Chapter Four. The Feelings Exploding From My Heart

I can't believe this is happening. The koutei is so close to me, I can feel his breathing on my cheek. His breath is warm and makes my heart race. What is this feeling? I'm not platinum; I'm merely the vice president. I'm not a lover. I'm not Ryuunosuke's 'sweetheart'. I'm just Setsuko Togu.

His hands crawled everywhere. Setsuko felt tainted after feeling his hands slip underneath her uniform, sliding the top off her shoulders, exposing her collarbone and slightly at her cleavage. Second, she felt his fingers slip underneath her skirt, feeling her gently. She cried in desperation and then screamed louder.

"G-GET OFF ME, MAN WHORE!" She screamed, wakening the emperor. She kicked and whined until he was frustrated enough to finally stop. "You…you're a monster. I hate you, I hate you!!" Setsuko cried, fixing her clothes as she stood up.

"You never deserved to be the emperor, ever! Filthy, dirty jerk, fuck you!" Setsuko screamed, running out of the emperor's private room. Ryuunosuke Ishitaka, the well-known emperor, bent his head feeling the pain linger in his heart.

"I'm sorry, Setsuko-chan. I can't help myself," Ryuunosuke said to nobody in particular. Well, there was all ready no body in his room so most likely this was a thought said out loud. "I just can't resist you." He thought to himself, you're just not like other girls. Setsuko ran with tears streaming down her face and wondered why it took her so long to react to the emperor. For countable seconds, he was touching her, feeling her. Why hadn't she stopped in immediately?

Shouldn't that have been her first reactant? It should have, she knew perfectly well. Maybe, somewhere deep down in her heart, she wanted that. That feeling that stirred her heart, the emperor having his way with her. Setsuko felt her heart drop and shatter into pieces. Could it be possible that she was falling for the biggest flirt of all Imperial Academy?

"Hey, Setusko-chan," Kichiro Narimiya, Setsuko's best friend, smiled when he met her at the gates. "The coach let me off early. Want to head home?"

"Sounds good. My car's all ready here. Want a ride?" Setsuko pretended like the little actress she was, that nothing too shameful had happened. It was just another meeting with the emperor. It was nothing more and nothing less.

"Okay, thanks," Kichiro nodded, earnestly. The two had piled into the Togu's shimmering from the sun's glare, Rolls Royce. "How did it go with the emperor? Everything is settled right?" Setsuko blanched, searching for words.

"Everything is thanks. The emperors association meeting with happened as scheduled," Setsuko slipped the easy-to-tell lie and plopped into the Togu's car.

"Good afternoon, Setsuko-sama. How was school?" the kindly driver asked once Kichiro had sat down and closed the door to the Rolls Royce.

"Just fine, thanks. Can you drive to the Narimiya house before we go home?" Setsuko politely asked. Having manors ran in her family unless she subtracted her mother, who could act a bit ditzy sometimes.

"Of course, Setsuko-sama," the driver courteously said.

"So, did anything fun happen with the emperor?" Kichiro smiled adorably while asking.

"Eh! Fun, uh, no. Strictly business! Haha, Kichiro-chan, what're you saying? Business in the council is always business," Setsuko replied, a little too wordily.

"Untrue, Setsuko-chan, we all always have fun," Kichiro pointed out and Setsuko smiled, awkwardly, he was right but what went on up in the emperor's room was not fun, at all.

"But you're still not going to tell me what's going on? It's obvious; Setsuko-chan and I've known you all my life. Something is wrong and you're not telling me," Kichiro then added which surprised Setsuko.

"Wha—what could you possibly mean? Nothing's wrong at all! Oh! Look, there's your house. But the Narimiya family and the Tsujimiya family are coming over tonight! That means I'll see you then! Erm, bye-bye, Kichiro-kun," Setsuko practically pushed Kichiro out of the Rolls Royce car door and he stumbled out into the street.

"No fair, Setsuko-chan," Kichiro mumbled to himself because the car didn't even stop at his house yet. It was at least another half block away. Back in the car, Setsuko was breathing heavily and the driver commented, "We could have driven him all the way to his home."

"N-no, no! Kichiro-kun loves a good walk and I couldn't tell him something until later. So it'll happen then," Setsuko quickly covered her up her hasty lie. A couple minutes later, the car pulled up around the block of the Togu residence. The house was rather large to contain such an amount of people. Especially since Setsuko's grandparents, well her grandmother always insisted on having Setsuko call her Aunt Kyouko-san, had moved to Setsuko's great-grandparent's house. (A/N – I wasn't sure whether to use Shouko-san or Kyouko-san. But, according to chapter44 of the real SDC, Kyouko introduced herself and Kyouko Togu. So I will be following that.)

