Haru’s Love (A Stepbrothers BL Harem) - Chapter 50

New York

It had been a couple of weeks since we returned from out trip, and life went back to normal. The good news was that I had passed all my exams, thank God, and now I’d have to work even harder on my studies because I didn’t want to disappoint Uncle Jin.

Today was a Saturday, and Isaac’s friends as well as Jess were here, but not to have their yaoi conference. Today was apparently special. Why? Because Jess had said so. She and Isaac had spent countless hours preparing a presentation. The topic? Our trip to Japan and South Korea.

The doorbell rang, and I said, “I’ll get it,” since everyone was busy, with Aiden, Noah, Reo, Mason, and Connor preparing the food while Jess and Isaac were preparing the PowerPoint, and Matt, Ryan, and Jason playing online games.

I rushed over to the door and opened it to see Carter and Lucas.

“Hello, Haru,” Carter said.

“Sorry we’re late,” Lucas said.

“No worries,” I said. “You’re right on time. Come in.”

The two did and headed straight into the kitchen. The apartment was getting even more packed now with people.

I was just about to close the door when I heard Tina’s voice calling out, “Haru! Long time no see!” She barged in and hugged me tight. “Oh, I’ve missed you.”

“Hey, Haru, how was the trip?” Peter asked.

Working on moving Tina’s arms away from me, I said, “It was good. We had fun.”

Peter said, chuckling, “Good to hear.”

Back in the kitchen and dining room, everyone started eating, drinking, and chatting. It was noisy and loud, and yeah, fun. The meal was delicious, and there was a lot of laughter. It was two hours later when Isaac announced loudly, “All right, everyone. It’s showtime.”

Everyone gathered in the small sitting area, some sitting on the sofa, armchairs, and on the floor. Aiden signaled for me to come to him, and I did, finding myself sitting on his lap, since there was no space on the sofa.

Before us, Isaac began the presentation while Jess operated the PowerPoint slides.

“Welcome, everyone, and join us on our journey across Japan and South Korea,” Isaac began.

Across Japan and South Korea? When he had only been to a couple of cities in those countries?

“Our family, the Davises and the Onos, departed New York at midnight.” There was a picture of a plane, viewed from the waiting area, and it was dark outside. “It was a most uncomfortable flight, ladies and gentlemen,” Isaac said, pointing to the next slide, which was a picture of Noah’s legs pressed against the chair in front of him. “Yes, a very uncomfortable flight.” Jess clicked, and a picture of me sleeping in Aiden’s arms came up.

I felt my cheeks grow hot as everyone stared at the picture.

Isaac said, “That looks very uncomfortable.” He shook his head. “Who’d want to sleep on Aiden is beyond me. His body is damn hard. I’ve tested it by punching him. It’s like a brick wall.” This caused everyone to burst out laughing, Aiden included, and my cheeks to grow even hotter in embarrassment.

“We landed in Narita Airport.” There was a picture of us getting our luggage. “And took a shuttle to our fancy five-star hotel.” A picture of the entrance of the hotel came up, followed by the foyer. “It was a very fancy hotel, everyone, and super great for a honeymoon.” The picture of the room Aiden and I had stayed in came up.

Oh, God, was Isaac going to continue to make me feel uncomfortable showing all these pictures to everyone?

But thank God it was mostly of sceneries, us posing together in group photos, and the food after that. Then when it came to us staying at Lake Aoi Resort and Onsen, once again, it was mostly of the scenery and the food until it got to that day.

“And thus, we went to the little town and bought ourselves our kimonos.” A picture of Isaac posing in his kimono came up. “They packaged the garments up into beautiful present boxes.” There was a picture of the boxes. “And we took them home.” A picture came up. It was of me holding the boxes while Mason was hugging me from behind, his chin resting on the top of my head. We were standing among the background of the snow.

“Aww, that’s so cute,” Tina said.

I noticed that in the picture, Mason had a faraway look in his eyes, like he was both happy yet sad at the same time.

The image and Mason’s expression affected me in a strange way. Was he, too, like Noah, hiding something? Some sort of loneliness that he didn’t want to tell any of us?

Isaac continued with his storytelling until he got to the point where we were in Seoul, and it was then that I realized for the first time that Noah and Mason were almost always looking at me in the group photos. Was it just me or…

The presentation came to an end and everyone clapped.

“That trip looks so much fun,” Matt said. “Wish I could have come along.”

Carter nodded in agreement.

The eating, drinking, chatting, and laughter resumed and continued until well after midnight, which by then I was exhausted from it all.

After the last guests left, which were Tina and Peter, we tidied up the place, and by the time I got the chance to shower and went to bed, it was well past two in the morning.

I was just slipping in between the sheets when Aiden opened the door. Leaning his muscular body against the frame, he asked, “How about my bed?”

I thought about it for a moment and then nodded.

In Aiden’s room, I climbed into bed as Aiden said, “I’ll just take a quick shower.”

I nodded and as he shut the door, I buried my face against the pillows and shut my eyes, drifting off. It felt like only a few seconds later when I felt Aiden climbing into the bed and pulling me into his arms.

He felt fresh and clean after the shower, and damn warm, too. I found myself hugging him tight as I said, “Night, Aiden.”

I felt his lips on my forehead. He said, “Good night, Shrine Maiden. I love you.”

I smiled, still with my eyes closed.. “I love you, too,” I said.