Naomi's thick thighs and pencil-like legs started wobbling. She could not digest what she heard.. or misheard.

She quickly leaned against a wall beside her, the mansion's outer wall. She looked down, a bead of sweat fell down into her dress through her neck and shoulder.

"W- why? ...why would not you...?" Naomi thought with despair. She felt her legs weak like noddles as they wobbled.

She was having trouble keeping herself calm, she was losing her mind, "Why? What is wrong with Ryan?" although.. she thought she was not in love with Ryan, she could not help but think, "W- why do I feel so miserable when dad shouted and rejected Ryan as my husband?"

She covered her forehead with her palm, a worried expression fell over her face, a scared one, "We are not dating anyway.. then why do I feel like this? Does it hurt my ego? Wait.. should not Ryan's ego be hurt by this? W- what is going on... Should I ask dad what he is doing? Will that be the right thing though..?"

There were tens, hundreds of questions inside Naomi's mind. She could not clear her mind, could not decide on one, it was a total mess.

While she was having her own time of feeling hopeless, depressed, Ryan and Satoru just had a serious conversation on the other side.

"Hey, wait! At least, tell me what this is." Ryan demanded before Satoru left.

"Eh~ well, that is something for you to find out. Once you do, be sure you train hard from the same day, from the instant,"

"Tch.. adults these days.." Ryan shook his head as he half-shrugged.

He did not answer Ryan's question, instead of answering, all Satoru did was create some more confusion inside Ryan's head by replying with a confusing sentence.

And smirk at him before leaving. He started walking in his car's direction. He wanted to meet Naomi once before leaving.

"Ah? Naomi-chan??" He was surprised when he saw Naomi leaning against a wall with a flushed face, "Whoa, what are you doing?" Satoru asked.

"Eep! Aah!" Naomi had not even noticed his presence till Satoru called his beloved daughter.

"Ah, sorry, did I just starlet you? But, what are you doing here?" Satoru looked at Naomi with a suspicious look on his face.

"I- I was just– I was just looking for you–"

"Can it be.." Satoru leaned closer, "That you were eavesdropping on us? You eavesdropped on our conversation?" He asked with an even more suspicious face.

"N- NO! It was just getting late so I came looking for you and I did not hear a single thing,"

"Ah.. yeah, absolutely right! It is not possible you would eavesdrop on other people," the suspiciousness quickly disappeared as if it was never there.

"Did I just hear Naomi?" Ryan turned his head, "Did she come here looking for us?" Ryan started heading in the same direction as Satoru and Naomi.

"Yeah, it might be. We did keep her waiting forever." Ryan felt guilty about having such a long talk with Satoru but forgot about Naomi.

Forgot about Naomi who was sitting alone in the car and waiting for us to come and join her. Poor girl.

Ryan turned on the corner, he looked on his right, on his left but did not see Naomi anywhere.

Then he raised his head forward and saw Naomi, Satoru walking away. Satoru had his arm around Naomi's shoulder.

Ryan raised his hand, opened his mouth, he was ready to call out to them but he decided not to.

"Gasp. I probably should not. I should let them enjoy their daughter-father time for a while. They do not have a lot of that time with them,"

Ryan brought his hand down, "Or Satoru-san will blame me again for ruining his relations as if I did." Ryan frowned, "Absurd."

He looked at Satoru and Naomi as he slowly followed them from behind.

"Let us have a private talk," Satoru had proposed and took Naomi ahead of Ryan with him.

"W- what is it, dad."

Satoru sighed, "I have a lot to talk about, tell you, ask you, listen to you but, we do not have that much time. And I feel these things will lose their priority with time,"

"I know right, all this crap going in my life," Naomi had totally got over the.. what... The what? Over the 'You can not have my daughter' eavesdropping moment.

"But for now, I will make it short." Satoru stopped in front of their car, he turned Naomi around and held her shoulders with his hands, "My little, beautiful daughter," Satoru spoke.

"Dad.. We used to do that when I was like, nine? No, ten!" Naomi giggled.

"Does not matter. We used to do it whenever you were sad, down, stressed because of your mother, not because you were a little kid."

"At least consider different words,"

"What's wrong with cute, little, beautiful daughter?"

"I am not cute and little, I am like nearly six feet!"

"That is for the world, for me, you will always be that clumsy, silly, little, yet cute daughter." Satoru patted Naomi's head, "Do not let the things going in your life get to your head. Stay calm,"

"Hm."

"You still have the door I gave you. Open that door whenever you feel that you can not suffer through this anymore. Let it be bullying, mental bullying, harassment of power, anything. If you are sad, open this door and I will come there.. just for you."

"Uh-uh. I still have not opened that one door since I was seven years old. I am seventeen now," Naomi chuckled again.

"Do not worry about your marriage. I and Ryan-Kun will surely get you out of this shit. Not sooner but later, but I promise, we will."

"Thank you, dad."

"Aw, come on." Satoru hugged her between his arms and patted her head, moved his fingers through her blonde hair, started stroking Naomi's hair.

Ryan watched from a distance. This emotional movement of a parent and their child brought his mother's beautiful memories back.

"Ah!" He let out a short, shrill groan in pain. A drop of tear fell down his right cheek but at the same time, his left eye was throbbing again.

'Is this because I am crying? The tears?' Ryan wondered.

"Come on." Satoru pulled Naomi away from him, "Now go back to your dorm, pack your things, then get ready to leave for your hotels with Ryan-Kun."

"R- Ryan? W- why him?"

"Why you mean, I booked the hotel room for you two, I mean, you can not stay in the dorm so you got to move to a hotel if you can not stay in your house."

"Wait- booked only one room? D- do you mean, wait! Do you want me to share the room with Ryan?! Sleep in the same room with Ryan the whole night?!"

"Whoa, my little daughter has a wild imagination~ Of course, I have booked two rooms. I would not want my daughter to have premarital—"

"Okay! Enough. Thank you,"

She turned around, "Hey, Naomi-chan.." he called out.

"W- what?" she turned her head to Satoru.

A grin appeared on his face, "You two can share the room if you want though. As long as you do not commit any kind of vulgar acts, I am fine with that~ you can sleep with Ryan-Kun in the same room if you want~!"

"D- dad!" her face was perfect red. Just like a tomato, she blushed very hard.

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