Chapter 4
BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP.
Mai's eyes snapped open before she gazed around groggily, finally realizing she was in her bed at home, tucked under the many layers of her blankets with the windows beginning to fog from the cold outside.
Slowly inching a hand out of her cocoon, Mai felt around her bedside table before finally feeling the cool plastic of her alarm. After finding the largest button available, Mai promptly slammed down onto it, quieting the screeching.
Rolling onto her other side, Mai stretched like a cat, toes pointed straight out, and heard a satisfying set of cracks before facing the window. Sighing and curling back into a ball, Mai stared into the dim light shining through to try and convince herself to stay awake. She had a lot of thinking to do today and it wouldn't do to stay in bed and be lazy.
After she had arrived home at the late hour last night, Mai had promptly skipped dinner and put herself to bed, not letting her mind to work itself up into a stressed state, otherwise she wouldn't be able to sleep.
However, it was the next day, and it was time to do some serious thinking.
Finally untangling herself from the sheets, Mai promptly sprinted across the room to the bathroom.
"Son of a mother trucking son of a waffle", Mai hissed her feet touched the freezing tiles, hopping over to stand on the lone mat in the bathroom.
Starting the shower while hopping from foot to foot, Mai tried to cling to the warmth that lingered from her bed and waited for the water to heat up. Once the shower finally heated up, she stripped and jumped into the steaming shower, a sigh of pleasure slipping from her lips.
After washing her hair and scrubbing her body down in her favourite vanilla scented bodywash, Mai finally hopped out of the shower and toweled herself off. Walking into her closet after donning her underwear, Mai selected a thick pair of dark wash skinny jeans, a long, flowing white long sleeved blouse, coupled with a black blazer. Layering two pairs of socks and putting a pair of delicate silver hoops into her ears, Mai finally made her way out of her bedroom and into the kitchen.
Sitting herself down with a bowl of cereal while turning on the tv for background noise, the first thing that popped on was the morning news, so Mai left it while chewing on her cereal.
"Again, another woman has gone missing from the Hokkaido prefecture, specifically the Chitose region," the news reporter began, standing in front of a small town, the random passersby walking behind the camera, "This being the seventh missing woman in the past 6 months. Authorities are still investigating and refuse to reveal anything further at this point in the case. However, it has been speculated that the women probably ran away or have simply forgotten to contact their family as there doesn't seem to be any foul play"
Mai continued chewing while vaguely listening to the TV, looking down at her timesheet for her hours at the café.
'What do I do?' she sighed, scooping another spoonful of cereal into her mouth. 'Should I do it?'
She could hear a voice in the back of her mind urging her on 'Do it!', it fiercely said, Mai imagining it being her in miniature form, her fist shaking back and forth. 'Who cares about Naru-bou?' it scoffed, mini-me flicking her hair back in a huff, 'This is for you, you get to spend time with everyone and get to exercise your powers! It's a win-win!' she shouted triumphantly in her mind, standing tall and confident, hands perched on her hip.
"Yeah!" Mai shouted out loud while pumping a fist, standing from the table and bringing her bowl to the sink while grabbing her coat and scarf and slipping them on.
'Time to stick it to the man!' she thought, skipping confidently out the door.
"I'm so sorry!" Mai said, bowing deeply, her hair falling around her face, "I know it's sudden, I'll still work on a casual basis whenever you need me, but an opportunity showed up that I can't refuse!" she finished, her head still bowed and eyes averted.
Yuki stared at Mai from over her desk with a startled look on her face before it morphed in a gentle, indulgent smile.
"Dearie, it's not a problem. I understand and it won't be a problem. It's the slow season and we still have plenty of workers who would love the extra hours, so don't worry yourself!" she finished resolutely, a pleasant grin spread across her aged face, waving her hand up and down, as if to bat away Mai's worries.
Mai worried her lip between her teeth while straightening, still unsure.
"Are you sure? I can continue until you have a new employee if you like…" she mumbled, unsure.
