The Story of My Heart

Chapter 5

She groggily lifted her head; once again, she had fallen asleep over the exams in her office. Her eyes swept over the room, and with a smirk, she noticed that her husband had joined her. He was sitting in the large, old wingback chair, deeply engrossed in one of his books.

"Haven't you memorized that by now? You've read that at least five times," she said, breaking the silence and catching his attention.
He adjusted his glasses and placed the book on the small side table to his right. "Three times. I've read it three times, and the last time was on our honeymoon, Mrs. Kudo. Do you know how long ago that was? I just wanted to refresh my memories a bit," he replied with a mischievous grin.

She laughed and stood up. "Oh, I definitely remember! It's been 24 years, 10 months, and 25 days since I took on this last name that you gave me," she replied, offering him her hand to encourage him to get up.

He, however, had other plans and pulled her right onto his lap. "You're still counting the days?" he whispered into her ear from behind, sending a pleasant shiver down her spine.
She nodded and made another attempt to stand up. "Come on, we need to go to bed. I have to be at the university early tomorrow," she said, cutting off any further attempts at distraction. He just rolled his eyes in annoyance before standing up.

"Alright, fine. I'll just gather a few things downstairs for tomorrow's trip, and then I'll join you," he said, disappearing from her office in the same breath.

She watched him leave, puzzled, then walked to her desk and began gathering the documents she needed for the next day. She had just grabbed the door handle, ready to leave her office, when something suddenly fell to the floor behind her. Her head snapped around, and her eyes instantly scanned the surroundings.

The book that he had been so engrossed in just moments before now lay on the floor. She furrowed her brows in confusion and crouched down to pick it up. But it wasn't just the book that had fallen to the floor; between its pages were loose, folded papers, and even without closer inspection, she already knew what they were.
It was the next chapter of his story.

Hastily, she gathered all the pages, only to now take her husband's place in the chair.

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This wasn't working. It was impossible for me to check both locations for Ai's presence at the same time. The odds were fifty-fifty. The situation was clear: Either she had lost one of her earrings in Gin's car, and he was now driving around with it, or they had made a stop in the west. As much as it pained me, I had to admit that I needed help. Damn. I pulled out my phone.

There was only one thing I could do in this situation because I urgently needed backup. I quickly composed a short message, asking her to come to the professor's house. Now, I could only hope that she was still in Tokyo and would follow my invitation.

After packing the essentials into my backpack, I headed back to the professor's house.
He was still sitting in front of his screen, not taking his eyes off the two blinking dots.

"Very good, Professor. Has anything happened while I was gone?" I asked, peeking over his shoulder.

But before he could answer, I had already scanned the screen and noticed that both dots were now stationary. But my main problem remained unchanged: the two locations were about 100 kilometers apart.

"No, except that one of the transmitters has been stationary for a few minutes. But are you really sure you want to go? Shinichi, this whole thing could be dangerous," he warned, his expression full of concern.

I leaned on the desk and let my gaze wander over the surroundings of both locations. "I know, Professor. That's precisely why I've called for reinforcements," I murmured, already thinking about the next steps.