The Stray Cat

Chapter 15: To Protect

Possessive.

It was a side Chaeyeon, herself, never knew existed. It was an alien feeling, she thought. She was certain she was leaning towards the direction of possessiveness when she saw the eyes of both men and women magnetized by her lover.

Chaeyeon was certain she felt a dreadful emotion dyeing her system green and the color flashed before her eyes.

Sakura was donning a black halter dress specifically designed to accentuate her slim body and reveal more of her creamy-white skin, intricately crafted pieces of jewelry adorning her body that could easily give away the fact that she was a girl born with a silver spoon or gold, rather. Even when she was simply standing in the corner-most space of the room, she oozes with the aura of a highborn. The girl was doing nothing but stare blankly at the captivated people who would always end up getting too intimidated by both her otherworldly beauty and the family name attached to her.

Her eyes are cold and dead.

She mumbles to herself as she marveled at the breathtaking appearance of her beloved. She thinks about wanting to approach the woman to pull her in a warm embrace — of tightly wrapping her arms around her slim waist and burrowing her face in the crook of her neck to drown herself in the soft lavender perfume Sakura loves wearing. Her eyes once again wandered around the people who were looking at her lover as if they desired her.

She's mine.

Chaeyeon growls in her thoughts.

"Sakura-ojousama, as you can see, has been used by her family to flaunt how 'superior' they are in public but in truth, it was never the case." Hyewon's words managed to push back the peeking demon inside Chaeyeon, bringing her back to reality to focus more on the severity of Sakura's past.

She sucked in a deep breath to calm the obnoxious green-eyed monster who had started rearing its ugly head from inside her. She blinked her eyes furiously, collecting herself after glaring at Hyewon's phone that showed how godly Sakura was during her 20th birthday party — the last birthday she attended before fleeing from her cruel family.

壁の花.

A wallflower, the thorny and poisonous kind.

Miyawaki Sakura.

She was once known as Kujou Sakura, a direct descendant of the Kujou Clan; one of the oldest existing elite families in Japan, once a high-ranking noble household that served the Imperial Family generations ago. It was the kind of clan that's deeply rooted in business and politics in the current era, also the kind people who tend to have such a high pride in their family name that it could pierce through the sky. She is their heiress, well, was supposed to be as the actual firstborn.　Sakura was but a girl, a person who will fail to keep their mighty surname alive once she marries a man. Her existence made her greedy father insecure of his standing, further making him loathe her existence and ignoring her presence entirely. She was a flaw to his perfect record, the perfect record which gave him the ability to rise to power against his older siblings. Sakura presented a threat to his position as the next head once he gets chosen by his father to inherit his position. She was a mistake that shouldn't have come to life or so he says.

"By the way, I would appreciate it a lot if you don't break my phone." Hyewon nonchalantly quipped.

Chaeyeon looked at the phone and loosened her grip as she let a wry laugh roll from her throat. She didn't even notice how her hand had turned white from jealousy. "Sorry about that."

The younger collected herself as she pondered and tried to connect the puzzles.

Yoshiki, Sakura, and Kujou Group.