Chapter 18

Ryouta's POV

“Katsuo?! What's going on?”

He hung up on me and didn’t pick up again, even though I tried to reach him many times. Crying, I am sure, he was crying. What the hell?! I wasn’t sad, more angry, because this came out of nowhere and without any reasons. Everything was going perfect between us, so what happened? My focus was gone. All I could think of was to reach my boyfriend and demand an explanation. My hands were shaking when I was writing a message, asking why, however I was not able to send it. Firstly the light, then hit, and in the end the scary darkness.

Katsuo’s POV

Yuki was keeping me busy and distracted from thoughts about breaking up, but I couldn’t forget about it. Only three days have passed and in my heart a tiny amount of hope was screaming for attention, I knew the only way to deal with it was to ignore this feeling. I was wondering why instead of anger everything was filled with sadness and reminded me of him. Watching all over again photos and video, when he admitted that he only approached me, because I was rich and all the interactions with me disgusted him, it couldn’t soothe the doubts about the accuracy of breaking up. That’s him, his face and voice…

While sipping a coffee I noticed familiar figures going around the campus disorientated. Before I knew what I was doing I ran to them and just when our eyes met I realised that I couldn’t say a word to the twins. Was I worried about them, or I hoped to find out about how Ryouta is doing? They got furious the second they saw me and started to pummel me. Small fists hurted me, but I was standing still like I deserved it, I felt like it. Their anger and desperation were so enormous, and they cried so loud, so even the accusation wasn’t properly formed.

Suddenly someone pulled them away and hid behind the back. Nishikawa Ayame stayed calm only for their good, but she was ready to kill me with just her look.

“Is it true that you broke up with Ryouta?”, she asked coldly.

“I did.” There was no reason to lie. The slap was painful.

“Why?”

That short question was too hard to answer, so I just sent her a video and threw an envelope with photos. I turned back, there was nothing to say. See yourself! Yuki and the rest were observing me through the cafe’s windows. She was smiling like a winner, but I felt like a total loser.

“Shimada,” Ayame called me, her voice trembling, I stopped. “Ryouta was texting you with the same question, when he had a car accident. He made it, but he has been in a coma since then.”

My heart dropped and my knees went weak. I fell on the ground, but I couldn’t make myself ask where he was. I wanted to be by his side, but I was the one who broke up… It happened because of me. It’s my fault! Something screamed inside me and I knew it was the truth. Yuki helped me get up.

“Sending siblings to get back to you, so pathetic,” she commended, holding my arm.

I broke free from her grip, I just wanted to be alone.

Ayame’s POV

I was happy I found the twins so fast, when grandma let me know they escaped. I took them home so they could sleep a bit, even though they didn’t want to leave the hospital, waiting for their brother to wake up. We were there again after the confrontation with Shimada, and the twins fell asleep, each of them holding on to Ryouta's hand. It was too much for them. My hand hurted. And my ship is already on the bottom of the sea of love. The deep sight of relief, when I saw Daichi, as I asked him to see me.

“I was relieved when you told me you found the kids. How are they?”

“Like you see. Tired and devastated. They went to see Shimada,” I answered, still thinking about everything that happened an hour earlier. “He gave me this.”

Daichi needed a moment to go through the material and was thinking for a moment.

“I don’t think he got it on his own. I am thinking who could be so nice to give him all of these, any idea?”

“This girl Yuki was with him. Maybe her?” I suggested, my boyfriend raised his eyebrows and sighted.

“Probably, she could do something like that, but from what I knew about the situation I would have never believed Ryouta would play both ends against the middle and say all of these things. They looked like a really great couple and Katsuo was happy all around.”

“He wouldn’t,” Sakura woke up. “Our brother has a good heart and is very honorable, our grandparents raised us well.”

“We all here know it. The problem is that idiot, but see yourself, what could be the reason.”

I gave the girl evidence and she was looking at it with disbelief. Tears again were visible in her eyes, so I tried to comfort her with a hug. Suddenly Daichi remembered something.

“What, if all of these were fabricated?”

“It doesn’t look like this.”

“But Yuki family’s company is big in IT business and technology, including AI stuff, so it won’t be a problem for her to gather some material and ask really talented people to do everything she needs.”

I wanted to kiss him, if he was right maybe, there was a chance to somehow bounce back the ship and magically this could be just a huge misunderstanding, being the result of Yuki’s intrigue. We just need you to wake up Ryouta, my crew will take care of everything, you just focus on coming back to us.

“So we need to prove it. Let’s find it, my crew.”

“Including me?” Daichi smiled at me.

“You are an honorable member, you can’t join,” Sakura answered, being all serious. “No couples on the board.”

“You didn’t ask the captain,” I pouted. “However I agree, sorry my love.”

“I am happy I can help. I want this to finish with a happy end.”