sincerely not. (13)
↳ gojou satoru/reader
with an arranged marriage set in place, the sacred bond is doomed with a wife who wants to make the relationship work and a husband who’s ready to ruin it all. unbeknown to him, a tragic fate already lies within the pages of his romance book.
genre. heavy angst, unrequited love, arranged marriage, modern au, 18+
tags/warnings. profanity, explicit smut, physical abuse, violence, blood, strangulation/asphyxiation, mentions of past traumas, smothering, manslaughter, minor character death. please read at your own discretion.
notes. 13k wc. i tried to make it lighter bc the original draft was kinda heavy :(( but overall pls excuse my writing for this one. we’re gonna have one final arc until the series ends. beta read by my furrae @suhkusa uwu
series masterlist -> episode fourteen
FLASHBACK: The Gojou Mansion
“You made it, darling!” It was evident on the woman’s face that your arrival was anticipated with enthusiasm. Like a mother who adored her child, she treated you like her own and even kissed you on the cheek, praising you for your light blue ball gown as soon as you ran up to the older woman. “Our cute little Y/N has great taste in fashion.”
As you beamed towards Satoru’s mom, your own mother also smiled and embraced the said woman with familial warmth. They had been friends long before you were born in this world and watching how the two mothers naturally conversed with a sisterly bond reminded you of the same relationship that you had with Gen. It was a kind of bond similar to that of siblings that were bound by blood. They laughed together during their happiest days, cried tears in their loneliest, and even gave birth to two beautiful kids at nearly the same time.
“Sorry, we were stuck in heavy traffic,” your mother explained to the woman while your little hands carried the gift that you had chosen for your closest childhood friend. “Where’s the birthday boy?”
“Oh, he’s been pretty grumpy all day. He hasn’t smiled since the party began.” Satoru’s mom then led the way, guiding the mother and daughter outside to their spacious backyard that revealed an impressive medieval royal theme with castle turrets, large stone wall panels, hanging cloth pelmets, and funnily, a number of waiters hired to dress up as knights for the celebration. Everywhere you looked was a kingdom of your dreams. A peek into the past where kings and queens reigned supreme—where horses and carriages were the only modes of transportation, where having silk jacquard dresses signaled one’s nobility, and where swords, jewels, and crowns were considered the most prized possessions.
Being only seven years of age, Satoru was still considered a prince. His princess? It was no one other than you.
“There he is,” your mother pointed towards the birthday celebrant. “Go give him your gift, honey.”
The boy had a mantle draped around his shoulders as he looked around from his throne, scanning every kid that littered the area in this sunny afternoon until his eyes found you. Didn’t his mom say he hasn’t smiled all day? Well, right then and there, he was a grinning kid with sparkling eyes as he took off his royal cloak and rushed towards you. “Y/N, you’re here!”
Walking along the fresh ivy trails and garlands, you met each other halfway and the boy was looking at you as if you were the greatest gift he has received. The gleam in his eyes limned your cheeks incarnadine. “Happy birthday, Satoru.”
He took your glove-covered hand and placed a kiss on top of it like a true gentleman. The sweet act earned giggles from the older women who all cooed at the young lovebirds. “I thought you weren’t gonna come!”
“I won’t miss your birthday!” you offered a kiss on his cheek before you handed his present. “My gift.”
With curiosity dancing in his gaze, he took the box and tore the wrapping, opening it to see a 20-pack McLaren Hot Wheels set. It was impossible to find the best gift for a kid who already had it all, but you took the opportunity to choose a limited edition gift at the perfect timing because it was all he ever talked about for the past month. “Y/N… this is…”
“You said you wanna drive that car when you grow up,” you mentioned your previous conversations about his bucket lists, “so I gave you twenty of it!”
You could hear his mom and yours chuckling from a distance as they watched how their two kids sweetly interacted like a young couple. In this case, it was Satoru who was outwardly showing his keen interest towards you. It was Satoru who requested a medieval royal theme because he wanted to make you a princess. It was Satoru who took your hand, dragged you with him as he walked towards your mothers, and cleared his throat like he was an adult male instead of an innocent juvenile who had just turned seven.
“Auntie,” he spoke to your mom, hand clasped around yours as he continued, “I kissed Y/N.”
You restrained your breath and tugged his hand, cheeks reddening because you’ve fallen shy around the older women who expressed lighthearted squeals and exaggerated gasps at the little boy’s admission. Scared of your mom’s reaction, you looked away and hid behind Satoru while you could hear his mother scolding him for being a ‘naughty little boy’.
“Oh, you kissed our princess?” your mom played along, eyes showing a glint of amusement at the sight of you and him. At that point, you were trying your best to get the Satoru to stop talking but there was only so much you could do with a spoiled, stubborn kid.
Of course, he didn’t listen. He even became more confident in displaying his signature charming smile while facing your mother without a trace of coyness. “Auntie, you said Y/N can’t kiss anyone until she’s married, so I promise I’ll marry her.”
“Satoru!” His own mom felt a little embarrassed at her son’s blatant request. But since he was a child, everyone around the banquet found his words endearing.
“You’re gonna marry my daughter?” Your mom crouched down to pinch his cheeks. “Will you promise to take care of her?”
The little boy straightened his back and held your small, delicate hand tighter around his. “Yes. I promise.”
Gojou couldn’t think straight when he sped off the freeway nearing 200mph just to rush back to the penthouse. A word from his bodyguard gave him the knowledge that you ordered your driver to take you home and Satoru was certain that you would not stay with him tonight. Or ever. Perhaps he would come home to see you packing your bags, taking only what was necessary before you could completely walk away from his life. It would only take a few minutes to leave your shared home, but it would take a lifetime for him to accept that you would soon be gone.
He was crumbling into broken pieces. The thought of losing you was carving a painful stamp on his chest each time his mind repeated your agonizing words. ‘I want a divorce’, your resolute voice sounded like a broken record, making him wish that he could go deaf than hear you say those words over and over again. How did it all come down to this? What made you suddenly decide on a separation without telling him? Have you been planning it all this time? Or could it be that you have fallen in love with someone else? He felt undeniably stupid because he couldn’t find the answer to his questions. And he felt even more pathetic that he was once in a position swearing on his life that he would be the one to divorce you without regret.
Now that things have changed, now that you were the only woman he could see in a room full of people—it was beginning to hit him as though he was standing in front of a bullet train that was accelerating off the rail at lightning speed. His wife, his partner in life. He wasn’t ready to let you go and he would never even think of doing so. There was not even the tiniest scintilla of hesitation when he left the company’s celebration because nothing was more important than you. Who cares about the CEO position? Who cares about the merger? His thoughts were only filled with the thought of his beautiful, loving wife who owned every inch of his heart.
Call him desperate, but he was truly, genuinely scared. He was facing his biggest fears in life by thinking of how easy it would be for you to take the same path as his mother did. For him, seeing you leave will wreck him ten times worse than when his own mother walked out of his life. It was haunting to even think about and he was incessantly refusing the thought before he could lose his sanity. He could barely even breathe when he stepped out of the express elevator, immediately dashing across the corridor until he finally reached his destination.
Until he finally reached you.
In denial, in pain, and in sorrow was how Satoru found himself when he entered the penthouse and saw you walking out of the closet with a small bag that had some of your important items. His feet carried him to you long before you even got to notice his presence, only facing him after he already latched a hand around your wrist. “Baby… Don’t do this. Let’s talk.”
There was no change from the rigid expression on your face. You simply pulled your hand out of his grasp and walked past him, but he shamelessly followed your trail like a lost puppy begging for attention. “I’ve given you a chance to talk.”
“But…” Confusion then painted his face. Your voice, cold and toneless. Your face, stern and apathetic. For the first time in his life, Gojou was afraid of you because it felt like he was seeing a different person instead of his wife. “I don’t understand why you’d suddenly—”
With a heavy sigh, you dropped your bag atop the bed before you turned around to look at your husband. “Can you stop fooling me?” you raised your voice, eyebrows furrowing as you glared at him. “Stop acting like you care about me. Stop pretending like you… like you wanna be with me. I’m doing you a favor by setting you free, so go be with the person you love!”
“But I don’t want anyone else!” he countered, holding your arms and forcing you to look at his shiny blue eyes. “Y/N, I already told you I wanna be with you. I want you. Just you. I’m gonna lose my mind.”
“Stop. Stop it.” It was evident on your face that you had no intentions of listening to his truthful words. Everything that came out of his mouth must have sounded like a lie to you, but Gojou was willing to do whatever it would take just to get you to believe him. With this thought in mind, he pulled you for a hug despite your unwillingness to listen. He wrapped his arms around your frame and buried his face into your shoulder, but instead of softening within his embrace, you sighed and tried to push him off. “Get off.”
