If one were to measure all the choices in the world, perhaps one of the heaviest man should ever make was whether to face the truth or to keep living in delusion. It was only a simple matter of choosing one between two roads, but the consequence lying in wait at the end of each way could be fulfillment or regret. Of course, most of the times it would be easier to delude oneself since the truth was often far too painful to bear. Some people even said if we kept believing in lies as truth, eventually they would become the truth, as well.
"…-chan…"
At this moment, this was exactly the question I had been asking to myself. Should I keep pretending that this delusion was true or should I delve further until I saw the truth with my own eyes? It was cowardly to keep deluding myself, I know, but truthfully it was the first time I felt so afraid of my belief to be betrayed. Never in my entire life time had I experienced something like this and I just couldn't make the choice, even after having all these six months to think for myself. I felt like my ability to judge was clouded. This was the first time my mind was so muddled that I couldn't determine which one was right and which one was wrong.
"Dai-chan!"
A bubbly voice burst right in front of my face as though slapping me wide awake. Before me was a woman with pink hair, standing with both hands on her waist as she glared at me with her round, pink-colored eyes. Such an impatient, yet confused expression was no longer unfamiliar to my eyes. I had seen this face millions of times since we were both tiny brats.
"Why are you just standing there? I thought I've told you countless times that they've been waiting for us," she complained with puckered lips, but it was before long that her frowning face changed into one painted with concern, "Are you feeling alright? It doesn't hurt anymore, does it?"
Her eyes shifted to my left shoulder. I didn't have to be a psychic to know what was going on in that pretty lil' head of her and I could even hear her next words in my mind already.
"There shouldn't be anything to worry about. The doctor said it's fully healed, so you can return to the force and resume your regular activities just fine," she said with a reassuring smile, confirming all my guesses completely, "It's too bad that it would leave a permanent scar, though."
There was nothing I could say to that, so I decided to ignore her and continue walking. With her bubbly voice yelling at me to wait, I took my first step in the past six months into the towering headquarters standing before us.
Yeah… I finally returned. Truthfully I had been wanting to ask myself of why I came back to this place. If I didn't return, I wouldn't have to face the risk of having what I believed betrayed should the truth appeared to be the opposite of what I had hoped. If I didn't come back here, I could believe whatever it was I wanted to believe and made myself content with it. But still… I returned to this place. I didn't want to admit it, but could it be that somewhere in my heart, I did want to find him again and this time, hear the truth straight from his own mouth?
"Dai-chan, let's go?" a nudge on my arm made me turned aside and found that woman already by my side, looking at me as though she could read my mind just like I could read hers. "Come on. The others are waiting."
We walked through the front door, passed the main lobby and took the elevator up. Soon, we found ourselves in the bustling hallway. It had been awhile since I last stood here, but to be honest it didn't change at all. The sound of footsteps resounded throughout the entire place as dozens pairs of feet were walking from one corner to the other, entering and exiting the rooms lining along the way one after another. Sometimes there would be several fellows with their hands bound in handcuffed, walking with their heads down between two officers. Sometimes there would be a group of officers dashing through the hallway as they rushed to have their orders done. Unless the city was free from all sorts of crimes – which was very unlikely even when the world ended — perhaps this place would never cease to be lively for 24 hours, 7 days a week.
"Isn't that Aomine? Haven't seen him these past few months…"
Despite the lively atmosphere, my ears didn't fail to catch someone's voice mentioning my name. It was at that moment I noticed dozens pairs of eyes had their sight on me. They did it silently and if possible, secretly, but only a complete airhead wouldn't notice if that many people all of a sudden turned their gazes on you. Some of them, however, apparently thought they could also talk about me secretly, as well. These two guys standing near the vending machine were proofs of it.
"You didn't know? He got shot on the shoulder during the last raid with his team, shattered his bones in that part and needed to put on the sling for awhile."
"I guess even Aomine got injured, huh…"
If they had time to talk about other people, they'd better start working their asses off…was what I wanted to say, but I had grown far too old for that, unless I was still my high school self from ten years ago. It would be better to just ignore them, so I continued walking without sparring them even a single glance.
Sadly, though… Those guys weren't the only ones with too much free time around here.
"Aomine-san is finally back? It's been half a year since that failed raid, isn't it?" said a female officer standing outside the restroom with a small group of her colleagues, or should I say "fellow gossipers"? It seemed that they were so immersed in their talks that they didn't even notice the object of their conversation was walking right past them.
