You woke up on your futon, finally feeling better after a whole day of resting. You thought to yourself that you should avoid getting too flustered and overwhelmed to prevent getting sick again. Thinking about it now, it wasn't the first time you got sick under the same circumstance. You once had experienced the same mishap when you were young.
You slowly got up from your futon and noticed a note right beside your pillow. You picked it up and read it. It seems that Heizou had already left earlier to take care of important things, but he had prepared your breakfast in the kitchen, stored in a warm place to prevent it from getting cold by the time you wake up. How thoughtful of him, you thought.
You then went out of the room to eat your breakfast and prepare to get to work. You still need to make up for your absence yesterday and hope Sango didn't get angry about it.
***
You rushed off to the agency and stopped to catch your breath by the time you arrived by the door. You then opened the door and saw both Sango and Ryuuji inside, the former sitting on her desk and looking into some files while the latter was arranging documents. They both soon noticed your arrival as Sango got up from her seat and went to approach you.
"Feeling better already? You should take another day off to fully recover"
"Ah, don't worry Sango... It wasn't anything serious.." You waved both of your hands on front of her in refusal.
"Is that so? I was beginning to worry that you wouldn't be able to handle things by yourself, you live alone right? Was planning to visit you later after work hours if you didn't come today" She placed both of her arms on her hips while you could sense a slight doubt on her face. Perhaps she wasn't entirely convinced of your quick recovery.
"Sorry to worry you, Sango" You sheepishly chuckled to which she just sighed.
"I'm just glad you're alright. Anyways, we don't have much to do today so you should be able to take it easy for now. You've only just recovered so it's better if you take advantage of the situation right now" You then nodded at her statement as you went to your usual spot in the agency, you grabbed a book from your bag and started reading.
Afternoon came and you had just finished a couple of books out of boredom. Today's quite slow as you had thought. Sango ended up telling you to call it a day so you could head home early and continue resting since I had just recovered. You didn't want to go against her orders so you decided to leave the agency, though you thought of taking a short stroll first since you didn't wanna go straight home immediately.
When you finished your stroll and finally arrived at your doorstep, you were kinda disappointed that you didn't get to meet up with Heizou along the way.
"I guess he's just really busy" You sighed before you entered.
***
A few days had passed, you're currently sitting on your usual spot at the agency while reading a book.
For the past few days, you never got to meet up nor at least see Heizou. You start to wonder if he's busy working on a complex case. Shaking your head, you decided to keep reading to distract yourself, you even had to visit Yae Publishing house from time to time to order a huge list of books in case the waiting will take very long and you don't have any cases to work on.
One thing's for certain, you dearly missed him.
Someone soon came into the agency's door and he seemed to be a Tenryou officer, judging from his uniform.
"Uhh.. Is miss Sango here..?"
"..?" You paused from reading for a moment then glanced up at the man by the door.
"Yes?" You heard your female senior stand up from her seat.
"Uhm.. The name's Owada of the Tenryou Commission, ma'am. We actually need your assistance with something.."
'A Tenryou officer asking for the agency's help? I wonder what kind of case this is..' You thought while still glancing at them.
"An assistance? What's the case about? Mind filling me in the details?"
"Well... One of our well-renowned officers, Shikanoin Heizou.. He is missing for a while now and we're desperately in need of him at the police station"
You could feel Sango's disinterest starting to show even though you're not too near from her.
"And when was the last time you saw him exactly?"
"The last we saw him was after he reported that he has solved a marital issue. He didn't show up to the police station for a couple of days right after that day... we're beginning to worry that something might've happened"
You couldn't believe your ears and you were holding the urge to show an obvious expression on your face. The fact that you're hearing about Heizou going missing is unbelievable, not to mention that it would be the last thing you'd ever hear from someone else's mouth.
After a long moment of pause, Sango then finally gave her answer. "I'm pretty sure that Shikanoin is off somewhere, investigating something ridiculous. So I'm sorry to say but—"
"I-I'll take the case!" You suddenly got up from your seat out of impulse, even dropped the book you were reading from your lap.
Everyone in the room was dumbfounded at your sudden interruption, though it gave the Tenryou officer an expression of relief. "Thank you so much for your help! Please come to the police station once you have found more information about him" And with that, the officer then turned away to leave.
"y/n, mind explaining yourself?" Sango's tone was so serious that her words held quite the weight on you. You nervously gulped as you just realized that you didn't think this through and glanced down to the floor as you couldn't give her an answer. You already gave your word to the detective that you wouldn't say anything about the both of you meeting together behind your senior's back.
"I already warned you and I'll say this again. You shouldn't involve yourself with that brat. What made you mindlessly accept this commission without my permission? Answer me, y/n"
"I... I just.. want to help.." It was all you could say as you couldn't even manage to make eye contact with her.
Everything was silent, not in an awkward way, but rather felt heavier and more pressuring. The atmosphere felt so heavy that you slowly could feel it suffocating you.
"Hmph. He's your problem now. Take your belongings and go" She turned away from you and walked out of the agency. You stood there in silence, reflecting on how your reckless decision-making lead you to this mess.
"H-Hey wait! Sango!" Ryuuji then went out to follow her out of the building. Now it's just you, all alone.
Was this the right decision? Will I regret this?
So many questions filled up your mind as you could feel something warm and wet flowing down your cheeks.