After he stepped out of the vehicle, Hanamichi took a long look at the house that he has visited only once before. Hasegawa stood holding the door open for him with a worried expression on his face.
"Sakuragi-san, what are you going to do here?"

"Chill, Hasegawa. Ore wa tensai!" the redhead said, grinning, as he patted Hasegawa's shoulder none too gently that the man staggered. "If you hear gunshots, come running in."

"S-Sakuragi-san!!"

"I'm just kidding!" Hanamichi laughed and walked towards the house.

"You again."

"Maaa.... there's no need to be cold now," Hanamichi said smoothly as he stepped into the studio filled with scents of plaster, oil paint and cigarette smoke. As an after-thought he added, "Sinichi-kuuuun."

"What do you want?" the man said boredly as he chewed on his cigarette.

Hanamichi put on a mock pout. "Kaede and Akira have dumped me and I want to teach them a lesson. Care to join?"

Sinichi was at a loss for words, staring at the redhead in silence. After a while, he smirked and asked, "What do you have in mind?"

The redhead grinned. "You said once that you wanted Nanno Group. Do you still do?"

When the olive-skinned man did not answer, Hanamichi continued, "Men want popularity and money to get to the top but what is the use of wanting them if all you do is dream and not work to get it?"

"That's what seperates the real men from the rest," Sinichi spoke, "those with potential and those without."

"Ah, but how do you distinguish those men from the rest?" Hanamichi asked. "It's like looking at art. You look at it and you get the impression of the artist's talent. When you look at a businessman, you see how willing he is to work and you get the impression how successful he will be."

Sinichi crossed his arms across his chest. "So, what is the impression you have of me then?"

"Rivalry is your motivation," Hanamichi answered without hesitation.

"Rivalry?" The man snorted in amusement. "With who? Kaede?"

"No."

"Akira?"

"No."

"Then?"

"Hisashi."
Hanamichi saw those brown eyes narrow and he mentally crowed in victory.

"Hisashi?" the man repeated, his voice gone dangerously low.

"Hai. As I've seen so far, the Kanagawa men are in rivalry with their closest relative. Akira said once he wanted to be better than Kaede and from that it wouldn't be surprising if your father and Anzai-san were in competition with one another as well, aaand..."

Sinichi arched an eyebrow. "And?"

Hanamichi pointed at him. "When I came here the first time, you said 'Send Hisashi to me.' Aaaand..."

The man sighed. "I'm afraid to ask."

The redhead then pointed at the completed head bust that Sinichi had been working on when he was here last.
"This one looks a bit like Hisashi-kun, don'tcha think?"

Sinichi looked at the head bust as if just realising that it was there. He blushed for a moment before he gave a rueful laugh at himself.
"I said once that I found it amusing Kaede picked you as his boyfriend but now I find him lucky. Was, since he already dumped you."

Hanamichi growled when he was reminded of the fact.

"But the question is, why should I work with you? There are other people more qualified than you are," Sinichi told him.

"Probably." Hanamichi shrugged carelessly. "But you don't know one thing about me."

"And that is?"

Hanamichi grinned, pointing to himself with his thumb. "Other than you, I am the person Hisashi hates and distrusts the most."

"Ah-choo!!"

"That was the third time, aniki," Kaede said as he poured his brother a cup of warm tea, "Are you having a cold?"

The older Kanagawa sniffed. "I don't think so. But my appetite's been off these past few days."

"Since when?" the fox-eyed youth asked, handing Hisashi his tea.

"Since Sinichi has started on his brand of 'fun' at our expense," Hisashi replied, frowning, "I'm afraid to think what he would do next."

Suddenly, the door to the sitting room opened without warning and in strode Hasegawa looking harried.
"Kanagawa-san! It's about Sakuragi-san!"

Hisashi stood up, suddenly alert as his brother was.
"What about him?"

"He asked me to drive him to Sinichi-san's house a few hours ago. He was in there for a long time, so I was told to go back first," Hasegawa told them.

Kaede breathed in shock. "Hanamichi..."

".... and Sinichi?"

"What is that d'aho up to now?"

Hisashi groaned in frustration. "That's why I hate that redheaded monkey!"

Hanamichi walked towards his house feeling much better than he did the day before. When he reached the vicinity of his house, he saw a familiar black Mercedes parked outside his gate and wondered what Hasegawa was doing there but as he came closer he was more surprised to see Kaede stepping out of car, apparently waiting for him to arrive.

Hanamichi looked at the fox-eyed young man questioningly. "Kaede?"

"What were you doing at Sinichi's place?" Kaede promptly asked, his voice low but demanding.

The redhead blinked but then smiled knowingly. "You were worried? Good."

Kaede gave a dark scowl at the redhead's unexpected reply and stalked towards him. "You did that just to make me worry? You're playing in dangerous grounds, Hanamichi. Chikuso. That's why I want to stay away from you as much as possible."

