Chapter Text
-CHAPTER VIII-
She had to stop her negative thinking. It seemed like lately all her fears were magically coming true.
She let out a desperate sound. Why was everything so complicated? Why hadn’t a simple no been enough? What else did Taisho want from her? And why had that damned man shown up in front of her house at such an inopportune hour? Her grandfather had retired to his room on the ground floor and was surely already asleep, but her mother was still in the kitchen preparing dinner for Sota, who hadn’t come back yet. She couldn’t just slip out, she had to go through the main entrance and her mother would surely hear her. She looked out the window and gave up the idea of climbing down from there: she would have broken her neck if she had put a foot wrong.
She looked at the clock on the desk and realized that five minutes had already passed, five minutes of ruminations that could cost her dearly if Taisho got tired of waiting. She quickly retrieved the wig from the back of the closet, where no one could find it, and put it in a bag. Then she took the contact lenses from the drawer of the bedside table and was about to put them on, but her hands were shaking terribly and she decided that no, she wouldn’t wear contact lenses this time. Instead, she decided to bring her sunglasses, to hide her eyes. Surely Taisho would leave alone someone who walked around in dark glasses at night like a madwoman.
She slipped out into the hallway, careful not to make any noise as she closed the door to her room, and slid down the stairs with the grace of a burglar, her terry socks muffled her steps, and she felt like a ninja. She passed by the closed shoji that led to her grandfather’s room and hurried toward the genkan, hoping not to alert her mother. She could hear the TV still on some late-night reality show, and the racket of dishes being put away in the kitchen. She picked up her shoes, a pair of old sneakers that she wore to stay comfortable while doing chores around the shrine’s courtyard, and went outside. As she closed the door, the bag she was holding fell, and that unsuspecting paper bag made a deafening noise in the silence of the hallway. She cursed Taisho, his ancestors, and his lineage, and remained as still as a deer blinded by the headlights of a car. She remained listening, hoping not to hear the light and unmistakable footsteps of her mother approaching and when she was sure that she was out of danger, she gathered everything and closing the door very softly, she rushed towards the shrine’s main staircase. Only at a good distance from the house she put on her shoes.
She stopped a few steps from the entrance torii and if putting a wig on in less than two minutes had been an Olympic sport, she would’ve certainly won the gold for record time. She left the bag in the bushes, put her dark glasses on her nose and considered herself ready for yet another performance. She quickly went down the stone steps, skipping a few, praying every kami she would not fall and make a fool f herself.
When she reached the street she quickly tidied herself up. A dark car, polished like a mirror, was parked under one of the street lamps right in front of the stairs. She approached it with little ease. The sunglasses had been a bad idea, she could see very little and above all she couldn't see who was in the car. She put her face to the window trying to see something and suddenly the glass lowered, revealing Taisho's face. For a few moments they looked into each other’s eyes, she leaning toward the window, he sitting on the driver’s side, and then she sat up embarrassed.
“Get in, Nakamura-san.”
She didn’t have to be told twice, she walked around the car and climbed into the passenger seat, the door was already open.
“You could have chosen a more suitable time, don’t you think?” she adjusted the glasses over her nose and crossed her arms over her chest, realizing only then that she’d left the house without a bra. Not that there was much to hold up, but a lady needed her support.
“As I said, the matter required some urgency.” He looked ahead, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel.
“Couldn’t it have waited at least until tomorrow morning?” she knew in her heart that this meeting would ruin her sleeping schedule.
“No.” Dry, lapidary. An asshole, as always. “We would’ve wasted precious time.”
Kagome noticed only then how different he looked from the other times. He wasn’t wearing a jacket, there was no trace of a tie and in fact his shirt had the first few buttons open. His light hair pulled up and the tanned skin of his exposed neck created a pleasant contrast. “Have you been on vacation?”
That question seemed to surprise him. “I’ve seen more sun than there is on this beautiful evening.” She didn’t understand what he was referring to. “Why are you wearing shades?”
“Uh…” she lacked an excuse, she had only hoped that he would think she was a lunatic, “I never show my face without makeup. Basic rule of every lady.” And of course the first thing that came out of her mouth made her sound dumb.
