NPA: (Japan) National Police Agency
NPSC: National Public Safety Commission
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Chapter 4 : I'm Fine
Hamaji had not been born in Tokyo. She had been born in a small village where she recalled almost its entire people had been working as farmer. She actually did not remember where the village was located. It was really, really small and perhaps you would not find it on the map. Her family had been so poor that she vaguely remembered his mother had worked for several stores. Her father had been dead for a long time, and Hamaji thought his death had been such a great pain for her mother. The woman had not mentioned her husband even for once. Hamaji had only known her father from neighbors, saying that her father had been a nice, gentle person they had ever met. Honestly, Hamaji did not remember what her parents' face looked like. She had inherited her wavy hair from her mother, and too bad she had not had any time to take at least one photograph of her parents. The only thing she had as a reminder of her family was a piece of flower-shaped hairpin.
The girl shook her head then smiled a bit. She rarely thought of her biological family. For her, it seemed like a distant memory—something that looked like an old, black and white movie. However, she could not help but wonder what if she had stayed in the village. What if her mother had not passed away… What if…
"…Hamaji-chan? Hamaji-chan?"
Hamaji blinked and turned her body. She saw Kaname was standing in front of vending machine with two cans of juice. "What?" she asked.
"I was asking which one do you like, grape or orange juice." Kaname lifted the cans up as he approached his—yes, yes finally ladies and gentlemen!—girlfriend.
"Orange." Hamaji replied, taking the canned juice from Kaname's hand. She glanced at the cloudy sky, wondering if the weather would turn bad later. Going to Ueno Park in bad weather was not a great idea although they could easily find any shelter from pouring rain. This morning's weather forecast had said something about 60 percent chance of cloud but not the rain. Hamaji turned his attention to the passersby. Everybody loved Ueno Park, from small kids to elderlies, making it a perfect place to see how Japanese people interacted with each other. However, Hamaji was not here to make any human observation which somehow had turned out into her quite quirky hobby.
She and Kaname took a seat on a bench nearby. "I told you we came too early," Kaname said then drank his juice.
"Better than being late." Hamaji smiled. "Anyway, have you heard anything from Shino and Rio? You said you've asked them to join us for New Year party."
Kaname smirked mischievously. "Well, we can drag them anytime to our New Year party. I've asked my father's secretary to book private jet to New York."
"Times Square!" Hamaji squealed, "I can't wait! Shino and Rio must come with us. Oh, and we should ask Shinobu too since he's Shino's best friend."
"And everybody will have their lover while he's alone. I don't think that's a good idea, Hamaji." Kaname threw the empty can to the garbage bin.
"Oh, please." Hamaji waved her hand and giggled slightly. "We can invite Genpachi-san."
Kaname laughed. Hamaji talked a lot about Shinobu and Genpachi lately. She swore that she saw a spark on Genpachi's eyes every time the detective was talking to Shinobu. Actually, Hamaji had tried to set up Shinobu and Genpachi on the real date. Real date—for Hamaji—did not include weekly dinner at Felicità or afternoon coffee. It seemed that Hamaji had been reading too much shoujo manga. No wonder Hamaji had picked up Ueno Park as their weekend getaway. Kaname glanced at couples around them—too many of them. Kaname even sighted his classmate holding hand with his girlfriend. Less than five minutes later, they saw Shinobu coming and the boy was obviously trying to find two of them.
"Shinobu!" Hamaji called just in time Kaname was about to approach the high school boy.
As Shinobu's eyes caught them, he smiled. "I hope you didn't wait that long."
"No, no," Kaname said, "Someone's so overexcited here." He playfully glanced at his girlfriend who lightly jabbed on his ribs in return. Kaname made a mock grimace. "I thought you were with Genpachi-san," Kaname continued. For these past two months, Kaname noticed that somehow Shinobu and Genpachi had become a… He did not know how to describe it. A set? Like a lunch set you often found at family restaurant? Hamaji had frowned at Kaname for lack of imagination when the young man had mentioned about the lunch set thing.
Shinobu shrugged. "He can't make it."
"Huh? Why?" Hamaji cocked her head.