"It's hard to imagine there are criminals out there who can outsmart Aomine-san and his team. They're the best we ever have here. Or have we put too much expectation on them?"
"Outsmart? Wasn't it because their plans were revealed?"
I took a side glance at the pink-haired woman walking next to me. She appeared to understand what I meant to say as a bitter smile drawn itself on her lips. Exhaling a long sigh, she slightly brushed the hair covering her left ear while shifting her glance to the group of gossipers.
"We've been keeping it confidential," she replied in a small voice as not to let the people walking around us to hear what she was about to say, "But such a well-planned raid like that was too good of a rumor to be left alone, especially if it ended in a failure even after having the so-called 'best team' to work on it."
"Satsuki… So you're saying they just pop out some random rumor and it just happen to be spot on?" I said without looking at her, but from the atmosphere she was emitting I knew it was true, even though she was reluctant to admit it.
"Well… There aren't a lot of explanations people could think of why such a great team could fail to accomplish a plan even after thorough preparations," she let out a sigh. As though trying to lighten up the atmosphere, however, she quickly posed a smile and spoke with her usual bubbly voice. "But you know, Dai-chan, rumors usually die down quickly if you just ignore them, so maybe you shouldn't put too much thought into it."
I had nothing to say to such typical answer, but she stared at me as though finding my silence confusing before a grey-colored double door came within our sight. Satsuki took a few steps forward ahead of me, knocking the door before opening it slightly, enough for her head to peek through.
"Excuse me. I brought him," she announced to those waiting inside with her bubbly voice. Considering her casual attitude, it couldn't be any other but them behind that door. Just the thought of it was enough to make me yawn out of boredom right on the spot, and as expected that woman quickly turned back at me with both hands on her hips. "Come on, Dai-chan, be quick! Everyone's already in the meeting room."
Meeting room, she said… It wasn't like that place was anything like the main auditorium for the entire divisions to gather during important meetings. If I had to put it into words, it would be a mere "discussion room". I hadn't even taken a step forward, but in the back of my mind I could clearly saw that so-called meeting room I was approaching. Minimum decorations, rectangular wooden table in the middle of it with several chairs… The shelves were filled with general not-so-important documents and there was a whiteboard, as well. Not even ten people could fit inside. That guy must be sitting on a smaller desk next to the whiteboard and that other guy standing beside him, and the other two would be sitting across each other on the wooden table.
"Ah, the ace detective has finally returned. Welcome back, Aomine."
A greeting said in a Kansai dialect; a nostalgic, yet unpleasant voice despite the friendly tone. In the first place, it was only nostalgic because I had been away for half a year. Those squinted eyes were almost smiling behind his pair of glasses along with his lips. It was just as I thought. He was sitting there on a small desk next to the whiteboard, looking straight at me who was standing by the entrance. I didn't answer; there was no need for me to. It wasn't like I hate him. I just didn't want to get too friendly with that guy although he was actually very capable in his job.
I had a quick scan across the room and it was exactly as I imagined. Each and every single one of them were right in the places I expected them would be. Next to the evil glasses was that considerably silent guy, sitting on the chairs around the table was that loud guy and… Ah, there was Ryou. I'd ask him to make lunch for me again tomorrow.
"How's the examination going, Momoi?" the evil glasses, Imayoshi, shifted his sight to Satsuki. He probably knew he wouldn't get me to talk, so he asked her instead. I guess these people all considered her as my spokeswoman, if not mind reader.
"It was alright. The doctor said Dai-chan's wound has already healed, but he still has to be careful not to put too much burden on it," she said while slightly putting a meaningful glance at me, "As long as he doesn't overexert himself, he would be alright."
An advice I'd heard far too often but rarely adhered. In the back of my mind, I knew the limit of which I shouldn't have crossed but for some reason I ended up not listening even to my own self. I guess this time I finally reaped what I sow, huh?
"Well, that's good news. At least now we have our ace back in the team, don't you think so, Susa?" Imayoshi shifted his glance to the silent guy with dark brown hair beside him who simply looked back at him before giving a nod.
"You're right," he answered in a short sentence, enough to get his point across but not quite enough to show whether he actually cared or not. I swore to god, these formalities were straight out boring the hell out of me. If they didn't really care, they shouldn't waste their time with these stupid talks and go straight to the point instead.
