I woke up in the afternoon.
And my body felt lighter than ever.
I checked my phone.
A couple of messages from Kurumi.
"Hey. I hope you're ok. Enjoy your rest, babe. ♥️"
Then some hours later.
"I can't come at your place tonight. 😔 Something came up. 😭"
For some reason, it sounds pretty serious…
Will ask her about it later.
One from Suzuki.
"You ok, idiot? Kurumi told me you're sick. 💀 Drank too much or something?"
If only I drank, that would've been good.
Of course, you're never gonna know that.
I can't risk another Inazuki situation, where someone gets too close and finds out too much about me.
Inazuki got a delinquent boyfriend and she still found my lifestyle too much for her reputation.
"Yeah, I got wrecked," I typed back.
Seen.
Almost immediately.
And she didn't feel like saying anything.
Ok.
Reasonable.
Then, I replied to Kurumi.
"Aight. I just woke up. I miss you, let me know what you up to when you can. I hope everything's ok. Take care, babe. 🖤"
One tick.
Weird…
Her phone is off or is she somewhere with no signal?
As my mind raced through all the possibilities, I heard a knock on the door.
I opened.
Suzuki let herself in like she didn't need an excuse to say more.
Then, she looked over at me.
"You look like shit," she said.
"Yeah. Heard that one before."
She placed a hand on her hip.
"You're lucky you have me as your neighbor," she said.
You know what? I'm not even gonna deny it.
She looked at me for a few more seconds.
"You actually okay?"
"Yeah. I feel better now."
"Kurumi said you could barely even get out of bed."
"I couldn't."
Suzuki raised an eyebrow.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously."
She looked me over again, like she was trying to figure out whether I was lying.
Then she sighed.
"Idiot…"
"I've been called worse."
"I know."
She walked further inside and glanced around the apartment.
"So…"
She turned back toward me.
"How are things with Kurumi now?... What happened after I left?"
I raised an eyebrow.
"Well, after you left she magically wasn't jealous anymore. She said she came here cause she wanted us to make up."
I shrugged.
"So we're fine now."
Suzuki stared at me for a moment.
"That's it?"
"What?"
"You two were basically at each other's throats, and now you're just… fine?"
"Pretty much."
She sighed.
"Seriously, Shiba-kun…"
"What?"
"You're way too casual about this stuff."
I crossed my arms.
"Sorry I don't have your experience in dealing with people, I'm a loner."
She frowned.
"You stopped being a loner a long time ago, idiot."
Ok.
Fair.
But if I didn't meet you, I'd still be a nobody.
The thought sat uncomfortably in my chest.
I don't know what kind of face I was making, but I could've sworn my heart skipped a beat.
"Yeah… Thanks to you."
Suzuki blinked.
Then she looked away.
"...You're welcome, I guess."
Her voice sounded quieter than usual.
A second later, she looked back at me.
"Don't get all sentimental on me now."
I almost laughed.
"There she is."
Suzuki sighed.
"Yeah, you can say I played a part in all of this."
She smiled a little.
"But honestly, you made it yourself."
She paused.
"I mean, I never thought things would turn out like this when I first met you."
She looked away for a moment.
"I'm glad they did, though."
Then she looked back at me.
"You kinda taught me something too, y'know?"
"What?"
"Not to judge someone just because of what everyone else says about them."
She shrugged.
"So… I guess I'm glad I didn't judge the book by its cover."
She smiled.
"Even if the book turned out to be a just a
massive idiot."
Maybe the me you met wasn't as bad as the rumors say, but I was just a lonely kid.
Flash forward a year and my criminal record far surpasses whatever fake bullshit my delinquent reputation established about me.
Inazuki saw this firsthand.
But, unlike Inazuki, you're the reason everything happened.
So that means, yeah, you all should've just judged the book by the cover.
Cause now it's hard for me to draw a new cover just to hide that I've actually become worse than those dumb ass rumors could ever paint me.
I'm a musical artist, not a drawing one.
Suzuki noticed my silence.
"Anyway… what I wanted to say is…"
She hesitated, looking away for a second.
"Just… be careful with Kurumi, okay?"
I looked at her.
"What?"
"You heard me."
She crossed her arms, avoiding my eyes.
"I'm not saying you should break up with her or anything. That's your business."
She paused.
"But she's… intense."
"That's one way to put it."
"Exactly."
She nodded like she just proved her point.
"And you're an idiot."
"Thanks."
"So don't let yourself get dragged into something stupid just because you think you can handle it."
She finally looked at me.
"You're already dealing with enough crap. You don't need more."
I stared at her for a moment.
"Are you worried about me?"
She immediately frowned.
"Obviously I'm worried, idiot. Why else would I be standing in your apartment talking to you about your girlfriend?"
"Fair."
She looked away again, cheeks faintly red.
"Just… don't do anything stupid, okay?"
I almost smiled.
"Can't promise that."
"Of course you can't."
She sighed.
"That's why I'm telling you."
I nodded.
She turned to me.
"I still think it's weird that Kurumi got close to you in the first place. It kinda felt like she was just trying to get back at me."
Yeah, I used to think that too.
But she was my producer's niece, and she hung around the bar I used to work at.
If you only knew that much, it was pretty easy to connect the dots and assume the worst.
"She hung around in the bar I worked for. That doesn't mean anything. Kurumi hangs around in bars a lot."
Suzuki sweatdropped.
"Yeah, I know. That's kinda the problem."
She sighed.
"Honestly, I didn't expect you two to actually end up together."
"Yeah. Me neither."
Suzuki looked away for a moment before continuing.
"I don't think I know Kurumi as well as you do. We're just two girls the label shoved into the same group, and we don't exactly click."
She shrugged.
