always | gojou satoru [rewriting]

chaptet 29 - the same person

Satoru didn't feel like going to the office so he just stayed at home. He kept thinking about the man who left you the note and hoped Yuta could find anything useful about that man. He even promised you to keep you updated.

He decided to go downstairs to have breakfast as he remembered he bought his favourite cereal two days ago. As he was walking towards the kitchen, he immediately halted his steps when he saw Erika at the kitchen.

"What are you doing here?" Satoru asked, slightly furrowing his eyebrows.

"Oh, you're awake." she smiled, "Mother went out and asked me to stay over to cook breakfast and lunch for you."

"Where did she go to this time?" Satoru rolled his eyes.

"Not sure but anyways, what do you want to eat?" she said in a cute tone and that was enough to annoyed the crap out of Satoru.

"I'm just going to eat cereal. You can go home if you want. I'm going out later anyways." he lied.

"Really? Where are you going? Can I come?"

Satoru closed his eyes and tried to keep calm, "I'm meeting Kento."

"So, if you're going out with Kento. Does this mean his secretary will be there too?"

"Why?" Satoru asked her, curious what would be her answer.

"I don't like her. Can you please avoid seeing her?" she said while holding Satoru's arm, "I don't want her to make you feel miserableㅡ"

"What do you know about us? It seems like you know a lot of things more than I do." Satoru sarcastically said, and automatically lost his appetite to eat. "If you don't have anything else to say, you can leave." he pulled his arm away from her.

Erika was speechless for a moment, "Do you have feelings for her?" she asked out of the blue, "Answer me!"

"Why are you even bringing this up?" Satoru began to raise his voice, "I don't have feelings for her but I'm trying not to hate her like I used to. That's all. Happy?"

"Why won't you hate her? She's not a nice person, Toru!"

"Oh my god, can you please stop?" Satoru scratched the back of his neck and loudly sighed, "I'm not expecting to have this kind of conversation with you early in the morning."

Erika kept quiet, not knowing why she felt slightly guilty.

"I should've went to office as usual." he mumbled, which was audible for her to hear. He then went back to his room to get ready to who knows where. Without saying a word, Satoru left the house. He tried dialling Kento's number, hoping he would pick up.

(Satoru)

"Hey, you home? Or at the office?"

(Home. I don't remember what happened last night)

"You were drunk and passed out in front of me and Y/n."

(What? Are you serious? Y/n was there too?)

"You don't remember? You should read back the text Y/n sent to you last night)

(Okay. Waitㅡ who sent that to her? Wait, this is dangerous)

"Yeah. But, we went to the surveillance room already. We kinda got a clear picture of the person who did it. I asked Yuta to find out who that man is."

(Good. But, who would've done it? I'm worried for her)

"Obviously someone who doesn't like her."

(Yes. Wait, why did you ask me if I'm home or not?)

"I'm sure you know why. See ya in 10 minutes."

(Satoㅡ)

Satoru purposely ended the call before Kento could say his name. He even stopped by at a bakery to buy milk bread to eat with Kento together.

Once arrived, Satoru purposely rang the doorbell many times to annoy Kento and obviously it actually worked. He opened the door with the most unpleasant face ever.

"You love to annoy me, do you?" Kento asked.

"I just can't help it." Satoru giggled, "I bought milk bread by the way."

"It's unusual for you to come here at this hour. Something happened?" Kento asked while sitting on the sofa. "It's still early in the morning."

Satoru took one milk bread and sat next to Kento, "Well, it's about Erika. She came by and pissed me off. I can't stand her, you know."

"You should say something if you don't have feelings for her."

"I tried telling my mother. I told her I'm not interested in Erika but she won't listen." Satoru sighed, "What should I do?"

"You can't let your mother control everything you do. You're a grown man and you should be the one decide what is best for yourself." Kento said, and hearing that somehow awakened something in Satoru.

"Y-Yeah, you're right."

"I understand how manipulative your mother can be, but you know, you should stand up for yourself. Don't let her decide for you, idiot." Kento said before standing up to get the milk bread, "You better listen to my advice."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Oh, and I believe you're okay now with Y/n?" Kento added, after realizing Satoru mentioned that both of you went to the surveillance room together.

"She was scared so of course I had to help her out since you literally passed out. We could've helped her together, you know." Satoru reasoned, "Hey, did she ever tell you anything about me?"

Kento looked at Satoru with one eyebrow raised, "I don't know. Did she?" he acted clueless, when he knew how shitty Satoru treated you. You actually told a lot of things about him to Kento ㅡ from the day the two of you got separated until the day you met him with Mrs. Gojou at the restaurant. Even Kento suspected that his mother was feeding Satoru lies all this time.

"I don't know. That's why I'm asking you?" Satoru furrowed his eyebrows, "Ah, never mind." he was about to change the topic when he noticed Yuta kept sending him texts, which made his phone vibrated so many times.

Yuta
mr gojou
you're not going to believe me
i decided to follow your mother around if i could find anything
and guess what?

Satoru
tell me everything you know

Yuta
your mother is currently with the man you saw at the surveillance camera

Satoru
what the hell?

Yuta
they're meeting up at a restaurant right now
ITS THE SAME PERSON RIGHT?
[attached a photo]

Satoru's hands were shaking when he saw the picture Yuta sent to him. Yuta managed to get a good angle of the man and he was really identical to the one he saw at the surveillance room. Even the moustache was the same. No doubt. It was definitely him.

"Hey, are you okay? You look like you're going to punch someone." Kento asked.

Satoru ran his fingers through his hair and sighed, "Fuck. I don't know what to fucking say." he then showed the conversation he had with Yuta to Kento. "That person looks quite similar to the man who left the note at Y/n's doorstep. Look." he also showed Kento the man's picture from the surveillance camera. "What do you think?"

"That's the same person." Kento replied without hesitation.

"You see the woman in front of him?" Satoru asked, and Kento immediately frowned when he realized who she was.

"Satoru."

"Hm?"

"You really need to do something about this."