During classes that day I was making a list of potential people I could put my full trust in. The first person that came to mind was Soichiro. I’ve known him since elementary school and we’ve been friends ever since. He shares his secrets with me, the same way I share mine with him.

‘Let’s put his trust to the test,’ I thought to myself.

While the teacher was giving his lecture, I reached in front of me, to the seat Soichiro sits in. He turned around and saw me with a piece of paper I was handing over. It said: ‘I need a cover, distract the teacher.’ He stood up and yelled out,

“Toilet break, sir!” and saluted.

Right after, he ran from his seat towards the door, taking the longest path towards it.

“No running in the classroom!” the teacher yelled.

He continued his run towards the door and then ran through the hallway as well.

“No running in the hallways either!”

I was in no doubt that he was very trustworthy, but to think he would go this far without even knowing what for… what a soldier, I thought to myself as I saluted him.

After that I continued thinking about my list. It suddenly came to mind how strongly I trust the entire student council. None of them have ever told the teachers that I skip nearly every meeting, also that I half-ass my class rep tasks. On top of that they also haven’t told anyone about the art supply incident that was entirely my fault, they even took the blame. If I’m ever in need of someone to trust, the student council room is the first place I go to.

I think that I shouldn’t be getting too many people involved–for both their own sake and mine, but yet my gut feeling once again tells me that I should.

***

In the evening, the moment I arrived at my front door, I noticed I didn’t have my house keys in my left pocket. I quickly checked my other pockets by tapping a couple times on each one of them. They’re probably somewhere in my bag, I thought. I rang the doorbell, I didn’t want to empty the entire thing in front of my house.

“Oh, Tamaki. Lost your keys?” father said, after opening the door.

“I think they ended up somewhere in my bag, I’ll go check now,” I said on the way to my room.

“Alright. Come back downstairs once you’re done, dinner is almost ready.”

When I finally found my keys, it was time for dinner.

Once we were done eating, father, mother and I were watching television. We usually do this after dinner to catch the news. We were a little on the early side today, a rather boring show was on. Luckily the episode seemed to be nearing its end.

“Tamaki, can you quickly make some tea please?” my father asked, “The last time your mother tried to…” he murmured.

“Hey, dear. You know that my hearing is just fine, right?” her eyes lit up with that gleam of killer intent.

“I’m sorry!” he said, “Sit back and relax Tamaki, I’ll go make some tea,” he proudly said with his fist heroically in front of his puffed chest.

“Halt!” mother yelled as he pulled him back by his shoulder, “You sit down and relax, dear. I’m on it.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at their silly display.

“What are you chuckling about Tamaki? You think I can’t properly make tea?” both of them said, quite in sync.

“That’s not it,” I said, as I kept laughing, “Both of you can relax, I’ll go make some tea.”

In the end, all three of us went to the kitchen to make tea. The news began the moment the tea was ready, talk about perfect timing. The three of us sat down on the sofa again. I carefully brought the tea cup closer to my mouth, softly blew on it to make it cool off and then took a sip.

“Hmm, it’s pretty good.”

“You’re right, we make a nice team, no? father said.

“Heh, we do,” mother proudly added.

“Good evening. It is seven o’clock, this is the evening news, presented by Masakuni Igarashi.”

I blew on my tea again to take a bigger sip.

“A theft of scientific research has been reported by RIKKEN–” I spat out my tea.

“What’s wrong, Tamaki?”

“I’m sorry, I’ll go clean up right away.”

I ran towards the kitchen and instantly took my phone out of my pocket. I wanted to call the prez, but soon remembered I don’t have her contact info. As if she somehow sensed my desperate state, I got a call from an unknown number.

“Hello, is this Gou Tamaki-kun?” it was the prez speaking.

“Yes, good evening. I was just about to call you.”

“So you’ve seen the news as well. They said that the suspect hasn’t yet been identified. I’m afraid it won’t take long before our science companion is locked up behind iron bars,” she said, ending with a long sigh.

