Author's Notes: *Updated* Edited version at last!


Futari no Himitsu

Chapter 29:

Snow White and the Beginning

"Hayato-kun!" Nanami Haruka cried anxiously as she fixed the collar of her peach-colored long-sleeved dress and fiddled with the diamond-embedded necklace her boyfriend gave to her about a month ago after the cultural festival. "Do I look alright?"

"For the last time, Haru," Ichinose Hayato ran his hand through his long spiky hair, sighing with slight irritation in his voice. "You look normal."

The rosette gasped in horror.

"So you mean I look like a wet hamster?!"

Hayato deadpanned.

"Haru, my love, what are you even talking about?"

"B-b-b-but I even asked Tomo-chan"—The bluenet visibly flinched upon hearing the name—"for some fashion advice on how to look presentable!" She grabbed the strands of her hair in panic. Poor Haruka was near the point of hyperventilation. "WHY?! DO I STILL LOOK LIKE A WET HAM-" Before she could finish uttering the name of the cute rodent she was comparing herself to, Hayato cupped her face and leaned closer. Golden eyes widened as she felt his soft lips on hers. He pulled away almost immediately.

"Haruka, again shall I repeat. You look normal. And before you could open your mouth and protest, allow me to finish." Haruka closed her mouth, putting her hands down. Hayato shook his head and continued. "You look as beautiful as you normally are and never have I ever thought that you looked in any way similar to a wet hamster. And if I find a wet hamster that actually looks like you, I will bring that rodent to church and marry it."

The rosette blushed, smiling sheepishly. "Really?" She whispered softly.

He smiled. "Really."

Behind them, maybe just one of the many diners who were unintentionally listening to their conversation due to the shrieking rosette's loud voice, commented enough for them to hear. "'And if I find a wet hamster that actually looks like you, I will bring that rodent to church and marry it', what kind of compliment is that and what kind of girl is stupid enough to find that endearing?"

The two cynical lovebirds burst out laughing.

The couple was waiting patiently inside a classy yet comfortable restaurant that can be found near the school. According to Hayato, this was the location of their monthly rendezvous since he was 8. Much to Haruka's shock, it was just a simple establishment. It wasn't a well-known Italian restaurant or whatever you would expect a high-profiled family reunion to occur, it just seemed more similar to a casual meeting than anything else. But it wasn't like Haruka was complaining, of course. It made her easier to choose (actually, it was Tomo) what to wear: a semi-formal long-sleeved blouse. On the bluenet's insistence, she also added the necklace to the mix. It seemed rather out of place to her outfit but let's just hope she doesn't look as bad as she thought she was.

"A lot of things has happened to us, don't you think, Haru-chan?" Hayato softly said, sipping elegantly on his plastic straw.

The rosette could only nod, smiling in return. The two continued to chatter about nonsensical things, but for them the topic didn't matter at all. It was the person they were talking to that was important.

"Oh," A feminine yet all-knowing voice exclaimed. This caught the couple's attention and they immediately turned to where the voice came from. Blue eyes widened in delight, while the young girl tried her best to calm her beating heart down for she immediately know where this was going. "My son, it's been a long time since I've seen you."

Hayato rose up from his seat, heading towards his mother with excited eyes. He gave her a familial hug, in which she returned with much affection. Unknown to them, Haruka cringed upon hearing what Hayato's mother referred to him. 'Waga musuko.' In what century does these two live in?! Never has she encountered a mother refer to her son with such formality. But then again, they area traditional family (but not as strict as Hijirikawa's) so she shouldn't be surprised at how almost aristocratic they communicated with one another.

She could barely look at the former Ichinose matriarch for fear of realizing how much unworthy she was to be introduced to her but after much hesitation, Haruka gathered her courage together and silently scrutinized the middle-aged woman as she conversed animatedly with his son. Without a doubt, she was beautiful. Beautiful in an ancient yet elegant manner, not the type of 'beautiful' our society thinks. Maybe it was because of her profession (as she remembered, it was mentioned before that she took medicine but she doesn't know about her specialization), but she had this really different air about her. Her hair was a black, as black as coal yet glossy and her waves were full of volume. Her eyes were almond shaped, her irises were in the same shade as goldenrod flowers. She almost wore no make-up (which Haruka thought was really surprising) except for her blood red lipstick. Other than that, she was simple.

