13th Chapter

I pretended to have a fever and told Jin I'm not going to school.

I feel sorry for having to lie to him but, after what happened yesterday, I don't think I want to be in the same place with the same person who almost made me pee in my panties. It doesn't help that I also feel scared to go out of the house.

For almost a whole day, I did nothing but to laze in my room and think about random things like how is Shinsuke after what happened the other day. Speaking of Shinsuke, I didn't see him a day after he escorted me back home. Even his mother was clueless as to where her son is. Now I'm starting to worry about him. What if he got involved with the 'other' people again?

I picked up my phone and looked at the time flashed on my screen. If he's at our school today, which I am hoping so, it's just time for the last subject to end. I searched for his contact info in my quaint phone and hit the call button.

It was ringing, that was a good sign since he always turns off his phone when he's doing his 'other' job. Although that may be the case, he's not picking up his phone and it just kept ring. Having no choice, I just left him a voice message telling him that to call me as soon as he hears it.

"Maybe I'll go check auntie if he already went to her." With a nod, I gathered my stuff and changed my clothing.

It's already night when I went out of the house. Thank God that that stupid Mugen wasn't hanging around inside my home early in the morning. My guess is that he went somewhere, maybe like in a club or somewhere last night after what happened. Like I care where in the holy hell he goes. It's a good thing in reality since his presence is starting to suffocate me.

When I arrived at auntie's room, someone was already there and she was laughing with someone. I took a peek and saw an unfamiliar woman was with her. She has a very beautiful face and an aura that can knock men out because of how gorgeous she is. However, her eyes were different. They looked hollowed and empty, contradictory to the enticing aura she emitting.

She actually looked oddly familiar.

"Oh Fuu! Didn't know you were there! Come in, come in." Auntie said with a big smile.

I did what she told me. I went inside and did my best to ignore the presence of auntie's other guest without being rude to the both of them. I greeted auntie with a big smile.

"By the way," she shifted her attention from me to the woman she was with since before I arrived. "Her name is Suzuha. She and Shinsuke were friends since they were kids. She came to visit me after being away from Japan for three years."

Suzuha? Why did that name sound so familiar?

"Hi nice to meet you. My name's Suzuha. You are?"

I just stared at the hand she held out to me. A rather weird way to greet me. She must've went to America that she picked up the way people greet each other.

"Fuu." I bowed and looked at auntie, leaving the woman with her hand still outstretched. There's no use pretending that I'm glad to meet her for the first time. For some reason, I don't like her one bit. I'm not going to be friendly with this woman. She gives me the creeps.

Ignoring that she actually existed and that she's with us, I turned to auntie, who seemed unaffected with my rude treatment to her guest. "Auntie, I was wondering if Shinsuke came by here today."

"Shinsuke?" Her smiling face immediately into a worried one. "No. I'm actually hoping that you know where he is now considering that you two are practically inseparable."

"N-no..." I blushed at her statement. "I didn't go to school today. I tried calling his phone but it just kept ringing."

"Oh my... Where he could have gone to?"

"I'm pretty sure he's alright."

Her alluring and reassuring voice stole our attention. She has a 'gentle' smile plastered on her face that sent chill up to my spine. For some reason, she sounded so sure about Shinsuke not being in some sort of trouble. As if she knows that he's not doing any dangerous stuff at the moment. It actually pissed me off when she said that. I thought the she's a longtime friend Shinsuke yet she looked like she could careless.

This woman...

"Well, if Suzuha said that he's fine, then I'll believe her."

After auntie said that, Suzuha decided that it was time for her to go and said her farewell to her. Auntie, being a kind and polite woman she is, asked me to escort her on her way back. I just accepted her request without any second thoughts and we started to walk away from auntie's room.

Why do I get the feeling that auntie somehow dislike the woman in front of me despite of her laughing and flashing warm smiles at her? It was just a feeling but, I can't brush it off me.

"So... are you like Shinsuke's girlfriend?"

