“Mr. Hoshitani, Mr. Hoshitani, wake up.”
The gentle call drifted from far away, as if through water.
Kaoru Hoshitani felt a soft hand lightly shaking his shoulder, the strength perfectly measured—enough to wake him, but not enough to startle him.
“Ah… ah! I… where am I…?”
He suddenly opened his eyes, his pupils not yet fully focused, his vision filled with blurred light and shadow.
His body instinctively tensed, his heart pounding wildly in his chest.
For a moment, he could not tell where he was.
His muddled thoughts churned like stirred water—dining room, Aina, that secret, tears, a handkerchief… and then this car.
As his vision gradually cleared, he saw the face of the person in the driver’s seat turned toward him—a face almost too delicate, even excessively youthful in its beauty.
Chinatsu Ayase.
Memory rushed back like a tide. He remembered that he was supposed to ride in her car home, and somewhere along the way…
He instinctively turned his head and looked out the window.
The street outside was painfully familiar, as was the apartment building he entered and exited every day.
‘How did I… fall asleep? Huh… we’re already here?’
He blinked, still groggy. His eyelashes were slightly damp from sleep, clinging together in thin strands.
A faint flush lingered on his cheeks from the warm air of the heater.
He looked completely unguarded, soft and vulnerable.
“Although I do feel honored that you trust me enough to fall asleep in my car, Mr. Hoshitani…”
Chinatsu Ayase did not start the car right away.
One hand rested on the steering wheel as she tilted her head toward the man in the back seat, a teasing smile in her voice.
“But I still think you should be a little more cautious. A beauty like you falling asleep in another woman’s car is actually quite dangerous.”
Her tone was light, playful, as though she were merely making an innocent joke.
Yet in the dim light of the car, her gray eyes seemed to flash with something deep and unreadable, gone in an instant.
At her words, the tips of Kaoru Hoshitani’s ears grew hot.
He lowered his head, looking at his clasped hands.
His voice was small, slightly hoarse and soft from sleep.
“O-okay… Thank you, Miss Ayase… for bringing me home…”
He looked like a small animal just lifted from its nest, not fully awake, a little dazed and shy from being teased.
He instinctively ignored any possible deeper meaning in her words, taking them only as a kind reminder.
“No need to thank me.”
Chinatsu Ayase waved her hand, her smile still gentle and proper.
“Make sure you let Aina know you’re home safe. She must be waiting for your message.”
After a brief pause, her expression turned slightly more serious.
She looked directly at him, her voice softer.
“As for the matter between you and your sister…”
She deliberately paused, as if choosing her words carefully.
Just the right amount of concern and sincerity appeared in her gray eyes.
“I will definitely help you. I’ll think carefully about what to do when I get back, and then we can find a time to discuss it, all right?”
As if suddenly remembering something, she picked up her phone.
“Oh, right. Let’s exchange contact information first. It’ll make things easier.”
Looking into her sincere eyes and hearing her promise to help, the tight string in Kaoru Hoshitani’s heart loosened a little more.
In this world, there was finally a second person who knew his secret—and not only had she not despised or hurt him, she had even offered to help.
The emotion nearly overwhelmed him.
“Thank you so much… Miss Ayase…”
His voice caught slightly, his eyes reddening again as grateful tears gathered.
They scanned each other’s codes and successfully added one another.
On the screen, her profile picture was a simple geometric pattern, and her nickname was just a single letter: C.
Chinatsu Ayase put away her phone and nodded.
“Be careful on your way. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye. Thank you.”
Kaoru Hoshitani thanked her once more before pushing open the door and stepping onto the familiar sidewalk.
The early winter wind brushed against his face, clearing his muddled mind slightly.
He turned back. The black Cadillac was still parked quietly by the road.
Through the windshield, he could vaguely see Chinatsu Ayase still sitting inside, watching him leave.
He gave a slight bow in that direction before turning and walking quickly toward the apartment building entrance.
After being so thoughtfully driven home by Chinatsu Ayase and receiving her promise of help, his trust in her had unknowingly increased.
