57
Let’s Eat Pizza
I clutched the photo and checked the date once more. It was definitely today’s date. The year was clearly printed as well.
What’s going on here? Bewildered, I looked at Sebastian, who just shrugged.
“They said he died in a car accident on Munben Street.”
“That’s what I heard…”
“There was indeed a car accident on Munben Street on the day they mentioned. A taxi and a sedan collided. Interestingly, everyone except Jay Wu was discharged a month later. Both the taxi driver and the sedan driver. Upon investigation, I found that both were individuals who only existed on paper.”
The only real person was Jay Wu, and he was the only one who died. Finding this too strange, he investigated the people around Jay Wu. Jay, who had been hiding at his fiancée’s house for just a day, could be photographed like this.
“They said it was this morning.”
This damn bastard…!
How much have I cried and suffered a hangover after this bastard’s death, and now he’s alive and well like this? Ha, I can’t believe it.
“Where is this?”
Sensing something was off in my tone, Sebastian tried to stop me.
“Wait, calm down a bit—”
“No, let go. Where is this damn bastard?”
He was alive? But he didn’t contact me even once?! He didn’t even check his mailbox, what the hell was he doing faking his death?
“After you calm down a bit—”
“Sebastian!”
I didn’t want to, but I ended up shouting at Sebastian. When I called his name loudly in an angry voice, everyone in the room glared at me at once.
I didn’t care. Even if Sebastian’s bodyguards drew their guns on me here, it was beyond my concern. My only interest was…
“Where. Is. This. Bastard.”
Sebastian sighed at my anger.
“I’ll take you there.”
Instead of giving me the address, he said he’d take me there. And he put a coat on me as I struggled with the surging, passionate emotions.
Throughout the ride in Sebastian’s car, the scenery outside the window didn’t properly register in my vision.
Jay was alive? How could that be?
I definitely confirmed Jay’s body. I saw his body lying in the coffin, so how…
It felt like my blood was rushing backwards. I was so dizzy that I rubbed my face several times, then Sebastian took my hand and gave me a water bottle from the refrigerator. I could vividly feel the cold water going down my throat. The fire burning in my stomach must have spread to my esophagus. I gulped down almost half the bottle and handed it back. Only then did I regain some sense.
I opened the window to feel the cold air of early March and looked at Sebastian. Somehow feeling that he wouldn’t want to hear “I’m sorry,”
“Thank you,” I said.
“It’s nothing,” came his indifferent reply. I wasn’t just thanking him for the water. But he seemed to be pretending not to know while knowing.
Eventually, the limousine stopped in front of a house. Sebastian got out of the limousine and looked at me still in the car. Even though it was time to get out, I couldn’t bring myself to do so.
“Armin?”
Damn, what is all this?
The emotions I had been suppressing were about to burst out in an instant. Jay was alive. Then what about the others? Where is this all going? How much hope am I allowed to have? I can’t breathe.
“Armin, are you okay?”
“Of course I’m okay.”
My words came out cold again. I’m showing a pathetic side to Sebastian who’s worried about me. I want to smile cheerfully, but not even a fragment of a smile came out.
Because Nakaban wasn’t riding, two cars moved, and the bodyguards had already gotten out of the SUV behind the limousine and were waiting. I could feel all of them looking at me with concerned gazes.
I took a deep breath and walked steadily.
Jay’s fiancée lived in a detached house in the suburbs. I remembered hearing from Jay that his fiancée earned good money. So Jay said he was planning to work hard for a few years to save money, and when his fiancée got pregnant and gave birth, he would take care of the household. He said his fiancée was a workaholic who couldn’t live without work, but he couldn’t live without his fiancée, so that was the most appropriate choice. I remembered Jay standing firm despite receiving jeers from his conservative male colleagues in Rotman.
When I rang the doorbell, I heard a cheerful voice say, “Yes, I’m coming!” It was Jay’s fiancée answering.
I wondered why there was no question of who it was, then I heard a vroom sound from behind. When I turned my head, I saw a girl holding pizza boxes hesitate as she saw the group of men in black suits, including me. When Sebastian beckoned her, she approached with a face full of wariness, but smiled brightly at the 5,000 Lid bill Kouri handed her. She politely handed the pizza boxes to Kouri and turned around without hesitation, disappearing with an innocent look.
“Honey, where’s my wallet?”
I heard a commotion from inside the door.
“Here!”
“Throw it, throw it!”
I was dumbfounded by the voices of the lovers that sounded so happy.
Finally, the door opened.
And my eyes met directly with those of the fiancée.
