I Need Your Love
Second Chapter: Switch
The next day, some of the members of the Asahina family stood outside the Sunrise Residence, waiting for the new owners of their former house to arrive. While some of them seemed impatient about it, others just leaned against the house's walls.
Ukyo, who was going to give the new owners the house key, looked at the place where he used to live. He had lived there as long as he could remember. Looking at the floors where they had spent a large amount of their lives in, he felt a bit sad that they have to leave this place behind. That was when he remembered the time where he told the family that they would sell the house and go their separate ways.
It was Christmas Eve, the day where Rintarou and Miwa died in a car accident. Ukyo, who was home from work early, prepared dinner for his brothers that still lived there. While he was chopping the vegetables, he heard the doorbell ring. Since Wataru was in the area, Ukyo politely asked Wataru to check who it was, while he continued to chop the vegetables.
"Ukyo-nii!" Wataru yelled from the intercom, catching his attention. "The devil woman is here!" Knowing who Wataru was referring to, he left the kitchen to talk to her. As he opened the door, he saw Aiko, who wore a dress, since she and Masaomi were supposed to go on a date.
"Aiko-san," Ukyo politely greeted, inviting her into the house. "What brings you here?" As Aiko walked into the house, she explained to him that Masaomi sent her to bring important news, the news that would change the lives of the members of the Asahina family, while Ukyo simply asked her to stay for dinner so that she would tell it to the whole family.
A couple of hours later, while everyone gathered around the table, Aiko sat quietly beside her fiancé, while Wataru stared at her coldly. Since the family had finished eating dinner, Aiko decided that she should break the news to them.
Standing up suddenly, all eyes were on her. As she cleared her throat, she wanted to make sure that they were ready to hear the news. "I have some news to tell you, and I warn you all that it isn't good news. Earlier today, your mother and Rintarou-san had died in a car accident." At that moment, practically everyone in the room was in a state of shock.
As the brothers began to cry, due to the loss of their parents, Masaomi tried to find a way to transition to his next point, since everyone mourned the loss of their mother and their step-father. Then, he cleared his throat in the same way his fiancée did.
"There's also something I need to tell you..." Masaomi told his brothers as they looked at him, some of them teary-eyed. "I think we should sell the house... With one less source of income, we would need more money to sustain ourselves and I think selling the house and going our separate ways would be a good place to start. That way, if we move into apartments, we would still have enough money, don't you think?"
"Are you sure?" Ukyo asked his older brother, who only looked down at his lap.
"Well, some of us already have full-time jobs, and I think we're old enough to take care of ourselves." Masaomi pointed out, while some of the family members were considering the idea.
After a few minutes of talking amongst themselves, most of the family members decided to go ahead with selling the house and moving into separate apartments. As they started talking about who's living with who, Masaomi suggested that Wataru live with him and Aiko. That prompted Wataru to stand up and slam his hands on the table defiantly.
"What?" Wataru screamed, since he was completly against what was going on. "Are you seriously going to leave this house behind! I don't want to! I'm going to stay here whether you all like it or not!" He then pushed the chair away and walked straight toward his room.
"Wataru!" Masaomi scolded him, causing Wataru to stop in his tracks.
"I'm not going to leave this house! I'm not going to live with that tramp, Masa-nii!" he screamed before storming down the hallway until he reached his room. As the family heard the door slam, they simply sighed. Meanwhile, Masaomi tried to figure out how to break the news to his little sister, who had not heard the news yet.
As he finished reminiscing, he noticed that some of his brothers had left, since they didn't want to wait any longer for the new owner's arrival. Sighing to himself, he simply walked towards the front gate, only to spot a group of women walking towards the house.
"Excuse me," he asked politely, grabbing their attention. "Are you the new owners of this house." As they looked at him, their eyes covered by their sunglasses, one of them smiled.
"Yes, we are..." the one who smiled said in a voice that was familiar to Ukyo. As she took her sunglasses off, Ukyo's eyes widened as soon as he saw his little sister's face. "It's been a while since I last been here, Ukyo-san."
"Ema-san?" he asked, shocked at what was happening. As he pulled her into a hug, she smiled at him, glad that she would be able to chat with one of the brothers that she hadn't talked to in a while. She wasn't as scared about meeting with her brothers as she was in the past, even though she still wondered if it was going to return to the way things were before she met Fuyuki. "How have you been?"
"I'm doing well, Ukyo-san," Ema smiled whole-heartedly. "I just want to know what happened. Why are you guys moving away? Did anything happen?" At that moment, Ukyo simply looked at the floor as he proceeded to tell her what had happened on the day Rintarou and Miwa died.
