Morning sunlight filtered through the thin curtains, landing on the feminine bed inside the room.
Miyuri slowly woke up from her sleep.
Feeling the sticky sensation below, she pulled her hand out from under the blanket.
"Uh… why do I feel not very comfortable, all sticky?"
Miyuri lifted the blanket and looked down, confused.
She saw a big dried water stain left on the bedsheet. Two blushes instantly rose on her cheeks.
"Last night I actual-actually dreamed about Hikari-kun… and it was that kind of thing. That kid is that strong even in my dream. Oh no!"
Miyuri's face was red as she forcefully shook her head, too embarrassed to keep thinking about it.
She quickly gathered up the sheet, wiped herself dry, changed into a clean and tidy set of clothes, and only after fixing her appearance did she walk out of the room.
"Miyuri, Hakuya said he'll bring a document over later. When he comes, can you hold onto it for me first?", Her fiance, Natsuki Kazuto, who had already put on his suit and was at the door, seemed to be about to leave for work. After seeing Miyuri, he spoke to her.
"Okay," Miyuri replied weakly.
After getting her answer, Natsuki Kazuto turned around and left the house.
With her legs still a little weak and shaky, Miyuri made herself some breakfast to fill her empty stomach.
"I wonder if Hikari-kun is awake. Should I call him to come eat breakfast?"
"I clearly already decided to treat what happened on the mountain as thanking him, but after having that dream, why do I feel a bit embarrassed to see Hikari-kun again? I won't seriously fall for a high schooler, right?"
After breakfast, Miyuri sat on the sofa, letting her thoughts run wild.
Just as she was trying to figure out how to interact with Hikari without things becoming awkward because of yesterday, how to get along more comfortably, the doorbell suddenly rang.
"Coming!"
Miyuri walked to the entryway. After seeing who was outside, she reached out and opened the gate.
A familiar male figure stepped in from outside. It was Natsuki Kazuto's colleague, Nozaki Hakuya.
"Miyuri, good morning," Nozaki Hakuya greeted her very warmly.
"Good morning, Hakuya kun," Miyuri politely replied, then directly asked, "You suddenly came by, is something the matter?"
Nozaki Hakuya nodded, "Yeah, I have a document about Kazuto that I need to pass on. Um, can I go inside first?"
Hearing that, Miyuri immediately remembered the reminder Kazuto gave before he left this morning.
She slapped her forehead, "Oh, right, I remember now. Okay, come inside first."
Actually, she didn't really like Nozaki Hakuya. She always felt something about him made her vaguely uncomfortable. But since he had come all the way to deliver something, she couldn't just shut him out.
After she brought Nozaki Hakuya into the living room, he opened his briefcase under Miyuri's gaze.
After searching for a moment, he took out a neatly bound document with a hard cardboard cover, looking very formal.
"Miyuri, take a look at this document," Nozaki Hakuya suddenly raised it and held it out toward her.
But Miyuri didn't reach out to take it. Instead, she waved her hand, "I don't handle these things. Just put it on the table. Kazuto can look at it himself when he comes back."
These were Natsuki Kazuto's work documents, nothing to do with her usually. Naturally she wasn't interested or willing to bother.
But Nozaki Hakuya smiled, "No, Miyuri, I think this document about Kazuto is something you also need to know."
"Hm? What do you mean by that?", Miyuri faintly sensed something off in his tone and frowned at him.
"Since you don't want to read it, I'll just read it to you then. After all, as Kazuto's fiancee, I think you should know about this," Nozaki Hakuya smiled and opened the formal-looking document.
"This is a notice of investigation, jointly issued by the company and the police department. The content goes like this."
"One month ago, the company assigned employee Natsuki Kazuto to purchase ten units of the latest advanced tech equipment from Richter Technology Company. Five hundred million yen was allocated. He was required to bring back the equipment and the invoice to the finance department within ten days."
"But when the deadline arrived, employee Natsuki Kazuto did not bring back the equipment or the invoice. He only said Richter Technology delayed delivery and asked for another week."
