I decided to keep the revelation a secret from Hiro. I didn't know what would come out of it or how he would react. I backed up the information into a USB that I used as a key-chain. The rest of the night was quiet and serious.
Hiro was still hung up on my expulsion and false accusation case when I was done with the new report. I excused myself to pack up my things in the guest room and told Hiro that I could just ask one of the staffs to drive me home so that he could have some rest.
I said my goodbye to him before leaving the house, but he seemed to be disassociated and distracted. I wasn't sure if it was caused by our emergency meeting or my expulsion case.
I got worried about him finding out about his own mother's potential involvement in the drugging suspicion. At the end of the day, I couldn't be sure of anything at all. I was preoccupied by the thought of getting expelled or failing the term.
A young driver drove me to my apartment gates and was barely interacting with me on the way there. I tried to look over my shoulders for stalkers who might have followed me home, but there was no sign of their car being around.
I thanked the driver and he waited for me to enter my building before leaving the premises. Hiro texted me to ask if I had arrived home safely and we talked on the phone for a couple of minutes to clear our minds off things before I heard the doorbell ring.
"Hey, I gotta go. My food just arrived," I said.
"Okay, I think I'll go to sleep now. See you tomorrow," he replied.
"Night," I hung up.
I took me a few minutes to look for my wallet and walked to the door to collect the pizza I ordered. To my surprise, the delivery man had left the box right outside my door without waiting for the payment. I found it pretty quaint and managed to look around the hallway for him. He must had thought that I had paid for it with a card. But upon further inspection, I saw a note taped to the box.
'We got our eyes on you' was written with a thick black marker. The message made me raise an eyebrow, but I thought that it was just an unfunny prank. I could smell the pizza from where I was standing, and I didn't hesitate to pick the box up to enjoy my late-night dinner. The door slammed shut behind me as I opened the pizza box to start eating.
"Ahhhh!!!" I yelped and dropped the box on my kitchen floor.
I ran to the sink and puked out what was left in stomach. My hands gripped the sides of the basin for support as my legs went limp. My pulse peaked, I started to perspire, and my whole body was trembling with fear. Suddenly I heard a powerful banging from my front door.
"Ren! Are you okay? Open up!" a man's voice echoed down the hall.
I could barely muster enough energy to crawl towards the door to open it. The voice sounded familiar, but my thought was bouncing all over the place. It was hard for me to think straight and sprang into action. My body refused to move towards the door as the unsuspecting abomination laid in between me and the door.
"Help," I managed to cry out.
"Hang in there! Stay away from the door, I'm gonna kick it down," replied the voice.
I was balled up on the floor, hugging my knees and burying my face. I was hyperventilating and I could feel my fingers getting cold. Few drops of tears clouded the vision of my surrounding. I wouldn't know what to do if the man who had just broken down my door was another attacker. My phone was so far away from me, and I doubt I had the ability to call for help.
"Ren!" the man barged in my apartment as my unhinged door slammed to the ground a few feet away from me.
"Help," my voice was shaky.
"It's okay, I'm here now," the man kneeled down and hugged me, "dear God!"
"I-I didn't know– "
"Hey, hey. You're okay now. Don't look at it," he said as my face met his chest.
"I don't understand," my breathing steadied, though my body was still mostly numb.
"Can you walk? Let's get you to my car. I'll call my team to deal with this and pack your things. Stay over at our place for the time being. Okay?" our eyes finally met as he wiped my tears away.
"Tadashi? I thought… I thought– "
"I was in New York? I'll explain everything later, okay? Now let's get you to safety," he gently helped me to my feet and headed to his parked car.
He called a staff member to gather the important things from my apartment to bring over to their house and to collect any available footage of the premises. They needed to take pictures as if it was a crime scene. My day had been weird and eerily targeted. Something must had triggered the personal attacks I recently received.
I sat in Tadashi's car with his jacket wrapped around me as he drove us back to his place. The friendly butler welcomed us in the garage and walked me to the familiar guest room. My savior came over to make sure I was feeling better.
He told me where the panic buttons were and reassured me that he would help me with anything. His calm demeanor suggested that he had dealt with similar situations before.
"We'll be having a meeting after lunch tomorrow. You don't have to join us if you're still feeling under the weather. Take some time off the case, I'll explain it to Hiro," he comforted.
"Thanks for everything. But I think I need to know more to make myself feel safe," I answered.
"Okay, just know that we're all here for you. We put you in this situation. Have a relaxing bath and a good night sleep and we'll go from there. Don't be shy to ask for food too."
'Thanks again, but I don't think I can eat anything for a while after that. I really appreciate your concern though," I smiled.
"Oh, and here's some clothes for you to change into. Sorry we didn't get to take your clothes when we left," he handed me some clothes.
"Night," I took it and politely smiled.
"Rest easy," he bowed and closed the door.
I didn't realize how warm Hiro's scariest looking brother was. No wonder those two were inseparable and compatible though they had vastly different interests and personality. The comfort of his presence earlier brought a whole new light to his image in my view.