Chapter 158：Worse Than A Gigolo

Takeshi sits at one of the rowed chairs in the waiting room. His mother is once again in the operating room, but at a different hospital.. well this one is more like a clinic. The doctor at the hospital didn't want to involve with any illegal matter. So, with the help of Mr. Waseda, Takeshi found a good doctor that willing to operate his mother. Luckily, he is at Osaka. Thus, they transferred his mother to Osaka also asked the donor to be there before her.

This time Takeshi doesn't feel panic or nervous. He just feels numb.. tired and numb. He feels empty inside. Xiao Ping has blocked his account. He was agreeing not to make contact to her anymore, but knowing she blocked him.. it feels like another door is slammed down in front of him, another switch of hope in his heart is turned off. He really loses her.

Mr. Waseda enters the waiting room then sits next to Takeshi. He pats Takeshi's thigh to comfort him, "Everything will be fine. The doctor is actually one of the best. It just happened that he chooses to operate illegally because the legal ones have too many procedures and requirements." Takeshi nods. "Thank you for your help," Takeshi utters. Mr. Waseda smiles at him. "No. I thank you to decide accepting my offer," he says gently.

"You see, I don't need any letter to sign our deal. I believe you are an honest man. But.. Just incase you do want to scheme me.. well, let's just say that I have many resources that ready.. not to kill you, but to make your life miserable until you beg to be killed."

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Mrs. Hasegawa's operation is successful. She is now still in the ICU for observation, but she is stable. To 'celebrate' it, Takeshi decides to go to an izakaya, a Japanese inexpensive bar. He goes alone, deliberately didn't invite Hiroshi to go with him. He orders grilled fishes and sushi to accompany his beers.

While gulping his beer, Takeshi sighs. Once again, he has to sell his feeling over money. Takeshi sourly smiles. Maybe it's his destiny, to not able to have his love. He tries to comfort himself. But he can't lie to himself, he feels like a gigolo. No.. he is worse than gigolo. Gigolo only sells his body while he sells his love.

He gulps down the rest content of his bottle then raises his hand to ask another bottle of beer. He then goes to his website. He has been too long ignoring his fans. The last board message was made by Hiroshi, telling the fans that he would send their donations back to each bank account. Takeshi then writes on the board, informing the good news that his mother successfully went through the heart transplantation and says his gratitude to his fans support and prayers.

After that he goes to the Q&A section, where fans can ask him direct questions. He usually only answers the trending topics on the board message. Currently there are two trending topics, one is about his mother's condition, the other is ... Takeshi frowns and clicks the main question:

"Takeshi-kun, is it true ? Your girlfriend made press release on local TV station that she broke up with you"

Takeshi clicks a reply message of that message:

"I have the video. Is it really true ?" There is a video attachment, but he can't watch it from his cellular.

The waiter comes to bring his beer. "Where is the nearest public internet ?" Takeshi asks him. "Oh.. just few blocks from here, Sir," the waiter answers. Takeshi gives him few thousand yens to pay for his bill and asks him to keep the change. He then comes out of the izakaya and walks to the direction that the waiter gave.

About five minutes walk later, Takeshi enters an internet cafe. He sits in one of empty cubicle and waits impatiently for the computer to be ready. Once it is ready, Takeshi opens the browser and logins to his website and clicks the video to download it, before finally he can watch the video.

There is his girl. Still beautiful though there are black circles around her eyes. They actually don't appear that vivid after covered with make up, but Takeshi still can notice it. Takeshi pauses the video so he can fully concentrate to see his girl. He misses her badly. He squints to feel a pain inside his chest.

After a minute, he finally continues the video. Xiao Ping speaks in Chinese, but there is a Chinese characters subtitle below that is similar to Kanji so he can understand what she said.

"I already broke up with Takeshi Hasegawa like one and half months ago." Takeshi frowns deeper to listen to her statement.

"I was the one who initiated it. I.. I'm just tired. It's.. it's hard to be a superstar's girlfriend, you know. Even more because we are miles apart. It's hard to communicate... "

She lied. Takeshi of course knows it for sure. But why ? Takeshi remembers she said that she wanted to sacrifice for him this time. Is that why ? But it is too much. She will be bullied by his fans. And the scenario.. Xiao Ping wouldn't be able to make that kind of scenario. Takeshi takes his cellular and dials Hiroshi's numbers.

"Explain to me about Xiao Ping's press release," Takeshi immediately says once Hiroshi receives his call.

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So, it was Hiroshi's scenario, but it's her idea to have a press release. She wanted to have all the blame on her. She wanted to be the bad one. Takeshi exhales and squints at the same time. The first reaction he made was obviously wanted to defend her, but Hiroshi said she asked him to just go with it. It was her direct request, Hiroshi convinced him. So, all he can do is to confirm it on his website and says that al though they broke up, he and she are in a good term, that it was for their best future.

Takeshi drinks his beer while staring outside through the glass window. It is still daylight, but he has the urge to drink beer. So he goes to a kombini* and sits on a bench near the window. He drinks his beer down. It is his second bottle. When he was a kid, he used to hate beer because it is bitter. But as he grows up, the bitter taste is enjoyable. Is it maybe because unconscious gratefulness of his brain to have something bitter like his live himself ?

It is raining hard outside and black thick clouds is hiding the sun totally. The sidewalk is almost empty. There is only three persons, a couple with umbrella cover their head, walking quickly while hugging each other. The other is a girl, walking slowly, even almost seems like a zombie. Without any umbrella or rain coat, the girl is dripping wet. To see where she's heading, Takeshi is guessing that the girl is about to cross the street. The crossing light is still red though, but the girl doesn't stop her steps.

Takeshi runs quickly outside the kombini. His body is totally wet instantly. He runs toward the girl. She is already in the middle of the street and a car is heading toward her. The car blows it horn to warn the girl, but she seems unable to hear it. Takeshi fastens his run. He then jumps while hugging the girl from behind, manages to avoid the car only some milliseconds away. He rolls his body to the side of the street with the girl in his embrace.

Once his body stops rolling, he unfolds his embrace and yells at the girl, "Why did you keep on hitting for cars ?! Are you idiot or something ?!!"

The girl, Aiko Waseda, stares at him with a total surprised look before she passes out.

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*) kombini = convenient store