Yet sophisticated in an undefinable way. Inner Haruka cried. Haruka could only nod in agreement. But… she wouldn't lie. There was something really… different about her. It was borderline wrong. It seemed like there was this dangerous streak in her eyes that was both exotic and threatening at the same time. But I already know about that. I already came prepared for the possible consequences of this meeting.

"Okaa-sama," Hearing Hayato call his mother brought the rosette back to reality. "Meet my girlfriend, Haruka."

"Good day to you, madam." Haruka bowed politely, making sure to sound as courteous as possible. "I'm Nanami Haruka, I'm pleased to meet you."

"Oh, Haruka-san. You don't need to sound so formal, just call me by my name. I'm Soragami Shirayuki." The rosette noted how the named suited her very well, since she looked like a modern day Snow White. "I'm pleased to know that my son is in good hands. Taking care of him during my absence, I apologize if he's a handful." She laughed, but for some reason her voice sounded… empty.

"Okaa-sama!" Hayato blushed profusely, whining in protest.

"Now that we're done with the introduction… " Shirayuki abruptly stood up from her seat, stunning the couple. "please allow me to talk to my beloved son, Hayato."

The bluenet was surprised at the sheer boorishness of his mother. He gave his girlfriend a brief apologetic look, who for some reason gave a straight face, before directing his attention to the tensed woman in front of him. "Okaa-sama," Hayato called reproachfully. He noticed how his mother used the word beloved and changed her way of referring to Hayato entirely like she was talking about a different being. But then again, his mother knows about Tokiya so she probably thought hewas literally a different person. That isn't really surprising, actually. Since whenever they meet-up, it was usually him who talked to their mother. This was the first time that Hayato was the one who came up to her. "I am—"

Before he could finish his sentence, she slapped him point blank on the face. Haruka grabbed the edges of her seat, golden eyes watched them in utter fright. Without waiting for Haruka nor Hayato to recover from the sudden turn of events, Shirayuki hugged her son tightly, tears were streaming down her eyes.

"My son Hayato!" She cried. "Even until this day, I am still remorseful for what happened to you before. I take full blame for all the sufferings you've encountered, please forgive me for what I've done." It was scary, her sudden change of demeanor. It was as if a coin has been flipped, the other side revealed a cold-business like mother and other one was a borderline psychotic mother who's miserable for all the deeds she has done (or rather failed to do) in the past.

The bluenet touched his throbbing cheek, how many times this has occurred before? "Okaa-sama, please. It is not your fault that I was taken custody by Otou-sama. No one has power against the law, even him. But anyway, this is Hayato. I-"

"You can't fool me, Tokiya." Haruka gasped softly. But then again, why should she be surprised about this? Shirayuki-san was their mother, so she most probably knew about the existence of his dual-personality. "Has your father tricked you again on riding along with his schemes? Because you can't fool me in this charades, I know more than anyone how my son speaks, Hayato wouldn't speak that politely!"

The bluenet looked at his girlfriend anxiously, which she returned with a blank look of 'please don't mind me'. He paused for a second, as if a sudden idea came to him. "Okaa-sama, remember that I called you a month before…" Hayato whispered, trying to calm her mother down. People were starting to stare at them for the former wife of one of the richest business tycoon in Japan was creating such a ruckus in the small restaurant. "I told you that I had good news to tell."

She looked puzzled and stared at Haruka with piercing eyes, the rosette cowered on her seat, swallowing the forming lump inside her throat. "I thought you were referring to her…" Shirayuki's voice softened but her unnerving gaze didn't budge one bit.

"Yes, she's part of the good news. Actually, she's the bringer of the good news!" Hayato sound genuinely happy, however the nervousness in his voice was still evident. His mother did not say anything, instead she made a gesture that meant he can continue. Taking this as a positive sign, he sighed in relief and did as he was told. "Okaa-sama, Haruka made me accept who I really am, that I am not a perfect being. I finally merged with my dual-personality and became a normal person! It was because of her help, Okaa-sama! It was—"

"Dual-personality…?" The brunette repeated, as if she didn't catch anything he said but this one sole word. "What are you talking about, Hayato? You have no such thing."

