Haru

Volume 3: Noah to Haru

Blurb

It has been three months since Haru and the brothers returned from their winter vacation in Japan, and Haru's relationship with Aiden is blossoming beautifully. Icing on the cake, they're moving into a new, luxurious apartment, and Haru is more content and happy than ever. Well, except for one thing—his second stepbrother Noah.

Noah's hot and cold attitude toward Haru is beginning to annoy Haru. One minute the brother is nice and caring, and the next, he turns into a prick and picks on Haru, even demanding a kiss daily. When a handsome new face comes into Haru's life, which the brothers don't like, Noah erupts into a possessive demon and turns Haru's world upside down.

***

That's the last of it, I thought as I taped up the box containing my textbooks and then wrote my name on the side to indicate it belonged to me. Done, I sighed in satisfaction. Finally, after ten and a half years of living in this cramped apartment, we were moving.

"You done, Haru?" Aiden's voice came through from the hallway.

"Yeah, I'm done," I said.

"Me, too." I heard Isaac shouting from his bedroom next door. "Yay! Finally!"

I started picking up the boxes and transferring them into the corridor. That way, it'd be easier for us to load them onto the push cart dolly to take down to the hired moving truck, which was parked in the driveway of the apartment complex. It was all hands on deck for the next two hours as us brothers, Aiden, Noah, Reo, Mason, Isaac, and I hustled and bustled back and forth moving our belongings. When we were done, Aiden locked the door of the pretty much emptied apartment. The only things left there now were old furniture we wouldn't be needing.

"I'm going to miss living here," I said as we headed back down the stairs. "I've lived here the majority of my life."

Aiden wrapped his arms around my shoulders and pulled me close. "Me, too, but it'll be nice to live in the new apartment," he said. "More space." He planted a kiss on my forehead. "Hmm. You smell good."

I sniffed at myself. "I stink of sweat. Moving is a workout for me."

"You smell of you," he said. "Haru's smell. Sweet and quite addictive."

He must be joking, right? I was sure I stank of sweat.

I eyed him and saw a smirk playing about his lips. He looked damn happy, and I knew he was looking forward to living in our new apartment, as was I. It'd be a nice change, especially the space. The new apartment was massive, after all.

It had been three months since we'd returned from our trip to Japan to visit Uncle Jin, and a few major things had happened. One of them was Noah quitting his last job, and he had since found himself another—a member of a marketing team for some famous group, The Princetons or something. I heard they were a large family who owned and operated a chain of hotels and resorts across America as well as overseas in hot spots like Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, England, and Australia, just to name a few.

The other major thing that had happened was Aiden buying a new luxurious apartment for us to live in, with the financial backing from Uncle Jin. The old man had firmly told us to find a new place to live when he had heard about our deplorable living conditions from Isaac.

After having a taste of luxury back in Japan, Isaac had bitched about how cramped the apartment was to Uncle Jin. Naturally, Uncle Jin demanded we move since he would have none of his nephews living in such a despondent place.

Apparently, Uncle Jin and Isaac had become best buddies, and they had taken up chatting regularly. I suspected Isaac was reporting to Uncle Jin how Reo and I were doing on a weekly basis. It was Uncle Jin's way of keeping tabs on us. We were heirs to his multimillion-dollar company, and he'd be damned if he'd let anything remotely harmful affect us, whether it be mentally or physically. And living in a cramped apartment was considered harmful to our mental health, according to both Isaac and Uncle Jin.

Down at the driveway, I climbed onto the passenger seat of the moving truck while Aiden helped Noah and Mason finish up with making sure everything inside the truck was secured. A moment later, Aiden slid onto the driver's seat.

"You ready to get into our new apartment?" he asked.

I nodded. "Definitely."

As Aiden started the engine, Reo was already maneuvering his car out into the street and driving away. Isaac got into the front passenger seat of Aiden's car which was parked on the side street. He rolled down the window, stuck his head out, and waved his hand at us. "See you at the new apartment!" he shouted.

I waved back, chuckling.

