SOMEONE Has To Do The Paperwork

24 Do You Need Me?

Do you love me?

Do you need me?

Do you want me?

Saki hadn't really planned on seeing any of the finances. She didn't even care what the finances were. She was happier not knowing anything about that side of things and leaving all of that to Mitsuo. But apparently life had other plans for her and it just so happened she stumbled over some paperwork. She didn't even want to look at it, but she couldn't resist the temptation.

But now it was too late and she had seen some of the finances and even though she couldn't quite make sense of them, she couldn't unsee them anymore. And Chie was more than willing to make sense of it for her. Saki wished she hadn't asked her for an explanation, because...

Well, it turned out that there was one side business that was throwing off a whole lot of money. And it was one of those things that Mitsuo had agreed to without ever consulting them first.

Saki pretty much felt sick to the stomach, knowing how much of their money came from that side of the business. They were all making a fortune off human trafficking. The way Mitsuo had phrased it, it was just a small side gig, something someone else would handle, but this...?

This looked like a whole lot more than just a side business. And Chie was very vocal about how immoral and unethical it was. All that Saki could really say was that she had no idea about it and that wasn't very convincing. Because this whole thing just seemed like it was huge.

"How could you not have known about any of this?" Chie was asking her in an accusing voice.

"Well, it's not like I didn't know about any of it. I just... well, Mitsuo was handling all that and he said it was basically a small side business and we wouldn't really be a big part of it." Saki answered.

"Well, he was obviously lying to you!" Chie replied. Saki nodded. God, she felt stupid. Mitsuo had only gotten away with this because he was the only one that cared enough about the finances.

No one else really put that much thought or work or effort into it and this is what they got from it. This was what it led to. Mitsuo did whatever the hell he wanted, leaving all of them in the dark about it. If they were discovered with this, he probably also had a good plan in place to get himself out of trouble and pin it all on them. Saki felt betrayed. And shocked. But more betrayed.

"It seems like he was..." Saki just muttered. She didn't even know what else she was supposed to say. Mitsuo was in the middle of screwing them all over and no one had any idea.

"Saki, you need to stop this. This is some really shady shit that's going on. And why wouldn't you take care of your own damn finances?" Chie wanted to know, shaking her head and running her hand through her hair.

"I mean... would you really trust me to take care of something like that?" Saki replied. She felt bad. She felt really bad, because she could see how worried Chie was and how angry she was and how upset she was that Mitsuo had actually been pulling this off behind their backs.

"No, not really. But still, Saki, this is really bad. Like really bad. You need to stop this somehow!"

"I don't know if we can..." Saki muttered. It was true, they had been talking about stopping several times, but there was always a strange concern that they wouldn't survive it if they stopped.

"Oh God. Yeah, now that you mention it, you all probably know way too much to just get out. Fuck." Chie replied and pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing in defeat. Saki gulped audibly.