"Okaa-sama," Hayato repeated for the nth time, and it was noticeable how he was getting impatient. "Don't tell me you forgot about my otherself. You've been meeting up with Tokiya every month in each year, remember? And then you would call out to me? Do you still remember? Yes, that's my dual-personality. Can—"

"What foolishness are you talking about?!" Shirayuki didn't even try to minimize her voice. This time, she was literally shouting at her son. All eyes were on them, the once busy establishment became deadly silent. "Tokiya was not a dual-personality, he was your brother!" The mother fell down to her knees, her whole body trembled. The couple hurried to her side, assisting her. "Even though Hayato was my favorite, I did not wish for my other son to disappear!" She slowly looked up, her eyes glued to Haruka. The rosette immediately backed away, feeling the menacing intent in her eyes. "You… It was your fault…!"

And before Haruka could react, she found herself lying down on the floor, a heavy body pinning her down on the warm tiles of the restaurant. 'YOU KILLED MY SON!' Shirayuki repeatedly chanted, fingers entwined themselves at her fiery locks, slamming her head again and again on the solid ground. In a matter of seconds, she felt warm liquid seeping out of her scalp. It was painful at first but in a matter of seconds, numbness and darkness enveloped her senses and she found herself blacking out.

.

.

"Okaa-sama!" Hayato shouted, successfully pulling his mother away from his girlfriend. By now, a circle of people surrounded them. Thankfully, many people intervened before more damage has been done. "What do you think are you doing?! What has gotten into you?! "

"And you…!" She spun around, meeting his son's gaze. Brown eyes were seething in anger, they were no longer the beautiful goldenrods that he used to admire,they resembled more like rotting leaves during autumn. She violently grabbed the collar of his shirt, but it was as if she was planning to choke him but managed to stop herself before she could do so. "How could you allow that wench to kill your brother?!"

"W-wench?" Hayato repeated, his inner rudeness was resurfacing. He remembered how back then he also referred to his beloved in such a morbid way. "Even if you're my mother, you don't have any right to call her like that! And okaa-sama, since when have you been this unreasonable? She helped me become a normal man, and this was what you gave her in return?"

"Normal?"Shirayuki repeated. "There's nothing wrong with you, Hayato! You're perfect the way you are—"

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" He shouted, no longer containing his anger. "Weren't you the one who originally said that I have a psychological disorder—"

"I was lying!" She cried. "That was the explanation I gave to you to explain to your condition after the surgery! He was no dual-personality, he was your—"

"Soragami, that's enough."

It was as if time stopped itself. Blue eyes widened, not expecting to hear that voice in this situation. They slowly turned around, both of them silently praying it was not the person they thought it was. But their wishes were not granted for in fact, it really was him. The sophisticated Ichinose head was standing in the middle of the crowd, holding a pair of designer shades in his hand. His lips formed a tight line, clearly not amused on what was going on.

"Otou-sama…" Hayato managed to voice out. "What are you doing..."

"I've always been here." Hajime Ichinose answered calmly. "Every year, each month, every time you met up with your mother, I've always been watching you from the shadows, being on guard in case she does… this." He gestured at the clearly psychotic woman, shaking dramatically. "Don't worry about Nanami-san, I had an ambulance on stand-by just in case today. But I never really thought that we would ever need it…" Just as he said, there were already paramedics carrying Haruka on a stretcher, bringing her to an ambulance. "Don't worry, they'll will bring her in the hospital and will take good care of her, I give you absolute assurance. Now that all of these things have been cleared, we need to tell you something very important, Hayato. It's something about you."

"This is all too fast…" The bluenet took a step back, sweat-dropping. "I don't understand...! Why are you here?! Why is mother-"

"That's why we're going to explain." Hajime sternly cut him off. He then gave a sideward glance to his former wife, shaking his head in disapproval. "But first, give your mother her medicine. It's in her purse. After that, come with us. We'll explain everything to you, that you may understand."

Unable to do anything else, he did as he was told and obediently followed his father. He stared at the almost terrifying form of his mother, the mother whom he thought was the only source of comfort in the Ichinose family even though they rarely meet but it turned out that she was more of a problem rather than a help, all his thoughts and bonds shattered before him. Nothing was making sense anymore.

Now that he thinks of it,

Did anything ever did?

.

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"Have a seat, Hayato."

