10 Escalate

"This is ridiculous."

"Uh-huh."

"And it hasn't even been more than 24 hours yet!"

"It's only been 11 hours, to be exact."

"Isn't this too ridiculous?"

"You said that already."

"I know! But this is highly illogical!"

"Calm your man tiddies down, Yome."

"But this is just too ridiculuous!"

"Of course it's ridiculous. I bet it's more ridiculous for Hyuuga there." Kitsu motioned towards the said main in the room, and continued, "I mean, he and Tobita just saw her yesterday after vanishing for 4 years and less than 24 hours—hell, less than 12 hours to be precise, only to miraculously bump into her directly here, of all places. Face to face, even."

Yuu rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to find any sense in what's happening right now. There weren't any. "We didn't even find anything about her yet," he sighed before adding with a heavy tone, "and yet, to have Hyuuga met her like this unprepared, I can't imagine what's in his mind right now."

"A fucking mess, I'm sure," Koko added grimly.

"We didn't even find any info about her yet," Yuu mumbled to himself, his face furrowing deep. "I mean, it's only been 11 hours, who would have thought we would see her this quick." His frown went deeper. "Of course we weren't prepared. If we knew we would see her this quick—no no, even if we knew, we still won't have enough time to dig up her infos. Even 11 hours aren't enough to dig up someone's file."

"This is slowly killing me in more ways than one." It was apparent how uneasy the spiky blonde haired felt with the way his stomach was churning inside.

"To be honest, I'm not sure whether I should laugh or cry right now," Kitsu muttered afterwards, despite portraying a very tight expression on his face. "God really have a wicked sense of humor."

"You mean, dark sense of humor," Koko corrected. "Or He just decided that enough is enough and want to outed our sins right here and now." His eyes went to the other side of the vast ballroom where two people were seen sitting across each other, with a coffee table in between them. "I can't believe my career is basically at the edge of the cliff right now," he muttered while rubbing his churning tummy—not that any of it would help with easing the knot twisting inside it. "Does anyone have a stomach ache? Or is it just me overreacting right now?" he looked at the other two who stood next to him.

"You're nervous, it's highly logical," Yuu answered shortly. His large brown eyes behind the glasses were glued on the two people who were the main topic of their conversation currently.

"And you're not?" Koko's voice in disbelief almost sounded like a squeak then. Damn, he sounded so weak when he's nervous this badly. Yuu gave him a 'are you for real?' look.

"Forget your career man, we'll be as good as dead if we get thrown in jail if this blows up," Kitsu added, grabbing for a champagne in a flute glass near them before handing it over to Koko. "Drink up. Before your anxiety kicks in again, drink."

"You want me drunk?" Koko gave him a look of incredulity. "Seriously, Akeshi? When both our career and life at stake here, you want me hammered?" His hiss echoed in Kitsu's ears.

"I'm not telling you to get drunk, idiot," Kitsu rolled his eyes at him. "Drink just enough that your shoulders don't tense up anymore," he continued, lightly smack Koko's tense shoulders to emphasise his reasoning, which Koko himself didn't even realized that they were tense in the first place.

Koko took the glass. "Shit, I didn't even notice I was this stiff," Koko mumbled under his breath before taking a sip of the champagne and lightly stretched his neck. The abrupt cracking sound of his neck caught the three of them in surprise and they looked at each other in silence, not sure whether to just laugh or cackle like mad crackheads instead, despite the uneasiness swarming surrounding them.

"Damn, you were that tense huh," Yuu snorted. Kitsu were chortling beside him.

"Damn, should I be worried that my bones are making sounds like they're breaking?" Koko asked offhandedly before taking another sip of his drink. "Maybe I should—"

His drink nearly spilled when he suddenly froze. He then shuddered and said, "Damn, I feel like a grim reaper just walk pass me when I saw she look our way just now." He quickly put down his glass. Hyuuga had his back facing them and the brunette was sitting across him. It was brief but he did feel her gaze over Hyuuga's shoulders, directed towards where they were standing.

The other two immediately turned to look at the said direction. "Shit, are we really going to jail now?"

"Ugh, scared me shitless for a second there," Koko muttered under his breath, inwardly trying to calm his overdramatic nerves down. "I think I just lost ten years of my life."

"Try and be at the receiving end of those eyes instead," a feminine voice suddenly came.

The three of them flinched in an immense startle.

Koko was the first to respond. "The hell. How long were you here?" Shit, did she hear everything?

The woman smoothly tucked her short permed strand of hair behind her ears. "Hmmm?" She was wearing a silk pearl white evening dress and it curves her smoothly down her slender body. The corner of her lips slowly curled up knowingly as she leaned in closer till she's practically hanging on Koko's arm. "Did you guys kill somebody?" Her eyes sparkled and she glowed. "Or robbed someone? A bank? No? Human trafficking then? Drugs?" She beamed at each of them.

Yuu shook his head at her wild ideas and Kitsu sighed, not the least surprise such questions came from her. She did listen then—some of it, at least. He raised his brow at her. "If you want to know then that makes you our accomplice then. That means, jail time for you too. Interested?"

"The women's jails are separated from the men's so no thank you. I would rather visit Yome in jail everyday then being stuck in a separate jail," she chirped happily.

"Why the hell you're gonna visit me every damn days, you're gonna used up my visiting hours limit," he grumbled while trying to shrug the woman off of him then a thought finally struck his mind, "why am I even thinking about visiting hours in the first place, damnit," he hissed at himself. It's really as though he's thinking of himself going to jail for real.

