Soyo opened her eyes and looked at the pink ceiling. She suddenly remembered what had happened last night.
Sakiko's words had completely broken her defenses. The extreme pain and suffocating emotions made it hard for her to maintain her sanity amid the confusion.
In order to vent that pain and forget everything, she followed Toru to a love hotel.
The stimulation of alcohol and the pain of heartbreak made Soyo give up on herself. Under Toru's coaxing, she directly had a relationship with him.
She still remembered the madness and initiative of last night.
Soyo pulled the thin quilt over her delicate and youthful body. She looked at the floor beside her, where the uniform of Tsukinomori Girls' Academy was scattered all over the place.
"Awake, Nagasaki-san… Oh, it feels too unfamiliar to call you that. Can I call you Soyo?"
Soyo's head was a mess, and she nodded lightly.
We already had that kind of relationship, so why are you still tangled up over how to address me?
Regret?
Soyo did not know.
She probably felt some regret. After all, she had lost her virginity in such an inexplicable way.
And among everything, Toru himself had instigated it. It was almost manipulative, using various words and techniques to make Soyo take the initiative to open her heart and dedicate herself.
Just like the way she once treated Mutsumi.
Toru was a pure carnivore, and he openly admitted that he was a scumbag.
Unlike those men who clearly have the chance to sleep with a woman and could go all the way at any moment, but choose true love instead, Toru would take the initiative to attack if the opportunity appeared.
Take advantage of a woman's empty and vulnerable mood and move quickly. Otherwise, once she regains her senses, it might become impossible again. In the end, someone else might benefit instead.
Soyo did not know how to face Toru.
Did she like him? She did have some favorable feelings.
A man as outstanding as Toru could make any woman feel moved.
However, being moved did not necessarily mean falling in love. At least Soyo had not reached the point of loving Toru desperately. The contact and communication between them had been very little.
The reason she approached him in the first place was still because of Sakiko.
Thinking of Sakiko, she realized the pain in her heart was not as strong as she had imagined. After losing her virginity, she did not even have the energy to think about Sakiko anymore.
She had approached Toru in order to get close to Sakiko.
Now that she had even lost her body, it could be considered the punishment she deserved.
Soyo tried hard to find excuses for her depravity and madness last night.
"Feeling unwell?"
"N-no, I'm going to the bathroom."
Soyo got out of bed wearing slippers. She hugged her chest with both arms, lowered her head, and did not dare look at Toru. She ran into the bathroom in a panic.
Not long after, the sound of washing came from inside.
Now that she had regained her sanity and the alcohol stimulation was gone, Soyo did not know what to do, let alone what to say to Toru. She became shy.
After washing up, she walked out wrapped in a bath towel. She glanced at the school uniform scattered everywhere, gritted her teeth, endured her embarrassment, and put on her clothes one by one with her back facing Toru.
Toru had to admit that Soyo's figure was really good.
Fortunately, he had not torn her clothes last night, and they were not damaged in any way.
The dark blue uniform, with a gray scarf pinned to the neckline, knee-length cotton socks on her plump legs under the skirt, and feet stepping into brown uniform shoes.
Soyo once again became the elegant Tsukinomori Girls' Academy young lady, sitting on the edge of the bed uneasily, clutching her hands tightly, still not daring to look at Toru.
"If you're feeling alright, I'll take you home."
"Ah, oh, okay."
Soyo groggily followed Toru out of the hotel. They hailed a taxi, and under Soyo's directions, arrived at the Nagasaki family's residence in Shinagawa Ward.
It was a high-end apartment building, with the top floor being a duplex penthouse located beside Tokyo Bay.
Although it was not the most luxurious residence in Tokyo, it was certainly not somewhere ordinary people could afford to live.
After getting out of the taxi and paying the fare, Toru escorted Soyo to the entrance of the apartment.
He stopped, faced her, and said, "I'll leave you here. Can you go up by yourself, Soyo?"
Soyo nodded subconsciously, then could not help asking, "Fujiwara-kun, do you… do you want to come up and sit for a while?"
Her voice carried a hint of anticipation.
Unexpectedly, Toru shook his head.
"I won't go up."
"Alright, alright."
Soyo stiffly walked into the apartment building and forced a smile while greeting the security guard on the first floor.
After entering the elevator, her legs turned weak and she almost collapsed.
What kind of situation was this?
Should she go back and confront Fujiwara-kun? What exactly did he intend to do? Should she make him take responsibility?