Hanamichi's expression turned soft as he gazed at the look in the brunette's blue eyes. Definitely worried.

"Stay away from me, then, if that's what you want," Hanamichi said smugly, "What I want is to be with you."

Stretching his arms, the redhead pushed Kaede gently away from him by the shoulders and said, "But for now, I want you to worry as much as you can. I'll make you worry for me. More than that, in fact."

Hanamichi stepped around Kaede and opened the gate to his house, slipped in and shut it closed, From over the metal barrier, the redhead gave Kaede a sly smile. "I'll make you think about me until you can't forget me even for a second."

Kaede frowned, hiding the sense of dread clutching at his heart. "What are you up to, aho?"

Hanamichi smiled secretively and turned away, walking into his house without responding. To steal your heart, kitsune.


~~~~

It has been three weeks since Kaede went to see Hanamichi. To his consternation, his thoughts were filled by the redhead. With frustration, he slapped the file he has been reading and sat back on his chair with a heavy sigh.

A knock came from the door and in came Akira with a satisfied smile on his face.
"Done."

"Nande?"

"I've closed my apartment and I've moved my stuffs here just as you wanted me to," Akira told him, jumping onto the couch joyfully.

"Yes, of course..."

Akira sat up, curious upon seeing the distracted look on his step-brother's face. "What's wrong?"

"I'm just worried..."

"About?"

Kaede gave another sigh and shook his head. "Betsuni. It's probably just my nerves-"

"SHIT!!"

The two whirled around as Hisashi just about flew into the sitting room with furious expression on his face.

"Aniki..." began Kaede carefully, "What's the matter?"

"I just had a meeting with the Board of Nanno Group," Hisashi told them with a growl rumbling in his voice, "And outosan made a sudden announcement saying that for the next five years, Sinichi will handle the Group along with the Hakuba resort hotel!"

Kaede and Akira stared at their brother, stunned. "What?!"

"From today until five years from now, he'll be the head of the project," Hisashi said, pacing the room in furious strides, "If he does well during that period of five years, automatically he'll become the head again until outosan says so!"

"Why would outosan do this?" demanded Akira.

"I think he was interested in Sinichi's proposal," Hisashi said, "Sinichi took us by surprise even by being there."

Akira's brow scrunched in puzzlement. "Proposal? What proposal?"

Before Hisashi could tell him, the horn of a car was heard and the three men went towards the window and looked out to see a black Lexus parked outside. Standing in front of the car was none other than Sinichi and beside him was Hanamichi, the redhead waving up at them cheerfully from his spot on the ground.

Akira gaped at the unlikely pair standing outside. "Hanamichi?"

Kaede cursed lowly.

"Promote Hakuba hotel resort outside Japan? That's your plan?"

"Yes, it is," Sinichi replied easily.

"It's not easy attracting foreign customers to the resort," Kaede protested, "We already thought of going international before, but we decided to start with Japan first. It was prudent to do so, especially with the economy at present."

Sinichi tsk-ed condescendingly. "You're not thinking ahead, Kaede-kun. In five years time, the Winter Olimpics will be coming to Japan and their arena will be Nagano. And Hakuba resort is close to it. But you know that already, ne?"

Kaede frowned, waiting for Sinichi to get to the point.

"What I want to do first is to tell foreigners that Hakuba hotel resort exist and what better way than to go up to them and say that. I already went to New York and with my connection in the art circles it was easy to make that promotion."

Hisashi leaned back on his chair, looking disgruntled but impressed. "And you thought of this yourself?"

Sinichi scoffed in amusement. "This is not my field of expertise Hisashi. I'd rather work with art rather than this boring business."
Sweeping his palm towards the teenager who was sitting beside him, the man continued with a wicked glint in his eyes, "This is all Sakuragi's idea. He planned it all."

The three brunette turned towards the redhead with an expression of horror on their faces.

Hanamichi cackled loudly in pride. "Ore wa tensai!"

Hisashi suddenly leapt to his feet yelling in anger. "Yaro!"

"Is that how you treat your boss?" Sinichi drawled, arching an eyebrow at his cousin.

Hisashi withered like all the times Sinichi gave him that look. It was the look that made him know that the older man was thinking thoughts that would surely make his life a living hell. The scarred-face man's voice came out as a squeak before he managed to speak normally, albeit warily, "N-Nani?"

"As outosan has allowed, I am to take over Nanno Group and thus the resort as well. My partner, Sakuragi, will aid me in this 5 years period since he seems to know more about the resort than I do."

Hisashi gaped at Sinichi before turning his eyes towards the redhead.
"P-Partner? Th-That means..."

Hanamichi beamed. "I also control Nanno Group now."

"No..." Hisashi whispered in disbelief.

"Shiiiit..." groaned Akira.

Kaede rubbed at his forehead, knowing that things could not get any worse than they already were.



Previous / Next