husband for rent

luncheon meeting

(A/N: We're already at chapter 9 and if we follow the original number of chapters here in this story, we should only have 1 chapter left before we complete this fic. However, I've realized that there's a lot of grounds that I needed to cover in this story before I conclude it. Hence, I've decided to add more chapters and make this as a 15-chapter fic instead. Additionally, intermittent updates will still follow through after this chapter update as I'm quite busy with work and have hectic schedules. Lastly, I'm hoping that you'll enjoy this latest chapter as much as I did after writing it.)

Time flies when you're having fun.

It's a sort of phenomenon which was kinda true since a wave of melancholia hit his entire being and left a sour taste on his mouth when he was giving a hug of goodbye to Isagi's parents after he hauled his things and luggage inside the trunk of the cab.

Today was their last day here and they will need to get back to the airport on time to catch their scheduled flight back to Germany.

Nevertheless, Ness kept the congenial smile on his face to hide his innermost feelings and thoughts about the matter.

Everything must come to an end.

Even their play as a happy couple in front of Isagi's family and friends in his hometown because it was all for a show anyway. They needed to face the reality once again and deal with a much larger predicament on their hands which was to meet his own family back there in Germany. It almost made Ness laugh hysterically at the irony of it all. His last communication with his family was when he declared that he wanted to become a soccer player instead of following in their footsteps as a scientist and it dwindled over time since they didn't talk much to each other before until now.

He wanted to say a lot to his parents and bring out the hypocrisy of their actions.

They didn't care when he had a lucrative career as a soccer player before but now, they seemed to be interested in the news that he was engaged and getting married to his fellow teammate in Bastard Munchen.

Nevertheless, now was not the right time to wallow in rage and misery over his family's issues and focus on the things that matters to him now and fabricate a more convincing idea and story to them about his and Isagi's love story to avoid any obstacles which could shatter their plans apart especially when it came to his critical parents and meddling siblings.

"Alexis' dear, it's great to have you here as a lovely guest and fiancé of our only son Yocchan. Please do take care of him in the long run. We entrust you with him as our future son-in-law. If you have time, you can visit us in the future together with Yocchan and our doors are open for the both of you." Iyo smiled warmly at him, and Ness could feel his throat clogging up and he was unable to say anything for a while even though he prepared his own script in his head if he encountered a situation like this with them.

Goddamit.

The surge of guilt came crawling back inside of him with a vengeance. How could he deceive them like this when Isagi's parents were sort of nothing but genuine and welcoming towards his presence?

Sometimes Ness fervently wished that he could turn off or get rid of this kind of weakness.

This kind of weakness was one of the reasons why his family looked down on him since he was a kid and...

...unfortunately, Kaiser used that weakness to also take advantage of him.

Even though it hurt like hell, he needed to stop living in denial and acknowledge the facts of his past and present.