Arranged marriages, though not as common anymore, was still an accepted tradition. But a marriage arrangement without time given for the couple to get to know each other and make a decision? Not so much.
"I agree, my friend. It is time." Despite the ocean which separated them, the same thought was in both men's minds – the clock was quickly winding down.
Omiai Kekkon
Part 1
~o~o~o~
Prologue
Aihara Kotoko, only child and heiress of the Aihara family, skipped down the steps with her purse in tow. Her manners bellied the fact that she was already 20 years old and a sophomore at Tonan University. She greeted her father a cheerful good morning as she slid into her seat for breakfast.
It was a morning like any other but little did she know how much her life would change in just a few short hours.
~o~o~o~
"You knew this was coming, son."
"Yes, but not this soon, Father!" Irie Naoki slumped against Shigeki's desk in defeat. He wiped a hand over his face. "When?"
"You'll meet Kotoko-chan next week."
~o~o~o~
"Tadaima!" The loud proclamation rang through the house.
"Okaeri." Aihara Shigeo greeted his daughter as she entered the house. Kotoko kissed his cheek then made her way to the kitchen where she prepared a snack for both of them, an after-school tradition they both enjoyed.
Snacks and desserts she could manage. Her dishes and meals however, were to be avoided at all costs. Nevertheless, the fact that her food was inedible didn't stop Kotoko from attempting the impossible.
"How was your day at the restaurant, 'tousan?" She asked.
They had several restaurants but Shigeo was almost always at the first one, the one he had built with his own sweat and blood, the one which first established Aihara as a name in the culinary scene.
"I didn't go to the restaurant today."
"Oh?" She munched on a pastry as she waited for him to elaborate.
"Kotoko, I need to tell you something important." Suddenly, Kotoko was struck by how weary and old her father looked.
~o~o~o~
He was a fighter, a self-made man who backed down at nothing life threw at him. He was sixteen when he knew what he wanted to do. Twenty-two when it was realized. He had fought for the dream of owning his own business—no small feat for someone who had had no formal education beyond high school—and he persevered and won. He built a small restaurant empire that would have made his family proud, if there were parents or brothers or sisters to appreciate it. He battled others for the love of the town sweetheart and together they had a gregarious child who thrived as the apple of her parents' eyes. Then his beloved wife died and he was left with the challenge of raising their daughter as a single father. Again he rose to the challenge.
Each and every hurdle and obstacle life threw his way, he never backed down. But there are circumstances that even his indomitable spirit can't overcome.
Now his daughter would be alone in the world. Kotoko, who was a little naïve and a whole lot innocent to the evils of the world. He had to make sure she would be alright even when he was gone.
~o~o~o~
She sat stunned, feeling her life had just crumbled around her in the long moments it took for her father to reveal the truth. His health, the pact he had with his best friend, and how everything had changed. In a few days she would meet the man she was to marry.
"Please forgive me, Kotoko."
"Otousan..."
"Please believe that I'm doing this for you."
"I don't want to marry! Let me take care of you. I can quit college. Let's go to live in the country so you can get better. Yes, let's do that!"
"No, Kotoko! There's nothing else we can do. The doctors have tried everything."
He knew he should have told Kotoko a lot sooner so she would be prepared for the inevitable. But he was selfish. He had wanted her to live without worrying about him for as long as possible. She was an adult but she was also his child and he wanted to protect her for as long as he can. But his health could only last so long so he was finally entrusting his daughter to Irie Shigeki, his best friend, the 'Uncle Shigeki' Kotoko had heard a lot about but could hardly remember meeting as the Iries had been living abroad.
The Aihara Group of Restaurants was to be hers, with a large portion of their monies invested in Pandai, Inc., Iri-chan's company.
When they were a lot younger, Kotoko and Naoki had been promised to each other. He and Iri-chan had of course wanted the children to have the chance to become friends and court properly but with the circumstance and his health failing fast, Shigeo wanted Kotoko's future secured immediately.
He knew that his beloved daughter would be welcomed as one of their own in the Irie household.
Kotoko and Naoki had been friends when they were children, they could be so again.
She fought and cried but he was adamant. It was his last wish, to see her married. Powerless in the face of her father's pleading, she could do nothing but agree.
~o~o~o~
She met him, Naoki, her future husband. At an intellectual level she knew it was all real, the whirlwind of changes that were happening in her life, but it felt surreal, as if she was just a bystander watching on the sidelines as this young woman who had her face became engaged to a virtual stranger. A handsome genius, but a stranger just the same. He seemed to be the quiet type and he didn't speak beyond the formalities the occasion required. The only times he spoke off-script was when he first greeted them upon their entrance and to inquire after her father's health – and could she have imagined it? – there was concern in his eyes. Her father had clapped him on the back and told him that he was as well as could be – but Kotoko now knew it to be a lie.
~o~o~o~
This then was his future bride? This slip of a girl who looked like she was barely out of high school? Her family might be worth a fortune but she certainly didn't act like someone in the upper circles. For starters, she was too expressive. Weren't Japanese women supposed to be demure? The way she had also narrowly avoided face-planting at his feet as soon as she entered the room reinforced the fact that this Aihara Kotoko was not the type of woman he would have even imagined spending the rest of his life with.
But as fate would have it, he was the heir to Pandia, Incorporated and as such, it was his duty to marry well. At least the girl was rather pretty in a sweet and fresh-faced kind of way—although at times her looks were overshadowed by the faraway expression that would come over her. Naoki sighed internally.
The wedding ceremony was to be during the semester break, one week away.
A/N:
Tada! I'm doing it! I'm really doing it! A multi-chapter! Craaazy! But I have written out this story. It's complete and I'll be probably be posting once a week.
I was browsing through my InaK drafts, looking for material to upload for She Said No when I reread this. I had already done a barebones draft of this story with the major scenes already typed up months ago. I had about 4 pages of content. Well, I have a quiz coming up so what better use of my time than to continue working on this story which I haven't touched in foreeever, right? I mean, there's no time like the present! So here you have it, some 8,000 words and 16 pages later, I present to you Omiai Kekkon.