Hanamichi sat on his bed, a scowl on his face as he thought hard of his situation now. The fact that it had taken him months to understand Kaede before having their relationship severed without notice annoyed him to no end. If he had known that it would come to this, he wouldn't have bothered to get to know the young man and especially allowed himself to become close to the kitsune. He hated to admit it, but he missed the fox dearly.

The redhead would've wanted to figure out a way for Kaede to want to take him back but first there was the pressing matter of the saboteur. He was not included in the Kanagawa business before the resort project so he had no idea who would want to hurt Kaede's standing in the board. The only person that Hanamichi knew who disliked Kaede was...

"Kaede may be my cousin, but you know that I don't care for him."

Hanamichi blinked. "Nah... But then again..."


~~~~

"YOU THINK?!"

Hanamichi held his hands up, palms facing Akira as a sign of conciliation as he rushed in, "I was just saying-"

"I would never endanger yours and Kaede's lives!" Akira muttered angrily, settling back down onto the floor in front of Hanamichi with a frown marring his handsome features.

"Gomen nasai," the redhead apologised meekly, scratching his head in embarassment as guilt creeped in after seeing Akira's face. Whatever assumptions he had of Akira-baka needed to be re-evaluated for no matter how good of an actor Akira was, the tall brunette could never have faked that genuine hurt and worried expression.

"Which bastard dared to do that to Kaede?" Akira growled under his breath as he stood up to pace the room, "Who?"

Hanamichi was not able to answer as he watched the actor stalk his room with angry steps. Other than being found out of being Kaede's pretend boyfriend, this was the second time he has seen the always cheerful and composed Akira get so angry.


~~~~

An hour later Hanamichi was following Akira up the steps of the Kanagawa mansion, taking three steps at once while listening to the brunette talk out his suspicion of different suspects that Hanamichi did not know of.

"It must be the head of the South Kanagawa branch that Kaede went against last year. I knew that old bastard would try something sooner or later! Whatever it takes, I'm going to pull Kaede out of that project!"

Hanamichi only nodded wordlessly as they entered the mansion after brushing past the surprised maid. A few seconds later, Akira was bursting into Kaede's study room with the hesitant but curious redhead in tow.

"Kaede! We need to talk!" Akira demanded as soon as he spotted his cousin sitting beside the ornate bookcase.

"And I'll listen," replied Kaede cooly, as he turned over a page from the bounded papers he held in his hand, "But first, why is Hanamichi here?"

The redhead scowled but the kitsune did have a point. He no longer has a right to be there.

"I already told you last night that I don't want you near me anymore. So whay are you here?" Kaede asked.

"Because I wanna see you," Hanamichi answered defiantly, "Is that a problem?"

"Yes," Kaede answered, "You seemed to have forgotten our conversation before."

"I don't think-"

"Enough with this," Akira cut in, "Kaede, I thought you cared for Hanamichi. Why are you breaking your relationship off? Don't you want to be with him?"

Kaede looked at the blushing redhead before turning to his cousin standing before him. "Someday," he answered softly, "if fate allows it, I will be by his side once again and be his forever. But with the present circumstances it might never happen."

"Why are you giving up so easily?!" demanded Akira even before Hanamichi could open his mouth to speak his mind, "You fight for the resort but you are not willing to fight for your heart!"

Kaede abruptly rose from his seat and turned his back from them to face the desk, "I've no more time to talk to you. I have an appointment with a tv producer and I don't want to be late."

Akira gritted his teeth in anger. Suddenly he marched towards Kaede and snatched the bounded papers from the fox-eyed man's hands before it could be slipped into a manila envelope.
"I'm not finished-!"

The taller brunette halted when he accidentally glanced at the title on the cover of the bounded papers. Slowly he brought it up to read the words properly.
"What is this?"

"It's a script for a drama that Nanno Group will be producing at the Hakuba resort," Kaede answered, unaffected, "Shinji Odogiri will be starring in it."

"Nanno Group? The one under Kanagawa company?"

"Yes."

Suddenly, Kaede was hauled forward by strong hands that gripped the front of his sweater tightly. Dark blue eyes blazed at him furiously but they were unable to shatter his cool reserve.

"You stupid idiot!" Akira yelled, "You're still willing to go through with this?! I want you to pull out of this project now!"

Hanamichi, who has been staying quiet while Akira was venting out to Kaede cried out in alarm when he saw to what extent their argument has risen to. "Akira! Stop it!"

"Urusai, Akira!"
Kaede roughly pried the taller man's fingers away from his sweater and with restrained fury he stated, "You have no right to order me around. You ran away and left the Kanagawa household years ago."

Gracefully, he picked up the script that had fallen onto the floor, slipped it inside the envelope and walked to the door with looking back at the other two people in the room.

"Excuse me. I'm late," Kaede said before he shut the door behind him.

"K'so! Baka kitsune!" Hanamichi yelled to the closed door. He wanted dearly to bang his head against the wall in frustration but the lack of movement from the person next to him gave him pause. Slowly, he turned towards Akira and watched the blank expression turn angry once more, this time with a hint of troubled feelings.

"He still managed to get the last word," Akira said suddenly in a surprisingly quiet voice after all the shouting that has happened.

At that moment, Hanamichi realised that there was another depth to Akira's feelings for Kaede that seemed contradictory to what he had seen when he first met the spiky-haired man. He knew now that Akira cared for Kaede's safety as much as he did and that he was grateful for. But he still could not figure out why Kaede was not able understand how they feel about him. Was he really stubborn or just plain ignorant?


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