-Haruka POV-
Three weeks have passed, and here I am again at the Ackerman Pampelonne Beach Resort. Right. Tomorrow is the day. The resort's grand opening event. Levi insisted on me coming here with him because he wanted to do something we couldn't do before, and we ended up doing everything today. And now, I'm waiting for Levi to come. He said we will be having dinner together.
"Onii-chan!" I heard a familiar voice calling me. Wait, that's Hanabi's voice.
"Onii-chan, aitai (I miss you)." Hanabi hugged me from behind.
"What? Hana-chan, what are you doing here?" I asked in shock. Right. Why is she here right now?
"Ara. What do you mean by that? The Auclair Family was invited too, not you alone." Hanabi replied with a glare. Tch. This kid.
"I know that, and that's why I asked, you idiot. Shouldn't you be coming tomorrow? And did you skip work today?" It's my time to glare at her.
"The reason she's here today is because I asked her if she would like to stay the night here." Levi suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"You. Why would you do that without even telling me first? And Hana-chan, did you skip work today?" I turned my head to look at Hanabi again.
"I didn't. I just went back early. I'm still an intern, you see. So I don't have that much work to do." Hanabi said that with a grin.
"I bet you're the first intern to do that. You're lucky that our family owns the hospital. Hana-chan, I know you already knew this, but you shouldn't do that when you're officially a doctor later, okay? You're going to be really busy." I said that, trying to give her some advice.
"Of course I wouldn't do that. That's why I'm enjoying my intern life to the fullest now." Hanabi said that with a grin. Ugh. I don't think she gets it.
"Hah. Sometimes I feel like you both are really alike. Giving both of you some advice sometimes felt useless because you both ended up just doing anything that you guys wanted." I said that with a sigh.
"But I did listen to you sometimes." Levi protested.
"Right. You only listen to me when it's about work. Forget it. Let's just have dinner now, shall we?" I said that, and then we left the room for dinner.
//SKIP//
"Are you sure you don't want to show yourself for a moment?" Levi asked me while taking a seat beside me.
"I'm satisfied just staying here. And why did you even sit here with me? Don't you have work to do now?" I said to him while looking at him. I've seen him in a suit many times before, but strangely, he's looking extra handsome today. Something's different about him today. I looked at him one more time, and I noticed that his hairstyle changed.
"You've been looking at me for quite a long time. Am I looking extra handsome today?" Levi's words snap me out of my thoughts.
"You changed your hairstyle, and not to mention, it's Levi's hairstyle. I'm referring to the character in Attack on Titan." I said that to him, and he looked at me with a smile.
"I'm glad you noticed that. Well, I've been looking for what hairstyle I should change, and then I remembered Levi's hairstyle. I thought I'd give it a try. What do you think? Does it suit me?" He asked, getting closer to my face.
"Ahem. Well, it does suit you. I think you should go now, don't you think?" I said that, distancing my face from his.
"Right. Glad you said that. Btw, it seems like your day was having a hard time answering people's questions about you. Well, you're the resort's face icon, right? Don't you think you should show yourself for a moment?" He asked me, despite knowing what answer would come from my mouth.
"My father knows how to handle it, and he's not alone. Hanabi and my brother are there too." I replied to him in an uninterested voice.
"I figured you would say that. Well, I should get going first, then. I need to greet some other people. Let me know if you need anything. Wait for me here." Levi replied and left.
That was what Levi said to me before he left me alone here, at the resort pavilion with the ocean view. It's been 45 minutes since Levi left, and all I've been doing is walking around the pavilion and sitting again. It feels a little bit lonely here alone. I guess Levi's company was not that bad after all. Well, he had work to do. Right. Today is the day. The Grand Opening Event of the Ackerman Pampelonne Beach Resort. I don't feel like showing myself, so here I am.
"Ah, I'm sorry. I thought there's no one here." A voice suddenly spoke, making me surprised. I look at the direction of the voice, and it is someone I don't want to run into again. Alderic. Ugh, screw my life.
"Ah, it's Haruka Charles Auclair. I thought you wouldn't come, but here you are. I guess today is my lucky day, after all." He said that, making his steps towards me. Shit. I shouldn't have looked at him earlier.
"What are you doing here? Leave." I said that in a cold voice. I don't have to be polite anymore.
