Chapter 48: Soothing Rina

"The bank people? Rina-nee, do you owe the bank money?" Kitahara asked with concern.

"It’s not me, it’s my late husband. Watanabe borrowed a large sum of money from the bank while he was alive, and that’s also the reason he jumped to his death. Back then, both he and I wanted to own a ’single-family house’..."

Hayami Rina slowly recounted the whole story from beginning to end.

After listening for quite a while, Kitahara finally understood.

It turned out that back then, after Hayami Rina and her husband got married, they bought this apartment here as a temporary residence.

Both of them liked "single-family houses" and planned to buy a plot of land, build an independent house of their own, and then use this apartment for rental income or simply sell it later.

After all, the real estate industry was extremely booming at the time, housing prices rose sharply every year, and buying property was a sure win no matter what.

At that time, her husband Mr. Watanabe also had a considerable income. Since it was the financial industry, during a good market economy, the income far exceeded that of ordinary industries.

His self-confidence also swelled, and he believed he would always be able to earn such a high salary, being overly optimistic about the future.

So after finding a plot of land he liked, without caring about the high price, he took out a bank loan and bought it.

Including the later design, construction, decoration, and so on, he also took out no small amount of loans. It could be said to be excessive consumption.

Until later, when the financial crisis broke out and he lost his job, he could not repay the loans. After Watanabe was subjected to frequent debt collection, he chose to end his life.

Now a problem arose: shouldn’t Hayami Rina also have the obligation to repay Watanabe’s bank loan?

After all, the two had been husband and wife.

Wasn’t it only natural for them to come now to collect the debt?

Why was Rina-nee giving them attitude? That seemed a little impolite, no?

Kitahara asked this question.

Hayami Rina denied it. She said, "I have no obligation to repay! Watanabe had already considered everything thoroughly for the sake of me and our daughter’s future. Before that, we had already divorced by agreement. Legally, we no longer had any relationship.

In the divorce agreement, aside from that unfinished ’single-family house,’ all property, including our daughter, belonged to me.

This was the stable life Watanabe exchanged for with the price of his life for me and our daughter. No one else has the right to take it away!"

Hayami Rina’s expression was somewhat grief-stricken and pained.

Perhaps she had recalled her late husband’s kindness to her, and their formerly happy and fulfilling life. On her beautiful and moving face, the emotions that had just calmed down once again somewhat collapsed, and tears slid down again.

She bit her lips tightly, trying not to let herself cry out loud, but sorrow was like a bursting dam, impossible to stop once it broke loose.

Looking at her sorrowful appearance, Kitahara also felt touched.

Ah, it seemed this ex-husband Watanabe-san was quite a principled man!

His chest was once again soaked by tears. After a long while, seeing that Hayami Rina was a little better, Kitahara still had doubts in his heart, so he asked her again:

"In that case, the bank shouldn’t be coming to look for you, Rina-nee, right? Mr. Watanabe is already gone, and there’s no issue of you two deliberately committing loan fraud. Wouldn’t it be enough for the debt problem to be offset by that ’single-family house’?"

"That’s right. They have no reason to keep pestering me at all, even if everyone clearly understands what’s going on.

The reason these bank people came to me is mainly that the value of that ’single-family house’ has fallen too miserably, far from enough to offset Watanabe’s loan, and now it’s also hard to sell.

They probably had no other options either, and surprisingly wanted me to buy it. But how could I possibly have the ability to buy it? When I explained the situation, they even suggested that I sell this apartment to buy that single-family house, and said if the money wasn’t enough, they could still provide a loan."

Hayami Rina smiled bitterly again and again, feeling it was incredibly absurd.

In order to fill this hole, the bank people really could come up with every possible method.

They did not even consider whether she, a widow with an orphan child, had the ability to do so.

If not for the appearance of Kitahara-kun, they would not even have been able to eat their fill. How could they possibly go and move into a bigger house?

Moving into a worse house would actually make more sense.

Hayami Rina truly had not expected these bank people to be so shameless, and this was not even their first time coming to persuade her. It had already been several times.

She had long made it clear that she refused.

Yet these people were still persistent, and she did not know what they were thinking...

This time Kitahara really did understand what was going on!

He could actually understand this move by the bank. It was simply that this loan had lost money, and they wanted to find someone to take over the mess.

Outsiders were hard to find, and could not be found. The borrower had also died, so of course they would look for the borrower’s family.

If by any chance Hayami Rina had feelings for that house and made some absurd impulsive move, wouldn’t they then recoup their losses?

Although the probability of such a situation was extremely low, what if it happened?

It was probably also because the banking industry was having a hard time now. They were idle anyway, so they came out to try their luck.

Under an economic crisis, many industries were affected, and all kinds of absurd operations could emerge.

Kitahara gently stroked Hayami Rina’s delicate shoulder, expressing sympathy for what she had encountered, and asked her with concern:

"Rina-nee, they haven’t done anything excessive to pressure you, have they?"

If it was only persuasion, that was still fine. Everyone was just a worker, and no one had it easy. Kitahara could understand.

But if there was any extreme behavior, or frequent harassment that affected their normal life, then that would not do.

Kitahara would have to step forward and warn them.

Hayami Rina shook her head: "No. It’s a society ruled by law now. They wouldn’t dare do anything. This time was their third visit. Although the number of times isn’t too many, each time it makes me sad for quite a long while."

Kitahara nodded to show he understood. Anyone who encountered such a thing would feel very depressed:

"Yeah, it’s too much. Next time if they come again, Rina-nee, just don’t open the door for them, or directly call the police and report them for harassment.

Of course, you can also tell me, and I’ll come drive them away."

"Yes. Kitahara-kun, you’re really good. But hitting people is wrong, and it might even get you hurt. I’ll just not open the door for them." Hayami Rina’s mood finally improved a little.

Perhaps it was because someone was listening, and her emotions had been vented, that she felt this time was not as painful as before.

Or perhaps it was because she now had someone to rely on.

"Speaking of which, Rina-nee, what is that ’single-family house’ like? How much did Mr. Watanabe borrow from the bank for it back then? Do you like that house?"

Kitahara looked at Hayami Rina and asked.

He suddenly had a bold idea.