A LITTLE TOUCH OF ROSE - EPISODE 12

Rosita’s standpoint

I watched the man shivering with fear as he cried, forgetting his big boy status. I expected him to at least try to be bold and face his death head-on. But he was making the whole thing difficult with his shivering and crying. I nabbed the guy right from his own apartment. Well, we still were in his apartment.

I sat across him in a grey armless swivel chair, straddled on the old piece of leather coated furniture with hands folded atop the head and chin rested on it. My gun draped from my hand as I kept staring at the man cry like a baby. I’d been watching him quietly for over an hour. Trying to decide what to do with him. Normally, I would just kill him, but my instinct told me not to. Plus, I’m getting soft.

I exhaled through my nostrils loudly and clicked my tongue. “Bernard, Bernard, Bernard, what am I going to do with you now? I want to kill you…”

“No! Please! Don’t! I know I betrayed boss and gave out valuable information, I know I sold what was his to his enemy, but I did it so I’d be free. I needed the money to get away and start afresh, I needed it…”

“You slapped the blame on others, dad killed them.” I said bluntly.

“I know, I know. I was just tired of that life…”

“You don’t get tired, you belong to him…”

“I know he bought me when my parents sold me, I know I owe him my life, but I just needed something else, to fulfil my dreams. Mistress, I shouldn’t have faked my death but… It…it…”

“So you moved to Japan, found yourself a woman who loves you with all of her heart and now she’s pregnant and your wedding is in two weeks. Hate to break it to you, but I’m about to make your fake death a reality…”

“Please! For my unborn child’s sake! My parents were never there for me, they sold me. I don’t want my child to feel the loneliness I felt, the heartbreak of losing a father, please.” He cried.

“Look on the bright side, yours will think you died, case close. Does she even know about your past?” He nodded. “And she still accepts you?” He nodded. I scoffed. “Love, so predictable and down right stupid.” I looked at him with a scowl, not even in the mood to kill him.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t pull a bullet to your skull?”

“I will never rat you or your father out because I am here to put my past behind me. As you know, I’ve been living normal and have a decent job and nice apartment. I don’t even know yours or your father’s true identity, I don’t know anything…”

“You know our location,” I tilt My head, “not enough reason,” I turned the gun to him. He whimpered and then coughed out more tears.

“Don Jezreel! Don Jezreel is here in Japan, Toshima to be precise.” He shouted. I growled and cocked the gun.

“You better not be joking. You are trying to tell me that the asshole who raped and killed my aunt is hiding here? And how do you know that?”

“I ran into some of his men, we had drinks at a bar and one of them mentioned him. I was curious so I questioned him more and in his drunken state, I got a lot out of him. I further investigated with hope that when you do find me, I will have something good to trade for my life. He smuggles drugs here, now go by another name since he had a surgery done to change his appearance. I couldn’t dig too deep or they would suspect and fish me out. But the information I have is enough to nail your man.”

I smirked at him. “This is why father was sad when he thought he lost you, you are smart and always prepared,” I lifted myself up from the chair. “Give everything to me, you are free to live your life. But if I find out you lied to me, Bernard, I’ll be killing more than your wife and child.”

“Thank you, thank you. I promise, I won’t say a word, thank you.” He spluttered.

“Better remain dead, Bernard, or my father will definitely make that a reality.” I murmured over his chorus of thanks.

Don Jezreel, one of my father’s mortal enemy. He raped and killed Zedekiah’s father’s younger sister. And then had Terry’s father’s warehouse bombed. He also almost killed their mother and Tenny, good thing I was there. That man has a lot of shit. And I will deal with that shit.

I’ll have to find him first before news leave the police custody that Altansarnai is here.

______________

The dreaded day had come, the day I would sit with Zedekiah and try to do my assignment. Odin took me to the private lounge in the school reserve for them so no one would bother us. He made sure to place me and Zed far away from each other and sat in a place where he could easily reach us and block us if we tried to attack each other. I didn’t even want to fight today, Odin looked stress out and very sad.

“So, what are we doing here?” Zed asked with a annoyed sigh as he tapped aggressively on his phone. “Please, tell me it’s a story about a girl named Rosita who was raped to death.”

“Or…”

“Rosita, please, can you act the mature one today? I beg you? Ignore everything this kid says.” Odin said immediately before I could retort. I nodded but still glared at him.