Thud, she dropped her wallet. It seems she had been opening the zipper where coins are kept. Coins spilled onto the floor with a clatter.
“Y-You…”
She stuttered.
“Where is he?”
I wasn’t in the mood to listen to what seemed like her lies.
“W-Wait,”
And I had no intention of listening to whatever she had to say.
I pushed her aside and entered the house. Then she grabbed me with a tearful voice. She didn’t care about the wallet at all.
“Wait a moment, Mr. Schnieke. There were circumstances, really, circumstances—”
“Honey, what’s going on?!”
Sensing something was wrong, Jay came running down from the second floor. Jay, who had jumped over the stair railing, was about to smile broadly at his fiancée when he came face to face with me. Then he opened his mouth and said, “Oh.”
Oh? This bastard just said “Oh”?
“Mr. Schnieke, just a moment. Really, just a moment!”
While the fiancée was trying to stop me, saying it wasn’t like that, Jay looked at his fiancée with a troubled face and shook his head.
“Honey, give us a moment.”
“What do you mean give you a moment!”
The fiancée screamed, but Jay smiled weakly.
“Because I did something wrong.”
And Sebastian pulled the fiancée away from me. In that time, I rushed at Jay.
“No—”
Jay’s fiancée screamed.
Jay offered no resistance as I grabbed him and threw him to the floor, dominating him. No, I could see him forcibly suppressing his body that was instinctively trying to resist.
Straddling him, I looked straight at his face. He looked healthy. He seemed fine.
“Really…”
He wasn’t hurt anywhere.
“You were alive.”
Tears fell. I had resolved not to cry all the way here, but it was in vain.
“Damn, you were really alive.”
Jay Wu was alive. At least two of us survived. Among those who met a miserable death due to having a stupid team leader, Jay Wu is excluded. At least one person avoided a miserable death. While that was fortunate, I didn’t know what happened to the others, and all of this felt like my fault, and I wondered if Jay made this choice because he didn’t trust me, and anyway, I just didn’t know anything.
I held onto him and cried loudly. I kept crying as I felt Jay embrace me.
Damn, damn, you were alive.
At the end, the words “Thank you, God” came out naturally. I wondered if the long prayers my father had said for me had saved this bastard, and if He was giving me even a little comfort and salvation at this moment.
When I had cried until my heart ached, suddenly my body was lifted.
“It’s okay to beat up another man, but you can’t cry in another man’s arms.”
Sebastian gritted his teeth. He was openly irritated, saying he brought me here to beat him up, not do this. His irritation gradually stopped my crying.
Even though my heart was in such a mess, Sebastian remained the same. He was still beautiful, neat, and elegant without a single flaw. Before, I thought he lacked reality when I looked at him, but now, seeing him made me feel reality.
Right, Sebastian is here.
Jay is alive too, it’s not bad.
When I sniffled, Jay’s fiancée, who had screamed earlier thinking I might kill her fiancé, hesitantly approached me and spread her arms.
“If a man won’t do, shall I lend you my embrace?”
She probably said it because she felt sorry in her own way.
At her words implying it would be okay because she’s a woman, Sebastian and I looked at her simultaneously. As we stared at her in disbelief, Jay got up and put his arm around his fiancée’s shoulders. His eyes seemed to say, “Isn’t my fiancée cute?”
And I felt like I knew what was written in Sebastian’s eyes without looking. Something like, “Can’t you manage your fiancée properly?” That’s probably what it was.
But Jay was a guy who prided himself on being like a bulldozer when it came to his fiancée.
“Let me introduce you. This is my fiancée, Valeria Jorben.”
Now Sebastian’s gaze moved to me.
Your subordinate, why is he so clueless?
Wow, I can understand what he means just from his gaze.
“And Bill, this is my superior, Armin Schnieke. Team leader of Department 1, Team 9.”
“Ah, I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Valeria smiled brightly, and I replied grumpily.
“You shouldn’t have heard much. It’s all confidential.”
“Oh my, I was just saying that. Actually, I haven’t heard anything.”
She quickly denied it, but somehow I had a feeling. It seemed Jay had shared everything with his fiancée up to a precarious level. He probably talked at an appropriate level, changing names, operation names, and locations, but still, it’s a violation of security policy!
Well, Valeria knew my name. And my phone number. Considering that, I guess quite a bit was shared. Why didn’t I notice that then! Am I really that clueless!
As I was lamenting internally, Kouri, who had been quietly watching, suggested,
“Well… shall we eat some pizza?”
In his hands, the warm pizza was showing off its appetizing appearance.
It looks delicious.