Taisho turned to her and looked her over, judging her in silence. “From what you’re wearing I guess the same rule doesn’t apply to clothing.”
She looked down at her pink pajamas with a chick printed on the chest – accompanied by the words pio pio – and hoped that a chasm would open up beneath her and swallow her up. “I-I was ready for bed.”
“There’s a limit even if no one is looking, you know.”
“It’s comfortable.”
“It’s polyester.”
“Forgive me, I forgot I was talking to you. I assume you sleep in silk pajamas between Egyptian cotton sheets.” The man’s arrogance knew no bounds, not only had he forced her to leave the house at that unreasonable hour in a hurry but he was also complaining about her clothing, not to mention the not-so-veiled insult to her financial situation.
“It has a strange chemical smell, it could kill you.” He wrinkled his nose in disgust and opened the window.
“Statistically, a stroke could kill me first given my blood pressure levels, and it could happen sooner than you think.” She couldn’t stand him. She put a hand on the handle, ready to eject from the cockpit faster than the speed of light.
“For your information, I sleep naked.”
She turned to him with her mouth open, unable to comment on that statement. For at least a minute neither of them said anything, the silence in that car was starting to take on the shape of embarrassment more and more. She stared at him in shock and when he continued to remain silent, she saw his ears fold between his white hair and, if it hadn’t been for the sunglasses, she was sure she would’ve seen him blush at his own words.
“Why the hell did you say that to me?” she managed to say when she gathered enough courage, her voice coming out high-pitched.
“You must know it…”
“But it’s none of my business!” she interrupted him abruptly. “We don't have that kind of intimacy!”
“…for contractual reasons.” He finished annoyed.
“What contract?”
He leaned toward her and she almost pushed him away, sucking in air to ask him what the hell he thought he was doing, but Taisho opened the glove compartment on the passenger side and pulled out an anonymous folder. “This contract.” He said, handing it to her.
She took the folder fearfully, as if the bundle of papers would bite her and pass her rabies.
“You have until tomorrow night to read it and sign it.”
“I never agreed to be part of this.”
“You’re not part of it, Nakamura-san, you started all of this and it’s your job to help me bring it to an end.”
“B-but I was-…” Her brain was screaming at her to get out of that car, to yell at him that no, no, and no she would never agree to all of that, but her legs were holding her glued to the car seat.
“I’ve already spoken to my father and told him that I would soon introduce him to my…” he hesitated on that last word, turned toward the window, looking away from her, as if embarrassed, then with a sigh continued, “girlfriend.”
If not a stroke, she would’ve died soon anyway, drowned in lies.
“Find someone else. Tokyo is full of aspiring actresses just waiting for the right opportunity, I’m sure anyone would be thrilled to help you. May I suggest Kabukicho.”
“I want you.”
“Why?” the one word came out like a whimper.
“Because no one but you, Taijiya-san, and my assistant knows about this. And since neither of the other two can clearly help me, that narrows down my options.”
“Sorry, but it’s still a no.”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to do it, whether you like it or not.”
“Why does everything that comes out of your mouth sound like a threat?”
“Because it is.” He turned fully towards her, the headlights of a passing car lighting up his eyes with an eerie glow and she found herself hypnotized, “Do I have to remind you of prison, Miss Nakamura?”
“Please stop blackmailing me.” She found herself with her hands clasped, like a supplicant before the altar of a god, begging him to spare her that torment.
“I will, if you decide to accept.” The pathetic scene had had no effect, it seemed he was immune to pleas and immovable just like a cruel and merciless god.
“Tell me, is this some sort of fetish of yours? Do you like people begging you?” the narrow space of the car didn’t allow her to fully express her anger, she wanted to kick the dashboard, punch the window and slap that impudent face that was staring at her in the dim light.
“I like things to go according to plan and the fact that you and Taijiya-san ruined everything really pisses me off.” He tightened his grip on the steering wheel and closed his eyes for a few moments “Your stupid plan has put me in a very uncomfortable position, my father wants results and he’ll have them, otherwise he will settle for my head.”
