Chapter 39: Old Man Zhu.
"Lieutenant!? I was just about to go and speak with you. What are you thinking? Asking your officers to arrest children? What is wrong with you?" The sect master's granddaughter screamed as soon as the lieutenant made his appearance.
"That's exactly why I'm here! The boy didn't do anything it was bad judgement on my behalf. Old Man Zhu woke up already. It had nothing to do with the boy he was trying to refine a pill or something and his furnace exploded. I just wanted to question him about what he had seen but everything is cleared up now." The lieutenant was a big muscular man with slight stubble on his face. His uniform was fit tightly against his body almost splitting open from the rigid muscles pressing against it.
"We have to give him an apology and release him immediately! Wait... Officer Zhang, Why are you lying on the floor?" He looked down to see the officer who had tried to beat Haru with his baton lying in the ground after being knocked over as the door swung open.
"He was just leaving. I suspended him for two weeks for a breach of conduct." The woman said to the confused lieutenant. "You did what? You can't just suspend my officers. I don't care if you are the daughter of the chief. I won't stand for this."
"You won't stand for me suspending him? Then what would you do if you found out one of your officers tried to beat a child with his baton? How would you punish him?" The lieutenant looked down at Officer Zhang. "You did what now!? Don't you ever think!? Did I tell you to beat up the child or take his statement? It was a simple order! You take him to the station and ask him a few questions!" He became enraged as he heard what one of his officers had tried to do.
"How are we going to take care of this mess now? Where is the boy? We need to apologise for this." He said as he looked around the garage. "It's fine I already gave him a sincere enough apology and compensated him for the trouble your officer has caused. Isn't that right Haru?" She turned to look back at the car where Haru was sat.
He was no longer anywhere to be seen. As they were all shouting at each other Haru took the time to start making his way home. She said he was free to go so there wasn't any problem with him leaving right?
"Where is he!? He was just here a minute ago!"
Haru was now a few blocks away from the police station and was trying to make his way back home. He pulled out his phone and turned it on. As it loaded his battery was almost instantly drained from the number of notifications he had received. One hundred and thirty six missed calls from Zen... And twenty calls from Suyin. Why are their so many missed calls I was only gone for a few hours?
"Haru. Call me back as soon as you can." He had gotten a text from Zen too. He looked back up to the street. It had begun to rain. Little drops of water splattered against his skin as he hurried around the streets to look for a shelter. He walked up to the door of a coffee shop. It was empty but the lights were still on the inside. He opened the door and a little bell chimed out.
There were no people around at all until a woman's voice called out from the back. "I won't be a minute. Make yourself at home." Haru took the advice and sat down on one of the seats in the far corner. There was a small bulb above him that lit up the table but his face was covered in darkness.
"Not this again!? I paid you last time!" The woman shouted from the other side of the counter as she looked over to the dark corner Haru was sat in. "Oh, I think you're mistaken. It's my first time here." Haru stood up from the seat and walked over to the counter. "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were someone else. What can I do for you?" The woman didn't look much older than Haru. She looked to be about eighteen or nineteen but she spoke with maturity. It was like she was used to working here.
"Um, I haven't actually had coffee before. What would you recommend?" Haru said as he looked up at the chalkboard menu with words he had never seen before. What even was a mocha? He thought as he looked down at the girl.
She laughed for a moment it was almost like she was breaking character. "You came to a coffee shop, But you have never had coffee before? Sorry, that's just too funny. But hey, everyone starts somewhere." She became much more casual when talking. It was probably because she thought Haru was just a normal kid.
"Well, If I'm being honest I just came inside to take shelter from the rain. But I could use some food if you are still serving it?" He looked up at the menu. Food was served until eight o'clock. He looked down at the time on his phone. It had already nine... Why did it take so long to drive to the police station? It shouldn't have taken nearly five hours to get everything cleared up. Unless that one officer just couldn't wake me... Haru laughed. He now knew why the officer was so angry.
The girl looked at him with confusion. "Oh, Sorry I just remembered something funny." He said as his phone began to vibrate. He looked back down to see that Zen was calling once again. "Sorry, I have to take this. I will take whatever you recommend." He said before walking back over to the corner and answering the call.
"Hello?" He put the phone to his ear and the immediately recoiled in pain as a screaming voice came from the speaker. "Hello? Don't you hello me! Do you know how much trouble you're in!?" Zen shouted.
"Trouble? What do you mean?" Haru was confused. "Yeah and a lot of it. Why did you think burning down a building was a good idea? Especially a building Old Man Zhu was in! I have already had several members of his family come to my house and threaten to kill me if anything happened to him!"
"Burn down a building? I didn't burn anything that was the old man's own fault. I risked my own life to drag him from the burning building. Now don't accuse me of things I didn't do!" Haru became slightly angry as he was being blamed for the old man's inability to refine pills.
"Wait. Are you sure? The media is reporting that you were the one who caused the fire. They even have pictures of you being arrested." Zen seemed to ease up on the shouting and was ready for a normal conversation.
"Why would the police let me go If I was the one to blame for someone getting injured? The old man even admitted to his mistake. It was entirely his fault."
"Wait they have released you? Where are you now then?" Zen switched his attitude quickly. "I'm at a coffee shop. I will send you my location when I'm done."
"Wait a minute. There are a few cars outside. I think it's the Zhu family again. I will call you back soon." Zen hung up. Haru sat there at the table and loaded up the browser on his phone and searched for Old Man Zhu.
"Old Man Zhu hospitalised after schoolboy burnt down a building with him inside."
"Head of the Zhu family is in critical care as a teenager is charged with arson."
There were dozens of news headlines all with pictures of Haru in handcuffs on the front page. He browsed for a little while before the table shook and the sound of cups clinked. He looked up to see the girl had brought him his drink and a sandwich. There was also another cup.
"Sounded like an important call. Want to talk about it? She sat down and picked up one of the cups as she pushed the rest of the tray toward Haru. "Sure, Why not." Haru picked up the cup and almost spat it back out with how bitter it was.
The girl began to laugh "Note to self. No black coffee." She then picked up and sugar cube and a small jug of milk and topped up the cup with it. "Try this then."
Haru took another sip. The taste had changed dramatically. It was still bitter but the taste was masked by the sweetness of the milk and sugar. "It's good. Thank you." He took another sip and then began to tell her what had happened."