🌻
Gulf couldn't remember leaving the Presidential Office, but when he looked around, he was akready standing in Mew's office.
"No...it can't be...it's a lie..." he muttered softly. How could this have happened? Up until yesterday, he had been in a state of bliss, happily ticking off on his fingers the days until Mew returned on the 15th. How could it all have fallen apart so quickly?
"No...I don't believe it..."
Yet his words of denial had no effect.
"I thought you had disappeared, but here you are!" a voice declared.
Gulf turned around and saw the man he least wanted to see.
"A-AA!" he gulped, and retreated without meaning to. AA's snake-like gaze was full of hatred. After what had happened in the break room, Gulf figured he shouldn't be surprised.
"This is Director Mew's office, not a place you can enter as you please," Gulf said firmly.
"Shut up, you asshole!" AA burst out. "I turned in my letter of resignation today. Whether Mew is going to be the next president or not, I'm not afraid of him!"
AA struck the wall before continuing his accusation. "It's all your fault that this happened, you and that fucking Mew! How can he be the son of the dead president? If he wasn't here, I would have married Erina and become president myself! Mew used you to get to me. He told President Ookawa and Erina that I slept with my employee!"
"AA!" Gulf exclaimed, disgusted, but unsure of what to say.
'No...no...no,' he thought, battered by gales of strong emotion. He couldn't just refuse to listen to what AA was saying. Certainly, Mew was charismatic and hard working, but he was only 32-years old. If he really was the son of the dead president and the grandson of President Ookawa, it made sense why he had come to Dai Tech.
And if it were all true, then Mew was the perfect heir. AA didn't have a chance even if he did marry President Ookawa's granddaughter. Had AA ruined his own chances by fighting with Gulf in the break room where Mew could see? Gulf didn't think Mew had used him as an excuse, but of course, Mew wouldn't want his little sister to marry someone like AA. Once he had learned of Gulf and AA's physical relationship, he had probably kept it to himself, but cautioned Ookawa against AA. As a result, AA had lost his spot, and Mew was ironically in the perfect position to be name the next president.
'I had no idea!'
More than anything, Gulf was bothered by the fact that Mew had kept all this from him.
'I thought he was an only child...I had no idea he has a little sister...'
Gulf felt like he was about to simultaneously laugh and cry. Now that he had given in to suspicion, he felt like he couldn't trust anybody. While they had been so happy together, could Mew have been hiding so much from him?
'No! No! No!' Gulf covered both of his ears as if to block out his fear. He had no idea what was true and what was false.
AA swooped in for the kill. "What are you so sad about? I don't know what Mew promised you, but he's going to marry the daughter of the Touzai Bank president. Don't think that just because he was nice to you he'll need you now. You're just someone for him to fuck, a frigid little slut!"
Gulf's heart squeezed and he sunk to his knees. What knocked him over wasn't AA's words, but a sudden vivid awareness of what Ookawa had told him, but he only now fully processed. Mew had been introduced to the daughter of the president of Touzai Bank. They were going to get married. It was the perfect engagement for Dai Tech's next president.
'He said he was spending New Year at his mother's wedding in Paris!'
Had Mew made the whole thing up? Or did he go to Paris and then meet the daughter before going to New York? Gulf didn't have a clue. He was in torment.
'Mew,' he thought, clutching his head.
AA grinned down at him. "Maybe if you work hard to please the future president, he'll keep you on as his mistress. He's so talented that he could probably manage it. You'll be like a pet that he takes care of, but keeps apart from his precious family..."
AA's coarse laughter rang throughout the room.
'No...I don't want to know!'
Gulf pressed his palms even harder over his ears, almost crushing his head between them.
TBC