CHAPTER VI

Deo seems to made sense of something in the CEO's assassination in his chase after the assassin. He contacts Sasha to meet up with him at a diner around his area. He puts on a black long sleeve sweatshirt, and pulls a black pair of joggers he tucks under a pair of army boots. He makes himself warmer from the cold night with a white bomber jacket as it breeze inside his room from lifting the window.

He carefully exits from there. Once he secures his footing, he descends until he reached the ground. Running with three long strides, and he leaps. One of his boots intentionally made contact with the wall, boosting himself up to grab he ledge of the pillar. He pulls his weight, climbing on then off to the other side of the tall fence that surrounds his dorm, and rushing off into the dark to finally get to Sasha.

He stops in front of the diner, hunched over from his long sprint to take a breath. Once he's all collected, he gets inside and finds Sasha's booth. His partner waves to him when the door alerts a customer's arrival and he scurries over to take a seat across him.

"Wassup, man," Sasha nods up to him. As usual, their conversations are in English.

"I need a favour." Deo bluntly requests. It made Sasha blink before his brows raise, and ease away from leaning on the table.

"Wow. We hadn't seen each other for days, and that's actually what you're gonna say? I'm a bit hurt." The light brunet fakes a pained expression whilst placing a hand on his chest.

"Not the time, Sash." Deo shakes his head, brushing past Sasha's comment. "I need you to help me do one last check on the Kamui Company. Run me through any unusual status that occurred in their market for the past three years."

"Wai- h-hold on, Dae. Why? Our client's already laid us off. We have no business in their problems now." Sasha looks at him, concerned. And curious. "Besides, it's already in the hands of the police."

Deo sighs, his hand rubbing his face. Then he nods before leaning on the table, as if understanding the man's point. "I may have made a mistake in my reasoning, Sash. This isn't just about securing company secrets, this is about something much bigger. Problem is, I dunno what exactly it is that they're trying to hide, but please… Help me."

"I… don't understand what you're saying, Dae. What do you mean by reasoning?" He may have left a big part of what he should have told Sasha first because all his partner did was dig further into his own confusion. Deo pauses. He opens his mouth then closed it again, considering telling Sasha everything that he's doing while he was supposed to enjoy his break from the agency. He needs to know at some point anyways, so… Fuck it.

Deo begins to elaborate—

—with how they were initially approached by their client, the CEO's assistant Kenjiro Kobayashi, and hiring them in the company president's stead to investigate an information leak that arose from their company a year back. It's enough as a two-man job, with occasional help from informants and rarer assistance from agency colleagues. The Kennel and the Hound were the two assigned on the case; the Hound being the undercover agent and disguising as an intern for the company, and the Kennel as an outside surveyor with his technological mastery.

For every person the Hound meets in the company, Kennel is there to covey him their identities and find ways to build a relationship with them. This had been the work for the first month. The coming months progressed with being able to access restricted areas and extract information from lower staff members, about rumours and incidents that may have happened in the past. Consistently, they've mentioned some company employees being laid off quietly, to be replaced by long-time interns. They never hear from those old employees again.

They noted nothing of information leaks, and when the Hound asked them, they told him that it was the first time it ever happened. This information being, affiliated with a rival company that has shut down from an incident similar to what fate occurred to the president of the Kamui Company. Source unknown; but there were proof of their connection plastered all over for the Internet to make an opinion on.

"And you're saying this whole thing is related to what happened a year ago?"

"It's a probability," Deo nods. "Considering the police reports pinned no culprit behind the incident." He sees Sasha's shoulder relax. The man himself didn't seem to notice he was tense, but the teen didn't comment anything of it. "Said there's a chance someone made a hit, and off him." Deo ducks his head on the table, fingers combing through his hair with tired sigh. "I just don't know why they're all secretive like that. With the whole situation. Just what is it that they're hiding…"

There's a followed silence that lasted for a while, and Deo's mind is searching for details more conclusive than just assumptions. He's frustrated to be drawing a blank, but not until Sasha helped him out of his deep thinking when he speaks up.

"Alright. I'll do it."

Deo's attention perks up to the response. "Really?"

Sasha shrugs, a smile beginning to slowly form on his face. "I mean, desk duty gets boring without you to boss around for another cup of coffee, and then here you are, doing solo work when you've been told to take a break. It's like, as a friend, how dare you; but as your partner, you couldn't ask me sooner?"

Deo reflects the smile.

"Now tell me what to do, Hound."