RIVALS INCARNATE

Chapter Forty-Six: Poisonous Guilt

PRESENT, 2020 (Tokyo)

"What's bugging you?"

Osamu Sato paused for a moment as he looked across his office and stared at Yuko Amazawa from where she sat on a sofa, gazing into space with a blank expression. She had been like that for several minutes since she entered his office a while ago, and since Sato had previously asked her to wait just to sign some contracts he needed to attend to, he had let her indulge in silence for some time.

However, when he had finally finished and looked up to check on her, there she was, looking very occupied with something else in her mind. She was not even trying to talk to him, which was unusual since if she was here for business, she would immediately get it over with even if he was too busy to mind her. And so, Osamu frowned and asked her that question, breaking the ice, and he saw her jerked back and she looked at him with a distracted face, somehow waking back to reality.

"What?" she absentmindedly asked him. And Osamu's mouth curved up into a small smile, quite amused to see her caught off guard by him at least for once.

"Is something wrong at work?" he probed after a slight pause, keeping his eyes on her as he tried to read her face but failed to see anything there, "You seemed a little out of it. Are you okay?"

"It's nothing," she said defensively, shaking her head. "It's just a busy day. I'm pretty swamped with so much work."

"About Kurosaki, huh?" Osamu pressed on, trying to see if he was right, and as soon as he mentioned the name, he saw something flashed on Yuko's face right before she quickly turned and looked away, concealing her thoughts to herself. But Osamu immediately figured that he had really hit a spot. Something must have really happened... with Kurosaki.

"Amazawa-san?" he called out to her again when she did not say anything anymore. And she glanced at him, now with a hesitant look drawn on her face.

"I think I..." she trailed off, taking a deep breath, "I have to tell you something, Sato," she said after a pause. And Sato sat up, leaning over his desk as he got curious by what she was about to tell him.

"What is it?" he looked at her with interested eyes.

"I did a simple test the other night," she began saying, letting out a soft sigh and added, "With Kurosaki."

"Test?" With Kurosaki? Sato frowned as he got even more curious now when she had said that and he placed both of his elbows comfortably over his desk, raising his arms horizontally so he could rest his chin over his hands. She hesitated once more, contemplating, and for a moment, she looked deeply troubled over it as Osamu looked at her inquisitively. His eyes squinted as he waited, not even straying them away from her as she continued.

"I hired someone to look after him the other night," she shared with a bothered expression, "It was just something I had to do. But it seemed like he had fallen for the bait I purposely set up for him."

Yuko dropped her eyes and turned away again from Osamu, just so she could hide her face and guilt from what she had done. She had deliberately excluded the argument she had with Kurosaki for fear that Osamu might misinterpret everything else because of what she did afterward. And now, Yuko felt even more ashamed. 

Osamu, however, was getting a little confused. What was she talking about now? He thought to himself as he felt anxious. What kind of bait was that all about? What did she do this time? And why would she even bait Kurosaki?

"What do you mean?" 

"I-I..." for a moment, she could not seem to get the words right out of her mouth. Her mind had gone completely blank and all she could ever think of was guilt. She was guilty. And she could not even deny that she had been beating herself up since that night and that call she received from that woman she had hired. You have nothing to feel guilty about, Shin suddenly spoke inside her head but Yuko just felt even more troubled.

"I paid someone to seduce him," she confessed, her words sounded hollowed from her lips as she faced further away from Osamu, her back turned on him. Osamu's jaw dropped, and he did not blink for a few seconds. Did he just hear her right? She just paid someone... to seduce Kurosaki.

He was not sure whether to laugh over this or be skeptical of Yuko's intentions. First of all, there was no reason for her to play such a thing to Kurosaki unless there was something else that she was keeping from him. And second, what was the purpose of having someone seduce him out of nowhere just so she could look after him? What's with that anyway? Osamu was getting more confused.

"And he took the bait, you say?" he, later on, asked, as soon as he slowly absorbed what she just said and he sat back. Yuko did not respond right away and Osamu was still frowning too deeply as he looked across the room and stared at the back of her head. She did not even spare him a glance.

"Yeah," Yuko answered after a long moment, her voice croaked, "The woman called me yesterday morning. She was at his place."

