Once we make it to Maki’s house, we enter, and announce ourselves as we slip off our shoes. We don't even make it to the dining room entrance before Ryu comes down the stairs.

“Hi, Honey.”

“Hi, Mi Amor.”

“Hi you two, I didn’t expect you until later.”

I shrug. “We finished sooner than we thought and decided we would help Maki make dinner. Give me a kiss, I need to go help your mom cook dinner.”

He takes me in his arms, bends down and kisses me. I quickly demand a deeper kiss. A couple of minutes later, I finally allow him to break it. I look behind me to see that Maki has already gone into the kitchen. Reaching out, I gently rub his member. Looking him in the eyes, I tell him, “I hope you saved your energy because you’re in for a very busy night.” I look at Chinatsu. “He’s all yours. I’ll see you in the kitchen when you’re done.”

In the kitchen, I ask, “What are we making Mama-Maki?”

She turns and looks at me while grinning. “You know, I love it when you call me that. I thought we’d make some grilled Salmon, stir fried mixed vegetables, white rice and miso.”

“Sounds good to me. What do you want me to do?”

“You can start by dicing up the vegetables.”

“No problem. Do you have an apron I can…”

I’m interrupted, so I don’t get to finish what I was saying, because of Ryo yelling, “Get your fucking hands off of my girlfriend!”

Immediately, I head into the hallway, closely followed by Maki. We find Chinatsu in Ryu’s arms and she’s staring daggers at Ryo, who’s at the top of the stairs.

Ryu looks at him to calmly say, “Ryo, we just went through this the other night. She’s not your girlfriend. Get that through your head. Regardless, Chinatsu broke up with you for good reasons.”

Maki speaks up then. “Ryo, he’s right. You said it yourself, you felt that you couldn’t meet her expectations. You gave up and she broke up with you. She’s with Ryu now and she’s happy, so stop this. Now, go to your room until I call you for dinner. I’ll not have that kind of language coming out of your mouth.”

“No Mom, she’s mine and always will be!”

I tell him, “No, she’s her own person and she chose Ryu after you wouldn’t choose her over what you want.”

He glares at me and shouts, “Shut the fuck up, you meddling bitch! This is between Chinatsu and me!”

Ryu releases Chinatsu and turns to Ryo to tell him, “That’s enough! I warned you before Ryo, you will not speak to my girlfriends that way. If you say one more word, I’ll come up there and kick your ass.”

Maki says, “Calm down Ryu. Go into the living with Sora and Chinatsu.” We head into the living room, but we can still hear her. “Ryo, I don’t know where you get ideas like this, but it stops now. If you want to continue to act this way, you can go live with your father. I left him to get away from this and I won’t have you acting this way, is that understood?”

He snarls, “Fine, you take that bitch’s side instead of mine! You want me to go live with Dad? No problem!” Shortly thereafter, we hear his bedroom door slam.

Shaking my head, I look at Ryu to ask, “Has he always been this volatile?”

Ryu shrugs before replying, “Yes and no. He’s always been fairly easy to set off, but it’s never been this bad. I think this is about him regretting letting Chinatsu go.”

Chinatsu quietly murmurs, “He didn’t let me go. He quit on us. Nothing more and nothing less. I’m happy with you, Ryu. I don’t want him around us when he acts this way, it scares me.”

“You don’t need to worry, I’d never let him, or anyone else, touch either of you.”

Ryu may or may not be able to see it, but Chinatu is extremely apprehensive as she asks, “You won’t ever do that to us, will you?”

He pulls her against him, kisses the crown of her head, and gently rubs her back as he quietly tells her, “Never. You two mean the world to me and I love you very much.”

He lets her go for a moment, picks her up in a princess carry, moves over to the sofa and sits down with Chinatsu in his lap. She cuddles close to him and rests her head against his chest as he holds her. He glances at me and I mouth, ‘Thank you.’ He nods slightly and returns his attention to Chinatsu.

I look at Maki standing beside me to see she’s smiling at them. She looks at me and nods in the direction of the kitchen. Opening a drawer, she hands me an apron. Once I put it on, we return to making dinner.

While we are, she suddenly leans against the counter with a loud sigh.

“Is something wrong?”

