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Yuuya sat outside the hospital room, pretending to read something on his phone. Pretending, because he really just didn’t feel like talking to anyone, and what better reason do you have other than ‘reading’ the news on your phone? Sitting next to him was his mother, tapping her foot on the ground anxiously.
“Your father sure is taking a while to talk with Sakuya, isn’t he?”
“I’m sure they have very important things to discuss, mother,” Yuuya said without looking up. “He’s the family heir, after all.”
Sakuya had been in the hospital room for at least an hour, talking about inheritance and all that good stuff. Once he walked out, it would be Yuuya’s turn to go in –
Of course, his stepfather didn’t want to see him, and Yuuya didn’t really want to see him either, but he had something very important to say. He’d been waiting for twenty-three years now –
He remembered everything as vividly as if it had happened yesterday.
He was standing in front of a brown bag, holding a bat in his hands.
In the bag is an egg that had yet to hatch. He raised the bat –
“Forgive me,” he whispered. “I will repay this sin, one day, in hell.”
He hit the bag, and a loud crack could be heard.
And he hit it again. And again, and again, and again, until he no longer had any strength in his arms.
The door clicked open, and Sakuya walked out of the room, with another man behind him. Their mother quickly got up and walked to him.
“Did everything go well, Sakuya?”
“Yes, maman.” Sakuya turned to the man behind him, a lawyer – “He allocated quite a lot for everyone to make sure there’d be no conflict. I think it’s a fair distribution – ”
“Come on, Sakuya,” Yuuya cut, “No matter how the old man gives his money, someone’s bound to fight over it anyway.’
Sakuya only shrugged – attempts had been made on his life when he was determined to be the Le Bel heir, after all. It got pretty bad to the point Sakuya had to hire an assassin as a butler.
“Anyway, you should go in now,” Sakuya said. “Visiting hours are almost over, and papa needs to rest soon.”
Yuuya finally put his phone back into his pocket, tugged the hem of his black shirt to smooth out the wrinkles, and walked into the room.
The reason he had chosen this day to reveal the truth to his stepfather was actually quite simple.
That was the day Monsieur Le Bel would die from his disease, or at least that’s what the doctors had said. Thus all the fuss of calling Sakuya out of his normal schedule to witness the writing of the will.
Yuuya closed the door behind him before sitting down next to the bed. His stepfather, lying on the bad, looked up at him disdainfully. Even though his disease was eating him up alive, his blue eyes looked into Yuuya’s as scornfully as ever.
Yuuya felt no sympathy for the man either, although he couldn’t even sit up anymore and his life literally depended on the machines around him. On the contrary, he thought it would be terrific if Iwamine Shuu is the doctor taking care of his stepfather –
Damn, at least when Shuu told him about his dead boyfriend, Yuuya still felt a tad sad for the doctor. There was none of that here.
“What business do you want with me, Sakazaki?” Le Bel asked sharply. “If it’s about money, you can forget it.”
“Oh, no, father, why would I be so cruel as to ask for money from a dying man?” Yuuya replied with a tone of fake cheerfulness, the kind he used to talk to Shuu with. “I’m sure Sakuya would share some his inheritance with me if I ask nicely.”
“I already told him not to, so yes, you can forget it.”
“My, how cold,” Yuuya sighed. “I really just want to have some quality time with my stepfather before he dies, is that too much to ask?”
Le Bel stared at him coldly, as if examining him. The old man knew better than to expect affection from his stepson.
“…You look so much like your father.”
“Of course I do, I’m his son,” Yuuya said. “It’s been so long now – don’t tell me you still hate him.”
“He married the woman I’m supposed to marry,” Le Bel sighed. “And every time I see you, I remember that insolence of his. I guess all mongrels are the same.”
“That doesn’t really give you the right to kill him, though.
“But I’m still grateful to you,” Yuuya said with the biggest smile he could manage. “That’s mighty kind of you, taking care of the son of the man who ‘stole’ your wife.”
“Heh,” Le Bel looked away with a smirk. “That’s just because you were too young to be thrown away, and because your mum was willing to get rid of your other brother.”
“No, no, I mean, thanks for taking care of that son.”
Le Bel turned to look at him, confusion in his eyes, but Yuuya was still smiling.
“What do you mean, Sakazaki?”
“Exactly what it sounded like.”
“You mean that other kid is still alive?” Le Bel tried to get up from his bed, but his body was too weak for that. “Don’t make me laugh. I told her to get rid of the egg.”
“Well, she couldn’t do it, because he’s her son, too.” Yuuya got up and leaned over to his stepfather, “I offered to throw the egg away for her, being the good son I am, but I really didn’t want to.”
“How dare you!” Le Bel got up and grabbed Yuuya’s collar.
“Who? Who is he?!”
“Calm down, old man,” Yuuya calmly said. “He’s been living with you this whole time anyway – why are you getting so worked up now?”
“Tell me where my real son is, you wretch!”
“Dead, obviously,” Yuuya declared. “But you’e not going to see him when you die, because he’s too good to be in hell.”
Realization dawned on Le Bel’s eyes. His grip on Yuuya’s collar loosened, and sank back into his bed.
“You mean…” He coughed weakly. “You mean, Sakuya is…”
“A hundred points for you!” Yuuya clapped his hands with fake cheerfulness. “Sakuya isn’t your son.”
Revenge is best served cold, they said.
It’s true. Seeing his stepfather realize the truth that had been hiding from him for his whole life –
It felt strangely uplifting. This man had given him hell, and now Yuuya is sending him straight to there.
“That’s what you get for killing my father.”
“Sakazaki, you son of a bitch!”
Yuuya carefully closed the door behind him while whistling a song.
All is said and done. The truth is out now –
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah, of course.” He turned to Sakuya with a smile. “He’s still so mean, although he’s probably going to be dead by tomorrow.”
Sakuya looked away dejectedly, but Yuuya cheerfully slapped him on the back.
“Don’t look so down, you’re pretty goddamn rich now! That’s nothing to be sad about.”
“I was just… thinking if you really needed to do that.”
“Come on, Sakuya, I didn’t kill that child for nothing.”
“The King knows that long ago, you broke an egg out of your own selfishness.”
Perhaps it was indeed selfishness. That child didn’t need to die –
But seeing Sakuya like this isn’t too bad, either.
One day, he quietly told himself. One day, my dear brother – I will pay.