Chapter 11

Today too as usual, Asahina visited the Mizushima residence and had fun chatting with Yuriko.

Every time he visited, Asahina always gave Yuriko a gift, such as brooches, hair clips, and handkerchiefs, while he brought sweets or picture books for Tsubaki as presents.

“Asahina-sama, if you don’t mind, would you like to have dinner with us?”

After finishing his conversation with Yuriko, Asahina checked his wristwatch to confirm that it was already time for dinner.

“Is that okay? Even though it’s a time for family?”

Asahina knew that he should turn down the offer, but he wanted to spend some more time with Yuriko if possible.

Upon hearing Asahina’s reply, Yuriko asked the servant to prepare dinner for Asahina too.

The servant left the room and returned soon, informing that the dinner has been prepared.

As expected from the servant of the Mizushima family, Asahina could not help but admire their quick work.

They headed to the dining room to find Haruki and the two children already waiting for Asahina and Yuriko to arrive.

“Geez. Coming over week after week. Are you an idler? Go work!” (H)

“I work! But I’m not an executive or something, just a normal employee, so I can have some flexibility!” (A)

As expected, even Asahina won’t ditch his work just to see Yuriko.

Asahina knew that Haruki didn’t really mean when he said that, and so didn’t really hate his broken tone.

“Onii-sama! That was rude to Asahina-sama. He’s just trying his best to encourage me from being depressed” (Y)

“Yuriko, you… do you.. really believe it?” (H)

At the same time, Haruki gave a sympathetic look towards Asahina.

He just didn’t have the courage to say that he came to see Yuriko..

Unable to bear it anymore, Asahina changed the topic to tonight’s dinner.

“Oh, it’s French today!”(A)

“You’re really …well whatever. It’s because we have been having a lot of Japanese food lately.” (H)

“Onii-sama, it’s been a long time since we had a meal together like this, so let’s have a pleasant talk.” (Y)

And so, as the dinner went on, it turned into a situation where Asahina was bullied by Haruki, who was then scolded by Yuriko.

The servants who have been working for the Mizushima family found this scene rather nostalgic, as those three have been like this since the high school days.

As for Kyousuke, who already knew Asahina from all the visits to the Mizushima residence, ate silently in front of this familiar scene.

On the other hand, Tsubaki’s hand paused while eating as she gazed at this unfamiliar sight.

Segawa looked at the current Tsubaki, and said, “your hands have stopped,” softly. Coming back to her senses, Tsubaki resumed eating.

It was time for desserts after the meal. The servant brought out a tea set for making black tea.

Looking at the tea set, a huge smile broke out on Yuriko’s face.

“Oh, this is the first time I have seen this tea set. It is very beautiful and elegant. Which manufacturer’s product it is?” (Y)

” … It’s from Asahina Pottery. Kaoru designed it about 3 years ago and then he forcefully pushed it onto the house.” (H)

“It wasn’t forced! I designed it with Yuriko-san as the inspiration and thought it turned out well so gave it to the Mizushima family as a present!” (A)

“Eh? A design inspired by me? There really is a lily on it..” (Y)

Asahina became flustered and then panicked at his own words.

Although he wanted to clear his name, he didn’t want to expose that he used Yuriko as his inspiration.

Paying no mind to Asahina’s feelings, Yuriko picked up the cup in her hands and carefully observed the pattern.

Asahina, who didn’t want to live anymore, glared at Haruki, who was the main culprit. But the person himself was feigning ignorance.

“As expected, Asahina-sama is really talented. It’s a wonderful design. Nee, do you still remember? Long time ago, you gave me a ceramic cup similar to this?” (Y)

” … Yeah.. I remember.” (A)

There is no way he’ll forget it. It’s not an exaggeration to say that it was this event that turned him into what he is right now.

Besides, it also made him fall deeply in love with Yuriko.

“When you two returned from the school trip, Asahina-sama visited us with presents. The ceramic cup brought as a present, also had a lily painted on it.” (Y)

“Even though it was made for me, Yuriko stole it from Kaoru.” (H)

“It was a design to my liking after all. And I didn’t steal it! I took it with Asahina-sama’s permission, isn’t that right?” (Y)

Yuriko asked for Asahina’s agreement to wipe out her dishonorable past behavior.

Asahina didn’t remember anything other than handing the cup over to Yuriko, so he agreed with her statement.

