I felt Aiden's hand clasp over mine then, and I shifted my gaze to him. He was smiling, and he looked proud of me.
Aiden was proud of me, eh?
"I see," Uncle Jin said, chuckling. "It looks like I have nothing more to say."
I returned my attention to Uncle Jin. "And?"
He looked thoughtful for a moment and then said, "I don't want to lose you, Haru, especially not after I've lost my sister, your mother."
Isaac asked, "Then we're all moving to Japan after Haru graduates university? And we're getting jobs here? Yes! Awesome."
Uncle Jin said, "Actually, two positions have already been accepted."
"What?" I, Isaac, Noah, and Mason uttered in shocked surprise.
Two positions? One would have to be Reo, right? And the other?
Connor raised his hand. "It's me."
"Huh?" Isaac expressed. "Seriously?"
Connor said, "The thing is, you see, I already applied for an open position here. It's managerial, but Mr. President wanted a face-to-face interview with me before making his decision, and since you guys were planning to come here anyway, I thought why not?"
Noah said, "Is that why you said you'd join us on the trip on such short notice?"
"Well, that's part of the reason why," Connor said. "Besides, I like Japan, have wanted to get a job here for a while now."
Isaac said, "And the other person is Reo. Okay, we got it." He clapped his hands. "Right, everything is hunky-dory now. Let's get back to eating."
Isaac was about to leave when Uncle Jin said, "You have three years to become fluent in Japanese, Aiden-san."
I turned to Aiden, who was smiling.
"Especially if you're going to become the CEO of the company."
Huh?
"Holy shit!" Isaac shouted. "Seriously, bro? You were offered the position of CEO of Lake Aoi Resort and Onsen?"
Mason said, "That's…unexpected."
Noah said darkly, "And when did you plan on telling us that?"
Aiden chuckled. "Obviously, when we got back home. But Uncle Jin beat me to it."
Uncle Jin turned to Noah and said, "You're an excellent marketing expert, Noah-kun, when will you be able to join us?"
That got Noah looking more than a little surprised. "I…" He shifted his gaze to me for a moment. When he turned his attention back to Uncle Jin, he said, "I'll join the company once I'm more experienced, when Haru finishes university."
Uncle Jin nodded. "I see. Yes, of course." He turned to Mason then. "And you, Mason-kun?"
Mason chuckled. "I still have another year of university to go…"
"Yes, of course. We'll decide when you've graduated then."
Mason nodded, looking relieved.
Uncle Jin said, "Now then, how about we return to the party?" He stood, and we did as well.
As we filed out of the room, I felt a sense of relief sweep through me.
"You did well." I heard Aiden's voice beside me.
I asked, "Why didn't you tell me earlier? That Uncle offered you the CEO position?"
He gave me a dashing smile. "It's a secret."
I frowned. Secret my ass. Here I had been worried sick as to how I should solve this problem; not disappointing Uncle Jin and still have everyone with me. I wanted to have my cake and eat it, too, after all. I mean who'd want to turn down inheriting a multimillion-dollar company?
Back at the party, I enjoyed my time eating until I felt stuffed. Then, of course, Uncle Jin's staff came and surrounded me, asking me so many questions that it made my head spin. Luckily, I managed to give them the bare minimum and Isaac finally stole their attention away from me.
Yeah, I sucked at this sort of thing, but not Reo. He looked right at home, conversing with everyone with a dashing smile on his face.
I was just getting a moment to myself when Noah approached me. He didn't say a word as he grabbed my wrist, led me out the door, and into that same bedroom we had entered before.
After shutting the door, he asked, "Did you mean it?"
I was confused. "Mean what?"
"What you told Uncle Jin," he said. "That you…love us."
I felt heat rush to my face as I nodded. "I really mean it, Noah." Then I thought to add, "I'm sorry I didn't think about you and how you feel." I gasped, only realizing it just now. "Shit, I didn't even think to ask you guys first if you'd wanted to live in Japan in the future. I just decided everything by myself, how stupid of me." I raised my gaze to him. "I'm really sorry."
Noah made a move that surprised me. He roughly grabbed my chin in his hand and squeezed me tight. Darkly, he said, "Yeah, you like doing that, don't you? You little brat. Go and decide things by yourself."
"Noah, that hurts."
Noah wasn't listening to my plea, however. If anything, he tightened his grip on me like he was damn pissed.
Well, considering how things were, he had the right to be pissed.
"I said I'm sorry. I'll tell Uncle Jin you don't want the job and—"
He thrust me back against the wall, which made me gasp.
"There you go, deciding things by yourself again, like you always do." With his face close to mine, he said, "And who the fuck said I'm not interested in living in Japan and taking on that job?" Suddenly, he loosened his grip on my chin, thank God, and then rested his forehead against mine.
"Noah?" I called out his came softly.
"Onii-chan," he said. "When we're alone together, call me onii-chan. That's an order." He took a deep breath and then he kissed me on the forehead.
His lips were hot against my skin as they lingered there for a moment. When he moved back, he said, "You have no idea how much hope your words give me."
Hope? My words?
He let go of me then and stepped back. "Things are going to change when we get back home, Haru. I won't lose to Aiden." With that, he left the room, leaving me to wonder what he meant.