With this thought in mind, I pulled a chair next to Ryou and settled down. The timid guy freaked out a bit when the thump echoed across the room. Well, who cares…
"Enough about the welcoming chit-chat," I said bluntly, crossing my legs as I fixed my position on the chair, "I thought you're gonna brief me on the stuffs I've been missing out during my absence."
I didn't even have to waste my energy to look at the noisy guy sitting right across me to flare up and stood up while slamming the table with both hands. Man, I could even see veins popping out on his temple.
"You! And here we are worrying about your injuries, but it seems that you're as ungrateful as ever, huh?!" he abruptly leaned forward as though trying to crush my face with his glares alone.
"Now, now, calm down Wakamatsu," Imayoshi spoke with an ever so composed demeanor as usual before shifting his gaze at me, "We did leave him out in the dark these past few months. So now, why don't we all sit down and listen to the summary of the latest reports? Sakurai, if you will."
"Y-Yes, right away, Sir!" awkwardly and nervously as always, Ryou who had been fidgeting in his seat next to me stood up abruptly before scrambling to put the papers on his hands in order. Despite his nervousness, however, the notes on it were surprisingly neat.
"Sakurai-kun, you don't have to be so nervous. We're the only ones listening," Satsuki giggled as she pulled a chair and sat across him.
"R-Right! Well then… I'll begin…" Ryou replied, loud and clear, as though he was just given an order straight from his boss. Holding the papers tight on his hands, he began to read the first paragraph. "This report begins after the end of January, immediately after our last raid failed to capture the group of yakuza responsible in drugs trafficking with the Triads in Hong Kong. Aside of their existing business with international markets, approximately a month after the raid we discovered that they have begun to expand their illegal business to local dealers who then distributed the items to smaller groups and individual consumers."
I could feel the entire room fell into complete silence when the report was being read. Ryou slightly glanced at me as he flipped the paper to the next page. I had no idea why, but it seemed that he was checking if I was actually listening or not. When he saw that I was staring at him as the other guys did, he looked back to the papers and resumed talking.
"In the past six months during Aomine-san's absence, we managed to arrest four local dealers associated with these yakuza. However, each and every single one of them stated that they have never made direct contact with the members of the yakuza. We—"
"So you're saying that these guys you caught didn't even know who they got the drugs from?" I cut him before he finished reading the report. The timid guy was obviously startled, but he quickly attempted to regain his composure and answered.
"I… I suppose, yes—"
"Maybe you didn't quite hear me. I'm not asking for you assumptions, Ryou," once again, I cut his line, "I was asking you this: Do these guys you have caught know from who they got the drugs from?"
"Ah, s-s-sorry! I didn't mean to—" he began to freak out, but I didn't shift my sight away from him. I didn't know if he realized the heavy emphasize I had put in my words, but instead of running into his usual apologizing mode, he gulped once and continued talking although I could see his hands were shaking. "Y-Yes, according to the result of our interrogation, the dealers only knew the drugs came from a yakuza group, but they didn't know exactly which group."
"Then why did you guys put their names in this report? How did you know if they were related to that particular case? They could've been from any other drugs trafficking cases. We have tons of those in this town," I pressed further.
"About that, allow me to elaborate," Imayoshi raised a hand, signaling that he would be taking over. As Ryou settled back down on his chair, the evil glasses stood from the desk he had been sitting on and approached the table. "Indeed, if we are to sum up the report, we could say that the local dealers all got their hands on these drugs through a middleman before distributing them. There is no decisive evidence that they are related to this case we're working on, although we do have a couple of clues."
He looked over his shoulder and the silent guy, Susa, took a small box which had been sitting on the desk and handed it over to Imayoshi. The evil glasses then picked up a tiny, transparent plastic bag from the box. Inside were several small red pills.
"These are the goods distributed by the local dealers we arrested," he explained, "It's true that there are a lot of crimes involving various gangs and yakuza groups in this town, but there could only be one group responsible for this type of drug."
I didn't need to have him explaining things for me. I knew those red pills; I knew them far too well. I had been working for two years to solve the mystery of its distribution chain and it was also the sole reason of this hole on my left shoulder. If there was anyone in this town who distributed these accursed stuffs to local dealers, it could only be them.
"But still… This is only circumstantial evidence. You can't just link anyone to some case just because circumstances seem to be pointing at them," I replied. The moment I said these words, I could feel every pair of eyes in the room was turning at me. I myself couldn't help but wonder why I said these words, even though I knew very well that he was saying the truth. They probably had the same thought as me, huh?
