❝𝑯𝒊𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈? 𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒔𝒂𝒇𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆.❞
Japanese-American, Megumi Nakamura, decides to abandon the comfort of home after graduating to go live with her cousin in Asia...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Meg was about ready to collapse onto the ground once she finally stepped foot outside the headquarters building. Her legs felt like giant weights pulling her body down as she trudged along. Her shoulders were slumped and she had a hollow look behind her eyes.
She was exhausted.
Though five hours didn't sound like a long time, the task of piecing that broken vase back together had been extremely tedious and required all of her focus. She was used to being assigned projects like that in Architecture school, but she had endured a whole new level of stress thanks to Taka.
But what had really done her in was being forced to destroy the vase only minutes after completing the reassembly. That part genuinely crushed her soul.
"Meg?"
The young woman turned her head to the side to get a look at whoever was talking to her. After eyeing the young man up and down, she recognized him as the guy who had been guarding the gate the day she arrived at the village. He was the one who had taken her to Ren's house.
"Hey," she said with surprise, though her face remained tired and expressionless.
"Are you alright?" he asked genuinely.
"Yeah," she replied casually, though her answer was hardly believable.
"Are you sure? You look kind of...dead inside," he said, using his eyes to search around her face.
Meg let out a small sigh, "If I just said 'Taka,' would that mean anything to you?"
"Oh," he chuckled softly, "Understood."
Meg cracked a slight smile in response to his laughter. Now that she was looking at him more closely, she realized he was likely around her age.
So far, she hadn't met many people in the village who weren't either several years older or several years younger than her. While there were numerous families living amongst her, the children were either very young or in the midst of their teen years. And the majority of parents and other yakuza men appeared to also be older than Ren and Taka.
"I haven't seen you since that first day," Meg said as the two began walking together, "I never got your name."
"My name's Ōsuke," he told her as he kicked a small pebble down the pathway. He walked with his hands tucked into his pockets, and Meg felt very comforted by his laid-back demeanor. It made her feel uneasy how serious the other men here were all the time.
Osuke was much taller than Meg, and his dark hair was short and messy. It looked like he too had just reached the end of a very long day. Just like the rest of the men in the village, he was dressed in an all-black ensemble. He was wearing a pair of tactical combat pants with a short sleeve t-shirt and hefty boots.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
