A/N: Back and better than ever. I hope everyone enjoyed the twists in the last chapter. Well, shall we proceed? Have fun and please let me know what you thought.

Disclaimer: Marimite is the sole property of Konno Oyuki. I claim no ownership and I'm making no money off this story.

Ten Years Later

Chapter 6: Rupture

Yumi

Breathing hard, Yumi rejoined her family at the giraffe enclosure, thinking the whole time, 'What the hell did I just do? Why did I kiss her? Shit! Shit! Shit! Okay Yumi, compose yourself before everyone knows that you screwed up.' Self-consciously, Yumi noticed that Touko had cocked an eyebrow regarding her as she arrived. The young doctor pulled her Oneesama aside while Yuuki took Yuuichi to see the bears. The question in her petite soeur's eyes forced Yumi to come up with a quick explanation. "I told her off, Touko-chan! I'm free!" She said happily, hoping that Touko didn't catch that she was lying.

Unfortunately for Yumi, her sister-in-law was not fooled and Touko asked with some irritation, "You forgave her, didn't you?"

"No, I didn't, but what I did was worse. I kissed her goodbye," Yumi confided, hoping that Touko would let it go.

"Are you out of your mind?" Touko questioned pointedly. "Do you know Sachiko-Nee-sama so little as to think that she will take that as a goodbye kiss? Oneesama, she told you that she was forced to dump you, right?" The young architect nodded, and Touko continued, "I believe that she thinks that she still loves you despite the time that you've been apart and the fact that you both married other people. Kissing her just gives her hope that she can get you back."

Yumi was indignant, "Touko-chan, there is no way in heaven and earth that I am ever giving that woman a chance to destroy me again. I've buried her ghost with this meeting. I don't need to see her ever again. She is now in my past. I'm going to ask Yoshino-san and Rei-sama if they can take me to a club. I want to meet people. I want to feel alive again!"

Touko suddenly felt like hell. She didn't want to ask this next question because she saw genuine joy in her Oneesama's eyes for the first time in years, but it was necessary. Sighing, she queried, "So, what are you going to do about your husband?"

Yumi wrinkled her nose in displeasure, "I almost forgot about Masamune. I'm going to hurt him as badly as Sachiko-sama hurt me. It can't be helped though. Neither of us will be truly happy with the way things are. Part of me wants to pull a bitch move and find a girlfriend quickly to show him that I cannot be with him."

"You cannot do that to him, Oneesama! He helped save your life. If he hadn't stalked you to the train tracks, you would have been hit by a train. You owe him better than that," Touko said with heat.

Yumi sighed, and replied, "I know that, but I also know that he won't let me go. Damn it all to hell! Why did I kiss her?"

Touko laughed, "That is the million yen question, Oneesama. Let's go and join the loves of our life." Yumi nodded with a smile, and they went in search of Yuuki and Yuuichi.

Sachiko

'She kissed me! She kissed me!' Sachiko sat in the back seat of the Mercedes sedan practically singing to herself. 'That went better than I could have dreamed. I think that she might still love me.'

She quickly dialed Rei's cell phone, but Yoshino answered, "What the fuck do you want, bitch?" Yoshino asked rudely.

"Shimazu Yoshino, do you kiss your wife with that mouth? I pity poor Rei, saddled with such a crude and profane partner. One would think that you were some impoverished high school student with that bad mouth instead of a respected Japanese Literature teacher," Sachiko fired back.

This made Yoshino angry, "You goddamned hoity-toity rich slut! If Rei-chan didn't insist on remaining friends with you, I would have kicked your ass years ago." Calming down, Yoshino continued, "Rei-chan is in the shower. We got a little frisky this morning. Of course, you wouldn't know what that feels like, throwing away true love for more money."

"Shimazu-san, please refrain from giving me the details of your love life or I'll tell Rei about your Lillian graduation party when Yumi and I caught you having sex with your petite soeur, Arima Nana."

Suddenly scared, Yoshino whispered, "Please don't bring that up. It was only once, we were drunk, and Rei-chan was at Todai. Please, I'll even promise to be nice to you even though I hate your guts for the way you hurt my best friend."

Feeling that she had the upper hand for the first time in the conversation, Sachiko drawled, "Well, I don't know. If you promise to help me get my Yumi back I might consider it."

"There's no fucking way that I'm going to help you worm your way back into her heart!" Yoshino spat. "She tried to kill herself four times after you dumped her, four times! She is married anyway, one. And two, you don't deserve her. So just leave her alone!"

Sachiko laughed gaily, "Is that the way to talk to someone who knows one of your deepest, darkest secrets? Please let your wife know that I called. I will be in contact with you soon, Yoshino-chan." She pretended to hang up and was rewarded to hear Yoshino's primal scream on the other end. 'Well, that was fun.' Pressing the end button, she decided to text Yumi to thank her for listening. She wrote, "Yumi-san, thank you for meeting me today. I would like to repair our relationship. Please text or call me when we can meet again." Closing her phone, Sachiko relaxed into the back seat of the car, reliving Yumi's last action with a smile on her face.