Hayato nodded, too tired and too confused to argue. The Ichinose head brought them to an expensive restaurant, reserving a room especially for just the three of them. It would've looked like an endearing family dining together, if only this was the circumstance. They were sharing a table, the three of them formed a triangle. The head remained as compose as ever, the brunette finally calmed down but you can't deny the fact that she still looked quite haggard, while the bluenet tried his best to wear his to remain neutral but you can't shake off the utter look of bewilderment on his face. Hajime assured him before going here that the hospital where Haruka's in was only a few blocks away from this restaurant so he could run to where his girlfriend was in case he decided that he doesn't want to listen to their explanation. Actually, he was worried sick and wanted to do just that. However, the mystery of everything about him was about to be revealed to him. He just can't…

I'm sorry, Haru-chan… The bluenet silently prayed, tightly closing his fist until blood dripped from his palm. For the last time, allow me to be selfish.

"When was the last time I called you by that name, my son? 10 years? Perhaps more, since I haven't been communicating with you even if we live in the same household." He laughed sadly, openly admitting his negligence towards his son. It irked Hayato to see his father talk to him this way. "But according to what I've heard," Hayato quickly understood that he was referring to the part where he said he merged with Tokiya with the help of Haruka. "I don't think I'll be able to refer to you using my other son's name anymore since he disappeared… "

"Please Otou-sama, enough with the chitchat. I don't give a shit about your small talk. I want to get this over with as soon as possible so I can attend to my girlfriend." The bluenet hissed.

Hajime smirked. "Ah, indeed you and Tokiya have merged into a single person. Tokiya would never have the guts to talk to me in such a disrespectful manner." The young bluenet rolled his eyes, showing his impatience. Hajime sighed exasperatedly. "Without any further ado, allow me to start from the beginning."

"17 years ago, Soragami Shirayuki gave birth to two males, and we named them Hayato and Tokiya. Right after that, we had a divorced due to some… rather obvious reasons," He gave a sideward glance to the woman on his left. Hayato couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. I never even knew that my mother was as fucked up, or maybe even more, than I am!"where Hayato was taken by your mother in Fukuoka while Tokiya was taken by myself and we remained in Tokyo." He paused, looking at his son. "Are you not going to react? Something similar to 'what do you mean Tokiya was my brother' or whatever?"

"Even if I were to react, nothing will change, right?" Hayato calmly explained, his father was amazed to see Tokiya in him. His level-headedness, truly he raised his son with such strictness to be able to remain calm in such situation. "Anyway, Okaa-sama already mentioned to me about Tokiya being my brother. So… yeah. I just want you to explain to me what did she mean by 'your condition after the surgery'."

"I'll be going there soon." He assured.

The young bluenet nodded.

"You might be curious why your mother and I had a divorce…" Hayato opened his mouth to speak but the Ichinose head continued. "It's not about money. We married because of it but not divorced out of it. I knew full well that the only reason she married me was because I was willing to pay for her tuition in med school. You might think that my statement now was contradictory to my reaction back when Tokiya and I fought, when I forbid him to meet up with Nanami-san. But you can say that it was because of my anger that's why I said such things."

Hayato could only nod, since he has no recollection about these things. Even though he merged with Tokiya, it was only their personality that shared, not their memories. He only knew about what was going on around Tokiya's life just a month ago, when they can change who's 'in-control' by their own free will. But before that, he knew completely nothing.

"The reason why we had a divorce was because I found out after she gave birth that she suffered from mental issues. At first, I assumed that it was merely post-partum depression but it got worse over time. She would hurt our servants, throw a tantrum out of the simplest things. I'm surprised myself that I didn't notice it at first but then again, she was able to fool our society to give her a doctor's license even though they had to check her psychological and mental state first, meaning she was that great at hiding her problem. Truth to be told, I wasn't planning to give either of my sons to her. But then she threatened me that she'll kill herself if I didn't give Hayato to her.

"After our divorce, I made sure that Tokiya and I still had contact with you. So every month, we went to Fukushima just to visit you and your mother. Everything was great. You two get along quite well and your closure looked as if you were siblings living in the same household. Soragami told me that her state was improving and I can see it with my own eyes that she was. We were actually planning to remarry after some time. This has been our on-going routine for 6 years. But on the 7th year…"

Hayato didn't need for his father to explain to him any further. He felt a sudden throb in his head, it felt as if someone hit him with a metal beam. He heard his father's voice asking him if he was alright, through his hazy eyesight he saw his mother smiling at him, cryptically. When everything finally calmed down, he found himself not inside the fancy restaurant but inside an old car: he was now watching a memory from ten years ago.