"…Well, yes, that is true. Circumstantial evidences are not enough to link someone or some groups to a case, let alone arresting them for it," Imayoshi fixed the position of his glasses, "But I wonder if you would still say that after you see the second clue."
He picked up another item from the box, throwing it on the table in such a way that it would slide off to my direction. It was a rather blurry photograph, probably snapped by one of the street cameras. I didn't expect to see anything outstanding from such a picture, but the moment I caught the image printed on it, my eyes flew opened.
There were two men standing across each other, half hidden by a wall which seemed to be one side of an alley between two buildings. From the small text on the bottom right corner of the picture, the photograph was snapped around midnight a couple of months ago. Naturally, it was a bit dark but at least the face of the man facing the camera was pretty clear. It was the first dealer the team had arrested. He was seen receiving a package from the other man whose face could not be identified as he was standing with his back to the camera. Only his bright golden hair distinguished his appearance from the rather dim surroundings.
I was still fixated on the picture when Imayoshi slid off three more photographs towards me. Each was printed with the picture with the second, third and fourth dealer respectively in practically the same condition as the first one. Half hidden in a dark alley, they were all seen receiving a package from a golden-haired man who was standing with his back facing the camera.
"But of course, these are still insufficient to be called decisive evidence," Imayoshi broke the silence as I felt he purposely fixed his stare at me, "After all, there must be quite a lot of man with this hair color and this hair style and posture and height in this town. We do not have any proof that it was him, so even with this picture we would not be able to link that group to this case."
A sudden wave of irritation immediately rose inside me. I lifted my face, almost ready to snap at his seemingly on-purpose provocation, but this time I saw no smile on his face. He was only looking at me silently, together with the rest of the people gathering in this room and at that moment, I realized that I was wrong.
It wasn't a provocation. They were simply waiting…waiting to hear what kind of answer I would say after I had seen that figure captured in the photograph. And by doing so, they handed down the last verdict for me to face the truth.
"…Fine. So what are you planning to do now?"
Upon hearing my question, they briefly glanced at each other before Imayoshi gave a slight nod towards Wakamatsu who looked back at me before letting out a long sigh as he fixed his position on the chair.
"Well, we've asked about this blond guy to the other dealers we've arrested. They all admitted that they got the drugs from this guy, so now we have a suspect," he said while scratching the back of his head, "But the problem is, our personal experiences won't be accepted as evidence so if we want to wipe them out, we will have to proof that this guy is really part of that yakuza group."
"Or we catch them in the act, red-handed," Susa, who had remained silent for awhile, suddenly popped into the conversation without even so much as a twitch from his original position. He looked at Imayoshi. "Isn't that what you said before, Imayoshi?"
"Yes, indeed," the guy whose name was mentioned replied. A meaningful smile decorated his face as he fixed his glasses and stared at me from behind the pair of spectacles. "But of course, the later means we will have to set up a large raid once again, just like before. We'd catch big fish, but the risks are no less small. For now, I'd say we hunt for smaller fish with smaller risk to lure in the big one later. What do you say, Aomine?"
In fact, there was no need to ask mine or anyone's opinion. He was the leader of this squad, so whatever he said would be orders for us, no matter how ridiculous, just like how he ordered the entire team – including Satsuki – not to provide me with even the slightest bit of information of the case's progress after that last raid until he deemed I had cooled myself down, which was today after half a year had passed. But now this guy deliberately passed the baton to me. He wasn't letting me make the decision. Once again he was just testing me, testing my determination in order to make sure I wouldn't cause the plan to go haywire, much like before.
"D-Dai-chan, where are you going?" Satsuki's flustered voice burst as I walked away towards the door. She quickly stood from her seat and dashed to my side, almost as though she was trying to block the way out. "We're not finished talking yet, are we? Let's at least listen to the plan first."
"Plan? Haven't the evil glasses there just said it? Which part of it is not clear to you?" I returned her look. She was about to protest but before she could say another word, Imayoshi already cut her line.
"As always, not even a bit of respect towards your superior, huh?" he let out a long sigh purposely, making up a disappointed face at the same time although he quickly covered it up with his usual smirk as he chuckled, "Well, it doesn't matter as long as you understand what you have to do. We will also do our part, so I hope you'd be back with a promising result. You're the ace, after all."
It felt nostalgic to be able to sit on my car again, holding the steering wheel after all those months of total rest. But unlike meeting all those guys, this was a good nostalgic feeling. I thought I would be rather clumsy after not driving for such a long time, but it appeared that my body remembered the way everything worked so it was all cool. Not long after I got a hold of this ride, we were already dashing on the road without problems.
