MATERIAL GIRL
⠀⠀by -NO0RI
⠀⠀w.d: 10/24/21
⠀⠀⠀⠀"… I don't wanna seem the way I do
⠀⠀⠀⠀But I'm confident when I'm with you."
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At the airport.
Hayami's Pov.
I have my luggage with me as I walked to the terminal for a direct flight to India. I chose to travel in private, meaning that I solo this flight and nap peacefully on the way to the destination since I didn't have enough sleep yesterday and yeah, that's on me. "Coffee or tea, what would you like?" The stewardess asked me. "Tequ– I mean, tea." I wasn't about to say tequila, I don't drink alcoholic beverages.
I really don't have anything else to do in this plane so I relaxed in my seat and closed my eyes, wearing the eye mask on and slept. Little did I know instead of sleeping peacefully, I dreamt of something long ago...
Flashback to when she was only 9 years old...
3rd Pov.
"Mom, do I have a grandma or grandpa?" The little child asked her mother. The mother stops doing her task and puts down what she was holding, picking up her daughter and seating her down on the table. "You see, your grandma and grandpa are...not happy with my decision. In exchange for freedom, I was cut off from the family." The mother gently caressed her daughter's face, "But I have no regrets because I gave birth to a wonderful daughter. You, Hayami. I'm so blessed to have you as my daughter."
The daughter smiles widely and hugs her mother. "Me too, mom! I'm so blessed to be born as your daughter! You're the greatest mom ever!" The mother gasps and suddenly tears welled up in her eyes and it rolled down her face. "Thank you...I love you, my daughter." She said as she hugged her daughter in a warm embrace. "I love you too, mom." The daughter replied as she felt at ease in her mother's embrace.
End of flashback...
"Whatever you do, never set foot in the main house. You're labeled as an outsider and a commoner, you do not belong in the family. You don't deserve to use the "Kaneko" name."
"Because of you our very own daughter who was supposed to be the biggest actress in the industry and in our family, rebeled and had you as her daughter, we had to disown her."
"She really wanted to be an actress..."
"But after she found out she was pregnant, everything was ruined for her."
"It's your fault."
"You crushed your mother's dream."
I gasped for air as I woke up from a dream turned to a nightmare. It was those voices in my head again that I started hearing in primary school. 'Why did it come back now? I thought I already let go of it.' I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair, taking deep breaths in and out to forget about the nightmare. I looked at the window and noticed that the plane arrived at the destination so I stood up and grabbed my luggage.
I walked out of the termina and into the airport, doing the same thing and all. I walked out of the airport and took the first cab that I saw and put my luggage in the trunk, closing it myself and got in the backseat. "Pretty strong for a young lady, eh? Where to, miss?" The cab driver asked. "To Oberoi Udaivilas, please. I already booked in advance there." I said. "Ohhh, you must be a VIP then. Do you mind giving a tip for good ol' me?"
I raised a brow and looked at the cab driver by the mirror, I shrugged my shoulders and really didn't mind giving a tip or two to the driver. "Sure. I'm gonna hire you as my chauffeur for my whole stay here in exchange though." The cab driver looked pleased enough and had no objections to my offer and he drove me safely to the hotel without and issues on the way. I'm giving him four and a half stars. The AC sucked, that's why.
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At the hotel.
I came out of the cab and waved goodbye to the driver, we had a nice chat on the way and it turns out he had a family of 6 and is providing for his children. I paid him a lot more than he's supposed to since I wanted to at least help him out with his only job. I advised him to start a business with the money I gave him and wished him a bountiful life. It felt really good after helping people who really need help the most. 'I should use the money that I make this way. After all, I can feel the struggle that people like him is experiencing. I was once like that too, but not anymore. And that's why it's my turn to help them.'
I went inside the hotel and walked to the front desk. Asking for my name, I answered."Hayami Kaneko, I reserved a room in advance." They typed in the computer first before confirming it and handing me the keycard for the room. "Welcome, we hope you enjoy your stay here." I nod in thanks to their warm welcome and headed for my hotel room.
Entering my hotel room, I tossed my luggage to the ground and threw myself on the bed, my body being engulfed by the soft mattress of the bed. "Oh wow..this is so comfy." I exhaled in comfort, stretching my arms. My phone suddenly rang and I reached for my pocket and took out my phone, "Right...he did tell me he's gonna call me once I arrive in the hotel." I mentioned. Pressing the answer button, I put the speaker on loudspeaker and I decided to take a warm shower so I headed inside the bathroom.
