A Sinner’s Voice (1)

Reiji could feel the fire inside of him bubbling when he noticed Keito standing outside the entrance, clearly waiting for someone.

And who else could it be but himself?

He forced himself to breathe regularly, trying to control his fluctuating emotions at this unwelcome encounter that dampened an otherwise happy day.

But his other life affecting his regular one was his biggest fear, and it was happening at this very moment from a source he never expected, nor one he could influence.

So it was far from easy to rein in his already unpredictable anger.

After a moment of thinking, where all of his friends were staring at him in confusion, he finally shifted his focus back to them.

"I have something to do, so let's split up here," he said in a low voice, his previous lackadaisical demeanor nowhere to be seen.

"Huh? Why?" Airi asked

"Can't say, I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Reiji turned away from them, ending the conversation abruptly, leaving them in bewilderment.

But Haruna grabbed his hand and pulled him lightly, forcing him to turn back to face them.

"What about visiting Granny?" she asked, her grim expression already expecting his answer.

Reiji hesitated because he didn't know why Keito was here, nor how long this situation would take.

"....I'm sorry, I might not be able to make it. If I have time later, I'll come over, but I'll message you if it won't be possible," he said softly.

"Then I'll just come with you and wait until you're done with whatever it is you're going to do."

He frowned at her words and shook his head.

"No, just go home."

"Bu-"

"This isn't a negotiation, Haruna. Go home, now!" he interjected, leaving her with no room for debate.

".....Fine."

Haruna looked irritated, but she didn't argue further before pulling the other three away from the school's entrance in a huff, not looking back even once.

Reiji rubbed his forehead in exasperation.

'Tch..... I should apologize later and explain everything.'

However, now wasn't the time to sit around and chit-chat with them on why this dude was here, so he had to resolve this 'problem' for now.

He walked over to where Keito was tapping his feet, his fists clenched tightly in preparation for anything he might try to do.

He thought of calling Baldy and Beardy, just in case, but he seemed to be alone, and it would just cause a larger commotion that would draw attention to him.

Keito looked up when he noticed someone coming closer to him, and when he noticed Reiji standing a few steps in front of him, his eyes lit up.

"H-Hello, I don't know if you remember me, but I'm Ke-"

"I remember exactly who you are," Reiji cut in, his eyes narrowed coldly as he studied him up and down. "What I want to know is what the fuck you're doing here?"

"Ah? Oh... Well, you said you attended Souhei High, so I thought I'd find you here," Keito mumbled awkwardly.

Reiji furrowed his brows, trying to recall if he ever did that, and felt the strong urge to facepalm when the memory came rushing back.

'That was such an idiotic mistake..... Why the hell did I do that?'

Maybe it was the nerves, the anger, or the adrenaline, but there was no denying he'd made a silly error back then.

And now it was coming back to bite him in the ass.

'But..... He doesn't look mad?'

The Keito in front of him seemed to be a far cry from the disheveled mess he was a few weeks ago, and his words didn't contain any hints of wanting revenge either.

Without letting his guard down, Reiji continued questioning him.

"That still doesn't answer why you're here."

"...Well, I..... That talk you gave before you left kind of served as a wake-up call. I didn't like what I saw in the mirror and want to make something of myself, like you said I should do," Keito replied hesitantly.

But there was a spark of determination within his dull eyes that made it hard for Reiji to scoff at him.

"That's.....good? But what does that have to do with me?"

"I was actually hoping I could come work for you."

"....What?"

Reiji blinked in surprise, thinking that maybe he'd heard wrong.

And yet he knew he hadn't.

The anger from before was replaced by waves of confusion and frustration, muddying his mind with various thoughts and possible schemes that Keito might be trying to pull.

He wanted to snap back, interrogate him in a more detailed manner, but seeing the crowd of students around them, he held back.

"....There's a coffee shop near here, let's go there first," he finally sighed, ruffling his long hair aggressively.

Keito grinned, almost clapping his hands in joy.

But he froze at the last second, just barely managing to hold back as he prevented his bandaged fingers from colliding.

'.....Oops,' Reiji thought.

He led Keito away from the school, keeping an eye on him in case he made a move.

But this meant he didn't notice the four pairs of eyes peeking at him from behind a wall across from them.

