“Click.”
Accompanied by the crisp metallic sound of the anti-theft door locking, Aina left for work.
Almost at the same second that her faint footsteps completely disappeared at the end of the corridor, the apartment, which had still retained a trace of everyday life, was instantly swallowed by a suffocating silence.
Kaoru Hoshitani stood alone in the empty foyer.
He didn’t turn on the lights.
The heavy blackout curtains firmly blocked the dazzling midsummer sunlight outside the window, plunging the entire living room into a dimness that blurred day and night.
The wall-mounted air conditioner on the wall hummed tirelessly, blasting icy eighteen-degree cold air from the vents, striking his tightly wrapped, out-of-season long-sleeved white shirt.
So quiet…
In the darkness, he hugged his thin shoulders and slid weakly down the cold wall until he sat on the floor.
Ever since enduring that hellish ordeal in Osaka, this state of “being alone in an enclosed space” had become a punishment for him comparable to torture by slow slicing.
Rika’s aggressive presence, the Quansheng Group building in the photograph, and the “acceptance” that could descend at any moment…
These things were like an invisible, massive net, strangling his neck.
He felt like a bird stripped of all its feathers, locked inside a transparent glass box.
No matter how he hid, those arrogant eyes of the conglomerate heiress seemed to watch him from the shadows, unrestrained and unblinking.
I can’t drag Aina Onee-san down… Absolutely not…
He buried his face deep into the crook of his arm, his entire body trembling uncontrollably.
“Ding-dong——”
Suddenly!
An abrupt doorbell ring exploded without warning in the dead silent apartment!
“!”
Kaoru Hoshitani shot up from the floor as if struck by a high-voltage electric current!
His heart contracted wildly in that instant, his blood nearly flowing in reverse.
His already pale face lost the last trace of color.
He stared in terror, his beautiful but bloodshot eyes fixed dead on the tightly shut anti-theft door.
Who is it?!
At this hour… Aina Onee-san left less than an hour ago. There’s no way she forgot something.
Delivery? Salesperson? Or…
“Ding-dong——Ding-dong——”
The doorbell rang again. This time, it was even accompanied by a few weak, urgent knocks on the door.
Kaoru Hoshitani clamped his hand tightly over his mouth, not even daring to breathe.
Like a startled fawn, he tiptoed step by step to the foyer door, trembling as he pressed his eye against the door viewer.
The corridor outside was somewhat dim.
Because of the difference in height, he couldn’t clearly see the visitor’s face at first, only a figure with its head hung low.
Then, a girl’s voice drifted in through the heavy metal door, faint, trembling, and thick with obvious tears, coming through in broken fragments:
“Mr. Hoshitani… You’re in there, right…”
“It’s me… Chinatsu Ayase… Please, please open the door…”
Chinatsu Ayase?!
The moment he heard that name, Kaoru Hoshitani’s mind went blank.
“Mr. Hoshitani… Please… My sister, she’s gone crazy… cough cough cough…”
The voice outside sounded like someone on the brink of collapse, desperately fighting for survival, punctuated by suppressed coughing.
But what truly shattered Kaoru Hoshitani’s psychological defenses was the phrase “my sister’s gone crazy.”
Rika’s gone crazy?
What does that mean?
Did Rika find out he secretly did it with Aina?
Or has Rika finally decided to go after Aina?!
The moment he thought Aina might be in danger, a protective survival instinct surged through Kaoru Hoshitani’s fear-paralyzed body.
He thrust out a trembling hand and twisted open the deadbolt on the anti-theft door.
With a “click,” the heavy metal door was pulled open a crack.
“M-Miss Chinatsu…?”
Kaoru Hoshitani gripped the door handle warily, peering through the gap.
But when he fully saw the person standing outside, the caution in his eyes instantly transformed into shock and profound disbelief.
Chinatsu Ayase standing outside bore none of the refinement and elegance befitting the Second Young Miss of the Quansheng Group.
She wasn’t wearing one of those impeccably tailored high-custom coats. Instead, she wore an ordinary, slightly wrinkled university uniform shirt.
Her usually silky, glossy long black hair was now in complete disarray, scattered messily over her shoulders. Several strands were plastered to her pale cheeks by sweat.
But what shocked Kaoru Hoshitani the most were her eyes.
Those gray eyes, identical to Rika’s, were now shot through with red veins.
Her eyelids were swollen, with traces of undried tears still clinging to the corners.
She looked like a pitiful young creature that had just barely escaped a violent storm.
“Miss Chinatsu! How did you end up like this? What happened?!”
Kaoru Hoshitani completely dropped his guard and hurriedly opened the door fully.
“Mr. Hoshitani…”
The moment she saw Kaoru Hoshitani, Chinatsu Ayase seemed to finally find her lifeline. Tears burst forth again. She staggered forward a step, and if Kaoru Hoshitani hadn’t instinctively reached out to steady her shoulder, she would have collapsed onto the foyer floor.
“Come in… Come in first, then talk.”
In a panic, Kaoru Hoshitani helped the seemingly frail, helpless girl into the apartment. The door slammed shut with a “bang,” and he even neurotically latched the security chain.
…
In the dim living room.
Kaoru Hoshitani brought a glass of warm barley tea, his hands trembling as he handed it to Chinatsu Ayase, who sat on the living room sofa.
“Drink some water… Miss Chinatsu, what’s wrong? You said outside that Rika, she…”
Kaoru Hoshitani’s voice was hoarse and tight. Even just uttering that woman’s name made his throat feel like it was being scraped raw by sandpaper.
Chinatsu Ayase held the water glass with both hands, her shoulders still trembling.
She lifted her reddened eyes and looked at Kaoru Hoshitani with a gaze full of extreme terror and profound pity.
“Mr. Hoshitani… You two need to run.”
The moment Chinatsu Ayase opened her mouth, she dropped a bombshell powerful enough to blow Kaoru Hoshitani to pieces.
“My sister… She found out you lied to her. She found out you never stayed home waiting for her like you were supposed to. She’s completely lost it.”
“W-What does she want to do…” Kaoru Hoshitani’s face went ashen, his nails digging deep into his palms.
Chinatsu Ayase didn’t answer directly. Instead, with trembling hands, she pulled a black voice recorder from her slightly worn canvas school bag and placed it on the coffee table.
“This morning, I went to the President’s Office to deliver documents to Mother… But just as I reached the door, I heard my sister smashing things inside. She was screaming like a madwoman at the Department Head of Legal…”
Chinatsu Ayase bit her pale lips, large teardrops falling onto the back of her hand.
“My sister said, since you care so much about that Aina Saiten, since you’d rather hide than go to her willingly, then she’s going to completely destroy the thing you care about most.”
Kaoru Hoshitani’s mind buzzed, as if a swarm of bees were violently colliding inside his head.
Destroy… the thing I care about most…
Aina Onee-san!
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