Chapter Twenty-Four.

"I-I-I can't find her anywhere..." the white-haired boy mumbles quietly, his feet shuffling on the ground while he wrings his hands together nervously. He keeps his mismatched eyes from meeting mine, staring downward to watch the toes of his tennis shoes like they're the coolest things he's ever seen in his whole life. "She's not in her usual place. The others haven't seen her, either."

"Who else is involved?" I snap fiercely, clenching my hand into a fist. Rin is somewhere in the other room, and even though she knows how violent I can be, I don't want her to see me explode.

"They're not involved; they're just friends of hers. Iroha and SeeU," he tells me. Piko blinks once, then again, waiting for me to break the silence, and it seems like ages before I finally do.

"I need to speak to Kuroneko about Akaito. I have to do something about him, and I don't care if I have to kill him to keep him away from Rin."

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"Are you sure you don't need help?"

"I can make Ramen by myself. I'm not helpless," I growl back, shoving a pair of chopsticks into each bowl of noodles. Rin's voice comes from somewhere behind me, and judging by the fresh scent of cherry-blossom wafting in, she's fresh out of the shower.

I send a glance over my shoulder to meet her cerulean gaze, willing my eyes not to travel over her dripping body, covered only by one of my oversized tee shirts. She grins at me and turns away to head for the couch, taking a seat there and stretching her legs across it so she's taking up practically the whole space.

Heaving a sigh, I take one bowl in each hand and walk over towards her. The soft drone of the television fills my apartment after the signature 'click' of the remote control. I plop down on the couch as she flips through the channels, and I hand her one of the bowls of noodles before situating myself with her leaning against me.

"Whatcha wanna watch?" Rin's soft voice echoes in the air, and she tilts her head just enough to peck me on the cheek.

"Doesn't matter. Whatever looks interesting," I tell her, running my fingers through her golden hair. Then, I reach up to take the chopsticks and begin to eat.

She leans backward, grinning. "Okey dokey. How about something with lots of romance, then?"

I snort and roll my eyes. "Rin, we can't be doing things like that, you know. It'll distract us from the matter at hand."

Rin chuckles after settling on a channel, tossing the remote to the other side of the couch. "What's wrong with a little break every now and then?"

"We don't have time for things like that now," I tell her firmly, slurping up a mouthful of noodles before I speak again. "We have to do something about this predicament before we get too comfortable."

"Wow. The Len I knew a few days ago would've never passed up an opportunity to play with me," Rin purrs, leaning back against my shoulder a little bit more. A short silence stretches on before she mumbles around a bite of food, "Why do you care so much, anyway?"

"Because you're mine."

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"You checked the news, right?"

"What teenage boy in his right mind sits around and watches the damn news?" I snap into the phone, holding it a little bit away from my mouth to prevent from deafening the white-haired boy on the other end of the line. From the corner of my eye, I can see Rin tense up and send me a curious glance, and as hard as it is to catch, she's chewing down on the inside of her cheek nervously.

"What's going on?" she asks, taking a few steps forward, but I hold one finger up to silence her.

"It's about that guy you were so pissed at," Piko continues. "Akaito? Was that his name?"

"Akaito?" I growl. Slowly, I sink down to sit on the couch, raking my free hand through my hair. "What about him? Did he finally get arrested for trying to rape young girls?"

"Len..." Piko almost sounds remorseful. "He's dead. Someone killed him."

My whole body tenses up in shock - terror, even - and my blonde girlfriend notices, quickly sitting down next to me and placing her small hand gently on my bare knee. I send her a quick glance, my mouth open slightly as I try to speak the words that refuse to come out.

"Len, what happened?" Rin asks, her voice strained. She looks almost on the verge of tears, panic shining in her eyes. Perhaps she was much more terrified of Akaito than I realized?

I ignore her question at first, directing my next words to Piko, who was patiently waiting the whole time for a response from me. "Thanks for telling me. Do they know who did it?"

