It was the next day and Matsuda was at the office, keeping himself busy with as much work as he could find. He'd managed to convince himself to stop checking his phone constantly, and had left it in his coat pocket, which was in the room down the hallway.
He was the first and only one in the office, and he was waiting for everyone else to come in. He wasn't looking forward to taking the fall for what he'd done, but he knew he had to. And that he'd have to tell Near too. Matsuda was preparing himself for the worst-case scenario when he suddenly heard the door open behind him, and he looked over his shoulder to see Yamamoto walking in.
He gave a sigh of relief. If he had to face any of the task force members, he was glad it was him. He knew that Yamamoto wouldn't give him a hard time for telling Sayu, but he couldn't say the same for the others.
"Hey Matsuda." Yamamoto said nonchalantly as he took a seat beside him. "How was your weekend?"
"Well, I've had better..." He muttered, and Yamamoto caught on, suddenly becoming a lot more animated.
"So I take it you told her then…" He guessed, and Matsuda nodded. "You did the right thing you know, even if it doesn't feel like it right now." He added, trying to lift his colleague's mood a little. Matsuda was normally so cheery and childish, even to the point that it usually irritated everyone else who was present, so it didn't feel right seeing him so sullen.
"I know that it was the right thing to do… But she's not talking to me at all now. I understand she's mad at me, but what if this is it? What if she never wants to see me again...?" Matsuda's voice broke as the panic began to set in. He'd tried not to think about the possibility of them never speaking again, but now it was staring him in the face.
Yamamoto could tell he was going to keep beating himself up over the situation, so he turned to face him. "I'm sure that won't be the case. I think she just needs time, after all, you've got to admit that it's a lot for her to come to terms with. Give her a few more days, then maybe try visiting her."
Matsuda bit his lip, looking down. "Yeah, maybe… I just don't want to keep hurting her like this."
"And you won't. Now that this whole thing is out in the open there's no more lies between you two. You'll be better off in the long run now that you're both being completely honest with each other."
Just as Yamamoto finished his sentence, the door opened and the three task members walked into the office. Matsuda felt his stomach turn, as he waited for them to walk over.
"Hi guys." Yamamoto greeted them as they all took their seats around the table and opened their laptops.
Mogi gave him a smirk in response. "Hey."
Ide smiled. "Hey Yamamoto, Matsuda. You're both in early."
"Not really, I only just got here myself about 5 minutes ago, Matsuda's the one who got here before me." Yamamoto stated.
"Yeah, and my peace and quiet was nice while it lasted." Matsuda joked half-heartedly, trying to make it seem like there was nothing wrong, and that he was his usual overly peppy self.
As they all made small talk about their weekend activities, Aizawa turned to Matsuda, noticing his change of demeanour. "You alright?" He asked, and Matsuda lifted his head to look at him, slightly shocked at his sympathy, after being so against the idea of him telling Sayu in the first place. "I'm assuming you told her the truth."
"I will be, yeah… I know I shouldn't have, but I promise to take full responsibility for what I did…"
Aizawa nodded, opening the document files he needed. He replied without taking his eyes of the laptop screen. "I'm sure everything will turn out okay in the end. She'll be grateful that you chose to be honest with her."
"Yeah, I hope you're right. Thank you Aizawa…" Matsuda said, giving him a small smile. He didn't really understand what had caused the massive change of heart, but he was grateful for it nonetheless.
As the others concentrated on their work, Matsuda decided it was time to get the unavoidable task over and done with. He shut his laptop and got up, walking out into the hallway. He let out a sigh as he walked over to the room where he's left his coat and grabbed it, pulling his phone out of the pocket. He began dialling Near's number and then pressed call. On the third ring, he picked up.
"Hello?" Said the heavily distorted voice coming from the other end, signalling Matsuda to speak.
He inhaled nervously. "L, It's Matsuda… I have something I need to tell you. I know that it's against what we all agreed on, and I take full responsibility for my actions, but over the weekend I-"
"You told Mr Yagami's daughter about the Kira investigation." Near interrupted, and Matsuda was speechless. How did he know?
"Well, y-yeah, but how did you..?"
"It wasn't a very difficult deduction. You are close to the Yagami family, correct? And you were the one who was least comfortable in the beginning when I proposed that we don't uncover the truth to anyone, including the remaining members of the Yagami family. It therefore stands to reason that you, Matsuda, would eventually come clean to them, telling them that their beloved son and brother was Kira all along." Near stated. Matsuda had nothing to say to that. "Don't worry, that being said, I'm not going to tell you that you have went behind our backs or that your untrustworthy. I understand your motives and I did anticipate for this to happen. That's why I have already come up with a story to give to the media, just in case the Yagami family do decide not to keep this private."
"I understand the need to come up with a plan for if this becomes public knowledge…" Matsuda began. "But I know the Yagami family well. They wouldn't do something like that knowing the trouble it would cause."
"I know that you believe that to be the case, and even I personally doubt that we will need to put this plan into action, but even so, if there is a 0.01% chance of that happening, we still have to be prepared. I will email this to you all in due time. Goodbye." And with that, Near hung up.
Matsuda was always impressed by the boy's deductive skills, and above all he was glad that he wasn't in trouble. Relieved, he went back to the others and sat down, going back to his laptop and carrying on with the work.
The rest of the day went pretty smoothly, and before long the five of them had gotten all of the reports checked, signed and sent off. They had already investigated all of the major crime syndicates in the area for now, so there was nothing else left for them to do until Near gave them the word to intercept one of them. It was Mogi who suggested to call it a day, and the other task force members agreed.
After saying goodbye to everyone, Matsuda made his way out of the office grabbing his coat on the way and heading down to where he had parked his car earlier that morning. He wasn't in the mood to hang around like he usually would be, and even Yamamoto's offer of going out for drinks, and even paying for the first round, hadn't managed to persuade him to stay out with the rest of them. He knew that it was a bad idea, because the alternative wasn't much greater – spending the night alone watching boring television programs – but he just wasn't in the mood to socialise any more than what was necessary.
As he made his way outside of the building, he noticed that the weather had changed from calm to windy, and the air had gotten considerably colder since he had last been outside. Now there was a lingering chill in the air that caused him to shiver uncontrollably as he rushed to his car. Without hesitation, Matsuda got in and turned on the heater before making his way home.
The journey still felt long and boring to him, especially without anything to look forward to. He knew that no matter how hard he tried to stay occupied, he'd still just end up moping around until the next day.
He let out a as he approached his apartment, making his way up the drive and parking his car in his usual spot. He was about to get out when suddenly, he noticed a figure standing outside the apartment entrance, and he squinted, trying to work out who it was.
Suddenly a gasp escaped his lips as he recognised the girl's features, and he felt a lump appear in his throat and his eyes threaten to tear up. 'Why is she here?' he thought to himself as he scrambled to get out of the car. She turned her head to face him and she gave him a small smile.
He smiled back at her.
"Sayu…"