"My, my. You don't have the right to tell me to leave. Everyone is free to enter the resort's pavilion right now. I'm not trying to do anything. Let's take a picture together. I've been telling everyone that I met you, but we don't even have a picture together." He said that, and he's only one meter away from me. He tried to grab my hand, but then someone stopped him.
"I warned you to stay away from him." It's Levi. Strangely, he always came when I needed help.
"My, it's Mr. Levi Ackerman again. I just wanted to get a picture with him, sir." He said that while looking at Levi.
"When I tell you to stay away, it means you are prohibited from showing your face in front of Haruka ever again." Levi's voice is getting colder.
"I'm sorry, sir. But I don't see the reasons why I should follow what you said." He's no longer using his polite voice, and now he's glaring at Levi.
"I guess you don't know where your place is. Maybe the fact that your father has a broad influence in the entertainment industry made you think you could act as you please. For example, look down at me right now. Alderic Daniel Chabernaud, you have a lot of scandalous controversies, but the biggest thing that no one knows is that you made someone pregnant and forced her to abort the child, then sent her overseas. Right, one more thing is you are also involved in drug abuse with those stupid celebrity friends of yours." Levi said that, which made both me and Alderic shocked. I didn't expect a young model like Alderic would do something like that.
"I'm not attempting to blackmail you or anything. This is just a warning for you. Well, if you ever show yourself in front of me or Haruka again, maybe I would expose that secret of yours one by one. Your father may have great influence, but you should know that I'm far more superior than him." Levi said it in a threatening voice. He's not joking this time.
"Hah. So, after all, you did a background check on me. As I thought, working with you would be dangerous. Honestly, I was thinking about turning down your company's offer. But when I heard that Levi Ackerman is not the one I would be dealing with and the payment that your company offered, I thought to myself that maybe I shouldn't turn it down. Well, you could say I didn't expect to run into a second young master here, and it turns out he's close with The Great Levi Ackerman. I surrender myself, so I beg you, please don't spread any of those." He said that while kneeling down. I didn't expect this. This is the power that Levi Ackerman has.
"As I said, I won't spread anything if you don't show yourself in front of us again. So get lost now." Levi doesn't even look at him. It feels like everything Alderic said just now really pissed him off. And just like that, Alderic left the pavilion.
"Hah. I can't believe it. Every time I leave you alone, there is always a bastard trying to get to you." Levi sighed and then took a seat on the lounge chair.
"And luckily you always arrived at the right time." I said that to him. I didn't mean to say that, but maybe that would make him feel better.
"Right. I'm glad I did." He said that with a smile.
"But, did you really do a background check on him?" I asked him because I wanted to know. Why did he do that?
"Right. I couldn't help myself but did so. I felt uneasy since the day he tried to approach you before. So I asked my private investigator to do that. It turns out he did a lot of bad things, and I even managed to get the information about his close celebrity friends. I ended up cancelling all the booking contracts with the celebrities that are close with him. I did compensate for them, btw." He said that, trying to explain to me.
"I don't understand. Why would you go that far for me?" I stared straight into his eyes, hoping for an answer.
"Because those guys aren't worth your time if you happen to meet them. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable. I know you wouldn't show yourself to the public, but what if you ran into them? Right, just like you ran into Alderic and Matthew. You don't want people to know what you've been up to these days, right? So that's also the reason why I did that. Haruka, people would be dying to meet you. And you know you're more famous than me, right? That's the reason why you've been keeping yourself hidden from the public all these years. Well, although those may be the reasons why I did that, the main reason is because I love you. I know I said that many times already, but I will say that again. I love you, and I don't want something bad to happen to you because of those jerks." As I looked into his eyes, he answered that with his eyes looking into mine too. Right, he's telling the truth. But why is it so easy for him to say that every time? I had never had the courage to tell that to the person I love before, and yet he said it easily, just like that.
"Why is it so easy for you to say that every time? Is it just some sort of word you said to just anyone?" I mumbled to myself.
"It's not that easy for me too. It took me two years to finally say that to you. And after I said that once, I felt like I could say it to you a million times. And it's not just words that I would say to anyone. I only said those words to you in a romantic way. You were in love with my younger brother before, and moving on is not that easy. I know that really well. So you don't have to worry. You don't have to rush yourself. When you finally open your heart for me, you can say those words to me. I'll wait for you."
TO BE CONTINUED!!!