“Yeah. I willingly gave it to Yuriko. Haruki, it’s not good to alter memories, you know!” (A)

“That’s right!” (Y)

Yuriko, who added Asahina as an ally, cornered her brother, Haruki, with a slight laughter.

In response to that, Haruki raised his both hands and made a ‘surrender’ pose.

“I admit that I remembered wrong.” (H)

After hearing Haruki’s words, Asahina and Yuriko looked at each other and laughed.

“That reminds me, after washing the cup, the painted design disappeared. I cried and caused a lot of trouble for Onii-sama.” (Y)

“In the end, didn’t you calm down only after we had Kaoru draw it again?” (H)

“I was really surprised when you came to me with the cup while Yuriko-san was crying.” (A)

“I caused you a lot of trouble that time. But I still have that cup, you know? I felt really nostalgic when I saw Segawa bring it out at the time.” (Y)

Asahina felt happy knowing that she still had it.

That cup helped Asahina to decide his future.

Asahina Kaoru was the third son of the president of Asahina Pottery.

Despite being a man of few words, his father was an understanding husband and a doting father. And by his side, was his mother who supported her husband. He had two excellent brothers and a tomboyish younger sister.

The relation between his family was quite good.

However, the outsiders talked as they pleased.

“The third son couldn’t even become a spare,”

“No good compared to the two elder brothers,”

“A pitiful child who can’t follow the trace.”

“Talented at painting? The future seems bleak.”

But his parents never treated him that way. The four siblings were showered with love equally, without any discrimination. That’s why, every day he would constantly think about what he could do for himself and for the Asahina family.

The turning point in his life came when Asahina was 6 years old.

He thought that he would take the exam and attend the same private school as his two elder brothers. However, his parents told him to take the entrance exam for Houmine Academy’s elementary school.

It was said that Mizushima Haruki, the heir of the Mizushima group, would enter in the same year as Asahina.

With the number of people wanting to connect with the Mizushima group, the acceptance rate of that year was the highest to ever go down in the history of Houmine Academy.

Just like the other families, the Asahina family too had some expectations.

It wasn’t easy, but Asahina managed to pass Houmine Academy’s elementary school entrance exams without any problems.

However, even after admission, he never got the chance to speak with Haruki.

From Asahina’s perspective, though Haruki was just a child, he already carried the dignity expected from the heir of a major business enterprise. He was an excellent human being who was strict towards other but more to himself.

That’s why, he always harbored an inferior complex towards Haruki. Furthermore, his pride was also wounded. And so, Asahina came to the conclusion that Haruki was someone who was hard to deal with.

But then, somehow by fate, Asahina ended up interacting with Haruki.

It was simply because Ichinose Risa, a childhood friend of Asahina, entered the same committee as Haruki. And in the flow of events, Haruki interacted with Asahina too.

Haruki also found it fun to hang out with Asahina who did not use flattery, he found it quite pleasant, and thus, the time they spent together increased dramatically..

Human beings are strange creatures, once they get along, the feelings of discomfort towards each other fade. Similarly, Asahina’s sense of inferiority towards Haruki gradually disappeared.

And after some time, Asahina and Haruki were close friends was perceived as common knowledge.

When Asahina met Yuriko, he was already in high school.

Asahina already knew that his sister and Haruki’s sister were the same age, which is why he didn’t have any interest in Yuriko at the time.

It was when he went to Haruki’s house to return a book.

He still clearly remembers the first time he saw Yuriko.

He was led to Haruki’s room where as soon as he sat on the sofa, the door opened and a girl came in. It was a lovely girl with neatly cut beautiful black hair, round eyes and plump lips with rosy cheeks.

Haruki, who came late from behind her, later told Asahina that the girl was his younger sister, Yuriko.

He unconsciously ended up staring at Yuriko whose appearance and temperament was in complete contrast with his own sister.

Yuriko was embarrassed enough to hide behind Haruki.

That was their first meeting. Asahina’s impression of her was only that she was a pretty girl.

As for the ceramic cup mentioned before, Asahina didn’t really intend to gift it to Yuriko.

Just that, the cup turned out really well made, so he wanted to boast about it to Haruki. But before he could show it to Haruki, Yuriko caught him.

When asked about the reason for the visit, he told her about the cup.

