The long night of hosting people had just finished. Yuuto and Pretty boy were one of the few people left in the club room still chatting at the front bar over a drink.
Ding! The two of them paid no attention to the arriving elevator as they continued to talk.
A security man came out of the elevator disheveled and frantically looking around when he spotted Yuuto and Pretty boy, he hurriedly walked over to them.
“Please come and help me, there is someone causing problems on the 5th floor. We need more people to subdue him,” pleaded the security person.
“What a drag,” replied Pretty boy while getting up.
“Sure, we’ll help,” said Yuuto.
When the elevator doors opened onto the 5thfloor Yuuto could hear someone shouting and cursing at another person inside the large hostess room.
Yuuto quickly found the man who was causing the uproar and walked over to him along with Pretty boy. The man was holding onto a female hostess arm while screaming and cussing at her.
There were a few security guys who had been knocked out around him, one of them seemed to be waking up.
The angry man hearing footsteps behind him turned his body, allowing Yuuto to see that the person he was grabbing onto was Niko. She had a frightened expression on her face as she also looked over to see who had come.
“What do you guys want?” asked the angry man.
“We were told someone was causing problems here, so we came to help solve them,” said Pretty boy.
“It’s none of your business, leave us alone, we’re just talking.”
Yuuto put his hand on the rude man’s shoulder and said, “Sir, you’re causing problems for the business. It also looks like you’re yelling at and hurting one of my friends. So I will have to ask you to please leave the premises.”
Niko’s arm was let go but in the next second, a fist came flying towards Yuuto’s head.
The surprise punch grazed the side of his head hitting his ear sending Yuuto reeling into a table next to him.
The angry man then aimed for the security man and landed a hit on his stomach sending him straight to the floor.
Pretty boy quickly dodged out of range from him.
“F*ck off,” said the angry man. He then turned around and ignored them while he tried to grab for the cornered Niko.
Yuuto glanced over to Pretty boy to see if he was ready to take care of the rude man.
Pretty boy gave him a thumbs up and gestured for Yuuto to go first.
‘Screw you, Pretty boy. You’re just scared to go first.’ thought Yuuto.
Yuuto crouched down and then launched himself at the man tackling him from behind. They both fell to the floor with Yuuto struggling to keep him from getting back up.
“Hurry up and help me will you?” said Yuuto as he glared at Pretty boy and the security man was still on the ground gasping for breath.
While Yuuto wrestled with the angry man Pretty boy walked over to one of the unconscious security guards and took some zip ties from his belt, and then he sat down on top of Yuuto and the man.
“What are you doing? Get off me!” said Yuuto as he tried to kick Pretty boy off.
While Yuuto restrained the man Pretty boy was able to grab the man’s legs and used two large zip ties to secure his feet.
After another minute of struggling the man’s hands were restrained with the zip ties as well. When he was finished securing the man’s legs and hands Pretty boy then got up off of Yuuto and the angry man.
Yuuto hopped to his feet leaving the man on the floor to wiggle like a fish out of water.
Yuuto turned and glared at Pretty boy.
“What you wanted help so I helped you stop him from moving,” said Pretty boy.
“You didn’t need to sit on top of me, you’re so heavy. I could barely breathe,” said Yuuto.
Pretty boy shrugged then walked to the man’s head and shoved a wet towel into his mouth to stop him from cursing and shouting.
Yuuto walked over to Niko who seemed to have calmed down slightly.
“Hey Niko, mind telling us who this man is and why he was being so violent?” asked Yuuto.
She took some time to gather herself further and then spoke, “He is my ex-boyfriend. He wanted me to quit working here and start working with him for his boss again. I told him I wanted nothing to do with him. I have to keep my siblings safe and make sure they have food. I can do that here but not with that lech.”
“Your ex huh,” said Yuuto as he looked at the wiggling man on the floor.
“You sure know how to pick men,” said Pretty boy.
That earned Pretty boy a kick in the shin from Niko.
Yuuto laughed and said, “You better be careful of Niko’s special move. The ‘Steel-toed shin kicker’.” This comment earned him a kick in the shin as well.
“This isn’t manga or anime so why are you giving me special moves? Anyways. shouldn’t you be taking care of him,” said Niko pointing at her ex.
“You’re right. Should we just call the police or let him go?” asked Yuuto.
“I’ll go call the Old man’s office and see what he wants to do,” said Pretty boy before running over to the phone on the wall behind the bar.