"However, after a week, the equipment still wasn't delivered. After communication, Richter Technology stated that they never received any payment from our company. But Natsuki Kazuto insisted he had already paid and that Richter was lying."
"Therefore, the company assigned personnel to start an investigation on Natsuki Kazuto."
"The result of the investigation shows Natsuki Kazuto has recently become addicted to online gambling, diverted the allocated procurement funds, invested all of it into gambling websites, and completely lost everything. The claim about paying Richter Technology was purely an excuse. The actual public funds were all lost by him."
"This is five hundred million, you know. Miyuri, do you understand how serious it is that Natsuki Kazuto misappropriated such a huge amount?", Nozaki Hakuya closed the document with a smile and asked Miyuri.
When she heard this impossible-to-imagine story, Miyuri was stunned. Her brain was still blank.
So when she heard his question, she subconsciously asked, "How serious?"
"How serious? Very simple. He'll rot in jail!", Nozaki Hakuya suddenly raised his voice and shouted.
"Misappropriating this much public money, even ten Kazutos couldn't pay it back! So he'll spend the rest of his life in prison!", Nozaki Hakuya sneered.
But seeing him sneer made Miyuri regain her senses. She shook her head repeatedly, "No, I don't believe it. From what I know about Kazuto, he would never misappropriate public funds, let alone such a huge amount. This must be a misunderstanding."
As if he expected her reaction, Nozaki Hakuya lifted the document and tossed it in front of her with a cold smile.
"Really? You don't believe it? The document is right here. Look at it. Look at whether your fiance is really that pure and upright. People are hard to read, Miyuri."
Seeing his self-assured attitude, Miyuri frowned and picked up the very formal-looking document.
As she looked through it, she found the contents exactly as Nozaki Hakuya described.
And at the end of the document, there was even a bright red official seal.
"See that seal?", Nozaki Hakuya spoke again, "The start, the end, and the last page must all have the company's official seal. This cannot be faked."
Miyuri quickly flipped to those pages and found that indeed, the seals and signatures were all there.
She had seen some of Nozaki Hakuya's company documents before. Thinking back, she realized the seals looked exactly the same as this one.
And this investigation file even included detailed records of Natsuki Kazuto's gambling activity: which websites, what times, how much public money was diverted. Everything was recorded thoroughly.
"No way," Miyuri felt her mind spinning.
That was five hundred million.
Natsuki Kazuto actually dared to misappropriate that much?
That was too bold, too outrageous.
What should she do?
As his fiancee, what should she do?
Miyuri instinctively tried to think of a way to resolve this, but soon realized the amount was far too large, the matter too big, and she had no way to fix it.
Seeing Miyuri grow more anxious, more at a loss, her face turning pale, Nozaki Hakuya, sitting beside her, remained perfectly calm, even wearing a smug smile.
Only when Miyuri's panic reached its peak did he suddenly speak, "Miyuri, listen. If this investigation report about Kazuto is submitted and made public, he's finished."
"But actually, there's still a bit of room to turn things around."
"Because I, Nozaki Hakuya, am the main person in charge of this procurement investigation."
Hearing that, Miyuri's eyes lit up, "Hakuya kun, you can help Kazuto kun?"
Nozaki Hakuya nodded with a smile, "Of course. I'm the main investigator. I uncovered all this. As long as I make some adjustments, I can remove most of Kazuto's responsibility."
"But doing that puts me at great risk. If anyone finds out, I'll be in huge trouble too."
"So before helping Kazuto, I want to ask you something."
Hearing that, Miyuri felt uneasy, but still asked, "What do you want to ask?"
Nozaki Hakuya suddenly gave a wicked smile, "Miyuri chan, you don't want Kazuto kun rotting in prison, right?"
"Of course I don't," Miyuri answered instinctively.
Nozaki Hakuya smiled, "Then it's simple. Tell me, if I take such a big risk to help Kazuto kun, asking for some compensation isn't too much, right?"
Miyuri nodded, "It's not too much, but why aren't you asking Kazuto himself? Why come to me?"