After a couple of minutes, Ukyo finished explaining the story, while Ema only looked down, feeling guilty of everything that had happened to them. She believed that if it wasn't for her decisions back then, the brothers wouldn't have gone through all of this. However, Ukyo simply patted her head and told her not to blame herself.
Then, Ukyo decided that he should leave, so that he could reunite with Kaname, the person he would share an apartment with. However, Ema took his hand, prompting Ukyo to stop walking.
"What is it, Ema-san?" Ukyo asked Ema, who only looked at the ground, remembering what had happened with one of her brothers.
"Ukyo-san, can you not tell Fuuto-kun that I live here now?" Ema asked quietly, looking around to check if Fuuto was in the area. "Lately, he had been harassing me, since from what I know, he wants to make me his... I don't know what happened with him, but I'm kind of scared, so please don't tell him. That's all I ask..."
"Of course..." Ukyo said, not wanting his younger brother to harass his little sister any further. He did know about Fuuto's behaviour, though he only had a vague idea of how far he went. As he smiled at her, she waved goodbye before entering the house with Michiko and Ayako, the other girls she walked with. While the movers started bringing the furniture inside, they simply walked into the elevator that would bring them to the Sunrise Residence, the place where Ema lived a long time ago.
Meanwhile, from outside, a mysterious figure walked past the gate after looking over it for some time. He had stayed outside the house for some time to check if the person he was looking for would eventually show up there. As he walked away from the mansion, he asked himself, "I guess this is where she lives now..."
While the movers moved the furniture around the house, Ayako decided to explore the place. Walking through the hallway, she hummed a playful tune as she looked around the door. As the sound of each footstep resonated throughout the corridor, someone started to get annoyed after each echo.
"Get lost!" a shrill, albeit masculine voice screamed out. Ayako stopped right away as her eyes widened. Looking around frantically for the source of the noise, her heart started to beat rapidly. "Get the hell away from this house!" There it was again! All of a sudden, Ayako spun on her heel and screamed as she ran through the hallway. As she ran past Michiko and Ema, they both sighed at Ayako's supposed immaturity.
"Ayako," Ema asked, concerned for her friend. "What's going on? Why are you screaming?"
"The house is haunted! The house is haunted!" Ayako shrieked in terror as she began to cry. "We have to get out of here!" As Ayako started shaking in fear, Michiko laughed, something she could only do with close friends.
"Don't tell me you're serious," Michiko chuckled at the fact that Ayako was scared of the house just on the day they moved into it. She was positive that the house wasn't haunted, but she was still rather curious about why she thought that. Telling Ayako to lead her to the place where she heard the voice, they then walked through the hallway, while Ayako's heart began to beat even faster.
"There it is!" Ayako screamed as she suddenly turned around and tried to run away, but Ema stopped her, looking at the door that stood in front of them.
"This is Wataru's room..." Ema walked slowly towards the door, while Ayako warned her that a ghost probably lived there. Knocking quietly, she was quickly greeted with "Go away!". Even though the voice was deeper, she could tell right away that it was Wataru.
"See? This house is haunted!" Ayako screamed, while Michiko blocked her path, forcing her not to run away. "We have to get out of here, Ema!" As soon as she uttered that last word, the door suddenly opened and out came a college aged man, who quickly wrapped his arms around Ema, surprising her. That man was none other than Wataru.
"Onee-san?" Wataru asked, realizing what had happened. "Is that really you? If it is, then why did you leave?" At first, he didn't want to go out, since he was determined to chase away the new owners, but after hearing Ema's name come out of Ayako's mouth, the first thing he did was run out and hug his older sister, who he didn't see for such a long time.
"Yes, it's me, Wataru... I'm sorry! I'm sorry for everything!" she hugged him tightly as a tear fell down her cheek. She had missed Wataru so much ever since she left. He hadn't done anything to her when she was dating Fuyuki, yet she had made him suffer the pain of her disappearance. That was something she was truly sorry for. Wrapping her arms around the nineteen year old man who used to be a cute little boy she used to care for, they cried on each shoulders, while Ayako and Michiko walked away to let the two have a brother-sister moment.
Moments later, Wataru and Ema walked to the living room as she explained everything that had happened, from the time where she moved to America with Aiko up until the point where three of her brothers comforted her in the graveyard. Even though it was a hard thing to talk about, it had to be done. As soon as that conversation was over, Ema really wanted to change the subject.
"So, Wataru-chan," Ema said in a motherly voice, while Wataru told her to call her 'Wataru-kun' instead. "Over the years, it seems that you have gotten more handsome!" As she smiled, Wataru suddenly brightened up, and it seemed as if there was fire in his eyes.