I drove the car to the place where the first dealer was caught in the camera. Revisiting a crime scene which had been cleared by the forensic team weeks, and even months ago was typically useless, but this time I had no choice. Right before I left, Satsuki had insisted that I brought a copy of the full report with me, but I refused. All these six months and they only managed to dig up very few clues – which they had presented to be just a while ago – so despite feeling completely skeptical that there would be any merit in doing this, I continued driving until I reached the said destination.
BEEP! BEEP!
Something vibrated in my pocket along with the beeping noise. Must be Satsuki… I thought of stopping a bit to check my phone but it seemed that I was already close to the first crime scene, so I left it be.
Small stores were lining on both sides of the streets. Unlike the main road, this area was a little bit further into the suburb so there weren't that many people around. Quite the perfect place for transaction, if I might say, but also risky. All of these stores were most likely owned by individuals; they were family businesses. In this kind of neighborhood, it was not rare for even the slightest occurrence to become rumors between the residents, let alone something as suspicious as two guys meeting up in a dark alley at night. Were they absolutely sure they wouldn't be discovered or just plain stupid? But in any case, they were caught in action by the camera so it didn't matter anymore.
BEEP! BEEP!
My phone rang and vibrated once again at the same time the destination was right in front of me. I parked my car by the side of the road, close to the street camera that caught the crime in action. When I took out my phone, its light was still on and the wallpaper was clearly displayed in plain sight. For the last time in these past six months, I couldn't help but wonder why I was still keeping the same picture. There had been many times when I tried to change it with other, completely unrelated pictures but in the end, I could never to bring myself to do it and I despised myself for being unable to let go of it.
Just how big of an influence does that guy have on my life?
I pressed my forehead onto the steering wheel and exhaled a long sigh. When I shifted my glance aside, the view of the street camera came within my sight. It was standing in front of a small store. The way it was positioned made the viewfinder capable of including a bit of the alley's inner part into its range of coverage. It was such a narrow and gloomy place, that alley. It would never attract the passerby's attention since no one would bother looking into such a filthy place. These people probably thought the two guys doing transaction as nothing more than random thugs whom they shouldn't mess around with unless they wanted to get into trouble.
Just like that guy…
Not good. Not him again. I shouldn't be thinking about this anymore. I knew this very well, but looking at that dark, dirty alley, my mind immediately wandered off to that night one and a half year ago.
It was the last Friday of the month and it was raining hard with thunders blaring in the sky, almost as though a storm was coming. It was such a downpour that no one was walking on the streets and there weren't even that many cars passing by. In the middle of such restless night, that guy was lying there in a dark dirty alley, much like this one. If it weren't for his bright golden hair, he would've blended in with the gloomy surroundings that no one would even noticed he was there. Even now I still had no idea what pushed me to stop my car and ran towards him despite knowing very well that I would get drenched from head to toe. He was literally covered with bruises and cuts and his skin was cold as ice. He didn't respond when I called him and tried to shake his body. If it weren't for the weak pulse I felt on his wrist, perhaps I would've thought he was a goner.
Naturally, I brought him to the hospital and made sure he was treated properly for all of his wounds. However, thinking back about it I wondered if I did the right thing. If I didn't help him at that time, if I didn't stop my car that night, would things be different now? If I hadn't met him in the first place, would everything be better? I couldn't possibly…leave him to death in that dark, dirty alley, right?
…Dark, dirty alley…?
It felt as though every single cell in my brain stopped working for everything else except for this one single realization. Without further delay, I slammed the car's door open and dashed towards the alley in front of me. The width was only enough for two people to fit in if they were to walk side by side and even in this broad daylight, the inner part was almost pitch black. It smelled of mold and there were trash all over, mixed with all sort of dirt that they were all in the same dirty grey color. This entire place…couldn't be any more similar with where I found him that night.
No, it couldn't be it. This must be mere coincidence…right?
Despite the efforts I put up to brush the thought aside from my mind, I spent the next hour driving like a mad man to the other three locations where the rest of the dealers were caught. As though trying to give a hard slap on my face, all of those places were exactly in the same condition: Dark, narrow and dirty alleys with unpleasant smell. Even the locations were similar one to the other as they were located further away from the main roads where not a lot of people and vehicles would pass through, especially in the middle of the night.