"Have you arrived safely to the hotel, Hayami?" Ryusui asked on the call. "Yeah I did. Had no issues whatsoever, pretty good so far." I answered while I stripped off my clothes. "Why does your voice sound echoey? Where are you?" I picked up my phone and sat on the bathtub, "Guess." I whispered. I put my hand on the handle and turned it, water pouring out from the showerhead. It suddenly went silent on the other line and a cough followed right after.
"You–...I'm gonna call you later." He said in a hurry and ended the call. I pouted from the call ending that quick. "Oh well, not that I can do anything about it." I placed my phone to the sink and I went in the shower, taking my time to ease up. While I showered, a thought suddenly came across my mind. 'What's up with me being so confident while talking to Ryusui earlier? Kinda weird...but the way he ended the call so quick was even weirder. I wonder if he's alright, not that I'm fully concerned about him.'
Forgetting about such thoughts, I continued on showering and approximately 10 minutes later, I walked out of the bathroom wearing a bathrobe and held my phone, checking out the picture of Ryusui's older brother. "I wonder what his name is..." I trailed off in thought of this guy. "He looks like an intellectual man– well yeah, he is studying in a prestigious university duh." I laughed at myself and tossed my phone to the bed.
I dried my body and wore bedtime silk clothes and let my hair dry for itself since using a blow dryer would damage my hair from how hot it goes for too long. Besides, electricity. I sat on the end of bed and glanced at my phone again, seeing the picture. "I wonder what kind of guy he is in person." I sigh in daydreaming about the possible character traits that Ryusui's older brother have.
Since it's his older brother, he's definitely a mature man and his way of thinking is broad and serious. Or maybe he's a tough acting guy on the outside but is actually a softie on the inside! I giggled, there were a lot of guesses about this small daydreaming of mine but I didn't let it get to my head too much....or did I? "He's definitely a genius, he just is! A gifted man!" I declared as if there was someone who would confirm or deny my guesses.
The reason I always leave no room for silence to enter is because of what comes after the silence. It's always there in the corner waiting. Waiting for me to make a mistake or fail, and if I do, it would bother me for days and even weeks until I bawl my eyes out begging for it to stop. I know for myself that I'm a normal girl and I don't deserve to keep on experiencing these things. I've always been a good and obedient girl, just like what my mom loved me for. She did in fact love me as a daughter, but I wanted her to love me more so I went out of my way to become an outstanding daughter and student in class.
I remember doing the same to who was once my father. He was a different person than mom and he was difficult to please. I never really had any good and memorable memories with my father, it was awkward between us. Occasionally he would take me to the amusement park and the arcade where we would spend time as daughter and father. But everytime he did take me out for those places, I remember seeing him stressed out at first...and really angry.
That's right...he's always angry whenever he would ask me to go to the amusement park with him, but his voice stayed calm when he spoke to me. But in those times he took me out for a supposed bonding between father and daughter, sometimes he'd end up somewhere else where I couldn't locate him. It's as if his intention wasn't to go for bonding with his daughter, it was to meet with his mistress. He's the one who ruined mom, not me. He's the one to blame. So why do these voices in my head keep on going for my whole childhood up until now?! He should be the one suffering!
That man is currently living with his mistress and his child in the house that us three lived in first. It's sickening of him to choose that house to live with his second family. I only thought that his mistress too was just some fake and she wasn't really that wealthy as much as the man thought of her to be. He's probably suffering from the lack of money to buy the things that he want. He only relies on other's money and he feeds off of them like some pig. Disgusting. He had the audacity to leech off of others for his own personsl gain. Get a job.
I sighed and shaked my head, looking around the room and noticing the mess that I made. "Oh...I fell into a fit of rage again...without realizing it." I looked at my hands and saw blood on my knuckles. My hands went numb from the pain and I rummaged through my luggage for some first aid. I dabbed a cotton ball with alcohol in it on my knuckles and then put betadine on it, wrapping bandages around my hands for the time being.
Laying down on my bed, I stared at the ceiling. "What have I become? These violent impulses and intruding thoughts of mine...am I sick?" I asked myself. "I'm always top of my class, a perfect student, rich, successful with the skill for fashion designing that I have since I was little." Reaching my hand upwards, I pursed my lips and swallowed the lump of anxiety down my throat. "I'm supposed to be living a peaceful life with my mother now since she recovered a month ago. So why am I still here? What do you plan to do?" I sat up and stared at the mirror in front of me, my reflection in the mirror.
