December 9
"Are you fucking kidding me, Hanae? Coke?!" Her brother slammed his car door shut and she scrunched up her face at the sudden noise.
"You–You do it all the time." She curled up in the passenger's seat.
His knuckles turned white around his steering wheel as he began backing out of the parking lot.
"Yeah but you don't, you're not used to it. And you didn't just snort that shit in public, you went to go fuck some stranger after you were done."
Hanae was still gone, but she was sober enough to feel shame, so she turned to the side to avoid her brother's heated gaze, and the car ride back to their house was quite literally the most awkward thing she ever had to live through. He was so pissed he didn't even put on music and his breaths were so labored that they were all she could hear as they pulled in front of their gate.
Sleep came quickly and it was a blessing, when she woke up in the morning she showered and headed downstairs to find Akise and her mother speaking in hushed whispers in the dining room.
She instantly knew what was going on and she was about to spin on her heels, but the moment her mother's furious eyes met her own she froze in her spot, and her face went white as her mother began walking towards her with quick strides.
Her mind wasn't even able to fully process her fear before her mother's hand collided across her face. The sheer force of it made Hanae's face jerk to the side and her lip began to sting as she looked up, she was staring at but not really seeing her mother.
"You're an embarrassment." She seethed.
Hanae swallowed the lump growing in her throat as she held her swollen lip.
"I thought I had enough with your brother doing drugs, but at least he has the decency to do it here in his own home, but you, you go out with that tramp and do it in front of anyone, for everyone to see, for everyone to judge." Her mother laughed but the vein growing in her forehead was evident, and Hanae whimpered down.
"It–It was a mistake, I'll never do it again." Hanae began, her voice trembling. "Just please, please don't tell dad."
Hanae instantly regretted it though because her mother's face went red and in a flash, she'd pulled Hanae down by the hair so that she was nearly on the ground.
"Your father? That's what you're thinking about right now?!" She yelled and Hanae kept her mouth shut, biting back the tears that threatened to spill out of her eyes. "When people saw you leaving with Yoshio Ootori's son!"
"Mom–" Hanae tried to speak but her mother cut her off.
"I didn't raise you to disappoint me, to bring shame to us in such a way!"
"Akise's engaged to Renge," Hanae straightened up, and with her voice still trembling she tried to defend herself, "You don't care that he sleeps around with half of Tokyo!"
Her mother's nostrils flared up. "He's different!"
"No, he's not, no one cares who I sleep with–"
"Your fiancé cares."
Hanae blinked rapidly, how had her mother found out about Hideo?
"What–What are you talking about?" Hanae said quickly.
"Ritsu Kasanoda." Her mother's eyes narrowed as she looked down at her. "I doubt he'd like hearing rumors about his fiance doing drugs and whoring herself out to any man that smiles at her."
Hanae's mouth fell open in an instant and after what felt like an eternity she spoke.
"You... You're bluffing." Hanae let out a dry laugh. "You wouldn't do that to me... you wouldn't arrange a marriage for me without even asking me." She looked at her mother desperately.
"Am I laughing?"
Hanae turned to look at her brother over her shoulder, "Akise,"
He didn't even look up at her. He was looking down at the floor, he was too ashamed. The truth loomed over her shoulders suddenly, her mother was not joking, she was engaged... to a man she barely knew.
"How could you do this?!" Hanae yelled her voice catching in her throat. "There's no way my dad was on board with this," She turned on her heels, determined to go speak with her father until her mother pulled her back by her sleeve harshly.
"Are you as stupid as you look?" Her mother hissed. "There's no way you haven't realized it by now."
"What are you talking about?" Hanae cried pulling back.
"That we're bankrupt! You imbecile!" Her mother yelled.
Hanae's eyes widened as she looked over at her mother.
Bankrupt?
She shook her head, her mind, not able to wrap around the words that had spilled out of her mother's mouth, in her moment of fury.
"You're lying, we're not bankrupt... we're not broke! You're just telling me that so that I'll say yes to getting married."
Suddenly her brother came out from behind their mother, the scowl evident on his face.