The somewhat inappropriate physical contact in the private room earlier—the embrace, the hand that wiped his tears—seemed to fade beneath his overwhelming gratitude, no longer worth dwelling on.
But had he truly been delivered home safely?
Perhaps not.
The moment his foot stepped through the slightly worn glass door of the apartment building, before he could even press the elevator button—
A figure shot out from the shadows like a leopard lying in wait.
One strong arm wrapped around his waist, while another hand tightly covered the cry that almost escaped his mouth.
A tremendous force dragged him into the darker, musty stairwell beside them.
Bang.
The fire door closed automatically behind them, cutting off all light and sound from outside.
The familiar, oppressive body heat. Breath as hot as magma.
A faint scent of tobacco mixed with an assertive feminine fragrance.
Kaoru Hoshitani did not even need to look to know whose control he had fallen into.
A rough but powerful hand gripped his chin, forcing him to raise his head.
A scorching kiss descended, overwhelming and possessive, tinged with faint anger, ruthlessly stealing his breath.
Only when he was nearly deprived of air, his cheeks flushed red and his body limp as water, did the hand loosen slightly to let him breathe.
In the dim light, Rika Kawasaki’s gray eyes were close at hand, staring at him with a chilling scrutiny.
She spoke, her voice low and dangerous.
“Didn’t you say you were going to have dinner tonight with your useless girlfriend and her colleague? So… why was she the one who brought you back?”
She deliberately stressed the word “she.”
Yesterday, afraid that Rika Kawasaki might come looking for him and find him absent—possibly angering her—Kaoru Hoshitani had carefully told the yellow-haired woman that he would be dining with his girlfriend and her colleague.
At the time, Rika Kawasaki had also been called to the company for something. She had glanced at him and let him go without saying much.
Today, after leaving the company, the itching urge to see the young man would not subside.
She had sent him a message asking whether he was home.
But with his girlfriend sitting beside him, how could he possibly reply?
After waiting a long time without a response, her patience wore thin.
She drove directly to his apartment building, parking in a concealed spot, planning to wait.
What she had not expected was that before long, a black Cadillac would slowly arrive and stop in front of the building.
Then she saw the back door open, and the young man who haunted her thoughts step out.
Through the windshield, under the dim streetlight, she clearly saw the face in the driver’s seat—
It was her half-sister, Chinatsu Ayase.
In that instant, Rika Kawasaki’s pupils contracted sharply.
A surge of vigilance and territorial fury erupted like wildfire from her heart.
She did not care why Chinatsu Ayase was here.
She cared about why her man was stepping out of that car.
Facing the yellow-haired woman who had appeared like a specter, feeling the low-pressure anger radiating from her, Kaoru Hoshitani’s legs went weak.
After nearly a full day of torment yesterday, his body had no strength left to resist.
Moreover, this was the apartment building where he had lived for several years.
Although the stairwell door was closed, neighbors could pass by at any moment.
If too much noise drew attention from the uncles and aunts who recognized him, everything would be over.
Driven by survival instinct, he trembled and briefly explained the situation—Chinatsu Ayase was his girlfriend Aina Saiten’s colleague.
They had dinner together, and she simply drove him home on the way.
‘That useless girlfriend’s colleague… is Chinatsu? Isn’t she interning at Quansheng now? Could it be…’
Rika Kawasaki’s mind worked rapidly.
Fragments of information—Chinatsu Ayase interning at Quansheng, Aina Saiten newly hired at Quansheng, and tonight’s “coincidence”—collided and pieced together into a clear, complete picture.
Her gray eyes, once cold with anger, suddenly lit up like ignited stars, gleaming with a dangerous light—like a hunter spotting prey.
Lowering her head, she looked at the trembling young man in her arms and slowly curved her lips into a meaningful smile.
She leaned closer and gently kissed his trembling eyelashes.
They fluttered against her lips like butterfly wings.
Her voice was soft, almost tender, yet each word fell like a stone into still water, sending ripples outward.
“So… your useless girlfriend is working at Quansheng now…”
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