Evening had fallen, and the afterglow of the setting sun, like diluted blood, lazily smeared across the glass facades of the towering urban city buildings, refracting dazzling fragments of golden light.
Aina Saiten sprinted all the way from the tram platform back to Home, nearly collapsing at the doorstep, her hands trembling as she fumbled with the keys to unlock the door.
The light in the entrance hall was dim, filled with a suffocating silence.
She panted heavily, her gaze sweeping like a spotlight across the floor in front of the shoe cabinet.
There were no unfamiliar women’s shoes—only the two pairs of slippers, one red and one blue, belonging to her and Kaoru Hoshitani.
Without bothering to change shoes, she dropped her briefcase on the floor by the entrance and rushed straight toward the bedroom.
“It must be fake. It must be…”
She screamed madly inside her head, throwing open the bedroom door.
Contrary to her fears, the chaotic, betraying scene she dreaded did not materialize.
The bedroom was spotless and bright, with the spots where the afternoon sun had lingered now bathed in gentle twilight.
The curtains were neatly tied back on both sides, the bed made perfectly smooth without a single wrinkle.
The air carried the faint, familiar scent of the laundry detergent Kaoru always used—the same as when she left that morning.
Everything was orderly and spotless.
[This is just a video, not a live broadcast…]
Yet this excessive tidiness did not comfort her. Instead, it felt like an invisible hand suddenly gripped her heart and kept tightening, making her feel suffocated and pierced by pain.
Because this extreme order coldly reminded her—in some moment she had been completely unaware of, while another woman might have been violating and abusing Kaoru—she had foolishly been kept in the dark, immersed in this false calm everyday life!
“Right… Kaoru… where is Kaoru now?”
Slumping down at the bedside, Aina suddenly snapped back to reality.
Only now did she realize that since she had come in, Kaoru—who should have been waiting gently for her at the entrance—had never appeared.
The entire Home was so silent she could only hear her own heavy breathing and the buzzing rush of blood in her head.
A new, deeper fear seized her.
“Kaoru? Kaoru?”
Stepping out of the bedroom, Aina’s voice trembled barely noticeably from fear as she called her boyfriend’s name louder.
The only response was complete emptiness.
She staggered out into the living room, which was also deserted.
Her eyes swept across the dining room and stopped at the dining table. Several dishes were carefully covered by transparent fly screens.
“They’re still warm…”
She reached out and touched the side of a bowl with the back of her hand, feeling the residual heat.
She knew Kaoru hadn’t been gone long.
But if Kaoru wasn’t Home now, where else could he be?
Aina’s eyes widened, bloodshot from tension and shock.
Her gaze relentlessly scanned every corner of the living room, refusing to miss any clue.
Finally, her eyes fixed on the refrigerator door, where a cute cat-shaped magnet held a sticky note.
She practically lunged forward, yanking the paper off. Written in Kaoru’s familiar, neat handwriting were the words:
Aina, the izakaya owner just called, said they hope I can come to the store to help right now.
I called you but you didn’t answer. Seeing this note means you don’t have to worry.
I already made the food. It’s on the table—remember to eat. Love you.
Kaoru
Aina clenched the thin note tightly. The knot in her throat loosened just a little—just a little.
After all, what woman could truly remain calm after watching a video of her boyfriend being… being treated like that?
That scene gnawed at her reason like a maggot buried in bone.
She took several deep, slow breaths, trying to suppress the scorching anger and panic in her chest.
Then, lighting up her phone screen again, biting her lip, she used trembling fingers to open the video in the APP, desperate to find any evidence proving this was just a false alarm.
The video played again, those heartbreaking images striking her visual nerves once more.
But as she watched, Aina’s brow furrowed tightly. Her expression shifted gradually from pure pain and rage to a strange mix of disbelief and profound confusion.
Because clearly, halfway through the video, her Kaoru—the shy Kaoru she knew during their intimate moments—actually raised his pale, slender arms to wrap around that blonde woman’s neck, tilting his head up and willingly sharing a passionate, lingering kiss!
[No… there must be some mistake…]
Aina screamed silently in her heart.
But no matter how she tried to convince herself, her reason cruelly told her that the slightly narrowed, silky seductive eyes Kaoru showed in the video were unmistakably filled with indulgence and… love?
That look was too familiar. It was the gaze Kaoru only ever showed to someone he loved and trusted deeply.
Yet that gaze… had always belonged only to her!
A wave of betrayal, jealousy, and indescribable fury rose uncontrollably from the depths of her heart like bubbling black crude oil, threatening to drown her completely.
Fortunately, just as Aina was about to be swallowed by this dark emotion, her eyes suddenly fixed on a certain spot in the video—the inside of Kaoru’s smooth thigh, pressed so hard it almost formed a split, near the groin area, where there seemed to be a tattoo?
It looked like a string of Japanese characters, but due to the filming angle and lighting, it was blurry and impossible to make out the exact meaning.
But Aina, who knew every inch of her boyfriend’s skin intimately, was certain Kaoru could not have a tattoo. They had been intimate only two days ago, and she hadn’t noticed any new tattoos then.
With this breakthrough, Aina’s thoughts sparked, and she considered another possibility.
[Artificial intelligence has become so advanced nowadays, maybe it’s an AI-generated video…]
Though this theory didn’t explain why the bedroom setting in the video was exactly the same as their real bedroom, nor why the video lacked the usual flaws or eerie dissonance of typical AI-generated clips,
It could explain why the Kaoru in the video had a tattoo on his inner thigh while the real Kaoru did not.
Of course, most importantly, deep in her heart, Aina desperately wanted to believe this possibility.
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