Chapter 37

Aiden laid down back on the bed, a tremendously large Alaskan King, as he received Akari's call.

"So?" He answered back carelessly.

The girl at the other end of the line was flabbergasted by his flippant response. "So? What do you mean, so? She obviously did it because of you! You have to come back!"

Aiden narrowed his eyes a bit. Her voice sounded a touch off.

"Why? She's nothing to me." He replied coldly. Meanwhile, the various beauties at his side stirred. "And how the hell did you even get this number?" He knit his brows. He'd changed the number as soon as he'd left.

"What's wrong?" Yue Xuan'er, a friend of his benefactor, asked. She was a blue-haired woman with a pink heart tattoo on her left ass cheek.  She positioned herself near his cock, and as she lifted herself from the bed she licked the tip with her moist little tongue, lowering her mouth over his now-erect penis.

"Is it another rival trying to take you from us?" Another woman, Gu Mingkong, teased. Her locks of sleek honey-colored hair fell over half her face as she turned him towards her and locked their lips together. She offered soft little moans as he cupped her sex.

"Is someone with you?" Akari questioned, perhaps a tad too sourly. "I heard voices, and...what is that? Are you...?"

Aiden didn't care to answer them

"Aiden, please," Akari all but begged, moving on from her previous words. " Her mother's going through a hard time...they took care of you, didn't they? The least you can do is come pay your r--"

"Yuuji!" All of a sudden another familiar voice came and screamed out "his" name.

Aiden broke away from Mingkong's hot tongue and scoffed. "Fucking knew it." He could smell bullshit from miles away.

R-Rumi?! Hey, what're you--? Quit it!" A small scuffle was heard on the other end. Finally, one of them won. "Yuuji, please come back!"

Aiden laughed unpleasantly. Aren't you supposed to be dead?

"I knew I wouldn't be that lucky...And are you kidding?" He shook his head. "I told you, dammit. I want nothing to do with you! Either of you!" He snarled. "Just leave me the hell alone!"

Silence. Not just from them, but even the women by his side fell quiet by the animosity in his voice.

"Aiden?" Xuan'er rose from his groin. "Are you alright?" Her voice was colored with worry. "Who is it?"

He rubbed the bridge of his nose, attempting calm. "It's alright," He rubbed her head a moment before doing the same to Mingkong. "Sorry for scaring you."

"Well, if you say so..."

"But if you need help, just ask, okay?"

The two settled down and resumed their fawning.

"Who is that?!" Rumi demanded, clearly incensed with jealousy. "Yuuji, what have you been--?"

"Shut up, " He cut her off coldly. "Why are you even still talking? I thought I made myself clear already."

"...Okay. I get it, alright?" Rumi's voice shook. "I-I was horrible. I know that. I should've been better to you...I can be better." He heard her sniffles. "Just please come back. I miss you. Mother misses you. Even Angela misses you."

Aiden raised a brow at the unexpected name.

"I know mother can be a little weird, too, but if you just give us a chance--"

"Oh, for fuck's sake" He growled viciously. "How many goddam times am I going to have to say this? I. Do. Not. Care!!" He enunciated each word. "I've heard this from you already, you stupid girl. " He recalled the knife to his lung. Like she'd stuck a red-hot poker in him. How the blood pooled in his chest cavity, then forced out as he struggled to breathe. The taste of metal. The feeling of being drowned.

All still very fresh in his mind.

"It didn't make a difference then, why the fuck would you think it would now?" He ground out, his old black rage starting to eat away at him. Like he wanted to just rip someone's jaw off.

By then his breathing was labored, his free hand tightened so much the nails bit into flesh. Once again, the two beauties raised their heads at him. Both concerned and a little scared. He hated that.

It took all he had to not lash out at them. To take it out on them. But that's one of the only lines he never crossed, and damn him if he'd do it now. Least of all for that bitch.

So he endured. Only God knew how, but he did.

Several long moments ticked by. After a while, Akari returned to the phone. "Aiden? You still there?"

Even Aiden didn't know whether he would reply or not. In the end he just let a weary sigh.

"Lose my number, Princess," And without another word, he cut the line.

***

"You see?"Akari sighed. Across from her Rumi sat with a desolate expression.

"I messed up, Akari." Her lip trembled. "I messed up so bad," Her voice broke. Rumi's eyes glistened like precious gems as the tears came. Seeing such a small, vulnerable Rumi was unsettling. Rumi had always been so strong and outspoken. the most popular girl in her year. Now she was sitting there looking so pained, so lost.

"Yuuji really just....hates me."

Her mother had driven herself crazy searching for Yuuji. These days, she was never home. Only Rumi knew that Yuuji had been living with Akari and her family in those initial days. Up to now, she hadn't told her mother anything because she felt Yuuji needed time away. Maybe think things through. At least to consider coming to talk to them.

