Before the first rays of morning light appeared, the sound of a phone alarm echoed through a small room. After it had been ringing for several minutes, a slender, delicate hand finally came to rest on the phone atop a little nightstand and switched it off.
Without the shrill noise, the room fell silent once more, but at that moment the light came on, revealing a beautiful young woman with long black hair, long lashes, and large lavender-colored eyes. Yawning lazily, the young woman got out of bed and then made it, after which she left the room.
After walking down a short hallway, the young woman arrived at a small kitchen, where she began cooking breakfast and lunch at the same time. Once all that was left was to wait for the food to be ready, she washed the previous day's dishes before grabbing a quiet vacuum cleaner and starting to clean the small apartment she lived in.
Returning to the hallway that connected three rooms, the young woman knocked a couple of times on the only closed door, which was right next to her own bedroom. Hearing no answer, she frowned and quickly knocked harder while calling out in a melodious voice.
"Daiki! Wake up!"
After knocking and calling several times, the bedroom door finally opened, revealing a boy of about twelve with short black hair and equally lavender-colored eyes. With his hair tousled and rubbing his eyes, the boy opened the door and, still half-asleep, remarked as he looked at the beautiful young woman with a frown.
"I'm already awake, nee-chan."
"Hurry up, breakfast is ready. We have to get going." The young woman spoke in an authoritative tone before heading to the bathroom to put laundry in to wash, while the boy went back to his room to get ready, yawning lazily.
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…
On the first bus route of the morning, a boy of about twelve and a beauty of about eighteen—both incredibly attractive, with glossy black hair and lavender eyes—sat together in the back. As the bus pulled away, the beautiful girl began fixing the boy's hair while speaking in a serious tone.
"We need to cut your hair. Remind me to do it tonight."
"…But Mom said she'd do it once she was discharged…" The boy commented stubbornly, looking up at the beautiful young woman, who replied firmly.
"I already told you the doctor said they want to keep Mom under observation for a couple more weeks, so that'll have to wait. Tonight I'll cut your hair myself."
"I don't want to." The boy crossed his arms and snapped, looking away. The young woman let out a small sigh before speaking in a warmer voice.
"Don't be stubborn, Daiki. We were already so lucky that Mom got better, so let's try to push ourselves a little harder to keep from worrying her. Let's not waste this chance life has given us."
Hearing his sister, the sulking boy shifted uncomfortably for a few moments before answering with a subtle pout, still with his arms crossed.
"…Fine."
"Thank you." The young woman thanked him in a melodious voice capable of melting the bones of any listener, to which the boy merely huffed in annoyance.
With a smile, the beautiful young woman finally left her little brother in peace, then took out her old phone and rested her head against the window. Making sure her brother couldn't see her, she opened a text message on her phone—a short message sent from a strange number—and read it once again for the thousandth time.
{A small compensation for the wrongs committed; I hope you find it satisfactory.}
Although the message was only a vague sentence with no sender, the beautiful young woman, whenever she had a spare moment, found herself looking at it, unable to forget it. To the point that she had screenshots of the message saved in different places for fear of losing it. After all, she was not only fully aware of who had sent it. She also knew what it meant by "compensation," and she still found it hard to believe it was real, so much so that she still remembered the day that message arrived as if it had just happened.
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…
After being struck by the woman who was supposedly the heroine of women in the fashion world—the acclaimed and revered Hado Yumiko, or now Ayanami Yumiko—she could only stay on the floor in complete shock. Caught between regret, fear, and anger, all she could do was stare at the back of the woman she had once admired as all her illusions shattered to pieces.
She truly didn't believe she had done anything wrong. She had simply slapped a man who suddenly appeared in the dressing room while she was half-naked. A reaction that, while she admitted it wasn't the best, was within what one would expect in such a situation. No woman would be happy that some guy had suddenly forced his way into her private space and seen her undressed and vulnerable.
But in the face of power, money, and nepotism, reason, logic, and gender solidarity mattered little. The bad one was him, but the one who got struck, scolded, insulted, and humiliated was her; and worse still, by someone she sincerely admired and cherished. The woman who had given her the chance to improve her terrible situation a little, in a seemingly safe environment.
In the end, the one who spoke up on her behalf was none other than that "pervert" who had brazenly slipped into the dressing room. Ironically, the cause of her misfortune was the one who defended her, apologized, and let her keep her job. A job she couldn't afford to lose, because her little brother and her mother's life depended on it.
…
After that, following that "pervert 's" orders, she was lifted off the floor and taken to a top-tier private hospital where they ran every kind of checkup on her. But while they examined her from head to toe, all she could feel was an infinite bitterness fermenting in her heart.
A "pervert" could easily set one of the best hospitals scrambling to inspect every last millimeter of her body over a simple slap. Meanwhile, she had to work as a model and juggle several part-time jobs while also acting as a "housewife," just to care for her brother and keep her mother barely surviving in a second-rate hospital.
But the world cared little for her rage against that blatant injustice; time kept ticking on, and finally the hospital let her go with a cream and some medications. Then, the same people who had brought her to the hospital took her to see some lawyers who had her sign a stack of papers binding her to complete silence about what had happened.