He refused and shook his head like a stubborn child. “No. Tell me why you’re mad first,” his voice cracked as he spoke, “T-Tell me why you want a divorce. You can’t just—”
“Because I can’t stay in this marriage with you.” Once more, you pressed your hands on his chest and separated yourself from him. Satoru didn’t expect to see your tearful eyes that mirrored his as you looked up at him. You were breathing through your mouth, chest heaving as you tried to refrain any tears from falling. “You’re having a family with Sera. Do you really think you can keep doing this to me? Isn't it enough that I suffered in this marriage with you?”
Sera? Satoru was stupefied by the mention of her name. But more than that, his heart was aching because he couldn’t handle seeing the painful look on your face. Your pain was his, your tears were his as well. You shared the same heart and soul. “I’m not having a family with her. I’d never do that to you,” he denied it like his life was on the line. “Please, Y/N. I already chose you. We’re married.”
“Married,” a laugh of disbelief flew out of your lips, “If you care so much about our marriage, then why did you go around and get someone else pregnant? I saw you in the hospital with her so don’t deny it! She has your baby.”
Putting the puzzle pieces together, his mind took him back to the time where he brought Sera to the OB-GYN and he could now understand where your anger was coming from. Fuck. He messed this all up. Of course, who in the right mind would stay with their spouse after they assumed that they had gotten another woman pregnant? Gojou was frantically shaking his head in realization. “No, no. Wait, it was a misunderstanding,” he pleaded, cupping your cheeks so you could only look at him. “She’s not pregnant and I just wanted to be sure. That's the only reason I took her there. You can even ask Ieiri if you don’t believe me, but… I promise. I already broke it off with Sera because I wanna be devoted to you. I wanna right my wrongs and I need you to trust my words, please.”
The revelation seemed to have surprised you because your eyes widened for a minute, stuck on his gaze while in deep thought. The disarray inside your head was reflecting through your perplexed mien and Gojou wished that he had the ability to read minds because seeing you internally forming your own conclusion was making him crazy. He was powerless when you had already decided on your own. How could he even defend himself if you refused to hear him out?
“Even if she isn’t pregnant…” You held your breath and suppressed any extreme emotions from coming out. “Even if she isn’t, I’ve already decided. We’re not meant together.”
Satoru ignored the throbbing pain in his heart. “Don’t say that. Don’t, please. We need to talk this out and work our differences out like a normal couple, I… I can’t live without you.” It must be shocking to hear your husband pouring out his feelings this much because it wasn’t something that he had done throughout the course of your marriage. And if only he had done it, if only he had communicated, this would have never happened. Now, he was at the edge of a cliff, ready to fall with just one word from you. How could he salvage his marriage when it was him who ruined it in the first place?
It appeared that you had the same trail of thought as you spoke again. “You made it clear from the very start of our marriage, from the very first night after our wedding, that you and I will never work.” As much as you tried to hold it in, tears spilled from your eyes while you gazed up at him. He couldn’t do anything but to press your foreheads together, holding your cheeks as he stared at your beautiful yet downcast face. It broke him. It painfully broke him to see you like this. “Satoru, d-did you ever stop to think about everything that you did to me while I was with you? I know that you didn’t want this marriage and I know that you wanted to marry Sera regardless of how you feel for her now. I know that you hated coming home to me and I know that you’ve been insulting me behind my back. I… I felt like I wanted to die, for many reasons, than to be with you. I felt like I wasn’t worthy of love, because you made me feel so. D-Did you ever think of my pain?”
Hearing the aftereffects of the things that he had done to you was not only devastating, but it also made everything feel like the Earth took a stop from spinning on its axis. Time has slowed down and restrained all of his thoughts, trapping his mind in an endless void where only pain was a sensation that dominated over everything else. His vision got blurry from the accumulation of tears that were pooling in his eyes because he could see how your own tears cascaded down your cheeks. “I’m sorry,” he couldn’t breathe一his voice quivered uncontrollably as he realized how much of a nightmare he had been, “Y/N, I-I’m sorry… I was a monster to you.”
It was excruciating to see his wife crying because of him. He had heard similar things from you when you had a falling out back in Bora Bora, but he was a different man back then. He was spiteful, unforgivable, and just plain cruel. Memories of the hurtful things that he did to you came flashing back right before his eyes, blinding him of the wounds that left a huge gash in your innocent heart.
“Even if you hated our marriage, I-I was not a complete stranger to you,” you cried, breathing through your mouth as your chest rose and fell. He tried to wipe your dampened cheeks with his thumb, but his own tears had fallen on your skin as he thought of the misery that he had put you through. “You’ve known me since we were born. Once in your life, you thought of me as a real friend. We were each other’s partners in crime. We supported each other’s dreams and made promises to be there for one another. I know that time separated us, that our experiences made us distant, but how could you hurt me this much? How could you treat me like a person you’ve never once cared about?”
Scars never leave, Gojou could see them now. He could see why一no matter how much he tried to make things work一you would always remember all the damages he had done. Those memories could never be erased. They have already imprinted a significant amount of pain in your most agonizing memories and the only way he could think of fixing his mistakes was to suffer the same. “I was blinded by rage,” he spoke softly, momentarily closing his eyes but keeping your foreheads connected together. “I thought Sera was the woman I could spend the rest of my life with, so all I did was blame you for trying to keep us apart. I-I used my anger as an excuse to detach myself from you because I was so fucking stupid… I’m damn stupid for thinking that my life should revolve around her. It doesn’t. My life is with you.”
“It’s too late.”
“It’s not.” He opened his eyes to see you wiping your cheeks while you returned to giving him an unforgiving stare. It was impressive how you managed to keep your emotions in check even after you released a bucket of tears—perhaps it was an acquired ability after having your own husband constantly neglecting and demeaning you. “It’s not too late. I’m willing to do anything for you.”
He was practically hopeless at this point, but even at that, you refused. “Be happy that this divorce will set you free—”
“I don’t want that!” Satoru had to pull away when his emotions got the best of him because he didn’t mean to yell at you. He was only distraught from how firm you were about divorcing him. His hands were shaking terribly because the traumatic memory of how adamant his mother was in leaving him was how he saw this situation in front of his eyes. It was history repeating itself—a sight that would blow his heart into smithereens.
Thankfully, you didn’t flinch from his loud voice. What you did do was take a step back, becoming more and more indifferent as if you were placing a wall between the two of you. As if you had prepared yourself for the paroxysm of emotions that would burst out of him. The lack of proper lighting made the atmosphere a lot more emotional than it seemed, but despite the dimness, your luminescence was brighter than the envious moon. “It’s what I want, not you. This divorce is for me and not for you. My decision is final.”
This can’t be… This can’t happen. He couldn’t afford losing you.
“Y/N… no, please.” Gojou had already bawled, weeping his heart out as he clung to your arms and forced you to look up at his pitiful face. He had no reasons to deny his feelings anymore so he had to say the words that were dying to pour out of him. “I love you. I-I’m so in love with you. I can’t think straight when I’m not with you. My heart feels lonely when I can’t see you. Y/N, you’re my life now and I’ll… I’ll do anything just to make you stay.”
‘I love you.’
You didn’t believe that you would ever hear those three words from him.
And you never thought that you would see this day. You never thought that Satoru, the man who always took pride in being superior among everyone else, would fall on his knees like a sinner begging for forgiveness. His crystal blue eyes were lachrymose as faint tears streamed down on his cheeks and he clung to your waist like a child grasping helplessly to stop you from leaving. “A-Anything you want… P-Please.”
You had to turn your face away because your ice cold heart was beginning to melt for him. However, despite your pretentious austerity, your guilt was eating you alive while you were seeing him like this. “Don’t do that. You look pathetic.”
“I don’t wanna lose you.” While his breakdown was already surprising, his desperation was what led him to further take your hand, placing it next to his face as if he was ready for any damages that you could inflict. “Please hit me. Hit me however many times you want. Slap me until you’re satisfied. Curse at me, scream at me, pour your anger out on me. I’ll take all of it. Just…” he squeezed your hand, chest heaving as he gasped for air, “just don’t leave m-me.”
It was for the first time that you actually felt your heart breaking in half, not because of your pain, but because of his. Seeing him willingly offering himself to physical abuse was not within your intentions and it tore you apart to see your husband projecting his own trauma after realizing that he was on the verge of losing you. How sad was it that he started viewing violence as a way to seek forgiveness? You never wanted to make him suffer to this extent. You never aimed to wreck his soul by using his own traumatic experiences against him, because no matter how messed up Satoru was as a husband, you cared for him as a person.
“Get up,” you ordered, pulling his shaking hands as you tried to blink your tears away.
He looked at the floor and shook his head. “No… I’ll keep begging on my knees if I have to.”
