“Welcome home,” Jun said as he typed the code into their apartment and opened the door.
Iori smiled at him, when did this place start to feel like home? Since when did she start to feel more at ease with Jun than with anyone else.
Jun picked her up and she circled her arms around his neck reflexively, It had become a habit for them. After Jun had insisted for the first times and she relented, she had grown used to him carrying her around.
Now that she was discharged of the hospital she was okay enough to walk on her own, but, she didn’t find it in her to tell him that. Not that she disliked being held in his arms,
Jun carried her to the couch setting her down there and went in search of a blanket for her. He was going to make her into a spoiled plump at this rate.
She had refused going back with either one of her brothers or her father to the main house for this very reason. They were all overprotective and she knew that they were
“Are you sure you don’t want me to drive you there?” Jun asked and she gave him one last glare before picking up her hand bad.Seriously, he was heading toward the danger zone.Before she could swing it over her shoulder Jun grabbed it and opened the door for her.“You’re not supposed to carry anything for a while. You heard the doctor,” He said“Jun. it’s a handbag, not weight lifting tools…”“Still, I will take you downstairs.” He said and Iori followed him with a sigh.He was probably thinking about carrying her all the way downstairs but knew that if he suggested it she would lash out at him. The man was being way too overprotective and it was driving her crazy…“You could have accepted when your father offered to come to the apartment to have a talk. I would have left for a while to let you have your privacy,” Jun said as the elevator door
“She’s the real deal…” Shou said with a wry smile as he spun his mug from the other side of the bar,“She had always been different…” Jun said, “Special even…” Jun said thoughtfully…The café was empty because this was the day that Shun closed it. He had been hounding him to come for a talk since he had heard about Iori’s accident.Since Iori went to talk with her father, Jun decided to take that rare free time and meet with his friend.Jun had been too anxious to leave Iori alone. He knew that he was probably being too paranoid but the thought of her being out of his sight for too long while she was still not recovered didn’t sit well with him at all.Even now, he couldn’t help but fidget. If he didn’t know how Important Iori’s talk with her father was, he would be texting her by now…“Man, she took a bullet for you&hellip
Jun drove through the huge wooden gate into the Satou clan’s main house feeling as if he stepped into a time capsule. His car drove in surrounded by a ridiculously huge traditional garden that looked like one of the picturesque paintings he’d seen in history classes.A huge house was nestled in the middle of it standing tall and majestuous. Jun wondered just how many people did they need to keep this place maintained.Reaching the entrance, he was greeted by an older man in a dark grey working kimono. He opened his car door for him and got into his place as soon as Jun left the seat taking the car away to park it.Amused at the silent exchange, Jun turned toward the house’s entrance to find two women waiting for him there. The older one who seemed to be as old as the house itself bowed to him with a smile on her face before saying.“Welcome, Jun-sama. The master and the young lady are waiting for you inside. I am Nanami I’ve
Iori stood in the middle of the garden as the cool breeze blew around her waffling her hair around. She still felt the trace of the fleeting warmth left after Jun’s lips touched the corner of her mouth in the most tender of touches.She blinked once, then twice her daze fading leaving room for doubts in her mind. Did Jun just confess to her? Did he just ask her to be his lover? Real lovers…If it wasn’t for the feel of his lips on her face and the heat of his arms surrounding her she would have believed it to be a figment of her imagination. A reminder of one of those fleeting thoughts that she keeps having these days.But no, it was real. Jun was just here, and he wanted her…A rush of excitement filled Iori’s whole being. Feelings she hadn’t realized were there dashed out proudly yelling and dancing at the surface. Or should she say that they were always there and she just kept hiding them away and ignoring them unt
When Jun was invited to have dinner with the Satou family, he had expected it to be something like when he had to do some research on tea ceremonies. Or a banquet with individual trays of high-class food served by servants in expensive kimonos.Now as he sat in front of the table, he wanted to laugh at his own expectations. Not that there wasn’t clearly expensive food or well-dressed servant. There was plenty of that, but, it was as far from his imagination as possible.The dinner table was a huge European-style rectangle filled with family members of all kinds and ages. They were sitting there and talking amongst each other creating a rhythmic humm around the table. Jun had been introduced to most of the people around the table and he knew that they were all Iori’s aunt, uncles, or cousins.Some of them greeted Iori with tearful hugs while others were more teasing and joyful. But either way, their love, and respect for her were clear in everyone&rsq
“Everyone, thank you for coming,” Iori’s father said as he stood at the head of the table facing the family members in attendance.“It had been such a long time since we had such a gathering at the main house and I am glad to see us all together again in good health. And I am more overjoyed that the occasion that put us all together here is the return of my one and only daughter among us after years or estrangement.”He said throwing an affectionate gaze on Iori’s way and she returned her father’s look with a warm smile.“The reason why I wanted you all here today is to discuss what happened over the last few days.I’m sure that most of you must be confused after hearing bits and pieces of information and not the whole story. Especially since the arrest of Kazuma. So I took it upon myself to inform the members of the main house myself to avoid any other misunderstanding…”After that
The sound of bare footsteps as they ran through the damp slippery floor reached her ears through her heavy breathing and the pounding of her heart. She could hear those sounds echoing through the empty space like an illusion slipping through the darkness taunting her. Mocking her…She kept running none the less her breaths coming out as half-muffled sobs as desperation began to grow within her as her muscles grew more and more tired. Still, she ran as far and as hard as she could not looking back until she stepped into a small puddle and slipped into the ground her body slamming against the hard concrete floor.Before she could regain the breath that whooshed out of her she was slipped by hard hands and soon they were all over her, touching, caressing, and grating against her skin. Like cactuses rubbing against her skin, she felt the pain spread through her being at every intrusion and transgression.She wasn’t crying anymore, she wasn’t sobbi
Jun stared at his phone for a moment, sometimes it was so tempting to throw the offending device and detach himself from the world. The Idea was quite tempting considering where they were heading right now…“Ready?” Iori asked behind him and he turned toward her putting his phone in his back pocket and smiling at her.She was dressed in black pants and shirt. He long hair pulled back in a chignon making her pale nape stand out, and tinted sunglasses were put on top of her head in preparation for the morning sun.“Yeah,” He responded, “Shall we?”She nodded and Jun took her hand in his entwining it. He forgot about the text in his phone as soon as he set foot outside. There were many more things that interested him than that. Mainly, Iori’s goodbye to Shun.“We’re taking my car…” She announced as soon as they got to the underground parking lot and Jun nodded silently following