Chapter 216 - Status

"I thought my brother has a girlfriend already. But it seems it was not really the case as the girl seems to reject him. Poor brother. He'll be single for life…"

Suzuki Ara bowed her head as if in sadness, but her awareness was all focused on the woman in front of her. She felt a shift in Asou Chiaki's mood, and she was sure that the other woman was totally forced into thinking about her brother and his future.

Feeling satisfied with her performance, she decided she already did enough for the day, and so decided to relax the atmosphere between them – but not after driving the last nail.

"Oh, but that's a bonus for me. If big brother won't get married and have children then he can spoil my future kids as an uncle – although it's a shame he could be doing that to his own."

Ara made sure her tone was light, but at the same time driving home the fact that Aki didn't want any other woman other than her to Chiaki. The other girl felt the heaviness of her words and Chiaki bowed her head as well but not before Ara saw her guilt-ridden pair of eyes.

Oh…

With that, Ara decided to rescind her initial decision to stop and pushed further.

"Chiaki, how about you? When do you plan to get married?"

Her question thrown out innocently was the other woman's undoing. Chiaki was visibly stunned and panicked with her eyes looking sideways as she let out a round of nervous laughter.

"What are you talking about?" she countered, dismissing Ara's question as something funny.

"Er… marriage… Yours?" Ara rebutted, not at all discouraged.

It helped that she was already married as Chiaki couldn't thwart her inquiries with her own about her and Kou. Because Ara was a hundred percent sure that she would be blushing and stammering like Chiaki was doing now if someone asked her about her husband.

On the other hand, talking about this thing with her candidate sister-in-law made her miss Ryuu a lot. She wondered if her husband's already in Hakone. But then again he hadn't left a while and so he must still be on the road.

"I don't have such plans," Chiaki finally said. "I'm busy with work and I have Taka to take good care of. Who'd have time to go on dates, get a boyfriend, much less, married? Also, with all my responsibilities, who'd be stupid enough to have me?"

For an outsider, Chiaki's arguments sounded reasonable. After all, with the very high cost of living these days, it would be already difficult to support your own family. Who would be willing to take on a woman who's already burdened with an unrelated child?

The man would have to be either stupidly in love or filthy rich.

Fortunately, Suzuki Aki, Ara's beloved brother's both.

Of course, Ara wouldn't tell Chiaki about someone being filthy rich. That was already a  given fact.

"The man who loves you would," Ara told her softly, and let her words sink into the other woman's head before she continued.

She now believed she had the complete picture as to why Chiaki rejected her brother. It was basically the same thought she had before when she and Aki talked about her.

It was never about Aki lying to her about his real identity – at least not anymore. It might have started with that, but now it's more on insecurity. Because of her status and her burdens, Chiaki thought that she was not the right person to be with Aki.

"Love? What can love do? It doesn't change anything," Chiaki said almost miserably.

"Of course it is everything," Ara insisted, making Chiaki look at her in the eye with confusion.

"No offense – but how can you say that Ara if your own marriage is an arranged one?"

Asou Chiaki's question was pure, without a hint of malice, and so no offense was taken. In fact, Ara was even expecting her to ask that. It was an obvious question after all.

How could Suzuki Ara talk about love, when she had a business transaction of a marriage?

Normally, she couldn't talk about it at all, if someone asked her weeks ago. But things were different now.

"My husband loves me," Ara said with a confident smile as she scooped a piece of crème brûlée from her plate and popped it in her mouth.

She almost laughed at Chiaki's reaction upon hearing that but stopped her self. The other looked like she was shocked – like she was totally not expecting that, and so she was prepared for the next question that came.

"How did you know?"

Again, the question was delivered in all curiosity and not malice, and so Ara humored her.

"Because Homura Ryuu said so," Ara answered with her eyes twinkling with happiness, remembering that time when Kou told her those words. "And I love him back."

"But you just…met."

Chiaki was totally confused – and it was natural. Ara and Ryuu, after all, had met just two weeks ago. Talk about a whirlwind romance.  Theirs was like a tornado.

Ara shrugged. "It might seem very fast, but it felt like we've already known each other for several lifetimes," she told the other honestly.

Her words made the other finally smile. "Then you are lucky."

"I guess so," Ara answered with a grin, but it was time to turn the table back to the other and pick up where they left off. "And as I was saying before, love changes everything. If the man loves you and you love him back, what's stopping you from being together if you're both single?"

Chiaki sighed at this, but Ara was not finished.

"Your status? But that doesn't matter – if it does then does that mean that I shouldn't have married Ryuu because he's a noble and I'm just a nouveau riche?"

Her question might have hit a nerve as Chiaki looked like she had taken a blow. But what Ara said was true and made sense, and so she seemed to accept that.  

Ara could see the wheels turning in the other's head. She could see her imagining her situation with her brother and compared it to Ara's and Ryuu's.

Chiaki, a middle-class woman but highly skilled assistant and Suzuki Aki, a nouveau riche CEO.

Suzuki Ara, high school student, daughter of a nouveau riche household and Homura Ryuu, a genius with several degrees under his belt and the Koutaishidenka of the Homura House.

Ara saw Chiaki frown, and she almost grinned again.

Why?

Because regardless of how Chiaki thought she didn't have the right to be with Aki because of her status, Ara's situation was much worse than hers, and yet, she's now married to her prince.