A conclusion I'd been struggling to avoid resurfaced in the back of my mind. I didn't want to face it; I didn't want to admit that my hypothesis was right. But as I fought with my own inner self, something in my pocket vibrated and rang loudly that I nearly jumped.
"Tch… What does she want at a time like this?" I cursed under my breath as Satsuki's name was displayed on the screen of my cell phone. Nevertheless, despite all of those complaints I still pressed on the "Answer" button and put it next to my ear. "What is it?"
"What's with that annoyed attitude?" her grumbles burst right through the speaker, "You should be grateful that I went through all the troubles sending all the details to you."
"What details?"
"As I thought, you haven't checked it yet, have you?" she let out a long sigh, "I've e-mailed you all the details of this case a while ago. You said there's no useful information in there, but I still thought you're going to need it."
I was about to retort back, but I quickly shut my mouth. For some reason, this time my guts told me that something in those reports might be just what I needed. I told Satsuki to wait for a bit and put the call on hold as I went through her last messages. Indeed, she sent me the details in two parts: The first was a complete summary of the entire case while the second was a report of all the recent progress by the team. The photos of the four dealers caught by security cameras were on the second message with all the details of when and where they were snapped.
At that moment, I felt as though the time around me stopped for a bit.
"…Say, Satsuki…" I resumed our conversation, "The transaction in this photos…they all happened somewhere around midnight, right?"
"Huh? Well, yes, now that you mention it, you're right," she replied with a rather surprised voice.
"And on top of that, they all took place on the last Friday of the month when the crime was held."
"…Dai-chan, what are you trying to say?"
I got the feeling that she started to understand the direction I was heading to with what I just said. From the sound of it, I knew that she, too, was hoping the conclusion I was trying to make would be wrong. After all, she was the only person who knew exactly what was going on between me and him until the smallest details, but at this point there was no turning back.
"Do me a favor, Satsuki," I told her through the phone, "You know the exact time and place all four transactions took place. Can you check what the weather was during those moments?"
"Yes, I'm in front of my computer now. Hold on…" the sound of her fingers tapping on keyboards could be heard from the other side. Both of us were in complete silence before the tapping noise suddenly came into a halt, followed by the sound of her breath as she finally talked to me, "…Dai-chan…"
"You found it?" I asked her rather impatiently.
"Yes…" she answered in a small voice, "It was…raining. On all four occasions, it was raining."
As much as I expected that answer, it appeared that a part of me was hoping she would say otherwise. I was at loss of words; I didn't know how I should respond to her, not after having this one single fact explicitly spelled right next to my ear.
"…Dai-chan, you're still there?"
"…Yeah," I muttered, "That should explain why the photos are rather blurry. It's him. No doubt about it."
"Should we tell Imayoshi-san and the others about it?"
"Hah, what do you plan to tell them?" a smirk broke out on my face as she blurted such naïve question, "All this choice of location, time and weather of the transactions have indeed made it clear to us that he was the one who set it up and deliberately made it so the actions would be caught by the security cameras. But what meaning does it have? Didn't you hear Wakamatsu back there that our personal experiences can't be used as evidence? Even if it can, these are all merely circumstantial evidences. I myself said it clearly in front of everyone that we can't just link somebody to a case based on circumstantial evidence."
"Of course I know that. But still…"
Satsuki's next words trailed off into the distance as my attention was suddenly drawn somewhere else. Approximately fifty meters ahead across the street, a man stood still facing my direction. There was no way to recognize his face from this distance, but I could never mistake that familiar figure with distinguished bright golden hair. As though to spur on my emotions, he waved a hand at me and before I knew it, I was already dashing towards him without giving a care of my surroundings. He started running towards the crowded main road when I was about to close in and of course, I easily lost sight of his figure.
I cursed under my breath. What was he trying to do? Was he toying with me? I was so pissed that I slammed my fist to the lamp post standing next to me as I gritted my teeth and looked down. Both my breaths and heartbeat were racing. More than disappointed, I was so frustrated that he easily made a fool out of me in less than a few minutes. However, it was at that moment that I noticed my right foot was stepping on something.
It was a piece of paper.
Brimming with curiosity, I picked up the folded white paper tainted with the pattern of my shoeprint and opened it. When my eyes saw the content written inside, I felt as though all the blood running in my veins suddenly froze for a second.
In a handwriting that was no longer unfamiliar to me, a short sentence was written in dark blue ink.
"See you soon."