Just shut up!” Matsui Jurina harshly pulled the girl’s body, forcing her to stand up and dragged her across the room, marching towards the bathroom. She then pushed Matsurina in,

“Get in!” Jurina didn’t know what she was doing anymore. Her body was thrilled with fear but also compassion towards the girl who liked to play with people’s lives and also her own life like that. Jurina grabbed the edge of Matsurina’s bloodied shirt and callously pulled it over her head and threw it to the floor, leaving the shaking girl only in her bra and shorts before Jurina impatiently stripped them all and pushed her to the shower.

“Oh my God…seriously. I thought I told you to just stay away from that guy!” the escort didn’t care if she got drenched as well but she kept continuing to wash the crying girl, ruthlessly scrubbing her naked body like there’s no tomorrow, she didn’t know nor care whether Matsurina was crying because of her ex thing or she was hurt from Jurina’s hurtful treatment that might bruise the skin at anytime.

After she had washed her until there was no odor of blood in her body anymore, Jurina threw Matsurina’s clothes to the washing machine. With the same roughness, she dried her still shivering body with a towel and dragged her to the bedroom. As Jurina went through her wardrobe to find any change for the naked girl who’s sitting on the bed, Matsurina finally spoke up.      

“I was in the park and I met him talking on the phone with his new girlfriend…he laughed. He said I was probably dead now. I just…I just…and I ran away…” as she couldn’t finish the sentence, Matsurina felt a pair of lean arms embraced her. As if hypnotized by the touch, her body suddenly calmed in an instant the time she heard the soothing whispers.

“Ssssh…it’s okay…it’s okay…”

“My body just moved by itself Jurina-san….I didn’t know what I was doing…” Jurina felt the girl wept in her arms, releasing all her sorrow in the form of tears.

“I know how you feel….sometimes when you just can’t take it anymore; it’s a right thing to do.”

“Why do you think so?”

“Because…I ever killed someone too, one year ago.” Jurina silently muttered.