As The Wind Blows Your Scent To Me

"There you go again! You always react like this whenever I speak the truth about that damn girl!" Mrs. Fujihara's face twisted into anger as she shouted.

Why couldn't her son see that nothing good would ever come from that lowly wench?

Jun let out a heavy and repressed sigh. He shook his head a few times, feeling utterly useless as the same kind of conversation happened again.

Why...

Just why?

"Mom, as you've wanted, I've already broken up with her! Himari has gotten a new man in her life! I'm nothing to her now so please, stop dragging her into everything, okay?" 

Mrs. Fujihara froze, seemingly shocked to hear the words coming out of her son's mouth.

"What... what did you say?"

Jun turned around. He lowered his head in a hushed shame, "...she's happy with another man. She said... we won't get back together again."

No matter how many days, weeks, months and years had passed, Jun still found it hard to accept that they were no longer together.

Moreover when he saw how happy she was with that man.

Although Jun decided to take a step away from her life as to how Himari wished for, his deep longing for her had yet to cease.

"Heh, it's good that she knows what's best for you," Mrs. Fujihara smiled, her eyes twinkling in delight, "So, son, you also should find someone new! You're no longer being pulled back by that wench."

Himari had always been a thorn to Mrs. Fujihara. 

To the middle-aged lady, origin, status and prestige were the most important to their family. These two aspects couldn't be overlooked even when looking for a bride to her son.

The future mistress of the Fujihara household should have these virtues embedded into her!

Jun pursed his lips. He didn't have any energy to deal with his mother's obsession anymore.

"...I'm going back."

Jun gave his mother a bow before he turned around to get out of the cold and suffocating dining room. He inwardly sighed in relief that his mother didn't force him to stay.

His body walked past the door.

"...hehe, I wonder if that man knew that she carried a child before?"

The low voice of his mother resembled a whisper of a demoness. 

Without him realizing it, Jun halted his steps. 

"Mom, what did you... what..."

Jun forced his stiff body to turn around, a chilly sensation ghosted down his spine.

Mrs. Fujihara covered her mouth, eyes widened in horror.

"That, Jun... Mom didn't say anything..."

She looked as horrified as her son.

On that night, what was concealed from him got abruptly uncovered due to a slip of his mother's mouth. 

"What do you mean... by that?"

Jun stood frozen on the same spot, mind clouded over by his shock.

Mrs. Fujihara coughed a few times, trying to regain composure after accidentally muttering something she shouldn't out in the open.

"Well... Cough, after you went abroad, that wench knew that she got pregnant. She dared to come to me and asked me to compensate her for carrying your child."

Jun's eyes shook. 

What he felt right now was akin to be doused by a splash of icy cold water. 

"She was really... pregnant?" His voice sounded dumb.

In an instant, what came to Jun's mind was the first time he touched Himari, on Valentine's Day before he left the country.

It was the first and the last time. 

Because they didn't use any protection and he had even persuaded Himari to not take any morning-after pill, the probability for her to get pregnant was still high.

"...Mom, you're talking nonsense, aren't you?"

Mrs. Fujihara gave her son a sidelong glance, "Why should I speak nonsense?"

Jun clenched and unclenched his fists, his jaw turned stiff, "Because... there's no child around her."

If the child existed, he or she should be around two to three years old. But, either in the city or at Himari's hometown, Jun saw no traces of a child like that.

"Heh, she slept around yet she claimed that it's your child," Mrs. Fujihara sneered, "Since I didn't give her any money, what should she do next if not aborting it? Do you really think she could raise a child while being pennyless?"

Another douse of cold water drenched Jun's mind.

"She's not like that!"

Mrs. Fujihara scoffed, "What are you shouting at me for? You should go to her and find out whether it's true or not!"

Jun shut his mouth. Then, a cynical laugh escaped his mouth, "So, what? What if you just fabricated everything?"

His son's blunt accusation only made Mrs. Fujihara smirked. There was no trace of anger on her face.

"Do you think I can control everything? If you believe in your own ability, go and investigate it yourself. I won't give you any clues!"

Jun was enraged by the provocation yet, instead of bursting out aimlessly, he only turned around and left the dining room. His mother didn't make any attempt to stop him.

What his mother said about Himari sleeping around was thrown out of his mind. Jun understood very well that if she was carrying a child three years ago, that child was theirs.

If Himari only found out she was pregnant after he left the country...

It should be when she was still early in her pregnancy.

True to his mother's words, she didn't give even the slightest hint to him. Jun also did everything in private to avoid being sabotaged.

Jun found himself a private investigator. Because it seemed like even Himari's mother and Nanako didn't know about the pregnancy, Jun wanted to brush it off as lies concocted by his own mother to smear Himari's reputation.

But...

A few days before Jun was scheduled to attend the banquet, the private investigator returned with newly found information.

"As we speak, Ms. Kato is indeed hiding the matter from Mrs. Kato and Ms. Hagihara. I've found an old video that showed Ms. Kato and your mother, Mrs. Fujihara's meeting. Besides, Ms. Kato's next traces led to an abortion clinic."

Jun didn't know how did he manage to keep quiet while he watched the surveillance videos of Himari meeting his mother as well as the one showing she entered the clinic. 

Himari's face was clear in the first video when she faced his mother.

The venue appeared to be a private room of a restaurant. The content of their conversation wasn't audible yet, the meeting ended with both sides left with ugly faces.

In the next video which time-stamp only differed two hours later, Jun saw Himari walked inside the clinic that specialized in abortion without any hesitation. 

Evidently, Himari straightaway went to the clinic after meeting his mother. She still wore the same clothes. 

"I barely got the second video because the surveillance was quite far from the clinic," The private investigator explained after Jun questioned why did the quality be bad, "I tried getting the ones recorded by the clinic itself but, any surveillance videos of the year before would be erased annually."

The record brought by the investigator almost snapped the last thread of Jun's patience. 

"Everything is in there, Mr. Fujihara."

Jun was left alone to digest the information. He was extremely quiet as he read the content of the document. 

Himari's name, the date of the day she visited the clinic and the name of the doctor who was in-charged of the procedure; all of them were recorded on the papers.

"...it's a lie, isn't it?"

Jun tossed the papers aside. His eyes burned with hot yet unshed tears as he kept watching the second video.

What was her expression when she ventured inside the clinic?

Jun really wanted to see it yet the video only showed her back, making it impossible for him to see any expression she showed before inducing the abortion. 

Due to the unexpected discovery, Jun prolonged his stay at the island for a few more days.

His original plan was to just attend the main banquet. He thought that if he stayed longer, his feelings might be swayed if he saw Himari 's smiling face to the man.

But...

This matter couldn't be resolved except facing her directly.

Because Jun wanted to know the extent of the truth, he forced himself to see how blissful she was with that man while regarding him as air. 

"If you think that I'm someone who'd abort a child because of a breakup... it means that you've never known me properly."

The words spoken indifferently snapped Jun out of his trance. 

The scenes of that night and when the private investigator presented the videos and records to him vanished from his mind. What came into view right now was the sight of the hotel ceiling.

"I've been so foolish..."

A sigh came out of Jun's mouth. The sound was heavily audible in the quiet hotel room.

Jun slumped his shoulders down, elbows hitting on his thighs. His sunken gaze fell on the carpeted floor as his mind started to trace what did he miss by being too anxious.

It was obvious that Himari and his mother met on the day before she went to the abortion clinic. They reached no agreement in the end but...

What was actually the context of their conversation?

"Did Mom do something else?"

The slip that happened during that dinner, was it actually already planned by his mother?