Tokyo Seduction (Book 1 Of The Gaijin Series)

Chapter 20

Hatori stood up and handed Mimi her phone. "Shall we go, then? I have a fun day planned. I thought we'd do a little sightseeing and then go to the beach for lunch."

She slipped her phone into her handbag, not daring to turn it on.

They stopped for breakfast at a little cafe near the university and Mimi insisted on paying. She informed Hatori that it was her way for making up for the late start, even though it was only Nine thirty. After breakfast, they got on the train and headed to Kyu Shiba Rikyu garden, where they walked around the grounds for a few hours, talking about their lives and how Mimi was adjusting to a completely different culture. At noon they got back on the train to Minato, where they got into Hatori's car and drove to ChigaRitsu beach.

"When you said you were taking me to the beach, I assumed you meant the one in Odaiba," she said, getting out of the car. She loved the beach and would go down to the man made one in Tokyo as much as she could in the summer. She missed California beaches.

"Well, that's what you get for assuming." Hatori grinned and playfully ruffled her hair. "There is a restaurant here I love, but with work and everything else, I don't come down here as much as I'd like these days." He pulled a blanket and a basket out of the trunk of the car.

They picked out a nice spot on the beach and set up the picnic. As Hatori pulled out the food and drinks from the basket, Mimi looked around. The beach had quite a few people on it for the month of March, which was due to how unseasonably warm it was.

As Mimi ate, she thought, this food is beyond delicious. "Did you cook all of this Hatori?''

"No, unfortunately my cooking skills are nonexistent. I have a cleaner, Tanaka-san, that's been working for me for years and a while back she took it upon herself to cook for me as well. I mentioned that I wanted to take you here and she said that a picnic would be nice and cooked all of this," Hatori said.

The breeze was lightly blowing her hair about. Leaning over, he gently brushed a few stray tendrils of hair off of her face. The contact made her skin tingle. She blushed, savouring the contact. "You will have to tell her that her cooking is amazing and thank her for me. I only hope my cooking is this good in time." Mimi giggled. "If it was this good now, Ritsu would keep me locked up in her kitchen cooking all her meals. She's a terrible cook and is always making me cook for her."

"Then it's lucky for me that your cooking is not this good yet."

Having stuffed herself, until she was about to pop, Mimi lay back on the blanket.

"Mimi, do you still get along with your family now that you're here? I only ask because it seems like you only refer to them from the time before you moved here."

When they had walked around the gardens earlier, she had told him she was the youngest and had two brothers and a sister. Her oldest brother was twenty years older, the other brother was nineteen years older, and her sister was seventeen years older than her. Mimi had said they were all doctors, following in her family's tradition, and her mother was a lawyer, but had stopped working when her brothers and sister were young in order to raise them.

By the time Mimi was born, her mother had made quite a name for herself in a very successful firm in California. Her mother didn't want to stop working, so Mimi was raised by a number of nannies until she was five. Then she was sent off to a boarding school in England until she was fifteen, when her grandfather insisted that she move back.

Mimi let out a wistful sigh. She never liked talking about what had happened. The simple fact was there was only one person who knew the full story and she was happy to keep it what way. Even though Hatori made her feel at ease and they had clicked, there were a lot of things from her past she might never be willing to let him in on. The past had always been a minefield for Mimi that was best avoided. On top of that her recent past had a number of grenades ─ Jin being one of them, that could go off at any moment and destroy this fledgling relationship.

She looked up at the wisps of white floating amongst the bright blue backdrop in the sky. A part of her like how intuitive Hatori was and the fact that he wanted to know more about her and she figured divulging a few more crumbs wouldn't hurt.

Sitting up she pulled her knees into her chest. Her stomach twisted in knots as she sorted through what she was willing to tell him. "As you know, I only applied to the university on a whim. Even I knew that I shouldn't have applied in the first place and God only knows why I did. It was expected of me to go to Harvard and strings had already been pulled to get me early acceptance, even though I could've gotten in on my own merits.

"All of my siblings went there. So did my mother and father and my grandfather on my dad's side. In fact, my father's side of the family has been going there since it was established and it's became a family tradition. Now it's more like an obligation to go there." Mimi turned her face towards Hatori. "I was expected to go as well. I was also expected to become a doctor, another unspoken obligation. So in the end, when I chose to come here, my so-called family cut me out."

Concern was laced all over his face; she could tell it was affecting him as he empathised with what she had gone through. It sent a pang of guilt through her, that she had caused this beautiful man to feel hurt for her, and she never wanted to see that look on his face again, let alone be the reason for it.

Mimi looked at her wrist, perplexed that the burning itch wasn't there. Just like the previous night, her wrist only tingled. She gave Hatori a smile trying to let him know she was okay. "I sent my parents a Christmas card and gifts the first year I was here just to let them know I was doing fine, but everything was returned unopened. That was when I gave up and accepted the fact I had truly been cut out and there was nothing I could do to change that. I'm okay with it; I have a new family here and I'm happy."

Hatori reached out and stroked her cheek. "And here I was thinking my family was bad. My mother likes to try and run my life. I'm a twenty-six-year-old grown man and she still thinks I can't think for myself, and my father does nothing to stop her. So to stop a lot of arguments, I don't go home much, and my mother refuses to come to Tokyo, so it keeps the peace in our family. I don't think I would be able to be as strong as you, though. I know in the end I will relent and give in to my mother." Hatori took Mimi's hand when he got up, "Come on, let's go for a walk."

*************************

Hi all I hope you're enjoying the story so far. 

This chapters song is the closing song to Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi Aka Sunday Without God

another surprisingly good anime that hasn't gotten much attention. 

  Thanks for reading and don't forget to vote. Xoxo J