(BL) Mafia Love; He who falls the hardest loses-Chapter 139: Where is he?

Aki glanced down at his phone. He had not known his brother to be tardy yet; it had been thirty minutes, and yet Hiroshi hadn’t arrived.

He sighed and rose up. He made eye contact with a lady sitting at a table nearby. Her eyes brightened in recognition and she rose up. She walked to him and asked, "Aki?"

Aki was taken aback because although he looked at her and thought about how pretty she was, she was not someone he could recognise.

"Yes?" he asked a bit confused.

"Uhmm . . . your brother told me we would play golf together," she said her cheeks slightly tinted in a pink shade.

"Oh," Aki murmured remembering Hiroshi told him they would play golf with one of his friends. He was not sure the woman was right but he nodded. "He hasn’t arrived yet and I was thinking of leaving. It’s boring to play golf alone."

"Yeah, it is. How about we play together a wait for him?" she suggested.

Seeing there was no need to reject her, Aki nodded. Playing golf with Hiroshi had become a part of his weekend and it felt weird to skip this weekend’s routine.

"My name is Miyoko. Hiroshi and I are friends."

Aki nodded. He was meeting the woman for the first time and the person who would have done the introduction wasn’t around which made all of this awkward for him but he was willing to ease himself into enjoying golf.

"How did you recognise me?"

Miyoko smiled as she met his gaze. Many might not see the resemblance between him and his brother but she was certain that there was a resemblance or a surprising sense of familiarity with Aki even when they were meeting for the first time.

No matter how she thought of it, she could not think of a way to tell him without sounding weird or unbelievable. "I don’t, I guess you look alike."

Aki shook his head. Hiroshi’s mother was a Westerner and they didn’t look alike at all to most people. It was weird that despite that, the lady saw some resemblance.

"Are you sure he didn’t show you my picture?"

Miyoko wanted to deny it since she didn’t get a picture of Aki. "You’re popular after all and I am one of your fans."

Aki laughed and nodded. "Now that answers the question. You know me, don’t you?"

That was the fate of being popular. He was reminded that he was someone who was well known for his craft.

He rubbed his head and shook his head as he sighed, "I tend to forget my pictures are in a few magazines."

She knew Aki’s artwork but she had never taken the effort to know what he looked like even after speaking with Hiroshi that day. But she didn’t bother to tell him that since that would just make the already awkward situation even more awkward.

They played golf together and had dinner afterwards. It was fun but Hiroshi didn’t arrive and since they were having enough fun, they didn’t bother to call Hiroshi.

"I wanted to drop you off," Aki said when he walked her to her car.

He reached for the door handle to open the door for her but she placed her hand on his wrist to stop him. "You can drop me off," she mumbled avoiding his gaze as she pulled her hand away from his.

"Sure."

Miyoko spoke to her chauffeur telling him to leave without her as she intended to go with Aki. Wearing a smile he wasn’t even aware of Aki, led her to his car and opened the door for her.

The smile only broadened as he sat behind the steering wheel and pressed the ignition button.

After dropping Miyoko off at home, he tried to call Hiroshi. The call wouldn’t go through so he decided to go to Hiroshi’s home himself. Hiroshi wasn’t home. He sighed and decided to keep calling him since he shouldn’t already have arrived at home from work.

He called several times the next day. There was something about all his calls not getting connected that caused him to feel restless. It was unlike Hiroshi to be unreachable unless he was out of the country.

If he were doing a surgery there was no way he would not have been out on the night of the second day. He made sure to exchange contact with Miyoko because playing golf with her again did not sound like a bad idea at all and she had also called him asking about Hiroshi.

It was making him anxious so he drove to the hospital and went directly to Hiroshi’s office.

"Dr Yamamoto hasn’t been in the hospital today," a young man told him when he tried to open the door of the office.

"Oh, thanks," Aki said as he stepped away from the door and headed to the elevator.

He went to his father’s office and knocked. After getting invited in, he opened the door and walked in.

"To what do I owe this visit?" Dr Yamamoto raised his tired eyes to look at Aki who sat on the comfortable sofa.

Aki laughed and shook his head, "It is not surprising that I want to pester you a bit, right?"

"Yes, it is not right. Get a job," Dr Yamamoto joked hoping that would deter Aki from noticing the fatigue weighing on his whole being.

"What makes you think I’m not richer than you?" Aki asked relaxing into the sofa. He moved out of his father’s house and he was not poor but the fact that he had not been busy of late, was not something he was proud of.

Dr Yamamoto laughed at Aki’s words. He owned a hospital but the real owner behind the curtain was Haruki. Aki might be right after all that he was richer than him.

"Are you okay?" Aki finally asked.

The question came abruptly to Dr Yamamoto and his smile froze before slowly disappearing.

"You look a bit pale," Aki voiced his observation.

"Do I?" Dr Yamamoto raised his hand and touched his face before shaking his head. "I don’t think I look pale."

"You are in the hospital almost every day, I don’t think you should be sick with all these doctors around you."

"You’re right. I will get checked up as soon as you leave."

Aki could easily get the hint from his father that Dr Yamamoto wanted him to leave as soon as he could. He made it sound like he could only get checked up if Aki left but Aki saw that as the man trying to order him out.

"Is there something bothering you that you don’t want me to know?" Aki asked as he rose up from the sofa and approached his father’s desk.

Dr Yamamoto sighed and leaned against the backrest of the chair.

Watching him, Aki could not help but wonder when his father had gotten that old. It was as though his father had aged a decade during the last few days he didn’t see him.

"If just as you said, I don’t want you to know, why will I tell you?"

Seeing he was going nowhere with that, Aki sighed and sat on the chair facing his father. "Is something wrong with Hiroshi too? He wouldn’t pick up my calls."

Aki was quick to notice the change in his father’s demeanour as soon as he asked that question. He sighed without giving his father the chance to respond. He could guess that whatever his father said in denial was a lie.

"Where is Hiroshi?" he asked seriously. "I have tried continuously to call him, I also checked him at his office but I heard he hadn’t been to work today."

"I heard he travelled to meet Haruki. He took a week’s leave."

Why would Hiroshi travel after making an appointment to play golf with him? None of the dots were getting connected and it only made him certain that something was wrong with Hiroshi. He hoped he was overthinking.

"Is it about the leaked audio?" he asked as soon as the thought came to his mind. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Seeing his father freeze again, he sighed and rose up. If Hiroshi gets accused of being behind their conversation getting leaked, he is almost certain that Hiroshi wouldn’t walk out of it alive.

"Oh gosh," he sighed. He raised his trembling hands and touched his face before rubbing it slightly.

"It is not as serious as you think." Dr Yamamoto felt very disappointed in himself for thinking that he was unable to hide that fact from Aki.

He was already suffering with the thought of all that he saw to include his son in the struggle was not the right thing.

"You don’t need to worry about it." He added to ease Aki’s worry. "He just needs to prove his innocence."

"How will he prove his innocence to those crazy men? How?" Aki asked as he began pacing. They had to think of a way out of it all. If they confirmed without proper investigation that Hiroshi was behind it, whether he was framed or not, he was almost certain that Haruki’s men would kill him.