Heartbreak Club | s.yx ✓

Chapter 29

Once again, there was no new information on Roy's disappearance. Just my parents calling in to check on how I was coping. I hated the fact that I primarily believed they were calling me to tell me that Roy has been found or something, only to hear that the investigations are still going on and they are looking for new leads (which I doubted).

Yaxuan and I sat outside on a bench on the sunny Saturday afternoon. The bench was just below one of the cafeteria windows, so we could still hear chatters from some of the students inside.

'So what's the new plan to finding Roy?' Yaxuan asked me, sounding genuinely interested in the topic. In fact, it was the reason we had met. He had texted me the previous night that he felt bad about what had happened and was going to try his best to help out. Perhaps he felt bad about spending majority of his time focusing on Cait recently, but I wasn't complaining.

'I have no idea,' I muttered, looking down at my sneakers. 'Like I said, I lost the only clue I had.'

He frowned. 'There's gotta be something else. Or should I hire a private investigator?'

'Aren't they like...super expensive?'

He shrugged. 'I don't know, I could tell my mom to pay for one.'

I didn't want to take so much money from Yaxuan's family, but I was actually considering what he was telling me. A private investigator could be a good idea, he would probably have more skills than Yaxuan and I in this so called investigation.

'I guess that's an idea,' I nodded my head.

'Great.'

THIRD PERSON POV

'I guess that's an idea,'

'Great.'

Junlin shut his eyes in annoyance at the conversation on the other side of the wall. He was standing next to the cafeteria window, doing nothing in particular except listening to the conversation between his housemate and his ex-girlfriend.

'Hey Junlin,' a boy's voice interrupted as he walked towards him.

'Oh hey,' Junlin said casually, not trying to seem like an eavesdropper.

'What are you doing by the window?' The boy asked.

'Nothing, nothing.' Junlin immediately dismissed him, not wanting the boy to walk over to the window and peek out, or to talk too loudly that Yaxuan and Akira outside would hear.

Junlin moved away from the window, knowing his listening task had been cut short. 'I gotta go, I'll see you later.'

'Sure I guess,' the boy nodded.

Junlin walked out of the cafeteria and walked into one of the empty classrooms. He sat in the corner and took out his cellphone, looking around one more time to make sure that there was no one in there.

'Hello?' a voice answered on the other end. 'Don't tell me you're done. Didn't you tell me 5 minutes ago that you're going to listen to the conversation between Yaxuan and Akira?'

'Sorry,' Junlin apologized. 'I would have listened more but one of my friends interrupted me, I didn't want him to get suspicious.'

'Seriously Junlin? I am utterly disappointed in you. Can't you do one thing right?'

He frowned. 'I at least listened to the key points okay?' he hated being underappreciated, but that felt like the story of his life.

'Whatever. What?'

'Well Yaxuan wants to hire a private investigator to find out where Roy is.'

'What!?' the person on the other end cried. 'That little idiot.' They calmed down. 'Don't worry, I know exactly what to do.'

'I bet you do,' he nodded. 'I think the hard part is over. It would have been worse if Akira actually had that cellphone.'

'Oh yes, for once you did something smart by telling me that Akira was going to Sinise so I could take whatever she found,'

'It's not for once.' Junlin was beginning to feel annoyed once again.

'Whatever,' the person said and hang up the cellphone.

Junlin put his cellphone in his pocket and sighed.

...

That evening, Yaxuan walked into his mom's office, not wanting to waste time. He had once again met people who did not want him coming in, but as usual, he didn't have to wait in line when he needed to meet his mother.

'Hey honey,' his mother said to him the moment he had walked in. She had a huge smile on her face, the smile she only gave to him.

'Hey mom,' Yaxuan replied. 'Can I have some money?'

'Sure, how much?' She smiled.

'I don't know,' Yaxuan started doing some math in his head, realizing he hadn't thought of the actual amount that would be needed. He knew that to get a good private investigator, he would probably have to pay about $100 an hour. He didn't want to overthink the amount of money, he could probably mention something random and his mother would give it to him. 'Maybe...$1000?'

'Now Yaxuan, that's an awfully large amount of money, what for?' she put her pen down.

Yaxuan had a surprised look on his face. His mother had given him much more money than that, and she had never asked him what it was for. She gave him whatever he wanted without a single question.

'I...well...' he decided to be honest, it wasn't as if what he was doing was illegal. 'I want to hire a private investigator to...'

'To find out what happened to Vivi? No.' she answered with a frown.

'I didn't finish my sentence,' Yaxuan cried. 'I want the money to hire a private investigator for my friend so that she finds out where her brother is.'

'And you're passionate about it because of Vivi's disappearance?' his mother's face was virtually unrecognizable from the smiling face she had when she had come in. 'I want you to focus on something else for now, like your school. Stop being so obsessed with this Vivi thing, it's been years!'

'It's not about Vivi.' Yaxuan's face was back to surprised. He found his mother's reaction uncalled for.

'Whatever you claim it's for, you're not getting any money for that.'

It was the first time Yaxuan had been denied anything from his mother at his age. He stood in silence, shocked at what he had just heard.

'Yaxuan if you're done, can you please leave the room? I'm busy.' She told him coldly.

'Mom are you serious?'

'Yes. Now please, I'm busy.'

Yaxuan slowly nodded, he was more disappointed than angry. He slowly walked to the door and left, then walked out. It was a moment he had never imagined would happen.

Usually, his mom would be kind about anything he asked for. He once asked her for a ton of money to have an extravagant birthday party, but she was more than willing to give him a lot of money and even more than he had asked for.

But when it came to a private investigator, she was totally shut off from the idea. Was it simply because she thought he was going to spend it all on finding out about Vivi?

Perhaps it was normal, but it just wasn't adding up entirely to Yaxuan. It was still a bit strange that she quickly shut him off like that.

There was so much that was going on, and could this probably be linked to why Cait, whom he had found out was Vivi, didn't want to meet their mother? His mind brought in so many different questions as he continued to walk out.