Impending Devotion

Chapter Seventeen

Today, Kei went to work... But before he did, we woke up to have breakfast together before leaving for work at around 9:30 this morning. He was also like a loving husband leaving for work, as he gave me a kiss on the cheek before he walked out the door and I wished him a good luck at work today.

While he was gone, I decided to do some chores around the house to make it clean. I mean... It was already clean, but I just wanted it to be cleaner. Eheh~!

Up at Kei's room while I was arranging some books on the shelves, I heard a familiar ding. "Is that my phone?" I thought to myself. I then heard a couple more dings, so I had to follow the sound to where it was coming from. Turns out, it was inside Kei's desk drawer. I got it and looked at my e-mails, my text messages, and my call history.

I checked my e-mails first. There was nothing out of the ordinary, just the usual stuff sent to me and a couple of spam mail. Then I went to my call history and saw quite a bit, mostly from Rika and Kasumi, which led me to go to my text inbox and saw that they had spammed me with a number of text messages saying to call either one ASAP. I then dialed Rika's number.

"Rika..?"

"YUIKO?!?!! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!?! WHERE THE FRICK ARE YOU?!?!!" she practically yelled through the phone to me, she would have literally burst my eardrums if I didn't take the phone away from my ear.

"Oww..." I whined then giggled, "Chill out girl. I'm fine. I'm just at Kei's watching over his house while he's at work."

Rika sighed at the other end, "Don't play dumb with me Yuiko." she sounded serious, "Is he holding you captive?"

I flinched a little to be honest, but I had to reassure her, "No, no, no. I'm free to roam around the house~!" I cheered.

Rika paused before saying anything, and I tried to call out her name, but she answered before I could even say her name, "Oshiro-kun told us."

My blood literally went cold.

"We heard from a friend that he was in the hospital and decided to go and visit him, and he told us. He didn't tell anyone else besides us, cause he knew how close we are and he didn't want his family or anyone else to be in danger. He didn't actually want to tell us, but I just forced the words out of him cause I always knew something was wrong with that boyfriend of yours."

My voiced cracked, "Please keep it between you guys only and don't call the cops. I don't want Oshiro to be in danger or anyone else related to him. He's gone through so much." I cried, and Rika agreed with me.

"We just hope you're fine and not being forced to do anything bad by Takabayashi."

"To be completely honest with you, he's treated me with so much hospitality and compassion that its hard to say if he's really a bad person."

"Watch what you're saying Yuiko, and don't be fooled by his angelic side. You remember those 'suicides', don't you? He's just fooling you, making you believe he's good, but he'll actually reveal his dark side to you later. I've read a good amount of 'Yandere' manga to know where this is going." she warned me.

"I know... I'm watching myself here and I'll fight back."

"That worries me." she sighed, "You say you'll fight back, but we know that you've never been all that physically strong, right? And Kei's into sports. So physically speaking, Kei's stronger, and I'm sorry to say he's also smarter, so he might trick you more or overpower you more, mentally."

I got a bit depressed thinking how all the hurtful things Rika said were just so true. "Just text or call us when things go a bit wacky. I'll even text you everyday!"

"Yeah... But now that I think about it, I might be afraid that Kei might eventually take my phone from me, not wanting me to have any contact with the outside world, whatsoever. Well... Aside from my dad, he said I could still talk to him."

"Yeah... I was kinda thinking of that possibility too. How about this... I'll text you my home address, and I want you to write to me once something bad happens and you don't have your phone. Just write this down and store it someplace you think Kei might be in no reach of."

"Right!" and after that, I heard a ding and saw Rika's address and immediately jotted it down on a piece of paper. I then ran towards the only place I could store it in... In the basement, behind the leg, or rather, in between the leg of the bed and the wall. I then went back up to discuss a few more things with Rika.

"How about we make a few more things... When in contact with me; when you're alone, you need to call me at least once a day if possible, if you are allowed to use your phone with him around, text me at least once a day and put a hashtag at the end of your text, as this will signify that he is with you while you texted me. If you don't have this hashtag and you are texting me, I will know that he is in possession of your phone."

"But what if he wants to read the texts I sent you if he's suspicious?"

"Right... Hmm... Then how about when texting me, you should have three and I mean, exactly THREE tildes (~) in your texts, anywhere in the sentences, or even emojis, so that I know its you talking."

"Okay, okay! That works just fine."

"Good... For now, delete all of your texts and call history from me and Kasumi and I'll tell her our conversation for today, okay?"

"Alright." I answered and I started to delete the things she told me. We were just doing all this to be cautious for future happenings. It's not good to accuse Kei for doing this or that or being this or that, but considering the incident I was in with Ryota, things aren't filled with sunshine and rainbows.

After the serious conversation we had, Rika just talked to me about how I was holding up from yesterday and today. Of course, I had to tell her how traumatic yesterday was to me and how today was shockingly normal. She then told me about how they got to hear about Ryota in the hospital and how she forced him to talk.

Before our call ended, she told me to delete this call history as well, and I did after we ended the call.

Its good to take necessary precautions, but I hope nothing really ever turns out wrong...