Chapter 32: Where's the phone?!
In the room of Ryu, 15 hard-copied photos were spread around his desk. As he continued looking at them, the frown on his face tightened.
Standing with his hands on the sides of the desk to support his weight, Ryu intently focused on six photos. The photos were of Koizumi, Hanae, Aya, Okuma, Yuki, and Azuma.
Each of those photos captured was where he had first met those girls.
Koizumi had the photo when they first met at the cafe.
Hanae had hers when they met at the convenience store.
Aya at the restaurant where Ryu ate with Hanae and her.
Okuma had her photo at the welcome party.
Yuki had her photo on the train.
Azuma at the mall.
Why would someone take pictures of those girls and send them to him? The more he thought of it, the more his suspicions grew. So does that mean someone was following him around?
As he took out the thousand yen bills from his pocket that Sato gave him and placed them on the drawer of his desk, a 10 yen coin slumped to the ground.
"It's the change I got from the taxi..."
As Ryu picked up the coin from the floor, something was unexpectedly attached to the coin's tail side. He then squinted his eyes and said, "A Nano-SIM?"
Thinking as to why a SIM card was attached to the change he got from the taxi driver, he dragged it off and carefully examined it.
"It really is a Nano-SIM."
After pulling his chair towards him and sitting down on it, he pulled out another drawer from his desk and took out a flip phone.
Placing the SIM on the phone and switching it on, a call suddenly rang out.
Seeing the caller's name as 'Answer,' Ryu hesitated whether or not he should answer it.
Receiving an envelope out of the blue and seeing that the girls he encountered were the photos on it caused the feeling in the room to feel eerie.
Then, adding the SIM and getting a call from a mysterious person made Ryu want to bury himself in the bed and go to sleep. But he pushed the green button on the phone anyway.
Drawing the phone closer to his ear, Ryu then said, "Hello?"
--
"Ma'am, it's started." A woman wearing a formal outfit entered a small, dim room and said solemnly,
Then, a lady who sat behind a desk in the room's corner spun around from her chair. Standing up, she took off her lab coat and safety glasses as she said, "Took them long enough."
After throwing them on the chair, she hurriedly walked out of the dim room and removed the ponytail from her hair.
With the bright lights gleaming in the hallway she walked into, you could clearly see the lady's face.
She was charming. Her brown hair flowed over her shoulders, with a pair of arched eyebrows that looked down on her eyelashes. As she smiled blissfully, her heart-shaped lips dazzled together with her red lipstick.
Walking to an elevator, the charming lady entered it, and the woman in formal attire followed behind, who then pressed the ground floor button.
As they arrived on the ground floor, anyone who saw what was around them would be in awe.
The place was enormous, and the ceiling was tens of feet tall with bright yellow chandeliers hanging around, with tons of expensive items decoratively placed around,
Sauntering their way out of the building, not minding how extravagant the place looked, men in suits who seemed like bodyguards immediately greeted them.
Continuing at a halt, one bodyguard leisurely opened the door of a grey Lexus car in front of them. The charming lady quickly entered the car, not waiting till the guard fully opened the door.
"Ma'am, you should be more careful," warned the woman who followed her along, calmly entering the car beside the charming lady. "It would be bad if 'he' were to find out that you were hurt."
"What's wrong if I get hurt?" the charming lady sneered. "It's not like that person cares about me, anyway."
"But still—"
"Shut up if you don't want to get fired!" The charming lady raised her voice and glared at the woman beside her.
Despite being scolded, the woman's facial expression didn't change one bit. She still had a formal and composed look on her face.
As the car driver started the car, he politely asked, "Where to, ma'am?"
"Nishi University."
--
The following morning.
"Ryu! Where were you last night?" With Kumiko banging on Ryu's door, she asked loudly.
Waking up because of Kumiko's loud shouting, Ryu lazily walked out of his room and said, "What...?"
"Wher-- Uckk!" Kumiko took a step away from Ryu and covered her nose. "You smell like alcohol! Have you been drinking all night?!"
Ryu was too lazy and tired to reply, so he instead nodded his head and went back to bed, not bothering to close the door.
Aside from Kumiko wanting to know where Ryu had been last night, she wanted him to do some errands for her.
As she saw Ryu go back to sleep, she calmly entered his room, as if nothing had happened the last time she went in, and then looked at his desk.
Upon seeing what was there, the item on the desk caused her eyes to widen. Kumiko walked towards his desk and picked it up.
"Th-This..." Kumiko couldn't help but stutter in curiosity. "Why would he have this?"
Looking at the medicine bottle she was holding, she thought, 'Does he still have problems sleeping?'
--
After a couple of hours, Ryu woke up, went to the bathroom, and headed downstairs.
Hearing the footsteps on the stairs, Kumiko hurriedly said, "Ryu, quickly come and eat."
Fuzzy headed, Ryu went to the dining table, asking, "What time is it?"
Kumiko looked at the clock and replied, "11:40 am."
"HUH?!" Ryu quickly glanced at the clock, and seeing that the short hand had passed 9 am, he quickly rushed up the stairs and went back to his room.
Scanning through his desk, Ryu tried to find the flip phone from last night, but he couldn't remember where he had placed it.
"Where's the phone?!" he anxiously said.
Ryu chaotically removed everything on the table but still hasn't seen it. He checked all the desk drawers, but it wasn't there; only the envelope!
"Ryu, come and eat already!" Kumiko shouted from the kitchen.
"Okay!"
Grabbing the envelope and checking whether the pictures were still there, a voice suddenly came from behind him. "What are you doing?"
"I'm coming," Ryu said, hiding the envelope inside his hoodie, with his back facing Kumiko. He paused for a while, then continued, "I'll come out after I fix something."
"Hurry up. The stew will get cold." Giving Ryu a strange glance, Kumiko said impatiently, then left.
Making sure that Kumiko had left, Ryu pulled one picture out of the envelope and placed it in his pocket. After that, he hid the envelope straight away on top of his wardrobe and went back downstairs.
As Kumiko held a small hot pot towards the table, Ryu raised his brows, saying, "Woah! It must be soybean paste stew."
Looking at the pot up close, Ryu lowered himself and took a deep breath. "It smells fantastic."
"Do you need a bowl?" Kumiko asked, placing the pot on the table.
"Ah, I'll get it," Ryu said.
Sitting on the chair as he passed Kumiko the bowls, she started pouring stew into them.
Constantly stretching his back with his eyes drifting elsewhere, Ryu asked, "Aren't you gonna ask me where I've been all night?"
Without looking at Ryu, Kumiko replied, "I don't need to ask as long as it's not involving something bad."
Giving a bowl of stew to Ryu, Kumiko suddenly asked, her eyes earnestly fixed on him, "Do you know what happened to the Miyazaki family?"