Cases Uncovered

14 | The Apartment Next Door

"Humans are suspicious and jealous creatures. When they see something perfect, they wanna find a flaw."

-Heiji Hattori

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Chapter 14:
The Apartment Next Door

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ZANE

As I placed the disappointing ice cream back into the freezer, Raine interrupted again, "Not interested?"

I paused, caught in indecision. The possible effect of the cuisine would be a better relief from my lack of sleep, yet it'll be dangerous because I was currently living with a girl. If I were alone, I might have eaten it already in desperate need of rest.

"Hurry up because we have somewhere to go later," she urged.

"What? I need to sleep," I muttered under my breath.

"Did you say something?" she inquired, her gaze shifting to me. Heat rushed to my cheeks, and I quickly shifted my gaze to Raine, trying to gauge if she'd noticed or heard anything.

She was in the living room, seeming to be searching for something. My muttered comment was soft enough, making me think that she might not have heard me at all.

Wait, is she wearing pajamas? Is she going to sleep now?

"Hey! The fridge is open!" Her voice snapped me back to reality.

"Ah, d*mn!" I hurriedly closed the refrigerator door and let out a sigh of relief.

"Would you like to just move to a different flat?" she asked, interrupting my embarrassment.

"Why? Don't you want a guy around here? You said it's fine, right?" I replied.

"Yes, it's fine, but is it fine with you?" she added.

I moved to sit in the chair in front of me, feeling the chill of the adobo I was still gripping. Realizing why I felt cold, I set the container down on the table before finally taking my seat.

"It's alright, but isn’t this risky?" I asked.

"I can always lock my bedroom door, and I know how to defend myself," she calmly replied, grabbing a crumpled piece of paper from the floor. "I trust you because your sibling is a woman. More importantly, these flats are designed for two people to share a unit, even if they don’t know each other."

"Okay, it's up to you. Let's just make sure not to get drunk inside the flat," I said.

"I don't drink anyway, so it's fine," she answered.

"That's great!" I said, my gaze returning to the frozen adobo that was starting to thaw at the edges of the container. "Are you sure this is our meal later? It doesn't have any sleep-inducing chemicals, right?"

"Nope," she sighed. "Chicken is expensive; am I going to waste it? And besides, even though I know you want to sleep because you didn't sleep last night, I'm not going to put any chemicals in it because... hello... why would I waste my money on pointless things?"

Her words momentarily stopped my heart. Pointless? Was I worthless to her?

"Why do you have that expression?" she quickly asked. "My point is it's because the chemicals I use are expensive, so I only use them when it's related to a case."

"Do you not use it if you cannot sleep?" I asked, starting to want to ask about her again. "Please tell me you're not addicted to anything."

"Stop it! Never and never will I be," she replied firmly, finally leaving the room. "You're the one who's addicted to-"