"Nonsense!" Yuki concluded, clapping her hands together. "Now, you go get that job of yours! If you'd like to still work casually, that's entirely up to you dearie. There will always be a place for you here," Yuki chided gently, a teasing glint in her eye.
Mai stared unsure before her face broke into a brilliant smile, her eyes shining, "Arigato!" she finally breathed out, bowing once again, before collecting her things and making her way out of the office.
After settling the issues with her previous part time jobs, Mai was now officially free. Though, for a short time.
It was now or never.
Walking out into the white streets of Shibuya, the falling snow giving a brief respite as people went about their business, Mai finally pulled out her phone, a gift a few years back from Ayako and Bou-san for her birthday, scrolling through her contacts, hovering her thumb over the call button a moment before finally pressing it.
Finally hearing it ring in her ear, she finally heard a click
"Hellooo?" a cheerful voice chimed from the other side, Bou-sans flamboyant nature heard clear through the speaker.
"I'll do it," Mai said without preamble, her tone clear of inflection while gazing out onto the empty street.
"Eh…? Really?! That's great!" he sputtered from the other side, his cheer obvious, "I'll tell Naru-bou!" he finished, before she heard the dial tone from the other end.
Mai stared at the phone, her faced scrunched in confusion before putting her phone back into her pocket, before it started to abruptly ring again, causing her to drop it into the snow.
"Crap!" she swore to herself, before digging in the snow and finally finding her phone, holding it triumphantly in the air, then pressing the answer button.
"Moshi moshi?" Mai answered after clearing her throat and composing herself.
"Mai", she heard in reply, a shiver racking up her spine which had nothing to do with the cold.
"Naru…", she replied carefully and with a deadpan look set upon her face, "What can I do for you?"
"I just thought you should know" he began smoothly, his voice deep, smooth and bordering on rumbling, "That we have a case and-"
"Eh?! Already?" Mai sputtered in reply, cutting Naru off.
"-we leave tomorrow", he finished as if Mai never interrupted, Mai huffing in exasperation.
"Pack for at least a week and meet at the office at 6am".
Grumbling under her breath before finally answering, "Is that all, you highness?" she snarked, a glare set upon her face while looking into space.
"No," he surprised Mai by answering, her eyebrows scrunching up in confusion, "There's one more thing," he rumbled in her ear smoothly, Mai's glare deepening.
'What else could he possible want', her inner voice commented, 'My soul?' she snarked.
"Get off the ground," Mai heard abruptly from her left, causing her to squeal and lose her seat, making her sink further in the snow where she had been crouching, a look of dawning horror beginning to surface on her face.
"Naru…" Mai growled from the ground, snow piled around her and her glare firmly re-attached while looking up towards the bane of her existence.
Naru stood towering over her small frame, a smirk tilting his lips handsomely with his hands stuffed deep into his pockets of his black coat, a blue scarf tucked carefully around his neck, standing tall with his hair fluttering around his eyes from the passing wind.
"Bastard…", Mai muttered under her breath, while attempting to pull herself out of the snow, starting to feel it seep through her clothes, "Don't rush to help me…" she continued muttering.
After attempting and failing to pull herself up without slipping, Mai finally flopped back into the snow in defeat.
"Just leave me here", she groaned pitifully, "Save yourself", she muttered sarcastically.
Before she could get a reply, she heard steps coming down the sidewalk.
"Mai!" a new voice called.
Popping her head up comically and with difficulty while looking past Naru, Mai could faintly spot a new person making their way towards them, walking faster when they noticed it was actually her.
"Are you okay?" they asked in concern, finally kneeling down beside her. With the sun behind his head, Mai had to squint but finally realized who it was.
"Shouta-san?" Mai questioned vaguely, finally matching the face and voice to one of the boys from her classes at university who had always been kind to her.
Shouta stood roughly at six feet, standing just below Naru and had a kind air about him. With dark brown hair and green eyes, Shouta was a handsome man and yet acted like he didn't know it, for he never seemed to notice the multiple girls pining after him around campus.