“It’s just Ryo. He’s so much like his father and it makes me worry for his future. I don’t really want him to go back and live with his father, but I won’t allow him to act like that here either. I think if he lives with his father, he’ll become more and more like him. Aki, well, he’ll never change. He’s made that perfectly clear to me over the last decade.”

I step over to her and hug her. She returns my hug and rests her head against mine. “Mama-Maki, you can only do your best for him, and from what I can see, you have. It’s up to him to decide who and what he wants to be, you can’t change that. You can try to guide him onto the right path, but he has to choose it.”

“I know that, but he’s still my son and I love him as much as I dislike him for the way he acts at times.”

“It might be a good thing if he goes to live with his father.” She pushes me back to look at me incredulously. “I’m serious. It’ll give him another point of view and might make him realize what acting like this does and where it leads.”

“Hmm… You might be right, but it still worries me.”

“Of course it does. You love your son. Him calling me a bitch and acting the way he does with Chinatsu and me doesn’t exactly endear him to me, but I’d hate to see him keep digging a deeper hole for himself like this. Sometimes, letting someone make a mistake, without saving them from themselves, is the only way to get them to see the real problem. Of course, there are always the ones that keep doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results.”

She smiles and hugs me tightly. “Sora, you’re going to be a wonderful wife and mother.”

“Thank you. I can only hope that I will. I definitely want to be one, and I want to have just as good of a relationship with my kids as my parents do with us girls.”

She kisses my forehead. “I don’t think you’ll have any worries there... Okay, let’s finish dinner.”

Once she releases me, we work on finishing dinner. Chinatsu comes in and begins to set the table. As we are setting the serving platters on the table, Maki asks Ryu, “Would you go tell your brother that dinner is ready?”

Ryu nods and heads upstairs. A minute later he comes down sans Ryo and tells Maki, “He refuses to come down and eat with Chinatsu and Sora.”

Maki shrugs. “That’s up to him.”

We take our seats with Ryu sitting between Chinatsu and I. As we eat and chat, I find out that Maki has already taken Ryu shopping and bought his yukata for the fireworks festival.

I look at Ryu and ask, “Did Jim and Kei tell you they are coming with us that evening?”

“Kei mentioned it. He said Jim is really looking forward to it. Of course, so is Kei.” He grins as he tells us, “They both thanked me several times for setting up that date last Saturday. They really like Sofi and Honoka.”

Chinatsu says, “That much was apparent. We saw the way they all looked at each other.”

Anyway, we finish dinner, Chinatsu and I help Maki clean up, and then the three of us head up to Ryu’s room. We waste little time in stripping Ryu, providing kisses and little nips here and there as we do. We have him sit on the bed once we’ve undressed him. Chinatsu and I help each other undress, caressing and kissing each other as we undress. Once we are undressed, Chinatsu takes me in her arms for a long, deep kiss.

As we are kissing, I hear Ryu chuckle and say, “Hey, you two, don’t forget about me.”

Chinatsu breaks our kiss and tells him, “Do you think we ever would?”

“She’s right. We’d never leave you out.”

Suffice to say, we milked him dry. I lost count of the number of times he brought Chinatsu and me to orgasm. Of course, Chinatsu and I made love a few times, with him joining us as well. Although, mostly, tonight revolved around us pleasing him and him pleasing us. Let’s just say, the three of us ended up exhausted, very happy, and extremely content. Knowing how Chinatsu and I are when it comes to this, I’m amazed at his stamina. I might add, we’ve made a good start on working out how to do this with the three of us fairly well. Of course, I’m sure there are other things we can do together, but we’ll continue to figure all of this out as we progress.

Afterward, we lay on each side of him cuddling while he has an arm around each of us. Chinatsu and I absolutely adore times like these with him. Kissing, cuddling and quietly talking, nothing more than the three of us enjoying being together.

I murmur, “Ryu?”

“Yes sweetheart?”

“I have something I need to tell you and I need you to promise me you won’t repeat it to anyone. Your mom already knows, but I need you to promise. This is important.”

“I promise, but I’d never tell anyone something you told me unless you say it’s alright.”