***

"Okay, now explain properly, because I have no idea what you're talking about," Reiji muttered after taking a sip of the iced coffee in his hands.

They were sitting at one of the tables outside the cafe since there were too many people inside and the terrace was empty, an umbrella providing them with some shade from the warm day.

Keito, who was satisfied with a normal black coffee, fiddled with the wrapping on his fingers instead of drinking.

"Well, there's not much to explain. After that day, I took a few days to recover from the..... 'injuries' and went out of town to reduce the medical bills. The whole time I was thinking hard about what I wanted to do. Then I thought that if I helped you out with jobs like where you confronted degenerates like me, I could repent for my sins and move on without the guilt hanging over my head," he recounted slowly.

"..... I can see your thought process, but if I remember correctly, weren't you an accountant or something? Why not just get a regular job instead of joining in this shady business, which, by the way, is not much better than continuing to be a degenerate?"

Keito pursed his lips and didn't respond for a minute, as if he was deep in thought about something.

And then he hung his head low and changed topics suddenly.

"Sir, since you know I was an accountant, do you know why I was fired?"

"Huh? No, is that relevant?" Reiji asked, squinting his eyes in puzzlement.

"Yes. I worked for a company that handled the accounts of a lot of major businesses in the country, and I was pretty good at my job, if I say so myself. But that ended up being a curse. One day, I found signs of embezzlement in some of the ledgers that I was going through for a routine check, and brought it up with my supervisor so that they could find the one who did it," Keito dictated, finally lifting his cup to take a deep gulp.

He placed it back down on the table and continued.

"A month goes by, and nothing happened. No investigation was launched, and there wasn't even a single word about it within the office. So I spoke to my supervisor again, who told me it had already been taken care of and to let it go. I knew something was wrong at that point and decided to collect evidence to hand over to the directors above her because I suspected she was in on it. But.... The next week, when I came to work... I was called in by HR, and they fired me."

Reiji raised a brow in interest, somewhat guessing where this was going.

"Turns out..... haha.....Turns out, my supervisor reported me for sexual harassment, claiming that I had tried to take advantage of her.... Isn't that ridiculous? In one day, everything I had worked for had crumbled, and no one would listen to me!? How is that fair?" he hissed, the pain that he had locked away a long time ago resurfacing with great force, as if a dam had broken down.

"Why didn't you fight it? If you counter-claimed that she embezzled, wouldn't an investigation have been launched?" Reiji asked curiously.

Keito laughed with self-deprecation.

"I thought of that, obviously. But the supervisor called me into her office and showed me a doctored photo where it seemed like I was grabbing her behind. Originally, that photo was me holding her back from falling when she slipped on some ice in the break room, and she somehow got the CCTV footage and edited it in that way. She said that 'coincidentally', they were overhauling the camera system in the office at her request, so the previous footage had been deleted. So if I tried to say anything about her embezzlement, she would reveal the photo and ruin my social life. She offered to simply fire me in exchange for me not revealing her embezzlement, and she would also lock away the sexual harassment report so that no one but me, her, and HR would know.... I loved Chinatsu back then and couldn't bear the thought of her thinking I was a creep, so I agreed."

Keito looked guilty as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"....And then I end up making her think that anyway, and this time with my own hands instead of a false threat from someone else," he sniffed, gazing at his fractured fingers emotionally.

Reiji exhaled, not expecting such a story to come out of his mouth.

Did he believe him?

He wasn't too sure.

But that heartbroken expression and pain within his eyes would make him one of the country's best actors if he really was lying.

Keito leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling, sneering at himself in disgust.

"Is it ironic that I got the idea of blackmailing Chinatsu from that incident? Or is that just the normal cycle of assholes that sweeps in the next unaware fool?"

Reiji drank his coffee in silence, unsure of how to respond to that.

"But the main reason I can't go back to work in accounting isn't just that," Keito chuckled dryly, placing his arms on the table as he tapped his cup.

"....Then what is it?"

"That bitch has connections everywhere, and she said if I tried to interview for anything in the financial field, she'd hand over the report to the company I applied to and push for my elimination. She's scared that I could find a foothold and try to get back at her."

Reiji tilted his head in amusement, rubbing his chin thoughtfully as a small spark of inspiration came to mind.

'Hmmm..... Maybe he could do something about this?'