Author's Note: Short chapter here compared to the last one. But a needed plot point nonetheless! As always, I want to know what you think. Review are appreciated.
The constant ringing of her cell phone drew Naoto out of her sleep. She had tried to ignore the buzzing by wrapping her pillow around her head, but even that failed to drown out the sound. The ringing continued; whoever was on the other end of the line was persistent. She finally reached in the dark for the phone, convinced that taking the call would allow her to get back to sleep much faster than ignoring it.
With her face still planted in her pillow, she fumbled her hand around her night stand before finding the phone ans scooping it up. She'd reasoned that there was only one person with the audacity to call her in the middle of the night, Yosuke Hanamura.
She flipped open the phone and the screen illuminated the room. The light forced her to squint to maintain any focus. She looked at the caller identification and found her deduction to be correct.
"What?" Naoto groaned when she brought the phone to her ear.
"Hey Naoto, what's up?" Yosuke gulped nervously.
"What do you want Yosuke? It's 2:35 am. What do you want?" the young detective hissed.
"Yeah, I'm really sorry to call you this late. I know it's kind of a jerk thing to do, but it really is important," he stuttered and waited for Naoto's reply.
"Well, go on with it," Naoto demanded.
"Well, it's about the student council election. Chie, Yuu and I are running in it and we were wondering if you'd be able to help us out with the campaign," Yosuke explained.
"Couldn't we discuss this at school? Is there a reason you couldn't wait six hours?" Naoto yawned.
"Yeah, I wish it could wait, but I promised Narukami that I would ask you before school on Monday. I got a little tied up in other things on Sunday, so I didn't really get a chance. Since Yuu has been doing the leg work on his end, I didn't want to let him down." Yosuke sniffled.
Naoto now recognized unease in Yosuke's voice. He seemed to be breathing heavy.
"Yosuke, are you alright? You sound like something is wrong," Naoto asked gently.
"Oh, I'm fine. It's nothing to worry about. It's just that I had a really, really long day. I won't go into the specifics of it right now though. Long story short, I was kind of stressed about something and now I'm exhausted because I only got home a few minutes ago. I'm okay though," Yosuke assured.
Naoto accepted his wish to leave the subject alone, and didn't press for further explanation.
"What exactly is it that you want from me Yosuke?" she replied.
"Well, we want to find out what the current student council is doing with all of our student funds. They're supposed to be putting them to use for student clubs and activities, but those clubs keeping getting cancelled. We went to one of the reps to ask him what's up with that, but he basically told us to go the hell away. It was really weird," Yosuke recalled.
"And I assume this is the part where I come in," Naoto gripped.
"Yeah! We were thinking maybe you can investigate this guy or something. Or maybe do some digging around to see if anyone knows what the council is doing with the money. It would be for the good of the student body!"
Naoto rubbed her eyes and considered how to respond to Yosuke without upsetting him. "Yosuke, I can't simply investigate this person on your suspicion alone. Putting my skills to use for the benefit of friends and associates would be unethical."
"Aw man, so is that a no then?" Yosuke sobbed through the phone line.
"Not necessarily. However, if you are concerned about his behaviour I suggest we talk about this in depth at school. If I find your concerns to be justified, I can only talk to the rep directly. Until I have something more concrete than his rude behaviour to base suspicion, I'm afraid I cannot promise to investigate him or how the money is spent."
"That's perfectly reasonable Naoto," Yosuke cheered. "All I'm asking is to keep your eye out for anything fishy going on at school."
"If there are underhand dealings or subterfuge occurring at school, I'll catch wind if it and I'll expose it. You can count on that much Yosuke," she assured.
Without waiting for a response from Yosuke, Naoto hung up and rolled over in her bed. She waited for the phone to ring again, but when it stayed silent she quickly drifted back to sleep.