“The weather is so hot… why are you wearing such thick clothes at home?”
Chinatsu Ayase murmured softly, her icy fingertips brushing, as if by accident, against Kaoru Hoshitani’s burning neck.
“!!!”
The moment their skin touched, Kaoru Hoshitani’s body stiffened as if electrocuted!
That body, deeply developed by Rika Kawasaki and covered in wounds, retained a terrifying strong startle reaction to anyone’s touch.
He instinctively wanted to pull back, but rationality held his body firmly in place.
I can’t run… Miss Chika is my benefactor, she’s just worried about me…
Chinatsu Ayase, of course, noticed the boy’s instant stiffness and trembling.
Her gaze, following the slightly open collar, slipped in silently like the most venomous serpent’s tongue.
Then, she saw them.
On the boy’s pale, fragile collarbone, hidden deep beneath the fabric, were several dark purple love bites, along with a few bruises left by excessive force.
Those were the savage marks her foolish sister had left on this exquisite prey.
How filthy…
To be ruined in such a degrading way by a coarse woman like her sister…
However…
The moment she saw those marks, deep within Chinatsu Ayase’s normally vacant gray eyes, the excited gleam of a predator burst forth—a rare sight.
It was a twisted pleasure—the kind one feels upon seeing a precious piece of porcelain shattered by someone else, wanting to collect every shard, reassemble it in one’s own way, and possess it completely.
It’s fine.
Soon, this body reeking of her sister’s scent, along with his very soul, will all become my—Chinatsu Ayase’s—private property.
Malice churned like a storm within her heart, yet in an instant, an expression of pain and sympathy bloomed on Chinatsu Ayase’s face.
She didn’t withdraw her hand. Instead, she smoothly straightened Kaoru Hoshitani’s messy collar bit by bit.
Her icy fingertips, seemingly by chance, lightly brushed over one of the deepest purple love bites.
“Mmn…”
Kaoru Hoshitani couldn’t hold back. A faint, muffled groan mixed with shame and pain escaped his throat.
He bit his lower lip hard, his face reddening all the way down to the roots of his neck. He wished he could crawl into a hole.
She saw it…
My filthy body, seen by the pure and kind Miss Chika…
“Mr. Hoshitani…”
Chinatsu Ayase withdrew her hand, her eyelashes trembling slightly, her voice seeming to carry endless sorrow and heartache.
“These past few days… my sister, she must have hurt you badly, right?”
That sentence was like the gentlest of daggers, plunging straight into the softest, most fragile place in Kaoru Hoshitani’s heart.
Tears streamed down Kaoru Hoshitani’s face again. He kept his head bowed, not daring to look into Chinatsu Ayase’s eyes, sobbing helplessly.
“It’s all over now.”
Chinatsu Ayase stood up, took a white envelope from the hidden pocket of that old school bag, and gently placed it on the coffee table.
“What… is this?” Kaoru Hoshitani stared at the envelope through tear-blurred eyes.
“The records I destroyed can only fool my sister for a day or two. Once Quansheng’s monthly financial audit process kicks in, the fabricated bad debts will be gone, but the traces of forcibly deleting the internal network logs will still be discovered.”
Chinatsu Ayase looked down at the boy kneeling on the floor, her tone turning unusually serious and urgent.
“At that point, it won’t just be Senpai who’s exposed. I will be too.”
“Miss Chika…” Kaoru Hoshitani gasped.
“So, take Senpai and leave.”
Chinatsu Ayase pushed the envelope toward Kaoru Hoshitani, her eyes so sincere they seemed to drip with water.
“Inside the envelope are two express Shinkansen tickets leaving tonight at nine, from Tokyo directly to Hokkaido. I’ve rented a hidden apartment for you in a remote town in Hokkaido under fake names. There’s also some cash and new anonymous phone cards.”
Kaoru Hoshitani stared blankly at the two tickets that seemed to shimmer with the light of redemption.
“Go somewhere Quansheng’s hands can never reach. Go somewhere my sister can never find you.”
Chinatsu Ayase bent down slightly, reached out to stroke Kaoru Hoshitani’s soft hair, and a bittersweet smile curved at the corner of her lips.