“Uh-huh. Do you think I’ll be in trouble, too?”

“Don’t worry. If he entrusted you with ‘it’ then he’ll only fool himself by shifting the blame,” she reassuringly said.

“You’re right, I’ll stop worrying for now. See you tomorrow.”

After ending the phone call, I cleaned the mess I made and sat down on the sofa again. Following the rather mundane news items, an update on a previous item got announced,

“An abrupt update on the RIKKEN situation has been reported. Before the main suspect was made public, he already paid a visit to his nearest police station to turn himself in. No further information on said suspect has been, or will be revealed.”

If I had any tea left in my cup, it surely would’ve been spat all over the place again. I quickly headed to the bathroom to make another phone call to the prez, but once again she was a step ahead.

“Gou Tamaki-kun, have you seen the latest news update?”

“I did, but I’m at a loss for words. Why in the world would he turn himself in?”

“I could think of a reason or two, but there’s no point in making up hypothetical motivations. Instead of that, isn’t there something that you wanted to tell me about?”

“You never fail to surprise me, prez.”

***

The next morning I left the house early again. The moment I walked through the schoolgate I heard an oh-so familiar voice,

“Chief! Good morning!” it was Soichiro of course.

“Good morning, I’m not joining,” I replied.

“Aah- So cold so early in the morning,” he pretended to be extremely cold by rubbing his own upper arms.

“Although there is something I would like to ask of you.”

“Oh~ is it something dirty again, chief?” he asked with a smug smile on his face.

“What do you mean ‘again’? Anyway, follow me to the student council room.”

Like a family dog, he behaved the moment I appeared serious. Together we walked to the student council room, where upon arrival, the president, vice-president, class 2-A representative and the class 1-C representative were waiting.

“Thank you for coming this early. I’ll try to keep it short,” I said.

“You better do! Since when do you even care about student council business?” the fired up girl speaking was Moeru, the class 1-C rep.

She doesn’t look it one bit, but she’s quite clever. When the current prez graduates she’s—even as a first year—the most likely to become the next president. Sadly, even with her diligent work ethic, brilliance, athleticism and looks, all of it is ruined because she’s got a nasty attitude. Which is displayed right here. I guess she’s right though. I haven’t exactly done anything that would benefit her, whilst she has covered for me more times than I can count.

“I’m sorry, but there’s something important I want to share with everyone here. The people I trust the most,” I said, as I took a seat on one of the chairs on a desk in the U formation.

“I’ll take it from here, Gou Tamaki-kun,” the prez said, “I’m sure you’ve all been informed about the bizarre incident that took place in the RIKKEN lab. To make a long story short; the last reported egg on this planet was stored there and had been stolen. The person who stole it was a scientist, employed at RIKKEN and reportedly turned himself in yesterday evening.”

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“Excuse me, Tamaki, Kaori, what exactly is the point of this?” Soichiro casually asked.

I almost fell out of my chair after he addressed the president so casually. I couldn’t imagine it being anyone other than him to be fair, he really seems to have a death wish when it comes to things like this.

“I’ll get to the point now,” she said, “The egg that the scientist stole is now in the hands of Gou Tamaki-kun.”

Every person in the room turned their heads towards me, with looks of surprise that go beyond my imagination.

“Tamaki… Are you a criminal?” Moeru asked.

“Well, not exactly. I only happened to find the egg by sheer luck. However, the scientist tracked me down and gave me the instructions to bring the egg all the way to his former lab in Hokkaido.”

I further explained that RIKKEN were planning on selling the research to a lab that can’t be trusted.

“I want to believe you, but only because the president is backing you. You have to show me the egg before I’ll fully trust your words,” Moeru said.

“At the president’s request, I didn’t bring it here today,” I clarified.

