“You told her?” Shou asked leaning forward on the counter and looking more than just surprised.
“You thought that I would never tell her didn’t you?” Jun asked with a skeptical look at his friend
“No… Not that, It’s just that…” Shou leaned back rubbing the back of his head
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Jun reproached his friend who had the decency to look bashful.
“So you told her everything. Even about the old man?” Shou asked as he regained his curiosity pretty quickly.
“Not about him…” Jun responded looking down at his coffee mug,
“You really… You told her about your past and you couldn’t even tell her about your father?!”
“I couldn’t tell her so soon after dropping one bomb at her…” Jun said
“You have to tell her! You know that what you’re hiding from h
Iori made her way through the long hallway her steps swallowed by the flush carpet adorning the floor. This used to be so normal to her, though now she could feel and see the signs of luxury surrounding her.Things that she used to take for granted now seemed like the valuable things that they were. Not only the luxury of her family’s company but also how familiar everything seemed, how good it was to be greeted by her family members and to be working with them again.Iori reached a door at her right and reached into her bag to pull out the keys and froze. What if the keys didn’t fit? It had been such a long time, what if someone else changed the locks.This was ridiculous, she was obsessing over something so trivial, yet she couldn’t shake the apprehension as she pushed the key into the hole.It slipped in smoothly and turned when Iori twisted it sending a wave of relief through her when it did. Iori found herself smiling to herself as
Jun sighed and leaned back on his desk in his and Iori’s shared office,“The book is going smoothly…” He informed the other line uncomfortably,“Then you should be thinking about what you’re going to do next,” His father said in his patronizing voice that never failed to irritate him.“I’m going to write a new book…” Jun responded,“It’s about time you came back to the family business,”“I am already helping, and we talked about this before,”“That’s not going to be enough if you’re going to take over someday you’re going to need some real training,”Jun heard the door beeping and opening, and he knew that this conversation was over,“I have to go, Iori is back,” he said“Well at least someone is helping their family run the family business,” His father added and Jun hung
“We’re done, you lied to me,” Iori said looking at Jun with tears running down her cheeks,“I was going to tell you! I swear we didn’t have it from you on purpose!” Jun exclaimed, but Iori shook her head and turned around leaving,Jun reached out but he couldn’t catch her. He tried to move but his feet were frozen as he watched her walk away.“Iori! Iori! Please don’t leave! Iori!” Jun struggled against his feet but they wouldn’t move no matter how much he tried to shake them.His labored breath could be heard in the cold hallway where he stood and watched Iori’s back as it grew farther and farther away.“Iori!” He called out one more desperate time only to find himself sitting up in his bed startled. His best was heaving and he was drenched in sweat as if he ran miles and miles.Running a hand over his face he took a deep breath subsiding his panting a
“Thank you so much for coming,” Iori said to one more of her enthusiastic fans as they left her booth,Iori sighed and leaned back against the chair when she realized that this was the last fan on this new wave of new people.It was always taxing on Iori’s nerves to deal with her fan since the incident five years ago. The group of people who had attacked her had been a group of fanatics who were starting to hold a twisted version of their opinion on her.They hunted her identity down until they found her real name and started stalking her. Iori used to date here and there and just happened to be between relationships when they attacked her.But the fact that seeing her with her last boyfriend unleashed all this made a shiver run down her spine.It took her three years to agree to do any book signing or any personal meetings with her fans. She rarely ever responded to their letters either.Now, she reached what she could cal
“Iori-san, when I heard about your book signing, I couldn’t help myself,” Tohru said with a fake smile and Iori inwardly rolled her eyes.“Thank you for taking the time to come here, and buying a new book from my latest collection.” Iori said and smiled and his face grew neutral.“I didn’t come here for the autographs, I came here to warn you,” Tohru said leaning against the counter and Iori took the book from him opening it without breaking eye contact with him.“Oh, What about?” Iori asked looking up at him expectantly.“Don’t play dumb. By now, you should know what kind of person Jun is. He’s mentally unstable and quite used to manipulating people into believing that he’s an upstanding citizen.”“What are you trying to say Tohru-San?” Iori asked not even trying to make an effort to understand the truth,“You think you’re the o
Jun sighed as he waved to the last fan. Leaning back on his seat he turned toward Iori to find her booth empty. Kimiko was nowhere to be seen either. He rubbed the back of his head in frustration remembering the expression on Iori’s face earlier.He screwed up and he knew it. He needed to tell her everything tonight before Tohru did it. He needed to tell her the truth…Picking up his phone, he dialed Shou,“You free tonight?” He said when Shou picked up.“Depends on what you have on,” Shou responded.“I’m meeting Tohru and I’m going to need backup,”“You have it,” Shou answered instantly making Jun smile, This was his friend…“Can you be here around eight? I will send you the address,” Jun said sending his friend the address.“Woah, the drinks are on you man! What are you doing inviting me where they serve drinks on gold goblets?!&
Iori smiled at Kuronuma as he talked to her heatedly her mind struggling to keep track of their conversation. She was still thinking about what happened earlier and all the damage control she had been doing.She left before Jun finished with his booth on purpose because she’d needed to gather her thoughts before she had to talk to him. But she wasn’t doing any thought gathering since she’d been roped into this conversation with Kuronuma who was usually quieter than this…“Your last book had been having this much attention from the entertainment industry because your characters are what they usually look for. It makes me wonder if you write while keeping that in mind…”“No, I’ve never had that thought before. I was just writing the way I usually did,” Iori responded absently when she spotted Jun by the buffet table talking to Takada-sensei. He looked tense.“I was wondering…”
“Want to go somewhere quieter?” Jun asked and Iori nodded.Taking her hand in his, they intertwined their fingers and walked toward the entrance to the terrace where there were few people.“Are you okay?” Jun asked as they both leaned on the railing overlooking the small back garden.“Yeah…” Iori answered,“I should have broken his wrist,” Jun murmured under his breath and Iori sighed,“He didn’t know…” Iori said weakly,“It doesn’t matter. He shouldn’t touch people like that randomly, someday someone is going to teach him a lesson.”“He’s usually more reserved than this. I don’t know why he was acting like that today…”“I do….” Jun said, “He has a thing for you,”“No, That’s impossible…” Iori responded with a chuckle, Jun’s je