"Papa," He called out from the backseat, energetically swaying his legs in excitement. "Are we going to meet Mama and Hayato?"

"Yes," His father answered lovingly. "Yes, we are. Are you excited to see them again?"

"You bet I am!" He replied eagerly.

'Wait,' Hayato thought. 'This wasn't my memory! It's… Tokiya's!'

Finally, the car stopped moving.

"Are we already here?" Tokiya asked anxiously.

Hajime went out of the car, opening the door for his son. "Yes, yes we are."

The 7-year old bluenet giggled as he hopped down from the car, running straight to the door of his mother's humble house.

"Tokiya…" His father called out, this only made him ran off even faster. "Please wait for your father, I can't run as fast as you are."

"I don't want to!" Tokiya childishly stuck his tongue out. He took his own keys, opening the mini-door that was just a small door that was specially made for him and Hayato. Without waiting for his father to come in, he barged in like a hurricane. (It's not like I have his keys, young Tokiya thought. He can use the big door if he likes.) "Mama, I'm back!" He shouted cheerfully.

But much to his surprise, no one greeted him back. In fact, it looked as if there was no one inside the house. All the lights were turned off, the whole house was smelly and disorganized as if someone decided to throw a tantrum or something. The whole place was silent. The young heir felt scared but ventured the seemingly familiar yet different house. He headed towards the study room where Mamawas usually doing research but much to his dismay she was nowhere to be found. He pouted but came to a realization that the only place left that he has yet to check was the master's bedroom.

Just as he thought, when he was just few feet away from the bedroom, he heard Hayato's voice. Topaz-colored eyes widened in delight, happy to catch his brother in a hide-in-seek he didn't even know they were playing. Sneakily, he tiptoed towards the bedroom. With a victorious smirk on his face, he slammed the door open.

"You're it—" Tokiya didn't even manage to finish his sentence, his voice got dislodged inside his throat upon seeing the sight before him. He didn't even feel his father's presence but suddenly his father was there and he was shouting at Mama while Mama was earnestly licking her hands, provoking Papa even more. Hayato was lying down on the bed, naked. He looked so exhausted, his eyes were bloodshot from crying too much. There were weird marks all over his body, both bruises and—

Hayato heaved heavily, separating herself from the traumatizing memory.

"Did you recall something?" Hajime asked, offering him a glass of water. He nodded, taking the clear liquid with much gratitude.

"Okaa-sama…" The bluenet coughed awkwardly, looking away. "She m-m-molested me and she used to physically abuse me." On the other side of the table, Shirayuki smiled eerily but remained silent.

The middle-aged man nodded solemnly. "There was a possibility that it wasn't the first time she did that. We only caught her doing it to you once, and I promised myself that you will not experience this thing again. I told her that I'm going to bring you back to Tokyo and she begged me not to, but this time I didn't budge. But I wasn't able to leave the house. Until now I still don't know how it occurred but I remembered her stabbing something on my arm and I realized too late that—"

"It was a sedative drug."

Stormy grey and clear blue eyes widened, they both turned to look at the brunette who kept mum until now. Shirayuki was much calmer that moment, she looked as composed as the moment Hayato first introduced her to Haruka. She was now the admirable beauty he used to love, but now Hayato knows what was underneath that cold façade and his respect for her disappeared completely.

"I took his keys and left him inside my house, sedated." She continued, her voice was sinister and wicked. Hayato couldn't believe that this was the woman whom he thought was practically sinless and the only problem he had with her was her failure to protect him from his father. But it turns out, he should be thankful to Hajime for protecting him from her. "I dragged both of you inside my car, you were still as naked as the day as you were born and Tokiya was fighting back but once I slapped him, he effectively shut up." She grinned, sending shivers to her son's spines. "So I drove, I had no destination in mind. I just wanted to get away from him—" She glared at Hajime but he didn't say anything. "—as soon as possible. He took my eldest son away from me and now he was planning to take you away as well, I was not having any of that.

"When we were a mile away from my house, I noticed that Tokiya stopped crying. I turned around and asked him if he's hungry or anything but much to my surprise, I saw him trying to help you jump out of the window. When he noticed that I caught their plan to escape, he lunged at me and grabbed the stirring wheel."

Hayato closed his eyes, already knowing where this was going.

