章節 13: Downstairs

Lane POV

"Really? That really helped him?" I asked in bewilderment, I mean who can blame me?

Even though I love Shuji dearly, I'll be the first to point out his flaws, and talking about feelings is one of them, that's why he usually leaves all the emotional problems for me to deal with.

"I know right!? I shocked myself, honestly." He replied enthusiastically, looking pretty smug about his miraculous situation.

"Hmn... It is weird that he would ask that out of nowhere though..." I ponder, falling into deep thought about the entire situation.

'Did those Yukaza influence him in some way?' I thought, my brows furrowing at the thought of those people.

"I thought the same... You don't think 'they' have something to do with it right?" My love asked, a serious expression falling on his face. "Because it really doesn't make sense for him to contemplate his sexuality out of nowhere."

Seeing that we were having the same thoughts, the likeliness of that being exactly the case increased...

"Did he tell you the answer he found?" I asked, curiously for his response with a raised brow.

"Ah-" Of course... knowing him he probably didn't even ask.

"Ehem! I-ah, I was... kind of... distracted?" He said questioningly, earning him a facepalm in reply from me.

*Facepalm*

"H-Hey, common give me some slack here, he rarely asks me about anything when it doesn't have to do with either projects or paperwork." He complained with an honestly valid excuse.

Ever since Chi-chan started making all those websites, apps, games, and novels, he's always thrown all the troublesome paperwork Shuji's way. He leaves all of the legal and complicated things for us to deal with, he mostly just makes the things and leaves, periodically asking about the progress… though even that is mostly offhanded questions, it's like he assumes that what he made must have succeeded, not doubting himself in the slightest.

"That reminds me, how is the Source Coin project going so far?" I asked, changing the subject to something more business oriented.

Source Coin, something Chi-chan was ranting about a few years, complaining about how 'The Bitcoin bastard kicking the bucket during the pandemic.'... I don't really know whom he was talking about, but I did recognize that it was highly disrespectful, so he got an earful from me.

After my scolding session, he just grumbled and went up to his room, coming back down an hour later with a roughly sketched-out plan drawn on a stack of papers.

He wanted us to make something he called a 'cryptocurrency for whatever reason. After handing us the papers, he asked us if we could do this little project for him. At first, when I was first looking at the plans I was confused beyond belief, even after doing some research in regard to it, I still couldn't fully grasp what he wanted to accomplish with this. On top of all the other plans he wanted us to work on, I started to wonder if he even knew the magnitude of the work he was giving us.

Along with that, when we first started the project, we were only losing money as far as I and Shuji could tell... We had to hire an entire team to do all the things Chi-chan had roughly written down in the plan.

Speaking about plans, all Chi-chan's plans are on the grey side now that I think about it. A year ago he hacked into Kickstarter just to shadow ban a few people, making sure their projects never see the light of day, and when the people give up on their idea, he would ask us to buy it from them, I think the one he focused the most on was this game called "Undertale", which we didn't understand, he already has a plethora of games on the back burner, why buy the concept of a random Kickstarter one?

Anyway, I digress-

"It's going about as well as we expected it to be, we just need to wait a few more days before we pay that Youtuber to buy a pizza or something using the coin." He replied, stroking his chin in thought. "Why do you think that's necessary though, dear?" He asked afterward, in genuine curiosity."We already implemented that the coin can be used in a majority of our websites and apps, so why not ask him to advertise it through ourselves?"

*Sigh*

"I don't know, sometimes his plans just seem so random, but they always work themselves out in the end… somehow." I answered reluctantly.

Snorting, Shuji just looks at me with an amused expression on his face. "Hoo~ But I thought you 'always' knew 'everything' La~ne~Chan~." He teased, earning him a nice smack to the back of his head.

"Ack! Hey! It was just just a joke, no need to get physical." He complained, rubbing his stinging head.

"Hmpf, well maybe don't bring something up from a million years ago, I can barely remember saying that myself, how can you possibly remember?" I reprimanded with a complaining tone. "And I was Drunk when I said it too!" I justified, huffing in mock anger.

As I and Shuji continue our usual banter, we hear a slight knock on the door eliciting an annoyed grunt from Shuji.

Laughing to myself, I tell him we can continue talking later since we both technically have work to do. We decided that It was better to have a home office, making it a lot easier for all of us to have family bonding moments, in contrast to when Shuji used to leave for an office building, so he can be more productive and concentrate more.

Fixing his face, Shuji opens the door with a smile, coming face to face with an oddly familiar-looking woman.

"Good evening, I'm Shihan Kyoshi. I recently moved across the street, and I decided to greet the neighbors." She said politely, bowing slightly in greeting.

(IMAGE)

She was a middle-aged woman that gave off a teacher-esque vibe. Standing at a tall 5 foot 10, she wore fairly large glasses over her sterne sharp eyes, light brown hair, done in a weird style that slightly covered up her right eye and a well-positioned beauty mark under her lip.

Besides her was a depressed-looking 9-year-old girl-

"Shino-chan!? What happened!?" I asked pushing my husband to the side and rushing over to the unrecognizable Shino in front of me.

The always bubbly girl with a happy smile on her face was nowhere to be seen, instead, she looked like she was about to keel over at any second, her dead expression not helping her case..

(IMAGE)

"Hello… Nakamura-san…" She replied in a dull tone, looking me straight into my concerned eyes with her own dead, dark ones. "Mom… Dad… and.. Kazu-nii… went.. on…. Vacation…"

While she took her time replying, my questioning gaze rose to meet Shihan-sans own grimaced one. Seeing my questioning gaze, she only frowned a sad frown and shook her head.

'Vacation…?' I thought after hearing her finally finish her sentence.

I did not know the full story, but I was already not liking the direction it was going.

...