Akira slept through the morning after breakfast. She intended to wait for Hu lei to return while resting in the guest bedroom, but she accidentally dozed off. She did not know why she was so exhausted even though she had been feeling energetic earlier.
When she woke up, it was a little past two o'clock in the afternoon. Once she saw the clock on the wall, she groaned and buried her face in the soft pillow. She was embarrassed by her behaviour and wondered how the hosts would think of her.
She stood from the bed with stiff limps and walked to the bathroom. After splashing so cold water on her face to wash away the grogginess, she went downstairs. She found Hu Lei stretched on a couch, typing on a computer with concentration.
"Hey, I am sorry I fell asleep after breakfast," Akira said.
"It's alright. Grab so lunch from the kitchen. We can talk after you have eaten." Hu Lei waved a hand casually.
She continued typing on the computer while Akira went to the general direction of the kitchen based on her mory. As she ate, she felt a little confused by the carefree attitude displayed by the other woman. It was a little strange that she did not seem to care about her intrusion.
After eating the simple al prepared by the friendly chef, Akira found Hu Lei where she had left her. However, she had put aside her laptop and was now tapping on her phone. Akira sat on another chair and waited for her to finish.
"Who do you think I am?" Hu Lei asked with so teasing as she put aside her phone.
Akira did not know why she felt a little embarrassed. She had already co to a conclusion about Hu Lei's identity. However, it felt like if she admitted, she would seem like a bit of a stalker. It was weird for her to know a lot about a stranger.
Still, she had her pride. She would never lie to protect her image.
"I think you are Hu Lei. Kaito told about you." Akira responded.
"Oh, he talks about ?" Hu Lei giggled with girlish pleasure.
Akira felt irritation at the cute and sweet face before her. She did not even realise that her face showed her annoyance at Hu Lei's words. She only snapped of the strange jealousy when Hu Lei started laughing loudly with amusent until tears flowed out of the corners of her eyes.
"You should see your face." Hu Lei said. "You must really like Kaito."
Akira felt even more embarrassed, but she still admitted. "Yeah. He is nice."
Hu Lei laughed again. "I never thought I would live to see a day when Kaito is described as nice. I think the sky is falling down."
"He is nice to ." Akira's eyes beca a little misty, and tears threatened to fall.
Hu Lei felt a little scared of the young lady crying again. The scene in the morning was still quite fresh in her mind. This Akira cried as if she would lt into a puddle of water. And Hu Lei did not know how to handle it.
She had only cried that much once after the rescue from Antarctica. She did not know why, but tears scared her. Maybe, it was because she did not ever have the luxury of crying at any point in her childhood.
"What was Kaito doing before he disappeared?" Hu Lei asked quickly.
"He was investigating his uncle from the Takahashi family," Akira said, suppressing her emotions. "We found out that his uncle was shipping a strange drug to an unknown place. He was trying to track the flow of the drug from a certain private port."
"A long while after looking for information, he managed to find soone willing to tell him more about the shipnts from that port. He called before he t up with whoever was giving him the information. And then, he just disappeared."
Akira felt her eyes sting again, but she took a deep breath. She could not break into tears. She needed to be strong and face life as it was. The thing is, she felt so relieved while talking about Kaito to soone else who knew and cared about him.
Even though Raiden and the Chief helped her, they did it because of her. They did not care about him, and they probably thought he was a bad guy who was better off gone. But she knew that Hu Lei was not being perfunctory in her attitude.
She wanted to find Kaito.
"What did you find out after he disappeared?" Akira asked.
"Nothing much. Soone went to a lot of trouble to make the traces disappear." She responded.
Hu Lei nodded. She did not want to keep asking about Kaito because she knew that Akira would not have information about him. If they wanted to find him, they would have to depend on fresh information.
In any case, they already knew more than Akira. Her interest was in sothing else.
"What do you have on the International Health Alliance?" Hu Lei asked suddenly.
Akira did not expect the question, so she could not conceal her natural reaction. Hu Lei noticed the lifted brow, the open mouth and the fingers tightening. The young lady had sothing useful against the IHA, but it seed that she never intended to talk about it.
Hu Lei smiled.
"Did Kaito tell you how he ca to et you?" She asked.
The tension in Akira increased. She was starting to see the reason no one was filled with praise for the seemingly nice Hu Lei and why her acquaintances and friends seed to fear her. This simple conversation felt like a strange roller coaster.
She even started to question if Hu Lei disliked her. This thought put her on her guard. She could not give in to intimidation or manipulation. Fortunately, she had grasped so information from her conversations with Ayumi and Layer Oda.
"You asked Kaito to investigate ." She responded simply, not betraying her inner turmoil.
Hu Lei stretched a little and got more comfortable on the couch. She looked at Akira with penetrating eyes, as if she could see through everything.
"Do you know how I found out about you?" She asked a little eerily.
Akira cleared her throat. "You probably heard about from Helen or Harriet Brown."
The response led to a long mont of silence, causing Akira to shift uncomfortably in her seat.
"You are right. Harriet blurted out that you were her daughter after I dislocated most of the major joints in her body and slowly cut through her tendons with a letter opener." Hu Lei said with that sa strange smile.
"Are you trying to scare ?" Akira asked with so anger.
Hu Lei waved her small hand airily. "Goodness, no. I am just making it clear about the kind of person I am. I do not require people around to be good. But if soone crosses my bottom line, I am very petty and vengeful."
"Then, why are you telling this?" Akira asked with so chill in her body.
"Because I plan to protect you until I find that senior brother of mine. I would like for us to get along during this period, alright?" The smile on those lips was borderline angelic.
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