Hayashi Shuichi had no intention of sharing a bed with another male. After returning to his own bedroom, he moved with practiced stealth, rummaging through his wardrobe for a heavy overcoat. His plan was simple: retreat to the sofa and squeeze in a few more hours of sleep.
Despite his best efforts to be silent, he managed to startle Furuya Rei.
The boy's eyes snapped open in the dark. Seeing a shadowy figure looming over the cabinet, Rei felt a jolt of pure terror. He let out a sharp, panicked cry.
"It's me!" Shuichi hissed, pressing a finger to his lips in an urgent 'be quiet' gesture. "Don't wake Reiko!"
"Master?"
Rei rubbed his bleary eyes, his voice still trembling with the remnants of his fright. He reached out and clicked on the small bedside lamp, its warm yellow glow instantly dissolving the shadows.
As the boy's eyes fell on the alarm clock, his jaw dropped. "Master, it's five in the morning. Why are you—"
He cut himself off mid-sentence, freezing as if someone had physically choked him.
An eerie silence descended upon the room, broken only by the faint, rhythmic chirping of early birds outside the window. Rei's eyes darted across Shuichi's face, scanning him with a look of utter bewilderment. Finally, he spoke up in a cautious, hesitant whisper.
"Master... did you spend the night at Master Eri's place?"
"No," Shuichi replied, looking at him with a puzzled expression as he draped the overcoat over his arm. "Why are you asking that?"
Rei went quiet for a moment, clearly weighing his words with great care. "Master, can you tell me... exactly how many girlfriends do you have? I just want to make sure I don't address the wrong person as 'Mistress' in the future..."
"That is none of your concern!" Shuichi snapped, shooting him a stern glare. "Go back to sleep."
"Master, you were at Master Yukiko's house last night, weren't you?" Rei said suddenly, his voice gaining a sudden confidence.
"How did you know?" Shuichi's eyebrows shot up in surprise.
"Your face..." Rei said, desperately trying to stifle a laugh as he pointed at his own cheek. "Master Yukiko left a few 'souvenirs' on you with her lipstick."
Shuichi's heart plummeted. He scrambled toward the window in three large strides. Using the glass as a makeshift mirror against the pre-dawn light, he finally saw the carnage.
Across his forehead, the name 'YUKIKO' was written in bold, capital letters. On each cheek, there was a large, stylized 'WOOF!' And right next to the corner of his mouth sat a vivid, unmistakable red lip print.
"No wonder she was mumbling 'Stop licking' in her sleep..." Shuichi muttered to himself, his eye twitching involuntarily.
In Yukiko's dream, he had apparently been downgraded to a golden retriever named 'Lucky.'
He also finally understood the security guard's meaningful, knowing grin from earlier. The man clearly thought he and Yukiko were into some very... specific... types of roleplay.
My reputation is ruined... Shuichi shook his head gloomily. He tried to rub the lipstick off with his palm, but only succeeded in smearing it further, turning his face into a chaotic mess of red streaks like a calico cat.
"Master, do you want me to get a basin of water for you?" Rei asked, his face turning beet-red from the effort of holding back his laughter, his shoulders shaking visibly.
"No! Go back to sleep!" Shuichi growled, his embarrassment flaring into mock-anger. He grabbed his coat and stormed toward the door.
"Master!" Rei called out again, his eyes shimmering with a sudden, localized excitement. "Besides fighting, can you teach me... other things?"
"What else could you possibly want to learn?" Shuichi asked without looking back, still fruitlessly scrubbing his cheek.
"How to chase girls, of course!" Rei exclaimed, practically bouncing on the mattress. "Master, you're incredible. You're surrounded by so many beautiful women..."
"Brat, how old are you? You haven't even grown hair down there yet, stop thinking about such things," Shuichi turned back, scolding him with a stern face. "Sleep. Now!"
At eight in the morning, the Fujimines drove their daughter to the station. On their way back to the apartment, they happened to cross paths with the security guard, who was just finishing his night shift.
"Mr. Fujimine, Madam," the guard greeted them warmly. "Yukiko certainly found herself a capable boyfriend. If it wasn't for him last time, our building would have been picked clean by those robbers."
The Fujimines had already heard the story from Yukiko about Shuichi's heroics in catching the burglars. Mrs. Fujimine was about to offer a polite word of praise for the boy when the guard continued.
"Young people today really have a lot of energy. Staying up until four in the morning before leaving... and he even had..."
The guard suddenly realized he might be oversharing and let out a series of awkward, forced coughs.
"What did you say?" Mr. Fujimine's brow furrowed. "You saw Hayashi Shuichi last night?"
"You didn't know?" The guard scratched his head in confusion. "He came in with Yukiko last night and didn't leave until after four AM. I figured you were all aware."
"That's impos—" Mr. Fujimine started to deny it instinctively, but his wife's hand clamped down hard on his arm, silencing him.
"Of course we knew," Mrs. Fujimine said, a perfectly poised smile on her face even as her fingers dug into her husband's bicep. "We invited the boy over to hang out last night."
After a few more pleasantries, Mrs. Fujimine hurried her husband into the elevator. The moment the metal doors slid shut, her smile vanished instantly.
"We didn't see him once last night! Why did you tell him we invited him?" Mr. Fujimine asked in a low, frantic whisper.
"What else was I supposed to say?" Mrs. Fujimine hissed through gritted teeth. "Tell the whole world that Yukiko snuck a man home and kept him there until dawn?"
The realization hit Mr. Fujimine like a freight train, but then his confusion returned. "But... if he was really in our house, how did we miss him?"
"Is that a serious question? He was hiding, obviously!"
Mrs. Fujimine rolled her eyes, but then a sudden thought occurred to her, and she froze mid-breath.
"Last night, when I was tidying her room, she was incredibly nervous..." Her voice trailed off, becoming a low mutter to herself. "The only place in that bedroom I didn't check... was Yukiko's bed."
"Are you saying..." Mr. Fujimine's face turned a violent shade of crimson. "That brat was hiding under the covers with her the whole time?"
"And I found those wet clothes behind the door," Mrs. Fujimine added, her expression darkening. "Including those boxers Yukiko lied and said were her 'safety shorts' for the film set."
"So that little punk wasn't just hiding in her bed—he was naked?!"
Mr. Fujimine exploded in a fit of rage, slamming his fist against the elevator's 'Floor 1' button repeatedly.
"I'm going to the izakaya right now! I'm going to break that little bastard's legs!"
Back at the Mouri agency, Hayashi Shuichi was blissfully unaware that a storm was brewing. Following his promise to his sister, he had woken up and taken Reiko back to the Kujo household.
As for his "apprentice," Furuya Rei had finished his morning routine and taken his leave. He claimed he was going home, but judging by the spring in his step and his excited expression, he was almost certainly heading to Beika Central Hospital to find Narumi.
Just as Reiko had predicted, the Kujo home was exceptionally lively today.
Mr. and Mrs. Kujo were both enjoying a rare day off. Shuichi's aunt, Kotonai Kujo, was busy in the kitchen wearing an apron, while his uncle, Yoshiyuki Kujo, sat at the dining table, leisurely reading the morning paper...
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