"When I woke up," It was now Hajime who continued. "I found out all of you were gone. I checked my phone and saw dozens of missed call and nearly a hundred messages informing me of what happened. The car she was riding collided with a truck. It was a miracle how she survived but the two of you were heavily injured. I arrived at the hospital, I saw your mother more or less alive. I didn't know whether to be happy for that or not. Before I could even talk to her, the doctor informed me of your injuries. Tokiya had absolutely no chance of survival, even though he desperately tried to follow you, jumping off the car. But maybe because of his position on how he tried to save himself, only the lower half of his body got crushed. His torso up to his head was in perfect condition. While you were the polar opposite, your body was in perfect shape but the majority of your brain suffered great damage after you jumped out of the running car, your head landed first."

"But looking at it carefully, I had the slightest chance of survival while Tokiya was practically zero." Hayato pointed out.

Hajime nodded.

"Exactly. If Tokiya were to live, he will remain a crippled all his life. If you were to live, the chances of you remaining in coma was 80%. However, the doctor managed to lower that risk to 50%. They suggested that they transplant Tokiya's brain to your body, removing the unusable and good-as-dead part of your brain, which was sadly the majority."

"But no doctor was willing to do such a thing," Shirayuki interjected. "since there was no record of such a large amount of brain transplant in medical history. I had to plead to a retired surgeon just to help you. And after much effort, he finally consented. Two weeks after the surgery, you woke up. At first, it seemed like there were no side-effects. You were capable of moving, talking and all of those things. It seemed like the accident didn't even occur. But we realized that there was something wrong with you."

"I repeatedly called you Hayato, but you did not respond." Hajime explained. "In fact, you were deathly afraid of me and you kept calling your 'Okaa-sama', which was even more surprising because I taught you to call us 'Mama' and 'Papa'. However, I don't know what this woman was teaching you." The brunette scoffed. "I thought it was odd because she molested you but you still kept on calling her rather than clinging to me. What shocked me even more was when I let you roam around the hospital playground, you introduced yourself as 'Tokiya' to the kids."

"I slapped you for it." Shirayuki bit her lips bitterly. "I was angry that you, your body was the one that was saved but it was Tokiya's consciousness who lived starting that day on. And I noticed that after I slap you, your attitude change dramatically. It became… you! You showed me your attitude before I started hurting you, that feistiness that slowly disappeared when you realize you can't overpower me! It was Hayato, my son!"

Before the brunette could start glorifying her son, the business tycoon stopped her. "But no matter how much she abused you, you desperately called for her each night even when I brought you home. For some reason, your memories changed and to you it seemed like Iwas the one abusing you and you were so afraid of me. So I arranged your meet-up each month, I'll allow you to meet with her even with what she has done to you, but I'm always watching in case to prevent her from doing more malicious things to you. I brought you to many doctors and they explained to me what's going. Your attitude, why you were acting that way towards me even though you claim to be 'Tokiya', all those things.

"They said that the brain might as well be a human's self-identity. Since majority of Tokiya's brain was transplanted to your body, he might as well be 'living' inside your body for his personality, interest, mannerism, everything was what you were doing. You even proclaimed you were Tokiya, it was difficult to explain to 'you' that 'you're' not what 'you' think 'you' are so the doctors allow 'you' to do whatever 'you' wanted. And the reason why you were scared of me, even telling the doctors that I would occasionally hurt you when you can't do what I wanted you to do, which I never did since I never even allowed you to even go to my office, was because the Hayato in you was still there. The trauma of what Soragami was so severe that even when most of your brain was removed, those bitter memories remained. However, it did not make sense since in Tokiya's memories, I was the one who's taking care of him since he was young. But because of your hostility towards your mother, the one who took care of you, Tokiya's attitude towards me changed, treating me as if I was the one who abused him while the light and caring parent figure which originally was me morphed to Shirayuki's image."

"But thankfully, it was your personality when you still weren't broken that remained, back when you were fighting my attempts." She laughed evilly, looking at her former husband with amused eyes. "It amused me every month how 'Tokiya' would talk terribly of his father while Hajime would silently eavesdrop in our conversation. It wouldn't be any fun if it was the broken you who shared bodies with Tokiya."

"No matter how much kindness I showed you and how I wanted you to remember how close we are, you were terrified and despised me with all your heart. And since you thought of me as a strict father," Hajime sighed, sadness in his eyes. "I lived to what you thought of me. I became strict but don't ever think that I physically hurt you because I never did such a thing except that one time with your date with Nanami-san."

