Arata was driving towards the pastry shop. What someone could easily observe is that the location of the patisserie is in a pretty secluded street. And as obvious as it is, there were barely any people outside.
"Huh… I really wonder who the gal that Ken knows is." Arata muttered.
Having arrived at his destination, Arata took his phone out to look at the time. Currently, it is 2:10 in the middle of the night. His appointment with the mysterious girl was supposed to be at 2:20 am. He still had about ten minutes to spend freely.
He decided to open the messaging application to look at the messages he received. While he was talking to Ken and driving, he received a few more messages.
He hasn't received any more messages from Arisu, however he got one from Johnny.
Arata opened the conversation with Arisu.
22:13: [Hey, where did you go?]
22:17: [Please write back asap.]
22:45: [If you don't write back, I'll call you.]
23:12: [Okay…]
23:34: [Why did you reject my call?]
23:46: [I see what you are doing. Lying to me in my face, and then you don't even try to explain yourself?]
00:34: [I know that Akira is not sleeping over with any of his friends. I know that because I contacted and asked them. So? When are you going to come home and explain yourself?]
01:22: [I see you're online.]
01:26: [Is it really that hard to reply to your big sister?]
01:38: [Please, for the love of god, reply or you won't really like what'll happen next.]
02:00: [I just searched Akira's room and found his phone. Do you really want to say that he went to a friend's house, without his phone, which is actually just a lie?]
Upon reading the messages from Arisu, Arata was left temporarily speechless.
(Umm… What do I even reply? I didn't expect her to catch me lying. I mean, who even has the contacts of their brother's friends…)
After thinking for a while, he decided to just leave her on read. Going back to the main page of the application where you can choose conversations, he tapped on his conversation with Johnny.
21:52: [What is up with that message? Of course, I will do what you asked of me but still, is everything alright?]
00:48: [Hey… Your sister just called me, asking if I was together with you. She sounded pretty mad, did something happen?]
When he read Johnny's messages, Arata once again felt shocked.
(Okay… Contacting Akira's friends is one thing... But, how did she get the contact information of Johnny? I don't remember giving her it, and I don't think they ever talked with each other.)
[No… Everything's alright. Please, proceed accordingly in case I don't appear next week.] wrote Arata, and sent it.
Arata spent those 10 minutes on his phone, and the time for the meeting slowly arrived. Getting out of the car, he crossed the street and made it to the pastry shop's entrance.
The patisserie's exterior looked rather modern, full of windows. In front of the entrance, there were some flowers in a pot on each side. Above the entrance, the shop's sign could be seen.
Although there were no lights turned on inside the building, Arata still tried to open the door, and with no surprise, it opened.
The inside of the shop was just as you would expect. Some pair of chairs and tables, the counter which usually had cakes, tarts, pastries. There were a few shelves on the wall.
Arata started walking in, and called out.
"Hello?"
But he didn't get any response.
He went beside the counter, going inside the kitchen. There wasn't anyone in there either.
"What the heck man…"
(Did Ken really just prank me? As far as I can see, there isn't anyone inside of this building. If that is true however, it's pretty strange why the entrance door would be left open. Unless… This was a trap?)
Suddenly, something touched Arata's neck from behind. Something sharp, a knife.
"Woah, woah, I am not an intruder."
Arata quickly realized the situation he was in, and held his arms up in the air, to show that he meant no harm.
"Who sent you?" a cold, feminine voice could be heard from behind.
"It was my friend Ken, I asked him if he could introduce me to someone who could get me some guns." frantically said Arata.
"Oh… So you're the guy Ken told me is coming. Sorry about that, I thought you were a burglar. You know, you can never be too safe"
"It's all good…"
The woman apologized, and quickly retreated the knife that was touching Arata's neck.
"Okay, follow me."
She entered the kitchen, and started fiddling with something on the wall. A few moments later, some stairs appeared, leading to the underground.
(I wonder where she is taking me…)
Walking for a few seconds, they reached a door. The woman took out some keys and unlocked the door, making her way behind the counter.
Entering it, the lights suddenly turned on. Inside the room, guns could be seen everywhere. From the walls, to the counter, and there was ammunition on some shelves behind her.
As there finally was some source of light, Arata could finally see the appearance of the mysterious girl.
The girl had long, beautiful glossy hair which reached well below her shoulders. She had a flowery accessory on the right side of her hair. Just by looking at her blue deep eyes, you would be reminded of the deep ocean. They were that beautiful.
The woman was someone Arata knew pretty well. It was his classmate, Rem.