I N N O C E N C E (Shu Sakamaki)

Chapter 4

Manami found the life at the academy to be quite boring. She was placed in the same class as Shu and Reiji, which proved to be more of a hassle than a blessing.

She noticed how Shu had been gone on most of the lessons, only attending Math, which was the first class that morning. Reiji, on the other hand, was working hard at taking notes of everything which appeared on the board. She wasn't surprised, since he looked like a diligent student.

Though, she wasn't any different from Reiji. She, too, was working hard on keeping up with the new material, not wanting to bring down her GPA.

It was a habit she developed living alone with her father, who had been eager on drilling "worthiness" into her mind.

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"Madam?" Her personal driver snapped her attention away from the book. "I am sorry to disrupt, but we have arrived."

She nodded in response, as a maid opened the car door for her to get out. Closing the book which laid in her lap, she grabbed her school bag and waved away the driver. She got out of the car, to be met with the place she had called 'home.'

The maids bowed in front of her, as if she was royalty that had arrived from the trip abroad after years of being gone. This annoyed her to the core, as she sighed in defeat.

"Please, how many times have I told you to stop doing this?" She asked the butler, who looked up and chased away the maids.

"I am sorry madam." He apologized, gesturing for her to come in with his hands. "May I escort you to the dinning room?"

"How come?" Manami expression changed to the one of curiosity.

Usually, she ate in the kitchen with the maids at her own will, since her father was never home for meals. On the rare occasion that they did use the dinning room, was when he had important guests over or if he came home without already eating.

"Your brother had arrived from London." The butler smiled, earning a surprised expression from me.

"Well, then lead me to them." A rare smile graced her lips, at the thought that her brother had came back to visit. Oh, how she missed having him around, he was the only backbone she had in this lonely and sad home.

The manor was extremely chattery in this afternoon, as maids laughed and ran around hectically. This made it seem livelier than it usually is. Though, Manami didn't mind. It made her feel more at ease, and even excited at that.

'Maybe,' Manami thought, 'since my brother is finally back, we could move somewhere else together, just like he promised.'

Two years before her brother left, he promised to her that he was going to come back and take her with him. Away from father and away from the sad memories this house possessed. He perfectly knew, that she was suffering here and the only way she could continue living without these haunting memories, was to have a new home and a new life. Now, he had been managing the international affairs of Manami's father, infamous Daisuke Mayazaki.

She quickly fixed her bangs, as they had finally arrived at the doors to the dinning room. Manami heart started to beat faster, knowing that today, will be the day that her life will turn for the better. Today will hopefully be the day she will escape this hellhole she calls a home, and she won't have to endure living here alone with the man she so desperately wanted to never meet. Away from the heart wrenching woman he called his 'wife,' which had ruined Manami's whole life. She knew, today was the day everything changes.