"You're arrogant, stubborn and with all due respect, a real asshole, Taisho-san. So you'll understand that it's very difficult for me to empathize with you enough to decide to help you, even if it's for a fee."
“If I promised to behave better, could you decide to accept?”
“No.”
“May I know why?”
“Because I wouldn’t believe you.”
A tight smile appeared on his lips, he was about to rebut but before he could reiterate his threats, she saw Sota appear on the road. He walked straight under the streetlights with a duffel bag over his shoulder, kicking a pebble, heading toward Taisho’s car. Her heart leapt into her throat and with a strangled sound she doubled over, hiding from view.
“What are you doing?”
“I don’t want him to see me here with you.”
“Who?”
“Sota.”
She saw him look out and zero in on her brother like a sniper on a target. “Your boyfriend?”
“Ew, no! He’s my bro-” she trailed off, biting her tongue, “he’s the shrine priest’s nephew. A born delator, I don’t want him to get the wrong idea.”
Sota noticed the car and stared at it with barely concealed curiosity for a few interminable seconds, no doubt admiring its sleek bodywork and sporty lines, his mouth hanging open in ecstasy. When he got a little too close to the passenger window, a strangled sound escaped her mouth and she buried her face in her hands. At that moment the car went off with a sudden, high-pitched beep that startled Sota enough to make him jump in surprise. She turned to Taisho—still bent over—and saw him fiddling with the car remote. “The windows are tinted, your privacy is safe.”
She stood up and watched her brother climb the steps of the shrine two at a time, occasionally glancing furtively at the car. When he disappeared at the top of the stairs, she relaxed against the seat.
“We have an agreement, then?”
“What? No!”
“It’s a binding contract, Nakamura-san, you’ll be my employee in all respects.” The fact that she was already legally one and he was unaware of it, was really ironic.
“It won’t be something like Fifty shades of grey, I hope.” She challenged him, maybe if she annoyed him to exhaustion he’d let her go.
She saw a feral smile appear on his face and a shiver ran down her spine: Taisho was an inu-youkai after all, a predator at the top of the evolutionary pyramid. She was playing with fire. “If I wanted something like that from you, you can be sure that I would have already gotten it.”
“Humbleness is your distinctive feature from what I see.” She tried to sound cheeky but in reality she felt her stomach jump in surprise. Vivid and obscene images flashed before her eyes and she had to admit to herself that as much as he was a thorn in her side, Taisho was handsome, he shone with a wild and impetuous beauty that drew her inexorably.
“I am pervaded by it.” He challenged her.
“Fu-“ the insult came out of her mouth so naturally that she had to bite her lips to keep from screaming it. She composed herself, taking a deep breath to calm herself. “F-fine.”
“We have an agreement then.” All of a sudden Taisho’s features relaxed, as if her final defeat and his subsequent victory had finally satisfied him. He exhaled as if he had been holding his breath until that moment and looked away from her, turning back to the road. “Call me back when you’ve read and signed the contract.”
She clutched the folder to her chest and realized with disappointment that her fate was sealed. All the anger she felt towards the man sitting next to her had evaporated, leaving her devoid of combativeness. There was nothing left to say or do. What would happen now?
“You’re stealing precious hours from your beauty sleep, Nakamura-san.” His voice sounded clear and deafening in the silence of the car and she shook herself out of her disorientation. “You should go.”
“Mh.” She only managed to say as she got out of the car. Her voice had deserted her. “Good night, Taisho-san.” She bowed slightly and closed the door softly without waiting for an answer. Submission was not her thing, in another case she would have fought tooth and nail, she would never have laid down her weapons against the enemy, but she knew that this was a battle she couldn’t win.
When she took the stairs, still half dazed, she heard Taisho's voice wishing her goodnight and then the roar of the engine that carried him away from her and from her sight. She didn't turn around, but continued up the stairs in shock.
Had she just accepted a deal with the devil?
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
“What happened to you? Why do you look so…” Jakotsu watched her coming from the hallway and gestured emphatically as if searching for the right word “…crumpled?”
