Blackmail (4)

(Chinatsu POV)

***

Chinatsu sat in her chair and stared at her front door, waiting for a knock.

She had been sitting there for over an hour, ever since they had left her house to destroy the blackmail material that Keito was using against her.

The tips of the nails on her fingers had been almost completely chewed off, her anxiety and restlessness preventing her from doing anything other than wait for their return.

She picked up the glass of water on the table and tried to take a sip, but it turned out to be empty.

Well, it had been empty for quite a while now, and yet she kept trying to drink from it.

"Will everything go well? I don't even know how they're going to solve this..."

She leaned forward and rested her head on her hands, the stress becoming almost overwhelming when there was still no movement, either on her phone or at the door.

"How did things even come to this... We were so happy last year, Keito, why did you..."

Tears threatened to fall from her eyes, but she wiped them away as they formed, trying to keep a straight face.

The wonderful memories they had, the romantic trips, the wholesome dates, the caring laughs...

"How could he throw all that away?"

Just as she was wallowing in self-pity and anguish, her moment of salvation arrived.

*KNOCK KNOCK*

Chinatsu shot up quickly, racing to the door as she almost tripped over the coffee table because of her slippers.

She flung the door open without even confirming who was outside and saw the relaxed face of the high school student tilting his head at her worked-up demeanor.

The two intimidating men behind him, who somehow seemed to follow his orders, laughed softly and exchanged glances.

"Ma'am, why do you look like you just ran a marathon?" the student smiled with his hands in his pockets.

Chinatsu blinked in embarrassment, but she got straight to the point.

"H-How did it go? Did he give you all of the photos?" she stammered nervously.

"Could you invite us in first? It's pretty hot outside."

"Oh right, s-sorry! I'm just really panicked about this whole thing."

She stepped aside to let the three of them walk in, following behind them as she closed the door shut. They sat in the same seats they were in before, looking completely relaxed despite the seriousness of her request.

This made her hopeful, wondering if they were like this because they managed to complete it without any issues.

Chinatsu placed new glasses of iced water before them and joined them on the sofas, her eyes darting between them in anticipation.

"First, I'll quell your worries. Keito will no longer threaten you for money, and all the copies he had made of the material in question have been permanently destroyed," the young man said after he took a large sip of the cool drink.

Chinatsu's face brightened up, the tension completely leaving her stiff shoulders at his confident words. She leaned back in her seat and stared at the tube light on the wall, appreciating the brightness once again as a deep sigh of relief escaping her lips.

But to be cautious, she had to confirm if it was really true.

"It's not t-that I doubt you, but are you a hundred percent sure all of the copies were deleted?"

The boy rubbed his chin thoughtfully and then shook his head.

".....No, I can't promise that."

Her face fell even faster than it had lit up before, her eyes widening in shock. Before she could say anything, he continued with his sentence.

"But I can promise that it's very unlikely that there were any copies we missed, and the fact that he'll be too scared to try anything like this again. If he's still sane, that is."

The two men next to him laughed softly at those words, making her even more confused.

'...What does that mean? What did they do to Keito?'

"I won't bore you with the details, but the gist of it is that Keito was quite cooperative, and he showed us where he'd hidden all of his backup files and folders. I highly doubt he's brave enough to hold back some information, but in the tiniest chance that he did, he won't try to blackmail you again because he definitely doesn't want to see Baldy's face ever again," he chuckled, turning to the egg-headed man who had a sheepish grin.

Chinatsu pursed her lips, holding back her tears of joy and relief. She had been so depressed the past few days, with the threats completely destroying any semblance of a regular life.

Now that it was behind her, the exhaustion that had piled up, that had prevented her from sleeping properly, that had stopped her from eating healthily, had vanished as if it was never there in the first place.

"I... Thank you, y-you have no idea how relieved I am," she sniffed with gratitude.

The three of them smiled warmly, but with how scary the two men looked, she focused only on the young man's handsome visage that seemed to melt away her fears.

"No problem, we were just doing our job, Ma'am," he said.

Chinatsu pulled out an envelope from her pocket and held it out to the student.

"Here's the agreed-upon fee, let me know if you need a little extra because I'm not sure how this works."

"Oh, don't worry. Your ex-boyfriend was nice enough to pay for the job out of his own pocket, so you don't have to give us the fee anymore," the teenager laughed, showing her a wad of cash that he procured from his pockets.

"Eh? He paid for it?"

"Yep, gave us a tip too, so you have nothing to worry about."

She was a little puzzled, but since they refused to take her money, there was nothing she could do. The men got up right after and walked out, but when they reached the door, Chinatsu's voice rang out again.

They turned to see her bowing deeply at them as she expressed her gratitude one last time.

"Thank you once again. I will never forget this favor!"

***

"When did you even take the money, Boss?" Baldy asked in wonder as they climbed back into the car.

"When he was knocked out. Why should she pay for something he did?" Reiji muttered, rubbing his eyes to dispel some of the fatigue.

Mainly mental fatigue.

"That's so smart, we should keep doing that next time!"

"Good thinking, Boss, it makes a lot of sense!"

"Enough with the glazing, just drop me back home, please. And tell my dad how well we handled the job—hopefully it shortens our deal quite a bit," Reiji sighed.

"Sure, sure!"

When the engine started, he closed his eyes and drifted off in his thoughts.

What he did today, what he had to do... He was not happy about it at all. Though he seemed indifferent and casual about the whole experience the entire time, he was genuinely conflicted about whether or not it was the right thing to do.

OG Reiji's iron-plated heart and cold blood made it frighteningly easy to torture Keito, almost a cakewalk to ensure that there were no loose ends.

But that didn't mean his own morals and soft heart had vanished.

Each punch, each broken finger—they all hurt his mind instead of his heart. He despised the fact that he didn't even flinch when he saw the bloody, drooling mess he had turned Keito into.

Was the fact that his traits had merged with OG Reiji a blessing? Or was it a curse that would slowly eat away at his sanity as he did more and more of such assignments?

'But... She's safe now.'

Ultimately, the only thing holding Reiji back from punching his fist through a wall was the relief, joy, and gratitude that Chinatsu had shown.

Although the methods may have been over the top, he had helped someone out from their daily life being completely disseminated and destroyed, from their privacy and purity being completely shattered.

A small solace from insanity, a brief respite from madness.

He watched the cars around them maintain their speed, appearing as if they were perfectly still against the blurred passing of the background.

He felt like he was a little bit like these cars, where he was moving rapidly toward a destination he didn't want to go to, despite it feeling like he hadn't moved at all.

Though it didn't have too much of an impact on him currently, Reiji knew that these moments would slowly add up.

It was up to him, and whether or not he was brave enough to shield his mentality from what he had to do.

He had helped someone.

And if he had to help another using these same tactics, then he would do so as long as he knew it would make a difference.

Reiji smiled as he recalled that moment where Chinatsu had collapsed into her chair when she found out she was free from the threats.

'I don't know what will become of me over these next three years, but I'm done hiding away, hoping that my background will somehow become irrelevant. For the duration of this deal, I am a member of the Yakuza and I will act like it when I need to.'