“Consider this… my final act of redemption, made on behalf of my insane sister, to the both of you.”
“Miss Chika… but what about you? If we leave, what if Rika Kawasaki takes her anger out on you?!” Kaoru Hoshitani’s eyes were red, still worrying about this “kind” benefactor.
“It’s fine. I’m my mother’s biological daughter. No matter how crazy my sister gets, she wouldn’t dare actually kill me.”
Chinatsu Ayase stood up straight, her back to the dim light, making it impossible to see her true expression at that moment.
“Remember, Mr. Hoshitani. Before tonight, you must take Senpai and leave Tokyo! And… whatever you do, don’t tell Senpai that I helped you in secret.”
“Why?”
“Because Senpai is a very responsible person. If she finds out I stole the company seal to save her… she’d definitely refuse to involve me. She might even choose to turn herself in.”
Chinatsu Ayase’s lie was woven flawlessly, even perfectly exploiting Aina’s personality weakness.
“So, I’m begging you, Mr. Hoshitani! Treat all of this as your own decision. Take her and go. Consider it protecting me.”
To protect Aina, and also to protect this Chinatsu Ayase who saved them at any cost.
Kaoru Hoshitani stared intently at the envelope on the coffee table.
The cowardice that had once belonged to his weakness was, at this moment, forced into a desperate, all-or-nothing resolve.
He took a deep breath, and with trembling hands, picked up the white envelope, as if holding both their lives in his grasp.
“I understand… Miss Chika’s kindness, I, Kaoru Hoshitani, will never forget it for the rest of my life!”
The boy knelt on the floor and bowed his head heavily to the girl standing in the backlight.
He did not see.
In that direction where he bowed in gratitude, in that dim living room sealed tightly by heavy blackout curtains, with not a single ray of sunlight slipping through.
The girl he regarded as his “savior,” the girl he revered like a deity, was looking down from above at his humble, trembling head.
Chinatsu Ayase stood there silently.
Her gray eyes, which were usually always devoid of emotion, were at this moment greedily drinking in the boy’s teetering despair and will to submit.
Ah… how wonderful.
A chilling swallow sounded from deep in her throat.
Her hands hanging at her sides clenched unconsciously, her long, fair fingers cramping slightly from sheer excitement.
Looking at the fragile nape of his neck, exposed without defense as he bowed, looking at the ugly yet tantalizing purple-red marks left there by her biological sister’s savage biting, Chika’s shoulders began to tremble uncontrollably.
—It was an extreme ecstasy, born from the most rotten depths of her soul, spreading like poisonous mushrooms.
Sister, can you see this?
You schemed with all your might—with money, with violence, with photographic threats, even leaving him battered and bruised—and all you got was his sickened resistance and desperate resolve to flee.
But me?
I did nothing…
I just shed a few tears and wove a few gentle lies.
The toy you treasure like a jewel is now kneeling at my feet, bowing to me in gratitude like a pitiful wretch.
The corners of Chinatsu Ayase’s mouth began to tremble slightly.
Then, that lip line symbolizing “fragility” completely collapsed, replaced by an almost neurotic, bizarre curve.
She tried desperately to maintain that obedient, pitiful facade, but the sick pleasure of a predator and dominator still oozed out from the cracks of that innocent, sweet mask like black sludge.
That smile grew wider and wider, distorting her originally soft features until they were nearly twisted.
Under the dim light, that beautiful, innocent face ultimately became a cruel smile laced with madness and neurosis.
She lowered her eyelids. Her icy gaze, like a tangible chain, inch by inch, greedily wrapped around the boy’s thin back.
Yes, that’s it.
Carry this ridiculous gratitude and sense of responsibility, grip those two one-way tickets to hell.
Then willingly put on the collar yourself, and hand the other end of the chain to me with your own hands—
And obediently walk into the glass cage I’ve tailor-made for you, the one with no exit, my little doggy…
The cicadas outside the door continued their raucous chirping.
And the fatal noose, wrapped in the most extreme gentleness, had already completely locked around the prey’s throat.