Dangerous Liaison 🔞 (Femme Fatale#1)

2

Grandpa Kudou started to walk to the main room where they served lunch, followed by his two grandchildren and a bunch of guards. As the head of the main family, he was never alone even when he was alone. There were always guards, shadow guards, and many people surrounded him. It was one of the reasons why his first son rebelled and married a gaijin. He couldn't live a life with an enormous responsibility, especially with his artistic flair. He was thankful that Gabriel was more like him in temperament, responsibility, and wits.

He opened the sliding paper door to the main room of the huge traditional Japanese house, to find his second son–and his second grandson–were eye deep in the staring contest. He cleared his throat and the sound of his displeasure reached both men at the same time. They quickly resorted to their neutral stance, with Luca still having the leftover fire burning in his eyes. 

Luca never hid what he felt. For him, it's better to show that he was not happy with something and point it out right away so they could fix what's wrong immediately instead of letting it all simmer like Gabriel. He knew that Gabriel had a lot of feelings beneath his cool exterior–like an inferno waiting to be unleashed–and he knew how his brother sought for some release. It wasn't good, but it's better than letting his brother die at a young age because he couldn't vent.

He was also not pleased with the way his uncle treated his brother. If he only treated him like shit, then so be it. But his brother was the best person anyone would've ever known. He would do everything to protect them, including sacrificing his own needs.

"Otosan." Eiichiro Kudou–the second son of Nobuhiro Kudou–bowed to his father respectively. 

"Ojisan." Luca also did the same.

"Eiichiro. Kazuya. Nice to see you get along so well." Grandpa Kudou chuckled and then sat on the floor, in front of the table that was full of food. "Come, let's eat."

There was a spread of full Japanese breakfast in front of each of the person there–a bowl of fluffy white rice, a piece of grilled shio salmon, a bowl of miso soup, a few pieces of tamagoyaki, a small plate of natto, a small bowl of 3 kinds of tsukemono, and a cup of ocha–and they were all taking their seats and started to eat.

"Itadakimasu." All of them spoke the usual greetings before eating, and started to eat in silence.

After a while, they finished eating when suddenly Eiichiro started to speak.

"Otosan, I understand that Gabriel is of age," he never called Gabriel with his Japanese name, "thus, I prepared a few omiai with prospective women from good families." Eiichiro gestured to one of the men behind them–who produced a stack of photos of the prospective brides-to-be. "Of course I only chose the ones who don't mind having a… half-blood in their family. After all, we're still the most respectable family outside of the five families."

"You dare go around my back and do this?" Suddenly Grandpa Kudou slammed his chopstick on the table and spoke with a cold voice. "You're not even the head of the clan and you decided to overstep the boundary by requesting marriage offers from unknown families?"

"They're not unknown, they're pioneers in their respective fields." Eiichiro stubbornly answered and took one of the red folders and opened it. "Keiko Sato, from the Sato family, a vassal of Yamada family, one of the five families. She studied at Le Cordon Bleu and now she's a head pastry chef at the Moreau Hotel." Then he took another one and opened it. "Reika Hayashi, from the Hayashi family, a vassal of…"

His words were stopped by a sudden booming voice coming from outside, and since the shadow guards did not react, Gabriel guessed that the person must be their neighbor, Joichiro Abe. He was his grandfather's best friend, and they always visited each other frequently, bringing and bragging about their catch of the day. Yeah both of them loved fishing to the point of leaving their respective residence for days just to go to some remote place to fish. 

Funny how his timing was perfect. If he didn't know better, he would have thought that the old man was listening to their conversation and popped in at the right time.

Then the loud and familiar voice could be heard from right outside the sliding door, before it was opened seconds later with a bang.

"Nobuhiro, I have to show you the fish I just caught!" The man–who had the appearance of a giant, with his ruffled graying hair and thick beard and wearing a pair of old gets–stopped in his tracks when he saw Eiichiro. He knew that there was bad blood between the uncle and the mixed blood siblings, just because their mother was a gaijin. 

But he didn't care much about family politics, so he just shrugged and put the huge fish down on the wooden floor. It was still alive and struggling for its life while splashing water everywhere.

"For god's sake, Joichiro…" Grandpa Kudou sighed at the sight of his friend, but his mood became better in a flash when he saw his oldest friend–who spotted the red folder stack and knew exactly why the mood was somber.

"Oh, omiai offer for Kazuhiro?" The giant took one of the folders and opened it, then he hmm and huh at it before throwing it away. "What's this shit?" He sounded very angry. "You call this a marriage offer for your precious future clan leader? Pah!" He took all of the folders and gave them to one of the guards. "Burn them!"

The guard looked at Grandpa Kudou–who nodded–then took it all outside.

"I can't agree more with you, Joichiro." Grandpa Kudou looked at Eiichiro menacingly. "Don't ever do that again without my permission."

Eiichiro only nodded with a cold expression on his face. He knew that his attempt at belittling Gabriel was futile, but he had to try it anyway, since he really hated those three dirty blood siblings. Well, he would find another way to get them out of his father's favor–sooner or later.

"So, you wanna get married, Kazuhiro?" Joichiro Abe quirked his brow playfully, teasing Gabriel who didn't move any facial muscles ever since the talk about the omiai started.

"I will do whatever Ojisan wishes, Joichiro-san." Gabriel bowed his head to the giant of a man who guffawed as he slapped Gabriel's back gleefully.

"Don't be such a pain, Kazuhiro, live a little. Such a handsome man like you should be voicing your own opinion about who you're gonna marry, you know."

"I am sure Ojisan would choose the best partner for me, Joichiro-san." 

Joichiro rolled his eyes in amusement seeing how polite this young man was, and how dead his eyes looked. He didn't like it. He still remembered the young boy that he knew back then, who patiently took care of his grandchildren with such a soft look in his eyes, and suddenly he was struck by lightning.

"I will take care of the omiai, Nobuhiro. I got a specific candidate myself that I'm sure Kazuhiro here will like." He smirked as he thought about his granddaughter. They should make a really good match.

"Oh? Really? If you say so, I will gladly accept." Grandpa Kudou knew that Joichiro's pick would be so much better than what his second son picked for his grandson, after all, even though he looked like this ragged giant, he was the head of the Abe family–the oldest, most respected, most influential family in Japan that even the five families bowed down to him.

"Yeah, don't worry, Nobuhiro, I have just the perfect woman for Kazuhiro here." He grinned. "And please call me Ojisan too, Kazuhiro, after all, we're going to be a very close family soon."