"You're lying!" Hayato shouted, slamming his hands on the table. "You think I could forget about how you treated Tokiya?! You can't just tell me all of it was a figment of my imagination! Stop blaming other people for what you've done."

"Then tell me, Hayato." The older Ichinose calmly looked at his son in the eye, he felt threaten in the sincerity of his eyes. "How did the two of us 'first' meet?"

"Y-y-you…" Hayato turned away, feeling doubtful with his own memories now. "I can't remember where we were but you and Okaa-sama were there. You were shouting at Okaa-sama for some reason but I assumed you were angry at her for babying Tokiya after she stopped you from hurting me so I told you, 'Do this again and I won't hesitate to defame you. I will report it throughout the company, to the news, to every single person in this world, how much of a sick bastard you are and how you treat your son like this!'"

The old businessman looked at his former wife, Shirayuki burst out laughing.

"Ah, such a funny thing human recollection is!" She wiped the tears forming out of her eyes, the bluenet didn't understand her reaction. "It seemed like your memory was faulty so allow me to tell you what really happened. We were at the hospital and you were still recovering, that was the time we let you play around with the other patients. That was when I heard you say your name was Tokiya and I slapped you, just in time Ichinose here arrived to check on us and stopped me from doing any further actions. Much to his shock and to my sheer amusement, you shouted those words at him as if he was the one who slapped you! HAHAHA!"

Hayato looked down trembling, tears were spilling out of his eyes.

"My whole childhood was a lie…?"

"Hayato," Hajime said in a comforting voice. "It wasn't your fault. Everything was out of our hands!"

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Shirayuki continued laughing, enjoying the despair of the one she gave birth to.

I…The bluenet swallowed the sobs that were meaning to erupt. He stood up and exited from the restaurant, not even saying goodbye.

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.

.

"So there…" Hayato laughed but tears were still trailing down his cheeks. "I was made to believe that I was a parasite to my own body. Funny, isn't it?"

Haruka stared at her boyfriend with an unreadable expression. She was sitting on the hospital bed, a bandage wrapped securely around her head. Thankfully, she was just fine. There were only minor cuts in her scalp but overall, everything was good.

"Hey, why aren't you saying anything?" He asked. "Don't tell me the damage was so severe you can't even talk anymore."

The rosette shook her head.

"It's not that." She said.

"Then what is it?"

She remained silent for a few seconds.

"Haru-chan…" Hayato groaned, getting impatient.

"Hayato-kun," She spoke at last. "I have to tell you something."

Eyebrows furrowed.

"Oh goodness, I've had enough of a revelation today. Spare me."

Seeing the absolutely serious expression on her face, Hayato realized this was no joking matter.

"I knew about this."

"Knew about what?" He asked.

Harua bit her lips, tears were starting to form in her eyelids. Blue eyes widened in realization. He buried his face on the palm of his hand, shaking his head in disgust.

"Hayato, I'm sorry." She cried. "I said before to Tokiya that I'm willing to wait until you're ready to tell me but—"

"Where did you hear about this." It was more of a statement than a question. "The fuck," He laughed bitterly, gritting his teeth. "I can't even trust my own girlfriend anymore."

"Hayato, please." Haruka pleaded. "Calm—"

Hayato grabbed the vase smashed it on the ground. They immediately heard the nurses heading towards her room, Haruka could only cry as her boyfriend was in the brink of a mental breakdown.

"I heard it from Kurosaki-senpai, okay?!" She said at last. "He told me about everything and warned me about the possible outcome of my first encounter with your mother."

Hayato didn't say anything. He merely knelt down on the floor, taking the shards of vase scattered all around. Golden eyes widened in fright. She jumped out of bed, pulling the dextrose out of her skin, making blood splatter all over the room. Desperately, she cupped Hayato's face on her hands, forcing him to look at her. "Hayato." She tried to sound calm but her fingers were trembling. "Please calm down. I also have something important to tell you." Hayato remained motionless, tears continued to fall down. Haruka moved closer and kissed those tears goodbye, her blood now completely drenching his face and her whole arm. "Look at me," She whispered. "I love you. You know that, right? I bet you didn't know about this but you also saved me."

"… saved you?" He repeated absentmindedly.

She nodded fiercely, kissing his lips before resting her forehead on his.

"Yes, Kurosaki-senpai also told me that-