She claimed it made her feel younger and Setsuko's grandma was always a beautiful woman. According to a family rumor, she was a 'kagemusha' as Takanari, Setsuko's real father, and Shizumasa, who should have been Setsuko's father but is sadly deceased.

"There is my marvelous daughter!!" Haine Togu, Setsuko's cheerful mother, greeted her at the main entrance. She was always perky for the young age of thirty-eight and was basically a 'stay-at-home' mother who liked planning parties and events. She always wanted to pick Setsuko up from school but always got denied from it because Setsuko's father was worried she might cause traffic or possibly an accident.

"Hello, mom!" Setsuko excitedly said. "We're having dinner with the Narimiyas and Tsujimiyas tonight, aren't we?" Setsuko slugged her backpack over her shoulder and wanted to groan so badly at the fact the Narimiyas were coming over. Setsuko really didn't want to face Kichiro, who she pushed out of her car this afternoon, and see his seething expression of how betrayed he probably felt.

"Ah, yes! Mao-chan and Maguri-kun are coming over. Though their daughter never wants to attend, it's a dreary dismay but I hear their newly adopted son is coming! He's so cute, his name is Hayate-kun and he's only three! So adorable though," Haine gushed for a few seconds before whisking her daughter inside.

"Thank you so much, driver-san!" Haine said over her shoulder to the driver.

"Ah-yes, and this weekend, the day following the emperors association meeting for you and your father, we are having another charity benefit to the homeless of all Japan. Doesn't that sound great, Setsuko-chan?" Haine rambled on and on about this weekend but all Setsuko could distraughtly think about was what happened up there in the emperor's special, private room. She almost gave herself away to that disgusting emperor. The thing she most regretted was not fighting back instantaneously.

"Setsuko-chan, usually you pester me on how silly I babble on and on for but you're not commenting, sweetie. Did something happen at school?" Haine as she switched to concerned-parent mode had asked.

"What? Mom, please, I'm just…between school and the council. Things have been busy, is all. I'm fine though really! I can't wait to meet the Tsujimiya's son and the benefit sounds great. Use the beige napkins, okay?" Setsuko said, reminding Haine so much of her husband, 'Shizumasa'. Sometimes his head would be full of the Togu Company and family life and everything else but he was still able to perform every task with perfection. Setsuko was the same, efficient but clumsy, like her mother, and pretty, like her Aunt Kasuga, resembling her greatly and sometimes foolish like Haine.

"Well, whatever the problem, know that whatever your choice may be, it'll all always turn out okay and--." Haine paused, blatant in finishing her mid-sentence.

"Mom, I know you're not that great at these supportive speeches but thanks," Setsuko gleamed and then fled up to her room. "I'll pick out something nice to wear." She shouted from the stairs and ran up to her own room. Setsuko rushed to her room, haphazardly slamming her room door. She huffed and breathed heavily as she leaned against it. She brushed a finger on her lips, pressing on them. She flinched, feeling the pain ease from them. They were bruised, both of them.

"God damn," she whispered, remembering what the emperor had done those minutes ago. How could she even go to the emperor's association this weekend? Luckily, her father would be there. Protecting her, as in staring off any guy that gave looked her way. And then Setsuko felt her heart race and even skip a beat. Despite the emperor's rash decision in almost having her, she liked it. Setsuko knew deep down though she felt that way, she could really admit it. It would be like her voice betraying her heart. It just couldn't work. She envisioned her and emperor, in her mind and then shook her head, destroying the thoughts.

"No, what am I thinking?" she asked herself running towards the closet in her spacious room. Setsuko actually had the room Takanari, her father, had lived in, at least until he was forced to confinement in his grandfather's house. Inside her walk-in, Setsuko chose from dozens of party dresses that probably cost more than the furniture downstairs or maybe just as much. Setsuko chose silk, beige colored pink dress with puffed sleeves like a princess dress but flattered her thin legs nicely. She slipped off her school uniform and put the dress on adjusting the neck line and hem.

The waist was cinched with a simple bow tie in the front, instead of the back and the dress appeared to be two layered with another layer on top. All together, Setsuko looked very gorgeous in it. She untied her ponytail and let her straight hair fall against her shoulders.

