“PLEASE don’t cry...” Shindo soothed, gazing at Satsuki as she cried before him. Her eyes were still just as clear as they were back then. He felt like Satsuki could engulf him in her overflowing kindness and compassion, while he...
“I’m the one who stole this moment from you... And now it’s my fault this painful memory has resurfaced... I can’t begin to apologize enough,” he said.
Satsuki’s hands trembled slightly against his cheeks. The gentle warmth of them cleansed Shindo’s heart now, just as they did in the past.
“Shin...do...”
But Satsuki’s tears did not dry up. Her hands slid from his cheeks to the back of his head. She began to entwine his soft, wavy hair in her fingers.
“Please don’t cry...” Shindo repeated. His lips brushed against an eyelid...
“Shin...do...” Satsuki’s spellbinding whisper drifted in the air.
Shindo’s lips brushed her eyelids, sweeping away the tears through her wet interlocked upper and lower lashes.
“Please don’t cry, Miss...” His hushed voice was so soft he was afraid she might not be able to hear him. The sound of the bed’s springs with each minor movement along with the rustle of the sheets each time they turned their heads or shifted their bodies only made his voice seem louder.
“I...took someone important to you...” Satsuki wept. She didn’t know that when she was young. Filled with the simple desire “I don’t want to lose Shindo,” her powers went out of control. She only cared about what she wanted when her heart flew into that mad frenzy. But she knew better now.
She personally killed the man Shindo loved throughout his youth like family. He was also a mentor for Shindo, teaching him a way of life. She had killed the only member of Shindo’s family.
“No, there is no need for you to apologize,” Shindo told her. He held Satsuki’s head in both hands and began to stroke her hair with the tips of his fingers. “No one would care when or where someone like him turned up dead, anyway... He was the type of person no one would ever miss...”
“But I...”
Seized with sorrow after remembering the past Shindo made her forget, she couldn’t get over how she used her powers to kill someone who played a role in his upbringing. She took the life of someone Shindo held dear. That thought filled her with overwhelming guilt.
“I killed someone you hold dear...” she cried.
Thanks to Shindo sweeping all her tears away, Satsuki was barely able to peel open her still bleary eyes. But what he said next made them pop wide open.
“You are the only person I hold dear.”
Satsuki stared at Shindo with bulging eyes.
“...Only you, Miss...” he repeated.
Satsuki felt as if those words were going to melt her heart. Even if he only meant them as her servant, they seeped into her and resounded throughout her body with indescribable sweetness.
“Me, too...” Satsuki replied, curling her fingers twirled around Shindo’s terribly soft hair. It almost seemed as if she could feel his kindness flow through her fingertips simply by touching it. “You’re more important to me than anyone else, Shindo...”
No words could be found, neither by Satsuki nor by Shindo. As her clear eyes locked with Shindo’s, their hearts melted into one. As they gazed upon one another, mutual feelings flew back and forth between them.
These feeling must never get voiced. It was taboo to harbor such emotions even in the safety of their own hearts. All they could do was keep them locked in the depths of their hearts. And yet...
Even if the fact that their lips overlapped...was an unforgivable act, at least for now—at least for the moment—they didn’t pull away...
✦ ✦ ✦
“I simply can’t believe it...” Tsubaki said, unable to accept the truth of her husband’s statement. “Manabu would never say such a thing...”
They were going to make Satsuki pick one of several suitors to become her future spouse. It was something Tsukasa had wanted her to do for years. In fact, he first tried to bring the plan to fruition when she was sixteen, but called it off when she threw the house into an uproar by threatening to run away. Nevertheless, she couldn’t avoid facing reality forever. Satsuki needed to select a partner whom she could work alongside to further advance the Tsujikawa Corporation. Not to mention, she was burdened with the fate to give birth to the next heir the moment she was born.
“I’m afraid it’s true. Although I can understand you wouldn’t want to believe that came from your beloved nephew,” Tsukasa countered, noticing the distress etched in his wife’s visage through the smoke rising from the thin cigar hanging from his mouth.
Tsukasa was going to use Satsuki’s birthday party as a match-making event. When he asked Manabu what he thought about it, the younger man advised him, “You’ll need to relieve Mr. Shindo of his position as retainer.”
He wanted Tsukasa to remove Shindo from his position as Satsuki’s retainer. That meant he would no longer be in a position to stay glued to her side, serving at her beck and call. He would be reduced to just another attendant, offering his mistress assistance with her work and life, but nothing more.
Having served Satsuki since shortly after she was born, Shindo knew her better than anyone—even her parents. She couldn’t ask for a more trustworthy secretary when she was ready to take over the Tsujikawa name. Bearing that in mind, Tsukasa began assigning Shindo work at headquarters several years ago. In this relatively short period of time, he already managed to earn an administrative position in the Office of Information Management.
“I thought Manabu realizes just how dependent Satsuki is on Shindo, and how much she relies on him. What would compel him to say that?” Tsubaki persisted.
Ever since they were little, Manabu doted on Satsuki as if she were his little sister. Much like Shindo, he also watched over her from the time she was little. Although he wasn’t made aware of her unnatural powers, he knew what she was thinking, what she wanted, and what her goals were. It could be said he was the man who understood her best after Shindo.
“Why would Manabu...?” Tsubaki trailed off, miserably clutching her hands before her chest. She couldn’t put it from her head. Memories of that horrifying disaster from when Satsuki was four were still vivid.
“The Miss...used her powers...” the boy holding Satsuki said as he collapsed before Tsubaki. His face was wrought with sorrow unlike anything she’d seen before.
“I’m so sorry... It was all my fault... I’m so sorry.” He apologized over and over again with Satsuki in his arms. His apologies blurred into a tearless wail.
When an assassin attempted to take Shindo away, Satsuki killed him. It happened in an uncontrolled outburst of power... All to avoid losing the person she called, “Shindo.”
Shindo dedicated his body and soul to protecting Satsuki so that the existence of her powers wouldn’t cause her suffering or sorrow. That was supposed to be the nature of his duty. He blamed himself for failing in his duties. He believed the blood of the man Satsuki killed was on his hands, not hers.
If Satsuki was in danger of losing Shindo again, would she lose sight of herself once more? Would she fly into an uncontrollable rage? This was a completely different situation from when she was four. She would be turning eighteen. Emotionally, it was an age where she possessed both the maturity of an adult and the immaturity of a child. Not to mention...the emotion to love another.
Tsubaki couldn’t quell the unease surging inside. Could Satsuki endure her fate as an heiress in her current state?