Several minutes later, he returned.
“The Old man knew who the guy was and called his boss. We have to take him to the entrance and wait for the people that are supposed to come and pick him up,” said Pretty boy.
After hearing these words, the angry man stopped squirming and trying to get free.
Both Yuuto and Pretty boy put an arm under Niko’s ex and dragged him into the elevator and pressed the button for the host club’s lobby.
The desk manager was startled when he saw Yuuto and Pretty boy dragging a tied up limp body out of the elevator. He timidly asked, “You didn’t kill him, did you?”
“No, why would we? For some reason he’s gone quiet and stopped moving,” said Yuuto.
They dragged the limp man to a chair and lifted him onto it, where he just slumped down into it.
Yuuto and Pretty boy stood on either side of him to make sure that he didn’t try anything stupid.
The wait for the people coming to pick him up wasn’t that long.
A black Mercedes Benz with dark tinted windows pulled up to the door and two muscular men with buzz cuts and black suits stepped out of the back of the car and walked into the building.
Just then the elevator dinged and the Old man walked out.
The two men in suits bowed respectfully to old man Kentaro.
The taller one looked up and said, “We’re sorry one of our men has caused you trouble. Our boss has told us to let you know he did not send him here to harass your workers. He asks if you would please forgive him for any problems caused.”
“Tell Your boss I do not blame him for a rogue worker causing problems. But I hope in the future he can have a better handle on his people,” said Kentaro sternly.
“Thank you for understanding. We will be sure to deliver your words to him. May we take him now?” asked the smaller of the two suited men.
Old man Kentaro nodded allowing both of them to walk over and cut off the zip ties. They roughly stood the limp man up onto his feet.
“Stop acting so weak you made your bed now you have to sleep in it,” said the taller suit as he shoved the man in front of them.
They quickly exited the building and left in their car.
The next day.
Yuuto’s cellphone woke him up as it started to ring loudly. He looked at the clock and saw it was way too early to be awake. He found his pants on the floor and rummaged through the pockets trying to find his cellphone.
Only his clients and a few friends knew this number so he didn’t think it was a telemarketer. When he found the still ringing cellphone he brought it close to his face so he could get a better look at the caller ID.
It was Niko.
Yuuto sat up more alert and answered the call.
“Niko, what is it you need?”
“He’s here!” said Niko frantically.
“Who? Where is here?” asked Yuuto.
“My ex is out on the escape ladder/platform that is next to the window in my room. He keeps banging on the window telling me to open up.”
“Okay. Pretty boy and I will see if we can corner him on the escape ladder. Get out of the room and see if you can stay in another person’s room.”
Yuuto walked over to Pretty boy and lightly slapped him a few times, waking him up.
“The guy from last night is causing problems. Let’s go take care of him,” said Yuuto.
“Why do you need me. You didn’t need to wake me up,” said Pretty boy as they walked outside and went to the emergency ladder on the women’s side of the building.
As they looked up they couldn’t see anyone there.
“Let’s go up and see if he left or just climbed to the roof,” said Yuuto.
They both climbed up the ladder and made sure to look for any broken windows but didn’t find any. So they continued climbing up in search of Niko’s ex.
When they reached the roof they did a quick search and could find no one there.
“Damn it, he must have gotten away,” said Pretty boy. “Waking me up to go on a wild goose chase. Not cool.”
Yuuto dialed Niko’s number and told her that her ex had escaped before they could catch him.
“He’s not here anymore but I don’t know when he might try coming back. Just make sure to lock your windows and report this to the old man and his wife,” said Yuuto before hanging up.
Both Yuuto and Pretty boy returned to their room and fell back to sleep.
When they woke up and got ready for the night’s work they noticed that buildings security had been beefed up. Nothing out of the ordinary happened the whole night and into the morning.
Just before Yuuto was going to go to sleep, he received a text.
It was from Niko, he hurriedly read it. It said she checked the room before bringing her brother and sister back from a friend’s room who had been watching over them as they slept while she was at work.
No one was in the room when she had looked but someone had broken into her room and stolen some of her undergarments. She had to take her siblings to school but was worried she might see her Ex along the way.
Yuuto sent a text to her and offered to help escort her siblings to school, to which she agreed to.
He went to the cafeteria and made a cup of strong coffee, then walked to the front lobby where he waited for Niko and her siblings.
After a few more sips from his coffee, Niko appeared herding both of her younger siblings.