"He just texted me a while ago, saying there's an emergency at the station." Shinobu unconsciously took out his smart phone from jeans pocket and toyed with it. He did not see Hamaji and Kaname exchanged glance as if they were contemplating what to say to Shinobu.
Kaname's face finally broke into wide grin. "So…museum?"
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Genpachi was on the verge to make a grand entrance to main house of one of Shinjuku's most notable yakuza groups and drag their leader to MPD headquarter in Kasumigaseki. Sometimes, he really hated his job and could not help but curse his family for being too loyal to Japan's law enforcement. He wondered if his grandfather and father had been in the same situation like his. Genpachi groaned inwardly as he put another wrong combination to enter NPA's computer system. Nachi, who was sitting opposite of him, arched an eyebrow and smirked.
"Someone's being a drama queen here." He snorted.
Genpachi ignored the comment and kept typing on his keyboard.
"I didn't mean to interrupt your date, you know," Nachi continued as he reached green folder on the coffee table, "Well, you can take him for dinner another time, right? I heard there's a nice restaurant near—"
"Nachi, it's not a date. Going to museum with three people is hardly a date and…" Genpachi raised his hand before Nachi could make any comment. "I don't date. There's no time."
"Yeah, yeah..." Nachi snickered. "Keep making excuses, my friend. You don't date because you are super busy. You don't date because you have more important thing to do…aah, what's that? Doing endless underground tasks for NPA and the NSPC?" He dramatically pointed at himself. "And what about me, eh? I can still manage to find a date!"
"You don't date, Nachi," Genpachi corrected, "You sleep with women and…men."
Nachi winked. "Another joy as full-fledged adult. Don't give me that look. Geez…! For your information, I don't have any interest with your little boyfriend. He's out of my league."
Genpachi sighed and shook his head. "He's not my little…boyfriend." He suddenly felt a huge lump stuck on his throat. Focus, Inukai Genpachi! Focus! Genpachi screamed inside his head then glared at his tab as if it was a crime suspect. He could hear series of muffled giggles coming from Nachi's direction.
Yes.
Inukai Genpachi was on the verge of deleting all important data from NPA's computer system in order to threaten those demanding old men to stop giving him impossible assignment. He was not a fan of Tom Cruise or Mission Impossible, thank you very much. Genpachi rubbed his face with his two palms furiously. He glanced at his smart phone. The last chat with Shinobu was two hours ago. He had decided to use chatting application exclusively only for Shinobu but sometimes he just sent the boy text message or e-mail. He did not understand why youngsters nowadays were so into chatting application… Fuck. He sounded like an old man…
The detective admitted that Shinobu's presence had brought him a change. He spent more and more time for leisure, like going for dinner and watching movie on weekend. It allowed him to have a short escape from his duty, to forget that he was part of special program which he had not intended to join in the first place.
"Have you done sulking?" Nachi's voice pulled him back to the reality in front of him: massive data from NPA's and MPD's computers. It seemed that those two institutions had done good works.
"What is it?" Genpachi asked back. He opened several folders that contained information about recent yakuza suspicious activities. Well, again, yakuza always acted suspicious.
"Don't you think it's time to pay a visit to our dear friend?" Nachi closed his laptop and looked up only to see Genpachi staring absentmindedly at a document. The long haired man muttered, "Love-struck teenager…"
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Shinobu followed Hamaji and Kaname to Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum to see an exhibition of a painter whose name Shinobu had forgotten only five minutes after Hamaji had mentioned it. He had lost interest on the art exhibition. Weird, he thought. He felt like a hormonal girl who had a constant mood-swing. Shinobu groaned inwardly, scolding himself because he was being so immature. No, he was not disappointed just because Genpachi could not make it today. Well, today was just another casual outing with friends—no more than that. It was not as if they were going to have a double date either. Oh, yes, double date—sounded ridiculous didn't it?
They entered the museum area and went straight to exhibition hall on the second floor. There were many people there since it was also the first day of the exhibition. Kaname pushed the glass door led to the exhibition room and suddenly halted on his step. "My, my…look who we got here," said Kaname.
