Three days had passed since Yasuo returned home.
He had occasionally left the house but for the most part, he remained indoors, spending time with his mother, talking to the head butler, or trying to pick up hobbies like reading (which nearly made his mother faint in happiness).
He might not have left his home on the fourth day if it wasn't for this text message he received from his childhood friend.
Unlike the friends that he made over at his new city, this friend was a real friend solely because when they were younger, he straight up told Yasuo that his father made him approach Yasuo for the purpose of leeching onto his family.
"Why would you tell me?" Yasuo asked him.
"Because honestly, I'm just pretending to listen to him. I don't really want to be your friend. You're boring. You're good-looking. All the girls in class like you. You also run the fastest. It would make me look worse in comparison if I stood next to you, so for my own sake, I'm just going to pretend to try and befriend you but ultimately fail."
Intrigued by the honesty of this boy, Yasuo immediately wrapped his arm around his shoulder as he was walking away.
Before he could react or say anything, Yasuo announced to the entire classroom that this was his best friend.
And ever since that day, the two were attached to the hips.
The two of them kept in touch but didn't really text or call each other that much. It was only when they were playing video games that they would spend hours catching up.
So when he received the text, he opened it unlike the thousands of texts he had from other "friends" and people who happened to have his number.
[Hey dickhead. Just wanted to let you know that a group of boys is using your name to threaten girls to hang out with them at a karaoke bar. They're claiming that you would bully them and their family if they didn't come.]
Although he had planned to just rest now that he was home, he got up from the couch once he read that.
He sent a text back:
[Are they hanging out at karaoke right now?]
[Yeah.]
[Send the addy. I'll be there.]
His friend on the other side raised an eyebrow and smirked. He quickly sent the address, then rushed to buy popcorn and a drink for the movie that was about to take place.
"I don't care what people think about me," about Yasuo, "but using my name to threaten girls when I'm trying not to be that person I used to be is… wow, the audacity."
Throwing on his jacket, he told the head butler that he was going to head out.
A few seconds later, his car pulled up to the front and the keys were handed back to him.
"Will you be back for dinner, Young Master Yasuo?" the head butler asked.
"I think so, but I'll let you know."
"Understood," he bowed, watching as the black car drove off.
* * *
'What am I doing here?' Soda Miyako wondered.
She was a freshman at college and felt a little out of place. No, she felt a lot out of place.
Born in a small town, she was now attending college in a big city after studying so hard that her nose would bleed in the middle of the night.
Thinking that everything was going to be fine now that she was accepted into the college, she was very wrong.
Firstly, she missed her childhood friend dearly. He was her closest friend whose support was the reason why she was able to succeed in the first place.
But more than a friend, he was her crush.
She's been in love with him since they were just little kids and she told herself that once she made it big in the city, she was going to bring him to live with her. The two of them could start dating, get married, and then have kids.
The only reason she hadn't asked him out yet was that he had told her that she was scared of rejection.
He liked him, she was sure of it. But he grew up poor and was more focused on taking care of his parents than anything else. Only by making it big in the city, becoming rich, and taking care of his parents for him did she believe they would be able to begin dating without him constantly worrying about his family's financial situation.
She was confident for nothing.
The material she was learning in her classes was so hard that even studying while her peers were partying barely helped her pass.
Her roommate snored whenever she slept and although she wished to move out, it took two part-time jobs just to be able to afford rent.
And now, now she was here in a place that she never thought she would be in.
There was a name that everyone at their college knew about. It was a name so notorious that some people treated it like a cursed name that couldn't be repeated three times in front of a mirror.
Otsuka Yasuo.
The only son of the Otsuka family.
This city was practically theirs, as most of the economic flow and traffic went through them.
However, Yasuo wasn't just known for being the heir to the estate. He was known for his history back in high school, where he would spend his days bullying people, stealing their girlfriends, and silencing those who dared to try to fight back.
Although he was gone for three years, leaving for university in a different city, his name was never forgotten.
There were still remnants of his influence and recently, a group of boys claimed to know Yasuo personally.
Using that connection, they would force girls to hang out with them at karaoke bars every single day.
None of the girls who were called out dared to reject because they didn't want to suffer the wrath of offending Yasuo's friends. It would spark the end of their social and maybe even physical lives.
Some girls even went willingly because they already had a history of sleeping around or because they wanted a chance to potentially meet the man who could change their lives with one swipe of his card, Yasuo.
Quiet, a nerd, and sort of a loner, Miyako had overheard about what was happening but never imagined that it would happen to her.
However, when she was studying at the library, one of her few friends approached her and asked her if she wanted to accompany her to hang out with those boys.
"They asked for me?" she nervously asked, knowing what would be at stake if she rejected.
"No, but they told me to invite a friend or two."
"Then—"
Before she could reject, her friend cut her off.
"Before you reject, it's actually not as bad as you think. We just go there, sing, drink, eat some food, hang out, have fun, then we all leave and do our own things. It's nothing bad."
"..."
"Come onnnn, Miyako. You're the only friend I haven't hung out with outside of school. Let's just have some fun tonight. If you don't mess with the vibes, then you can just make an excuse about needing to use the bathroom and leave."
Usually, her determination to focus on her studies and work wouldn't have wavered.
However, the stress had been accumulating for quite some time now, and a part of her wished to finally let out some steam.
Maybe that would help her with her studies later.
"Okay," she agreed.
"Great!" her friend smiled.
Miyako didn't realise that the smile she was looking at wasn't as friendly as she believed it to be.