"I'll rule over those filthy people who use their riches for selfish reasons. They don't deserve their status from how vile they are." I walked over to the mirror and placed my hand on it, "You experienced it firsthand right? That's why I must make them taste their own poison and drag them to the depths of hell where they deserve to be." Touching the right side of my cheek, "There's no need to prolong their peace. Carry out the judgement that they deserve. I have the right to do so."
As expected, the reflection of myself in the mirror was a much more stronger version of me. Fearless, bloodthirsty, seething with revenge, and confident. "...While I'm only a normal girl who studies till she couldn't anymore. A girl who needs support from others or else she'll be helpless and lost." I placed my hand to my chest, "Don't worry. Once I graduate, I'll go to where mom is and live happily with her. That's my dream and I won't lose sight of it."
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A few days later...
3rd Pov.
He could feel that someone was watching him. It creeped him out and he couldn't focus on his studies even if he wanted to. It was even unusual when he felt the gaze of the person watching him even if he was in the school rooftop where he usually goes to in his free time to code because of the great reception of the roof.
He thought in panic, 'Why am I being watched?! What is the meaning of this? Who's watching me?' As his hands slightly trembled and prevented him from typing in his laptop. He turns his head left and right, up and down but still nothing. He couldn't figure out where the person was watching him from. It was because, the intensity of the gaze wasn't just on one spot of his body only but his whole.
'There's no way anyone can watch me when I'm on the school's rooftop. If there is a place where I can be watched though...it would be...' His gaze pans over to the tree not far from school property. He nervously laughs, "There's no way that someone would go through such lengths...haha, absolutely no way..." He sits back down and convinced himself that he was just imagining things and went back to coding.
Hayami's Pov
I'm currently doing a stake out on this tree and so far it's going well. With binoculars it's easy peasy for me to watch over Mr. Older brother of Ryusui Nanami. Should I call him Nanami-san? Eh, I don't think so. My snack for this day is chips and cola, I overslept and had no time to pack a proper bento for this task. I munched on the chips I bought as I used my left hand to continue spying on him. "Seriously, isn't this a crime?? Yeah I was supposed to only watch him according to Ryusui's orders but, is this really the only way to watch him?"
I sighed, seeing how I accidentally made the task given to me have some complications, leading me to a bunch of hypothesis' that would probably go down the drain later. "I did some research about this school and apparently it belongs to Nanami Corp. too. Just how much does this company have for them to branch out in a bunch of countries? I totally hit the jackpot, that's for sure." I scrolled through my phone and the information that I gained on this school were helpful enough that I found a separate plan to get closer to Ryusui's older brother.
"It's time for an undercover mission! Operation: Quack News Journalist!" I apologize in advance to the professional news journalists out there. I already had the stereotypical outfit of a journalist and the last thing that will make this operation a success is to take the role of a journalist wholly. I stood on the branch of the tree where I was camping on and prepared to jump down and land safely on my toes with my stuff in my backpack that I wore on my back.
I checked my surroundings and moved stealthily until I reached the mai entrance of the school building without raising any suspicion on me. After all, the disguise I wore made me look like a grown journalist woman. Peak the glasses too since it added to my charms, the hat and the classic low ponytail too. I approached one of the faculty member and greeted them properly. "Hello! I'm a journalist from overseas and my publishing company wanted to cover an article about this magnificent school." (A/N: Italics mean that she's speaking the Indian language. I'm not gonna risk it and go to a translator, nope.)
Since when did I learn the indian language, you ask? Francois was the one who taught me how to speak different languages and they went all out with the teaching since I am Ryusui's assistant after all. I had to at least speak 10 different languages as an assistant of his considering that he mainly focuses on the benefit of the company and partnerships, that's why he's making me do all the work for him. I complain, but the sightseeing is a nice compensation for the exhaustion that my body dealt with.
"Welcome, welcome! You will be assisted with the council president of the school, if that's alright with you." The faculty member kindly said. "Yes, of course. Thank you very much. I have one question though, if that would be okay." I went all this way to step in the scene, I should at least take my time to gather information from the people here. "Yes, what would your question be?" Mentioning Ryusui would be an instant blow to my cover and if I try hinting his relations to his brother, this faculty member would be suspicious of me and confused since I don't know Ryusui's older brother's name.
