Conflicting Thoughts
Everyone at the table seemed to understand the silent threat from Haruki towards his uncle who has caused so much headache to all the family members as the actions of every member of the family who is under the main family could either directly or indirectly affect the wellbeing of the family.
Only those who have been living very quietly under the orders of the main family seemed very calm through the meeting while the rest of them looked like they would piss their pants with their forehead covered in cold sweats despite the good air-conditioning in the room.
Haruki had a few things to say to his family members and when he was done talking to them, he could not wait to escape the room. It was their perpetual habit to talk about Haruki's future spouse during the dinner they have after the annual meeting which always lasts for hours.
They will make their desires even more obvious and pressing if he has a male pet with him. If he has a lady, they will talk about her family and how they think one with a better background would soothe better as the future matriarch of the family but when he has a male pet, they would press on it about how he needs to find a good lady to get married to.
"Do you want me to talk to your maternal grandaunt?" his grandfather's sister who managed the cosmetic business of the family asked him seriously when she got the chance to sit beside him.
He turned to her with a very slight smile. She was the least troublesome of his relatives although he would never consider himself close to her but you could say she was close when it came to aspects of his marriage as she was the one placed in charge of it.
"Talk to her about what?" he asked her feigning ignorance even though from the moment she began walking towards him, he already knew what she was coming to say to him.
"About your marriage, she is in the best place to get a nice lady for you," she said smiling warmly as though not to get on his nerves with her disturbance which she was very aware of.
"Oh," he hummed and took a sip of the cold sake he specifically asked to be served.
His nonchalant attitude did not get to her as he was even more receiving than the other times she had spoken to him. "I know you are still young and you might want to play around a little," she began a session of advice.
Haruki nodded. He had heard that sentence since he turned twenty, They had been trying hard to get him married to someone since he turned twenty so he could almost hear her call him old even with the words she spoke trying to say otherwise.
"Like I said, get a nice lady you find worthy enough and tell me when she is ready, I will meet her and if I find her to my liking, I will get married to her, if not, you could just find someone else," he replied her and nodded giving her the hint to leave him alone.
"I have sent a few ladies to you but none of them were to your liking. I guess I am very bad at picking the lady you would want by your side that is why I am in a tight spot, I don't know what to do," she continued as though she did not get the hint. She spoke so warmly and carefully knowing even though she pressed on the issue, she could not piss him off.
"Talk to my grandaunt as you said you would and when she gives you a lady, you can tell me. I will meet with the lady," holding back a sigh, Haruki replied. His grandaunt was closely related to the royal family and if she chooses a girl, she will choose one Haruki might find hard to reject because her background would not be normal.
He was not ready to get married but it would not be a bad idea for him to find a lady who would bear the name of his fiancée to keep his relatives away from having such conversations with him. He only hoped they would not find a lady who would make it hard for him to have fun because delicate ladies like that would never be able to withstand his taste.
"However . . ." his grandaunt began causing him to turn to her impatiently. "However . . . did you find a lady at the party that was to your liking?" she asked. "I had invited a lot of ladies with very good backgrounds."
He shook his head knowing that all the ladies with really good backgrounds must have left as soon as it got late and the party got a bit intense most of them would not want to lose their future marriage plans because of his birthday party but he found someone . . . someone who awoken a strong desire within him one he wants to own and possess but it was not a lady and it was not even a man he could play with.
When his paternal grandaunt noticed that she had lost his attention completely, she said a few words and left him to his thoughts.
Haruki's thoughts continued to drift towards that very handsome man, that man who made his heart react weirdly but it was a good kind of weird. When his gaze met his first grand uncle's gaze, his thoughts immediately moved from the doctor. He reminded himself that he could not bring in a weakness.
*
Haruki was not the only one whose mind was busy. Hiroshi was on a meal break but he could not bring himself to swallow the dinner before him. Haruki's words kept going through his mind about how he might never escape the moment he stepped into a physical relationship with Haruki.
He knew he liked the man. With the way the man dominated his thoughts, he did not need anyone to read them word for word to him that he had fallen in love with Haruki. He wanted to protect the man, he wanted to take away his nightmares, he wanted to become someone special to the man but wasn't love connected to physical desires?
How could he fall in love with a man as beautiful as Haruki without making it physical, especially with the magic that man has in his hands, and yet return to be with a woman?