"There," she said to herself and picked out a pair of high heels, slipping them on as she walked out. She grabbed her curling iron off the vanity in her room and went to the bathroom. The three-inch curling iron let her hair fall in loose waves and then she applied little, basic make-up. "All done." She said and rushed over to pick up her backpack. She put her books in one of the designer bags her dad got for her and then rushed downstairs.

"Setsuko-chan! You look simply amazing," Haine Togu, her mother, gleefully commented once her daughter walked down the steps of the Togu mansion.

"Thank you, mom. You look great too," Setsuko hugged her mother back as she slipped her arms around her. For an elite social classed woman, Haine was very affectionate, as she was in high school, and still somewhat adorable, in a newly mother way. Haine Togu was dressed in a classic long chiffon dress. It was a dark blue revealing an even lighter blue for there was a large V-neck showing off the inner material of the dress. Haine always looked pretty in everything and Setsuko sometimes wished she had more of her mother's looks rather than her father's.

Of course not saying Kasuga, who Setsuko resembled most, wasn't pretty because she most certainly was. Setsuko told her mother she was off to finish up some homework, escaping very easily. She then found herself sitting in her father's working room, which she mostly snuck into during the afternoons when he wasn't home. Usually, he would work at the Togu Group Company for long hours but tried best to make it home when their were benefits and dinners, like these.

"Hm…review," Setsuko mumbled to herself, rubbing the eraser of her pencil against her nicely done hair, haphazardly. "Darn, I need to ask Kichiro-kun when he gets here. Oh fuck." Setsuko swore under her breath, realizing Kichiro was coming. He would confront her of the way she acted before, wouldn't he? Setsuko felt horrible, lying to her best friend. What else could she do? All this was was trouble. Then, Setsuko heard her mother's voice, fill through the tiny opening the door made at the front of the office. Setsuko grabbed all of her papers and tumbled under the inside, secret nook underneath the wooden desk.

"Komaki-chan, I know Kusame-kun better than anyone. He'd never do that!" Haine cheerily said, not realizing her daughter was in Takanari's office as well as her. Setsuko's mother and pushed the door to the office open, figuring it was private and began to ramble to her sister about her husband, Setsuko's uncle. Setsuko shuffled quietly and neatly collected her binders and papers and sat, uncomfortably while Haine talked.

"B-but, he does think that I am j-just b-because I'm with him during the work hours," Setsuko could hear her aunt, Komaki Otomiya, cry over the phone.

"I know you better than anyone though! You should tell Kusame-kun how you really feel. He'll understand. Is he really just jumping towards these nuisances of conclusions? I never figured he'd actually think this way," Haine assured her voice calm and nice for her younger, actual half, sister.

"I-I know," Komaki stifled. "I love Kusame so much though. I can't believe he'd think I'd do such as cheat on him…and, with Kotomiya-kun of anyone." Setsuko clamped her mouth shut with her left hand. That had to have been Mizuki Kotomiya, the father of that daughter that the koutei was cheating on earlier today.

"Why does he have to come to dinner tonight?" Komaki's cries were so loud that Setsuko had to have heard them. Despite the sound proof walls, it was no hope, she was there and she heard everything. Dinner tonight with the Togu's and the Kotomiya's, how would Setsuko fight off that Kasumi Kotomiya and Kichiro. Things couldn't get worse.

"I—it wasn't up to me. Kusame-kun wanted Mizuki-san to come. He insisted on it to uh, Shizumasa-sama. He said Mizuki-san was his best friend and had wanted him to come. I can't un-invite them on a last whim, Komaki-chan. You know that," Haine clarified, which must have been from a time before. To Kusame, Mizuki must have been the last person he wanted to see tonight.

"But, nii-sama, what'll I do? Kusame-kun is so mad," Komaki dreadfully and clearly said over the phone. Accidently, Setsuko banged her head atop the desk, assuming the conversation was almost at an end.

"Ow!" Setsuko screamed from under the table.

"Komaki-chan, I need to go," Haine urgently said, rashly. She walked over towards the desk and found Setsuko glancing up at her with a sheepish look upon her face.

"Wait, Haine-nee-chan! Hold on a second, please don't," Komaki said, needy. Haine clicked the end button on the phone, seeing Setsuko Togu, her daughter, crouching under Takanari's desk, rubbing her head.


A/N – Wow, what will Haine do now that Setsuko just heard her whole phone conversation? Punishments are to adhere for, aren't they? Find out next time in: Togu's Daughter.