Yuriko took the cup into her hands as if handling a treasure and carefully observed the painted design on it.

“Oh! So beautiful! Is this, perhaps, made by Asahina-sama?”

“Yup. I made it while practising. This is actually a lily. Isn’t it Yuriko-chan’s flower?”

“Yes. My name also has a ‘lily’ in it. It matches! … Isn’t that great?” { 百合(yuri) in 百合子(Yuriko) means lily in English}

“Since you like it, do you want it? There are way too many ceramic pieces at my house.”

Hearing this, Yuriko’s face turned bright and she asked if it was really alright.

Asahina didn’t think that Yuriko would be this happy. He nodded his head a few times and handed the cup over to her.

“My flower, my cup.. So nice.. Asahina-sama really has a talent for painting. I love this picture by Asahina-sama. I will surely treasure this cup. Really nice…. Next time, please draw a picture for me.”

Asahina made up his mind for his future when he heard Yuriko’s words.

His heart was overflowing with joy when he saw her become happy and give her opinion so frankly.

This was the first time someone other than his family or friends had recognized his talents, which made him really happy.

“Asahina-sama!? What happened? Did I say something wrong?”

It was only after seeing Yuriko looking at him anxiously did he realise that he was crying.

Even though he did his best to ignore the words around, there might have been stress building up unconsciously. Yuriko removed this burden for him.

That was the beginning.

At first, it wasn’t in love. No, that was what he kept telling himself.

The other person was a junior who was the same age as his sister. Asahina denied having any romantic feelings as that would have been strange.

However, Yuriko matured quite well as she entered junior high school and he could no longer deny his feelings.

Moreover, looking at her sublime beauty, he unconsciously changed his way of addressing her as ‘Yuriko-san’ from ‘Yuriko-chan’. That was his biggest mistake.

He never thought he’d hold unrequited love for her for nearly 15 years.

Both Haruki and his parents were aware of his feelings. Getting encouragements from everyone around, he slowly started building his base and discreetly began approaching Yuriko.

Then, while Asahina was moving undercover, Yuriko fell in love with another man.

Although everyone tried their best to persuade her, it had no effect on Yuriko who was in love for the first time. And so she left the house.

A few months later, Asahina was called by Haruki to the Mizushima residence.

There, he learned about what was going on.

“Yuriko is getting married.”

At first, Asahina had no idea what he was talking about.

His brain couldn’t process the information at all.

“Yuriko got pregnant with that man’s child and father had to give in. I’m sorry..”

After hearing that Yuriko was pregnant, Asahina kneeled on the spot.

He couldn’t hear Haruki’s voice at all.

After hearing the news from Haruki, Asahina couldn’t remember how he returned home. However, he was already home by the time he realized.

“Let’s go on a trip.”

Asahina made up his mind and randomly packed everything into the suitcase. With that momentum, he went to the airport and traveled abroad.

As Asahina who worked for Asahina Pottery suddenly disappeared, the Asahina family ended in uproar. After checking the history of his ticket purchases, they found out about his foreign travels. His eldest brother then somehow found him to have a talk.

After talking with his elder brother about a lot of things, he finally got the permission to journey abroad, as long as he sent designs to the company at regular intervals.

And four years ago, Asahina finally returned to Japan.

His heart hadn’t healed nor had he gotten over it, but in the past two years, he had recovered enough to congratulate Yuriko.

Despite all his efforts, it was impossible for him to forget her. No matter what kind of women approached, he would always compare them to Yuriko and couldn’t go any further with them.

After two years of wandering, he realized that he would love Yuriko just like this, forever.

His two elder brothers already had a few sons and there were successors. It was a relief to know that it was no problem for him to stay single all his life.

But 3 years into his chosen single life, there came an event that made him completely overturn his own decision.

It was because his younger sister, Emily, shared with him the news of Yuriko possibly getting divorced. { 恵美里 is the kanji which is read as Emiri, but I’m writing it as Emily}

Unfortunately his sister was busy preparing for her trial and said she could not go to see the state of affairs.

So she requested her elder brother to go instead. Asahina readily agreed to his sister’s request and that day, he rushed into Haruki’s head office at the Mizushima headquarters.

He was glad from the bottom of his heart that he had decided not to get married when he was travelling abroad. Thinking this, Asahina finally asked Haruki for Yuriko’s marriage.