35: Leaving

"Natsuo-kun, Rui? What are you doing here?" As soon as Hina entered the shop, she was met with the sight of Natsuo, Rui, and the fat waiter wrestling with each other, each of them pulling and struggling against the others.

"Students of yours?" By her side stood a handsome man with blond hair and a gentle looking face. He wore glasses and a grey suit. He looked at the three of them and asked.

"She... she is my little sister..." Hina hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should just turn around and walk away. "...And he is my stepbrother from my mother's remarriage."

"Hina-nee," Rui stopped pulling Natsuo's cheeks and called out her sister's name, glaring at the man who was playing with her sister's feelings.

She had so much to say to both of them. She had the urge to grab the parfait and throw it in his face, ruining that uselessly handsome face he had used to seduce her sister. But when she saw Natsuo's calm reaction, it somewhat calmed her down.

"Oh, Hina-nee." Natsuo walked toward her and extended his hand to Shu. "You must be her boyfriend, right?"

"Indeed, nice to meet you, Natsuo-kun." Shu Hagiwara smiled politely and shook his hand, but his smile soon became strained, his lips twitching as the grip of Natsuo's hand squeezed his own so hard that he felt like his bones were about to break. Just when he couldn't bear it any longer and was about to cry out in pain, Natsuo finally retracted his hand.

"I am most certainly not pleased to meet you." Natsuo shook his head faintly, ignoring his painful expression and Hina's shock, before adding, "You've caused Hina-nee to cry very often; you know that?"

"Natsuo-kun!" Hina hurriedly tried to stop him from saying anything more.

"Eh... I am... I know..." Shu looked at Hina's complicated expression before nodding. "It is indeed my fault, and I apologize for that."

"Then break up with her!" Rui walked over, pointed a finger at Shu, and said in a quiet tone, "You are married, aren't you?!"

"If you have any sense of decency, then break up with her. Right now, you are only making Hina-nee miserable!"

As she spoke, she became more emotional, her eyes filling with tears. "Hina-nee used to be so cheerful and bright, but ever since she started dating you, she has looked so pitiful. Do you know how often she ends up crying alone?"

"Please leave her alone! Don't make Hina-nee suffer through this half baked relationship!"

Both Hina and Shu looked at Rui in silence, unsure of what to do.

Rui's emotional outburst had attracted the attention of the other customers, making them all stare at the four of them as if they were animals in a zoo.

"Rui, calm down." Natsuo grabbed her shoulder and spoke calmly before turning to the two of them. "Why don't we sit down and talk, Kobayashi-san?" he asked the gay ex-yakuza.

"It's Marie!! Sigh, you can take the table at the back." Kobayashi pouted, leaving everyone speechless as he pointed toward a table.

"Thanks." Hina rubbed her arm awkwardly and thanked him with a strained smile, avoiding looking at her little sister.

The four of them sat down, with Rui next to Natsuo, glaring at Shu with sharp eyes. An invisible dark aura seemed to surround her as she muttered something under her breath. Natsuo suspected that she was performing some sort of curse.

Maybe she was cursing him to become impotent or making his little Johnson shrink by five inches. But then again, what would even be left after that? Negative size?

"...Where should I start?" Despite everything, Shu maintained a faint, calm smile. "It is hard to speak under so much pressure."

"Rui, Natsuo-kun," Hina spoke. She was worried and curious about how they had known that she would come here, but Shu stopped her.

"It's all right. I'll just start by introducing myself."

Letting out a long breath, he introduced himself. "My name is Shu Hagiwara. I am 32 years old, married, with no children."

He faced the two of them and continued, "For the past two years, I've had the pleasure of dating Hina-san."

"I currently work as a biology researcher at a university lab."

Natsuo swirled the spoon around the cup of coffee in front of him, speaking casually. "Sounds nice and romantic when you put it that way, but aren't you, in reality, just a cheating man?"

Seeing that Hina was about to speak, he stopped her with a raised hand and continued, "Hina-nee, although you can barely be considered an adult in my eyes, I still didn't expect you to make such a mistake. Let me guess, it was you who confessed?"

Hina "..."

"I don't know how much Mr. Shu loves you, but at the very least, you should love yourself. Do you realize that just as you ran into us, you could have easily run into his wife, or one of her friends or relatives? Once you are exposed, your life would be ruined. You'd lose your job and your future as well. You might even implicate Rui and your mother!"

Although he knew that women could do stupid things, especially female teachers, recently he had seen so many cases on TV of women having sex with their students, at least once a week. Still, Hina was really being stupid by dating a married man for two whole years while waiting for him to leave his wife.

He had plenty of time to do that, yet he didn't.

"Natsuo-kun..." Hina gave him a conflicted look. She clasped her hands over her knees and lowered her head, her hair slipping over her face and covering it.