“She? Mature? That’s a pretty sick thing to say. You know, let’s just get this over with so I don’t have to breathe the same air as she,”

Mature, mature, Rosita you are the mature one.

“I really don’t have any idea what to write, my heart is too broken to think,” Odin said sadly. I turned away from the heated scowl Zed and I were doing and stared at Odin with concern.

“Odin-sama, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing of much importance, I’ll be fine. We have already wasted this week, we have lest than a week to complete our project or we fail and I cannot fail.”

“I’m not very good with stories but I know who has a lot of ideas, if you don’t mind,” I smiled as I thought of mom. She was a hopeless romantic. Her room was filled with books.

“We can’t have help, sugar queen,” Zed scoffed.

“Sugar queen!” I screeched. Odin reached forward for me and stroke my arm to calm me down.

“Mature one, remember?”

“Yeah, one of us has to be and I know I shouldn’t be expecting anything from a guy who’s cock is the size of a peanut,” I spat out angrily. Odin coughed into his fist so he won’t laugh. Zed glared dagger at me.

“Stop insulting me, I’m huge down here, freaking huge, so stop saying what you don’t know,”

“What I don’t know? I lived with you, so I know a huge one when I see one. Honey, you are not one of them. If you wanna talk about huge, try Tenny, now that guy has something worth fighting for.”

He gritted his teeth together. Him and the twins don’t get along. “Terry has nothing on me, you can’t call me a baby because I sized myself and I know I’m beyond seven,” he said proudly. Odin laughed a little.

“Wait, you really measured yourself last night?” Zed glared at him. “For boost of confident, I see.”

“The point is you can’t judge me because of what my father said, he was obviously trying to humiliate me and succeeded.”

“I can’t believe you guys are talking about this,” Odin laughed.

“Shut up, Odin,” he snapped, “you are suppose to be the mature one so stop encouraging her,”

“Me? All I’ve been trying to do is keep you two from killing each other,” Odin defended.

“Our parents couldn’t stop me from planting a bomb in his car, so who do you think you are?” I questioned sternly. Odin looked between us and shook his head.

“I swear, you two need to sort out this sexual tension between you,” he said with a small chuckle. We both gasped, looked at each other and then gag.

“Me? With her? I rather shove myself down a pipe,”

“Me? With this size one?” We both yelled at the same time.

“Hey! What is that suppose to mean?” We shouted again.

“For goodness sake, I am not size one!”

“I rather hump Tenny than this fragile mosquito,”

Zed clicked his tongue, “I always knew you were a slut but actually hearing you admit it is sad,”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I’m such a freaking bitch I’m already fucking your father,”

“Ya!” He shouted, slamming his phone down on the table. “You will not bring my father into this!”

“Oh, did I strike a nerve? If you are so huge like you claim, why then did you girlfriends leave you for that prick I hit?” A pained expression cross his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but couldn’t find any word to counter with. “Yeah, didn’t think so.”

“Well, that was one way to end an argument,” Odin said grouchily. “Can we think now?” I lean back on the chair and started humming to a random melody. Everyone was quiet for a while before I finally had an idea.

“Aha!” I sat up properly, “what about a short story about a guy… Hmm, he’s a rich man’s son, though no one knew his father but they know his father is wealthy. At first, he was living with his father when his father sent him to stay with his mother to learn how to socialise. He was twelve when he came and was very sad. We can do it like this. When he first started school, he was sad and redrawn, away from everyone. Definitely, they knew he was a rich kid, but he didn’t socialise. Then, there can also be this boy his age and his two friend who had been trying to befriend him but he couldn’t,”

“One day, the rich kid was sitting alone in the park when the other boy’s younger sister saw him. She was nine and saw that he was very sad so she went to him. They talk, he smile and she took his hand and pulled him to her brother. From that day, they become friends and he loved her from that day?”

“Twelve years old fall in love with a nine? Now that’s just disturbing,” Odin kicked his leg. “What? It is,” he drawled.

“I don’t see you coming up with any idea,” Odin said as a matter-of-fact, “haven’t you read romance novel? They are filled with this kind of cheesy fuck. And that’s why people love them.”

“And reasons why many heartbreak are so painful,” Zed said, causing me to roll my eyes again.

“Ignore him. Go on, Rosita.”

