ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

-32-

"You are too soft hearted, Joss. Because of Eisaya, you let him go that easily?" Luke sounded unsatisfied with Joss, who could easily forgive Nine for his wrongdoing.

"Luke, he already apologized. And things has been sorted out already."

Luke looked at Nine and rolled his eyes. "He is just lucky that the matter has been resolved. But I can't forgive him that easily, especially when I think about the children. Our children. Our priorities. Our..."

"I get it what you were trying to say, Luke." Joss cut off. "However, like I said earlier, it has been resolved. Let's just leave it at that, please..."

Luke sighed. "Fine. I won't say a word anymore." He said and fled from there.

"Luke!" Joss swiftly ran after Luke, but he was blocked by Nine.

"Let me go and talk to him. Maybe I need to properly apologize to him. I was the reason that your family nearly got harmed. So, please....let me do this for everyone's sake." Nine begged.

"He is not that easy to persuade, Phi. Especially by someone he doesn't really know. An outsider."

"I know, Joss. But we will become a family if you and Eisaya are married in the future. I don't want him to have any grudge on me. I need to own my mistake and beg him to forgive me. Or it will be hard for us to get along in the future." Nine explained his reason to speak to Luke. It might not go well, but for everyone's sake, especially his sister, he had to do something, so, she wouldn't receive any hatred from Joss' side.

Joss grimaced. "As much as I rather do this myself, but I'll let you speak to him first. I hope, you manage to lessen his anger. I don't know how you will do that, but I hope it works."

"I'l do my best." Nine responded before he moved to search for Luke.

"Look for him in the pantry! He might be there to check on our stock!" Joss yelled before Nine disappeared from there.

Nine immediately walked towards the pantry as what Joss had directed, and searched for Luke. Joss was right. Luke was there, but instead of working, Luke was sitting quietly and stared ahead absentmindedly.

"Ishikawa." When Nine spotted Luke, he whispered Luke's middle name and redirected his empty attention to him.

"You have no rights to address me by that name anymore." Luke pointed out as he turned away from Nine's warm gaze which he used to love. To tell the truth, Luke Ishikawa Plowden was his full name. No one knew except for Nine, who demanded to address him differently from the rest, in order to emphasize that he was special to him. So, from that point forward, it was Ishikawa for Nine. He loved how that name rolled out from Nine's tongue. But that was before.

"I have all the rights, Ishikawa. You know that." Nine responded as he sauntered over to Luke. He was exhilarated when he saw Luke. But since no one knew about them, and seeing how Luke treated him as if he hadn't met him before, he decided to keep his mouth shut and see how it went.

"You don't anymore. The rights has been revoked after you left with him. You chose him over me, remember?" Luke reminded Nine of the person he had chosen as his lover. It broke him pretty bad. He nearly killed himself for it. If Joss wasn't there, saving him from jumping down a building, he might not even be alive.

"I did not choose him over you, Ishikawa. I never did that. I was forced to follow him because....," Nine said as he looked down to his shoes. He wondered if Luke noticed that he was wearing the shoes Luke had given to him on his birthday.

"Because of what?"

"Because that was the price to set you free." Nine uttered. "I had to entertain him for a week, to free you from being sold. I had to, Ishikawa." He let himself being used as a sex slave, just to save Luke. He loved Luke and he was determined to get Luke out from that hell hole. He and Luke's owner had made a deal. Unfortunately, Luke was gone before he could get him back. And his sacrification was totally wasted. But as long as Luke was safe, he didn't care about anything else.

"You did what?!" Luke was totally fabbergasted by the news. "So...that's the reason I was fired and got kicked out from that BDSM club? It was all because of you?"

"Err...I don't know, Ishikawa. All I know, when I came back for you, you were already gone. They said, you ran away with a wealthy man."

"But that's not what happened." Luke shook his head vigorously.

"It doesn't matter anymore. I'm just glad, you are saved from there, and living your life happily. At least one of us does have a happy life." Nine uttered in relief.

"You're not happy?" Luke queried. He was curious. He wondered how Nine had been living his life all these years.

Nine said nothing in return. He simply heaved a heavy sigh, then narrowed the gap between them. "I am happy now, because you are well and happy. And I am also happy that you have a family that loves you dearly. Although I do feel bad that I almost ruined your happy life, but trust me, I won't repeat the same mistake in the future. I will leave everyone alone and maybe try to move on, probably seek for my own happiness."

"If you move on....what about me?" Luke lifted up his face to look at Nine. "What about my happiness? Don't I deserve to be happy too?"

Nine blinked. "You're not happy with your life?"

"Do I look happy? As far as I know, I feel so lonely." Luke confessed.

"Lonely...?"

"Yes. I am lonely. I've been working so hard, focusing only on the children, because I have no one else to go back to." Luke said, peering at Nine with his watery eyes.

Nine chuckled. "I've been devoting my life with work because I am lonely too. And because....," He bravely put his arms around Luke and drew him to his chest, ".....I haven't met anyone to replace you in my heart. So....if you're not with anyone....may I pursue you, Ishikawa?"