Chapter 1
(A/N Notes: I noticed some people didn't heed my words to hate the bastard, so here's another chapter to make you all feel bad for agreeing with him, because I'm an evil author)
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Sakurako was standing on top of a stage as she played her violin to a large audience, the audience was composed of people from the high society at a luxurious party that she was invited to play at. Her calm expression as she paused attention to her instrument and music alongside her simplistic purple dress, gave her a refined and elegant image, which left many in the audience looking at her in admiration
"… *Nods*…"
Then after reaching the end of her music, she carefully held her violin with both hands, and respectfully bowed down to the audience, which started to applaud Sakurako for her performance. Having finished her performance without any mistake, Sakurako went to the backstage area with a satisfied feeling
Behind the curtains, Sakurako checked her instrument to see if it got damaged and then carefully put it back in the violin case, but as she did so someone approached her
"Long time no see, Sakurako-san"
"! Hasegawa-kun…
When Sakurako turned her head to see who it was and saw it was Hasegawa Kazuo, she got up and turned towards him. Then she bowed down to greet him
"Nice to see you, Hasegawa-kun"
"There's no need for that many formalities, you're my brother's fiancée after all"
"I am not any more"
"Huh? What do you mean? Didn't he choose you to be his fiancée two years ago?"
"He did choose me to be his fiancée and we even signed the document saying so, but yesterday he told me that he didn't give a shit to the engagement that our parents had forced on us as he also said that he was spending time with the girl he actually liked when we had agreed to go on a date some days ago"
"… … … Did my older brother just leave you in the cold some days ago as he went out with another girl behind your back?"
"That's correct"
"… And what part of the engagement between you two was even forced?"
"Beats me, I clearly remember my parents asking me if I was fine in getting betrothed to him, so I don't know how that was forced"
"I'll go tell my parents about that matter"
"Very well. Ah! By the way, can you also tell them to prepare the necessary documents to cancel my engagement to Hasegawa-san?"
"Sure, that's the least I can do for you"
"Thank you, and how has Kohaku-san been lately?"
"Her health has improved lately, but her body is still pretty weak"
"I see, tell her I send my regards when you visit her"
"I will"
Kazuo gave Sakurako a thumbs up before turning and walking away with angry steps. Sakurako looked at him leave, and then she looked at her phone to see the hours
"… I think I can go eat some of the snacks in the dancing hall"
Sakurako was a gourmet and big eater, so she was interested in the snacks being offered at the party, and with her decision made, she passed the carrying strap of the violin over her head, and made her way to the dancing hall. And needless to say, Sakurako wasn't affected in any way by
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2 Years Ago
Hasegawa residence
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Hasegawa Masahiko, Kazuo's older brother and yet to be Sakurako's fiancée, was sitting on a chair in his father's office
"Masahiko, now that you're 16 years old, I believe it's time for you to start seriously training in some specialty or craft, in case you don't want to inherit the company"
"Meh, I don't plan on doing anything else aside from inheriting the company, dad"
"… I think you should at least take some etiquette classes or entrepreneurship classes, anyways I will give you three options…"
"Huh?"
Before continuing, his father handed him two notebooks
"The first option, and the one I prefer you do, is either taking one or more specialization classes or an apprenticeship in anything that you like, with the various options listed in the notebook on your right hand
The second option is for you to select what you think would be a suitable fiancée for you between the various candidates in the notebook on your left hand. Of course, this will require the agreement of the chosen girl and her parents
And the third option is for you to both pick a specialization class and a fiancée, I say for you only to do this if you think you're capable enough of taking responsibility for both
Though, if you don't want to any of these I will also respect…"
Masahiko completely ignored what his father was saying after he heard the second option, as he began looking at the various candidates that he could choose to get engaged with
"…" <Mochizuki Kohaku? Nah, I don't want to look after a sick girl… … … Ishii Himari? She's pretty… Pretty ugly, heh… … … Geh, this one looks like trouble to me, she'll definitely force me to help her with chores and always complain about me… … … Kogane Sakurako?… Goddamn! She's rich and appears to be super easy to fool! Let's go with her>
"So have you made your choice, Masahiko?"
"Yes, I want to get engaged to this girl"
"… Are you sure about that? Don't you want to take on some specialization class?"
"I'm aware of what I'm doing, dad. So get me engaged to her"
"If that's your choice, then I will respect it. But choosing the Kogane household is a serious matter, you better take good care of their daughter"
"Yeah, yeah, fine, I will"
"You better, because if I ever hear that you betrayed her or that you tried to break your engagement with her by saying I force this on you. You'll be in bad waters, son"
"Don't worry, I won't" <More like, you'll never do anything to me in the end anyway, no matter what I do>
And with greedy thoughts, Masahiko chose to get engaged to Sakurako. The two families would agree on the engagement and the two people in question even signed the documents themselves while being asked if they truly agreed to the engagement…
Just a week after that, Masahiko would start going out with another girl and many other girls after that for those entire two years, without ever bothering on meeting Sakurako of his own volition, and the times he met her, he would complain that he was forced to go there by their parents and that their marriage was forced on him
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Back to the present
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"…And that's everything I heard from Hasegawa-san that day"
"…"
Kazuo and Masahiko's father, Hasegawa Ryousuke, was covering his face with one hand in silence as many veins appeared on his head and hand
"Sakurako-san… Let me get this right, you're telling me that my oldest son has been neglecting you this whole time as he went out with another girl?"
