Before they left the cafe, neither of them moved right away.
Their coffee had gone lukewarm, Yasuo's barely shrunk, while hers was around the halfway mark.
Sakura was staring at her cup, gently spinning it in between her hands, letting small whirlpools form inside.
She looked like she was thinking about something she didn't want to say out loud.
Yasuo told her, "You're thinking too hard about it. It's a done deal."
Even he was shocked by how little of a reaction he was having to what he had planned to do to her husband. How much of his morals and sanity was left? How much of the original Yasuo had taken over?
Glancing up, she said, "No. It's not that. I'm okay with whatever you do to them. If anything, I'm grateful."
She knew that what they had done to her didn't particularly warrant something this terrible but she was so sick and tired that it felt like an equal payment for how terrible the past two years had been.
Looking out of the window, people were passing by, laughing, heading to work, heading to school, living lives that felt very far from hers.
"...When I go back," she said quietly, "it'll be the same again."
Yasuo didn't answer immediately.
"The noise of his mother scolding me. The demands all three of them have. Being told what I didn't do right. What I owe to them for being allowed to enter and become a part of their family. What I should be grateful for."
Her fingers tightened around the cup.
"It's exhausting."
That was when Yasuo reached into his pocket.
"Why do you have to go back? It'll take a while for me to get the job done without leaving anything that could be traced back to you but…"
The sound of bills hitting the table was soft, but it made her flinch.
She looked down, then froze when she realized how much it was. It was more than she had ever saved in her life in one place.
"…What are you doing?" she asked.
"Giving you options," he replied.
She pushed the money back almost instantly.
"No. I can't take this. I've already taken enough from you. I won't be able to pay you back. Unless it is my body that you want… then maybe—"
"You're not borrowing it," he said calmly, cutting her off. "I'm not expecting it back."
"That makes it worse."
Yasuo leaned back in his chair. "Use it to live in a hotel while I get the job done. Disappear. There's no need to say any of them. Go somewhere alone where you can breathe."
She shook her head again, more firmly this time.
"You don't understand. If I take this and someone finds it suspicious that I suddenly amassed enough wealth to live in a hotel then my husband dies, it'll be suspicious."
"What's my last name?" he cut in.
"...Otsuka."
"I was the reason why that kid died, remember?" he asked as his head tilted.
For a second, she thought that she was sitting in front of a demon and a nervous chill shook her fingers holding the cup.
For a moment, she had truly forgotten that this man was evil. And not only that but his family had the power to cover everything up.
She truly had nothing to worry about if he dealt with it.
She hesitated.
"And if you don't want to do that," he added, "spend it. On clothes. Food. Something stupid. I don't care. Go live with your husband's family and endure their treatment in silence. I don't give that much of a fuck."
She stared at the money like it was dangerous.
"I really can't," she whispered.
Yasuo picked the bills back up.
"Then I'll throw it away," he said casually.
She looked up sharply.
"You're lying."
"I'm not," he replied. "I don't need it."
A long silence followed because Sakura knew that his words were true. Although this money was a lot to her, to him it was probably not even pocket change. It was the coins that fell in between the cracks of a couch.
Finally, her hand reached out, not confidently, but carefully.
And with shaky hands, she took the money from him.
She held it tightly, her shoulders tense, like she was waiting for someone to snatch it away.
"…Thank you," she said. It was barely audible.
Yasuo nodded once.
"Don't thank me yet."
Back in the present, Yasuo pulled into the driveway of his family home. He had to walk all the way back to the karaoke bar just to get to where he had parked his car.
He handed his keys to the butler up front without breaking stride and stepped inside.
And instantly, he regretted it.
""Big Brother Yasuo!""
Two familiar voices screamed his name at once.
Before he could react, arms and legs wrapped around him from both sides. His vision was erased as a body was pressed against his face.
"You're back and you didn't tell us?!"
"That's so unfair!"
'Do I turn around?' he wondered.
But he walked forward. Two bodies were tightly clinging to him and he dragged the three of them in the direction of the living room.
These two voices belonged to his cousins.
They were his second cousins, to be more specific.
The three of them had been very close when they were younger and were so attached to the hips that they were considered a group of three siblings rather than two sisters and a cousin.
One of them, nineteen years old, Otsuka Suzu, was pressing her face into his fair without hesitation. She was inhaling it deeply.
"Oh my god," she murmured quietly to herself. "You smell soooo good."
She sniffed him again. Her eyes flickered as if she were sniffing crack rather than hair.
Yasuo said, "Stop smelling my hair."
She didn't. Another sniff. Another. Then another.
His other cousin, eighteen, Otsuka Hinata, was talking nonstop.
"Do you know how long we've been bored? And you just show up without saying anything. Why didn't you want us to go to your university? The three of us could've lived together. You know that? I heard Mom say that you didn't want us to follow you, so we were forced to attend a university in this city. She was telling us a lie. You wouldn't not want us to be with you. Right? Right?"
"Your Mom was telling the truth," he answered.
She didn't even register or acknowledge his reply.
"Wait, did you get stronger since I last saw you?" she asked as she licked her lips.
Her hand slid under his shirt, her fingers caressing his skin before poking around and squeezing his muscles.
Yasuo stopped walking once he was in the middle of the living room.
"Hands," he warned.
She ignored him.
"Your body is the best. I could touch this all day."
That was enough of their shenanigans.
With a sharp movement, he flexed and shook them both loose, tossing them onto the couch with controlled force.
The cushions bounced.
"No!"
"Ouh~."
The two of them were lying on the couch but quickly got up and leaned in his direction.
"Sit," he said flatly.
They looked stunned and for half a second, it seemed like they might ignore him.
Then he looked at them. Really looked. He gave them these eyes that dared them to disobey his order.
They sat. Mostly.
The talkative one crossed her legs but kept running her mouth. "You didn't have to throw us like that. We were just saying hello."
The other grabbed his sleeve again, lifting it to her face and sniffing lightly.
"…You smell like a female," she said as she pictured Yasuo with some random woman. She sniffed it again, her fantasies making her excited.
Yasuo stared down at them, exhausted. This was why he didn't want to see them during his break. It was hard to rest with them around.
"I've barely woken up," he said. "And I already want to head back to sleep."
They exchanged looks. Then smiled.
"So, which one of them are you marrying?" his mother joked behind him, walking in with a cup of tea.
"Me!"
"No me!"
"We can both marry him!"
"That works too. Hehehe."
Yasuo turned around and gave his mother a quick glare. Why did she have to egg them on?
She chuckled.