Just as Naru had thought, he wasn't able to sleep. He lay in bed, staring at his ceiling, occasionally sparing glances around his sparse room. It was Spartan in every extent of the word: the only decoration was a the dark modern furniture, and a framed picture of Gene and himself standing side by side on his night stand. There was something nagging at him, which he couldn't get out of his mind. It gave him a horribly uneasy feeling.
Seeing the yanki from earlier was like seeing a familiar stranger, someone he'd met once long ago, but no matter how much he worried over it he couldn't place even if there was a gun pointed at his head.
He glanced over at his alarm clock: seven o'clock, that would be an alright time to get up. Well, it would've been if he had gotten back to his apartment at a more reasonable time that six A.M. He sat up, legs hanging over the edge of the bed, moving as slowly as possible, trying to eat up some of his time.
-x-
Naru sat on his sofa; it was probably the least used item in his apartment. Everything else provided some sort of purpose, but a sofa was just for lounging during idle time or visitors. Naru always tried to be as productive as possible and have as few visitors as possible.
He held his phone in his hand, waiting for the clock to finally tick to 7:30 so he could call Ayako.
-x-
"You're joking!?" Mai practically screamed, causing several passerby to glance in their direction and then look back as quickly once they saw that the noise had come from a group of yanki. In the Red Tails being a mostly delinquent gang rather than a biker gang, being allowed to purchase a scooter showed that you were moving up in the ranks. Most of the junior members had to rely on their legs or public transportation to get around Tokyo. It was possible for a newbie to own a bike or scooter but it would be in bad taste. Typically, as you advanced in the Red Tails it was more common to own some sort of scooter or motorbike, even if there wasn't much of a practical use for them. Only the most senior members were given the honor to own a true motorbike. Of course, all of those were nothing more than indicators of status and more for ornamentation than anything else.
"Nah, you've earned it Mairu, 'specially after what you did last month. It really saved your asses there," Makoto said, "Word is that even Akimi-san is pleased."
Akimi was one of the girl's at the top of the Red Tails. In fact, there were maybe only a handful of others above her. Mai couldn't help but feel such incredible elation at the prospect of having one of the girl's she looked up to approve of her actions, especially since Mai was still a relatively new member in the group, but this meant she was finally being accepted.
-x-
"So, Mairu, you got any cash saved up?"
Mai started at Makoto's words, of course. The money. Mai had a small amount saved up from pickpocketing with the girls or going on paid dates but ditching the guys once they handed over the cash at the beginning of the date (you'd think that saying they were going to the bathroom was obviously their cue to leave and laugh at the sucker that showed up this time, but it always seemed to baffle the men), but it was nowhere near enough to buy a motorbike, much less a scooter. In fact, it was hardly enough to keep her head above financial debt, what with school tuition, rent, food, clothes…It was expensive staying alive with no regular job anymore, especially one that paid as well as SPR. Mai had never realized how much of a god send that paycheck was every week until it was gone and she was trying to eat on a handful of yen a day.
Makoto must've seen the look on Mai's face as she tried to figure out just how little food she needed to survive because she clapped her back and chuckled, "We can fix that really easy, ya know. We'll just stop by your house for the goods and then we'll head out to that place Hikaru uses."
-x-
The clock's minute hand hadn't even passed 7:31 before Naru had Ayako's cellphone number dialed and the phone held next to his ear, with his fingers tapping impatiently in time with the rings.
-x-
At Makoto's urging the girl's began to walk back to Mai's apartment, led by none other than the brunette herself. She was more than a bit nervous about this whole thing, wasn't it illegal if you were a minor? But Makoto and a few other girls swore up and down the street that this was the easy way to get cash when you were strapped for it, much safer and simpler and no one really enforced the law about minors anyway unless you went to one of the bigger places.
And, oh, how Mai wanted the money. She was practically salivating at the thought of a shiny new motorbike being hers and the status that would come with it. So what if she only had to spend a couple hundred yen on a new pack of underwear?
Review~~~I'll update much more quickly then. Tell me what you think will happen (or what you want to happen) in the next chapter! Maybe it'll come true~