Midnight Pretenders (BL)

Chapter 48

I eventually resorted to staying inside the motel room again that night since Nari was not scheduled for any gig at the pub for the next three days. After I had already shaved my jaw clean that afternoon and ate at a diner outside the town because no one seemed to take me warmly into the cafes or bistros in Avian Hills (the pub near the motel was only opened at nights), I realized that I really had nothing else to do. So when the evening came, I found myself lying on my bed, thinking of anything to work on for a while. But as the minutes slowly went by in a blur, I was soon got bristled with boredom and eagerly tried to come up with something. Before I knew it, I had already picked up my phone from the bedside table and dialed a number, calling my personal lawyer for a quick chat about business matters—just to relieve myself of the restlessness.

"Taiyo Takagi. It’s nice hearing from you again,” his deep mellow voice immediately answered the call on the first ring. “It has been so long."

"Hudson,” I greeted back warmly, feeling more at ease now upon hearing the familiar friendly voice of my colleague, “Yeah, it's been a while, huh?"

Hudson Porter has been my business confidante and best friend for over five years now. We had first met in college after being seatmates in Philosophy class. He has been one of the very few people I trusted with my life because he just had a way of making you feel like he would never betray you. He is cordially honest and frank and he never tried to question my decisions no matter how irrational and absurd they’d come. He was just there to give me warnings and precautions. And he was the most considerate person I've met. He would always be there for me in times of dire need and troubles. But now that I think about it, it really has been so long since the last time we had chatted over a drink or even just met for business. It was kind of weird hearing his voice again when I haven't even seen him for almost a year now.

"How's LA?" I casually asked.

He had been assigned to meet and negotiate with the executives of one of our partner companies in Los Angeles to work for a future project that we had been going over for the last two years. And ever since he had left for that, he has been staying at the state alone.

"Same old boring meetings, as usual. It’s almost like I’ve never even changed places. My schedules are pretty much the same as what I had back there…" Hudson said with apparent disdain laced in his voice then quickly stopped, "Oh no. You're still not back in the city, aren’t you? I heard from your brother that you were actually planning to stay in a town or something. Last time I've heard, you were in Paris. What's with that?"

I scowled at his words as I was immediately reminded by my brother again. Leave it to Kevin to relay all the news with everyone else. That pompous squealer. I swear I won't ever tell him about my plans anymore.

"The news does really have a mouth, ears, and wings, huh," I remarked with subtle annoyance.

"You know that saying?"

I was even more surprised that he did.

"I just heard it,” I briefly responded back, “And I didn’t really know there was even a saying."

Hudson just chuckled softly from the other end and I sighed.

"Anyways,” I interjected, cutting his tittering shortly, “Have you read my emails?”

“I've already received your final revisions alright,” Hudson replied with a huff but was now sounding much more serious as he regarded my words. He was really like that when business talk comes in. “I'm amazed that you had even finished everything in just one go. I’m still working with something right now and I'd be returning at the city before the fall so I will just send you back the reorganized documents through an email soon. Or… do you want me to send it by fax?”

"No hassle,” I told him, merely sighing, “I'm still on vacation for a month or two. So I would not really be back to check it again for now. I still have an urgent matter I needed to settle for a while.”

Making that reason sound like it was related to business was obviously a complete lie. But then, Hudson didn’t really know why I was even here in this town so I thought it would have been better not to say anything more to him. And mostly, it was primarily because of certain personal reasons, as well.

“Urgent matter? You mean something in the town, huh?” Hudson naturally probed back with a lucid tone of curiosity, “Where are you really?”

“Just at a small suburban village, they called Avian Hills,” I answered back, “It's actually near our old mansion here in Preston. I didn't even know that there was one here. I thought the whole Preston territory was a private asset of the family but then I somehow found this town in the middle of nowhere.”

"Avian Hills?” Hudson suddenly exclaimed with a voice raised with disbelief, “In Preston? Wait a minute...”

The way he trailed off had me feeling a little bit skeptical about it.

“Why?” I asked him right back, frowning.

“It's kind of strange, Taiyo,” he told me. And I felt quite bothered with the way he had sounded. It had me instantly reeling for a more direct explanation from him.

“Why?”

“I don’t know if I should say this, but…” he paused for a moment, making me feel extremely impatient.

“What is it?”

“Well, I used to review the rundown of the various assets of your family before… And I normally double-checked everything. I had briefly come across that Preston property and I was pretty sure that the whole place had been bought by your father for a long time now. So…”

“Are you sure?” I demanded louder, sitting up from the bed.

“Y-yeah,” Hudson hesitantly replied with a stammer, sounding suddenly frightened by my raised deep voice, “I read it on one of the settlement documentation I had been reviewing the last time. I was sure of it because I had seen the word Preston on a contract and it indicated there that it was bought as a private property of Takagi’s. It was legally signed and sealed. That’s why I don't think a village could even be built within it. That’s too strange and unbelievable. Are you sure it’s really inside the borders?”

“Yeah,” I answered right away, “It is just a kilometer away from the old mansion. It's really within the borders.”

“Weird,” he remarked with evident suspicion, “Maybe your father let them have the town, I guess.”

“You think so?”

“I don't know. I’m not sure, Taiyo,” he admitted, “But I didn’t see anything else besides the territorial measurements and the geographical aspects of Preston on the paper. Maybe it would probably be better if you just ask your father about that. He would know more of it.”

“He already knows. But he didn’t say anything,” I told him.

 “Well… I guess he did know about the town after all,” Hudson resolved with a sigh, “Anyways, I’m actually in the middle of checking a few stuff here so I’ll just send you a message later once I had finished all the final reviews and organized them together, ‘kay?”

I was still not ready to drop the subject on the other hand.

“Wait,” I uttered back to Hudson, stopping him from ending the call.

“What?”

“I have a favor, Hud.”

And I knew this was going to be a little risky.

“What kind of favor?” he asked me, sounding reluctant all of a sudden.

“Do you still have that document about Preston?”

“I do have a copy in my files. Why?”

It really was going to be risky.

“Can you check that again for me? Or maybe if you could, just send me the copy instead. I just want to see it for myself.”

“Why?” Hudson asked, his voice resonating a bit louder now.

“Just check it first and call me right away once you do,” I said back instead, “Please.”

I heard Hudson sighing heavily from the other end and after a moment he spoke again.

“I don't know what this is all for so suddenly. But yeah,” he finally agreed, “I’ll see what I can do and try to help you with this. But if this is trouble, Taiyo, you’ve got to drop it right away, okay?”

“Fine.” I abruptly obliged.

“Good,” Hudson intoned through the receiver, the sound of relief settling in his voice, “Talk to you soon.”

“Thanks, Hud.”

“Take care, friend.” And the call ended quickly in a short click.

I put the phone beside me after that and sighed. It seemed like there was more than just the strangeness of this village that led me to meet Nari. And it felt like I had discovered some kind of a secret that I should not have. But it was already too late. I was already stuck in the spiral of this mystery.

And I need to know it all.