“I said get up and look at me.” As your tone became stricter than the last, he followed your instructions and slowly got up until his tall figure towered over you. He was squeezing both of your hands, tears streaming down on his cheeks as you leaned back against the wall and sighed. “So you love me now, but what happens when you find another reason to hate me again? What happens when you realize that I can’t fulfill the role you want me to have as your wife? You’re always indecisive. What if you wake up one day and suddenly wanna get back with Sera again? Or if you meet another woman?”
You could tell that your questions were sinking into him in a negative way and he was determined to reject every single thought. “Y/N, I won’t change my mind. I wanna keep loving you for the rest of my life. I-I know it’s hard to believe b-but….” It was instinct for him to hold your cheeks again, backing you against the wall and leaning in closer, “...but I’m being true. I’ll make it a lifelong promise to make it up to you.”
Truthfully, you didn’t know what you wanted. You were burdened by the conflict in your head and you found yourself stuck on your feet, unable to do anything but wrap a hand around his wrist as you felt him inching closer to your face. You broke me first, you wanted to tell him. He was the reason why you’ve become the way you were now一a cold, seemingly heartless wife who cared none for her husband’s emotional breakdown. Of course, it was just a front since the divorce was initially a result of a misunderstanding. However, because of the stockpile of misery that he had placed on your shoulders, you were able to open the bottle and spill your woes about this marriage.
You were no saint. You could forgive, but forgetting was not easy. It could take him months, years, or possibly a lifetime to try and remove all the heart-wrenching memories that were already engraved in your heart.
In the face of your inner turmoil, looking at your husband’s eyes was somehow calming. The vivid blues around his irises were sincere but lonely. You could feel the tip of his nose pressing against yours as he held your face with such yearning, unaware that you were longing for the same affection as him. Was it too wrong to let things slip for tonight? You allowed him to lean in and close the distance by pressing his lips on top of yours. Your emotions let your heart win over your mind as you kissed him with equal fervor, warm tears spilling from your closed eyes while Satoru tilted his head to deepen the kiss. He, too, was drowning from the surge of his own tears. There was saltiness that went with the taste of his tongue that was rolling against yours, breathing you in like suction as though this was the first time the two of you had ever kissed.
It was a shared burning desire that ignited flames in your respective hearts when you allowed more passion from the synchronization of your lips. Your back was pressed against the cold concrete while you placed a hand on his chest, fingers on autopilot as you reached to unbutton his shirt. He was breathing raspily from your mouth before he ran his tongue on your lower lip, sucking the plump flesh without any care of how you peeled the coat off his body. You watched him roughly pulling the tie off of his neck before he encased your lips back to his. The tips of your fingers were cold, but his chest was warm when you managed to undo every single button on his shirt.
Everything was passing through your vision in a complete blur because you had tears brimming under your lids. How long has it been since you last kissed him like this? You couldn’t understand why it hurt to love your own husband without any repercussions.
“I love you,” you could hear him say as he continued latching his mouth onto yours. “I love you. I love you.”
You’ve decided to hold back from responding for now. What you focused on was to relish the taste of his buttery soft lips. Your thoughts were on a hundred meter sprint and you were already stumbling in bed, back falling against the mattress with your legs wrapped around Satoru’s waist while he worked on unzipping your dress from the back. “This…” You looked up at him as he hovered over you. “This is just for tonight.”
Pain stretched into his face. “No…” He kissed you. “Don’t, please. I wanna be with you.”
Anyone would know that he was in despair. It wasn’t normal to see Gojou being this emotional in the middle of intimacy, but you allowed him to undress you, leaving you bare of any clothing as he pressed himself down on you. “Mm,” you couldn’t help but bite back a moan through his mouth, hands travelling down to reach for his fly. You were able to unbuckle his belt easily, unzipping his pants the next because the feeling of intense longing was spilling between you two. He was already trailing soft kisses along your jawline while cupping your sore breast to give it a wanton squeeze. His breath tickled your ear when he moved his mouth on your neck, sucking and nibbling until his kisses landed on your collarbone. At this point, you have already successfully released his aching member from the restriction of his underwear and he was gazing down at you with a glint of saddened lust.
Your husband’s cheeks were damp and your lips were moist when you kissed him again. You kissed each other to no end一your hand pulling on his mop of white hair, his hand kneading your bosom, and your folds gliding along his length as his hips undulated gently to garner titillating whimpers from you. “S-Satoru…” You felt the muscles on his back flexing when you dug your nails on his skin, gasping into his mouth while he continued to grind his hardened cock between your labia.
You were suppressing a moan due to the combustion of flames inside of you and he pulled away from kissing your neck by fondly staring at your face. “You’re so beautiful to me,” he whispered, planting kisses all over your face一cheeks, jaw, nose, forehead, “so… so beautiful.”
Hearing him say that did not earn your smile. In fact, it brought tears back in your eyes because you remembered just how much you wanted to hear those very words from him on your first night. Were you a masochist? You couldn’t fathom how you were able to last this long in your marriage without receiving those sweet words from your husband. And now that he said it, now that he allowed you to hear it, you were a weeping mess. “You didn’t e-even look at me on our first night together.”
“I…” He shared the sorrow in your eyes while wiping your cheeks. After resting his lips on top of yours, he then pressed your foreheads together so he could look at your face. The way he stared at you made you think as if he could feel your pain ten times worse. “I’m sorry.” Faint droplets from his eyes landed on your cheek. “Let me love and appreciate you from this day forward.”
You should have done it from the start. You couldn’t stop the searing pain in your chest, but you pulled him back so his kisses could distract your heartbreaking memories of Iceland. “Make love to me,” the request flew off your lips before you realized it.
He blinked slowly, attaching his lips on your cheek while caressing your skin. “If you let me… I’ll show you how much I love you. Just you.”
Your chest was a pendulum that rose and fell through heavy breaths. As you nodded to give him your consent, he gave you one last kiss before reaching for the bedside drawer. His movements confused you until you saw him pulling out a familiar square packet from a box, later ripping the wrapper between his teeth. “Satoru,” you stopped his hand, “no need to use a condom.”
He propped an elbow on the side of your head as a leverage to lift himself off of you. “It’s safer,” he spoke under his breath. “You don’t wanna get pregnant.”
You responded by snatching the packet out of his hand, flinging it back to the drawer before you pulled him down to kiss you again. “You can pull out.” It was tough to drag a heavy guy like him when you shifted positions so you could straddle his lap. You hadn’t realized that the both of you had cold sweats sticking on your skin until you were sitting chest-to-chest, meeting each other’s panting breaths while his hand held a tight grip on your buttocks. You let your own hands roam around his shoulders, feeling the softness of his lips on the valley between your breasts, soon rolling his tongue around your nipple to elicit a salacious mewl out of you. “Mmm.”
He released your tit from his mouth with a pop and placed his fingers on your entrance as if to test if you were ready to take him fully. You met his pleasurable actions by wrapping a hand around his lengthy cock, swollen pink head leaking of precum as you pumped your fist around him. “Ngh一babe, wait… I’m too aroused.”
Although you stopped doing the job on his member, he didn’t cease from doing circular motions on your clit, stimulating your cunny as your mouth parted open from the sensual gratification. “Y-You said… you told me before that you weren’t hard enough to have sex with me.”
Surely, he could remember his exact words from the night of your honeymoon because his guilt was oozing from his face. “It’s not true.” His voice was almost pleading, dewy blue eyes shining like diamonds. He raked his fingers through his hair as he glanced at your lips. “Just imagining you drives me crazy.”
You were holding onto his shoulders when he hoisted you up to place his tip on your entrance, allowing you to sit slowly and adjust yourself as his girth stretched you with a burning sensation. “A-Aah—! S-Satoru!” He kissed you to silent your whimpers—guttural moans falling out of his own lips at the feeling of your bodies connected again. Of him filling you up once more. Of you, shamelessly moaning his name until sunrise.
It had been a while. Maybe that was why the two of you were driven by overflowing passion and lust as you began moving on a slow rhythm on his hips. His cock was twitching while he penetrated your velvet walls and you were bending your back to look at the ceiling, soaking in every sensation that sent euphoric shivers down your spine. Your husband’s large calloused hands held your waist so he could thrust himself upward before he rested his back against the headboard. At that moment, he was looking at you like he was mesmerized. “I’m so fucking in love with you.”
How many times had he said those words tonight? You’ve lost count and you were not in the right mind because you were engulfed in the way his cock was going in and out of your core, your tender breasts bouncing as you rolled your hips on top of him. In the middle of your lovemaking, he strangely held your hand and intertwined it with his. “Mm—why—!”
“I can’t have this with anyone else,” he said, feeling every inch of you with glossy eyes appreciating your mere presence in his life. He kissed both of your hands and changed the control by flipping you over to return to your previous position, except your legs were now on his shoulders as he fervently fucked you. “C-Can’t have anyone b-but you—agh…Y/N...”