"Such a shame conjugal visit is not allowed in Japan," she commented.

Kitsu and Yuu were already holding their laughs at the side. Koko were not enjoying it.

"Good lord, woman, don't go there," Koko's face crinkled as he cringed. "Don't even think about it. And—" He peeled himself away from her but the woman was persistent, she kept on tightening her hold on his upper arm. "Stop hanging onto me, you mad woman!" She's too close and it's uncomfortable for him. He felt as though his personal space is being invaded at the moment.

But the woman was having none of it, she muted him and continued to plaster herself close to him, like he wasn't even badgering her in the first place to give him some space so he could breathe. She knew he was uncomfortable but nope, she's marking her territory here so no other woman could get close to him—not tonight at least. "So, should I go and introduce myself?" she motioned for the raven-haired and the brunette. "Maybe I should go and say hi and explained a little of what happened back then."

Koko was quick to hold her back on her thoughts. "DON'T YOU DARE," he warned.

She blinked. "What, i'm just trying to help. Maybe Hyuuga couldn't explain things well that it was just a mistake and we women tend to overanalysed things so—"

But Koko was adamant. "You're gonna make things worse, so don't."

"You have very little faith in me," she pointed out, slightly displeased with his remark. "I'm a lawyer!" she asserted, "I know what I'm capable of."

"In your line of work, yeah, but your relationship advice sucks," Koko commented flippantly.

Kitsu awkwardly covered his mouth over his cough and silently muttered under his breath, "Bro, you just dig your own grave with that comment alone" to which Yuu was trying to hold back his laugher at his side upon hearing it. He could see the woman's dark green orbs widen when she raised her brows so high, it almost seemed like she was about to place her palms on her hips just to look at Koko in patronizingly disbelief.

"And why do you think it sucks in the first place?" She gave him a look. If she's a cat or a dog, she would be growling her low guttural sound already due to her exasperation. This man had the audacity to question her relationship advice when he's the one responsible for it in the first place?

In that moment, Koko knew he really went and dug up his own grave. He just had to turn the talk around back at one topic that he clearly wished to avoid at all cost, didn't he? He sent the guys an SOS sign but the two of them just shook their heads and motioned for him to man up. He already felt tired on the spot.

"I mean, cmon," she turned to look at both Yuu and Kitsu, and both of them knew rightaway that she really gonna went off this time. "You all know what's going on here, right? Your friend here," she poked Koko's chest and continued, "dare to bring up the question of my relationship advice straight to my face when he's the one who's been rejecting me all this time?"

Yuu and Kitsu sent a silent prayers to the god above, grateful that they're not anywhere close to where most of the people were crowding in the ballroom. They were out of hearing distance and with the look of how this would turn out, they were thankful that they were at the corner side of the ball room.

She snapped around to face the now disgruntled Koko. "I've been openly chasing after you for four years now. That doesn't include the 2 years I had been crushing over you silently before that. Can't you do the math or you're just plain stupid to anything that is none related to your work field?" It rather looked like she was blowing off her pent up steam that she's been keeping in all this time.

"6 years, I've been pining over you for SIX EFFING YEARS!" she huffed. If the drunk mishap with Hyuuga last four years didn't happen, she would never be honest with her feelings in her attempt to clear up the misunderstandings with the drunk kiss incident; she really didn't want Koko to think that she was attracted to Hyuuga for her to ended up drunkenly kissing him, when she's only interested in a Kokoro Yome all this time. So in a way, it's thanks to that little accident that she started to chase him openly.

But this damn workaholic is refusing her all this time!

"I know how much important your work is to you and I'm totally fine with it. I get it that you're a workaholic and that's fine with me too." She poked his chest again. "It's not like you're dating anyone right now!" she poked him harder, now feeling irritated. "For god's sake, you've been single since birth!"

Yuu and Kitsu were biting over their laughter by now. Koko's reaction at her outburst confession might as well be the highlight of today's dinner party before they all went to jail. Koko's aggrieved face was best to describe of what he inwardly felt over her contempt remark about his single life.

He didn't appreciate it that she worded it in such a blunt way that it made his dating life sounded so pathetic. What she just said was indeed true; he really hadn't dated anyone before. But rather than he couldn't find one, he just wasn't interested in the first place. It's not like he couldn't find a partner. He just thought that his work was more important at the moment and time just kept dragging. However, he still think his works is more important even now.

"Are you drunk?" Koko calmly went instead. He turned to look at 'em guys. "Is she drunk?" because she's clearly spouting stuff that she shouldn't be spouting about at a public place in the middle of an important dinner gala. And she's not just anybody. She's somebody—at least her family is. So she shouldn't be ranting about such things at such place. Even though they're out of hearing distance from other people.

"I'm not drunk," she was quick to defend herself before she slowly and silently added, "I only drank like, five glasses of red wine."

"She's tipsy then," Koko concluded with a shook of his head and a sigh. "I should've known when you were speaking shits right of the bat." But then again, on certain occasions, her interest did incline towards ridiculous things for her to talk about shits sometimes. But she's not even slurring right now! He should had at least notice it when she started to poke his chest so much.

"I'm pretty and smart and…" her words continued to trailed off.

"Good god, are you still not done?" Koko gave her a look of disbelief with his raised brows.

TBC.