Both her siblings were wearing their elementary school uniforms, their name tags pinned to their shirts, and randoseru backpacks. The little sister had twin pigtails sticking out of her hat.
Yuuto greeted Niko then turned to the younger siblings.
“Hello, my name is Yuuto. What’s yours?”
“I’m Tabito, I’m in the 5th grade,” said Tabito.
“I’m Eri, I am in the 6th grade,” said Eri.
“It’s nice to meet both of you. Well, shall we get going?” asked Yuuto looking at Niko who nodded her head.
Niko’s worries were not unfounded as they were halfway to the school, Mr. X showed up, trying to block the sidewalk. He seemed slightly surprised to see someone else walking with her.
“Why do you keep ignoring me?” he asked Niko, ignoring Yuuto.
“Hey take a hint, you need to lay off and leave Niko and her siblings alone,” said Yuuto sternly.
Yuuto shoved him aside allowing Niko and her siblings to walk by. The young siblings when walking by, both kicked Mr. X in the shin.
‘What are you teaching these guys Niko,’ thought Yuuto.
“I won’t give up,” shouted Mr. X as they walked away.
There were no other incidents on their trip to and from the school after being ambushed on the side of the road.
In the lobby of the host club, Yuuto stopped Niko.
“I think you should stay in a friend’s room to sleep today. If you don’t mind me and Pretty boy can get permission to do a stakeout in your room to catch whoever entered before,” said Yuuto.
“You’ll do that for me?” asked Niko.
“Yeah, since I don’t need to work tonight it’s no problem. Remember tomorrow is the picnic.”
“Okay. Just make sure you don’t do anything weird to my stuff in my room,” said Niko as she stared at Yuuto suspicious of what he might do.
“Come on, cut me some slack, I’m not going to do anything you don’t want me to be doing. If you wait here, I will go get Pretty boy,” said Yuuto who sped off to his room.
A few minutes later he was dragging a groggy Pretty boy behind him and met back up with her.
When they received permission from the old man, Niko led them to her room and unlocked the door.
The room was far larger than Yuuto and Pretty boy’s room. It had two small bedrooms, a living room, and kitchen. There was a nice smell inside, way better than his room that smelt like old laundry and air fresheners.
Before leaving her room she sternly gave them one last warning, “ Don’t do anything weird.”
“Guess I will take up the watch first,” said Yuuto.
Pretty boy grumbled something unintelligible and walked over to the couch, plopped down, and went to sleep.
Yuuto decided to inspect each of the rooms to see where anyone could get in. The first room he walked into looked to be Tabito’s room.
As he looked out the window he saw that there was no ladder or anything else connected to it. Yuuto made a mental note that this room wouldn’t have anyone breaking into it.
He exited the room and walked into the one opposite it and entered the room. Yuuto was able to guess that this room definitely belonged to Niko and her younger sister from all the stuffed animals and pink items.
He went to the window and checked outside. This was the room that had the ladder connected to the escape system.
‘This is most likely where the intruder will come in.’ thought Yuuto.
He decided to stay in this room and start the stakeout. He made sure to close the curtains and then sat down on the bed.
”Hmm… this is a comfortable bed,” Yuuto mumbled to himself.
The coffee he had drunk was now wearing off and he kept on trying to shake his head to clear it to stay awake. He decided to lay down and rest his head for a while.
As he drifted off to sleep he thought ‘It smells nice.’
He was woken up by the rattling of the window. Someone was trying to unlock it and get into the room. Yuuto immediately rolled off the bed and quietly crawled into the living room and shook Pretty boy awake.
“Someone’s breaking in,” said Yuuto urgently. He was now fully awake from the rush of adrenaline.
They both crawled back into the room showing off their secret agent moves and arrived at the bed hiding on the opposite side of the window.
Yuuto was able to move a pillow under the blankets to make it look as if someone was sleeping in the bed before they heard the window slide open.
They ducked down quickly trying to quiet their breathing and waited for the person to get closer so they could subdue them.
The intruders’ clumsy footsteps in the dark were easy to hear even though they were trying to be quiet as they slowly walked to the bed.
A few seconds later, the footsteps stopped on the opposite side of the bed.
Yuuto and Pretty boy looked at each other and were getting ready to jump when they heard the sound of cloth ripping.
“What? She’s not here?” asked a familiar voice.
Both Yuuto and Pretty boy didn’t know what had caused the sound a few seconds before but they decided now was the time to capture the intruder while he was preoccupied.
