Chapter 5

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Like many little girls, Mai had always dreamed of her prince—a savior who would whisk her away from her struggles. But life had other plans. Orphaned at a young age, Mai's childhood was a relentless fight for survival. She worked tirelessly, cleaning shoes for pennies, begging on the streets, and taking odd jobs like dog-sitting—anything a child could manage. When times were especially harsh, and even a crust of bread was out of reach, she scavenged through garbage or resorted to stealing and pickpocketing. It wasn't out of malice; it was the only way to survive.

As she grew older, Mai crossed paths with a drag queen who seemed kind at first but turned out to be a handler for the red-light district. Deceived and desperate, she found herself trapped in a world she never imagined—a life as a pleasure worker. The money was more than she had ever seen, enough to buy the things she had only dreamed of as a child. But with every transaction, she felt a piece of herself slipping away.

Mai began to see herself as a princess imprisoned in a towering fortress, visited nightly by demons and monsters who fed on her despair. The riches she once longed for now felt like chains, binding her to a life that drained her soul.

After years of working in the red-light district, Mai had grown numb. The services she provided for her nightly visitors, once a source of shame and pain, became as routine as her desperate scrambles for survival on the streets during her childhood. This was her life, her only way to live.

Then she met him—Shinji.

What began as just another transaction quickly turned into something different. Shinji came as a customer, but there was a spark between them, a connection neither could ignore. Their personalities clicked effortlessly, and their moments together felt natural, almost fated. In time, Mai became his exclusive partner. As their bond deepened, what started as convenience blossomed into love. For the first time, Mai allowed herself to believe she had found her prince—the one she had dreamed of as a child, her savior from the tower that held her captive.

And then, the moment she'd longed for came to life. Shinji saved her. He whisked her away to a rural province, far from the city's unrelenting noise and chaos. In the quiet of their new life, Mai dared to dream of happiness. Especially now—now that she carried their little princess inside of her.

But Mai was wrong.

One afternoon, while out on a simple errand, she caught a glimpse of a news broadcast on a small television in a crowded store. Her world shattered in an instant. There, on the screen, was her prince—but not as the man she knew. It was a wedding announcement. Shinji was marrying someone else. Not just anyone, but *the* princess—a woman she could never compete with, a woman who belonged to his world.

It all made sense now. The secrecy, the remote hideaway, his insistence that she avoid the news. His rare, fleeting visits. Shinji hadn't been rescuing her; he'd been hiding her. Mai had never been his princess. She was only ever his secret.

The time for the prince's visit had arrived, but the usual warmth of Mai's greeting was absent. Instead of her excited embrace at the door, he found her seated on the sofa, her expression somber and her eyes clouded with unspoken pain. He approached her cautiously, but her words stopped him in his tracks.

"Congratulations on your wedding. You didn't even invite me," she said, her voice icy and laced with betrayal.

Shinji's brow furrowed, but before he could respond, Mai continued, her voice trembling. "I thought you loved me. You promised you'd never let anyone hurt me. You kept me safe from everyone else by hiding me here, but you... you hurt me instead." Tears streamed down her cheeks, each one a testament to her shattered trust.

"You watched the news? Didn't I tell you not to?" Shinji's voice was sharp, his anger flaring at her disobedience rather than addressing her pain.

"Yes, I did! Now I know why you told me to stay away from it. Because you were cheating on me!" Mai's voice broke as she sobbed, her heartache spilling out in every word.

"Cheated on you? I'm cheating *with* you, Mai. You were the mistress. I only kept seeing you because our compatibility was great. It's not my fault you're too naive," he scoffed, his words cutting through her like a blade.

Mai's grief turned to rage in an instant. She grabbed the ashtray from the coffee table and hurled it at him. It struck his face, the sharp edge cutting his nose bridge and drawing blood. Shinji's fury erupted, and he stormed toward her, his hand connecting with her cheek in a brutal slap that sent her crashing to the floor.

"You b*tch! I gave you everything! I fed you! I took you away from that club so you wouldn't have to sleep with other men! And this is how you repay me?!" His voice was a low growl, filled with venom and resentment. He crouched down to her level, gripping her hair and forcing her to meet his cold, unfeeling gaze.

"And what do you mean, *our* baby? With how many men did you serve back then? How can I be sure this child is even mine?" His words were cruel, his tone devoid of any compassion. He released her hair with a violent shove, leaving her trembling on the floor.

"For the benefit of the doubt, I'll still visit and support you here. All you have to do is stay my obedient toy, hm?" His voice dripped with condescension, reducing her to nothing more than a possession in his eyes.

As he loomed over her, the air between them grew heavy with the weight of their shattered relationship. What had once been love had twisted into something dark and toxic, leaving Mai to question if she had ever truly known the man she had given her heart to.

With her dreams crushed and her hopes dwindling, Mai clung to the only solace left—Shinji's fleeting presence. He continued to provide for her, visiting sporadically and showering her with attention that felt more like obligation than care.

When Mai finally gave birth, it was a girl. Her heart swelled with joy as she saw the resemblance to Shinji in her child's delicate features. But Shinji's reaction was the stark opposite. Displeasure etched across his face, he waited until the doctor had left their home before speaking.

"This will be my last visit," he said coldly. "I'll send money for child support, and that's all. What a waste of time. I only stayed because my family believes the firstborn should be a son for the sake of prosperity. But you... You're a pathetic failure to the end. Don't you dare claim this child is mine. You can keep the house."

His words cut through Mai like a blade, leaving her reeling. The prince she had once dreamed of was nothing more than an illusion. This man, this stranger, had never truly been hers.

Years passed, and Shinji's support dwindled until it vanished entirely. By the time their child turned six, Mai found herself cornered by desperation. With no other options, she moved back to the city, bringing her daughter along. But as the years went by, the child's resemblance to her father became more pronounced, and with it, Mai's bitterness grew. Every glance at her daughter's face was a cruel reminder of Shinji's betrayal, and all the resentment she harbored for him began to spill over onto the child.

Struggling to make ends meet, Mai was forced to return to the life she had once left behind. The club became her refuge and her prison, a place where she sold her body to survive. Each night blurred into the next, a relentless cycle of sacrifice and survival, as she fought to provide for herself and her daughter in a world that seemed determined to break her.

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"So, you only read up to that part, Mom? And you cried that much?" Hanako said, a soft chuckle escaping her lips as she rubbed her mother's back. They were now seated inside the cozy café, Iris still struggling to collect herself as she sat in one of the chairs.

"Mom, there's no need to worry about me," Hanako reassured her gently. "It's just a story—purely fiction. A tale I came up with to captivate my readers and stir their emotions."

Iris looked at her daughter skeptically, her brows furrowed with concern. "Are you sure?" she asked, her voice tinged with hesitation.

"I'm sure, Mom," Hanako said firmly, pouring a glass of water for her mother and placing it in front of her. "This story doesn't relate to anything real. And if it does, it's purely a coincidence."

Iris sighed deeply, relief washing over her features. Without another word, she reached out and pulled her daughter into a warm, tight hug.

"Welcome home, my Hanako. Mommy missed you so much," Iris murmured, her voice heavy with emotion. At last, she gave her daughter the heartfelt welcome she had held back earlier, overwhelmed as she had been.

"I'm home, Mom. And I missed you too," Hanako replied, sinking into her mother's embrace and relishing the long-awaited reunion.