Two weeks has passed since she and Ryo talked, they've just seen each other yesterday as well when she came down for breakfast at the dining hall in the ground hall at half-past eight. She was surprised to see him there as it was very unusual for him to be late, he hated it.
Childish, but she pretended he was like air and have not seen him at all, and she did not mind what the staff of the hotel would think now that they have been seen to eat at different tables. She did not give him a backward glance when she left the hall and went back to their suite.
For the past week, she has been thinking of a way to leave his side and unshackle herself from the marriage that binds them. She needs to ask him for divorce, tell her family and try to repay him so that he won't bother them anymore.
"What a pain," she grumbled. One of her best friends, Rina had been trying to get her to meet but she has been finding excuses, she can't let her friends see how miserable she is at the moment. "I have to plan this very carefully."
She looked at the calendar and remembered that their wedding anniversary is coming up in a week. She suddenly remembered the request she made to him during their first month of marriage. They agreed before that just for show they would go on a dinner date every time during their wedding anniversary. Sachi told him that she will not ask him to take her out on a date or dinner anywhere or anytime of the year except for that one night every year.
Looking back at it now, it made her extremely sad. The waterworks will be activated again soon.
"I was so pathetic back then," she said to herself. "I don't want to cry again," she said as she covered her face with her hands and began crying. "I really hate you, Ryo. I really hate you!" she cried.
Ryo would intentionally come to work late nowadays only so that he can see Sachi eat breakfast at the dining hall every morning. He could not go home for lunch and at night time, she would always lock herself inside her room when she knew that he has finally come home.
He was wondering when this phase between them will end, but the scariest part is, he wasn't even sure if it will ever end anymore.
"Good job, you fool. You finally got what you wanted, your revenge, you've hurt her and now she hates you. So, what now?" he even started talking to himself, too. He was so distracted from work that he couldn't even be bothered to know what day it was now. He attends business meetings like a hollow tin can. He's lost all interest now trying to figure out a way to make it up to the girl he has hurt so much yet loved and possibly will ever love in his lifetime.
He has been longing for the girl with the warmest embrace and who cried for him when she thought that he was badly hurt.
"Sachi." He agonized over here. He got his phone out and thought about calling her, but he could not bring himself to press the 'call' button.
"Because I'm a freaking coward, I don't deserve you at all," then, it surprised him, how he doesn't have a single picture of his wife in his phone. This realization even made him sadder.
The day of their anniversary finally arrived. Ryo absolutely hated to be bothered or to bother about it, so he told Sachi that he had already booked them a table for the next ten years at a famous restaurant at Mega Hotel with an amazing night view of the city. Furthermore, he told her to just go there on the night of their wedding anniversary for their dinner date and wait for him to show up. For the last two years, this is how it was set up.
But for this year, some things have changed. If last year and the year before that, she was so excited to go there, now it was the opposite. She dreaded going there and having another awkward and quiet dinner with her good-for-nothing husband.
However, since her plan to ask him for divorce is slowly drawing near, she is planning to do it next month, she must give him the impression that everything was okay with her, that she was not scheming anything.
As a tradition, Sachi would shop for a dress in the morning and then prepare and glam herself up in the afternoon in preparation for the evening. So, she left their penthouse at around 10 AM in the morning that day to go shopping. Kuma-chi was tagging along with her because she was going to entrust him with one of the attendants until she gets back home later in the evening.
When she reached the lobby, handed Kuma-chi over to the caretaker and was about to go down to the basement, she heard her name being called.
"Sachi! Sachi," when she turned to see who it was, she was surprised to see that it was Rina, one of her best and closest friends since high school and college.
"Rina, hi," she greeted her with a smile. They kissed each other on the cheeks and shared a hug.
"Thank God I finally got you," Rina said catching her breath.
"Yeah, you're in time, I was just about to leave," Sachi said. "What brings you here?"
Rina gripped her hands and pulled aside. "We need to talk, now!"
"Huh, what?" Sachi asked in confusion.
Rina dragged her over to the many sofas in the lobby and was looking for the perfect spot that will give them enough privacy.
