Heartbreak Club | s.yx ✓

Chapter 23

Roy's hostel was quite a distance from the Bayside Apartments, but fortunately, we had ridden Yaxuan's car. So we arrived there in a matter of minutes. I was thankful for Yaxuan's help but I was too focused on my brother's absence to remember to thank him.

I knocked on the door to Roy's room, and it opened after a while. I was greeted by his roommate Yihang. He knew I didn't usually come there, so he appeared genuinely surprised by my presence.

'Oh hey Akira, you're looking for your brother aren't you?' Yihang said to me. 'He's not here.'

'Yeah I kinda knew that,' I admitted. 'May we come in? We need to look for something.'

'You wanna look at Roy's stuff?' he seemed hesitant, but that was probably understandable.

'Please, it's important. I think Roy's missing and we're trynna find clues.' I explained.

'She's right,' Yaxuan agreed. 'And we need to check as soon as possible, maybe we can know where he is before anything happens.'

Yihang had a humorous look on his face, obviously not believing that something could happen to Yaxuan. Still more, he nodded his head and let us into the room. 'Well if you mess anything up I'll tell him that it's his sister who did it.' he warned.

Inside the hostels were just like mine, two beds both against the wall. I looked at Roy's bed which was on the left. It was still made but there was a huge mess on it: papers, books and some other reading materials. It confirmed to me the obvious: that Roy surely did not spend the night here.

'I don't even know where to start,' I said to Yaxuan as I walked over to his bed, grabbing one of his books which had the words "Media Studies" on it. 'But...when we were on the phone, he told me something about going to meet a person who was interested in his interview.'

'So maybe that person trapped him?' Yaxuan grabbed one of the newspapers on the bed and looked at it. It had the Song's Kidnapping Case on the front page. I noticed Yaxuan get a bit emotional as he placed the newspaper back on the bed then grabbed something else.

'I mean...it's possible.' I turned to Yihang who was now lying on his bed and looking at his cellphone. 'Yihang, did Roy mention anything about going to meet someone or some people who loved his interview?'

'Actually, yes,' Yihang replied after turning to me. 'He didn't tell me anything else though. He was just talking about how excited he was to meet this supposed guy who may offer him more opportunities. There's no other details that he told me.'

I scratched my head in thought. 'Well that's not very helpful.'

'Do you really think something happened to Roy? That guy's as clever a as a mouse, there's nothing so bad that could happen to him.' Yihang assured me.

'I know but...our last conversation is what has gotten me so anxious.' I shook my head and grabbed a diary. Looking through it, I noticed Roy didn't write any life events, all he wrote about was his investigation. If only he wrote about his own events, at least I would have an idea who the guy who called him was.

'Is this my old photo?' Yaxuan asked himself as he grabbed a photo from the bed. It was the same photo which Roy had stolen from Yaxuan's room.

I immediately felt nervous and took it away from Yaxuan. 'Let's focus on what we're here for.'

'Right,' Yaxuan agreed. 'I could have sworn this photo has always been in my room though, how could someone have it?'

'I don't know. I answered innocently and tried to focus on what I was doing. I grabbed a torn out page of a newspaper from the bed. I looked at it carefully the moment I saw something which I recognized.

'What's so interesting about this?' Yaxuan asked me as he looked at the large printed photo. 'Why would they write an entire article on our necklaces?'

'Your necklaces?' I looked at the photo of the crown necklace on the newspaper then looked at the necklace he was wearing. Now I remembered where I had seen the necklace on Cait that evening; it was the same necklace Yaxuan always wore and the necklace in the newspaper.

Yaxuan nodded and looked at the newspaper. 'And they're wrong. These necklaces weren't to show how our rich we were, they were meant to show our bond as family...and it was custom made.'

I looked away from the newspaper and looked at him. 'But then I guess there's copies of the necklace right?'

'Not that I know of. Besides, these are made of actual silver. You'd have to be quite rich to have your own imitation that looks like this.' Yaxuan chuckled.

'That's why it shines so much,' I said to myself. Without asking for permission, I grabbed the crown that was at the end of Yaxuan's necklace. I didn't know if he would be comfortable with me touching his family's emblem, but he didn't seem to react.

'Do you mind flirting with your boyfriend somewhere else?' Yihang asked me jokingly.

'Oh he's not my boyfriend and I'm not flirting.' I corrected him immediately, while Yaxuan simply chuckled.

I continued to observe the crown, and my memory told me that it was the same necklace Cait was wearing. I was certain of it.

'Is it weird if I told you I saw this necklace on someone?' I said as I let it go.

'What?' Yaxuan's eyes widened. 'No way. Who? It can't be. Perhaps they have a similar design...'

'Nope. It's exactly the same and I saw it on someone.' I assured him. 'And it shines like polished silver just like yours.'

'Who did you see it on? Only I and my sister had these two necklaces.'

'Cait.' I answered him thoughtfully.

'The girl who's usually staring at me?' Yaxuan was probably still not sure of her name.

I nodded.

Yaxuan rubbed his chin. 'No way. It can't be. We have to meet her...I have to check the necklace, perhaps you made a mistake.'

'Pretty sure I didn't though but I guess you can ask her.' I assured him.

'Can we go now?' Yaxuan grabbed my hand. 'Quick, let's go meet her.'

'She probably has classes Yaxuan,' I pulled my hand away from his. 'Besides, we're looking for Roy right now. We can ask her in the evening.'

'Evening!?' Yaxuan grabbed my shoulders. 'This is important Akira, I have to meet her. What if she knows something about Vivi?'

'Cait is rarely free, trust me. The only space of time in which we can meet her is the evening.' I assured him. 'But trust me, we will.' I continued to look through Roy's stuff which wasn't bringing anything much to light.

Yaxuan started to help again, but I could see that his mind was elsewhere. I knew he was thinking about the necklace issue, but there were many possibilities on how Cait would have the necklace.

'Hey how old is Cait?' Yaxuan suddenly asked me.

'I don't know,' unfortunately, I didn't know much about Cait. She had only been my roommate for several months and we weren't in the same year of study, so there was still some things I didn't know about her. She was in her third year of study just like Roy.

'20,' Yihang answered as he sat up on her bed. 'She was really popular the moment she had stepped onto the school.'

'Oh my god,' Yaxuan said to himself as his face turned pale.