Ch. 69.1 - A Date, and Then Finding a Sleeping Beauty Pt1
Aside from her phone, there shouldn’t be anything else, right?
Harutaki slipped Chouko’s phone, which he had snatched from her while catching her as she fainted, into his pocket. He quickly scanned the surroundings, making sure they hadn’t left anything behind.
Slap.
He easily brushed away the hand that Yobitani tried to snake over his shoulder.
“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing, Yobitani-senpai.”
Using the motion of propping Chouko up, Harutaki subtly nudged his own backpack together with hers, placing them conveniently close for a quick getaway later.
At the same time, before everything was set in motion, he kept the senior talking with just enough fake patience.
“We agreed that I’d go first, didn’t we?”
“Just letting me have a few touches, what’s that got to do with you?”
“I’d say it’s got everything to do with me.”
Harutaki smiled thinly, a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
Go grope yourself, you brain-dead piece of trash.
He tested Chouko’s weight in his arms and relaxed a little. She wasn’t heavy at all,
The girl was slender with all the right curves in all the right places. Now, if it had been Nogami instead… not that she was fat, just fuller, the type whose body had a soft, pleasant weight to it, probably nicer to hold, if anything.
“Oh?”
Yobitani didn’t explode at the provocation. Instead, he glanced toward the two other guys sitting deeper inside the booth, then turned back with an amused, knowing look.
A clear message: there’s three of us, and just one of you, and you’re carrying deadweight.
“Seems like the one getting in the way here isn’t me, huh?”
“I changed my mind. The three of us’ll have our fun first.”
Yobitani stood from the sofa like some wannabe delinquent from a bad TV drama, rolling his shoulders and cracking his neck with exaggerated flair.
Does he seriously think that looks cool?
Watching him act tough, Harutaki almost laughed out loud. For people like that, dignity clearly wasn’t part of the package.
“So, Senpai isn’t planning to keep your end of the deal.”
“Heh. Guess books rotted your brain, huh, you dumbass…”
Yobitani stepped closer, trying to use his height to look down on him the way he always did, but then realized, with a flicker of surprise, that the junior was actually a little taller.
At least a hundred and eighty-five centimeters, yeah, that’s basketball-team height, not soccer.
His face darkened. He could only rely on his bulk and a forced sneer to keep up the pressure.
“You think you can negotiate with all three of us? What makes you think you’ve got the leverage, huh?”
“Tch, for starters. Is this enough, Yobitani-senpai?”
Harutaki fished out his phone, showing the unlocked dial screen with 110, the emergency number, already typed in, his thumb hovering right above the call button.
“...Heh.”
Yobitani lunged to grab it, but Harutaki dodged easily, stepping back a few paces while keeping the phone screen angled toward all three.
“Take one more step and I press it~ If you don’t want this to blow up in a way no one can walk away from, stay right there, Senpai.”
While Yobitani’s expression twisted with frustration, Harutaki’s smile only deepened into something smug and almost villainous. At that moment, he looked more like the bad guy, holding the unconscious girl in his arms like a hostage.
“Even if you call, so what? They’ll all back me up. You think they’ll believe you?”
Yobitani’s tone was threatening, but the unease in his eyes betrayed him.
As Harutaki expected, the threat of calling the cops, dangling it just before doing so, was more effective than actually placing the call. It kept the other side’s hope alive, their fear sharper.
Always leave the enemy an escape route. Cornered people do stupid, desperate things. If he had shown the video and called the police outright, Yobitani and his crew might’ve snapped completely.
Of course, all of this worked only because Yobitani was the specific kind of scum who knew how far not to go, a serial creep, not a hardened criminal. Still a student, still terrified of real consequences.
Harutaki was a hundred percent sure: for this kind of smart-but-not-too-smart trash, a future full of easy victims was always more valuable than one ruined night.
And even if they did decide to fight, he had backup plans.
“I’ll give you one last chance,” Yobitani growled. “Put her down, and come quietly to the love hotel.”
“...You know what, Senpai? You really do look like a clown right now.”
Harutaki sneered, then swiped his thumb upward to reveal the video app, playing the full recording of Yobitani slipping drugs into the drink.
“You bastard, when you went out just now—”
“Oh, you finally figured it out?”
With the perfect finishing blow revealed, he switched back to the dial screen, slung both backpacks over his shoulders, and effortlessly scooped Chouko into his arms, bridal-style.
Good thing he’d been working out and staying disciplined for the past month. His body felt better than ever, strong, steady, and more than ready for this.
“Tell me, Senpai, do I look like the kind of guy who’d share the girl he likes? If I ever meet that kind of idiot, I’d tell him to jump naked off the Shinjuku train platform, his only worth being tonight’s evening news entertainment.”
“You son of a— !”
Yobitani lunged when Harutaki turned toward the door.
But then,
What the hell!
A rancid stench hit him square in the face. Yobitani stumbled back, gagging, the triumphant sneer twisting into something grotesque under the flickering lights of the karaoke booth.
“Like it?” Harutaki said cheerfully. “That mop’s been dunked in a toilet that wasn’t flushed. Several times.”
“You disgusting, fight me fair, you coward!”
Yobitani tried to charge, but the smell alone kept him at bay.
He’d seen people piss themselves in fights before, but someone actually brandishing a toilet-soaked mop as a weapon? That was new.
How could a high schooler be this revolting!?
“Haha, fair? Coming from you, Senpai? Please, you smell worse than the mop does.”
Harutaki hadn’t spent two minutes in that grimy restroom for nothing.
Sure, most public restrooms in Japan were decently clean, but that was “most.”
This particular karaoke joint, buried in a shady corner of Shinjuku, was the kind of place that drew the cheap, the drunk, and the morally bankrupt. Cleaning staff came rarely, and customers made sure their filth stayed.
Just like the city itself, glittering lights on the surface, rot beneath.
In this age of social media, the young gathered here in the name of freedom and self-expression, but strip away the filters, and all that’s left was vanity, emptiness, and the stench of decay.
And then there were ones like Yobitani, those who filled that emptiness with cruelty, who let rot become their soul.
With his “weapon” held high, Harutaki backed out of the booth carrying Chouko, shut the soundproof door, and even had the audacity to give Yobitani a little smirk, and a flick of the mop, before leaving.
Thud.
Clack, clack.
“...You bastard…”
Yobitani’s muffled roars still reached through the thick door. Judging by the sound, some of the muck might’ve actually splattered on him.
Bang, bang, bang, bang.
Harutaki jammed the mop handle diagonally into the door latch, wedging it firmly in place. The other end braced against the opposite frame, no way they were getting out without help.
That soundproof door was built thick. No high school punk was breaking through that without tools.
It wasn’t nearly enough punishment for scum like Yobitani, but within the limits of the law, it was all Harutaki could do for now.
He glanced down at the girl sleeping soundly in his arms, her breathing calm and peaceful like a child’s.
Relief finally seeped into his chest.
If he hadn’t come along today… he didn’t want to think about what would’ve happened to her.
The “best case” in that scenario? Assault, blackmail, her family retaliating, Yobitani getting arrested, and everything descending into hell from there.
With her background, her intelligence, and her pride, Chouko would never have fallen for cheap threats like “do this and we’ll delete the video.” He knew that much.
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