strangely empty moonlit nights

Chapter Two: A New Job and a Chocolate Ganache

The loud blaring of an alarm is what awoke Akechi. In his sleepy stupor, he thought it was his own for a moment, slamming his hand down onto his alarm clock. But, the noise didn't stop. He sat up and squinted at nothing, just  desperately trying to think while his brain still pleaded with him to go back to sleep.

"The... fire alarm?" he questioned out loud, still not fully processing what was happening. After a slow blink, the realisation slapped him in the face. "What the fuck?!"

He leapt out of bed, and rushed for the door of his apartment, which luckily didn't seem to be on fire. After quickly swinging it open, he looked around in the hallway, and saw a lady, with a bawling baby in her arm, talking with another woman who Akechi recognised as the owner of the building. The alarm was even louder out here, and Akechi scrunched up his nose. He jogged over, and felt an embarrassment at his clothes, which was just a baggy grey shirt that hung loosely on his frame, and checkered shorts.

"Excuse me, should we be evacuating?" he asked, trying to sound as polite as he could. As polite as someone can sound when essentially screaming their lungs out.

"No," the landlady yelled back, who held a phone to her ear, but seemed to be on hold. "It's a malfunction with the alarm. Can't seem to turn it off, so got my guy downstairs looking at the electrics and such. Sorry for the inconvenience."

"It's alright, no one is at fault," Akechi smiled, fixing his hair impatiently. "Is there a chance it'll be turned off soon? I have an open day to attend in the morning."

"Not sure I understand what's wrong with it love, or else I'd be able to tell you," she said, shaking her head slightly. "Shoya said it shouldn't take too long though, so your best option is to head back to your apartment and wait."

Akechi nodded, feeling a small anger bubble up inside himself at how good it felt to be referred to as "love" by an adult figure, before turning back and walking into his apartment. As soon as the door shut behind him, he let out a loud, annoyed groan, sliding down the frame until he was barely standing. He rubbed his temples as the alarm continued to assault his ear drums, and looked at the time, which showed it was 4:43.am.

"Mmmm, I didn't realise how early it was."

He usually woke up at 5:00, so he saw no point in try to sleep now anyway. Especially seen as it would be impossible. At least today was going to be a bit easier, because he only had the university open day to deal with. Even better than that, the TV interview he had later that afternoon had been cancelled, so he had the rare chance to relax and do something leisurely. Perhaps a nap would suffice after this rude awakening. He already wasn't a big morning person, and pretending to be made it even more insufferable, so today was going to be wonderful.

Akechi headed to the kitchen, turning the kettle on and deciding to also switch on the radio as well. Maybe it could distract him from the loud blaring. He made a mental note to buy ear plugs in case this happened again.

"And onto the hot topic everyone is discussing... Former famous Artist Madarame still has not been sighted, or made any public appearances since his admission of stealing his students artwork and proclaiming them as his own. The police are hoping to interrogate him to obtain a full-length confession, and it seems he's been very cooperative. There is also the hope that students, both past and present, will come forward and share their stories with the world. In other news..."

Akechi walked calmly into the University, smiling at a passerby who seemed to recognise him and get excited, whispering sporadically to his friend next to him. As he continued to walk forward, he observed his surroundings. The building was quite a blinding white, with very modern and pristine architecture. There was multiple pamphlets lined up on a desk at the front, and he decided to flick through them, finding one about class hours and another on extracurricular clubs. He wasn't certain on joining any clubs when he got to university, especially seen as he was already so busy with high school and detective work. He could imagine how insanely busy he could be once he graduated. And he wasn't that particularly interested. He preferred to keep his hobbies casual, and to himself, so looking at clubs might just be for the idea of it more than anything.