"We can't talk here, come with me," Rina said and dragged Sachi down to the stairs leading to the basement.
"What's going on?" Sachi asked her friend who acting very suspiciously but she was ignored. The next thing she knew Rina shoved her inside her car and drove off.
"What has gotten into you?" Sachi asked Rina but she was ignored once again.
"Can't talk now, I'm driving," Rina said after a few moments, eyes on the road.
Sachi smiled. She put on her sunglasses, let out a sigh and just let her friend focus on her driving.
Rina brought her to one of her many cafés in the city, it's called Himawari's Place.
"This is nice," Sachi said admiring the new decoration. She noticed that they changed things up a bit.
"Where did you get this furniture?" But Rina was busy talking to one of her staff.
"Miss R," Sachi heard one of the staff call Rina. "The room right down the hall just became vacant, you can use that."
"Okay, thanks a lot, Ai. Please bring us something to eat and drink, I'm parched from all that driving," Rina said and grabbed unto Sachi again and dragged her down the hall.
Sachi scoffed, Rina never fails to entertain her. "What has gotten into you, R?" Sachi said with a smile on her face.
"We need to talk and this is urgent," Rina said and pushed Sachi on the couch once they were inside the private room to talk.
This time, Sachi noticed that her friend was looking at her in a funny way.
"Why do you look like you're pitying me all of a sudden?" Sachi asked her friend with a scowl.
"I'm so sorry, Sachi, that I am only telling you about this. You see, Zen has been against it and has been telling me to stay away, but I can't just ignore what I saw. You need to know the truth," Rina said to her earnestly.
"Truth?" Sachi repeated. "What about?"
"I don't want to be the one breaking this to you but, I think your husband is cheating on you," Rina said with her eyes closed like she was scared somehow.
Sachi has long prepared herself for such news to reach her, so she wasn't the least bit surprised by it. After all, part of their arrangement was, she was not permitted to fool around but he can.
Rina opened her eyes slightly to see just how Sachi was taking the news, but to her surprise, Sachi was calm and not hysterical as she had expected, if it was her, she knew she would go all gung-ho given the situation.
"Ryo?" was all that came out from Sachi mouth.
"Who else, unless you have another husband that we don't know about," Rina said sarcastically.
Sachi laughed at her friend.
Rina placed one hand on Sachi's forehead to check her temperature because of her lack of reaction.
"You don't seem to have a fever," Rina said in wonderment.
"I'm fine," Sachi replied still with a smile. Sachi thought that she will not let this news defeat her or ruin her day.
"You're not," Rina said taking Sachi's hands in her. And then Rina started crying, she was sad for her friend who was being cheated on by her evil husband.
They were briefly interrupted by the arrival of their food and drinks. Rina's café staff was shocked to see her crying.
"We didn't know what you guys wanted so we prepared sandwiches and cakes for you," the staff said awkwardly.
"Thank you," Sachi said, and with that, the staff left them alone again. "I'm sorry, Rina. Because of me, your staff saw you in such a state."
"You! Why aren't you angry?" Rina asked Sachi, she was wiping the tears from her eyes now.
"Because I'm already tired. I'm tired of feeling, of crying," Sachi said truthfully.
"You knew?" Rina asked, she calmed down a bit now.
"Not really, but I have been hurt so deeply by other things already that nothing will faze me now. Besides, things such as marital affairs are quite common than we think, you know," Sachi told Rina.
"There are more?" Rina asked, and just like that she was once again reduced to tears.
Sachi just laughed because Rina seemed to have misunderstood her.
"Oh, Sachi, I'm so sorry that you had to go through this. We didn't know that you were in so much pain," Rina said crying buckets.
"There, there," Sachi said and enveloped her best friend in a tight embrace. "I'm sorry, too, for not telling you."
The two of them stayed that way until Rina has calmed back down again.
'So, he was cheating on me after all,' Sachi said to herself, sadness enveloped her heart. Sachi bit her lip to stop herself from crying. 'You're not worth my tears, Ryo Sugimoto.'