"She's not kidding, Hanae... If you–If we don't get married, and quickly, we're going to lose everything." He looked up from the floor to meet her eyes for the first time since he started speaking. "Dad's going to lose everything,"
Hanae blinked quickly the news settling slowly.
"Why didn't you tell me? There's got to be some other way we can fix this, marriage is bizarre–"
"Do you have another solution?" Mitsuri interrupted. "I'd love to hear it."
Hanae's lips parted but no words came out.
"Exactly, marriage is the only solution, and lucky for you I found the perfect candidate."
Hanae's chest sunk and like a child, three words fell from her mouth; "I'm telling dad," She was about to turn around, she was ready to run into her father's study and tell him all the ridiculous things her mother was telling her, but her mother's cold voice kept her rooted in place.
"Go ahead, I'll tell him about the soldier."
Hanae felt every muscle in her body go slack, and she could've sworn she heard a ringing in her ears. She jerked her head to look over at Akise.
"You told her? After I begged you not to?" She yelled.
"I'm sorry–" He tried to speak, but their mother interrupted once more.
"Don't yell at him, because you're an idiot who fell in love with a married man, a poor married man, at that." Hanae was about to speak once more but her mother didn't even let the words spill out. "I'm done with hearing you whine and complain, you're getting married to whoever I choose."
"I'm not getting married, this is ridiculous." She began walking away but her mother stopped her once again.
"If you don't get married I'll tell your father, everything; the cocaine, the sex, the fiance."
Hanae's mouth curled up in disgust. "You wouldn't dare, you know what that could do to him, his heart can't handle it–"
"It could kill him, I know. But his blood will be on your hands, not mine."
Hanae's breaths were shallow as she relished the peak of her high and for once in her life, she didn't care if anyone smelled the weed wafting through the smoke in her restroom. She sank lower into the tub, and she laughed at the thought of how stupid and pathetic she was.
Forced into a marriage of convenience because her family was broke?
How much more of a cliché could she be?
Her mind wandered for hours, the piping-hot water hit her body inside the tub, as she wallowed in her mediocrity. She laid in the water until the ridges in her fingers began to hurt, and when she finally got out of the bathroom the sun had already set, and the cold night air welcomed her briskly as she opened her window.
She debated telling Mary anything, but when she finally mustered the courage to tell her friend what was going on she was shocked to see a notification from an unknown number on her phone screen.
I got your phone number from Mary,
are you feeling better? - k.o
Hanae cocked her head to the side and frowned, yet another thing that would never happen: Kyoya Ootori.
She brushed out her wet hair as she stared at the message on her phone for what felt like an eternity.
She really liked the idea of having Kyoya as a rebound, he was cute and she knew he definitely wouldn't give a damn about her after they slept together.
Of course, there's no way that would happen now.
She was engaged again... but this time it was to a person she hadn't actually seen in well over ten years.
"Fuck," She muttered under her breath, she pinched the bridge of her nose as she looked up at the ceiling.
She liked Kyoya, she liked him a lot.
Sure, she didn't have any actual feelings for him, but she wanted him, she wanted him so bad, the fact that she'd never get to sleep with him made her head pound.
She'd pushed him away initially because she was with Hideo. If she wasn't with Hideo all those months ago, she had no idea what would've happened by now, and now here she was months later in the exact same predicament. She can't do what she wants because she's tied down to a man, and this time it's not even because she loves him, it's because her family needs money.
She felt her nails digging into her palms, and after taking a deep breath she decided to text him back.
hey kyoya, thank you for taking care of me,
im feeling alot better now :)
She quickly put her phone down, too nervous to see when the message popped down on her notifications, but two minutes later she heard her phone ding, and she quickly lifted the phone to see the text he'd sent her. And that's how they spent a good hour, texting back and forth wasting their time away, as she got off her high, and he ignored the pile of paperwork that was waiting to be looked over in front of his table.
So it didn't come off as a shock when he asked if she wanted to come over to his place.
Not even an hour later she was standing two steps away from his penthouse door, holding a six-pack of beer in one hand and her phone in the other.