RIVALS INCARNATE

Chapter Forty-Eight: Secrets Beneath Words

PRESENT, 2020 (Tokyo)

Osamu Sato dumped a heavy stack of photos--the pieces of evidence that he had just received from his unknown source whom he had met up with not too long ago--on the coffee table in front of Yuko Amazawa and sighed out loud. They had agreed to talk privately about everything in a place that no one has yet to know. And knowing that they can't just go anywhere else, they both settled to have the talk in the living room inside Yuko's apartment that night. Osamu sat down on the sofa across Yuko and stared down at the pictures splayed all over the table between them.

"Those are the things you might want to check out first," he told Yuko after a long moment of silence, his voice serious. Yuko eyed the pictures with a curious look on her face but she did not attempt to reach for them at the moment. She only gave it a little attention before she looked up and stared back at Osamu.

"What does that have to do with the problem right now?" she asked him inquisitively. She just finished explaining to him the reason for this sudden meeting and the threat that she had received a while ago and for some reason, she did not really expect Osamu to provide this instead. She was still more worried about the possibility that they were now being followed rather than trying to solve who was behind the caller. At this point, she only thought that coming up with a back-up plan to protect Kurosaki and their connections was what really mattered the most.

"Those people are the possible enemies we got," Osamu explained briefly, leaning back on the sofa as he held Yuko's gaze and added, "And one of them could be the one who's sending threats to you and Kurosaki. One of them could also be trying to spy on us... Some of them had worked or had been doing business with Ami Komatsu, you know."

Osamu knew that he was trying to point something out when he said those words and when he mentioned Komatsu's name, Yuko felt her body tensing up. "What?" she uttered out loud, her eyes widening sharply.

"You don't have to be surprised," Osamu said with confidence, "You already know what and who she really is. This is how she works. And it's not even a secret."

"She's on our side," Yuko still claimed, sounding a little too defensive this time as she looked away and scowled, "She's not an enemy here. But of course, I am aware of this. She could still be used as an asset against us but you know that we still need her right now. The only thing that we just have to do in the meantime, is to be more cautious."

"Don't act too naive, Your Highness," Osamu pressed on, his eyes narrowing into slits as he leaned forward to stare harder at Yuko, "We both know Komatsu is a dangerous woman. I agree, that we need her for our plan but that does not mean we can really trust her at all. Not even a little bit."

Yuko paused for a moment, and she turned to give Osamu a sidelong glance. She slowly processed his words in her head. Then after a while, she asked, "So what's your plan then?"

"I'm not saying to cut ties with her," Osamu said in a lazy voice, sighing a little, "We just have to pretend we don't know anything and act natural. All we need to do is to play this game with them. If we play-pretend they will look past us and think of us as weaklings. Then once we figure out how to turn the table around, that's when we go at it. Harder."

"You're talking gamble, huh?" Yuko raised a brow, a curve of a smile forming in her mouth as she started to like the idea. Osamu chuckled, smirking devilishly from his seat as he met her eyes.

"It's what you do to win poker strategically," Osamu said as he shrugged back at her, "And the rest is up to luck."

And yes, Yuko agreed quietly with a nod. Luck was what they also needed to win this certainly.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Kurosaki got to work that next day, he had never really expected the weight of workload that was going to welcome him the moment he had stepped into his office and was greeted by his secretary with an anxious smile. He nodded his head at her at first, completely unaware of what was about to come at him, and he just obliviously opened the door into his personal room and told his secretary to keep a record of the incoming calls until before lunchtime.

But when he entered the room and shut the door behind him, he was too shocked to take another step further as he immediately saw the pile of folders sitting on top of his huge desk in columns that were almost eating a whole lot of space on it. And when he got to check his emails on his computer so he could see if there were any important matters that he must do first, a bunch of unread ones came up, stressing him out immediately.

He slumped down on his chair and stared at the whole thing he was going to work for hours. And he quickly felt another headache coming as he let out a long weary sigh. Although he had already expected to get busy in attending to everything he had missed out on in the last three days he had been absent, he still had not anticipated such an extent of stress. He was way too swamped and the day was just starting for him. Yet at this point, he knew he was going to have to commit to overtime today.

The day dragged on so fast, and Kyouhei simultaneously worked in between the documents he had to check and the emails he had to reply to. His secretary would even give him a call every now and then to tell him about a certain appointment and scheduled meetings for this whole week he needed to attend. Now that Kyouhei was paying back for the days he had gone out from work, it actually made him appreciate more the days he had always shown up and completed his tasks. Those were way much better than having to laze around or just hole up in his apartment, avoiding the stress in his office. And as he consumed himself with the rest of the things he still needed to finish, he suddenly wanted to rush. But he was immediately distracted when his phone rang from the pocket of his suit, and he quickly pulled it out without checking the caller ID and answered it right away.

"Kurosaki," he simply said, waiting for the person on the other end to speak back.

"It's me."

Kyouhei went numb. The sound of her voice came in so suddenly that he immediately dropped the folder he was holding in his hand and let it hit his lap and the floor as he found himself sitting up and gripping the phone against his ear tighter than he had. He could not even breathe for a few seconds as he froze and wondered if he was dreaming all of this now.

"It's Amazawa," the voice then added when he suddenly had gone quiet for a long while. Kyouhei did not really know what to say. He never expected her to call since she had not really contacted him in the past three days since that morning and he never really got any update from her as well. He was too nervous to tell her anything else after what just happened and as he gulped and tried to come up with something to say, she spoke again before he could even reply.

"Are you too busy?" she asked this with a voice that sounded a little wary and hesitant. Kyouhei closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he finally answered.

"No," he said too softly, almost like a whisper, and he knew it was a lie. But he still added, "I got time. But I can't meet for today. What is it?"

"It's about Ami Komatsu," Yuko said right away, no longer bothering to idle around and Kyouhei paused for a moment, a frown forming on his forehead. 

"What about her?" he quickly asked, curious and confused. 

"I need to warn you about her for now," Yuko explained, barely elaborating anything else as she said, "We can't trust her yet. I just want you to be more careful around her and the people who might try to approach you from now on."

Was this about the threats? Kyouhei felt his body going cold the moment he remembered that anonymous call and the letters he had been getting lately. He also recalled that the first person he had approached when it had happened was actually Ami Komatsu and as he realized what Yuko was trying to tell him, he felt reluctant about it. Why would she even suspect Komatsu?

"I understand," Kyouhei just said in a clipped tone, trying to seal his thoughts for now as he decided to keep it to himself first. Then just to reassure Yuko he added, "I'm going to be more careful."

"Thank you," he heard her say after a second, and she voiced it out quite too gently and soft. He almost did not hear it before she said, "That's all I wanted to say. I'll talk to you soon. Bye."

And right after that, the call ended coldly. She did not even wait for him to say anything back, she just dropped it like that. But Kyouhei could not really complain anymore and he just put his phone back right into his pocket again, sighing heavily.

This was now how it was going to be between them until forever... too distant. And too cold. But Kyouhei realized that this was not the only thing that had changed between him and Yuko lately. There was also something else that he did not notice right away and it was the fact that he had also started to keep secrets from her. Secrets that he, himself, had chosen to never tell her.

Secrets that she would never ever know. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------next chapter: Chapter Forty-Nine