"Is there anyone good at programming here that they're considered a genius? I do hope I'm not asking intruding questions at all." But thanks to my spying from earlier, I managed to learn that he's hella good with computers and all that Informations Technology (IT) stuff. And what's more to that, his face brightened up the whole time he spent coding in the school rooftop which I lowkey thought was adorable. "Ah, there is! And don't mind the question, you are a journalist after all. You should look for our student and also a teacher at times in our school, Sai Nanami."
'He teaches at this school too? What kind of guy is this Sai Nanami?' I thought in surprise. "What exactly does he teach?" I asked. "He teaches maths to the class. He's a real prodigy from his great knowledge in maths, it's sometimes unbelievable." The faculty member spoke highly of Sai Nanami which lead me to become even more curious of him and wanting to know more about him. I wrote the details in my notepad and thanked the faculty member. "Thank you so much for answering a few questions, I will take my time observing the school now." I properly bid farewell to the faculty member and headed deeper inside the school.
I went all out into the role of a journalist and asked around the students who walked the halls of the school. I asked them a few things about the school and then asked them a leading question that would make them give out hints about Sai Nanami. Out of all the students I asked the question to, with a few revision of course to lower any suspicion that might befall on me, there was no one who could give me a concrete answer. I sighed and tucked a hair behind my ear, 'Should I do it the modern way? But how am I gonna find him in this amount of students?!'
It's only up to whether my luck is strong or just plain unfortunate that I get to meet this Sai Nanami or in cliche terms, bump into him while walking out of a corner in a hallway. I scoffed, "As if that would ever happen in real life. I ain't about that life." I quietly laughed to myself and emerged from a corner and wow, would you look at that, I unfortunately bumped onto a hard object and it's on the side of my torso too. I bit my lip to stop myself from shouting in pain or it'll cause a disruption and raise awareness of my presence which is what I'm avoiding at all costs.
"I-I'm so sorry!! I didn't mean to block your way–... a journalist?" I look up to my left and if it wasn't for the pain I'm feeling right now, I would've felt butterflies in my stomach instead. It's him. It's definitely him, Sai Nanami. He looks mixed, Indian and...maybe Japanese? It's his features that looks different than most people here. That must be why his charm is a lot more heart-throbbing than the usual men that I associated myself with. "Umm...are you alright? You've been staring at me for a minute now." I snapped out of it and stood straight, but the sharp pain hits me again.
I quietly hiss in pain as I put my right hand to my side and I properly faced him. "I'm..alright. I'm a journalist and I'm making an article about this school. I've been told that there's a young man that teaches maths here that's also considered a prodigy." I awkwardly chuckle and continued, "I thought of making that as the topic for my article. Do you have any idea to who she, he, or they are?" I asked him a leading question, waiting if he will reveal that it's him or if he'll mention someone else. Consider this as a test too and it will tell me what kind of person Sai Nanami is.
He looks taken aback by my question and he looks like he's already stuttering even though he hasn't said anything yet. "I-is there any other topic that you can make your article with? Why that certain topic?" He doesn't take that much pride in his work and he humbly puts it in a way that it's not that obvious that he doesn't want me to focus on that topic since it's about him. 'Not that I'm actually gonna make an article about it.' I said in my mind.
'I have a primary idea to what his personality is so.. I should at least be a bit honest with him.' I warmly smiled at him, "It's because I was impressed by how dedicated they are in what they "love" to do that they would teach maths in class to keep on pursuing the thing that they like to do." I put my hand to my chest, "A person like that is admirable and I really want to know who they are. I want to know how they feel about being able to do what they love to do." Can you guess which is the truth and the lie?
I look at him again and what I saw made my heart skip a beat. He looks at me like I was santa or something and then grabbed both my hands and held it tightly. "You– do you really mean that? Really?!" He had hopeful eyes as he looked at me and leaned forward, our distance from each other slowly minimizing. An evident blush crept up on my face and I stuttered on my words because of it. "Y-yeah, I do mean that. But basing on your reaction, it looks like you're the guy I'm looking for." I wave my hands that he held with his own pair of hands in front of his face.
He only noticed it and lets go of my hands, a blush forming on his face. 'Why is he so adorable?! God, I need some patience or else I might do something from how cute he is.' We both stood a few meters from each other, both in deep thought. But all I know that at first glance, Sai Nanami is someone ordinary but a talented man. He only wanted to do what he loves to do and that makes him feel comfortable. He's no different than a normal person and he probably wants everyone to look at him that way, not as someone on a high horse. He's a pure cinnamon roll and must be protected.