[The King's Avatar] The Misconstrued Situation With An Overdue Explanation

Chapter 34: Still Reaching

876 words, 4 minutes

Akane wasn't in her bedroom when her phone started ringing.

Her father had just emerged from the washroom and heard it since her bedroom was nearby. "Akane, your phone is ringing!" he called.

"One second, Oto-san!"  she shouted from the living room, organizing the pillows on the couches. She'd been helping with the cleaning, and was satisfied that she finished the job.

Her father knew he shouldn't intrude on her privacy, but she hasn't been very social lately and he didn't want her friend to miss the call, so he entered her room and answered her phone, putting it on speaker.

"Hello?"

"Uh, hi... is Akane at home?" He was surprised to hear a man's voice speaking in Chinese.

"Who are you?" her father asked in Chinese.

"I'm Akane's friend."

"Oto-san,  who is it...?" Akane's heart sank and her body broke into a cold sweat when her father's disbelieving expression faced her questionably. "Why do you have a man's phone number in your contact list?"

No, it couldn't be him. It couldn't.

Akane's mouth became dry all of a sudden. "H-He goes to my university... and he helped me a little with my Chinese," she lied.

"I thought you had friends to help you with that."

Akane froze.

"Wait a minute... did you drop out of university because of a man?"

She was quick to defend herself. "No, I—"

"Did you have a relationship with him?"

Akane hesitated. "Even if I did, why shouldn't I be free to—"

"You let your grades fall because you were distracted by him?"

Akane felt downright accused by these questions. "Oto-san,  that's not true at all," she insisted when he finally gave her a chance to speak. "That was entirely because of Oka-san's  death. It had nothing to do with him."

Meanwhile, the guy listening in didn't know what they were saying because he didn't understand much—if any—Japanese.

"Then why is this man calling you?!" shouted her father, turning to the phone. "Why are you calling my daughter?" he demanded in Chinese.

"Just to catch up and see how she's doing," the man answered calmly. "I heard about her mother's passing through her and wanted to check in and see if she's OK."

Her father appeared to be seething on the inside, but Akane didn't know why. He always did have overprotective tendencies, but to still have them when she was an adult?

Now it was his phone's turn to ring from the kitchen. He'd scheduled a call with the same coworker about the same car blueprints, so he ultimately yet reluctantly handed Akane her phone.

"Be careful, Akane," he warned. "Men have very different interests and points of views compared to women, and their idea of friendship is different. If you treat it like glass while he kicks it around like a soccer ball, it won't last very long."

~

Akane kind of wished her dad would reappear and dissipate the need for this conversation, but he left her just like that with wisdom she couldn't grasp. She also didn't want him to somehow get more furious with her. Knowing it was Josaku who triggered that anger only made her not want to associate with him anymore.

She admits there are things in Chongqing that she misses, but not him... not after what he did.

Akane huffed and plopped herself onto her bed, lying down lazily. "What do you want?" she snapped in Chinese.

"Don't ask what made me think I should call you days after you left. I'm just glad you didn't block my number yet." He scoffed humorlessly. 

A light bulb went off in Akane's head. "Oh, thanks for reminding me, I'll block your number right now." She'd been so busy moving overseas and settling in that the thought hadn't even crossed her mind. Today was Saturday April 18th, so it was about time.

But she didn't get to attempt to hang up and block it.

"No you won't."

She was stunned. "Excuse me?"

"You're not gonna refuse to hear me out again. I didn't wake up at 9AM sick to my stomach and call you right after just so you can hang up without knowing the truth."

Who the hell was he to execute this authority over her? Over a phone call, no less?

"What truth could you possibly provide me, streetwalker?"

"Stop calling me that when I never called you a hussy," he retorted. It stung, but Josaku pressed on. "You don't know the full story."

Akane wasn't sure why, but something inside of her desired to know the truth for the sake of a piece of mind. Yet she found it difficult to have an open mind and assume he wasn't lying. 

"I saw everything," she muttered stubbornly into the phone. Her father's work voice could be heard from the kitchen.

"All you saw was me getting dragged into the alleyway and Ting Ting kissing me. Right?"

Biting the inside of her cheek, Akane gave a slow nod before realizing this was a phone call and he couldn't see her. "U-Uh, yeah," she confirmed.

Now that they were on the same page, Josaku sighed deeply, anxiously rubbing and holding the back of his neck for comfort. "This is what happened after you left..."

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A/N:

What happened after she left?

Prepare yourselves.

—Kaio