"Really?" Wataru exclaimed as he sat up. He had a confident look in his eye as he looked at his older sister, who only giggled quietly.
"It seems that you still kept your child-like nature, though..." Ema laughed, while Wataru only looked at her as he sighed in an exaggerated manner as he crossed his arms and looked down.
"Geez..." Wataru pouted, while Ema laughed even louder. To her, even though Wataru had matured in appearance, he was still a young child at heart, even though he had the same amount of experience as other nineteen year olds. As Ema patted his back playfully, Wataru sighed before showing a faint smile.
"So, Wataru-kun, why did you stay here behind everyone's back?" Ema brought up, while Wataru looked at his lap as his faint smile suddenly dropped.
"It's all that tramps fault..." Wataru pouted, expressing his hate for his brother's fiancée. "If she didn't stick into our family's business, none of this would have happened! We'd still be a happy family and you wouldn't have to have gone through all that pain! She even stole Masa-nii away from me!"
"You mean Aiko-nee?" Ema asked in a soothing voice as Wataru nodded his head. "Don't blame her for all those things... When you grow even more, you will start to understand that it wouldn't be a bad thing. Sure, you would see Masaomi-san less, but it doesn't mean that he'll disappear from your life... For another thing, if it wasn't for her, my attempted suicide would have actually worked..."
"But... I don't know..." Wataru looked downcast as he stared at the floor. "It seemed as if he'd rather spend time with her than with me..." Noticing his pain, Ema wanted to make him feel better.
"I'll tell you what. I'll arrange for you to live with him so that you two can spend time with each other, is that okay?" she asked, while Wataru frowned at the idea.
"No, Onee-san," Wataru firmly objected, while Ema look at her younger brother. "I don't really want to live with him if she's going to be there!" While Ema stared at him, she saw the sad face Wataru put on, which in turn made her consider Wataru's feelings.
"Well, if that's what you don't want, then why don't you live here?" Ema suggested as Wataru brightened up.
"Really? Yes!" Wataru said, glad that he'd be able to catch up with his older sister, whom he used to have romantic feelings for. As he smiled at the quality time they'd spend as brother and sister, he suddenly thought of one thing. "All I ask is that you or those two girls wouldn't tell the others that I live here, please."
At first, Ema was about to object to that, but seeing that Wataru wanted to hide from her brothers in the same way she used to in Aiko's house, she decided that she would let him live in the mansion in secret, keeping Wataru's own feelings in mind.
As the pair stood up from the couch, Wataru left to go back to his own room, while Ema went to the kitchen to prepare dinner for the mansion's four inhabitants: Michiko, Ayako, Wataru and herself.
Meanwhile, in an apartment complex, while the brothers were moving some of the furniture to the apartment Ukyo and Kaname will share, Ukyo walked through the hallway, while Fuuto leaned onto the wall, only browsing his phone.
"Fuuto!" Ukyo scolded, while Fuuto only scoffed at his older brother. "Could you actually do something here? You haven't been doing anything here!" As Ukyo crossed his arms, Fuuto walked past him and only gave him a glare. Then, Kaname walked towards Ukyo and told the second oldest brother before walking off somewhere, while piquing Fuuto's interest at the same time.
Quietly walking in the same direction, he made sure that he wouldn't make a noise that would cause the two to notice. As he went closer to the corner, his brothers' voices became audible. Hiding around the corner, he eavesdropped on their conversation.
"So how did handing the key go?" Kaname asked Ukyo, who suddenly remembered what had happened with Ema.
"It was surprising really," Ukyo pointed out, while Kaname only smiled at him. Meanwhile, Fuuto placed his ear as close as he could without revealing himself to his brothers.
"How come?" Kaname inquired, while Ukyo pushed up his glasses. As he looked around to see if the coast was clear, Fuuto suddenly ran into a storage room in order to avoid being caught by Ukyo. When Ukyo returned to Kaname, Fuuto went back out to hear what he was going to say this.
"I'll tell you, but promise me you won't tell anyone other than Masaomi-nii-san, okay? Especially not Fuuto!" Ukyo warned, while Kaname nodded, agreeing with this condition. As Ukyo took a deep breath, he began to tell him what had happened earlier that day. "It turns out that Ema-san was one of the new owners..."
After hearing this, Fuuto quietly walked away, smirking at what he learned. He knew that after trying to get his older sister to love him by threatening her, she would try to run away from him. As he laughed silently, he said to himself, "At least she tried..." before he left the apartment complex to plan his next move.