Never Not
Ch. 28: Don't Want to Compete With Him

When he was about to light a lighter on the tip of his cigarette, Rai suddenly remembered Yuriko. Yes this is because time has shown ten o'clock at night. Rai comes out of his room and checks the door of Yuriko's apartment room which is still sealed. That is, the girl still hasn't come home.

Rai decided to go out and walk around the apartment building. The cold air that sighed at the skin, did not undo his intention to step small towards the luxurious uninhabited house, a place where the girl was always escorted home her friends. Once there, he found no trace of Yuriko. Not long after, he could feel the light of the car shining on him. He soon hides when he realizes it is the car that often drives Yuriko home.

Right, when the car door opened, Yuriko came down with a body that looked staggering. It seems that girl was heavily drunk.

"Yuri-chan, are you okay? Do I need to help?" Yuriko's friend who was sitting in the driver's seat shouted offering help.

"I'm fine. Go home! I will go in and rest soon" said the girl, holding her head. He walked towards the fence of the house as if he was about to enter.

"Well, I'll see you!" his friend who then left him.

Just as the car was sliding away, Yuriko immediately lowered her head and pulled out her entire entrails. He vomited many times. Rai who had been hiding beside the wall of the house, could only shake his head. He approached the girl while opening the thick jacket he was wearing.

Yuriko, who was still spewing alcohol, gasped when a jacket wrapped her back warmly. When he turned to the side, Rai's face filled with worry seemed to fill his bead. Not only that, the man seven years older than him was also massaging the nape of his neck.

"I'm fine!" Yuriko brushed Rai's hand off her back. He tried to stand up straight, then left Rai with a dazed step. Unfortunately, just walking three steps, he was sitting limp.

"Damn it!" as the girl.

Rai smiled blandly while throwing away a face. As if not deterred by getting a ketus attitude, he even went back to Yuriko. "Hey, why are you drinking so much alcohol if you can't afford it?"

"I bought four bottles of tequila¹ for my friends, but they instead blatantly ordered champagne. I bought it by spending a third of my part-time salary. Out of annoyance, I just finished four bottles at once, haha-haha," he said laughing out loud. His eyes grew faint, and his hands continued to hold his head.

"You're too hard on yourself, so you're suffering" Rai said, crouching down, then raising the girl to her back.

"What are you doing! Don't mess with me, "snake Yuriko in the middle of her almost exhausted consciousness. The girl was completely drunk, so she felt helpless and only resigned when Rai carried her.

Rai started walking while holding Yuriko. White grains like cotton began to fall on them.

"Stop being friends with them! Such a circle of friends is not good for you. They only have a negative influence on your life" Rai said. The steam that came out of his mouth was proof of how cold the night was.

Yuriko laughed softly. "Do you think you never have a negative influence on others? As if judging my friends!"

Rai was silent for a moment. "True, huh? I'm not a good person either. I once invited my friend, my sister, my lover even recruited many people to commit fraud," he recalled regretfully, "it used to be thought, happy it can do things freely and do as it pleases. It was the beginning of my destruction."

Rai could feel the girl had become unconscious and was asleep on her back. Even so, he still continued to speak.

"If you're afraid that no one will be friends with you, I'm willing to be your friend. Want to be your boyfriend also I think better," he said dumbly, but a second later he fell silent.

"Don't like Shohei! Don't fall in love with her! I'll make sure you're heartbroken! She belongs to someone else and is about to get engaged. Other than that ...." Rai paused his words, only to sigh. "Or if you're really not interested in me, pick another guy as long as it's not Shohei! I don't want to compete with Shohei, even though I know he's not interested in you. I don't want any competition between us" he said amid increasingly heavy snow.

To be honest, he didn't understand why he said those words. Maybe because a while ago Shohei called her and talked about finding a condominium that the man would live with his fiancee later. In fact, he had been looking forward to the moment of the girl's heartbreak.

Not feeling, they have arrived at the apartment building. Standing at the door of Yuriko's room, Rai tried to reach into the girl's luggage with one hand.

"Hey, where's your room key?" asked Rai while continuing to reach for Yuriko's sling bag.

Yuriko did not answer. Rai repeated his question again, but again the girl did not answer and just pulled out an empty rag.

Rai grunted violently. "Hey, where did you put your room key?" the question for the third time is accompanied by a little wiggling the body.

"There's in the bag," he replied lazily with his eyes closed.

"Nothing!"

"Oh, huh? Then it might be left behind in my friend's apartment, hehe-hehe," Yuriko retorted while grinning in unconsciousness.

"Yourf!" Rai blew his lip vapor upwards until his front hair shook. He went back to reach into the girl's bag to make sure once again. Still nothing. How'this? What should he do with that drunk girl?