Chuckling while gazing down at Mai, he answered, "Yeah," his eyes tracing her form in the snow, "What're you doing?" he continued to chuckle, his eyes crinkled with laughter.
Mai gave a huff, "Oh, you know", she began, "just chilling", she said, giving an exaggerated wink while shriveling up inside at her bad pun.
Shouta's face broke out into a bigger smile, his chuckle turning into a laugh, making Mai feel a bit better.
"Oh, I can see that," he began, finally stopping his chuckles, "Need some help?" he said, finally taking pity on her cold form, starting to notice the shivers racking her body.
"Please", Mai finally sighed, reaching a hand in front of her, waiting for assistance.
However, what she wasn't prepared for was the pair of hands that gripped her waist, pulling her easily out of the snow, before gently setting her down on her feet.
"There", Shouta chuckled, a smile curving his lips while he brushed the snow from her coat. "Better?"
"Er…", Mai could only utter while staring in response before finally snapping out of her surprised stupor, "Ugh. Oh! Yes! Thank you very much Shouta-san!" she said before bowing at her waist to show her thanks, he hair trailing into her eyes.
"No problem, Mai", he grinned sincerely before looking at something behind Mai, eyebrows raised.
Mai stared at him in confusion before turning to look behind her, only to find Naru inches from her back, staring directly into Shouta's eyes, an unpleasant look in his eyes.
"Er…?" Mai began perplexed.
"Oh," Shouta began politely, "I'm sorry. Is this your boyfriend, Mai?"
Mai seemed to begin choking on air for a moment before she blurted out a "No!", with a snort, covering her nose with her hand afterwards, unbelieving that that noise came from her.
"No, uh, he's my boss. Shouta, meet Shibuya Kazuya," Mai began, stepping out from between the two males, "Shibuya-san" Mai emphasized his name, his glaring eyes snapping down to her face, "Meet Ono Shouta".
Shouta seemed to perk up, his smile brightening again, "Nice to meet you, Shibuya-san", bringing a hand up to shake Naru's hand.
Naru just stared at the hand offered to him for a moment before finally grasping it, replying in kind, "And you Ono-san", a seemingly sincere smile tilting his mouth.
However, Shouta's face seemed to twitch as if strained, before Mai realized what Naru was doing and reacting in kind.
Mai promptly stomped down on his foot with the heel of her boot, a smile tilting her face.
"Oh, Shibuya-san!" Mai began sweetly, an innocent smile covering her face while tucking her hands behind her back, "There was a bug on your shoe!" she continued, feeling immense satisfaction after he dropped Shouta's abused hand in response, his smile still fixed in place but now accompanied with a glare and directed towards her, his eyes fiercely burning into her.
"It's okay, though", she lilted, a satisfied smile on her face, feeling immensely satisfied with herself.
"I got it", she finished, now fully facing Naru who had turned to face her as well, a challenging glint in both of their eyes, both refusing to back down. Still feeling pleased with herself, Mai finally turned away.
"Anyway!" Mai said, turning towards to the two males, "I better be going! I'll see you after the holidays, okay Shouta-san?" she directed towards Shouta.
Shouta replied in kind to both Mai and Naru before taking his leave.
Mai could feel Naru's eyes burning into the back of her head, but refused to look at him, so she spun on her heal before promptly kicking her ass into gear, not stupid enough to wait for retribution.
"Bye, Shibuya-san!" Mai crooned over her shoulder, slipping her handbag back onto her shoulder while striding confidently down the sidewalk, a swing in her step and a smirk on her face.
"6am. Remember, Mai", Naru called to her retreating form, while Mai waved a hand over her shoulder.
After finally getting home after taking the train, Mai flopped down heavily onto her bed, still donned in her coat and scarf, and a smirk still firmly attached to her face.
"What a fantastic day", she hummed to herself, satisfaction seeping from her every pore, before getting up to find her suitcase and begin packing.
She had a big day tomorrow, after all.
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