Mastermind | Chuuya Nakahara.

THIRTY-SEVEN.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN:
That's all I was? A job?
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Aki stood like a deer caught in headlights. She had been alone in her bedroom, not so long after she left Chuuya's bedroom when the burner phone began ringing. Her heart was racing in her chest as she stood with the phone to her ear, her lips parted, ragged breaths leaving her mouth. Had she heard him right? Or did her ears deceive her?

"What?" She squeaked, her voice coming out barely above a whisper.

On the other end of the line, Katsu inhaled slowly, "I said your target has discovered your mission," Hearing him saying it again didn't make her feel any better. She didn't want confirmation. She wanted to be told she had heard him wrong—anything other than what he was saying. "Akira, I am so very disappointed. You must leave the Port Mafia at once, before they have the chance to swarm you with their forces." I don't want to. I don't want to leave. Why is this happening?

"I—" She stopped her words in their tracks, her hand coming up to touch the ribbon around her neck. She knew this day would come, only, she didn't think it would be so soon. And she thought she would have completed her mission by the time it came. She was the worlds greatest assassin—how had she been figured out? Had the Double A underestimated the Port Mafia? Nothing made sense.

"Akira," Katsu sternly said. "You must return to the Double A immediately. If you don't I'll have no choice but to punish you. Perhaps, I'll have Kana terminated just to teach you a—"

"No," Aki spoke over him, urgency in her voice. She closed her eyes, trying to collect herself but her head was dizzy, her heart thumping in her chest. "I'm leaving." She assured him, her words physically hurting her chest to say out loud.

"Very good. Do you remember my favourite restaurant? Head over there. I'll have a driver collect you within two hours." He told her, but Aki could barely hear him. White noise had taken over her ears, making everything muffled. She was on the verge of panicking—something she hadn't done in a very long time. It was such a sickly feeling, her lungs seizing, chest tightening. She felt like she was going to fucking die.

"Understood." With that, she hung up the phone.

She didn't move an inch. She just stood there, her eyes squeezed shut, chest rising and falling with each breath. She didn't think it would ever come to this—she thought she would be able to leave on her own terms. She had months left with the Port Mafia, but it seemed that Mori was already onto her little scheme.

                  She quickly hid the burner phone behind the painting and then began pacing back and forth before she came to a halt, squeezing her eyes shut. She was going to come clean. She was going to find Chuuya and she was going to tell him everything. It didn't matter that she would have to leave, she just needed him to know that she had never intended to hurt him. She needed him to understand—it was something her soul desperately craved. But then she remembered.

Her eyes suddenly flew open.

Mori had called Chuuya into his office only an hour before, which wasn't anything new. But the timing. She felt her heart drop. She tried to feel him—she tried to seek him out in the building, her fingers tingling. I can't feel him. It was as if he had dropped off the face of the earth, impossible to feel. That's when she realised. He knew. Mori had told him, and now, he knew what a traitor she was—something he hated most in the world. He had poured his soul out to her the night before, telling her all about The Sheep and their betrayal and she had sat there and comforted him—she comforted him whilst she was doing the very same thing. She wasn't going to have the chance to come clean to him; it was too late.