Chapter 4
Sabotage
The alarm blared waking Seto from his stupor. He yawned and stretched as he sat up. When was the last time I slept in a bed? Cracking his neck he looked over at the dirty soup bowl on the table and sighed. After Ana had left, he angrily worked on more projects until his stomach protested begging him for more. He wondered what she put in the soup because he hadn't been able to stop eating it until the entire pot was empty.
Walking over to the pot he scraped a finger on the bottom and stuck it in his mouth. Damn it's good. His stomach growled at him demanding more sustenance and for the first time since he'd moved in he opened his fridge. Pulling out some random ingredients he went about preparing his food. Unbeknownst to everyone but his brother he was actually a decent cook. It didn't take him long to prep an omelet and make a bento for his lunch. When he finished, he let out a loud groan, even though he was good at it, he hated to cook; it used too much energy. He clicked his teeth irritated that he was giving in to her demands, but he didn't want multiple people to be coming to his apartment just to drop off assignments. Seto flipped out his phone and dialed Mokuba.
"Hey Nii-san, you make any friends yet?"
"Mokuba shut up. Did you find anything out about what I asked?"
"Well... Not really. I can't seem to find the original contract for this job. I managed to get the name for the person you're supposed to see. It's Negoa-san."
"That doesn't help me much since I can't even get in to see this 'Negoa-san'. I went to their office, but they snowballed me until I left."
"About that… There might be a way for you to run into Negoa-san. I'm not sure how thrilled you'll be about it though."
"Mokuba, it's work just tell me."
"Well, tonight there's a dinner with the bigwigs in town and you just so happened to be invited..."
"Ughhh."
"Told you! But you might find this Nogoa-san there."
Seto sighed, "Fine. I'll search on that end. Make sure you keep digging for that contract."
"You got it. Have fun at school and try to make some—." Seto hung up on him, finished getting ready and headed out the door.
He received the usual whispers and glares when he walked into the classroom. He didn't bother looking around, except to glance at the obnoxious girl's seat, she was out cold on her desk. Must be nice to be so damn carefree. Seto walked back to his desk not attempting to stifle any noise, he even scraped his seat across the ground loudly, earning more glares, just to see if it would wake her up. She didn't stir.
The teacher walked into the classroom and everyone except her stood up to greet him. He noticed her asleep and ticked his tongue but to Seto's annoyance he didn't wake her. Seto decided to focus on his own work and pulled out his tablet typing away; every now and then he would look up and notice she was still out. Is she dead? He was having trouble focusing through the entire first class because it pissed him off she was out cold. After the first class ended, she still didn't move, if it hadn't been for the fact her back was rising and falling he would have decided she really was dead.
Feeling frustrated he went to grab a drink from the vending machine. The class looked at him strangely when he stood up and when he came back. What, is it so weird for me to get a drink? On his way back he glanced at the girl and slowed down. She'd shifted in her sleep and one arm and half her head was dangling off the table. Ah, she'll fall. He glanced around; no one else had taken notice. I should just let her fall. Her head slowly slid off and Seto's heart speed up. He could imagine the cracking sound her head would make when she hit the floor or possibly the desk next to her. This is none of my business I should just let her fall! She slipped off right before he passed. Gritting his teeth he caught her shoulder and gently shoved her back up onto the desk before sitting back down at his. She didn't wake.
Seto went back to working on his tablet but felt eyes on him and looked up, the girl sitting next to the obnoxious one was staring at him open-mouthed. A couple others in the class were also in shock, it didn't last long. They quickly whispered among themselves. Pissed by their demeanors Seto ignored them and went back to work. The obnoxious girl slept through the next class and finally it was time for lunch.
Her friend walked over to her and shook her awake shouting, "Lunch time!"
She popped up for that, Seto pulled out his lunch but continued typing one handed.
"Ehhh, well, I guess you won't pass out from hunger again at least," the obnoxious girl pointed out while taking out her own lunch.
Seto ignored her as he multi-tasked between eating and typing.
"Kaiba-san, would you like to eat lunch with us?"
Seto looked up and found a chipper boy with bright red hair smiling down at him.
"Huh?"
"Do you want to eat lunch with us?" He gestured over to a group of guys on the other side of the room.
"Why?"
"Why? To welcome you to the class?" He scratched his head a little confused.
"I'm only going to be here for hopefully a month at most, just pretend I'm not here or something." Seto went back to his food and work.
"E-even if you're only here for a month—."
"Let me make this clearer, buzz off," Seto snapped.
The guy flinched then stuck his hands in his pockets and slunk back over to his friends. Why won't people just frickin' let me be?
"So, Amin-chan I'm still waiting to see the ten percent you're not an A—."
"Frickin shit!" Seto slammed his chopsticks so hard into his food they snapped in half. Half the classroom jumped and the obnoxious girl frowned at him. Picking up his tablet he furiously scrolled through an email he'd received from the company they were partnering with. He'd asked for their full concrete plans in a PDF format. When he'd opened it there were no designs, plans or testing dates for the Alpha let alone the Beta stages. The only thing was a marketing strategy. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.
"Amin-chan you look like your about to barf, please don't do that again."
Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. His phone rang, and he picked it up quickly; it was Mokuba.
"Nii-san, so... I found the original contract."
"Spit it out."
"Well... We thought we were partnering with Sansa Tech company right? Well... They're not a tech company their real name is Sansa Marketing. They're a marketing company, only. Seto... They're promoting the tech as designed and sold by Kaiba corp."
Seto dropped his phone, it crashed to the floor, and the screen cracked.
"Kind of hard on tech aren't you Amin-chan?"
I've been railroaded. I'm going to kill whoever made this blasted contract. There's no way I can design, built and test this device and put it into production in three months. And this just had to fall around the time the board is cracking down on... Oh, I will kill this prick. This ass realizes that if I fail to deliver this, the board will have plenty of dirt to convince our shareholders to pull me as CEO.
"Um, Amin-chan... You don't look so good."
Seto looked up at her then back down at his tablet. He quietly slid the tablet back into his bag and picked at his lunch with the rest of his chopsticks. When lunch was over he stared at the board, his mind numb. When the teachers tried to call on him, he stared blankly at them; until they felt so uncomfortable they moved onto someone else. When the final bell rang, he packed up his stuff and quietly went home.
The rest of the day he sat in his apartment until his phone reminder went off. Oh, right. I have that dinner tonight. Not that I need to go... But maybe Negoa-san knows who initiated the contract. If I'm going down, I'm bringing that shit hole with me. Seto mindlessly got ready; he didn't enjoy wearing a suit and tie but put it on anyway. Someday, I'm going to make long coats and leather pants dinner attire appropriate. How much do I have to pay to make that a fashion trend?
Seto called a taxi to take him to the address Mokuba gave him. When he got out, he walked up to the modern house through the rock garden. Let's get this over with. He rang the doorbell. Talking and laughter met him when the door opened.
"Welcome-Amin-chan?"
He looked down. The obnoxious girl from school stood before him. She was wearing a long red evening dress, and a bright red hair pin held up her hair in a loose bun. Kill me now.