You gripped the sheets with balled fists as your husband continued to rut into your sweet pussy at a faster pace, and it was only until you started feeling a familiar clench on your chest when you asked him to decrease his speed. “Satoru, slow… slow down a little.”
You’ve consulted your doctor about it before and you were told that sex wouldn’t pose a big problem to your health. If anything, it was just the same as taking an early morning jog for exercise where you could release a few sweat without any worry. It was no threat to your heart and you had diligently taken all of your medicines this morning knowing that the events tonight would be stressful, but you still wanted to be cautious for your own sake.
“Am I hurting you? Look at me,” he worriedly asked, softly cupping your cheek. You immediately shook your head and urged him to continue snapping his hips into you at a gentler pace. His cock was already covered with slick when you took a peek to where your bodies were connected. “Baby.”
“It’s fine,” you reassured, looking back up at him and feeling a coil in your lower abdomen when he reached a certain spot. “A-Aah!” The more he hit it, the more you were clenching around him. And he continued doing so by thrusting into you at a slow, but consistent pace. You were getting sore at every slam of his pelvis because it had been sometime since the two of you were last intimate. Somehow, you assumed that your lack of sexual activity was also the reason why your stomach felt firmer than normal. Your body might have been adjusting again when you felt light cramps on your tummy. “I… I think I’m gonna cum.”
You appreciated the way he adjusted himself and dragged his length in and out of you with more passion and less roughness. The height of your orgasm made you see stars as you lay your hands flat on his chest, arching your back as you creamed all over his cock when he went deeper into your core. You were gasping for breath with eyes closed, recovering from your climax before you felt your husband’s lips reattached to yours.
And before you could open your eyes again, he had already pulled out and released his warm seed outside of your cunt. “You weren’t into it,” he stated with a voice laced with sadness, soon falling on top of you but kissing your temple nonetheless.
“We’re not exactly in a situation where I can fully enjoy it,” you replied, truthfully, “and it’s the last time we’ll do it.”
His eyes appeared even more downcast after hearing those words. The lack of color on his face was because of the realization that you were still pushing through with the divorce. His reaction was normal, but what he wasn’t aware of was the fact that you were simply afraid that you would put your health at risk if you’ve fallen deeper in love with him. It was a struggle enough to inevitably love him this way, how much more if you became emotionally dependent on him? He could easily take his words back and ruin you entirely. Unfortunately, trusting was an issue that you’ve obtained because of your complicated marriage.
“I’m sorry, I won’t sign any papers you give me,” was his response, burying his face into the crook of your neck with a deep exhale. It was also the last conversation that you shared until the both of you fell asleep after your emotional night.
It was such a night full of tears, heartbreak, and yearning. Your initial plan was to announce the divorce, take a few of your things from the penthouse, and come home to your father’s mansion. You were never expecting that your husband would sob on his knees and ask you to inflict physical damage on him just to make you stay. If he hadn’t told you that he loved you, it would have been difficult to soften your wounded heart around him, but after knowing Gojou since you were born, you knew that he wouldn’t carelessly throw I love you’s without meaning it.
At around quarter past three, you woke up again from your slumber to find yourself on top of your husband. His arms were tight around your waist as if he was certain that you would sneak out in the middle of the night to leave him. His brows were furrowed when you took a peek at his angelic face and deep down, you were feeling bad to see how much he had broken down in front of you just a few hours ago.
You would have easily returned to sleep so you could cozy up to your husband and enjoy the warmth of your skin against his, but the ceaseless sound of the doorbell that echoed through the walls of your home had long awakened you.
The noise even drew out a groan from Satoru’s lips as he shifted from bed, checking the clock and sighing heavily. “Who the hell’s that?” he murmured to himself.
“I’ll get it,” you insisted, moving out of his hold and swiftly wrapping yourself with a robe. Your husband was already getting up from bed, wearing his boxers while you were knotting the tie around your waist. “I said I’ll get it.”
He declined your offer and gently pushed you to sit on your bed. “It’s okay. Stay here.”
You understood that he was only being protective, but you were also curious to know who the late-night intruder would be. The last time such a thing happened, it was Sera who greeted you from the door with a piercing look on her face after labeling you a homewrecker for sleeping with your own husband. How much has time passed since then? You remembered having to suffer a lot that time. Gojou had never shown you any ounce of affection back then, but you have always tried to understand their side even to a point where you painted yourself as the villain.
Would Sera be showing up at your front door again? Because this time around, you would be standing your ground. You had not even asked Satoru about the scratch on his cheek, but you suspected that it either had something to do with Sera or he got it while he was out drinking all night. If she had found out that she wasn’t pregnant and Gojou had broken up with her, she would not have easily accepted that. There must have been a crazy argument that happened between the two of them.
With all these thoughts lingering in your head, you soon followed your husband who was standing at the door with a horrified expression. It seemed like he had frozen from the spot because of whatever was going on and you made a haste move of walking closer to see… Nana’s caregiver.
“Hey,” you greeted in confusion, holding your husband’s arm as you faced the woman. Her eyes were bloodshot from the tears that she appeared to have shed. “Wh-What’s going on?”
She swallowed hard before answering. “Sorry, we couldn’t reach Satoru all night, but… your Nana. She was rushed to the hospital.”
It was insane to see how much had happened in a span of one night.
You were partly to blame because you started all this chaos when you announced your divorce at the Gojou Group’s 50th Anniversary and everything else was a domino effect after that. The merger would not have pushed through and the reaction from your families must have been wild. It was only now that you finally had a look at the bigger picture and how things have affected the people around you. You didn’t mean for any of this to happen.
It was your selfishness to file a divorce that became the root cause of all this.
Although your husband had temporarily recovered from his emotional breakdown, there was no stopping the tears that gushed out of his eyes again. You could barely keep up when he ran across the hall, passing patient after patient, gaining the attention of curious doctors and nurses as the two of you rushed to try and find the emergency room. For his sake, you tried your best to ignore the nausea that you felt from the hospital’s olfaction. You tried your best to ignore the growing pain in your chest because of the amount of stress that would accumulate at the wee hours of the morning. You could only hold his arm as he approached the nurses station, taking the chance to use a GTN spray under your tongue to avoid an attack. Because Satoru was heavily distracted, he didn’t notice what you did and you were saved from the series of questions that he could have asked about your health.
You were not his priority tonight. His grandmother was on the median between life and death and all you had to do was be there to bring him comfort.
As he desperately uttered Nana’s name towards the nurse, he tapped his fingers on the counter and you saw how his hands were trembling again. “Where’s she, please? What room number?”
A head nurse soon came back to speak to your husband with a rueful expression. “Mr. Gojou?” Your husband immediately turned to her. “Your grandmother has been transferred to the mortuary.”
No way… Satoru had completely spaced out.
“M-Mortuary?” you asked again. This couldn’t happen.
“Yes,” the head nurse answered. “She was confirmed dead on arrival.”
Why and how did this happen? You’ve known Nana since you were a little girl and it devastated you to know that she passed away. The thought of her death reminded you of the trauma that you suffered when you lost your mom and it was a feeling that sent you into an abyss of melancholy. Losing a family member was your biggest fear in life and you knew that staying long in this hospital while engulfed with the miasma of death might end up giving you the most vivid flashbacks of your mom’s passing from when you were younger. You could just walk away and say that you couldn’t proceed going further to see Nana in the mortuary, but seeing the way Satoru shut his eyes in anguish, your care for his well-being dominated your fears.
At least, in your case, you had the chance to say goodbye to your mother before her demise. Satoru had to face seeing his grandma in her deathbed without even hearing any word from her before she departed from life. He was already racked with the pain of his mom leaving him and you could only imagine the amount of depression that would kick in after the other maternal figure that your husband loved so dearly was now gone. Forever. Nana was the one who took care of him after his mom left. Nana was the one who, despite her old age, protected Satoru from his father’s anger issues whenever she was within vicinity of his rage. Nana, the kind old lady who gave you the gold bracelet, was the same woman who wanted to see you and his grandson living a happy, married life.
It pained you to hear that she was deceased, but the bereft that Gojou was suffering was exceedingly torturous.
“Satoru, calm down.”
“Na...Nana.”
He was struggling to breathe by the time you reached the hallway outside of the mortuary where you saw Yuuta sitting on one of the benches, looking extremely traumatized and agitated from the very sudden death of his foster grandparent. He was quick to get up as soon as he saw his older brother and tried to console him by mirroring the same lamentation on his face. “Nii-san.”
“What happened?” Satoru was so close to falling apart. His voice was breaking each time he spoke and you had to be the one to hold his arm for support. “What...Why did this happen?”
