Eternal Melody

'I was positive that if I left, one of those guys would make a move. I thought Aki or Mamoru would jump for the chance, but those guys didn't. I understand why Aki didn't; it seemed Sumire already turned him down twice. But why didn't Mamoru do anything?'

Yuhi already knew the answer to his own question. From the very start, it was Mamoru who openly supported and encouraged him to confess to Sumire. Yuhi knew that Mamoru also had feelings for her, so he always wondered why he was doing that.

"Atushi and I had encountered Nagawa Sano several times before he dated Sumire; that was why we knew. We knew that he was not a good person. Once, we saw him exiting a hotel room with a girl. He was dragging her with what looked like a collar after doing it with her. Her body badly bruised, and he practically tossed her out onto the bushes. Atushi and I helped the girl; we had to ask Atsuro, however, because she couldn't go to the hospital."

Yuhi flinched when he heard those words. 'I thought I already knew based on how he treated Sumire, but this is far worse than I imagined.'

"What happened to her?"

"She had to undergo severe rehabilitation and therapy; even then, it was difficult. So we resorted to tampering with her memories. We erased the relationship she had with Nagawa Sano, and we ensured that she was protected too. It would be bad if she encountered Nagawa with no memories."

"Is she living well now?"

"The guard we assigned to her fell in love with her, and they are in a relationship now. So it seems she is slowly healing."

"Is that the only time?"

Asuka shook her head. "No, there were several other disturbing cases." She trailed off. "I would rather not go into detail about them, but since you are that concerned, I think you should know. Nagawa Sano does not treat the opposite gender as a human; he treats them like dogs. Once during a ship party, I saw Nagawa tossing a girl out to sea.

She was begging him that she couldn't swim, but he tossed her aside. I saved her, of course, but it was still terrifying. He was already with another girl after tossing that one out. That other girl did not last long either; she committed suicide the morning after."

Yuhi felt like he was getting a headache from all of this. Asuka has only told him three cases, but why are they just as bad as the other?

"I think the worse one was when he dated an underage girl and then sold her off to a group of men."

At that comment, his face color turned pale. "That-"

"It was his previous relationship before Sumire."

His gaze darkened, and he clenched his fists tightly. "I see, so he truly is a scumbag."

'I can't allow Sumire to get further involved with that person.'

Yuhi was about to say something when he spotted somebody exits a car. It was Sumire, and he frowned when he saw Nagawa.

"Is this far enough?"

"Mm, thank you for the ride."

Sano pulled her into his arms. "It was a nice coincidence. I didn't think I would see you again for a while."

"Me neither."

After hearing those disturbing stories, Yuhi wasn't going to stand by today. He quickly walked over and pulled Sumire away from Nagawa.

"My dear?"

Yuhi didn't say anything and wrapped his arms protectively around her.

Sumire must have understood, too, since she turned to Sano. "Thank you for dropping me off. I think you ought to go now."

It looked like Nagawa was about to say something else but quickly left. The moment he did, Sumire drew back from him.

"Dearest, are you jealous again?"

"I have something to ask you."

...

Asuka leads them to a quiet area in the courtyard of the Hyou4 grounds. She didn't stay long after exchanging a few words with Sumire she returned to the building. Yuhi decided to directly ask Sumire if she knew of Nagawa's previous relationships, and the girl turned quiet for a bit.

"If you are asking if I knew about his previous relationship before mine, then yes, I do know."

"Then-"

"It wasn't him." Sumire trailed off. "One of the first things I helped him with when I became his girlfriend was this case."

"Even if that one wasn't him, what about the previous times?"

"It wasn't him either. I know what you think. Asuka and Atushi both saw him. But Yuhi, are you forgetting that Sano isn't the only son in the Nagawa family?"

At those words, his eyes widened, understanding where she was getting at. "Are you saying it was one of his brothers?"

"There are six sons in the Nagawa family. The eldest one, Evans, is a man with a moral character who treats his duties seriously. He is a bit strict, but he has never done anything bad. The second Alios is a strong fighter; San is the third son, with the brains. But he was born was a twin, the fourth son Alphard." Sumire trailed off. "He is the one who did those bad things to those girls. He and San look very similar. I was stunned when I first met him."

"So he tricked them?"

Sumire nodded. "It seemed those other girls were indeed in a relationship with Sano, but it was a normal relationship at first. Suddenly San started behaving differently and started hurting them. It turns out Alphard had severe jealousy towards San. Even though they were born around the same time, their parents treated San better. So he dyed his hair the same color as San and met up with those girls in his place. San was busy with his studies during that time, so he could not meet with them often, so it was easy."

Nagawa Alphard, Yuhi tried to recall if he ever crossed paths with that man before nothing came to mind.

"Before I dated San, the Nagawa family was having problems. The main cause was the bad rumors regarding San. It seemed he was on trial for selling underage girls. The Nagawa family suppressed the other cases, but that one was difficult to deal with. San attended that party to find somebody who could help him."

"So that person was you." Yuhi was finally starting to understand.

"Mm, I helped him. San won that trial because of my connections. I helped testify too. I heard Alphard had to undergo surgery to have a different face afterwards. It seemed that was the court's decision since it was difficult to punish him. They sent him to a juvenile center abroad, and he has not returned since."

"That still doesn't change how he treated you."

"What Alphard did caused a lot of emotional strain and damage on San. There were still many people who looked at him with disgust even though the court revealed the truth. Over time the details of the case faded from people's memories. Out of all the Nagawa brothers, San was the only one frequently seen with different women, so people assumed it was him."

So it was something like that; now it makes a lot more sense.