I leaned back as well on the soft bed.

  “Really, all that with me?”

  “Mhm.”

  “You should get yourself a boyfriend in a couple years to do all that with. I wouldn’t be able to keep up.”

  In fact, some of these sounded oddly romantic. Though even with that aside, I’d run out of energy real soon.“No worries.”

  She turned toward me, smiling sweetly.

  “We’ll have plenty of time to spend together.”

  I shuddered, realizing how momentarily captivated I was. Involuntarily, I ended up staring intently at her.

  “You sure you don’t want to be wearing anything?”

  “Hmm~ Wanna see?”“...”

  I wasn’t sure. Probably not though, at least right now. Too much shit hit me at once today.

  I sat up, and turned around, kicking off my shoes.

  “Goodnight Eiri.”Tucking myself under the sheets with my work clothes on, I shut my eyes, facing away from her.

  She followed suit, scooting over toward my back, but not so close we made contact beyond ying under the same sheet. Then, she gently pced her hand on top of my back.

  “I want to do whatever makes you happy as well… It’ll just be the two of us now.”She seductively whispered into my ear. Didn’t have to be a genius to figure out what she meant by that.

  I didn’t reply. There was no good answer I could think of.

  “You spoke about a future boyfriend… I wouldn’t mind if it was you.”

  I heaved an exasperated sigh at her insistent nature.

  “Let’s get some sleep before continuing this conversation.”

  She’s more likely than not overly attached to me due to her mother, in hindsight, it makes sense. Though that level of trust is mispced.

  There is no need for her to do anything for me. As a parent, it has always been my job to provide what was needed. What was shown to me was that I failed. It’s going to be difficult to tell what the right choices would be for the both of us, though keeping the same life as before and ignoring the problems is for certain not the right one.

  “Sorry for never noticing.”

  I should have tried paying more attention. Could have done something about it, before it escated to.. Well, this.

  “No, thank you for always listening.” She spoke in a soft, lighthearted ugh. “I love you, goodnight.”

  I took a moment to rex my breathing. A sense of relief from the end of the day. Everything happening all at once, the wiretap, the reveal of abuse, the knocking out, the strange ways people spoke, it was too much to handle at once.

  I never figured the wife that had sent me off so sweetly had been abusing Eiri, it was hard to believe, yet in a strange way, it didn’t seem impossible. There were hints of animosity to be sure.

  She leaned in close, her chin touching my neck. Her arms, she wrapped around my waist. Soft breathing tickled the back of my neck.Her arm slowly reached lower, slipping inside my jeans. I shook her away with my shoulder, however she didn’t react at all, only momentarily stopped.

  Was she actually asleep, or just fucking with me?

  “Hey.”

  “.........”

  After a minute, still no reply.

  Immediately falling asleep after we end the conversation, she’s as easygoing as always huh?

  I pulled her hand up carefully to where it was over my shirt, and held it.

  Only a few years ago did we used to sleep like this, just the other way around, with me holding her stomach, often after she’d watched a scary movie, or saw something moving in the dark. Until eventually when she became 12 Riyu brought up she was becoming too old to sleep together with her dad, which I did agree with.

  Though now, it felt comforting, despite the circumstances. There was a closeness that I’d missed these st few years. Feeling her heartbeat at rest, the feeling was likely mutual.

  I wonder how long we’ll be able to continue this. I don’t have endless amounts of money saved up, nor is going back to my job an option, if we’re going somepce else.

  I don’t have hundreds of millions of yen in my account to just start a new life wherever I feel like. At most we’ll get by for a couple months.

  I’m lucky I don't have a shared financial account.

  Deciding to stop thinking too much, before I would stay awake all night again, I cleared my mind, focusing more on the comfort the bed brings.

  It didn’t take long to pass out again.