Yuuta’s face was a contortion of ambivalence, seemingly wanting to speak about something but was deciding against it. His countenance was similar to a person guilty of a crime, but you did not place any judgement on an eighteen year-old who simply wanted to comfort his brother’s loss.
Unfortunately, before he could answer, Satoru’s stepmother came into view with a male doctor who was speaking to her about the process of Nana’s autopsy. She was initially calm and composed, but she suddenly burst into tears as soon as her eyes landed on you and your husband. She even had a handkerchief ready to wipe her tears as she began wailing. “This is all your fault!” she sobbed, mourning Nana’s loss while blaming your spouse. “She was shocked to hear the news of the divorce and because of that, she… she suffered from cardiac arrest.”
It couldn’t be. You refused to believe that Nana’s death was caused by the divorce because you knew that she was a woman who could contain her emotions very well. Could she really have taken the news so badly that it ended with such a tragic outcome? Your husband was already pressing his head against the wall, hands laid flat on the concrete as he shut his eyes in grief. “Nana,” he cried, shaking his head, “Nana… No, I’m sorry. I’m sorry, this is一this all my fault.”
“It’s not,” you teared up for your husband, soothing his back to reassure that none of this was your desire. “Shh. It’s gonna be okay一”
“Be swallowed by guilt for the rest of your life!” His stepmom yelled at Satoru from a mere six feet away. Yuuta was then trying his best to silence his mother to no avail. “You killed your grandma because of your incompetence! If you treated your wife well, the divorce would never have happened, the merger would have pushed through, and your Nana would have still been alive. This is all on you!”
Satoru sobbed against the wall, unable to separate himself from the cold concrete as he tormented himself with the undeserved blame. It wrecked you to see him crying helplessly, but it also urged you to stand up against his stepmom.
“It’s not fair to put the blame on him,” you responded in utter disbelief, “he didn’t want this and nor did I.”
The woman simply avoided your gaze and continued to glare at her stepson. “You should step down from your position in the company,” she suddenly brought up, prompting Satoru to turn around and look at her with a puzzled face, “Since you’ve given this family so much shame, it’s only right for you to do so.”
Why was she mentioning such matters of inheritance at a time of someone’s demise?
[warning]
As perplexed as you and Satoru were, his father suddenly walked out of the mortuary, wiping his eyes behind his glasses before noticing his son’s presence next to you.
“D-Dad.”
“You son of a一!”
Your father-in-law was seeing red. He didn’t hold back on throwing his fist across his son’s face, rendering him speechless with a busted lip as he continued to throw multiple punches without mercy. You were completely petrified at the sight of your husband willingly receiving the ruthless strikes until his nose started bleeding. No, the old man didn’t stop there. He even went as far as throttling Satoru on the neck, restricting his son’s breathing while he teared up from all the beating that he received.
“Stop!” you screamed, trying to separate the two as your hands began to shake. “Don’t hurt him!”
Yuuta helped you by grappling his stepdad away from Satoru, but the old man was far too absorbed in letting his own son have a taste of hell through his demon rage. “Dad, stop it.”
“D-Dad, I-I’m s-sorry.” Your husband was pressed against the wall, face turning red from the lack of oxygen before his father hit him across the face one more time without any remorse.
“You see what you’ve done?! Do you see?!” His growling voice echoed through the hallways and he was never going to let Satoru go until the nurses and bodyguards rushed to separate the two after seeing the entire scene before their eyes.
“Sir, that’s enough.”
“You’re causing a disturbance to other patients.”
Your chest was tightening from all the things that you’ve had to witness and you felt like throwing up from the nausea that the old man’s brutality had shown, but you had to gather yourself together to quickly take your husband in your arms. You had to be strong for his sake because God knows how much it shattered you to see his fists violently shaking after being thrashed by his own father. Satoru deserved none of this. He did not deserve to be blamed for the death of a person that he loved, he did not deserve to be beaten into a bloody pulp to serve as his father’s punching bag, and he did not deserve the pain of having no one else by his side to provide him even the tiniest bit of comfort.
This was the moment where you finally understood why Satoru had been desperate to make you stay.
“Hey,” you crouched down as he fell on the floor, pulling a handkerchief to wipe the blood on his nose, “It’s okay. I’m here… I’m here. I won’t let him near you again.” You let him rest his head on your chest as you silently cried together, embracing him with your warmth and allowing him to mourn for his loss. You had to get Yuuta to call for a nurse and give your husband some first aid treatment for his bruises while you watched how your father-in-law walked away together with his wife, stopping in their tracks as soon as they crossed another person’s path.
It was Satoru’s mother.
She was standing still like a statue, eyes widened in horror as she looked at him from a distance. She must have witnessed all the violence that her own son had just received. But because you were too drained, you did not have the energy to greet her and simply observed from afar how she slapped your father-in-law’s face. “How dare you hit my son!”
Was it the first time she had seen him hitting Satoru? Was she not aware that her son had been physically abused by his father’s own hands? With the way your mother-in-law was seething, it seemed as if she had no single knowledge that this wasn’t the first time that her own flesh and blood had to receive that much violence.
Satoru, while wrapped in your arms, weakly looked up to see his mother in a fit of rage in front of her ex-husband and second wife. “Mom…”
“Just stay here with me,” you told him, wiping the faint tears on his cheek. So many things were happening in a single day that you were so close to fainting. You couldn’t even properly grieve Nana’s death because of all the family conflicts that were ensuing. When will all of this end?
“Don’t you have any respect for your mother? This is how you grieve for her death?” The sound of Satoru’s mom’s voice rang in your ears as she yelled at her ex-husband. “You never changed! If I had known that you were hitting my son, I wouldn’t have left him with you!”
“It’s not the right time to discuss this bullshit with you. You’re not my family anymore,” was his response before he proceeded to walk out with his second wife following him behind—a subtle smirk visible on her face. She demanded for Yuuta to follow them despite the boy’s reluctance and left the place without even turning back.
This was a lot to process. Even Satoru himself was discombobulated as he heard the brief exchange between his parents, wincing as the nurse tended to the bruises that he obtained on his face. You squeezed his hand as you both looked at his mother who was now fast approaching together with Nana’s caregiver.
In an instant, she was sitting next to Satoru to carefully examine his wounds. “My son.” There was pain in her voice一not just simple pain, but an amalgam of sorrow, heartbreak, and regret. A mother’s love was unparalleled and you’ve had your fair share of receiving the same nurturing affection so you could understand why your husband seemed to have felt more relaxed. For Satoru, his mother’s presence was the most calming of all. “Are you okay? How can mom make it better?”
Instead of shunning her like he normally did, he allowed her to give him a comforting hug. “Nana, she… She must have been surprised.”
You exhaled and closed your eyes. “We weren’t expecting that the divorce would affect her this much.” It was physically, mentally, and emotionally draining. You haven’t even had the time to check your phone knowing that you probably had dozens of calls from your own family.
“I’m sorry to chime in, but…” the caregiver trailed off as you all turned to look at her, “I don’t think Nana died because of that.”
Sera was livid.
She couldn’t believe that you would have the audacity to say those things to her face as if you weren’t the one who stole Gojou away from her. Saying bullshit like ‘you seem to want everything that I have’ was such an insult for Sera to hear because why would she want something that was rightfully hers in the first place? Regardless if you and Satoru had been childhood friends, he never would have fallen in love with her if he truly loved you. Besides, he was only desperate to be with you now because he was striving to reach the CEO position, and by then, he would leave you to come running back to Sera.
She didn’t feel as angry when Satoru ignored her when she tried to stop him from chasing after you last night. She was simply surprised, but had let things be knowing that a conflict was arising between the two of you. More arguments would be a win-win situation for Sera because Gojou would soon realize how much of a deceitful, vile person you were.
She already expected prior to the celebration that you were going to parade yourself wearing a designer dress while walking around with your so-called husband to get everyone’s attention. You were an attention seeker so that was not a surprise. What shocked Sera mostly was how you pulled up in a sexy dress that made you look like a cheap whore. Maybe, that was the real you after all. All that elegance was just a facade to hide your true nature.
Still and all, that was not the main concern for today. The reason why she met up with Naoya was to ask him about the stupid dress that he made her wear. She was invited to visit their mansion so that they could have a private talk at their spacious outdoor patio and Sera had to refrain herself from becoming enthralled with the impressive architecture of their chateau. If she wasn’t too frustrated, she would have complimented how magnificent the Zen’ins’ property was.
“You set me up. It was her old dress!” she snapped, huffing as she sat at one of the chairs in the patio.
Imported English teas and biscuits were prepared for her on the table as Naoya himself then sat across from her. After hearing Sera’s accusation, he was quick to widen his eyes in surprise. “No way. Really?”
He had no idea? Sera reached for the huge paper bag that had the dress and handed it to him. “That damn dress. You knew she rejected it for her wedding, didn’t you?”
