Chapter 7: The Evening Rose (Part 1)

Rei found out that she was engaged to a man named Todoroki Enji at the age of 18.

Was she pissed off?

Of course, she was!

She has never heard of this 'Enji' person prior to that day! She knew she knew it was her parents' form of punishment because rather than accepting the obligation as the sole heir to their multi-billion company, Rei was planning to pursue her dreams as a writer.

But could they blame her?

knew from the beginning she doesn't have the mathematical skills expected from an Asian, much less the capabilities to handle a company that employs more than a million Japanese people, and a million more in other countries.

Of course, she felt bad that it would be horrible if the hard work of her parents would die out along with their dreams of her being a successful businesswoman just because of the different profession she has reinstated for herself.

But what about her feelings? Why can't they accept that she's her own person, too?

The couple officially met when she was 20 years old.

Prior to this, they had no contact whatsoever.

For 2 years, Rei imagined what her future husband would look like.

From what she heard, the guy was a couple of years older than her. Knowing how unforgiving life is, she already readied herself for the worst.

She imagined him as a middle-aged man with a receding hairline, probably incredibly thin like a skeleton from lack of exercise because his butt is glued to his office chair... And oh! With a pot belly because of his excessive drinking of alcohol after office hours. A womanizer, too, who often harasses his secretary because he's too ugly and disgusting to find a woman who's willing to suck his dick...

...And that's how Rei imagined all the villains in her books.

Each of the varieties of this 'Enji' gets a good beating, if she feels really petty, a gruesome death. Courtesy of her femme fatal characters inspired by badass women all over history, of course.

"You really hate this fiancée of yours, don't you?" Aizawa said in a bored tone, reading the manuscript given to him by Rei.

"Hate is such a great word..." She pouted, "More of... I have this unplaced prejudice against him."

"I'm not sure if that makes it any better."

Aizawa Shouta was an underclassman of hers back in high school.

He was the son of the head editor of the publishing company that printed Rei's books, and for some unprofessional reason, he managed to become a trainee editor of the company as soon as he graduated from middle school.

one of the only workers in the company of the same generation as she was, they quickly became friends.

"Why can't it be me?" One day, Aizawa asked her.

They were both at the school rooftop, leaning leisurely at the rails while white fluffy clouds under the blue afternoon sky lay as their witness.

"Can you run a company with a net worth of a billion dollars?" She asked, unblinking. "The aforementioned company being the source of income of millions of employees, and if you accidentally messed up, you might end up leaving those millions unemployed, homeless, starving--"

"I got it, I got it!" He waved his hand dismissively. "Geez, I'm sorry for asking!"

"It's not like I don't understand the purpose of our union," Rei explains, sadness readable from her stormy grey eyes. "And I'm also not that prideful enough to know that I need him, not the other way around.

"If I want to continue my career as a writer and still help maintain the economic stability of Japan by entrusting our company to some old yet capable geezer's hands, then I'll volunteer as the sacrificial bride anytime."

"Will this make you happy?" Aizawa gave her a sideglance, placing all his weight on the railings as he leaned down.

"No one is truly happy, Shouta-kun," Rei answers, tucking behind his ear the stray strands of hair that were blown softly by the wind.

She was 20 when they met. He was 25. Enji is five years her senior and he wasn't afraid to show it.

To say that Enji was above her expectations was the greatest understatement of the century.

He was... Actually handsome.

A rough kind of handsome, with a matching bad boy glean reflecting in his absolutely intense turquoise eyes. With a 195 cm stature towering over her, and a ripped body that could easily carry her bridal style, it was love at first sight.

And you can call her stupid because she should've known more than anyone not to judge a person just by their appearance.

After all, Lucifer was considered the most beautiful angel before he betrayed God.

Maybe it was because of her nature, or something she acquired due to her profession as a writer, but Rei was used to things going according to her plan, the scenarios created in her head being smoothly followed to the T.

The reason why people do certain actions is because it is fuelled by certain acceptable reasons. Every bad guy has a sob story about why he became bad. Every single thing has a fucking reason for occurring.

So when things didn't go as smoothly as expected, it broke her down.

Todoroki Enji broke her down.

To put it simply, he was the vilest being Rei has ever met.

He defied all logic.

He didn't have a tear-jerking backstory to support his actions and personality, he didn't have a reason for doing things aside from just wanting to fucking do it.

Enji was, in all honesty, just an asshole, the Devil's spawn straight from hell.

But the thing is, the reason why girls fall in love with bad boys is that they think they can change them.

More often than not, it was the other way around.

And most of the time, it was for the worse.

They got married a year later.

On the night of their wedding, they consummated their marriage.

Surprisingly, Enji was gentle. He was very careful with her body as if he was afraid that he might accidentally break her to pieces.

It was painful, but it was good.

It felt good.

At that moment, Rei felt like she was the Mary Sue heroine of some cliché romance novel that finally found her happy ending.

Unbeknownst to her, it was actually the beginning of a psychological thriller.