14 Keys

The drive back to the Yamamoto estate was uneventful, and Ryunosuke hadn't looked at Yukiko once. Instead, he was completely focused on his cellphone.

Not at all curious, Yukiko took the silence as a well-needed break. She was forced to weather through the annoyance that was that dyed blond dude. Finally, the car parked in the garage, and the Yukiko and Ryunosuke exited through either door.

Ryunosuke hadn't even glanced at Yukiko before he left, his strides wide and fast.

Yukiko turned to look at the driver and pointed towards Ryunosuke. "What got up his ass?"

The driver slowly shook his head, and Yukiko sighed. Nobody was going to be helpful. Well, what did she expect?

Politely saying goodbye to the driver, Yukiko walked towards the family house.

She took one look at the door and cursed.

Why would she do that?

It was locked.

"Fuck!" Yukiko couldn't believe that she hadn't asked for the key to the house yet. It was a pain to keep on ruining bobby pins just to enter into her living space for a year.

Sighing, Yukiko lock-picked the door, only to come face-to-face with Yamamoto Haru, the older brother of Ryunosuke and the guy that had blatantly ignored Yukiko.

Raising an eyebrow, she didn't even bother to hide her lock-picking 'tools'.

"What are you doing here?" his voice was cold and his expression was even colder.

Yukiko slowly shook her head. What was up with this family? Did they have too much time on their hands? Why did they have to make things difficult for her? It didn't even make any sense! Can't they just leave her alone?

Sighing inwardly, Yukiko turned her head up and looked at Haru in the eye. "What about you? Why the fuck are you here?"

"I live here." At that, Haru snatched Yukiko's lock-picking tools before he shut the door, the audible click of metal signaling the locking of the door.

Completely stunned, it wasn't until a few seconds passed by that Yukiko realized what had happened. With a completely red face of anger, Yukiko kicked at the door with her full strength, "Fucker!"

Unfortunately, however, the door was made of reinforced wood, so instead of splintering the wood into thousands of pieces, the only thing that was hurt was Yukiko. "Damn it!" She held onto her foot while glaring at the door.

That damned father of hers must have told them about her habits. Why else would they reinforce the doors?

*Sigh*

Yukiko put her foot down and grabbed another two bobby pins from her hair. She once again lock-picked the door and immediately swung it open, readying her body for a kick.

Nobody was there, so Yukiko sighed and entered. She had an inkling of what was going on here.

There were three other rooms in the family house, other than hers.

Coincidentally, there are three sons of Yamamoto Haruhiro.

Coincidence? Yukiko laughed as she trudged up the stairs to her room. Nothing in this world is by coincidence.

Which meant that that father of hers had made a deal with Yamamoto Haruhiro.

And it probably had something to do with her.

"Fuck," Yukiko couldn't help but mutter.

She had the feeling that it had something to do with marriage, too.

And the inheritance of the Yamamoto clan.

"Damn it." She really had to get her father to stop doing this. She didn't want to deal with the schemes of others. Only her own.

Finally finished with going up the stairs and entering her room, Yukiko quickly made her futon before she crashed, falling asleep within mere seconds of her head hitting her pillow.

In her dreams, she dreamt of three dogs where one of the three dogs had a horrible personality. It secretly acted nice to her on the surface, but when she turned around, it bullied the flowers and other smaller creatures around it.

The other two dogs were different. One was cold and didn't even bother to look at Yukiko, while the other was spoiled rotten, wanting to be pampered to the bone.

The next day when Yukiko woke up, she shivered, feeling as if her subconscious mind was trying to tell her something. Ignoring it, she made her futon and changed her clothes, getting ready for school.

What she hadn't expected, however, was for Ryunosuke to be waiting for her outside of her door. With a face that looked as if she had seen something disgusting, like a cockroach, Yukiko said, "What are you doing here?"

Ryunosuke took one look at her in the regular class' uniform and Yukiko could feel as if he were silently judging her. However, the guy still had his perpetual smile on his face. He continued to smile as he said, "Let's go."

Yukiko made a face. "What do you mean?"

"I came to pick you up." At that, Ryunosuke turned around and walked down the stairs, not even bothering to look behind him to check whether or not Yukiko followed.

Sighing, Yukiko closed her door and walked a few steps behind her 'fiancée'. It was Day Four and already he was getting on her nerves.

"We'll be going to a party after school today."

Party? What kind of yakuza throws a party?

Ryunosuke glanced at Yukiko and, as if he read her thoughts, he chuckled, "It's not thrown by a group. We're attending the Fukunaga Corporate celebration."

'Fukunaga?" Yukiko stopped in her tracks. "The Fukunaga Corporation?"

"What's with that expression?" Ryunosuke raised an eyebrow. "We... deal with them."

Yukiko understood. The Fukunaga corporation had their hand in anything from soy sauce to automobiles. It was no wonder that they had their hand in the yakuza, too. Or should she say... that the yakuza had a hand in the Fukunaga corporation.

As if remembering something, Yukiko grabbed Ryunosuke's collar. "Keys."

"What?"

"Give me the keys to the family house. It's annoying that I have to lock-pick the door every single damn time I want to enter it." Yukiko tugged his collar harder and could have sworn that the guy shivered with her pull. Feeling chills for no reason, she released him.

Ryunosuke coughed and turned to Yukiko. "Keys? You mean nobody has given you the house keys, yet?"

"No."

"Oh." Ryunosuke looked thoughtful as he said, "I'll get that arranged."

Nodding, Yukiko followed after him as he entered the black car, and they drove to school.