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I Hate Valentines Day part 1

I Hate Valentines Day

Volume 1

Takano Masamune

Chapter 1: Be My Valentine (1)

***

Gently embracing things that are already broken, won’t make them believe they have worth … Treating someone that could easily break gently, won’t make them repair themselves again…

You can’t get back something that’s already gone…

In this world there is a thing called ‘fate’ and sadly not everyone is blessed to meet their fated person at the right time… sometimes you make mistakes and end up in a situation like this…

“I’m sorry…” The woman’s voice was rough. She was the mother of his child, she was his wife… and now she was also a perfect stranger.

The woman disappeared without a single trace of her being left behind… except for their son.

It was 10 years later… Axel was your average construction worker, a single dad of a now 15 year old son. He didn’t have anything too special about him, until…

“You and I are connected by the red string of fate.” It was the end of January when his boss had called him in to his office to say this to him.

“Hah…” Axel didn’t know how to react, he scratched his beard a bit in awkwardness. He was 37 years old already and this was the strangest thing he’s ever heard in his life. Especially coming from his boss’s boss! This was the final boss, the direct boss, the very CEO of the construction company he works for!

Thus he didn’t want to offend him.

“You and I are a couple fated to be together.” Theo was 29 years old. The youngest conglomerate owner due to his mother’s early passing. He’d become the talk of the country.

“But we’re both men?” Axel sort of awkwardly said still imagining this was some kind of joke, which unfortunately it wasn’t.

“Listen to me… whether we are men or women makes no difference. You are my fated partner.” Theo repeated himself and it just made the tension in the room all the more uncomfortable.

Theo had a gift, he could see the red string of fate that others couldn’t. So he could easily identify those that would become couples, but he didn’t care to use his gift for others, on the contrary all he cared about was finding his perfect partner for himself…

So when he first tried and tried to find that person, the string got tangled up in other people along the way, it was difficult but at last one fated day when he walked past the construction sight on a check in.

There was a large debris that was about to fall onto him and then Axel saved him. At that moment the string that connected them had shortened only to the two of them standing next to each other…

Theo could see it clearly… this man was his lover…

Meanwhile Axel didn’t believe any of that nonsense even for a split second. ‘I remember saving this stupid boss from being crushed by debris, all because he refused to wear a helmet while he was checking up on the site… but why would he think we’re lovers just because of that?’ He wondered to himself.

He wasn’t completely opposed to the idea of dating, just he didn’t think that his boss was the perfect option for him, after all what happens if they break up and he gets fired?

He has a son to feed, the risk isn’t worth it.

“I’m really sorry but I have to go back to work now-” Axel tried to leave but the other stopped him.

“Meet me for dinner tonight.” Theo commanded authority. This man who was about 8 years younger than Axel, dared to boss him around!

How unfair the world was indeed…

“I can’t, I have to cook dinner for my son and-” Axel couldn’t even finish before the man interrupted him.

“Bring him along with you.” Theo wasn’t a man that took no for an answer, that much was obvious.

“…right…” Reluctantly so Axel agreed to the man’s conditions. He couldn’t really do anything else or he would risk making a mess of things and the construction job paid far too well for him to do that…

He went back home and his son was already there, he’d cooked dinner himself…

“How was work dad?” Cooper asked as he set the table and his father’s heart felt like it would shatter.

“Son… how about we go out for dinner tonight?” Axel suggested with a smile. Cooper glanced down at the food he’d so carefully prepared with a bit of sadness in his eyes.

“It’s no good?” Cooper asked pointing at the food.

“We can eat it for breakfast tomorrow… tonight we were asked out on a dinner by my boss, it’s going to be a super fancy place, isn’t that nice?” Axel explained it in a nice way and the other seemed a bit disappointed still.

It was a quiet drive there…

The restaurant was indeed fancy, even more than that. They were given a private dining area just for the three of them. The atmosphere felt like it had came straight out of a movie! The waiters and waitresses that were serving them were all careful and precise in their movements. This was a five star restaurant that you needed to be on a waiting list for months before you’d have the pleasure to dine there and pay their exorbitant prices for the smallest possible portions of fancy dishes with names you probably couldn’t even pronounce…

But such was luxury…

“Both of you are awfully quiet…” The young CEO remarked while quietly eating, the tension in the room could be cut with a knife.

“Well… I think we’re both just nervous since the place is so nice and all!” Axel tried to make light of the situation but he didn’t even know what to say.

“It’s because of this that we couldn’t have dinner together…” Cooper looked really upset. “Because of you asking us out here I don’t get to spend time with dad… you’re annoying.” The fifteen year old wasn’t one to mince his words.