“I’m sorry,” the vice president said, as she got up from her chair, “I want to be transparent from the start, I don’t want to be a part of this secret mission you’re on. Therefore, I’ll take my leave now. There’s no need to worry about anything you said, even though I don’t want anything to do with this, I’ll still keep your information secret,” she got up and left the room.

“Well, I’m thrilled, guys!” class 2-A rep, Gouda said, “I can’t wait to beat every single bad guy who tries to lay a hand on our egg!” he started shadowboxing his imaginative foes.

“Woah! Me neither!” Soichiro said as he joined in and started kicking his invisible foes.

“What about you, Moeru? Are you still in?” I asked.

“Hmph. If the president is, then I’m too, I guess.”

The first school bell rang shortly after. I thanked the prez and the others before leaving. I took the long way to the classroom because I wanted to quickly stop at the bathrooms. Before taking a turn towards the hallway with the bathrooms, I got pulled back by my shoulder.

“Tamaki-kun… you’re in big-big trouble!” the vice-prez said.

“Err? What’s wrong?” I asked.

She turned her phone around. On her screen was a news article; ‘RIKKEN thief found innocent, new suspect publicised.’

A million different thoughts started racing through my mind. What on earth is he doing? I thought to myself.

“This is not all, Tamaki-kun…” she said as she scrolled down a bit further.

Right under the first paragraph was a video. She clicked on the play button. The video seems like it’s footage from a security camera at RIKKEN. What came next nearly made me faint. A boy ran across the screen, wearing our high school’s uniform. The slow replay was a little more zoomed in, the person running through the lab looks a horrifyingly lot like me.

“This isn’t you is it?” she asked.

I looked her dead in the eye without a single word being capable of escaping my mouth.

“Tamaki-kun…”

“I’m sorry, I’ve got to go,” I hastily made my way out of the main building. Only moments passed since the first bell rang, so most people definitely didn’t see the news yet. It’s better to tread naturally through the main gate.

“Tamaki-kun!” that voice, it was the vice-prez again, completely out of breath, “The teachers have already seen you, but I’ll cover for you today. Promise to tell me in detail what’s going on later!”

I guess I’ll have to find a way to prove that I’m not guilty, “Alright. I owe you one,” I turned around to leave the school.

“Wait! Takami-kun… Your phone number…”

“Hm?”

“Give me your phone number and tell me all about this situation. I’ll call you during lunch break.”

***

To keep a long story short; I was playing hide and seek with every single person in a one kilometre radius throughout the entire day, until school was over and Soichiro suggested I’d stay at his house for as long as the fake news is circulating. On our way to his house, I called my parents to tell them not to worry and that I’ll explain everything once things have settled down.

“Here it is,” he said when we stood in front of a large villa.

My jaw dropped further the longer I looked at it,

“You live… here?”

“Yup. Let’s enter from the back so that my father doesn’t see you.”

We walked through the flower garden surrounding the enormous building. I’ve known this guy for over a decade, but never in a million years would I have thought that he was this wealthy.

When we neared the corner leading to the back of the villa, we were greeted by a gardener,

“Oh, Yamamoto-sama. How are you doing today?” he joyfully asked.

“Fine, fine, but just call me Soichiro if father isn’t near.”

“When who exactly isn’t near?” a tall and rather big man standing behind him asked.

“Father?!” Soichiro started panicking. Luckily for him, I saw his father coming and hid behind the bush that the gardener was working on.

“I have no time for chit-chat, I’ll see you at the dinner table. Iori, splendid work,” with that said, he left.

Three simultaneous sighs of relief were let out.

“That was close,” Soichiro said, “You’re always quick to think, chief. I’ve got a lot to learn from you.”

“You? You’ve got a lot to learn from about anyone,” I half jokingly said, “Well anyway, shouldn’t we be getting out of sight?”

“Right, follow me. Iori-san, thanks for the work as always.”

Iori the gardener bowed slightly forward to show his gratitude for the praise.

