𝐅𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍: 𝐦𝐢𝐲𝐚 𝐨𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐮

(xxx) competition

mao aihara did not mean to fall in love.

when the miya group chairman asked her out, she thought of the date as a one off story that she could tell friends about many years later. that she went on a date with osamu miya that one time when she was working as a waitress.

she did not expect that osamu miya would be so... normal, more than anything else. she hadn't expected that she'd end up liking talking to him and she definitely hadn't foreseen a second date in their future.

he was surprisingly easy to talk to and he had a great taste in food. and then there was the more relevant fact that he was one of the richest businessmen in the country.

she was a rational person. she knew how things went with these people. rich people usually like other rich people but she wasn't rich so they were automatically incompatible.

in fact, osamu was born into wealth and raised in a community that was closed off to anyone who didn't have the same wealthy lineage. the sakusas, miyas, ushijimas and such. people who had actually earned their wealth were not particularly welcome either.

this wasn't a fairy tale.

osamu had not once mentioned his wealth to her since he met her, mostly because he didn't need to. who didn't know how rich he was? his bank balance made it easy for people to be wowed by his humility.

he held the door for her everywhere, paid for dinner and ended the night by telling her she was beautiful and that he wanted to see her again, not once implying that he wanted to come back up to her apartment.

was it bad that she wanted it to be a fairy tale?

despite knowing partially what she was getting herself into, she couldn't help but fall. not when, after their second date, he leaned in close to her before she went up to her apartment. under the dim light in the stairwell of her small building.

and then he kissed her.

fuck, this was a fairy tale.

she thought about it all night. she didn't want to be so susceptible to attachment but apparently it was too late for her.

she had always believed that there were things that she didn't know about the chairman. some kind of past that he didn't like to mention, some particular incident that had caused him a big amount of unrest.

she'd asked him about his engagement once hesitantly- but he said he wasn't in love with his ex fiancé when they were engaged. he didn't elaborate why.

he didn't enjoy his job. he was always more exhausted than the average person when they met up on workdays. he seemed like there was a big weight on his shoulders in addition to his workload.

he might've been tired when he met her but that exhaustion always faded once they actually spent some time together. it was more than noticeable to her untrained eye.

and she liked it. she liked knowing she could make him feel better somehow. it was why sometimes when she hugged him, she held on just a little bit longer.

today was different.

it was different than all the days and nights she'd spent with him. and not because it was the first time she'd been out in public with him. maybe because for the first time he seemed distressed and she didn't know how to do anything about it.

he kept looking around the room. looking for someone or the ghost of someone. so longingly that it made her feel deep down that she was mistaken about a lot of things.

"we have a fifteen million bid from mr. miya!", the auctioneer said cheerfully, excitement laced with his booming voice.

she was caught off guard at first as she looked at him. was he bidding on the beautiful necklace in front of them because she said it was beautiful?