Take Shelter
Prologue
Nanami is now 28 years of age. She has been married for 8 years and had moved to Nagoya due to an arrangement between her father and his colleages' son Hiroto Yamashita. The marriage was fairly happy and stable until a situation arose, causing the couple pain. And also causing Nanami to have suspicious bruises on her arms and body.
Tomoe never thought of any other woman, and stayed in Kyoto. But to make up for the hole in his heart he'd sleep with the women who approached him for his good looks, to then never call or speak to them again. In search for Nanami after her father took her from him, he gave up hope and became the manager of an IT Consultant Agency.
...
"Nanami, is my lunch done?" asked Hiroto.
"Not yet, i still need to drain the vegatables." Nanami replied, sounding exhausted.
Hiroto walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, squeezing abit too hard to be considered playful. She took in a sharp breath, as if in a great deal of pain, but kept her face calm and collected.
"Done. Here you go, have a good day at work" She said, turning and giving him the box containing his lunch. Which she had to make every morning, after waking up early and doing the housework before Hiroto woke up and complained of untidyness or mess.
"Thankyou, now was that too hard?" He smirked "I leave at 9am, you know that. Make it on time tomorrow... Pathetic" Turning on his heel, he left the house and slammed the door behind him.
Nanami limped over to a floor length mirror hung in the hallway. Lifting her shirt above her waist, she examined her recent additions of art work to her body. The black, blue, yellow and purple stains, scattered across her torso. Squinting with pain, she applied oil, supposedly good for healing bruises, all over her body.
"I used to have a backbone, I don't remember how I got so weak." She mumbled to herself, tears falling from her cheeks.
Hunched over the kitchen counter, she started preparing the vegatables for the soup later, but she wouldn't make it so early. She'd place the prep-veg in the fridge, ready to make quickly before he returned home and found it not ready for him to eat, then to use her as his personal punchbag is it wasn't satisfactory.
Nanami knew why he liked to hurt her so much. She knew exactly what it was about her that he despised. But no matter what she did, what she ate, whatever she did to keep healthy, it was never enough. She couldn't do it. And there was nothing she could do to change it.
...
Tomoe was just about to finish his 13th hour of a supposedly 8 hour shift at the company when his boss called him.
.
.
.
"Tomoe! I have a job for you in Nagoya"