(BL) Mafia Love; He who falls the hardest loses-Chapter 79: Unpunished?

"How could you say such a thing so casually to a man you know has no such feelings for you?" Hiroshi asked in disbelief.

"Because I like you and I want us to be together. As long as you are willing, I will get Haruki to release you and we could get married," she said hastily as though waiting a second would make her lose her chance.

"The same way you are trying to pursue and persuade me, that’s the same way I’m trying to get Haruki to accept me. He did last night. I can’t make the mistake of being seen anywhere with you."

"That kind of relationship is not right, you know," she sighed, concern evident in her eyes with a hint of pity.

Hiroshi did not want to see pity in anyone’s eyes directed towards him. He hated to imagine that she was pitying him. Does his present state warrant pity? He could feel a gradual buildup of rage in her heart.

"You don’t know what I want, so please do not speak for me," he warned her as sternly as he could without being too unfeeling.

"A relationship that would end in less than six months is something you want.... I refuse to believe that," she shook her head. Such a thought she didn’t want to even have, due to how absurd it was to imagine Hiroshi in such a position. Someone as intelligent and accomplished as he is won’t stoop that low, right?

"I want to be his lover for however long it would last. None of that should be your concern. I do not need your concern. I am happy being such a person to Haruki. Remember who Haruki is before you begin saying such words," he advised her seriously.

"So what? Who is he?" Miyoko snapped. She seemed unable to accept it at all for any reason in the world. She gave him a slow once-over before shaking her head firmly, "You are better than that."

"You want to get married to me, but I can’t be with Haruki? You seemed to have forgotten who he is."

"I know very well who he is talking about. You seem to have forgotten who you are. Regardless of his social status, you shouldn’t stoop that low."

Haruki sighed heavily, unwilling to hear her speak of him and his relationship with Haruki in such a manner. He told her firmly, "We are no longer friends, please do not contact me again."

He turned to leave in a hurry to leave her presence, but she reached out and grabbed his wrist.

Hiroshi looked down at her hand and scoffed at the absurdness of the cliche. "This is useless, take your hands off or we will become enemies," he warned her coldly.

She could hear and feel his rage, but she did not want to give up. The more he wanted to leave, the more she wanted to keep her there, the more she wanted to persuade him that it was a bad idea for him to choose to be with Haruki as a plaything.

She was too scared of shattering their already fragile friendship, so her words were not as direct as she would have wanted them to be.

Hiroshi could see her persistence, and he knew it came from a place of worry and concern because she liked him, but her actions had begun to be repulsive in a man who made him know that if she didn’t stop, he would come to hate her repulsively.

He met her desperate gaze and said, "You seem to know a lot about me. Do you know that I am so close to hating you right now?"

Her grip loosened as she stood up straight. She finally released his wrist and took a step back. "I . . . I . . ." She began as she bowed her head. "I am sorry," she finally said, but when she raised her head, Hiroshi was no longer by her side.

She saw his departing back before her eyes got clouded by tears. She reached to mop them before they got to her cheeks.

Hiroshi felt significantly tired and stressed out by the time he returned to the office. It would have been a friendship he would enjoy having with her, but she chose time and time again to burn the bridges over the feeling she had for him.

He understood her completely, and he had no intention to judge her, but he could not keep her close as a friend or even an acquaintance. He hoped she would give up on her feelings as soon as possible. Perhaps when they meet sometime, they would have no bad or good feelings towards each other and be just as good as strangers meeting for the first time.

He went into the washroom to rinse his face first before getting back to work.

After work, he asked Haruki through a text if he could come over for dinner. He was the man’s lover, and he had no intention of hesitating or feeling restrained for any reason.

To his disappointment, Haruki told him he was busy and they could meet when he called him over.

He looked at Haruki’s response as he sat in the car Haruki bought him as a birthday gift. He sighed and pressed the ignition button in the car.

The car hummed to life, and he drove to one of Haruki’s restaurants that offered free meals to the staff of the hospital.

***

Haruki’s granduncles and his sons were released on the grounds of a lack of adequate evidence. Haruki saw no need to be angry with the outcome of the investigation.

All their workers who were arrested had pieces of evidence against them that would most likely earn them life imprisonment or execution, but their bosses, especially his granduncle, walked out free.

Things in the legal world were never as simple as they seemed. This made everyone suspicious, but Ren ensured no one mentioned Haruki or any of their family’s establishments.

The narrative was that Haruki’s granduncle knew he was going to get arrested; that was why he cleaned up properly and paid off some people to take the fall for him.

Those watching on the sidelines believed that someone as powerful and rich as Haruki’s granduncle would find it very easy to do that in a manner that the police wouldn’t be able to find any loopholes.

That did not mean everyone was okay with the fact that someone as dangerous as Haruki’s granduncle was walking as a free man. The investigation had led them to find some other victims of their kidnappings and killings.

It was impossible to find other victims, but from the ledger the manager of the organ harvesting ring kept, there had been more than three hundred victims over the years since they began.

Their remains had been completely destroyed, making it impossible to identify those victims who had died before the police raided their ring.

Haruki hated listening to such a thing. He felt it was partly his fault that people had lost their lives because he did not do a good job of keeping his granduncles under control.

As much as they did not directly mention his name, he was sure that some people must feel he was connected. Such a crime affected so many people at once, and even those whose family went missing but had no connection to Haruki’s granduncle will begin to feel as though their family members had fallen victim.

Those family members could be anyone. They could be his employees, they could be a random staff at a restaurant or an air hostess. There was no limit, and if all of them thought of his family with hatred when they remembered the loss of their family, that was something he could not afford.

He wanted his uncle and his younger son to be punished for the murder of all those people. He wanted them to be hanged for their crimes and for ruining the reputation of his family, but he was forced to sit on the sidelines and watch them walk out free due to a lack of evidence.

The rage he had bottled up had to be suppressed with great care, or he would have gone after them and ended their lives with his very own hands. The satisfaction of punishing them himself would have been the best, but he had to take a step back because of a certain prime minister who wanted vengeance.

He agreed to look the other way through everything, knowing they would still get punished, although not the punishment he wanted passed down to them.

"They intend to leave the country. Should I stop them?" Ren asked Haruki, as he could guess what Haruki wished for them.

"Don’t, nothing should happen to them within the country. They must have so many enemies, ensure no one hurts them until it is confirmed that they have landed in whatever country of their choice and don’t let the police stop them," Haruki ordered.

"Okay," Ren took the order and went out to get things done.

Haruki wanted them to suffer for their crimes far from him to protect his family. Their punishment was inevitable, he just wondered how inhumane their punishments would be.

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