PAPER FLOWERS ( k. bakugou )

chapter 32

' why we can't have nice things '

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"Honoka's been kidnapped."

An outraged, "What?" tears itself from her throat and Kaede drops the plastic cup of coffee on the table sending dark liquid sloshing everywhere and even bits of it unto the man in front of her.

His face that was a mixture of concern and anxiety earlier is now thrown it with a little exasperation. Kaede involuntarily winces, blurting a quick, "Sorry," that didn't seem to make things even a little better.

It isn't a secret that Honoka's uncle hated her, it also isn't big of a shock that at their every meeting, Kaede always finds a way to worsen their relationship. He wipes a streak of coffee on his cheeks, sets his hands on the table.

"Two weeks have passed now actually," he informs her and if Kaede thought that her eyes couldn't get any bigger with surprise, her thoughts were proven wrong.

Eyes widened, Kaede stands up from the chair, slaps her palms unto the table for support and even when Honoka's uncle was sitting and she's standing up, she doesn't manage to loom over him. "She's been gone for two weeks and you didn't think I was worthy of this information."

"Sit down," he hisses between his teeth and gives her a look that would have flinched teenagers. Kaede is also a teenager, but she's grown accustomed to even worse looks so she stands her ground. Realizing this, Honoka's uncle decides to continue, "She's been missing for two weeks and I've always participated in the searches that I didn't make time to visit you."

He tossed Kaede a brown manila envelope and she looks at it with eyebrows raised, fingers skimming the rough surface. "What is this?"

"An envelope," he answers succinctly and it's one of those moments where she hates how other people use her own skillset against her.

"I can see that," she says, slumps to the chair and crosses one leg over the other, five fingers drumming on the surface of the wooden table. "What's inside it?"

Pushing the envelope further towards her, two inches give or take, he says, "Look at it to find out."

Eyebrow still raised, Kaede opens the envelope and inspects the contents. A bunch of photographs lined up and she doesn't know what to think of it and she just sees Honoka through blurry pictures. Familiar alleyways and parks just meters away from the beach. There's also a man next to her, his left hand probably resting on Honoka's shoulders and she thinks that it's her uncle, but his uncle has crab pincers in that side.

"This is why we assumed she was kidnapped," he says, points at the vague photograph of the man and through those hazy details, she can see that the man is probably in his forties or fifties with a shaved head and wayfarers covering his eyes.

"Have you found out who that is?" Kaede asks, shrugging the eery vibes she got from the man.

An impatient groan escapes his lips and he flips through the pictures and presents one buried deep within the photographs and papers. "This is him," he says and Kaede inhales a sharp breath. "I suppose you know him."

The man has changed, his perfectly styled hair now gone and even with eyes covered by wayfarers, you could denote his stance and other critical parts of his body. "It's very hard not to," Honoka's uncle continues, one finger tapping on the older picture of the man three times. "You used to work for him, didn't you?"