Yuuto waited for Pretty boy to get in position at the head of the bed to tackle the legs while Yuuto would tackle the upper body.
Pretty boy gave a thumbs up and they both sprang out from behind the bed at the same time.
As they collided with the surprised intruder, something metallic flew out of the intruder’s grip and clattered into the corner of the room.
The surprise was only momentary as the intruder shook off Yuuto and kicked at Pretty boy to try and get him off of his leg.
There was the sound of a switchblade being opened. The intruder swung his arm at Yuuto who was able to block the attack, or so he thought.
He felt a sharp pain as something grazed his hand causing a small wound to start bleeding.
“He’s got a knife,” Yuuto warned Pretty boy.
Pretty boy renewed his struggle with the man trying to trip him.
Yuuto kept dodging and trying to block the attacks from the knife, receiving minor cuts.
Yuuto was looking around for anything he could use to fight with, as he was dodging he stepped on a pillow that had fallen on the floor.
‘Better than nothing’ he thought as he picked the pillow up off the floor and swung it at the man’s face.
It was a success as the sudden attack had startled him and allowed Pretty boy to trip the intruder and force him to the ground.
Yuuto quickly went for the man’s hand and stepped on it until he dropped the knife.
They had brought some large zip ties from the night before and Pretty boy was quick to use them on the intruder’s legs. After a minute or two of struggling, they both were able to subdue the man’s arms and zip tie them as well.
Pretty boy walked over to the lights and turned them on, blinding everyone in the room for a few moments.
When they looked to see who the intruder was, they could see it was indeed Niko’s ex and the metallic item that he had been holding when they had first tackled him was a large kitchen knife, and the other knife was a small pocket switchblade.
Yuuto looked over at the bed and saw the blanket and pillow had a large slash cutting them open.
‘That was a dangerously stupid move, tackling him while he had a knife,’ thought Yuuto.
He checked his pockets to see if there were any other weapons. What he pulled out wasn’t weapons but some underwear and bras belonging to a female.
“So you’re also the mysterious pantie thief,” said Yuuto.
“The Old man and security are on their way. They called the police,” said Pretty boy, as he finished a call on his cellphone.
Two minutes later, the security people dragged the man out of the room and went to the lobby where they waited for the police to hand him over.
Dr. Doi had come to apply some bandages to Yuuto’s cuts while still inside of Niko’s room.
Niko walked over to them and asked worriedly. “Are you guys okay? Were you hurt?”
“We’re fine just a few small cuts. If I hadn’t woken up, I might have been stabbed or sliced instead of just your blanket and pillow,” said Yuuto.
“What! You slept in my bed!” she asked angrily.
“Yeah, it kinda happened where I just dozed off while waiting… ahaha, but don’t worry your bed didn’t smell bad. In fact, it smelled pretty good,” said Yuuto
“Yo.. you smelled my bed and pillow!! YOU IDIOT!” Niko repeatedly kicked Yuuto’s shin.
“Ow! What are you kicking me for now?” asked Yuuto in a pained voice.
“I told you not to do anything weird and you went and did something as perverted as sleeping in my bed and smelling it. Get out!” she kicked them out of her room and slammed the door in Yuuto’s face.
“Um… Niko, don’t forget tomorrow is the picnic,” said Yuuto.
“Shut up,” shouted Niko through the door.
“Should I take that as a yes?” asked Yuuto.
The door opened and a shoe was thrown at his head. And then the door slammed shut again.
“Guess that’s a maybe,” said Yuuto.
***
The next day. Niko did join Yuuto and the other three guys as they walked to the park. When Kana and Misa showed up they all happily greeted each other.
“This is my friend who I told you about last time. I’ll let her introduce herself,” said Yuuto.
“Hello, my name is Niko Ogiwara. My hobby is beating up Yuuto,” said Niko.
Misa and Kana both burst out laughing.
“Yuuto, what did you do to her?” asked Kana.
“Nothing I swear, she’s just always getting angry and kicking me,” said Yuuto defensively.
“Hmph,” said Niko, disagreeing with him.
“It seems like we’ll be able to get along really well with Niko,” said Misa.
“Yes I think so as well,” agreed Kana.
The three girls spent the rest of the time at the picnic secretly talking between themselves and laughing while every once and a while looking back over to where Yuuto and the other guys were sitting playing cards.
“I think we are being made fun of,” said Yuuto.
“Not us. It’s most likely just you,” said Pretty boy.