Hearing that, Nozaki Hakuya chuckled.
His eyes locked tightly onto Miyuri's beautiful face, a face he had yearned for since years ago, a face he dreamed about every day and night. He softly said, "Because the compensation I want is you, Miyuri-chan."
"Huh? What do you mean?", Miyuri instantly became alert, staring at him warily.
Nozaki Hakuya's cold laugh came out softly, "What I mean is simple. I can change the report and help your fiance escape punishment."
"But, Miyuri, you must accept my feelings."
"Miyuri-chan, did you know? I've liked you since middle school."
"Back then I would hide on your way home after school, secretly watching you."
"Since long ago, I always imagined marrying you, becoming your husband."
"But what I never expected was that you'd get together with that useless Natsuki Kazuto and even get engaged!"
"Do you know how angry I was?"
"A woman as beautiful and perfect as you, like a goddess, ended up engaged to a useless man. Back then I wanted to kill him!"
"But I held myself back. I even forced myself to befriend him. But every time he bragged to me about having a gentle and beautiful fiancee, I wanted to strangle him!"
"And now the opportunity is right in front of me. Natsuki Kazuto is about to destroy himself. And I can save him. And I can save you, who is engaged to him."
"Miyuri, my goddess! If you want me to change this document and save Natsuki Kazuto, then leave him and marry me. Be with me, Nozaki Hakuya!"
"I truly, truly like you so much!"
Nozaki Hakuya stood, as if giving a speech, pouring out a passionate confession, and a threat.
Hearing these words, seeing his eyes locked onto her with fanatical devotion like a crazed fan staring at his idol, Miyuri felt nauseated.
No wonder she always felt uncomfortable around him. He'd been targeting her all along.
Looking at his smug, confident expression, as if certain she would surrender, Miyuri's face flushed with anger.
Her expression turned frosty as she coldly scolded him, "Nozaki Hakuya, you think your words would move anyone? They only disgust me."
"And you pretend to be Kazuto's good friend, yet now you want to use this to force me to be with you. Keep dreaming!"
Hearing his goddess call him disgusting made Nozaki Hakuya clench his fists in frustration, a hint of inferiority flashing in his eyes.
But he quickly sneered, "So you really care deeply for Natsuki Kazuto. You're loyal, I'll give you that."
"Great. Since you care about him so much, you definitely don't want him thrown in jail."
"I'll give you another choice then."
"Miyuri, you can still marry Natsuki Kazuto officially. On the surface, that is. But in secret, you will be with me, become my lover."
"Publicly, you can be his wife. But your real man must be me."
With one hand over his chest, Nozaki Hakuya's eyes burned with obsessive desire.
His eyes were like a hungry wolf's, staring at Miyuri's beautiful face, taking in her frightened yet still beautiful expression.
Nozaki Hakuya thought that since he had stepped back, Miyuri would agree.
But to his surprise, she refused again.
"Don't even think about it!", Miyuri's voice held disgust, "A man like you, I could never accept. Taking advantage of someone's misfortune, trying to coerce another man's fiancee… truly disgusting!"
Hearing his goddess call him disgusting again, Nozaki Hakuya's fists tightened, anger rising.
"Fine! Since you won't agree and keep insulting me, then I'll submit this report!", Nozaki Hakuya stood up angrily, ready to leave.
Seeing that, Miyuri instinctively stood and blocked him, "Wait!"
Thinking about Kazuto possibly spending his life in prison, Miyuri couldn't bear it.
"What? You regret it now? You're willing to agree?", Nozaki Hakuya sneered.
"N… no!", Miyuri shook her head, "I will never sell myself out. But I also don't want Kazuto to go to jail. Can we talk again? Do you have any other conditions?" [T/N: Tf?]
Even though learning about Nozaki Hakuya's long-held desire toward her made her sick, Miyuri couldn't ignore her fiance.
Even though they had no real marital bond yet, she still wanted to help him.
But Miyuri had already decided she would never sell herself, neither body nor heart.
That was something she promised Hikari after the incidents involving Yoshizawa Takeo's threats.
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