FACADE ( the GazettE Tale )

Chapter Sixteen : Prayer on my Lips

I'd been fighting this thirst for a while now no matter how painful it was. I continued to fight.

If this was what I should do to be able to stay by her side, then I would do it. If this was what she wants me to do, then without hesitation, I would.

I didn't care about the grief anymore. All I was anticipating...was her.

I opened my mouth to tell these things to her, but I heard the knob being turned. I flashed away from her back to the piano, just in time when the door opened and a woman entered with a bright welcoming smile.

The woman's hair was straight black and cut until her shoulders. She looked like she was in her late forties or early fifties. She was wearing a red blazer over a white dress, very business-like.

"I see, your visitor is here." The woman switched her attention from me to Hamasaki.

"Yes." Hamasaki Aya smiled and waved her hand to my direction. "Mom, this is Matsumoto Ruki."

So this was her mother.

I strode towards her and offered my hand. "Good Evening, Ma'am."

She shook my hand once in a firm grip. "Hamasaki Tomiko, President and CEO of Yourin Corporation. Your brother is one of my business associates."

I wanted to tell her that I don't care but I shut my mouth and just nodded.

Her smile didn't falter. "Isn't it a coincidence for you to be paired in a project with my daughter?"

Glancing at Hamasaki Aya, I saw her cheeks reddened.

She didn't tell her mother that she picked me as her partner?

I tucked my hands insides my pockets and answered a better term.

"It's Fate."

"Fate?" Her mother asked intriguingly while Hamasaki Aya's eyes widened.

I turned my attention back to her mother. "Fate's favorite tool is coincidence, right?"

Tomiko laughed and bobbed her head. "I can't argue with that... "

"Is your brother busy with other projects at the moment? Because up until now I'm still waiting for his answer to my proposal." Her tone became businesslike.

I answered the truth. "I don't know, ma'am. We actually don't discuss anything related to his business."

"Oh." The woman looked disappointed. "Don't you want to work at his company in the near future?"

"Maybe."

"Are you planning on continuing to college?"

It seemed like I was being interrogated and drilled. But the questions were very irrelevant for me. "Yes. I'd like to take Law or Medicine."

Those were the answers that every business minded people would like to hear from someone blood related to a tycoon.

Hamasaki Tomiko smiled, truly pleased by my answer. "That's very good! I'd like Aya to take Medicine too."

But Hamasaki Aya pursed her lips. It looked like she didn't like the idea.

"You don't like Medicine?"

She trained her eyes to the ground before answering me. "No... I uh... I like it."

She was lying. I could tell by the tone of her voice and the expression on her face. But what was stopping her to say the truth?