After Rina has calmed down, they started eating the food in front of them, lunch was just a quarter away after all.
"Should we ask for pasta?" Rina asked Sachi.
"Good idea, I'm craving carbonara right now," Sachi replied.
Rina went to the phone on the wall beside the door that connects them to the counter.
"Please bring us some pasta, one carbonara and meatball spaghetti," Rina instructed and hang up. "There's a lot of things I want to tell you. I've done a lot of research about the other woman but let's talk later after we've had our pasta, I don't want to get indigestion or lose my appetite," Rina said to Sachi as she made her way back to the couch to sit down.
"Good idea. But, you really researched about her?" Sachi was shocked.
"Of course, you always need to gather intel about the enemy. That's rule number one in the art of warfare," Rina said, really proud of herself.
Sachi just needed her head and continued wolfing down her sandwich.
Meanwhile, at Ryo's office, he had a fit of sneezes. He buzzed for his secretary.
"Do we have any medicine for sneezing available at the clinic?" Ryo asked Secretary Fujiwara.
"I'm sure there is, but, we need to know if the cause is viral or if it is simply an allergic reaction to dust, pollen or animal dander," Secretary Fujiwara answered. His mother is a nurse.
"Is that so?" Ryo asked to which his secretary answered with a nod. "I did not expect that it will be that complicated. Well, I don't have any known allergies to the things you've mentioned, and I also don't seem to have a cold, just sneezing really," Ryo told his secretary.
"Then, it could only mean that someone is talking or has been thinking about you," Secretary Fujiwara said with a smile.
Ryo nodded his headed, convinced.
It was from Rina that Sachi found out that the other woman is Kaede Hanazawa, formerly known as Mrs. Ukai. Rina told her about what she saw at the bar when she and Zen went drinking. And so, she dug up further into Ryo and Kaede's history together.
Rina found out from reliable sources that the two had known each other since college and have also been known to be involved in a fling during and after college. Rina even heard that, although Mr. Ukai was quite the unfaithful one, there were rumors that it was really Kaede's infidelity that caused the divorce, and the rumored paramour was none other than, Ryo.
It was said that the two of them have been inseparable since college, she was his senior and that he was head over heels in love with her while she was crazy for Mr. Ukai, a friend and classmate of hers since high school.
Sachi remained quiet, she was just carefully listening to Rina narrate everything that she knew.
After a while, in the middle of the afternoon, Zen came by the cafe.
"Where's my wife?" he asked one of the staff, and he was told which room her wife was so he went there. He forgot to ask them whether she had company or not so when he opened the door he was not prepared to see Sachi with Rina, the two of them talking earnestly with each other.
"Rina, honey. You in here?" Zen said as he gently opened the door to the private room.
What met him was Rina's glare and Sachi's warm smile.
"Hello, Zen," Sachi greeted him.
He was taken aback a bit. "Sachi, what a nice surprise." He almost choked on his own saliva. He gave his wife a knowing look.
"Oh, if it isn't Zen, the protector of the cheaters," he heard his wife's snide comment.
'What the hell?' he mouthed at Rina who just crossed her arms at him.
Sachi just laughed silently. "I'm so jealous."
"Huh?" Rina and Zen both said in unison.
"That you guys can be like this with each other," Sachi said with a smile, but her head was down.
Rina raised her fist at Zen, blaming him for making her friend sad again.
'It's your fault, I told you to stay out of it but you did not listen,' Zen wanted to say out loud. Knowing Rina, and judging from Sachi's reaction, he knew that Rina already told her best friend about Ryo.
"I need to get going guys, still have an appointment later in the evening," Sachi said standing up. "It's our wedding anniversary," she added with a wink to Rina.
"What? You're going?" Rina protested, she was standing up now.
"I need to, we have a reservation, and you know that they cook really good steak there. I'll see you guys around. I love you both and thank you," Sachi said and left the room leaving Rina and Zen dumbfounded.
Sachi left the café with a smile. Because of what she discovered, she has already made up her mind, tonight, she will ask Ryo for divorce, a full house wouldn't stop her.
***