“Thank you.” I sit up to look him in the eyes. “Ryu, I own and am the CEO of Tokyo Genetics Research. I hired your mom to work there as a research assistant.”

His eyes widen, he looks at Chinatsu and she nods. He must be getting used to me surprising him because all he does is look back at me, waiting for me to continue.

“The reason I’m telling you this is we’re having a company party this Friday and I want you to come with us. Your mom’s already agreed to allow you to come, but that means you’ll have to take the day off from school since we have to be there at noon and it’ll last until midnight. It’s informal, so you won’t have to dress up for it. One of your dress shirts and slacks will work just fine.”

“I’d be happy to go with you two. You should have known that without even asking.”

I smile at him for a moment, lay back down and cuddle again. “I was sure you would, but I’d never just assume. Thank you. You being with us will make it a lot more enjoyable.”

At 10:30 we reluctantly climb out of bed, clean up, and dress. After Chinatsu and I tell Maki good night and hug her, he walks us home. He gives each of a long, deep kiss, tells us, “I love you. Good night.” and we each tell him, “I love you too. Good night.”

　◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇

[July 22, Monday]

I wake up with Chinatsu sprawled across me. Smiling, I brush her hair out of her face and caress her cheek. A moment later, she opens her eyes, smiles at me and says, “Good morning.”

“Good morning.”

She crawls on top of me, I slip my arms around her and she kisses me. Afterward, she nuzzles against my neck and we simply enjoy cuddling with each other. I glance at the clock to see that it’s shortly before six, so we still have some time before we have to get moving.

Our alarm goes off a few minutes later and Chinatsu groans. “Damn alarm.” Sighing, she gets up, helps me up, and goes to her closet to choose something to wear for today. Following her over, I open my closet to find something to wear today.

After Chinatsu has everything gathered, she says, “If you’ll wake everyone, I’ll start the bath filling.”

I nod “No problem, see you in a few minutes.”

Oh, right, I need to tell Kotomi that I won’t be bringing Sofi in for her treatment today. I grab my phone off the desk, unlock it and scroll through my contacts until I find Kotomi and click on it.

She answers the phone a few rings later. “Hello?”

“Hi Kotomi, I’m sorry I woke you, but we won’t be in today for Sofi’s fertility treatment. We’ve have finals for school Wednesday and the party on Friday to attend. I’ll bring her in this coming Monday.”

She sleepily replies, “Okay, no problem. I’ll see you then.”

“Alright. sorry I woke you. Talk to you soon. Bye.”

I end the call and gather up my change of clothes. I head over to Sofi’s room to wake her and then to Honoka’s to wake her as well. After we bathe, dress and style our hair, Chinatsu and I curl up on the sofa to watch the news while Honoka and Sofi make breakfast. Several minutes later, Sofi brings us a cup of coffee.

After we eat and clean up, we head back upstairs to finish getting ready for my appointment with Airi. We put on our makeup, gather our things, we collect Honoka and Sofi and head down to our SUV.

Airi picks right back up where we left off, talking about how I feel about Ryu telling me I was dead. Honestly, not much progress is made since I still have no idea why I reacted that way. Basically, we went around in circles as she tries to help me work it out and I have to admit this is somewhat stressful for me.

As we are heading for the elevator, I ask, “What would everyone like for lunch?”

Chinatsu shrugs and Sofi says, “I’m good with anything.” When I look at Honoka, she says, “I’d love to have to sushi. It’s been a while since we’ve had some.”

I look back at Chinatsu, who says, “You know me, I love sushi.”

“Alright, sushi it is. Nee-chan is there a place you’d like to have it at?”

“Kyubey is always great.”

“Okay, let’s go there.”

As usual, Mr. Okami is waiting for us at the drop off/pick up at the front of the hospital holding the door open for us. As I enter the SUV, I tell him, “Thank you Mr. Okami. We’re going to eat lunch at Kyubey.” He smiles and nods at me.

Mr. Okami, as you can tell, doesn’t talk much. You could say he only speaks when he has something important to say, other than that he generally just nods to acknowledge he heard you. Dad told me that he’s always been that way.