She must not have been a pretty sight. She hadn’t slept a wink until almost morning, then she had collapsed from exhaustion and barely twenty minutes later the alarm had gone off and she had suppressed a desperate cry by pressing the pillow to her face. The thought of what Taisho had kindly imposed on her had worn her down all night. She had reluctantly dressed with the first thing she could find and left the house without breakfast. Her brother had mentioned a super-luxury sports car parked in front of the shrine the night before and she had felt bile rising in her throat.
She must have looked like a runaway.
“Good morning to you too.” She put her bag on the floor and settled into her seat with a sigh, praying that lunchtime would come soon so she could take a nap in Jakotsu’s ergonomic, semi-reclining chair.
“Please tell me that your appearance is due to an impromptu walk of shame. There would be no other explanation for your obscene hair and lack of makeup.”
Her reflection in the black screen of the computer reminded her that she was no longer sixteen, her face needed maintenance.
She fumbled in her bag for a small mirror and the few pieces of makeup she carried with her for emergencies. If the department head had arrived unexpectedly and seen her in that condition, he would have surely warned her. The company dictates regarding the appearance of its employees were quite clear: always tidy, always presentable. And at that moment she was anything but presentable.
She tidied herself up, as much as possible, her face didn’t want to cooperate. In the end she cursed the mascara brush that had gotten into her eye, gathered up the paraphernalia she had laid out on the desk and threw everything back into her bag.
“Better?” she asked her sneering colleague.
“Before you were a hobo from the suburbs, now you look like a hobo from Shibuya.”
“Better than nothing.” She found herself shrugging, her appearance was the last thing on her mind.
She got to work, trying to concentrate on the ongoing projects she and her team had on their hands and for at least an hour she managed to think of nothing but market analysis and sales strategies. The ticking of the keyboards that worked incessantly, the rustling of the papers and the trill of the phones were a pleasant soundtrack, that silenced all the noise in her brain.
Then his colleague broke the precarious balance with his nasal and affected voice, “The management has requested the finished outline of the Ookami project. We have to send it before noon, even if...” Jakotsu’s fingers left the keyboard and he stretched, raising his arms to the ceiling.
“What?”
“Are you saying that if we’re late, that hot secretary will come and get it himself? Or even better, the boss could even come and scold us?” His eyes shone like a child’s on Christmas morning. The idea seemed to excite him.
Instead, she barely suppressed a shiver at the thought of seeing Taisho again after the previous evening, especially in her civilian clothes. “We’ll send the project before noon, we won’t disturb either of them, they’ll surely have more important things to do.” She stated peremptorily. She wouldn’t allow anyone to delay the project and face a warning or worse another meeting with the boss.
“Oh yeah, like screwing each other.” Jakotsu whispered lewdly.
She burst out laughing and for a very long second all her colleagues were looking at her. She covered her mouth with her hand and lowered her head in shame. “That’s nonsense.”
"Have you seen them? They exude sexual tension from every pore."
“I don’t think so.” Despite the hatred she felt for her boss, she couldn’t deny his charm. The same went for Eggplant, that cheeky smile and his high cheekbones had struck more than a few hearts in the department. They were both good looking, like a couple of supermodels.
“Trust me, I know what I’m talking about. Those two are having an affair. You can see the tension in their looks, not just their gestures. Those two are going at it. Too bad, the little Taisho seemed approachable. Not like his ice king brother.”
“You wouldn't have stood a chance.”
“Mmm, a few more than you for sure, hun. I wouldn’t look at you either if I were straight, look at you!” he grabbed the hem of her cardigan, leaning out of his chair, “I already told you that you need to burn these granny sweaters, send them back to hell where they came from.”
Her colleague’s blunt tone didn’t hurt her. She was aware that most of the time her clothing was more reminiscent of a pensioner than a woman in her prime. And it had been of no use, in the past, arguing that the most extreme outfits were reserved for the after-work hours, Jakotsu kept pointing out her lack of sex appeal.
Maybe he would change his mind if he saw her alter ego.