"Oh, you gotta be kidding me. Why must I see your face again after last night? You were such a major turn off when me and Sou—hmmffhh!"
"Well, Shino, that was little bit too much of information." Sousuke stood behind his boyfriend with one palm covered the boy's mouth. He gave them a polite smile then noticed Shinobu among the three. "Hello, Shinobu-kun," he greeted as he released his palm.
Shinobu smiled back. "Hello, Sousuke-san, Shino. A date?"
Shino smirked. "Well, if you could count listening to Sou's long lecture on impressionism as a date."
Hamaji giggled and Sousuke patted his boyfriend's head gently.
The next thirty minutes, the group spent their time observing every painting there. Shinobu was grateful that at least there was no abstract painting. It did not mean that he hated abstract art. However, he found it rather irritating that he could not grasp the concept of the art easily even though people said you could enjoy the art without understanding the meaning behind it. Everything had a purpose and every event happened because of a reason which also brought a consequence in our life. If an artist created his or her art work for a purpose, would not it be meaningless if people failed to see through it? Shinobu felt pity for that artist.
"You've been glaring at the poor painting for five minutes already, Shinobu."
He heard Shino snicker from behind. The blond boy turned back and gave a tiny smile to his best friend. "A glare won't kill," replied Shinobu, shrugging.
Shino only hummed and stepped forward, looking over Shinobu's shoulder to take a good look at the painting. "He looks like you," said Shino. He pointed at a young boy on the painting. He had same haircut with Shinobu. The painting itself showed a scenery of lake with the boy standing on a boat. The boy was leaning over, staring at his own reflection on the lake surface. The color of the painting was warm yet Shino somehow felt loneliness crept from every corner of it. He was about to make a comment when he noticed Shinobu had pulled his lips into thin line. "Hey, are you okay?" Shino asked softly.
Shinobu looked taken aback by the question. "Oh, yes...I..."
The younger of the two arched an eyebrow. "Shinobu, you know you can tell me anything." Shino emphasized the last word.
"Shino..."
"And I don't mind listening to your problem all night long. We can do a sleepover...oh! Or watch Disney movies. I know that sounds childish though but remember when we used to stay late because I wanted to watch Lion King over and over again? Nii-san was so mad after that." Shino suppressed a laugh. "But then he always stayed with us every time we had Disney marathon. I know he secretly enjoyed the songs."
Shinobu smiled. "I remember someone begged and cried to his mom because he wanted to get a warthog and named it Pumbaa."
"Hey!" Shino slapped Shinobu's upper arm. His cheeks were flushed in embarrassment. "I didn't cry!"
"Okay, you were whining." Shinobu rolled his eyes.
"Fine...fine, whatever." Shino threw his hands into the air with exasperated sigh. Shinobu smiled at his friend's antics. "But you see, Shinobu, I really mean it. We can stay all night whenever you want. You can talk whatever you want, I won't complain or get bored. Okay?"
"I'm fine, Shino," Shinobu said after taking a deep breath, "It's just...lately I feel really, really weird."
"Huh? Like what?"
Shinobu bit his lower lip. He had an urge to pull Shino to a hug like what they had always done when they had been kids. Sometimes it was better to be a kid because people would not question if you acted silly. "No, never mind. Just forget it, Shino," Shinobu said, "You see...me... Uhm, with all those things..." Now he did not make any sense at all. Shinobu took a glance at Shino's confused expression.
Great, just great Shinobu...you only make things more complicated.
"I'm sorry, Shino," Shinobu continued, "but I need to go now."
"Wha—"
He did not wait for Shino to finish his sentence. Shinobu took quick steps and went out of the exhibition room. He ignored Hamaji as the girl called his name. He brushed past Kaname and Sousuke who just happened were standing near the exit. When he was already on the outside of museum, the boy drew his smart phone. With shaky finger, he tapped quick dial and waited. His brain tried to reorganize his jumbling thoughts. On the second dial tone, somebody picked up.
"Shinobu?"
The boy was relieved to hear voice of a man who had pulled him away from six-year nightmare.
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tbc