Masamune

Kobayashi was having a difficult time focusing on the lesson that he was teaching as Komura Michie was occupying his thoughts. He couldn't put his finger what it was that kept her in his thoughts. It was not as if he was interested in having an affair. Except for her issues with sex, Yumi was a perfectly enchanting wife in his eyes. Her beautiful hair, her soft brown eyes, and her kissable mouth had all had fascinated him since high school. He had never dated another girl other than Yumi. He had the woman of his dreams, so why was he obsessing over a student?

He had his answer two weeks after the incident in which they first met. He was reviewing the probability concepts that would be on the mid-term, and he noticed that Komura was staring at him. She wasn't staring at what he was writing on the white board. She was staring at him. He felt her eyes caress him from the back of the classroom. It made him uncomfortable, but he realized that what he saw in her eyes was desire. He thought for a moment, 'Am I being too conceited? She might just be flirting with me for a grade. It happens to professors all the time. It's nothing personal. She's not in to me. She just wants me to give her better grades than she deserves.' That thought comforted him and he finished the class with more confidence than he felt in a while.

As the other students were leaving, Komura walked to the front of the classroom where Masamune was cleaning the white board. "Sensei," she all but purred, "I didn't get the last part."

Maintaining his pride of his profession, Kobayashi asked, "What exactly did you not understand, Komura-san?"

With an innocent look on her face, Michie responded, "Well, it had to do with the probability of you going out for coffee with me."

The young professor was taken aback, "Komura-san, you do remember that I am married to a sempai of yours from Lillian, right?" She nodded, and he inquired, "What are you looking to get out of flirting with me? Better grades? A recommendation? Money? I'm not wealthy; my wife makes three times what I do. What is your goal here?"

Michie's smile faded and with a radiant affection flowing from her eyes, she said quietly, "I get you. That is all that I have wanted since the first time I saw you."

Masamune was thunderstruck. 'She wants me?' He rolled that thought in his mind and it still made no sense to him. 'I need to end this before it starts,' he thought decisively. Clearing his throat, he went the direct route, "So Komura-san, are you just out to sleep with the naïve professor, ruin his marriage and career, and drop him when you are done? Because there is no way that I am playing that game. I am in love with my wife, and I cherish my family."

The look on Michie's face did not waver, and she answered, "I can tell that you believe that you are telling me is the truth, but I see an unhappy man who is married to a woman who could never truly love him and merely gives him scraps of affection to keep him happy. I have been there. My last boyfriend was never over his ex, and I tried for months to get him to look at me." Her dark brown eyes slowly started to fill with tears. "Sensei, do know what the hardest part was? He never stopped thinking about her; even he was having sex with me. I broke up with him after he called out her name the last time we were intimate. I had known the whole time that he was still in love with her, but I kept telling myself that if I worked hard, then he would love me for me. I fell for you, Kobayashi-sensei, because you are in the same situation. Yumi-sama will not and cannot love you the way that she loved Sachiko-sama. I think that you deserve better, and I want to be the one that shows you what a reciprocated love feels like. You may reject me now, but I'm not giving up…ever." She grabbed his hand, kissed it, and fled the classroom.

Kobayashi stood next to the podium for five minutes, stunned to the core, before realizing that he needed to get back to Hanadera University for his next class. While he was walking down the hill, he began to question himself, 'Why did Yumi marry me? Was it out of gratitude, obligation, or love? Should I take Komura-san's confession seriously? I'm happy with Yumi, aren't I? Does Yumi love me? Does she think about Ogasawara Sachiko when we are making love? Am I just fooling myself? If Yumi is the one that I love, why didn't I argue with that girl when she said those things about my Yumi?'

By the time that he realized that he had no answers, he was back on campus. He also remembered that he had left his notes back on the podium at Lillian, meaning that he would have walk back up that damn hill and he would be late to class again. He looked to heavens and asked, "God, do you hate me or something?" He considered his options, and said aloud, "Fuck it, we're doing self-study today."

One of his students walked by as Masamune cursed and cheered, "Thanks Kobayashi-hakase, I needed that! I have a test next hour!"

Treating the exuberant youth to an arch look, the professor said sharply, "Koroda, I did not say 'Study what you want.' I meant it will be self-study for next week's calculus mid-term!"

Koroda gave him a taunting smile, "Absolutely Sensei that is exactly what I'll be doing!"

Kobayashi yelled, "Koroda don't test my patience today! Your grades aren't good enough to mess with me!" The rest of the class laughed as they listened to the exchange, leaving their teacher to mentally complain to God, 'Lord, why do you hate me?'