“Okay. So as they all grew up, the guy… Let’s call him Ted, Ted’s feelings for her grew. Especially as she grew up to be a beauty queen. Her brother and friends knew about how helplessly in love with her he is, but her brother forbade him from going anywhere near his sister. Ted loved him like a brother, and didn’t want to cause a fight, so he kept to himself… Ur… That’s how far my idea goes.”

Zed snorted. “And for a moment there, I thought your dead brain was actually putting something together,”

Odin and I ignored him. “What about this? When she turned sixteen, the guy was leaving to go join his unnamed father. Her friends encourage her to tell him how she feels. So the girl shyly wrote him a letter confessing her undying love for him and tell him that she would bake brownies and bring it to him. If he felt the same way, he should take the brownies but if he don’t, he shouldn’t.”

“The guy was excited about the letter but her brother found out and warned him to back off or he would make sure she never sees him again. The brother is a dick named Zedekiah and has his parents wrapped around his fingers. Ted knows this and knew it could bring trouble to the girl so he rejected her brownies.”

“Then the pathetic girl, Rosita, begged and cried that he should at least accept one, but he turned her down and bluntly tell her to fuck an electric eel,” Zed comfortably uttered.

“How about he politely break her heart and leaves?” Odin sighed. “She stayed in her bedroom locked up for days until one evening when she overheard her brother telling her parents that Ted is his boyfriend,” I raised a brow at him. “Think about it. The reason Zedekiah was so against their love is because he is gay and wants Ted for himself. But since he couldn’t have him, he swore never to let his sister do either. You know most Zedekiahs are dicks.”

Zed stared at him flatly. “She’s so hurt she came out and confront him, yelling that he knew she liked him yet he still went after him. As usual, their parents takes his side and ground her for liking her brother’s boyfriend.”

“We need a reason why her parents like the brother more,”

“Oh, he finally decides to add,” I said sarcastically. Zed rolled his eyes.

“Let’s do it like their father came from a wealthy home, but his wayward youth days got him disowned. So after he got married and had two children, his father promised to pass the wealth to his child that he sees fit. Their parents automatically conclude that Zed is the next heir, thus the extra love for him. Unknown to them but to the knowledge of the girl, she was the heir. She found out when she was twelve but kept it a secret. In anger, she called her grandmother and she comes and take her away, for good.”

“Where is this heading?” I asked no one in particular.

“I don’t know,” Zed said, running his fingers through his hair, “any idea?”

“Okay, so about a year later, her best friends who she still keep in touch with came to visit and then told her the true story of why she was rejected. One of them was dating the dick friend’s, so she got the info…?”

“We’ll need to add more drama,” Odin murmured, “let’s work on this half first, then we can figure out the end later. Even if the story doesn’t make sense, as long as we submit something that doesn’t deal with anybody stabbing anybody.” He glared at the two of us.

“Whatever,” I said.

“I still think she should have been raped to death,” Zedekiah grumbled.

Wow, we survive day one.

Isaac’s standpoint

I folded up the sleeve of my shirt as I walked into the café. The bell chimed as I walked in, alerting the workers that someone was here. I made my way to the girl at the counter, the one already looking at me. I looked around to see if I could spot her, but she wasn’t in sight.

“Good afternoon,” she greeted, “what may I help you with?”

“I’m looking for Sakura, is she here?” She eyed me before she nodded. “Okay, can you tell her someone is here to see her?” I asked carefully. I adjusted my big glasses. She was looking at me as she if she could see through my disguise. “Do I know you?”

“Huh?”

“Why do you keep looking at me like that? Cut it out, it’s creepy.” Her face turned red from embarrassment.

“Sorry. Sakura-chan! You have a guest!”

“Coffee please, anything with foam,” I said before going to find a table. Well, my usual table. I always came here in disguise, sat at the table no one ever sits or seem to notice. I would sit and watch her work for hours before leaving. It was the only thing I had left.

I realise why she was looking at me like that. I always came with this disguise, but never walked to the counter, never ordered anything but paid for taking up space. She was surprise I came to the counter and actually asked for Sakura. Should have thought about that.

“Good afternoon,” she greeted. I took in a deep breath and raised my head up. Sakura stood before me with her warm smile, eyes glistering with excitement.

“Sakura,” her smile dropped instantly. She knew my voice anywhere.

“You? You… What are you doing here?” She barked.

“Er… You said to come for the project?” She opened her mouth to yell at me, but then shut it back. Sakura scrunched her nose thoughtfully for a while before her eyes widened.