Naoya took a sip from his teacup, only smiling after he put it down. “How would I know that? I wasn’t even invited to their wedding.”
Right. But then again, that girl from Elie Saab was his friend so he could have an idea. Sera refused to accept his reason. “I’m pretty sure that Meredith girl told you.”
Under the sunlight brought by this clear afternoon, the guy’s hair was an ashen grey with dark tips that accentuated his golden saintly features. If Sera wasn’t so in love with Satoru, she would have openly expressed how handsome Naoya was. “Meredith told me that the dress was made for someone but she didn’t say who,” he explained, relaxed and unbothered. “Look, how would I know it was Y/N-chan’s dress if it was never specified to me?”
Sera considered this: if this man was lying, he would look unsettled right now. He would feel uncomfortable under her accusatory gaze and probably be guilt-ridden for trying to fool her. Naoya seemed like a genuine guy and Sera was a very perceptive person so she would have easily noticed from his body language that he was lying.
He showed none of those.
“You still made me wear a wedding dress, though.” She slumped on her seat and crossed her arms. “I mean, it was really gorgeous and all but I didn’t realize that it was fitting for a wedding until that witch pointed it out.”
The corner of Naoya’s lips upturned. “Witch?”
“Y/N.” Sighing, she rolled her eyes remembering how you looked that night. “Can you believe she wore that trashy dress? It was showing too much skin. Do you think that’s appropriate when she’s a married woman?”
“Ah…” The blond stared at her face as she talked, looking as though her face was too pleasing to gaze at. “Well, you do many inappropriate things yourself.”
Sera denied that straight away. “At least, I’m not pretentious. Everything about her reeks of entitlement and she’s putting on an act to hide it.”
Naoya propped an elbow on the table and rested his chin on his palm. “Her elegance isn’t an act, but you have a point there. It must be annoying to see that woman, huh? I always thought she’s a bore so I never really paid much attention.” Tilting his head, he scanned her face and smiled. “I bet people still found you more beautiful than her last night. You see the difference between you two? You were a pure flower dressed in a beautiful white dress while she's a try-hard vixen attempting to look high fashion with such skimpy attire. Poor Satoru-kun. He must have been so embarrassed for his wife.”
Every time this man spoke, Sera found herself agreeing with him more and more. He could understand her sentiments pretty well and he, too, was reasonably distasteful towards you. How could she suspect him when he had been nothing but helpful towards her? Sera decided to look past the wedding dress incident this once and gave Naoya a chance. “Rumors say that she announced a divorce that’s why the merger didn’t push through. I feel bad for Satoru.”
The news seemed to have intrigued Naoya even more. “Is that so?” he hummed, seemingly pondering at the thought of your divorce. “Y/N-chan’s pretty brazen, isn’t she?”
She thinks she’s all that. Sera couldn’t even begin. You must be in seventh heaven now that you prevented Satoru’s chances of taking over the company because of your selfish desire to monopolize him. Business was business—you should be a better wife to him and support his dreams instead of ruining all of his hard work. This was one of the many reasons why Sera knew that she would be a better wife than you would ever be.
“I really don’t understand what people see in her,” she mused, watching how the colorful butterflies flew above the perennial shrubs. “Aside from her money and status, of course. She’s never been with any other man except Satoru so maybe that’s why she’s being so obsessive. I’d be suffocated if I were him.”
Naoya listened to her as he grabbed a viennese whirl and took a small bite. To think of it, even this man’s casual clothes seemed too expensive. Do rich people really live like this? “The next time you see Satoru-kun, you should show how much you pity him for being stuck with his wife,” he advised, eyes trailing on Sera’s neck. “You have to sound genuine, though. If he feels that you care about his well-being more than your own, he would easily soften up. Say ‘I imagine it must be stressful to live with a toxic wife’ or something like that. Be convincing when you express your sympathy for his marriage and maintain your class while doing so.”
Maintaining my class. Sera looked down at her coordinated tweed outfit and felt strangely satisfied. Who knew that wearing these types of clothes could make her feel expensive? “That’d be easy.”
He gave her a look of approval. “Good girl. Now, do you know any dirt or rumors going around about Y/N-chan?”
Her thin lips stretched into a smile as they looked at one another with a gleam of curiosity. Was Naoya perhaps trying to read her mind? Well, as of now, her thoughts flew to the head of the Zen’in household. There were rumors that you were infertile because you hadn’t gotten pregnant even after being married for months, but Sera knew that this was because you were taking birth control pills so it was futile to use that against you. What she could think of, on the other hand, was your particular closeness towards Toji Zen’in who was a widower and of a slightly more powerful status than Satoru. Maybe you wanted to hit two birds in one stone. Sera spitefully laughed at the thought before she decided to share them with Naoya. “I think it’s weird that she’s very close with Toji, don’t you think? I mean, he’s your family and I’m afraid that she might drag him down if there are rumors about them having an affair. But then again, he isn’t married so he has no liabilities with anyone. It’s Y/N who will receive the public’s brutal criticism.”
She was hoping to see Naoya sniggering along with her, but she was taken aback when she saw how his expression became cold. “Don’t mess with Toji-kun,” he stated, firmly. “Or any of my family. You’ll regret it.”
The sudden change in his demeanor alarmed her. “Oh, I wasn’t trying to—”
For a minute, Naoya exhaled as if he was gathering his thoughts together before he returned back to his playful self. “If you’re so curious, Toji-kun just feels bad for Y/N,” he revealed, just as Sera had assumed initially. So she was right after all. “He feels some sort of responsibility over her because he’s great friends with Gen.”
“Gen?” Sera blinked as she asked.
“Y/N’s older sister,” he quickly answered while leaning his back against the chair. “You should be thankful that you haven’t met her. If she finds out that you’re having an affair with her brother-in-law, she might pull your hair until you’re bald.” He chuckled in between his words before adding, “Not gonna lie, women like Gen are sexy.”
Sera was about to ask more about your sister but a rich, manly voice interrupted her conversation with Naoya. She turned around to see Toji Zen’in stepping out of the patio with a phone on his ear and a gaze glued towards the horizon.
“Are you sure you’re gonna be okay?” His voice was full of worry when he spoke through the phone. “How’s your health? If anything bad happens, give me a call.”
Was he talking to a girlfriend? Sera frowned, but didn’t take her sight off him. She saw how he sighed after ending the phone call, sullen because of whatever the other person on the line said to him. Toji seemed so distracted by his thoughts that he started lighting up a cigarette without noticing Sera and Naoya’s presence to his left side.
“Toji-kun~!” the blond called in a sing-song voice. But before Toji looked at him, he first noticed Sera with fleeting surprise. “Toji-kun, is everything okay?”
The dark haired man cleared his throat and took a drag from his cigarette, releasing a puff of white smoke from his mouth. He didn’t even bother greeting Sera. “Yeah, I just heard some bad news.”
Naoya’s inquisitive self continued to ask. “Like what?”
“Like—”
“Dad! You said you’re not gonna smoke anymore.”
“Oh, what do we have here?”
Joining the patio were two familiar teenagers that appeared in countless magazines and media outlets before. The boy was a splitting image of his father while the girl had dark green hair that fell just a few centimeters shy from her shoulders. If Sera was right, this was Megumi and Mai. Both kids were known as popular heirs and heiresses to their rich family business and you had to be living under a rock to not recognize them.
“Just this once,” Toji said to his son, patting his back before putting the cigarette away from him.
Sera was about to introduce herself until Mai cut her off by scrutinizing her. There was sharpness within her gaze as she looked at Sera from head to toe, crossing her arms before turning to Naoya. What a rude, entitled brat. “Naoya, is this—?”
“Satoru-kun’s ex-girlfriend,” said the blond, sending a lopsided grin towards her. “This is Sera. She’s gorgeous, right?”
Megumi was polite enough to give her a respectful bow, but Mai refused to show any cordiality by simply rolling her eyes. Is this girl insecure? She must be. Sera was absolutely baffled at how such a young girl could act like such a snob. She wasn’t even that pretty in person.
“Hey, Megumi,” Sera decided to only greet the boy out of spite, disregarding any sort of acknowledgement towards Mai as she focused on Toji and his son. “You look really handsome. I guess you got it from your dad.”
Toji’s stoic visage didn’t change while Megumi let out an awkward laugh. “Thank you, Miss Sera.”
“Naoya,” Toji called for the blond’s attention who quickly looked up at him like an obedient puppy. “Go and prepare a plain suit after that.”
The guy raised an eyebrow. “Suit? For what?”
“We’re going to a funeral tonight,” said the older man, “Satoru’s grandmother passed away.”
At the revelation of the devastating news, both Naoya and Sera became tongue-tied.
Sera was rendered speechless at the realization that her one true love was grieving for his grandmother’s demise. Although she was not able to formally meet the old woman, she had heard enough about her to understand just how important she was to him.
