What Is He Trying To Do?

"There a-a-are CCTVs….. you kn-"

I was listening to the tape I recorded that day. The device I was carrying inside my pocket was a voice recorder I bought a few days ago. That fight between me and those guys was kind of a test run for this device. The voice recorder gave me a much more impressive outcome than I expected it to give me.

There was also another reason for picking this fight.

The recording was kind of vague, but I expected it since the voice recorder was inside my pocket. It surprised me that the voice recorder managed to record the sound from the inside of the pocket. Well… I positioned the recorder close to the pocket's opening, so I guess that's why it recorded it.

It didn't matter too much since I don't think I'd use this that often. It might be useful for this 'mission', I guess.

…No, it'll be useful.

I made a quick note in my mind that the dude who fought me, Okabe Tadao, is a short-tempered dude, and that other dude, Arata Tetsuo looked like a calm guy but, he had this murderous glare at me the whole time when I was 'clashing' with Okabe.

I opened the drawer of my study table and put the voice recorder inside it. It was getting kind of late, so I went back to studying again.

***

"Thanks for the information. I appreciate it." I said.

"Appreciate? You literally blackmailed me for this." Yamazuki replied.

"Blackmail? You should take that as a trade." I replied.

She was and wasn't wrong about the blackmail part at the same time. I accidentally found out one of her 'embarrassing' secrets. Which I kind of used against her.

I didn't want to 'Blackmail' her, but she wasn't agreeing to do the thing I wanted her to do.

To be honest, it was totally her fault that her 'secret' was found out. I found a small diary from the uniform she left at my house. It was kind of old and a little wet. I dried it and found out that it was a diary from her childhood and it had some small 'poems' written in it.

"Was it hard?" I felt like asking this question since she actually helped me, and I could feel that the process wasn't so pleasant.

"No… But I couldn't just keep acting, you know? It felt wrong." She replied.

Last night, I searched for Yamamoto's social media account, but couldn't find it. I tried every way possible, such as searching through my classmates' accounts and asking some people. I couldn't find those guys' accounts too, those two guys I had a conflict with.

I tried asking Yamado Shin for Yamamoto's account, but he also didn't have it.

You can't search through a private account so, I couldn't search through some people's accounts.

Since Yamazuki had a large friend circle, I thought she might be able to get his account from someone. But she also failed to do that. I almost started thinking that he didn't have any social media account. Which was actually pretty unusual for a teenager. Every teen nowadays has at least one social media account. Unless they have really strict parents, which is pretty rare nowadays.

The acting part…. Uh… It's pretty weird to talk about. I wanted her to somehow get his contact info from him. If he only shares his account with his relatives and friends, then she could get it if she acted a bit friendly with him. A girl acting friendly with a guy, who wouldn't grab such a wonderful opportunity?

In short, she kinda seduced him.

I actually assumed that Yamamoto was stupid from the beginning since my dad told me that this would be an easy task to complete. So yeah, he wasn't intelligent enough to understand that something was off about her behavior, which made it pretty easy for Yamazuki to do her job.

I was pretty surprised when she actually got his contact info. I guess that's the power of a woman.

"Why did you suddenly get interested in this guy?" She asked.

"Who knows?" I replied while returning to my seat.

I sat down in my seat. Since there was some time left until the next class, I started ruminating on the topic.

Alright, now that I got his information, I can think of a plan now. Or is it too early for that?

To be honest, it wasn't too early. I'd rather say it was too late. The exam was going to start next week, which was pretty terrifying actually, I didn't study enough for the test. Knowing about the SCA makes it even scarier.

I still wasn't sure if the 'him' that guy mentioned was Yamamoto or not. The chances of him being that guy were less than forty percent. Yamazuki informed me she saw Yamamoto hanging out with those guys. This actually did not enhance the probability, since Yamazuki told me he didn't look like a bad guy at all.

That again, I think I'm depending on Yamazuki's information too much. You can judge no one just by their appearance. You don't know what's going on in their mind.

The Japanese believe everyone has three faces. The first face you show to the world, the second one, you show to your close friends and your family, and the third, you show no one. It is the truest reflection of who you are.

Ishizaki might look like a bundle of sunshine from the outside. But who knows? That might just be a facade, he might be empty inside.

I think assuming that he was a stupid dude was the wrong decision to make. If he was stupid, then he would've bullied Yamado right in that spot, instead of helping him. That dude helped Yamado Shin to make a good impression on him. If I am correct, then he was planning to use Yamado Shin. A person who helps a weak guy like Yamado would hold a good impression on others.

Or did he plan something else?

If that was the case then it'd highly increase the chances of Him being that 'he' person.

On the other hand, if he was a smart dude, then why did he share his information with someone whom he knew for 1 day? I think the contact info he gave me was invalid. Even if it was valid, he'd have a seed of suspicion planted in him. If I try to call him right away, it can cause Yamazuki trouble. No… It will cause her trouble and I didn't want that.

Should I try backstabbing him? No, it'd be an unending process to earn his trust, and the whole thing might get ruined just by a single mistake.

While thinking about this stuff, I stood up from my seat and went towards Yamazuki.

"Yamazuki," I called her.

"What is it?" She asked, with a hint of irritation on her face. It was obvious that she kinda disliked me but, I didn't have any choice other than to ask for her help.

"Can you drop by my house this evening?" I asked.