Scam My Heart | Ryoku✅

Chapter 9

My footsteps echoed as I continued to walk in further. "So you have access to here too, huh." I looked to my side and saw an unfamiliar man walking towards me. "And you are?" "Call me Spectre." I kept my distance from him as he walked around. "Okay...Have you seen a guy about yay high sporting a dark gray tux, white shirt, black tie with silvery hair with blue-ish highlights?" "No. Wait, yes. He's farther in." I eyed him skeptically as he had suddenly changed his answer. "You'll regret it if you lie to me." "I have no reason to. I can take you to him. Also, the art gets prettier the farther you walk in."

I followed behind him then saw a figure looming in the distance. "Hey, this kid is looking for you." I mentally face palmed as he stepped aside. "Looks like you didn't last long huh?" I crossed my arms as he approached me. "I heard something rather disturbing and I value my life." "What are you going on about?" I told him everything then waited for his response. "So, you want to ditch and possibly let all these people die?" "When you put it like that, you make me sound like the bad guy."

"Yusaku, we're not leaving. We're going to help instead." I rolled my eyes and made it clear that I wasn't happy with his decision. "Fine. You stay here, I'll go home." "Enjoy that 3 hour trip." I growled then turned on my heel. There was no way I was going to play hero. They were all probably destined to die today this way anyway. "Yusaku, are you really going to leave?" "Yes. You can't guilt trip me."

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I sighed heavily as he leaned me against him as we tried to secretly collect information. "Who's this dashing young lad with you?" "Oh, he's my..." I shot him a look full of warning. "My boyfriend." I looked at him wide eyed then pinched him out of the man's sight. "Oh, didn't know you two were in that kind of relationship. More power to you." They talked a bit longer before he walked away. I took the opportunity to give him a swift kick to his shin. "What the hell? What if he goes around telling others that we're in that kind of relationship!?" "And? It's better that we appear like lovers as people won't think twice about us moving around together and going off alone."

I couldn't deny that he had a point. "Whatever." He pulled me closer then leaned forward. "What-" "Shh. They're watching." He touched my cheek, causing me to shudder in disgust. "This is too much." "You can relax. They're not watching anymore." I gladly pulled away and put a bit of distance between us. "Come, lets keep talking to others." "Promise we won't ever have to be that close again." "I'll try to avoid it."

As he said, we didn't have to be super close like before. We seemed to have gotten a bit of useful information within the boring chatter they engaged in. We walked off to the side and observed the attendees of the party. "So, anything?" "Give me your phone." "Wait, why mine?" I glared at him while holding my hand out. He placed it in my hand and I quickly got to work. "This person is the invitation sender." I blinked then tugged on his sleeve. "Didn't we meet him?" "Yes. Yes we did." We nodded then made our way back to the garden.

After getting lost a few times, we had made it back to the door that led to the secret garden. "Do you think he's still in there?" "Let's stop wasting time." He took the lead and entered without me. "Hey!" I quickly followed after him. We followed the path as there was only one way through until it got to a bigger room. I had caught up to him in the big room then sighed. He was there. "Sir." "You two again. Missed the art?" Ryoken approached him as I hung back. I wasn't really into this, so I figured I'd let him handle things. "Were you threatened around 9:20 over the phone?" I saw the brief flicker of concerned cross his face before it returned to its natural smile. "Yes. Yes I was."

We looked at him with concern. "It happens every year." "Then why haven't you done anything about it?" "I would've if I could, but I haven't had time." I stepped closer as I was now curious as to what kept him so busy. I looked at Ryoken who simply nodded. Could he tell what I was thinking? The thought of that made me feel weird. "What keeps you so busy?" "It's best to not be greedy when reaching into the cookie jar." "Well, you said this happens every year, right?" I felt both pairs of eyes on me. "Yes." "What does she want from you?" "This entire place." I quietly blinked as that was quite a large request. What didn't add up was why would she threaten to blow the place up if she wanted it? "There's more to it isn't there?" "Yusaku..." I felt Ryoken elbow my side as I had continued to dig deeper.

"Perceptive aren't you." "Look, I'm just trying to make this go quicker so I can go back to avoiding him." Spectre looked at the both of us as I glared at Ryoken. "Is there bad blood between you two?" "Yes!" "No." I looked at Ryoken who looked at Spectre. "Well, I bought this place from her parents who were the original owners. She claims she was cheated out of it and wants it back. I heard her parents weren't fond of her because she always asked for money. I don't blame them for not giving her this place." I sighed in relief as it wasn't anything scandalous. "So, are you two going to dispose of her for me?" I opened my mouth to decline only for Ryoken to cover it. "We'll do it."

I moved his hand then growled. "Why would you agree to deal with someone's problem? I'm not a lap dog!" "Yusaku, do you want to see others get hurt if her threat is actually real thistime?" I slowly shook my head as I wasn't completely heartless. "Then at least do it for them." I wasn't thrilled with the idea at all, but I couldn't completely turn a blind eye. "Okay." "Yay!" He pulled me into a hug, surprising me." "G-Get off me..." "N-O." What I didn't like was the fact that I wasn't disgusted by it.