Satoru. He was the only person on her mind. I have to be there for him.
FLASHBACK: The Gojou Mansion
Eula felt triumphant. It wasn’t like she was close to you, but she would definitely spoil you with compliments for being a complete genius tonight. She still couldn’t process that you would request for a divorce at the perfect moment before the merger was supposedly going to be announced to the public. You’ve far exceeded her expectations because she honestly believed that you weren’t capable of leaving her stupid stepson. Whatever made you decide to walk away from him, she would avidly support you.
The divorce must have been brought up because of something that Sera had done. After all, Eula was one to hear the poor girl’s pathetic stories of how she was suffering because of you, of how she was stripped off of her loving relationship because Satoru had to marry you. In all honesty, Eula couldn’t care less about Sera’s life. She only needed her to fuel her husband’s rage towards his son and ruin whatever thin string of a relationship they had left. As much as Eula could just directly speak to Shinzo about handing the company over to Yuuta, the old man was too adamant on passing down most of his assets to his real son. ‘The company will be Satoru’s,’ said her husband. ‘He just needs to prove to me that he deserves it.’
Well, now that Satoru failed at being a proper husband alone, he was causing his own downfall without Eula getting involved. It was only a matter of time until her husband would change everything in his Last Will and Testament and allow Yuuta to be the successor to the business empire.
With that thought, she laughed to herself and leaned against the glass balustrade, overlooking the view of the mansion’s grand foyer as she dialed a certain number. She just couldn’t wait to give him the news.
Fortunately, the young man was able to answer her call straight away, always eager to hear what she had to say. “Hey, party’s done already?” Naoya spoke from the other end of the line.
A smile tugged at her lips. “Guess what,” she began, “the merger’s not gonna happen anymore.”
There was silence that lasted for a few seconds but Eula expected that very reaction from him. “Wait, for real? What did—how did it happen?”
“Well… Y/N asked for a divorce in front of Shinzo and her dad before the merger announcement. How fucking hilarious is that? I was trying so hard not to celebrate right then and there,” she recounted the happenings with amusement filling her voice, “You should’ve seen the look on Satoru’s face. How pitiful. He’s completely ruined.”
As Eula tapped her bejeweled fingers on the handrails, she could hear Naoya sniggering from the background. “And where’s your husband now? Throwing a tantrum somewhere?”
“He’s trying to win Kenji’s favor and convince him to still proceed with the merger. He’s so desperate that he even asked him to not let their family matters affect their business,” she explained while she looked at her manicured nails. “I got worried at first because Shinzo might be able to convince that girl’s dad, but the man seemed resolute about not pushing through. I actually applaud him for his loyalty towards his daughter, you know? Shinzo is nothing but a scumbag who has no love for his own son and it’s biting him back on the ass. He doesn’t know that I’m his karma all this time.”
Naoya agreed with a chuckle. “Now that’s the evil woman I like.”
“Why don’t we celebrate?” She proposed the idea. “I’ll book us a presidential suite. It’s been a while since I saw you. Don’t you miss me?”
Eula got too excited thinking about the things that she couldn’t wait to do with Naoya tonight. It felt like she won the largest sum of money in a casino with how elated she was right now. A mansion, a company that was soon to be her son’s, and a handsome man like Naoya who would willingly kiss her feet when she said so. She was blessed like this because she deserved it. It was her own efforts and hardships that led her to this lavish life and no one could take this away from her.
“Yeah… Miss you, too,” he trailed off and sighed, “but I can’t really meet you tonight. I’m a little busy.”
Busy at eleven in the evening? Eula became suspicious but she didn’t try and push him further about their supposed rendezvous. In fact, she wished him a good night’s sleep before she ended the call and decided to enjoy the night on her own. Perhaps a bottle of Sauvignon blanc and a warm bubble bath would be the best way to enjoy this night.
Unfortunately, her mouth fell agape when she saw another presence standing by the door. Her heart stopped and her limbs were paralyzed.
“Nana?”
The way the old woman glared at her gave her an idea that she must have heard the entire conversation. Despite the wrinkles on her skin, Eula could see how Nana’s face contorted into anger and disbelief. “You wicked woman! You’ve been fooling my son and making my grandson miserable this whole time! My Satoru… he is suffering because of you!”
Eula was completely nonplussed, moon-eyed as she watched how her mother-in-law lifted her cane and tried to hit her with it. But before it could land on her, she was able to grab the rod and throw it across the floor. “It was a misunderstanding!”
“I heard everything!” Nana was panicking as if in hurry to let the whole neighborhood know. “You’re having an affair and you’re plotting my grandson’s ill-fate so you can have all the assets to yourself, you—! You evil woman, you spawn of satan!”
While the old woman’s accusations were right, Eula was breathing hard and trying to come up with an excuse before her plans would get ruined. No, she couldn’t let this old woman put all of her efforts to waste.
“I’m going to tell Shinzo…” Nana mindlessly mumbled, holding the door for support before she entered her room in a rush.
Eula’s own feet carried her to the old woman’s room, shutting the door as she watched how Nana dialed her son’s contact number. “No! No, you can’t tell him! Give me that!”
[warning]
She was no longer thinking straight when she pushed her mother-in-law towards her bed so she could reach for the phone, but the woman dropped it on the floor just when the caller ID finally showed that Shinzo answered the call. Eula’s eyes grew wide as she felt the intense wave of anxiety coursing through her entire body.
“Mom, what is it? I’m in the middle of something here.”
“Sh-Shin—!” Eula straddled Nana and pressed a pillow on her face. The latter tried to whimper through the cushion but the former placed more pressure on her face to suppress any noise from coming out. “Haaah! Hhh! Hhhng!”
“Shut the hell up,” she spat, glancing at the phone to see if Shinzo was still on the other end of the line. While Nana struggled to get the pillow off her face, Eula was too busy waiting for her husband to drop the call so she could finally release the old woman who was trying to flap around like a fish.
“Mom, are you there? I’m hanging up.”
Eula breathed deeply. ‘Hang the fuck up’, she silently thought and waited for a few more minutes as Nana eventually weakened underneath her. It was only until she was sure that Shinzo had already dropped the call when Eula released the older woman with a sigh of relief. “Nana, listen to me—”
‘No.’ Eula’s body went ice cold. Blood had drained out of her face and horripilation of dread tingled down her spine. She was stunned after looking at the old woman’s face in overwhelming fear. ‘No, no. This isn’t possible.’
“Nana, wake up!” Eula tried shaking the elder’s unconscious body as fright started filling her veins. The old woman’s mouth was parted wide open and her eyes were staring at her in a static but terrified way. “Nana… No, no. I didn’t… I didn’t do anything.”
She couldn’t stop her trembling fingers as they continued to shake uncontrollably and she was shaking her head in extreme fear, already running out of the door while Nana’s lifeless eyes followed her trail, making Eula lose her sanity as she stepped out to see Yuuta looking at her with a traumatized face.
“M-Mom, wh-what d-did you do?”
Eula’s supply of oxygen lessened as she grabbed her son’s hand and dragged her into the corridor. “I didn’t… I didn’t mean it. Listen to me.”
“D-Did you kill Nana?” Yuuta shuddered and moved away from his own mother who tried to stop him from saying anything by covering his mouth.
Somehow, Eula managed to gather herself together before anyone could see the way she was quivering with terror. She had to let her son know that this scene should never, ever be told to anyone else.
“If I go down, you go down with me.” She planted the thought inside her frightened son’s head. “If you don’t want mom to go to jail, you will not speak a word. You will pretend that you never saw anything. You will act like you have no idea that this happened. Erase it from your memory and everything will be fine.”
“Mom—”
“Pull yourself together!” And while Eula was waiting for her son to calm down, she decided to call for the maids who were now supposedly in their sleeping quarters. “Help! Help us! Something’s wrong with Nana!”
Yuuta, who stood like a statue for the longest time, had finally escaped his mother’s grasp and ran off to his room after having processed the disturbing experience with his own eyes.
‘I’m going to hell’, it was all Eula could think of. But if that was her destination, she might as well bring the whole family with her.
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15 Tips for Keeping Your Home Warm in the Winter
Check out new post published on https://www.greenplanetplumbing.com.au/15-tips-for-keeping-your-home-warm-in-the-winter/
15 Tips for Keeping Your Home Warm in the Winter
Installing gas log fireplace and more tips to keep your loved ones warm during winter.
Keeping your home warm and cosy in winter is every homemaker’s goal. But sometimes, it can be challenging to come up with ways to keep your home warm and comfortable without paying much on heating expenses. It’s all too familiar with many Aussie homemakers: when the temperature drops, the energy bill goes up.
But there are ways to stay warm in this cold season that does not necessarily entail going broke. Here is a collection of time-tested tips and hacks you can try this winter and during cold snaps.