Weird question coming from her. "No. That's quite a stretch. We're just friends. That's all."

"Really? From the way auntie was talking to you, it kinda looked like you two are going out. She did say that the two of you are inseparable."

This woman is testing my patience. I just know it. My nose scrunched up. "Why do you care? What kind of relationship that Shinsuke and I share has nothing to do with you."

"Hmm. I wonder."

As we were approaching the exit, she stopped on her tracks, I followed suit. The woman looked at me through her shoulders with a mocking and devilish smile resting on her face. I held my ground and glared at her.

"What do you mean?"

She just kept smiling that it almost frightens me. "It's my job to see what kind of girl that Shin-chan has taken interest to. I am, after all, his girlfriend."

Girlfriend? I don't remember Shinsuke mentioning him being in a relationship currently.

"Ah..." I said with a deadpan expression evident on my face.

I get it. That's why she knew why Shinsuke is not caught up with some sort of trouble. The reason why she's not worried at all. They were together before she visited auntie. No wonder she's so full of herself. There's just one thing that's bugging me.

"Where is he?"

If she is truly his lover and that they were really together, why did she go and visit auntie alone? Why did auntie introduced her as a friend of Shinsuke's instead of being his girlfriend? In any way, I don't believe that they are together or they are still together.

She widened her smile. "Shin-chan was so tired from last night that I let him sleep for much longer."

So she's playing the 'we-had-sex-last-night' card to me. To be honest, I could careless what sort of freaky things they did. She's not being honest with me. I can tell it. This woman's just saying those things to make me jealous for some odd reason. Is she threatened by my presence? Well, bad news for her. It's not working. What matters to me is that he's safe and nothing else.

I sent her heated glares that is hotter than the fires of hell itself while she kept smiling at me, like a devil reincarnate. I can safely say, I this woman. I hate her with every fiber of my being.

"Fuu!"

His voice snapped me out from glaring at the woman I'm with. I was taken by surprise when he ran to me and shielded me from Suzuha. This time, it's his turn to glare at her. She just let out a sigh and gave Shinsuke a small smile.

"Shin. Is that the right way to greet your girlfriend?"

"Shut up. You're not my girlfriend anymore and you know it."

I knew it. She's his ex-girlfriend. Something might have happened why she's like that and why they split up. Don't tell me...

The woman sighed again. "Good grief. I've been gone for two years and this is what I get from my boyfriend?"

"Then you shouldn't have returned at all! Don't you dare go near my family again!"

"So does lil' Fuu counts?"

Shinsuke gritted his teeth. "Of course. She's a member of my family."

She didn't reply and instead she muttered something. I don't know if it was because of her voice being by the wind however, I heard her say; 'is that so?' with a pained expression. We both waited for what she has more to say just to annoy her ex-lover. However, she just walked away from us, without uttering a single word to us after Shinsuke's declaration.

After that whole ideal, it got my head up in the clouds. All of the words that came from Shinsuke and auntie's exchange has been blocked off. The only thing that is in my mind right now is the sad look I saw in that woman's once dead eyes. For a moment, although she was hurt by Shinsuke's words, her eyes lit up.

Before Shinsuke went to my side, her eyes are similar to a creepy French porcelain doll. Both has no life. Whenever she gazed at me, it made all of the hair in my body stand. It was like she wasn't looking at me but right through me. Yet, the moment Shinsuke entered her field of vision, her eyes flickered again. Thinking about it right now, she sorts of remind of that creepy Guidance Counselor. However, the difference is that when the fire in Suzuha's eyes flickered, it was full of hope and...

Love for Shinsuke.

There's a tide of different and conflicting emotions not only in my own heart but also in my mind. I don't know what to feel about her. I hated her but it seemed that I don't have the power to hate her anymore.

What made him despise the woman she once loved? Wasn't she the one that he lost from being involved with Mr. Umanosuke? She has return to be with him again. So why?