Chapter 23 – Saviour
Chapter 4, Part 1
Novel Title: 融愛~Melt Down~ (Melted Love ~Melt Down~)
Author:風結子 沙野 (Fuyuko Sano)
Illustrator:雅良 水名瀬 (Masara Minase)
Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)
Protagonists: 葉越海理 (Yougoshi Kairi -MC), 葉越翼久 (Yougoshi Tasuku -ML)
*Please read at Novels Space.space, the original site of translation. TQ*
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⚠️TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter contains mentions of drugs abuse. Readers’ discretion is advised.
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Tasuku had heard that if you injure your head while high on drugs, you bleed profusely. But he never imagined it would be that intense.
Even after several days, Tasuku couldn’t forget the raw sensation of the blood he had been drenched in. It felt like he had experienced killing someone firsthand.
At that moment, while Tasuku was engaged in a street fight with a drugged-up college student outside the batting centre, Youhei made a run for it. For a remora like Youhei, that was pretty impressive. Thanks to that, they were able to keep it hidden that one of ‘Blossom’’s hosts was using drugs.
To the police, Tasuku lied and said he had stepped in to break up a fight between some random drunk people. They even left behind a police sketch that didn’t resemble Youhei at all. As for the college student, his memory was likely fuzzy due to the drugs, so he probably couldn’t remember Youhei’s face properly anyway. When you’re high on drugs, your ability to recognize even familiar faces drops to the point of mistaking people for others.
Violent incidents like this are a dime a dozen in Kabukicho. However, the fact that the college student had been using drugs would’ve undoubtedly been discovered at the hospital where he was taken, so the real issue was how much the police would follow up on that.
It had been more than half a month since Tasuku last showed up at ‘Blossom’.
He had told the owner that he’d be taking a break for a while, and ever since, he had kept his work phone turned off. His home phone was permanently set to answering machine mode as well. His clients were surely feeling lonely or maybe even angry by now.
But Tasuku didn’t care. He wasn’t invested in the competition for sales.
In fact, lately, even the scent of women’s cosmetics had been making him feel nauseous. So it was uncertain how much longer he could keep working as a host.
He had no attachment to the job. However, since the age of 18, ‘Blossom’ had been his only place of belonging aside from ‘home’. So the thought of leaving it stirred up a sense of loss within him.
Tasuku had no idea what happened to Youhei after that or how serious his injury was. He wasn’t interested. Yet, one day, a message from Youhei was left on his answering machine. Youhei said he had to meet him no matter what. Thinking it might be something involving the police, Tasuku called the phone number left in the message. Youhei answered immediately and, sounding serious, gave him the time and place where they could meet, saying he’d explain in person.
Annoyed, Tasuku was intrigued by how unusually grave Youhei had sounded. At 4:30 PM, he passed through the door of a retro-style café in Kabukicho. Before he could even scan the interior, a slender man in a black suit stood up from a secluded seat. Youhei had his left arm in a sling.
“That’s from when you got hit, right? Is your arm done for?”
“Yes, it’s completely broken.”
Being two years younger and a junior at Blossom, Youhei spoke to Tasuku in formal language. Contrary to the common soft impression people have of host clubs, they are rigidly hierarchical and masculine.
But today, Youhei’s usual half-hearted politeness was replaced by an air of formality that seemed odd. Feeling uneasy, Tasuku sat down at the four-person table, diagonally across from Youhei. He ordered a blend coffee and lit a cigarette. Not intending for a long chat, he quickly asked.
“So, what do you want?”
“Ah, yes.”
With a hurried motion, Youhei grabbed the light green paper bag from the seat beside him and thrust it toward Tasuku.
“I wanted to give this to Tsubasa-san. As thanks for helping me out the other day!”
“…Thanks? I don’t need it.”
“Please take it! If I’d been busted by the cops back then, I would’ve been seriously screwed.”
――Yeah, if you’re caught by the police while high on drugs, that’s game over.
“Don’t get the wrong idea. I only stepped in because I was in a bad mood.”
“But it doesn’t change the fact that Tsubasa-san helped me out. You’re my saviour. My saviour.”
Maybe he’s slightly high today as well, since his pronunciation of ‘saviour’ (恩人/onjin) sounds like ‘engine’ (エンジン/enjin).
――If he weren’t from ‘Blossom’, I’d just tell him to go detox in some holding cell.
Tasuku thought with disdain.
“I’ve never been helped like that when I was on the edge… Since I was a kid, I always seemed to find myself in trouble, getting beat up all the time.”
Tasuku replied with a disinterested “Oh, really?” but Youhei kept talking.
“It’s like, I’ve lived a bottom-of-the-barrel life, you know? I was abandoned by my parents when I was a baby, grew up in an orphanage, and as soon as I graduated middle school, they kicked me out too.”
Tasuku’s philosophy, after years in customer service, was that anyone who starts telling their tragic life story to someone they barely know is never a good person. Either they’re mentally unstable or high, and Tasuku had no interest in dealing with either type. He planned to cut the conversation short at an appropriate point.
“Being a middle school dropout is tough, no matter how you look at it. I started working at a factory the orphanage introduced me to at fifteen. All day long, I just tightened screws on parts coming down the conveyor belt. Nine to six, with only a lunch break and two ten-minute breaks, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The rest of the time, I was doing the same thing over and over. Tighten, tighten, tighten. That was my whole day. Every day was the same, year after year, minute after minute.”
Youhei was unconsciously mimicking the motion of tightening screws as he spoke.
At eighteen, having a driver’s licence might have broadened his job prospects a little. But without any qualifications, he was still a ‘kid’ with few options for work.
――If my Aniki had dropped out of high school, he might’ve ended up working in a factory like this guy too.
With that thought, Youhei suddenly felt like a real person to Tasuku.
“You got any siblings?”
He asked almost without thinking.
“I was the only one abandoned. But… when I was a kid, I often fantasise that maybe I had a sibling out there somewhere.”
It seemed that imagining this had been a source of joy for Youhei. He smiled faintly, his thin face softening.
Licking his dry lips, Youhei continued his story.
“Then, when I was seventeen, a guy I worked with at the factory shared some ganja with me.”
Ganja is a drug made from cannabis resin. It’s stronger than the kind of marijuana that’s smoked like a cigarette.
“I got hooked right away. Smoking ganja made even the most trivial things super fun, and I slept like a baby. After that, it felt like I was working just to buy ganja. But eventually, I got too lazy to even go to work, started skipping without notice, and got fired at eighteen.”
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*Translator’s Note: Gotta put that ‘onjin’ and ‘enjin’ thing out there in the story itself. It’s easier that way than explaining in T/N. Lol. Hope you guys don’t mind. -K
*GLOSSARY:
- Onii-san / Onii-chan / Nii-san / Nii-chan / Aniki = (Big/Elder) Brother
☝🏻I’ll be using these throughout my translation.
- To reiterate, in Japanese slang, “コバンザメ” (koban-zame) refers to a “remora,” which is a type of fish known for attaching itself to larger marine animals to get a free ride and feed off their leftovers. In slang, it metaphorically describes a person who clings to someone else for personal gain, benefiting from their success, wealth, or influence without contributing anything significant themselves. This can have a negative connotation, implying opportunism or parasitism.
Next update: 2025.01.18