1. Get your house insulated.
One effective way of keeping your home warm during the winter season is to have it insulated. Insulation acts as a barrier to prevent heat loss through ceilings and roofs, walls and floors. With insulation, your home stays comfortably warm during winter and cool during summer.
It is essential to consider your region’s climatic conditions when installing insulations. You can prioritise keeping the heat in or out; the insulation level will depend largely on your region’s climate. With proper insulation, you can save up to 45% on cooling and heating energy. Besides, you also minimise condensation and prevent mould and damp spots from forming in your home.
2. Inspect your house for gaps and cracks.
The presence of gaps and cracks results in heat loss and can even let cold air in. Draughts are responsible for as much as 25% heat loss in your home during winter and heat gain in summer. Fortunately, it’s quite easy to DIY remedy this issue.
You can easily seal the cracks around your windows and doors, floorboards, and walls with air-sealing products. Use draught seal around your door to draught-proof your home. These products don’t cost much and are available at your local hardware stores.
3. Consider installing pelmets on your windows.
Not only are pelmets decorative, but they are also functional. Those little boxes sitting over your curtain rod can effectively block cold air from seeping into your room. If you haven’t got one yet, you might want to consider installing some. Alternatively, you may also attach a strip of plywood on top and behind the curtain rail.
If you can’t install pelmets or are not keen on making permanent fixings for now, you can try temporary solutions. You may move your curtain railings so that it reaches the ceiling, or simply dress the area with a cloth or scarf.
4. Invest in double glazed windows.
Double glazed windows can powerfully insulate your window and prevent heat transfer. Though these are costlier than your standard window, you will save a lot on energy in the long run. You can also fake it and treat your window to get the benefits of double glazed windows.
To DIY, you will only need inexpensive double glazed window kits found in most home depots. Application is relatively easy, especially if you have a knack for handcrafting.
5. Lay down some floor coverings.
One of the simplest hacks in keeping your home toasty in winter is by laying down some floor coverings. Rugs and carpets can do wonders in keeping the area where your feet land warm and comfortable.
Go for wool rugs for the winter season as these can contribute to keeping you feel warm. These rugs are also a safer tandem with your fireplace since it is fire resistant. Dhurrie rugs are an inexpensive and great alternative to carpets and provide a warm and comfortable covering on your floor.
6. Dress up your windows with drapes.
Invest in some lovely curtains that will maximise heat retention and effectively block cold air from coming in. Window coverings like curtains stop heat from escaping through the windows. Go for curtains with thicker fabrics, such as tweed or suede, for optimal thermal backing.
You can also go for block out or thermal blinds rather than thick curtains if you prefer a more minimalist approach. You can dress up your windows in different ways that will suit your interior style.
7. Make the most of the sunshine.
Open up your curtains and let the sunlight in during the day. This will help deliver natural (and free!) heat into the room. It will also help dry out moisture brought about by the cold, thus preventing the formation of mould. When the sun has set, draw the curtains to preserve heat and keep the draught out.
8. Only heat rooms that are in use.
It may be tempting to heat up the whole house, but it is not energy and cost-efficient. Imagine heating a room in the house that nobody really uses. The energy spent to make the unused rooms warm can easily jack up energy bills. That’s precisely what you want to avoid.
The best way to do is to only heat rooms that are actually being used. Not only will it conserve energy, but it will also help warm up the room faster versus heating up the whole place. Make sure that you’re using the right type and size of room heater for better results.
9. Shut the door of the rooms that are not in use.
Zone out and close the door of the unused rooms to maximise warmth in the room that is in use. Close the areas like the laundry room and bathroom, so you keep the heat where you need it most – in the living room, bedroom, or office. Shutting the doors will also prevent cold air from moving into the heated room. Make sure that everyone at home is in on zoning out and avoid leaving the door ajar.
10. Set your heater.
Ideally, the thermostat should be set between 19-20°C (66-68°F) in winter. Of course, it will depend mostly on your preference and which room you are heating. You should also set your timer so that it warms the room only for the time it is needed. For instance, you may set the timer to gradually start heating the room 20-30 minutes before you get up in the morning. It’s a lot better than turning the thermostat full blast to warm the room rapidly.
You might also want to set the timer to switch off at night when you are in bed. The residual heat and the thick blanket will keep you warm. Turn off the heaters when you are leaving the room or the house to save electricity and cut down on energy bills.
A small reminder about heater: make sure it is maintained to keep it in its proper working order. You wouldn’t want to find it broken or malfunctioning just when you need it to work. It’s best to have it serviced once every two years so you won’t encounter any problems at the most inconvenient time in the future.
11. Make your room warm with this fan hack.
Here is another hack you might want to try: put a fan in front of the heater or fireplace. It might sound counterintuitive, but there is a logical explanation for this. Placing a fan in front of your fireplace or heater catches hot air as it rises. Putting it on a low setting can help circulate heat and disperse warmth.
Take note that some fan models have reverse or winter setting. When you put it on winter or reverse mode, the fan’s blades change its turning direction and go anti-clockwise. It then catches warm air as it rises and spreads it around the room. Make sure that the fan is only on low setting because it works best that way.
12. Rearrange furniture in your room.
Sometimes, it all boils down to where you are in the room. Is your favourite chair situated close to the door or window? Maybe that’s why you don’t feel so comfy while lounging there. Cold air may come in through gaps in the windows and doors (which is also why you should inspect for and seal those gaps). It is best to rearrange furniture and:
keep the couch closer to the heat source and away from drafts;
keep the bigger and bulkier furniture away from the heat source so it wouldn’t block the flow;
consider positioning the couch and bed against the internal wall of the house rather than the wall facing outside.
13. Reconsider your bed linens.
Cotton sure feels nice and soft but it is best for summer months. Some bed linen materials like flannelettes are fantastic on cold winter nights. It is lightweight and soft, and it can keep you warm throughout the night without making you sweat. But if you want to get extra warm and cosy, fleece bedding might be a good choice. It all depends on individual preferences and receptiveness to cold and heat.
14. Choose warm clothes .
Yes, it’s a no-brainer, but it’s still worth mentioning. Wearing the right garment is the key to surviving the cold winter months. After all, it’s so much easier to warm yourself than the whole house, right? Wearing the right clothes will even help you save a few dollars on your energy bill.
Layer on some clothes and adjust when you get hotter or colder. Choose materials like wool, polyester or nylon as these are excellent in retaining body warmth.
Thermal underwear can help regulate body temperature, keeping you warm, dry and comfortable.
Add on accessories such as gloves, scarf, shawl, or coat to make you feel extra cosy. A warm pair of boots will keep your feet comfy.
15. Install gas log fireplace.
Get the warm and cosy ambience of wood-burning fireplace minus the hassle of maintenance. Gas logs may look like real woods, but these are actually ceramic and rely on either liquid propane or natural gas to work. Gas log fireplace is taking over and replacing the conventional furnace. Here are its benefits:
· No more chopping up woods, no mess, easy maintenance
Gas log fireplace leaves behind no soot and dust, and there would be no need to sweep chimneys.
· Warms more efficiently
With the conventional fireplace, the warmth wafts and fades up the chimney. Ceramic logs produce and retain heat better than the standard fireplace.
· Much safer
Unlike the traditional wood burning fireplace, gas log fireplace has no open flame.
· Easy to install
Unlike the wood burning fireplace, the gas log fireplace does not require a chimney. Instead, it only needs a vent pipe. It won’t take as much time and effort to install.
· Greener alternative
Gas log fireplace produces less greenhouse emission compared with other home heating systems.
· Adds value to your home
Gas log fireplace is becoming not just functional but aesthetic feature as well. It can even elevate the value of your home.
Fancy a Gas Log Fireplace in Your Home? Green Planet Plumbing offers fireplace installation.
It can efficiently warm the room, requires minimal maintenance, and looks super stylish. Who wouldn’t want an elegant gas log fireplace at home? There is nothing like sitting in front of a beautiful and cosy fireplace in winter. The tall flame crackling and dancing as it warms up the room and imparts a romantic and relaxed ambience. Imagine your family huddled together by the fire as you share stories and maybe some hot drinks, too?
You probably think that it costs so much to have this fireplace installed at home? On the contrary, it’s much cheaper than the traditional wood burning fireplace. Plus, it costs less to operate! With its many benefits already mentioned in this article, the modern gas log fireplace can easily outdo the old one!
Here at Green Planet Plumbing, we make owning a gas log fireplace easier and more affordable. Entrust the project to our reliable and skilled team! We will help you pick out the most suitable fireplace to meld harmoniously with your home design.
Go ahead and make your home become a sanctuary that it is. Give us a call today at 02 4911 9402 or get in touch with us through email. We serve anywhere within Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Central Coast and Hunter Valley.
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