The time wheel kept turning, until it did not feel like the morning was coming. Yuriko's eyelids opened slowly. Just slightly. It feels heavy. However, an unusual strange atmosphere entered faintly in his net, as if forcing him to wake up.

"Yahoooooooooooo!" Yuriko shouted loudly as she turned her head and found Rai sleeping beside her.

Meanwhile, Rai was sleeping as if receiving a series of trumpet attacks. Just getting up and sitting down, he actually got a pillow hit in a row. To avoid it, he fell out of his bed.

"What did you do to me? Why would I be here and sleeping with you, huh?" amuknya who still continues to beat Rai with a pillow.

"Muse yourself drunk and careless for leaving your room keys at your friend's house! You should be thanking me because I'm willing to share the bed with you" said Rai, who kept walking backwards avoiding small blows from Yuriko.

"If you're going to help me, you should be sleeping on the floor!"

Yuriko softened. He dropped the pillow that had been used to hit Rai, then rushed out of the man's apartment with a tangled face. Just opening the door, his eyes opened wide when he saw Shohei standing right in front of him. The man was wearing a police suit that made him look more gallant.

"Ohayou!" greet the man while slightly looking down.

"This ...this is not what you think!" yuriko said suddenly with a panicked face.

"Eh?" Shohei's forehead suddenly forms fine folds. "Gomen, but I'm not thinking about anything" he said with a stiff smile.

"Thank God! I'm just clarifying."

Just as Yuriko was breathing a sigh of relief, Rai suddenly embraced her while saying, "Why do you have to do some clarification? You're not an artist!"

Yuriko immediately brushed Rai's hand away. Even so, his gaze could not be separated from Shohei.

Shohei chuckled. "It turns out you guys are very close, huh? By the way, I just stopped by to buy okonomiyaki² before going to the office. I bought two packs, get one for your breakfast!" shohei says give a packet of hot okonimiyaki.

"Arigatou gozaimasu." Rai looks excited to take a pack of okonomiyaki from Shohei's hand.

"Then I go to the office first" said Shohei. The distance between his office and Rai's apartment is not too far away, and it is still in one district so that makes it often come suddenly.

Rai turned around while smelling the okonomiyaki scent directly from her wrapping box. "Hey, let's have breakfast!" bring him.

Yuriko was still petrified at the door. A thin smile decomposed on his lips with a pair of brightly sparkling eyeballs. It seemed, he was increasingly admiring the shady-looking police figure.

At the Metropolitan Police Department building, Shohei came to the Metropolitan Police chief's room. This relates to alleged violations of employee working hours and minimum wage at Hayase Group companies. He requested that he be able to investigate the company owned by the Minister of Social Affairs in the present. Maybe through that too, he can uncover corruption cases by group owners who also serve as Social Ministers.

The Metro police chief seemed to think before finally saying, "Look Yamazaki-san, we can't do it!"

Shohei. "Why?"

"Because there are no reports and also strong evidence about it. Taking testimony from a prospective suspect in a theft case is absurd. We can't believe what the perpetrators said, they could just reason."

Right, no proof! And no reports.

"How about we take the evidence from their payroll slips?" shohei said quickly.

The Metropolitan Police Chief shook his head slowly. "Why should we bother investigating the case? They are not Japanese citizens. More so, escape from the companies and job training places that house them only to form groups of criminals."

"I'm sorry, without justifying what they did, but any crime left unchecked will give birth to a new crime that may be more violent. You can see for yourself, those immigrants became thieves due to improper treatment from where they worked. Suppose their working hours are normal and they are paid the right wages, why would they commit a crime?" shohei said furiously.

Shohei walked out of the Metropolitan Police Chief's room. He walked straight with a sharp gaze like an eagle's eye. Hayase Kento's name is so attached to her brain right now. It is fitting that the total wealth of the man who served as the Minister of Social Affairs increased sharply, plus he suspected the money laundering that Hayase Kento did in other countries. However, to prove it all is not easy and it takes time.

Continuing to walk, Shohei walked out of the majestic Metropolitan Police building. He stared at the winter sky that refused to bring up the sun.

I can't allow the injustice I know. As long as my eyes can see, my ears can hear, my brain is able to think, and my conscience is still there, I will fight them. Though through someone who became my shadow ....

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footnote 🦶🦶🦶

Tequila: a drink made from agave plants, from the city of Tequila, has an alcohol content of 40%. (me)

Okonomiyaki: a Japanese meal with wheat flour diluted with water or dashi, plus cabbage, chicken eggs, seafood and fried on a flat fryer called teppan. (Wikipedia)