There are Many Flowers in Seoul

Chapter Four

It was uncommon for residents to entirely design their homes in Tokyo, a city where apartments were the norm due to the booming population and lack of space, but Takashi had wanted to build a safehaven for his wife and daughter. A forever home. During the early days of their relationship, Lily had admired a house in Kyoto with traditional features and a pond at the front of the building which reflected the stars. While Takashi wasn't convinced that a fully traditional wooden house in the middle of the city was a good idea – celebrities required too much security for that – he had requested that the house drew inspiration from the historical styles of their country. It had a garden and pond at the rear of the building with a wooden bridge. It could be viewed from a large tatami room where Lily could read and drink tea quietly when she needed to unwind.

From the front, their house was as modern and conformist as the rest in their neighbourhood, and the family had found that the residents were grateful that they hadn't upset the local aesthetic, even if they did like to spend time in the garden and tatami room with Lily if they were ever visiting the house.

It was inside one of the modern living areas that Rose and Hitomi sat together on a large, white, minimalist sofa. Their heads were bowed, their shoulders hunched, and they bore the expressions of two girls who knew they'd done wrong by their parents. Mitsuki and Robert had been summoned to the house to collect their child and were just as frustrated by Hitomi's lacking regard for their concern as Rose's parents.

'It's the one rule – the only rule – that I insisted you never broke!' Takashi shouted at his daughter. 'Call if you're going to be late! Is it really so difficult?'

Rose wasn't sure she should answer.

If she said it was difficult, he would question her intellect.

If she said it wasn't, he would question her character.

Rose pressed her lips into a thin, tight line and opted for silence.

'Rose,' Lily tried in a more diplomatic manner, 'why did you leave the party? If we'd known, we'd have sent a car for you.'

'It's not her fault!' Hitomi exclaimed, unable to handle the pressure.

'Hitomi, speak when you're spoken to!' Mitsuki scolded.

'Sorry,' she mumbled.

Rose said nothing.

'They said she broke up with someone,' Yuta offered more insight. It was clear to him that Rose's stubbornness may draw out the conversation, and he wanted to be home before midnight. 'And that boys were filming them.'

'Keiji was using her!' Hitomi added.

''Tomi, shut up!' Rose ordered her friend.

There were things about her life that Rose didn't want her parents to know. The fact that she'd not made a single friend outside of her existing social and familial circle throughout her years in high school was just such a thing. As a child, she'd learned that her parents were satisfied to know that she was studying and wasn't being beaten up during lunch. It had seemed pointless to inform them of anything else when Rose had been certain she could endure the hangers-on and wannabes who flocked around her until graduation. Besides, if they had known, then her parents might have talked to the school or tried to interfere in some other way such as seeking out friends for her through their work.

Rose didn't want that.

She just wanted to be... normal.

'Keiji, the boy in your class?' Takashi demanded. 'What do you mean he was using you?'

'He wanted to be rich and an actor!' Once Hitomi was on a roll, there was no stopping her. 'He was laughing about it with his friends!'

'That little... what's the school's number?' Takashi asked his wife.