“Go back to work.” She yanked the sweater out of her colleague’s grasp and glared at him. “And stop worrying about other people’s sex lives. I want that social media survey ready in twenty minutes.”
“I can see the wheels turning in that brilliant brain of yours, you know I’m right.” Thin lips with a light sheen of gloss curved mischievously. “Don’t you find it strange that there are no scandals involving him? I mean, with a face like his and the fortune he’s sitting on, there should be a line of used and abandoned women at the doors of NHK ready to spill the tea about their adventures with the son of the most powerful man in the country! Instead he’s always hanging out with that secretary.” His eyes were turned to the screen but who knows what perverse fantasies his mind was playing out. “Always and only with him.”
Kagome didn’t have to try very hard to imagine them. More than once Jakotsu had told her about his sexventures, often during the lunch break, making an attempt on her life with stories so explicit that they would make the most savvy person on the planet blush.
In fact, she had never heard any scandal about Taisho, no compromising rumor that would tarnish his name or his family’s. Of course, it was also true that even if there had been something, they could’ve bought anyone's silence.
But what if Jakotsu was right? What if Taisho really was having an affair with his secretary? What if the whole story of the fake girlfriend was just a cover? She could only imagine the pressure he was under as Toga Taisho's son.
Her involvement, Taisho's haste and his stubbornness in wanting to continue with that pantomime, were starting to make sense.
Helping him would be a nice gesture, right? She believed in love and, as much as her love life sucked, she was an incurable romantic. Her sacrifice would serve to unite two people who loved each other.
The dislike she felt for her boss was slowly turning into compassion.
Crap!
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
At 11:45 the Ookami project was ready to be sent. She adjusted the font of a paragraph, rearranged the graphs so they didn’t get in the way of reading, and sent it off. She looked at her watch and smiled with satisfaction. “Good job.” She congratulated her colleagues. Maybe she could have stolen ten more minutes for her power nap thanks to their efficiency.
“Now we just have to wait for the boss’s verdict.” Someone sighed.
“I hope there’s nothing else to fix.”
“This project has become a nightmare. I see those pie charts every night.”
“If they send it back, I might scream.” There was a groan to her right.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure we hit the mark this time. The campaign is competitive and attractive and everyone will be happy.” She tidied up her desk, checked to see if the email had been received, and took a bathroom break.
The fact that the project was finally in the hands of the boss consoled her, they had been working on it for months in close contact with the managers of Ookami and if Taisho had approved it, perhaps one of them could even hope for a promotion. She hoped that someone was her, she wouldn't have minded a nice pay rise. After all, it was a deal that would bring a lot of profit to both companies.
When she looked at herself in the bathroom mirror she was surprised by the slight smile that appeared on her lips. The day had started badly but it would end well, despite everything.
She walked back along the corridor, her steps made no noise, she felt light as a feather and for a few minutes she forgot what awaited her outside.
She looked at the clock and with great joy she realized that lunch time had arrived. If she’d wolfed down lunch in less than twenty minutes she would have been able to doze for at least half an hour.
She entered the room with renewed vigor, “It’s lunch time! Who wants a be-” voice died in her throat.
Eggplant had his back to her and the gazes of her coworkers darted between the two of them. Only Jakotsu’s eyes were firmly fixed on the man in the mauve suit.
“Higurashi-san, I assume.” Taisho’s secretary turned to her with his usual seductive smile, “Taisho-san is very impressed with the project but would like clarification on a few points. You are in charge of the project, correct?”
She was stunned for a fraction of a second longer and then bowed stiffly like a puppet. “Yes, Hoshikawa-san.” Thank all the kami, she had searched for his name among the employees so as not to accidentally call him by that stupid name Jakotsu had given him.
“Very good, Taisho-san will be waiting for you in his office in an hour.” He turned once more to the rest of the team, “Good job everyone.”
He left without another word, amid the murmur of her colleagues.
She said goodbye to the udon waiting for her in the cafeteria, to her well-deserved siesta, and to her sanity. She wouldn't have been able to swallow anything, much less get a wink of sleep.
Karma seemed to have taken a liking to play with her life.