“You have been stalking me!” I looked around nervously. I didn’t think this through. “The guy that always sits here but never order for anything, yet leave money on the table after he leaves. Isaac, what the hell…!” She whispered yelled. “Why?” She asked harshly. I gulped down with fear. She would hit me if I tell her the obvious reason.

“I love watching you work?” I asked unnervedly. She shook her head immediately.

“I don’t want to know, don’t tell me anything, I don’t care. As far as I am concern, you were here because of her,” she inclined her head to the girl at the counter, “hold on, let me get my books.” She didn’t wait for me to speak, she walked out anyways.

Maybe it’s a good thing, she will see that I never once left even after dumping her.

Maybe then she’ll… Who am I kidding? I’ve lost her forever.

I removed my glasses, bowed my head and used the back of my palm to wipe my stinging eye. I deserve it, I deserve it, I deserve it.

Sakura returned and sat down opposite me. She spread her book on the table, picked up her pen and tapped it on her lips. “So, what are we doing here? If you don’t mind, I already have the storyline figured out because I know you suck at anything that deals with writing.”

“Then, what should I do?” She shifted one of her jotter to me.

“That’s the plot of the story. I’ve shared the story into two parts. Once you read the plot, you’ll understand what I want. I’ll focus on writing the story of the boy, and you write the girl’s. Then we will bring it together and finish the story,” I stared at her with confusion, “you might not understand now, but once you read the jotter, you will know exactly what to do. You always do.” She murmured the last part.

“Okay, so we work separately?”

“No, we work here. I’ll write here as you do, so if you don’t understand anything or is finding it difficult to write down anything, I’ll be here to assist you.”

Like you have always done.

Her eyes briefly looked at my lips before she averted her eyes to her book. “Let’s begin, shall we?” I nodded.

We started working, she mostly. I spent more of my time watching her write than doing my own. As usual, she was beautiful, a cherry blossom, like her name. She worked meticulously like she always did, chewing on her bottom lip and drumming her fingers. I knew what I was losing when I threw it away.

After working for two hours, she called it a day, went and brought me extra hot coffee and then came over to check what I wrote. When she saw I didn’t write anything more than a page, she started complaining. I was enjoying it because she didn’t realise she was sitting close to me, her body almost touching mine and her hand pulling my ear as she nagged about why seriousness is the key to a better future.

All I could hear was my heart beating into my eardrums. I remembered the days I spent trying to convince her to sleep with me. It was serious war but she eventually gave in.

Isaac-senpai, I can’t do it, I can’t. My mom would kill me, my mom would end me.

You don’t have to tell her, she don’t have to know.

What if I get pregnant? I’m too young to become a mother.

Sakura-chan, you are not a child, you can take pills and I’ll use protection, easy. Believe me, you’ll enjoy it as much as I will.

Can you spell no? Well, let me spell it out to you, N-O, no. Get that into your crack skull. I am not sleeping with you, Isaac, because I don’t trust you. You might dump me anytime.

I’ve told you, I won’t.

Oh, really? Well too bad, my answer remains no.

It took me two weeks to manipulate her into it. Sakura is the kind of person you can’t easily make do what she don’t want to do. One of the reason why I love her. Two weeks of begging and buying her gifts finally paid off.

“Isaac!” I snapped out of the sexual replay I was about to enter when she screamed. I looked at her to see her eyes welling up with tears. “You are hurt!”

“I am?” She took my hand. I accidentally knocked the coffee down and burnt my hand. It wasn’t hot enough to burn me, just scorch the first layer of my skin and make it red. “Oh, I am,” I said.

“And as usual, you don’t care that you are hurt,” she cried, “this would leave a mark, a big mark. What if it gets infected? What if it cause you to fall ill? Isaac-kun, you need to be careful, I’ve always told you that over and over again. Why won’t you listen? Your health is important, your safety is important… What do I do now?… Yes, the cream, that cream would fix it…”

“Sakura, I’m fine,”

“No, you are not,” she snapped, “you are hurt,”

I smiled, “that rhymes,”

“Don’t act cute when you are in pain,” she flared.

“But I’m not in p…”

“You are in pain, full stop,” Sakura was crying seriously over nothing but it was just her, the one I fell in love with. I was stunned by the way she was overreacting, the way she was blowing air into my hand and wetting it with her tears. It made me realise something I thought was impossible, something I thought I’ve lost forever.

Sakura still loves me.