But no. Just as he did with them, he'd vanished from Akari and her family's lives. The only way they'd been able to find him was due to a favor Akari had begged her mother to call in a favor with the owner of the spa resort, managing to track down the woman he'd left with based on Akari's memories of her appearance.

After that, it wasn't hard to get his number or learn that he'd changed his name.

Akiko herself wanted to call him, too. Honestly, her feelings regarding the young man were muddled. Since her husband died, she'd been alone. Taking over the company, raising Akari and Kanon...it was hard. Stressful.

That was probably why she so easily accepted him when he appeared. The attraction was, of course, immediate. Yuuji--Aiden, now, she supposed--was strong and virile, with a hint of darkness in his eyes that was dangerously seductive. If the genders were reversed, she'd probably not have even questioned him at the time and have just pounced.

But, being a woman, she was slightly more cautious. Even then, deep down, she thought, "I deserve  this." Did she feel regret? Hard to say.

That first night with him was so intense and exhilarating. All the nights after were even more exciting. She loved every moment of their time in bed. She even began to anticipate their time together more and more. She'd thought so before, but she really did feel like some 16 year old girl again when it came to him.  Albeit one with a far more fulfilling and adventurous sex life than she actually had at such an age.

If there was a regret, it was being too weak to refuse his touch past that first night. A victim of sexual abuse, Yuuji was far too jaded. Sex meant nothing to him and he'd told her as much.

Which also meant she didn't mean anything to him. Other than a benefactor, maybe.

Why would it be otherwise? He's young enough to be your son, silly woman. She chided herself, not for the first time. He should still be in school enjoying his youth, not whoring himself to some worn-out old office lady.

Or. no...what had he said? "You're a kinder lover than I've had before. Maybe that changes things."

Right, that was it. Maybe that meant he actually...? Akiko's face warmed, fidgeting in her seat, not daring to continue the thought. Then she stopped, recalling the voices they heard.

It doesn't matter anyway, she thought numbly. It sounded like he already replaced me.

Had she started to grow too affectionate towards him? Hopeful? Perhaps. And it was laughable. Someone her age pining for someone so young. Worse, the son of one of her former friends. "Former" because after hearing what Naoko did to him, she couldn't stand the thought of the woman.

....Akiko looked at Rumi. "Like mother, like daughter, "  He'd said.

She didn't ask Rumi about it but also didn't expect her to tell the truth. And she didn't need to; The girl didn't cry for him like one would a brother.

That's all Akiko needed to condemn Rumi in her mind. Honestly, she felt sickened just looking at the girl.

How could you two do something so vile?

Akiko understood Yuuji's need to leave leave. Running into her so suddenly, he must've panicked. Thought Akiko wouldn't be able to hide or protect him.

Or maybe he wasn't thinking much at all.

Akiko could only imagine how he might've felt seeing her again. I should've been there with him. If I had been, maybe he wouldn't have left.

"It seems he's made up his mind." She spoke up for the first time, her voice glacial. "Akari, take your...friend...and escort her out."

The girl nodded. eyes locked onto Rumi. Akiko frowned at that. She felt like she hardly knew her daughter just then.

You saw what they did to him, she thought angrily. How can you still look so concerned for her?

Her daughter's power meant she didn't just see. She experienced it. That's why Akiko couldn't believe Akari was going so far to help Rumi find her brother.

"...Okay," Akari agreed hesitantly. The story Aiden fed to her mother was fake but Akiko believed it and Akari didn't want to make things messier by thoughtlessly exposing the truth.

She'd have to explain so much more if she did, like why he went so such extents to run from Naoko anyway. Plus, it wasn't too far from the truth, she supposed. Both Naoko and Rumi were rather obsessed with Yuuji....well, Rumi was actually into Aiden, but she didn't know that Aiden existed. And who knows, maybe Naoko had done something to the past Yuuji...

Ah it hurt her head trying to wrap her head around everything. Anyway,  since her mother believed in that made-up story, seeing Akari still care about Rumi must seem disturbing.

Although, Rumi did stab him once. Which she did experience, and which hurt a lot. So she wasn't entirely forgiving or as favorable to her as she used to be. Then again, she was Kanon'S friend mainly. Not really Akari's.

At most, she'll just stop them from hanging out as much and hopefully get them to slowly drift apart. Yeah, that sounds good.

Kanon doesn't need a friend who has it in her to stab a man out of jealousy.

In spite of herself, Aiden's tall, muscled frame came to her mind. Well, I supposed its a tiny bit understandable though, she admitted with some embarrassment. Aiden had really sculpted Yuuji's overweight body into something remarkable.

With that, she led a quietly devastated Rumi away.

"Yuuji..." She heard the girl murmur.

Do I really have to let you go? Is there no way?