Once we were inside the building from the back, the two of us took the stairs to what I thought was the basement.

“So, I’ll be hiding in the basement?”

Soichiro started laughing, “No, of course not, chief. You’re staying in my room.”

At the end of the stairs was a hall with three doors. The one he opened lead to a large bedroom. This room is what a child would draw in class as their dream room. A large bed a king could only dream of. An enormous television screen with in front of it the most expensive looking sofa I’ve ever seen. In the left corner at the door’s side of the room is his own martial arts corner. He opened a door inside his bedroom, behind it was his own bathroom. A separate bath and shower, also a sink of course and a toilet.

“This is where I leave my dumps.”

“Yes… Thank you for sharing that.”

We left his bathroom,

“So, what do you think of my room?”

“I have to give it to you, you’re exceptionally humble for someone this set in life. About your room… How come there’s no desk?”

“Err, I’m not exactly… you know, studious. Anyways, shouldn’t we be planning the Hokkaido-thingy?”

He’s right. The longer I wait, the higher the chances of me getting caught will get.

“Alright, let’s get started. First, we have to figure out how long it would take to get from here to Hokkaido. Then we have to make a list of things we’ll need during our journey.”

“Sounds like a plan!”

For the next hour we were looking up multiple routes we could take to Hokkaido, using different methods of transportation. We were slowly losing our steam, that’s only natural after such a long research session. When our train of focus was about to derail, someone knocked on the door. I quickly hid before Soichiro yelled that it was open.

“Dinner is ready, Young Sir Yamamoto,” a servant said.

“I’ll make sure to sneak something downstairs,” he said, right after the servant closed the door.

About five minutes passed before Soichiro was back.

“You sure eat fast.”

“Well…”

He very vividly told me what had happened in the short moment he was away.

The moment he sat down at the dinner table he noticed an extra plate on the dinning table.

“Are we expecting a guest?” he asked his father.

“We do. Although I have yet to be introduced to them.”

“Hmm, that’s odd. Is it one of mother’s friends perhaps?”

His dad twirled his glass of wine around, “Why don’t you ask her?”

She walked in the dining room.

“Mother, did you invite someone for dinner today?”

“I didn’t, no.”

“Maybe sister did…” Soichiro said.

“No, I’m quite sure you were the one who invited a guest, Soichiro,” his father stated.

“Heh, he knows that I’m here then,” I said with a grin after hearing that little story.

“Yup. Let’s go upstairs, I’ll introduce you.”

Once at the dinner table I got a little nervous.

“Everyone, this is my great friend Tamaki.”

“Oh~ so that’s the Tamaki you’re always talking about,” his mother said.

His father didn’t say a word, his cold gaze made me shiver.

“Let’s eat, shall we~” his mother said to kill the silence.

“Yes, it smells delicious! Oh, by the way, where is sis?”

“Here. I beg your pardon for taking my time.”

Hearing that voice made my jaw drop to Soichiro’s room’s floor. Time heavily slowed down when I turned my head around to see if my ears were deceiving me. Although it couldn’t possibly have been anyone else, I was still far beyond taken aback when I saw her,

“Prez!?”

With little to no change on her expression she replied,

“Good evening, Gou Tamaki-kun.”

“Ah, err, good evening…” I shouldn’t be yelling in other people’s house. For now I’ll try to keep my cool, but as soon as it’s just me and Soichiro in his room he’s going to get an earful.

Right after dinner, the prez said, “Gou Tamaki-kun, please follow me.”

I looked puzzled at Soichiro, he was equally stunned.

She brought me upstairs through a hallway filled with intriguing paintings.

“These must be worth a fortune,” I noted.

“Not particularly,” she said, “I painted these myself.” I should’ve expected that, she really never fails to surprise.

We finally arrived at her room. She put both of her hands on the double door’s handles and gently pushed them open. Out of all the recent surprises, her room surprised me the most. It was so… girly.