At the end of that whole ordeal, late into the night, she ended up at her front door with new clothes plus a card holding a good amount of money for signing those papers—but with a blank expression. She felt empty, defeated, and exhausted; every step she took seemed to fill her with the urge to end it all and finally rest.
(The time will come… I'll be able to rest soon…)
With a lost expression and on the verge of a hollow sob, she took out her keys to open the door, but after a few moments, she withdrew her hand and turned around. Almost like a zombie, she took a taxi and arrived at the hospital where her mother was, heading to her room. But while she was in the elevator, as if her subconscious were warning her of danger, a chill ran through her and she began to tremble.
Feeling weaker and more vulnerable than ever, all she could do was hug herself and step out of the elevator. What greeted her was a scene that made her turn completely pale. A group of doctors and nurses were running toward her mother's room in a panic, and within seconds, they wheeled her out on a gurney in a great hurry.
Seeing her mother convulsing on that gurney while nurses and doctors tried to keep her alive was like the finishing blow to her fragile mind. She simply let herself drop to her knees on the floor and screamed at the sky, tears running down her cheeks. But soon, her curses at the heavens and at life in the middle of a desperate sob led the nurses to take her away.
Soon, she ended up in a white room with a steaming cup of tea in her hand, staring at the dark sky with a blank gaze. They had already informed her of her mother's critical condition and that she likely wouldn't last beyond that night. In other words, that very night she was left alone and with the responsibility of caring for her little brother. She, who wasn't even of legal drinking age, would now be an orphan and a single mother to a teenager.
…
Feeling utter despair, she didn't even drink the hot tea and remained almost petrified, staring at the dark sky, and before she knew it, her consciousness faded. By the time she could open her eyes again, she found herself sitting in the same chair, but now with a blanket over her shoulders and the sky fully lit.
But the light of the sky was not reflected in her lavender eyes, which simply looked around completely empty, without a trace of a young person's vitality. After taking in her surroundings and seeing more people with a similar look, she checked her phone for the time and, curiously, found a notification of a message.
{A small compensation for the wrongs committed; I hope you find it satisfactory.}
Picturing that pervert looking down at her from above, believing that a little money and some clothes were enough to placate her, she gritted her teeth, full of hatred, and rose from her seat. But just then, she saw the doctor in charge of her mother approaching with a strange expression, which made her forget her rage and filled her with pure panic.
"Doctor…"
She could only murmur in a broken, fearful voice as she looked at the man of nearly fifty with reptilian eyes and a tail, who kept glancing again and again at the documents in his hand. Letting out a sigh, the man turned to look at the beautiful young girl with her tear-stained face and remarked in an incredulous voice.
"I have over thirty years of experience and I don't have the slightest idea how to explain what happened… We don't know how, but your mother is out of danger."
"What?!"
Hearing the doctor, she could only jump in disbelief and soon ran toward her mother's room, only to find her finally awake—thinner than ever, but waiting for her with a warm, maternal smile on her face. Bursting into tears, she threw herself into her mother's arms and cried like a little girl for nearly an hour, during which time her mother comforted her tenderly, just as she had when she was small.
When she could finally calm down a little, she tried to get up to give her mother some space, but to her surprise, her mother wouldn't allow it and instead touched her face and asked with visible concern.
"Does it hurt?"
"Mom…?" She could only ask, full of disbelief, but her mother simply smiled and spoke in a warm voice.
"They hit you, didn't they? Did it hurt a lot?"
"How do you know…?" She asked with visible disbelief, to which her mother responded with a little laugh.
"An angel appeared in my dreams and told me that because of him you got hit, so he was going to heal me to apologize."
"An 'angel'…?" She could only murmur in disbelief, to which her mother nodded and replied with a smile.
"Yes, a very handsome angel. I don't remember him very well, but his eyes were so beautiful… Like two perfect sapphires."
Hearing her mother, she hurriedly pulled out her phone and reread the message, which took on a completely new interpretation. But before she could even begin to wonder how, an older man in an elegant business suit entered the room and headed straight toward her with more papers in his hands.
"In accordance with the signed agreement, your mother's medical bills are fully cancelled. Please sign here."
"The agreement…?"
Looking at the paper, she could only murmur as she recalled the countless papers she had signed without even reading them the day before. The elegant man nodded before explaining.
"That's right. As consideration for the confidentiality agreement, my client committed to settling all of the hospital bills on your behalf, and the payment has already been made. So I need you to sign this receipt."
Completely stupefied, the beautiful young woman read the document over and over before finally signing it. The elegant man gave a small bow and took his leave, leaving her alone with her mother, who asked her to tell her everything that had happened. She began to recount everything that had occurred while the memory of those bright blue eyes etched itself firmly into her mind.
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As the events of that day came back to her mind, the young woman noticed that the bus had finally stopped. So she quickly grabbed her brother's hand, which he pulled away as he ran to get off on his own. With an amused smile, the young woman stepped off the bus, only to find a beautifully and elegantly dressed woman who, the moment she saw her, approached with a perfect business smile.
"Aikawa Sora, right? Nice to meet you, I'm Shidou Erika."
***
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