Life Without You

Chapter 58 - Being Away

Hiromi felt herself melting at the sight of those bare upper body muscles, well-defined and moving under the pull-ups that Leon was doing on his workout station in the gym room. Shirtless and sweating, Leon was unaware that Hiromi was behind him. The moment he was done, he got down and turned around,  jumping in fright at the sight of the long-nailed anime smiling creepily at him with dreamy, black eyelined doe eyes, wearing white mini-shorts and pink Hello Kitty tank top. She looked more like she was dressed for summer than for fitness.

"Leon, honey!" Hiromi said in her cutesy voice. "It's just me, the cute girl at home. I'm joining you!"

"Don't call me honey," he contorted and went to grab his towel, but Hiromi got it before he did.

"Let me help you," she wiped the sweat off his face but he remained expressionless. "You're so cute, you know that?" She giggled.

"I'm done," Leon brushed past her and went down to the kitchen to get some water. When he opened the fridge door, he was horrified to be greeted by the sight of Asahi beer cans and a few bottles of wine. Leon quickly removed the offending alcohol from the fridge.

Hiromi followed after him and was startled by what he was doing, "Hey! Whatcha doing to my stuff?"

"Don't ever put this in my fridge!" he scolded her.

"You mean our fridge!" she corrected.

"No alcohol in my presence!" he raised his voice and put all the bottles and cans in a trash bag.

"You can't do that! It's my stuff!" Hiromi snatched the trash bag from him. "I'll tell my brother what you did!"

"Go ahead, it's my house."

"It's Fujita's house!"

Leon ignored her and drank his water. He went back up to the gym room with his cup. Hiromi followed after him. Leon continued his workout and proceeded to do his push-ups.

"I'll join you," Hiromi reverted back to her enthusiastic mood. She readied herself in a push-up position and copied his moves but could not endure beyond three push-ups. "I'm dead! Help!" She lay flat on the front, catching her breath.

"Help yourself," Leon stood up, ready to leave.

Annoyed by his indifference, Hiromi got up and demanded, "Why do you treat me like this all the time? You're so cold, mean, unfriendly!"

"Listen! For the umpteenth time, you're not my type," he wiped himself with a towel.

"You still like Ariel, do you?"

"My personal life is none of your business."

"Then her personal life is none of yours too! My brother will have her in the end," she crossed her arms and gave him a smirk.

Leon slammed down the towel, causing Hiromi to flinch in shock.

"Listen," he looked her in the eye. "Whatever you and your brother try to do, none of you can come between us. I'm not interested in you one tiny bit." He gestured with his thumb and index finger mimicking holding something tiny. "So just stay out and let me live, yeah?"

Hiromi gave a sullen look and stomped her feet, "You're despicable! No wonder you drove Ariel away! What does she have that I don't?" 

"Everything," he turned his back on her.

She wrapped her arms around Leon's waist and chest by surprise and cried. How nice it was to feel those abs and that tight chest! Leon tried to pry her hands away from his body but Hiromi grabbed him even harder and sobbed even more. This was an emergency! He desperately wanted her off!

A few times, his bodyguards tried to keep Hiromi away from Leon but it failed to stop her parasitic behaviour. Even her behaviour got on Vinny's nerves a few times.

"Sky!" Leon cried out. The husky dashed towards them and sliced between him and Hiromi, pouncing and wagging its tail in excitement with a few barks.

"Good dog!" he chuckled and ruffled her neck. 

Hiromi humphed in disbelief and threatened, "Treat me nice or my brother will take Ariel away from you, and I'll make sure he does that!" 

"Whatever," Leon ignored her and left the room with Sky.

Hiromi kicked at Leon's pull-up station. She glanced outside the window and saw an ice cream truck parked outside, playing its jingle and serving a few customers along the sidewalk.

"アイスクリーム！（Aisukurīmu! i.e. ice cream!)" She got excited and raced to the ice cream truck.

Once it was her turn, Paolo greeted her with a broad smile, "お早う (Ohayō i.e Morning), signorina! You look 可愛い(kawaii i.e cute) today! What would you like?"

Hiromi looked surprised, "How do you know I'm Japanese?"

"Oh, your Hello Kitty top," Paolo pointed at her top with his chin. "That's from Japan, right? And you look Japanese."

"Well, everyone around the world wears Hello Kitty. But you guessed right," said Hiromi.

"Anyway, what flavours would you like, pretty young lady? Cup or cone?"

Hiromi preened herself at his words and twirled her hair, "Of course, I'm pretty. Get me the strawberry and vanilla one, in a cone."

"Ooh, like your Hello Kitty top! I shall top it up with an extra scoop since it's Hello Kitty Day! Free of charge," He winked at her.

"Hello Kitty Day?" she sneered at his poor jokes. But oh well, if he was giving her a free scoop, she was not going to refuse.

"Here you go. ありがとう (Arigatō i.e thank you)!" Paolo passed the ice cream to her. "Want some strawberry syrup to top it off?"

"Nah! I don't wanna be fat," Hiromi took a bite of her ice cream. "Tastes really good. Here, keep the change." She tossed the money to him.

"Oh, how generous of you, signorina. Have a lovely Hello Kitty Day!" Paolo waved goodbye to her with a smile as she walked off with rolled eyes.

As she walked towards the house, Hiromi noticed a tattooed, storey-built man with dirty snickers staring at her with a leer from across the street, puffing his cigarette.

"Whatcha looking at? Creep!" Hiromi scoffed at him loudly and went back inside the house.

——-

"One month in Japan?" Ariel was lost for words. "B-but , I've got lots of stuff to do here at Hinata!"

"I'll have Hong and Han to take over. Meanwhile, you'll come with me. I need you to learn other stuff in business," explained Hiroshi.

"I'll inform Andy and prepare his bags then," said Ariel.

"He can't come along."

"He can't? But for a trip this long, I'd like him to come along."

"The nanny and bodyguards will watch over him. I need you to keep your mind focused on business," Hiroshi was firm.

Ariel was not too keen on the trip. However, work was work and she had to accompany her boss.

When Leon found out about her overseas trip, he was even more convinced that this was Hiroshi's way to get her further away from him. Was Hiromi's threat for real? Who knows what other tricks these Fujita siblings had up their sleeves?

Without Ariel for a month, he was not going to get his soups and Hiromi would continue to be a sore thorn by his side. 

This was going to be torture...