Yumi

As Yumi was driving Yuuichi home from the zoo, she thought about the choices that she had made in the last ten years. She regretted giving Sachiko so much importance that she'd rather be dead than live without her. She regretted the suicide attempts. She regretted the sad, worried looks that her depression gave her family and close friends. She regretted sleepwalking through her senior year at Lillian. She regretted not giving Touko the attention and not being the Oneesama that she deserved. She was too focused on her own mess.

Looking in her rearview mirror, Yumi knew she didn't regret giving birth to Yuuichi. He was the best thing to ever happen to her. No matter how things would end with his father, she as his mother would always give him first priority. She loved her career because she felt that she was helping to make the world a more beautiful place with the buildings that she designed. She was happy working with and for her dad.

Just she was pulling her Camry in the garage of the house that she had bought with her earnings, her cell phone rang, and the name in the caller ID was that of her second biggest regret, her husband. She knew that she never should have married him, but she was six years too late realizing it. Sighing, she answered the phone with a forced cheerfulness, "Hello Masa-kun, what's up?"

"Yumi-chan, could you have your parents watch Yuuichi-kun so that we can go on a date? I don't think that we have had enough 'us time' lately."

His wife cringed. She knew that the phrase "us time" was Masamune's code for "I want sex." She stifled an urge to scream "Hell no!" and answered slowly, "I don't think so, Masa-kun. Not tonight at least because our son wore himself, my brother, and my petite soeur completely out. I doubt that he will even be awake enough to eat dinner." She didn't feel like putting up with his pawing her, not this evening or ever again.

There was a silence on the other end as Kobayashi digested her response. There was an edge in his voice as he made the appropriate response, "I suppose that it would be too much for him after the day that he had to take him somewhere for the evening. Maybe we should plan something for this weekend then," he suggested.

'I can't do this,' Yumi swore mentally. 'I know what he wants, and I can't bring myself to do it again, not even to make him happy.' She calmed her tumultuous mind, and replied nonchalantly, "I'll think about it. Sorry, but I need to get Yuu-chan into the house and make something for dinner. What time will you be home tonight?"

As she piled implicit rejection upon rejection, Masamune's hurt turned to anger. 'Why is she rejecting me? Was Komura right and she really doesn't love me?' He chose his words carefully, "Yumi, I am your husband. I love you, and I need you. Are you telling me that you really are not interested in spending time with me?" He tried to sound determined, but it came off as a bit of a whine.

Now Yumi was pissed off. He was playing the "Yumi is mean to her poor husband" card. She had always hated that tactic because it made her feel obligated to give him what he wanted because she owed him. She was not in the mood to let that go. Careful not to wake the sleeping child in the back seat, Yumi softly closed the car door and walked into the house from the garage. She didn't want Yuuichi to hear her going off on his father.

With a quiet fury, Yumi answered, "You know, you're right. I don't wish to spend time with you. Do know why? It's because of the bullshit guilt trips that you use when you are horny and I'm reluctant to service you. Do you want to know something else? I don't want to have sex with you tonight or any night. I am grateful that you saved me twice. The first time when you pulled me off the train track and the second was when you gave me my son, but that is as far as it goes. I do not fucking OWE you a damned thing! Every time that I gave into you when you did this crap, I felt sick. I won't do it again. You can go bang some young coed for all I care. I. AM. DONE. I'm done listening to you bitch about work. I'm done stroking your frail ego. I'm done spreading my legs for you out of obligation," she finished breathing heavily.

Overcome with rage, Masamune yelled, "You had sex with me out of obligation? That's a really fucked up thing to say. I pour my heart to you and you cut it up and crap all over it. I will be home in one hour and you WILL submit to me or there will be consequences!"

Not worrying if anyone heard, Yumi screamed, "This is my house! Go stay somewhere else! If you come here and try to force me to have sex with you, I will make sure that you will not be able to reproduce ever again! If you show up here, I will call the police. I'm serious, you bastard!" She began to cry in anger, fear, and in sadness because she knew that cherished friendship was over.

Hearing the finality in her voice, Masamune understood that things would never be the same again. He backpedaled, "Yumi, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say what I did. I had a bad day at work and I took it out on you. I would never force you. All I ever wanted was your love."

"I'm sorry too, Masamune-san. I also said too much, but I am serious that trying to force me would be the biggest mistake of your life. I also think that I am still too angry to want to see your face right now. Please go stay with your parents tonight for the sake if our son. The last thing that he needs to see is an argument like we just had, and I'm afraid that it would be a bad one because I need to tell you one last truth. I am not bisexual. I am a lesbian. I am not and never will be sexually attracted to you. I have to think of women to get anything out of it when you guilt me into letting you have sex with me."

There was no response on the other side because there was nothing left to say. All of Masamune's hopes were crushed. She was supposed to be the only one that he would love, and she would love him back, but he now knew that it wasn't to be.

To be continued…

A/N: Whew! That was a rough chapter to finish. I hope that it wasn't too ambitious and that everyone enjoyed it. Please let me know what you thought. Thanks for reading. Peace!