On the way there, I call them to reserve a table for us. Initially, they tell me they have no openings, but when I tell them that we’re the daughters of Eiji Kobayashi they suddenly have an opening available. It still amazes me how many people are aware of our father and what simply mentioning his name will do. Once we arrive at the restaurant, we are seated by the hostess.

As we peruse the menu, I notice Honoka glance up, then her head jerks back up almost immediately. Sliding out of her seat she steps around behind me with Sofi following suit to stand behind Chinatsu. I turn around to see what’s going on, only to see Johan Bekker and another man walking toward us. Sighing, I stand up and turn to face them.

They stop about a meter away and before he can say anything, I say, “You aren’t very smart are you? Our father and I told you to stay away from us.”

“Ms. Kobayashi, I don’t really have any choice except to do this.”

“Meaning?”

“The board of directors has demanded I pursue every avenue of talking to you.”

“Did you not tell them what I said? I meant every word of it. Whatever though, if it will get you to leave us alone, sit down and tell me what you have to say.”

He takes a step toward us and Honoka tells him, “Wait. I need to make sure that you two don’t have any weapons.” She quickly pats them both down and then gestures to the seats across from Chinatsu and me.

After they seat themselves, I ask, “So, what’s this about?”

He clears his throat and says, “Ms. Kobayashi, GenTech had a deal with Mr. Akiyama for him to provide us with your fertility treatment. We already paid him ¥40 billion for it.”

“Mr. Bekker, even assuming that’s true, you had to know that your agreement was illegal. TGR doesn’t have approval from our government to sell it yet and it can take up to three years before we get approval to do so. That said, can you show me the contract and the bank transfer to prove this actually happened?”

“Ms. Kobayashi, you know very well there’s no contract, nor can we provide proof of payment.”

I spread my arms in a helpless gesture. “Then what am I to do? Take the word of someone that I don’t know or trust? I’m sorry this happened to you, but if you deal with a criminal and get scammed, how is it someone else's responsibility to fix it?”

He loudly states, “It was your corporation!”

I look at him with an exasperated expression and acidly state, “Watch your tone with me and lower your voice… Now, it wasn’t TGR you dealt with, it was Akiyama. The government took his assets, so you can file a claim with them if you want, but without proof I’m quite sure you won’t get anywhere. My responsibility is to the shareholders and employees of TGR. Listen to me: I will not yank ¥40 billion out of TGR to pay you for something you knew was illegal to try to obtain in the first place. Nor will I provide you with the fertility treatment in place of the money either. Do I make myself clear?”

“Ms. Kobayashi, you know we can sue TGR.”

I laugh harshly. “Really? You want to throw away good money after bad? You’ll lose and you know it. You neither have proof of transferring money to my corporation, nor do you have a contract, so what do think will happen? At best, the lead judge will fine you for filing a frivolous lawsuit and I’ll counter sue for harassment. Whatever though, you do what you feel you have to, but I don’t want you to approach me or my family again. I was nice enough to hear you out. If you approach us again, I’ll have you jailed for stalking a minor and thrown out of Japan. You know where I stand and my position isn’t going to change. That said, I’ll be nice and do this for you: When I get government approval I’ll sell you the fertility treatment at cost plus five percent.”

He takes on a furious expression and states, “That’s ridiculous! We already paid you ¥40 billion!”

Angrily, I state, “Mr. Bekker, I already told you once to lower your voice. You paid me nothing, you paid my corporation nothing, so I owe you nothing. I made a goodwill offer since you were scammed by Akiyama. We’re done here. Since you refused my offer, I don’t want to see or hear from you again, understood? Have a good day, Mr. Bekker.”

When neither of them move, Sofi tells them, “You’ll either leave peacefully or we’ll have you arrested. Sora-nee gave you the time you wanted, so please leave.”

Sighing, he stands and says, “I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me. My board is going to fire me for this.”

“You're welcome. While I don’t really want to see that happen to you, I don’t see how that’s my problem. Now, if you don’t mind, we're hungry and we’d like to have our lunch. Goodbye.”

He nods and they walk off. Honoka and Sofi take their seats again and Honoka says, “Sora, you should have never talked to him.”

I nod and say, “You’re probably right, but he would have kept showing up to bother us if I didn’t. This way, he has his answer. Now, what do you say we place our order and eat?”