“THE wind and air here is always on your side, isn’t it...?” Takemi mused as he slowly moved his head to look to his left and right. He rolled his shoulders as if finding the hostile air uncomfortable.
“The wind has been my constant playmate since I was little. What would you expect? If it’s hostile enough to make you uncomfortable, doesn’t that mean you harbor awfully wicked thoughts about me?”
Satsuki meant that as more of a joke than anything, but Takemi casually replied, “Pretty much. If that attendant wasn’t staring daggers at me on the other side of the glass door, I’d take you to the bushes and have my way with you.”
“...Oh, not more of that nonsense...”
“It isn’t nonsense,” Takemi corrected her. Although they had been standing shoulder to shoulder, Takemi turned around to sit on the rail. Resting both elbows on it, he leaned to one side as he peered into Satsuki’s eyes. “I said I’d tell you about how we met between the sheets, remember?”
While it was true he said as much, Satsuki wrote it off as nothing more than a tasteless joke. She recalled how he brushed his lips against hers in a kiss two days ago, making her cheeks turn red. In an attempt to keep from blushing, she bit her bottom lip hard. She had forgotten how Takemi’s lips felt with all of Shindo’s kisses and didn’t want that memory to resurface.
“What’s this...? You...” Takemi’s sleek grin was suddenly replaced with surprise. Grabbing Satsuki’s chin, he gazed deeply into her eyes. “You...and that attendant...” As realization struck, Satsuki grabbed his hand and broke her head free of his grasp.
Takemi had read Satsuki’s mind expecting to find the afterimage of the kiss he gave Satsuki the day before yesterday. But the thoughts he encountered were not filled with the memory of his lips pressed against hers. And to top it off...
“Wow... He actually banged you pretty good...”
“Don’t use such crass language,” Satsuki reprimanded as she glared angrily at Takemi, but he merely snorted.
“So what? Would you prefer if I said that attendant took your maidenhood? Don’t be stupid! No matter how nice and pretty you make it sound, he still popped your cherry. It doesn’t change the fact you lost your virginity.”
“What would you know...?”
Satsuki and Shindo’s emotions finally interlinked. Even though they knew they shouldn’t, they finally connected in mind and body...after tormenting themselves in an attempt to resist the irrepressible pull. Hearing Takemi befoul their beautiful love with such crass language was nothing short of disgusting.
“If you don’t want a woman who has known the touch of another man, step down as a suitor right this instant,” Satsuki hissed as she shied away from Takemi.
Rather than show disgust at this revelation, Takemi stepped forward as if truly happy. He began to twirl the knot holding the lace shawl on her shoulders between his fingers as he replied, “I don’t have a problem with that! Why, this is all the better! Truth be told, virgins can be a pain in the ass. I actually wouldn’t mind if you racked up some more experience. All the more enjoyable for me on our honeymoon.”
Although the knot was tight enough it should have been impossible for him to untie with only one finger, the shawl slid unbound from her body before Satsuki had a chance to catch it.
The plummeting dress revealed more of Satsuki’s neckline than was usually permitted. Takemi ran his right hand along the white flesh peeking out of the red dress from her shoulders to her ear.
“...What are you—?!” Satsuki hissed as she tried to pull away, but Takemi snatched a tuft of hair by her left ear.
Before he could do anything with the handful of hair, Satsuki’s knight in shining armor intervened. “As I said yesterday, please refrain from stepping out of line, Mr. Kaido.” Shindo firmly held Takemi’s wrist, meeting the irritated gaze the boy shot up at him levelly.
He had been waiting on the other side of the French doors, but came when he perceived Satsuki was in distress. He squeezed the hand drawn from Satsuki’s hair with such force, Takemi couldn’t help but wince.
“How do you get off telling me not to ‘step out of line,’ attendant?” Takemi sneered with a baleful glare and jerked his hand free of the retainer’s grasp. “You certainly ‘stepped out of line’ with Satsuki. What’s the world coming to when the attendant meant to protect his charge plucks her rose instead?!”
“Mr. Kaido!” Satsuki interjected, trying to put a stop to Takemi’s tirade.
They were the only ones out on the terrace at the moment, but all it took was someone to notice they were out there and ask, “What are they up to?” They would become the center of scandalous attention in a matter of seconds.
“Should I go announce it to everyone? Let ‘em know how this here attendant ate Miss Satsuki from head to toe?” Takemi leaned forward, craning his head to look menacingly at Shindo as he threatened the retainer. If he spread a rumor like that, it would become the main event of the evening.
It wasn’t as though Takemi was truly angry Shindo bedded Satsuki. The only reason he was threatening to tell everyone was because he wanted to see the man beg, “Please don’t!” The retainer was always at Satsuki’s side and that didn’t sit well with the young suitor.
He didn’t have anything against Shindo personally, but he wanted to secure a sense of superiority by seeing the retainer grovel before him. That was the extent of what motivated his actions.
“Please don’t, Mr. Kaido,” Shindo said as he slightly lowered his head. For a second, Takemi thought things were proceeding exactly as he planned, but what Shindo proceeded to say betrayed his expectations.
“It would tarnish your reputation if you spread such unsavory rumors. If anything were to happen at the moment to make you come across unrefined in the eyes of the masses, it would prove detrimental in the event the Miss officially chose you to be her fiancé.”
Shindo slowly raised his hand and looked Takemi square in the eye as he asked, “Are you certain that’s what you want?”
It was certainly less than desirable for Satsuki’s relationship with Shindo to get brought out into the open. However, it was exceedingly disadvantageous for Takemi to develop a reputation of dubious character by spreading rumors without solid evidence to back it up.
Satsuki’s suitors were required to be refined gentlemen of intellect at all times. The man who would someday lead the Tsujikawa family and business alongside her must never carry any traits that could earn the derision of others.
“Fine,” Takemi grumbled. Shoving his hands into his suit jacket, he gave an exasperated sigh. “I’m not about to screw myself over.” Knocking Shindo’s chest with the back of his fist, he added with a grin, “That was a pretty smooth move. You’re a quick thinker.”
“Thank you,” Shindo replied, openly accepting the compliment.
Takemi went one step further, delivering the coup de grace, “I’m sure you’ll make a great secretary for Satsuki someday. ‘Course, I’ll expect you to work just as hard for me, Shindo my boy!”
Satsuki stepped forward to chastise him, but the hand Shindo placed on her shoulder stilled her tongue. Throwing the two a nasty look, Takemi lightly waved as he turned to leave.
“Later, Satsuki. I’ll be back to see you again. I can’t have the others show me up. I’ll tell you everything you want to know some other time...if I’m in the mood,” he alluded with his back turned toward her. Not bothering to look back, he returned to the banquet hall.