“I see…” Calmly Theo responded to the child with understanding.

“I’m very sorry about that! He didn’t mean it, see the invitation was so sudden and usually I get tired and we don’t have dinner together with my son and…” Axel struggled to defend the situation. “He’s a really nice boy he doesn’t talk like this… it’s because he’s upset and-”

“It’s alright… besides… I feel like I understand him a little.” Theo remarked ever so unbothered. “My mother worked all the time and couldn’t spend any of it with me. So I was alone most of the time. It’s difficult I know… I’m sorry for asking you both out so suddenly, but I wanted to propose to your father.” He calmly declared.

“What?” Cooper looked startled and this time Axel couldn’t even find the words to try and explain the situation, it looked absolutely too odd!

“Me and your father are lovers destined by fate.” It was the exact same story he spoke of before.

Cooper couldn’t even make words at first until he stood up. “You’re not going to be my mom!” He said with an angry voice.

At that moment Axel was actually happy they were in a private area instead of the restaurant itself.

“You’re right, I won’t be your mother but your second father.” Theo calmly corrected the boy.

Cooper headed out of the room angrily.

“Wait, leave him be, he just needs time to accept it.” Theo stopped Axel from going after his son and grabbed his arm.

“Sir, I was trying to be polite but to be honest I don’t believe in such nonsense so please don’t bother me. And truth be told I’m not attracted to you-” Suddenly Axel paused as he stared into the man’s face. ‘Alright he is attractive…’ He thought to himself quietly but didn’t dare utter those words.

“You might not like me now but you will in the future. So consider me.” Theo said as he let go of the man’s hand and Axel rushed off after his son quickly to apologize. The following days his son was still very upset with him however… it was difficult being a single parent and having to work all the time to make ends meet.

Axel stared down at his bank account praying that the number will turn positive soon…

“Hey man… is it true that the boss likes you?” One of his co-workers asked with an interested and somewhat teasing grin on his face. “Why not make use of that and get him to buy you a house or something?” He asked him while sitting next to the man.

“As if that would work…” Axel remarked jokingly.

“Who knows? Rich people have money to spare, right? Try it, try it!” The co-worker continued teasingly.

Then an idea struck Axel, wouldn’t that be a sure way to make the man give up on him? Hopefully he wouldn’t be fired for it though…

Axel confidently walked into the man’s office. “If we’re dating… a house… it would be nice…” He stuttered and stumbled over his words, he couldn’t even form a proper sentence. Then he noticed he wasn’t the only person in his boss’s office!

“Oh, what’s this? This the fated guy you’ve been telling me about?” A beautiful women with long blond hair remarked as she stood off to the side. She was wearing a red suit dress that matched her body far too perfectly.

“I see, we should start living together then. Here’s my address. I shall call movers to your house in an hour. Go back and get your things ready today, you can leave now.” Theo quickly handed the man a small sheet of paper with his address and pass code to his apartment.

“…………..!” Axel stood there starring at it in disbelief. Although it wasn’t what he meant at all… in the end he did technically get a new house…

Chapter 2: Be My Valentine (2)

***

It was already the beginning of February. Cooper and Axel were standing at the entrance of their new house…

“So that guy was being serious about you dad?” Cooper asked while staring at the huge apartment. It was so large and he got to have a room of his own. Everything was sparkling clean to perfection and unlike their own tiny place there was no mold there whatsoever…

“Yes… but we don’t need to live here if you don’t want to…” Axel explained with a careful voice but his son shook his head.

“This place is awesome!” Cooper jumped around from joy for a while then headed to his own room which he was allowed to decorate however he likes.

“Is something here not to your satisfaction?” Theo asked while approaching the man he now had as his partner. “I could get a bigger place if it’s too small-”

“It’s good… I just didn’t think it would happen so fast…” Now that Axel was in so deep, he sort of didn’t have much of a choice but to accept this was a reality. “So… us… we are sort of dating, right? And that means we’re like…”

“Don’t worry, I won’t force you into anything.” Theo reassured him with a calm demeanor. They’d settled in that night… However although Cooper had a room to himself, Axel was going to share one with Theo!

“Is this… I will go sleep in one of the guest rooms-” Before Axel could make his skillful escape he was captured by the man who’s movements resembled that of a snake sneaking up on his pray and wrapping it’s body around them squeezing them tightly as a warning they couldn’t escape…

So Axel succumbed to his fate and shared the bed with another grown man… well a man that was about 8 years younger than him… almost a decade difference and he had no idea how to communicate with him at all…

“You took a shower?” Theo asked him while caressing the man’s shoulder.