Life Without You

Chapter 62 - Interrogation

The morning sunlight shone through the open windows, awaking Leon with its strong light. He rubbed his face and yawned. Upon opening his eyes, Leon realised that he was not in his room. He felt his body being pressed under a heavy weight. Sky was not this heavy. His fingers touched some long nails but it felt too big, long and flat to be Sky's paws. Instead of a dog smell, it smelt like...a human! Leon folded his chin towards his chest and saw Hiromi sleeping on top of him.

"What the-!" he pushed her out of the sofa, horrified.

"Ahhhooww!" Hiromi cried out when her sleeping body was abruptly greeted by a sudden, painful crash on the floor. Her opened eyes saw Leon sitting up and staring at her with alarmed eyes.

"Oh...morning," Hiromi smiled silly with messy strands of hair all over her face, while rubbing the painful side of her body that hit the floor.

"Why were you on top of me?" he asked in sheer disbelief.

"Oh erm, that.." Hiromi broke into a giggle and swiped the strands of hair off her face.

Leon put his hand on his chest and it felt warm and naked to the touch. He looked down and noticed his shirt was unbuttoned.

"Did you...?" he asked.

Hiromi bit her thumb in a cutesy, seductive guilty look without a word.

Just then, the faint whines and barks and pawing at a door could be heard.

"Sky!" Leon quickly got up and traced the cries to the kitchen and opened the door.

Sky wagged her tail and stood up on her hind legs to greet and kiss Leon. Leon stroked her head while grimacing at the overwhelming stench of faeces and pee that greeted him that he raised his finger to his nostrils. He looked around and noticed on the kitchen counter, a torn, grey plastic strip belonging to the bag of dog snacks that he recently bought but had never opened. Suspicious, he stepped on the paddle of the kitchen bin and saw the empty bag of dog snacks inside.

Leon knew immediately that Hiromi must have lured Sky into the kitchen and locked her up, for he would never do such a cruel thing to isolate his dog, who slept in the same room with him every night. He would also never overfeed her with snacks in one go!

What was going on?

He was about to confront Hiromi but caught a glimpse of the time on the wall clock. He was alarmed that he had overslept and was late for his dance rehearsal for his upcoming music video for his current album. Leon hurried to his room to shower and get himself ready, and Sky followed after him.

Meanwhile, Hiromi squealed to herself, over the moon that she slept next to Leon Waltz throughout the night. Remembering her Instagram posts, she grabbed her phone and checked the status of her post. She was overwhelmed with excitement by the thousands of comments and number of followers that ballooned overnight.

"Now, everyone's gonna be jealous of me, including you," she emphasised the last word regarding her ex, and grabbed an apple from the fruit basket on the dinner table that Leon's mother had sent from her garden. While Hiromi ate, she took delight at reading each and every comment, no matter how shocking, supportive or hateful they were.

While Leon was changing into his clothes, he answered a call from Arnold.

"I know I'm late. Heading off now!" said his first words of the day to Arnold.

"Leon, you one, big naughty boy!" Arnold belly laughed. "No wonder you're late!"

"What do you mean?" Leon gathered his brows.

"What did you do with Mr Fujita's daughter last night?"

"Huh? What?" Leon got even more confused. How did Arnold know what Hiromi did?