Eventually, that somehow cracked him up. Osamu found himself laughing at what Yuko said, getting a ridiculous second-hand embarrassment from all of this stuff he was hearing now. He did not really know how to react so he just laughed, and the fact that Yuko was actually bothered by this made it all much stranger for him. So Kurosaki had just get it on with an unknown woman and Yuko felt responsible, was that it? Osamu could not even blame Kurosaki for falling for the bait. He must have been too stressed... And horny.

Osamu laughed louder at the last part of his thought and this time, Yuko had turned around to give him a glower.

"This is not that funny at all, Sato," she snarled at him. And Sato calmed down, smirking at her with a mischievous look on his face, unfazed and unbothered.

"Why are you so troubled about it?" he asked her, still chuckling, "He's a man, after all. He can do whatever he pleases. People have needs too." Osamu said, jiggling his brows at her, smiling wider.

"I know that," she grumbled back, not even buying the joke as she scowled harder. Yet it still did not make any sense why she would even look quite angry about it. "He's a guy. But isn't it all too easy? If I did not know him better, I wouldn't be this concerned. 'Cause I know Kurosaki isn't like this. Casual s*x isn't his thing."

Is it? Osamu raised a brow, interested to know that Yuko actually knew that part about him. What was his thing then? He wanted to ask but held himself back as he watched her silently. What the hell was her relationship with him anyway? She seemed like she really knew the guy that much to actually feel worried that he had a one-night stand. This is weird but... interesting too.

"He could be just sexually frustrated," Osamu boldly replied, clicking his tongue, as he stood up from his seat and took a few steps away from his desk, walking around it, "When we're stressed over things, we ought to seek for release every once in a while, Amazawa-san. And you know that's human nature. You shouldn't be too surprised."

"I know him, Sato," she still insisted, vocally denying the truth as she looked at him with glaring eyes, "I knew him for years and somehow, this changes everything."

Osamu stopped and gazed at her deeply. What changes? Something about the way she said those words made him immediately feel that there was truly something more than what this was all about. He watched her under his lashes, a frown growing permanently on her face and she looked quite exhausted. She was worrying too much.

Then he moved instinctively, taking the space beside her on the sofa as he reached out and gently tucked the fallen hair beside her cheek to put them back behind her ear. She jolted and realized that he had gone closer. She gaped at him with those startling eyes and he looked at her with obvious concern.

"It didn't change anything," he softly uttered at her after a while, replying to the words she just said. Yuko's eyes moved past his shoulders and she took a deep breath again.

"I don't really know," she admitted, looking sad.

"Did you hire someone hot?" he suddenly asked out of the blue, just to humor the entire situation and Yuko's eyes went back to him with a frown as he went on, "Maybe she's his type," Osamu continued, smiling warmly at his own words, "Any man who had gone over a lot of stress would simply be that vulnerable when a really attractive woman tries to approach him. I would go nuts, as well."

He was trying to make her laugh but it still did nothing when she just bitterly smiled and turned away, with that face that looked even much sadder. Then she went silent after that.

"So, he slept with someone. Big deal," Osamu added immediately, hoping to brush all of this away now so she could just move on, "He's a grown man. You don't have to worry for him, he can take care of his own."

"I know," Yuko faintly replied in a soft voice, her lips barely moved as she spoke, "I did it because I was testing him but I never really expected that he would fall for it that fast. I guess, he's not really what I thought he was all this time," she went on in a distant tone, staring back to Osamu again, meeting his eyes, "And now I feel guilty."

"Why?" Osamu asked with a curious tone, trying to read those eyes, feeling like he was seeing something more than just guilty in them. Why was she worrying too much?

"Won't you feel guilty if you were me?" she asked him in a rhetorical way. But Osamu no longer dared to answer and just told her, "I don't think you're just guilty, Amazawa-san. 'Cause right now, what you looked like is more than that."

"What do you mean?"

"You look sad." He said it as if he was accusing her but his voice was too soft and gentle for her to feel confronted. And she quickly realized that it was all true. He was right... She looked so sad but she did not really know why.

Why was she even sad?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------next chapter: Chapter Forty-Seven