Mason strolled over to Aiden's car, which he'd be driving to the new apartment. As he opened the door to the driver's seat, he said to Isaac, "Pull your head back in before you get hit by a moving vehicle, for God's sake."

Isaac chuckled as he slipped himself back into the car, just in time before Mason started the engine. Moments later, the car started moving away along the street.

As Aiden started the engine of the moving truck, the door on my side opened and Noah climbed in. "Shuffle over," he demanded as he slammed the door shut.

I did, sliding over closer to Aiden across the bench seats. Noah made himself comfortable beside me and then pulled on his seat belt. I did the same.

"All done?" Aiden asked.

I nodded while Noah said, "Done. Let's go."

I was quite excited as Aiden maneuvered the moving truck out from the driveway and then onto the road. I honestly couldn't wait to get to the new apartment and move into my bedroom. Finally, I get to have a nice big room instead of a closet-sized one. I could have a study area as well as a leisure one. It'd be great, especially when Jess came around to hang out. Uncle Jin had paid for my new queen-sized bed, study desk, chair, and other furniture. The bed was supposed to be very fancy and luxurious, like the ones in a five-star hotel, and I couldn't wait to sleep in it.

I was grinning and thinking how awesome my new bedroom would be when I felt Noah lean toward me. I turned to look at him, wondering what he was doing. He made a show of sniffing me out. He pulled a face and said, "You stink."

My good mood disappeared instantly at that rude remark. What the heck was wrong with Noah? He had been acting so damn strange lately, ever since we returned from Japan, in fact. His hot and cold attitude toward me was beginning to piss me off. One minute he was like the usual Noah—nice and caring—and then the next, he was picking on me and making rude remarks. Sometimes, like this time, it hurt. The spiteful comment, along with that handsome, arrogant face of his when he stared down at me, made for a painful punch.

I said, "I know. I'll shower and change as soon as we get to the new apartment."

"You better," he said. "Because your smell will surely linger in the new apartment, and I don't think any of us can stand that."

I felt my face burn hot. I had no idea my body odor was that bad. But Aiden said he liked my smell. Then again, he probably lied because we were dating and...

Fuck! I didn't know.

Turning away from Noah, I muttered, "I said I'll shower so I'll shower." I moved closer to Aiden to put some space between Noah and me so my body odor wouldn't affect him that much.

I heard him snorting as if he found my reaction amusing. Then I felt his hand wrap tightly around my arm and pull me back close to him. I found myself slamming against his chest.

I stammered, "What the hell was that for?"

He said, "Aiden is driving. You're making it hard for him to drive. Don't be such a baby, running off to Aiden every time someone picks a fight with you."

I turned to glare at him. "So you admit it? You are picking a fight with me. What are you, a kid?"

My words must have pissed him off because he removed his hand from my arm to grip tightly on my chin, his fingers firm about my face.

He said, "That mouth of yours is running a bit too loose for my liking, Haru. I think you deserve some discipline."

I widened my eyes because I could see the stern expression on his face, and I knew he meant it.

Shit! Noah had never been like this before. He had never threatened to discipline or punish us younger brothers before, so what the fuck was happening now?

I said, "I'm a grown adult, Noah; I don't need any discipline from you." I worked hard on removing his hand from my face, which was getting sore from his grip.

He finally let me go as he said, "Maybe I should have disciplined you when we were young. God only knows Aiden would never do anything like that."

I heard a sigh from Aiden. He said, "You two fighting again? And now, you're pulling me into it?"

I said, "I'm not fighting with Noah. It's Noah, he started it."

Noah didn't say anything. He turned his head away and simply stared out the window as the truck sped along.

I said quietly to myself, "Why couldn't you go with either Mason or Reo? Why do you have to be here with us?"

Noah must have heard me because he said sarcastically, "And I suppose you'd be the one to help Aiden if anything were to happen with the truck while we're traveling, huh?"

I said, "If anything were to happen, I'd definitely help Aiden. I know I'm lousy at the heavy-lifting stuff, but I'm not completely useless."

"I beg to differ," he said.

I wanted to give back as good as I'd gotten but decided to bite my lips and stay quiet. I was never going to beat Noah when it came to us arguing.