“I’ll come back once every week…”
A cigarette rested between Rika Kawasaki’s fingers, just lit. The red glow at its tip flickered in the dim room.
She took a deep drag, letting the harsh smoke fill her lungs completely.
After holding it for a few seconds, she slowly exhaled, almost like making a declaration, blowing all the smoke she had drawn in directly onto the face of the small man in her arms, who looked as if he had just been pulled out of water.
White smoke spread between them, blurring their vision.
“…So you don’t end up frustrated and run off to find some other woman.”
She continued speaking. Her voice carried its usual teasing possessiveness, but it lacked some of its usual confidence.
In its place was a trace of complicated emotion she herself had not yet realized.
In the end, she decided to obey her mother’s order and go to Osaka.
As for the reason—it might sound a little ridiculous when spoken aloud, but it was truly because of the small man in her arms.
She genuinely… wanted to give him a home.
The thought had sprouted in her heart for no clear reason, yet it had taken root firmly.
She wanted a place that truly belonged to her. A nest meant only for the two of them, where no one else could disturb them.
She wanted to wake up every morning and see this face first thing.
She wanted to fall asleep every night while holding this soft body.
And after everything that had happened today—those humiliating events in a row—her frozen bank card, her supercar taken away, being unable to even pay for a hotel room at the front desk, and finally needing this small man to help her out—
Rika Kawasaki had finally realized something.
She needed to be able to earn money.
Money from her mother could always be taken back. Only money she earned herself would truly belong to her.
In short, to some extent, Rika Kawasaki had awakened.
Faced with blunt reality, all those things she used to justify her behavior—talk about childhood trauma, about how an unhappy upbringing had affected her—were pushed to the lowest possible priority.
Because now she had met a man she was willing to change for.
“Cough… cough… that’s disgusting…”
Kaoru Hoshitani coughed violently as the secondhand smoke hit him in the face.
Frowning, he weakly waved his small hand in front of his nose, the hand limp from exhaustion, trying to disperse the choking smoke.
The motion was soft and powerless. Rather than shooing it away, it looked more like a slightly spoiled protest.
After enduring another full day of relentless torment, the fear and wariness he felt toward the tall, burning-hot body of this blond woman had grown even stronger.
Before sleeping with her today, he had believed he had finally woken up.
The “truth” Chinatsu Ayase told him, the descriptions of Rika’s chaotic lifestyle, had pushed his disgust for this woman to its peak.
So during the act, he deliberately tried with all his strength to stay rational, to guard his final line of defense.
But in less than twenty minutes—
He ended up sticking out his tongue while obediently saying every word the woman ordered him to say.
Those humiliating phrases. Those sounds he never imagined would come out of his mouth flowed out smoothly and naturally, as if they were the deepest desires in his heart.
Kaoru Hoshitani could not tell whether this was truly his own fault.
After all, he had only been with two women.
Aina Saiten—and the Rika Kawasaki before him.
When he was with Aina, he had never lost control like this.
Those gentle and restrained nights, those moments of intimacy full of love yet always maintaining a certain boundary, had never made him feel as though his soul were being pulled away or that he had lost control of himself.
If things had continued the way they were before—if Rika Kawasaki dragged him to a hotel every day—
Then even if he clearly knew a bottomless abyss lay before him, he might still have thrown himself into it willingly.
‘But… it’s about to end…’
He told himself that in his mind.
This was the last time.
—
After finishing their shower, the two of them got dressed.
Since Rika Kawasaki had not driven, Kaoru Hoshitani planned to take a taxi home.
They walked out of the hotel together and stood by the roadside waiting for a car.
The early winter night wind carried a biting chill, making people instinctively shrink their necks.
Neon lights flickered along the street, traffic flowed endlessly, and pedestrians moved back and forth.
Rika Kawasaki turned to look at him.
Her gray eyes appeared especially deep in the night, filled with a seriousness and reluctance she had never shown before.
She reached out and grabbed his wrist, pulling him closer.
“Come here.”
She spoke briefly.
Before he could react, she lowered her head and kissed him fiercely.
The kiss was stronger than usual, deeper than usual, as if she wanted to spend the affection for the coming week in advance, leaving enough of a mark on him to last seven days.
She kissed him for a long time—so long that both of them began to run out of breath—before finally letting go slowly.
Kaoru Hoshitani did not resist. As always, he obediently accepted the kiss, his eyelashes trembling softly.
“See you in one week.”
Pressing her forehead against his, Rika Kawasaki spoke in a low, hoarse voice.
“Don’t fool around outside.”
Kaoru Hoshitani did not answer.
He simply lowered his eyes and nodded lightly.
A taxi stopped by the roadside. He opened the door and got inside.
The door closed, and the car slowly drove away.
Rika Kawasaki remained standing there, watching the taxi disappear into the night for a long time without moving.
—
Inside the taxi.
Kaoru Hoshitani sat in the back seat, watching the streets outside retreat rapidly through the window.
Neon lights flowed across his face, flickering in and out.
After the car turned two corners and he was sure they were far enough away from the hotel—
He pulled several tissues from his pocket, which he had prepared earlier.
Unfolding them, he leaned toward the tissues and spat out all the saliva that had been in his mouth the whole time—saliva that belonged to Rika Kawasaki.
His movements were quiet and careful, afraid of making any noise that might attract the driver’s attention.
But he spat forcefully and thoroughly, as if trying to purge every trace of that disgusting thing from his body.
Afterward, he wiped the corner of his mouth with the tissue and clenched the crumpled paper tightly in his palm, his knuckles turning pale from the force.
‘I’m going home… I miss Aina…’
He thought silently to himself.
Only when he thought of that name—of that familiar face, of the small, warm home filled with the presence of the two of them—did his anxious, exhausted heart begin to calm down a little.
“I’m home!”
Aina Saiten pushed open the door of the house. Before she even had time to change her shoes, a soft body suddenly crashed into her arms.
The impact was not strong, but it carried an almost urgent desire to be held.
Surprised, she instinctively raised her arms and hugged her boyfriend, feeling his slightly cool body temperature and hurried breathing.
—
“What’s wrong, Kaoru? Mm!?”
She lowered her head and looked at the fluffy-haired head in her arms, asking curiously.
Kaoru Hoshitani did not answer immediately.
He simply hugged her tightly, burying his face in the hollow of her neck while breathing deeply and greedily of the scent that belonged only to her.
That scent was clean and warm. It carried the smell of the laundry detergent they always used at home, along with a faint trace that was uniquely Aina’s.
This was the smell he knew.
This was the smell he wanted.
After returning home, he had already washed himself thoroughly.
Hot water had run over him countless times. He had used body wash three times, until not even the faintest trace of that blond woman’s scent remained.
Then he removed the mature makeup from his face, revealing again the pure, unadorned face that Aina Saiten knew so well.
As if nothing had happened.
He was still Aina Saiten’s Kaoru.
Only her Kaoru.
He slowly raised his head and revealed a bright smile without a trace of shadow.
Under the warm yellow light of the foyer, that smile was like the warmest sunlight of spring—clean and pure, the kind that made people want to smile along with it.
“Mmm…”
He shook his head, his voice soft with a slightly spoiled tone.
“It’s nothing. I just missed you.”
After a brief pause, he stood on his toes and placed a light kiss on his girlfriend’s lips.
“Welcome home, Aina.”