"No leads," he says quietly.

"Alright..." I nod to myself, turning to look at Rin and lifting my hand to cup her cheek. My thumb brushes over her smooth skin, and our eyes meet with a mixture of pain and terror. "Alright, thanks for telling me."

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"I don't know why the hell you'd even want to do this!" I howl fiercely, throwing my arms up in the air in exaggeration as Rin folds up one of her shirts that had been carelessly thrown in one of the drawers.

"Akaito's gone now. We don't have to worry about his business being in the way anymore," she tells me matter-of-factly, shooting me a cerulean glare from behind the curtain of her golden hair that falls messily into her face.

"That doesn't explain why you're going back to your brother." I fold my arms across my chest, spreading my legs a little bit to keep my two feet planted firmly on the ground just in front of my bedroom door. If she wants to leave, she'll have to give me a damn good reason - or she'll have to get through me. Somehow, I can't see either happening.

Rin pauses and puffs out air in a sigh, wiping a few drops of sweat from her brow with the back of her hand. "Rinto really cares about me, Len. If you'd heard his voice when he talked to me, you'd know and you'd understand. I like you, really, but this is my brother's business. My future business. I can't neglect it. I know that now."

"You didn't care about it before."

"That's because it was so much trouble." She sighs again and stuffs a few more articles of clothing into her bag. "Len, now that Akaito's out of the way, I don't have to worry about the bad things that can become of this anymore."

"But what if Rinto tries to push you into another relationship?" I counter cleverly.

"He won't. He promised."

"You can't trust him."

"He's my brother. If I can't trust him..." Rin breaks off for a moment, and then she shakes her head to show that she's done with that sentence. She finishes her packing with one long swipe of the zipper to seal the bag and looks at me with a challenge glinting in her eyes.

I have one last chance.

"Rin, why are you moving on so easily with all of this happening? Right after Akaito gets killed, you move back in with your brother. It doesn't make any sense."

She grabs her bag and slings it over her shoulder, blinking at him slowly. "That's the world of business." Rin pads forward and, with a hard butt of her shoulder against mine, pushes me aside and leave my room. Then she looks at me over her shoulder. "Thanks for killing Akaito, by the way. It's much appreciated. Now I can get on with my life."

Sequel.

Title: Relocation

Summary: Business is a strange thing. You never know what's real and what's fake. Was my relationship with Rin really just a trick? Is that why it's so easy for her to be with another guy already? -Takes place 1 month later-

Preview of Chapter One...

I grip the phone so tightly that it's practically a miracle the damn thing hasn't snapped in half in my hand. "Like hell you will," I mutter to myself, in regards to her voicemail message. I must've left a message ten times, and I still haven't so much as gotten a text in acknowledgement. Maybe she really doesn't want anything to do with me anymore? Maybe I should just give up, because maybe - just maybe - it really was all just a big lie.

Thinking about it gives me a headache. I turn to look at the brick wall that rises high at the end of the alley, full dumpsters pushed up against it. With a loud cry of irritation, I chuck my phone right at the damn thing, aiming to shatter it to a million pieces, and just my luck, the thing flies right over. I can hear it crack a couple of times as it bounces and skids along the concrete.

"Damn it, Rin. You little, pathetic tease..." I lean back against the brick wall, covering my face with my hands as I let out one long, ragged sigh. Slowly, I slide down the wall until I reach the ground, and I pull my knees up to my chest. "You were such a whore. I should've known."

"I think you dropped this."

The voice is a familiar one, one that I certainly wasn't expecting to ever hear again. I lift my head, turning in the direction of the girl who'd spoken so gruffly, yet with a friendly tone. Her face is remarkably close to mine, her crimson eyes filled with curiosity and concern. Her breath is warm against my own lips - and when I notice that, I quickly place my hands on her shoulders and push her backward.

"I thought you ran off," I tell her monotonously. "Why are you back, Neko?"

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(:Mizune