"I respected your privacy, and I never intended to interfere with your relationship. But Rui couldn't bear it anymore. Do you know how much this has made her worry about you?" Natsuo began to guilt trip her. Hina was the type of person who prioritized her family over herself, so as long as he kept framing things this way, she would make a decision sooner.

He nudged Rui's knees, giving her a signal, and Rui immediately cooperated, making the saddest expression she could manage. "Hina-nee..."

Hina looked up and met her little sister's heartbroken expression. She felt even more miserable and guilty. She had been feeling miserable this entire time, but it turned out there was someone suffering even more right next to her!

"Anyways, that's what I have to say. I wouldn't want to ruin your date." Natsuo noticed that Shu wanted to speak and smooth things over, but he interrupted him. This guy knew his way with words. There was no way Natsuo was going to give him the chance to change anything.

Natsuo stood up and pulled Rui with him before leaving. "See you later, Fumiya, Ayano-san, Maryana-san!"

"It's Marie, you damn brat!" As he walked out of the coffee shop, he heard Kobayashi shout from behind.

Natsuo and Rui walked for a while until they had completely left the area around the coffee shop. Natsuo then smiled and said, "First step succeeded!"

"What do you mean?" Rui looked up at him curiously. Earlier, she had followed his hints because he seemed so confident. Speaking of which, Natsuo seemed more reliable and confident than he had been yesterday.

He had always been more mature than others, but still, what the heck had happened to him?

"It's, of course, the plan to make your sister break up with that guy," Natsuo replied. He then added, "If she doesn't break up with him tonight, then from now on, don't talk to her. Ignore her completely."

"Ignore Hina-nee?" Rui asked curiously.

"This will force her to choose between you and her boyfriend." Natsuo patted her head and said confidently.

"Don't pat my head. I am older than you!" Rui swatted his hand away and glared at him.

"Older than me? When's your birthday?" Natsuo asked.

"September 5th," Rui answered.

"Little sister, mine is July 13th," Natsuo smirked as he arrogantly patted her head again.

"Hmph!" Rui pouted, puffing out her cheeks like a pufferfish.

"By the way, I'll be taking a break from school to go somewhere." Natsuo checked his phone and saw that the three women in the chat group were talking. Chelsea and Kana were arguing again, and he occasionally caught some stray bullets.

Poor him.

"Why?" Rui stopped walking, stood in front of him, and asked.

"I have something important to do. It won't take that much time, around one month." Natsuo shrugged his shoulders. He didn't know how drastic the effect of the Serum would be, so he decided to vanish from everyone's sight for a while before showing up again after some time to erase any suspicion.

This was the bad side of not being the protagonist. Having a family!

"A whole month?!" Rui felt somewhat gloomy.

...

The next day, Natsuo called the school and told them that he had an urgent matter to attend to and wouldn't be able to come to school. They asked him to come to school personally along with his father, but he told them that he had noticed the gym equipment seemed inadequate and that he would like to make a donation to the school.

Their tone immediately changed after that.

Natsuo searched through the internet but couldn't find any satisfactory house to rent or buy on such short notice, so he decided to use Airbnb instead and book an apartment for a week until he could find somewhere to stay.

He paid quickly and would be getting the keys in two hours, which was just enough time to make some preparations. He called his father and told him that he wouldn't be around for a while, which made his father panic, thinking that Natsuo was leaving the house because of the marriage.

It took him a whole thirty minutes to calm his father down and convince him that it was only for work.

Natsuo put all his clothes, laptop, and other belongings into the Inventory, which was incredibly convenient, by the way, and left his room. When he walked down the stairs, he ran into Hina.

"Natsuo-kun." She walked over to him, but suddenly stumbled and fell over.

However, instead of falling onto the floor, she fell into Natsuo's arms. He caught her by the waist, looked at her, and then poked her nose with a smile. "Be careful. That could be dangerous."

"Emm!" Hina's heart skipped a beat, and her face began heating up. She quickly broke free from his arms and ran away.

Leaving the house, Natsuo got into the taxi waiting for him and left.

...

"This place is a bit small." Entering his Airbnb, Natsuo looked around the apartment and muttered. He impatiently locked the door, ran to the bathroom, and took off his clothes. He put a towel in his mouth, then pulled out the Super Soldier Serum and, without hesitation, injected it into his arm!

Pain! Intense pain!

A wave of agony far more painful than getting your balls kicked or taking a hard punch to the dick assaulted Natsuo. His eyes widened as blood-red veins spread across the whites of his eyes. He bit down fiercely on the towel, muffled gasps and groans escaping through it as his entire body shook and trembled uncontrollably.

He staggered backward until his back slammed against the wall. His legs gave out beneath him, and he slowly slid down to the floor. The pain was so overwhelming that he instinctively curled into a fetal position, wrapping his arms around himself as he trembled helplessly, like a child who had just been beaten by an abusive, drunken father after he finished beating his wife.

...

PS: You can also check out my other fanfic: F*ck! What Do You Mean I Have To Tame Them To Survive!?

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