Project Rebirth #2

Chapter 5

Y/N sat in the driver's seat of the luxury-class Lexus LX, nervously glancing up at the rear-view window from time to time as if to check whether she was about to get pulled over. Heizou sat shotgun, feet up on the dashboard and utterly ignoring Y/N. Y/N would have liked to have made him drive, but unfortunately Heizou had failed his driving test because he had apparently tried to drive with no sleep for the past week. And when she had asked for one of the others to drive, their responses had been similar. Kazuha had hit a Mercedes by accident while driving because of stress, and had his driving license revoked for two years. Wanderer had been fined a massive amount of Mora after driving 200 mph in a 30 mph limit zone, and had given up driving altogether. Venti had been accused of a DUI, and had barely passed under the limit, having his driving license also revoked. And Xiao had straight up refused to drive, despite being the only member of the band legally allowed to drive.

Following these events, Y/N was eventually forced to drive the luxury-class car and pray that she wouldn't crash into any other expensive vehicles. Kazuha, Wanderer, Venti, and Xiao's driving expertise were not needed, so they stayed at Kazuha's place to rehearse. When Y/N asked if Heizou should stay to practice with them, they said that Heizou was likely the one who rehearsed the most out of all of them, and had sent Y/N and Heizou on their merry way. Y/N turned on the radio, tuning it to the pop station. Heizou let out a loud groan, slamming his book shut.

"Seriously? It was nice and quiet and peaceful, yet you had to interrupt the best part in this book to play pop music?" Heizou said snarkily, annoyed at having his reading disrupted.

"How do you even know that the part you're reading is the best part?" Y/N retorted immediately, gesturing vaguely toward his book while keeping one hand on the wheel and both eyes on the road.

Heizou waved the book in front of Y/N, blocking her view of the road. "Hello? Sherlock Holmes? One of the best books in history? Any want-to-be detective would read this!"

Y/N scowled and pushed the book out of her face. "And what, you want to be a detective?"

Heizou winced, dropping the book onto his lap and curling up on the leather seat like a cat. His eyes were downcast, his expression gloomy and melancholy. "Yeah..."

Y/N could tell that she had hurt his feelings, and regretted her absent-mindedness. "I didn't mean it like that, I just meant that I've never heard you talk about that."

"Oh!" Heizou exclaimed, immediately brightening up, his sad expression disappearing in an instant, almost as if his happiness was a mask, and that sadness was his true expression. But Y/N pushed the thought away, because Heizou was probably one of the most cheerful people she had ever met.

"Why do you want to be one?" Y/N asked him, partially because she didn't part to seem unconversational, and partly because she was curious. Not many people actually wanted to be a detective, and not at seventeen.

Heizou went silent, tapping his fingers on the window. "I don't know...oh look! There's RHS there!"

"I forgot it was on this road," Y/N commented. She didn't question why Heizou had avoided the question, although he had been more open today. Perhaps there was something in his past that had happened.

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Y/N drove the car painstakingly into the cafe's parking lot, inching the car into a small gap between a pick-up truck and a sedan. Heizou had been laughing hysterically when Y/N thought that she had hit the pick-up truck. Y/N had punched him in the face in return. Y/N took the keys out of the ignition, tossing them to Heizou, who put them in the pocket of his jacket. She walked into the cafe, relieved when she saw that there were only three others in the cafe.