"So I can't sit here and tell you she's faking it or something."
A short pause.
"Maybe she's serious about you. Maybe she's not."
She looked back at me.
"But that's not really the point."
I raised an eyebrow.
"The point is…"
She hesitated, like she was already regretting asking.
"Are you actually happy with her?"
…
Damn.
Am I happy with Kurumi?
I never once thought about it like that.
I thought about whether she liked me. Whether we're actually together.
Whether she was jealous. Whether she'll get pissed at me.
But happy?
I guess that one never made the list.
I didn't know what kind of face I was making, but Suzuki's expression softened.
"You don't have to answer me."
She looked straight at me.
"Just answer yourself, Shiba-kun."
I stared at her for a few seconds.
"...Yeah."
She raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah what?"
"I'll think about it."
She smiled faintly.
"Good."
Then she grabbed her bag and headed for the door.
"Don't think too hard, though. Your brain might explode."
"Fuck you."
"There. You're back to normal."
She opened the door.
"See you at school, idiot."
"Yeah. See you, Suzuki."
The door closed behind her.
I stood there in silence.
Am I happy with Kurumi?
For once, I didn't have an answer.
And then, my phone started ringing.
Tetsu.
"Kid. I got some field work. It's urgent, one of our men is down. Pay is gonna be huge. 💸"
Field work?
I raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah. I got nothing better to do anyway," I wrote back.
A few seconds.
"Good. I'll send an Uber after you. We'll talk the details at the location".
Damn.
Top secrecy, huh?
Feels like a kidnapping.
"You get ¥400k, by the way."
He deleted the message as soon as I saw it.
Okay. That's a lot of money for one job.
Time to see what this shit's about.
I went out into the hallway to smoke a cigarette until my Uber came.
It didn't take too long.
About 5 minutes later, the car was already downstairs.
I crushed the cigarette under my sneaker and got in.
We drove out through the more familiar parts of Matsumoto first.
Yokomachi faded behind us, the streets gradually getting quieter as we moved through residential neighborhoods.
It wasn't exactly a long ride.
About 10 minutes later, we reached Arigasaki.
The difference was pretty obvious.
The streets started climbing, and the houses got bigger.
Detached homes sat behind fences and hedges, some of them with actual yards instead of whatever tiny patch of concrete most people had to work with.
Everything looked quieter up here.
Cleaner, too.
The kind of place where people had enough money to complain about the view from their balcony.
The richest hood in Matsumoto.
The Uber stopped a little further up the hill.
So this was the place.
I got out and looked around.
The neighborhood was quiet.
Too quiet, honestly.
Nice houses sat along the slope, most of them surrounded by fences, hedges, or little gardens. Some had cars parked neatly in front. Others were scattered farther back, hidden behind trees.
I shoved my hands into my pockets and started walking.
Tetsu said he's gonna be waiting behind the house.
A few minutes later, I found the place.
There were 3 people standing near the back.
Tetsu.
Cobra.
And Johnny.
Okay… From the looks of it, something big was going down.
And, from what I could tell, this would be my first time doing actual field work.
Lookout jobs didn't really count. I was just standing around while other people did the dirty work.
But look at me now. Walking into the field with the kind of indifference that would've made the old me shit his pants.
Guess I've gotten used to this crap.
I walked over to them.
Cobra noticed me first.
"Yo, kid. What's up? Ready for your first real job?"
"Not really. But I'll get it done."
He laughed.
"That's what I like to hear. Just don't get cocky. Rookies tend to fuck things up when they think they've got it figured out."
"Good to know."
"I'm serious, kid."
"Yeah, I know. I'll try not to ruin your day."
Cobra snorted.
Tetsu chuckled before cutting in.
"Alright, leave the kid alone. He just got here."
Cobra raised his hands.
"I'm just giving him some advice."
"Sure you are."
Tetsu turned to me.
"Anyway, I'm guessing you've got questions."
I shrugged.
"Yeah. For starters, what the fuck am I supposed to do?"
Johnny burst out laughing.
"Hold on. You agreed to the job without even knowing what it was?"
"Pretty much."
He looked at Tetsu, grinning.
"You're bringing him out here without telling him shit?"
"I told him it was field work."
"That's not telling him shit."
"Then stop asking stupid questions and let me explain."
Johnny laughed again, shaking his head.
I looked between them.
"Glad we're all having fun. Could someone tell me what I'm actually here for?"
Tetsu sighed.
"Alright, see that house? Belongs to Kuroda Masanori. He's a Matsumoto city councilor."
I glanced back at the house.
Then at Tetsu.
"...And we're just gonna rob a fucking politician?"
"Well, duh. He owes us money."
I stared at him.
"Right. My bad. Wouldn't want to call it robbery when there's a debt involved."
Tetsu laughed.
"Yeah. So we're collecting. Gold. Jewelry. Paintings. Anything worth taking."
Duly noted.
"Johnny will handle security. Cobra will handle the cameras. And you, kid, you're gonna take as much as you can carry."
Right. So I was the thief.
Makes sense, I guess. I'm the rookie, and nobody's trusting me with anything complicated yet.
Pretty fitting for my XP, too.
Besides, after what happened with Yabai, Tetsu already made it clear that no killing jobs were ever coming my way.
So, yeah. Today it's a little breaking and entering to collect a debt.
Just a business day for these guys.
Tetsu finished explaining the plan, and everyone got ready to move.
Cobra looked way too comfortable with this shit. Johnny, too.
And then there was me.
My first actual field job, and I was about to break into a city councilor's house to collect a debt for the yakuza.
What the fuck happened to my life?
Well, at least the pay was good.
I took a breath and followed the others.
Time to earn my ¥400K.