"That's what appears to have happened"
"… *Deeply breaths in*…"
Ryousuke was just that close to flipping his desk, but he didn't do it because Sakurako was there, and as for why Sakurako was in his office…
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Some hours earlier
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"… And that's what I heard from Sakurako-san, oh, and she also asked to start preparing the necessary documents to cancel her engagement with Masahiko"
"… … …"
"Dad?"
"It's nothing, Kazuo… Is Sakurako-san still at the part?"
"I believe so"
"Then can you please invite her to come here so that I can have a talk with her in person"
"Sure, then I'll go search for her"
"Thanks, son"
And with that Kazuo hung up the call, and went to the dance hall to search for Sakurako. He looked at the dancing area to see if she was there, but he had no luck, then he went to look to see if she was socializing, but she also wasn't there. But then she saw someone carrying a black violin case on their back near the food are area
"…"
And he stayed silent for a few moments from the surprise of not seeing that before, and after his surprise was gone, he went toward Sakurako
"Sakurako-san?"
"Hm?"
And when she turned her face to see who called her, she showed Kazuo the sight of her taking a bite from a fried shrimp
"…"
"… *Gulps down the friend shrimp* What is it, Hasegawa-kun?"
"Ah! Right, my father asked to invite you to come to our house"
"Ok"
"… Are you sure it's okay to just agree to this without any thought?"
"Is there a reason for me to refuse?"
"… No?…"
"Then it's fine by me, when will we get going?"
"Well, it'll take a while for the car to arrive"
"Got it, call me when it's time to go"
Sakurako turned back to the food table and went back to eating the various snacks available, while Kazuo was left somewhat impressed at Sakurako's straightforwardness. After some time the car arrived, and they both went to the Hasegawa residence
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Back to the present again
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"… Sakurako-san, can you try calling Masahiko? Of course, if you don't feel li-"
"…"
And even before he could finish his line, Sakurako called Masahiko and put on voice chat mode, then she put her phone in the middle of Ryousuke's desk
*Tuu… Tuu… Tuu…*
The sound of the phone trying to connect to the other end of the line could be heard, and then after some time, someone accepted the call
"Oi, did you forget what I told you, woman? I said for you to fuck off and leave me alone! I don't give a shit about that engagement my parents forced me to accept!"
And after saying that, Masahiko hung up without even waiting for an answer
" "…" "
"… Strange? He said that it was both my parents and you who forced the engagement on him"
Sakurako noticed the inconsistency of Masahiko's claims, but she was confused at why he said it differently this time, while Ryousuke simply stayed silent
"Sakurako-san, can I please ask you to leave my office for a few minutes?"
"Okay"
Sakurako picked up her phone and left his office as he asked her to do so, and right when she closed the door. The sound of various things crashing could be heard from the office, and Sakurako at hearing that…
"…"
Simply ignored it and went to the living room to wait until Ryousuke called her back, but as she did so she ended up meeting with her parents
"Mom? Dad?"
"Ah! Sacchan! I didn't expect you to be here"
"I met with Hasegawa-kun at the party, and he told me his father wanted me to come here"
"I see, then I'll go see him in his office"
"I recommend you to only go in there after he comes out here to receive you two"
"Oh boy… Very well then, I guess we'll have to wait"
And the three sat down in the living room as they waited for Ryousuke to come to greet them, which took half an hour for him to do so
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Inside Royusuke's office
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Ryousuke had invited, Sakurako's parents, Kogane Hanse and Kogane Emma, to his office to have a meeting that the two had requested to have with him
"First of all, I'm extremely sorry for what my dumbass son did to your daughter"
"Hoh? So you're already aware of what happened?"
"Yes… Sakurako-san told me what happened a short while ago"
"I see, then I think this will make everything faster. So, I have two things to ask from the Hasegawa family"
"Ask anything that you want, because that's the least I can do for you two and your daughter"
"Then… I want you to cancel the engagement between our families, and to punish your stupid son accordingly"
"Oh, just that? I was already going to that"
"Is that so? Then we don't really have anything else to ask"
"I see, do you want to stay for dinner? I'm sure you want to punch my stupid son as much as I want"
"What do you think, Emma?"
"I think we should stay to see what kind of face that bastard will do"
"Okay, then we will take on your offer, Ryousuke-san"
"It's my pleasure to have you two here, Hansuke-san, Emma-san"
And with that Masahiko was about to face the consequences of his choices
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(A/N Notes: When the author says for you to hate a character, you hate the character, no questions asked, because there's always a catch in the end)