No, that was not right. Last night, she had been the one who initiated it. Even if Fujiwara-kun refused to take responsibility, she had no grounds to say anything.
Could her first time really end as a one-night stand like this?
"I'm home."
When she walked into the duplex penthouse, a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows revealed a beautiful view of the coastline.
As usual, no one responded.
Her mother was busy with work and often stayed away from home for days. Otherwise, if she had not returned home for an entire night, her mother would have searched everywhere for her.
High-end furniture and beautiful ceiling lights filled the room, but to Soyo, this home only brought loneliness and coldness.
She casually tossed her bag onto the sofa and walked into the kitchen, taking out some ready-to-eat convenience store food she had bought yesterday.
She heated it in the microwave and forced herself to swallow it.
The food had a strong industrial plastic taste as she swallowed it, making Soyo feel nauseous.
It was not that the food was bad. Her bad mood simply made her not want to eat.
After forcing herself to finish the meal, Soyo returned to her bedroom.
Compared to the empty living room outside, she only felt safe inside this thirty-square-meter bedroom.
A bedroom of over thirty square meters was already half the size of a house for an average family.
The pain of the rich was something others could not imagine.
Lying on the bed, Soyo listlessly took out her phone and casually scrolled through short videos.
Having just woken up, she naturally was not sleepy.
As she scrolled, she opened LINE again.
After thinking for a moment, Soyo sent a message to Sakiko.
"I'm sorry, Sakiko. I was too emotional yesterday and did something bad. I apologize to you."
As usual, the red exclamation mark told Soyo that the other party had already deleted her.
Scrolling upward, over the past year, Soyo had sent messages to Sakiko almost every day.
That long string of red exclamation marks, along with Soyo's monologues, was persistence taken to the extreme.
Even the most persistent men would bow before her.
After sending the message that she already knew would receive no reply, Soyo realized she no longer felt the same distress as before.
It was as if she had suddenly let go of everything regarding Sakiko.
She closed Sakiko's page and opened Toru's LINE page.
Unlike Sakiko's page, this one was extremely clean. The two of them had never actually chatted online.
Their occasional conversations only happened when she went to practice and Toru happened to be at the store, exchanging a few words.
"Fujiwara-kun, will you be at the store tomorrow night?"
After typing this sentence, Soyo hesitated for a moment before deleting it.
She did not dare send the message.
What if, just like Sakiko, Toru had also deleted her LINE? She would go crazy.
Lying on the bed, she tossed and turned, rolling around with her blanket. Thinking about last night, Soyo found herself becoming aroused without realizing it.
"Ah, this is so annoying."
Without noticing it herself, Sakiko's image in her mind was gradually fading, while another person's figure slowly replaced it.
...
The next day.
During the break, Mutsumi came to the small garden as usual to water her cucumbers.
Soyo walked up behind her, her expression calm as she looked at Mutsumi's back.
Regarding Sakiko, the entire day yesterday had allowed Soyo to fully understand things.
Or rather, Sakiko had been replaced by someone else.
Because Sakiko herself was never that important. What Soyo truly lacked was the care and affection missing from her long-term single-parent household where her mother was rarely home.
Her obsession with Sakiko only came from the happiness she once experienced in the band Crychic.
So when someone else could replace Sakiko, she could slowly let go of her stubbornness.
Just as Sakiko had said, everything Soyo thought about was actually herself.
"Soyo, are you here to ask about Sakiko again? I might not tell you this time."
"No. Sakiko is in the past. I won't ask about her anymore."
Mutsumi froze for a moment. She put down the watering can and looked at Soyo in disbelief.
She really forgot everything so easily? Was her illness cured this quickly?
Mutsumi suddenly wanted to be cured as well, to have Toru give her an injection.
Behind her wooden, emotionless appearance, she also had her own sorrows and discomfort.
After speaking, Soyo turned and left.
Driven by an impulse, Mutsumi asked, "Soyo, where did you stay the night before last?"
Soyo paused briefly, then composed herself.
"I just stayed at a random hotel for one night."
So Soyo stayed for one night.
Mutsumi thought about that night when she stood outside in the wind. Well, it was almost summer, so it was not really cold.
Anyway, she had stood outside the love hotel until after nine o'clock. If her father had not called to urge her home, she might have stayed there all night.
"Sakiko has gotten better, and Soyo has also changed."
Mutsumi looked at Soyo's departing back and murmured.
"Am I the only broken doll?"
...
That night, at a dock in Tokyo, a cargo ship arrived.
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)