Natsumi’s self-invitation didn’t affect the tour itself since it was just an additional headcount for the group. Besides, Natsumi stuck to Haji like glue, which implied that she wouldn’t be separating from the group anyti soon. This gesture made gumi bite her fingernails, though, but she didn’t show her slight annoyance outwardly, probably because she had a reputation to keep up— a pretense to show to the son of their business partner, Mizunari Keiichi.
Fortunately, Keiichi was as dense as he was rich, and he didn’t notice the rivalry between the two girls. In essence, though, he was the perfect gentleman himself, offering to carry gumi’s bag, striking up a conversation from ti to ti so no one in the group would get bored, and sharing a couple of life experiences with them as well, making the trip to the aquarium more interesting. As much as Haji wanted to deny Keiichi, he could tell that Keiichi was a pretty good guy all throughout. His animosity towards Haji kept showing though and Haji was beginning to wonder if he did sothing that would force him to harbor such grudges.
Even with his dense deanor, Keiichi could tell that Haji and gumi were close, and that brought about a feeling of rivalry from yours truly to Haji. Despite the fact that Haji stood no chance against his standing, he still felt mildly threatened by Haji’s presence. he couldn’t quite put his finger around it, but nevertheless, it threatened him.
"And here we have the clownfish, scientific na Amphiprioninae. Clownfishes form symbiotic mutualisms with sea anemones. They are usually found in warm waters of the Red Sea and the Pacific Ocean— " One of the guides started going on and on about the clownfish, and sohow his voice died down as everyone went about admiring the clownfish.
"So it’s called a clownfish..." Haji muttered to himself. "I thought its na was Nemo though."
"What are you talking about? Of course, it’s a clownfish." Natsumi chuckled to herself.
Ching~! Haji’s eyes shot wide open as he turned around, wondering why he felt a prick on the neck out of nowhere. ’Are the debt collectors here? I only feel like that when they’re nearby.’ Haji said to himself, his face wearing a serious expression as he swiveled his head in all directions.
There were no signs of the debt collectors whatsoever, but Haji still felt a bit uneasy. ’Are we being followed? But by who?’ He asked.
"Haji, is sothing wrong?" Shizuka whispered, noticing the sudden change in Haji’s aura.
"N-nothing, it must be nothing..." Haji muttered.
Still, that didn’t remove the uneasy feeling he felt. Because of that, Haji put his guard up, observing his surrounding with a cautious gaze— not missing anything that was sowhat suspicious.
"Are you all right?" Shizuka continued with another question.
Haji forced a smile on his face. Sothing about his odd feeling bothered him but he didn’t tell anyone about it. If worse cos to worst, he’d just have to deal with the situation when it calls for it.
The tour of the aquarium passed by in a blink of an eye, leaving Keiichi less ti to spend with gumi on their group date. While he was disappointed that he couldn’t speak to gumi too much since she seed distracted, he knew that he still got plenty of chances to get to know her. Lunchti was coming soon, after all, and they’d get to spend more ti in a different atmosphere.
Going to the aquarium was actually a pretty good idea for the group so everyone enjoyed it. Moreover, Keiichi paid for everyone’s entrance fees except for Haji. He still hasn’t gotten over the fact that Haji tagged along with gumi’s group just because Keiichi separated from their original group. That’s why he was still stubborn enough to not pay for anything Haji’s.
"That was a nice aquarium. Now I’m hungry~" Kaori announced just when the six of them burst out of the aquarium. (And yes, Natsumi was still with them.) "Where are we eating next?"
"Hmhmm~" Keiichi humd, stealing glances at everyone in the group before he raised his hand up, pointing his index finger towards the sky. "Leave it to !"
The group walked deeper into the city with Keiichi in the lead. Despite the setbacks he had involving Haji, he still got back in good spirits as his plan smoothly folded out. He had the entire day scheduled out and he wouldn’t let anyone get in the way of it, not even Haji who joined the group to keep an eye on him. Then again, he would sotis catch gumi initiating a conversation with Haji even though she never did that with him. The gesture made him jealous, but he brushed it off, thinking that gumi was probably just acting familiar out of pity.
Fortunately, he doesn’t know how close Haji and gumi really were as friends. Otherwise, he’d have pulled his hair out right then and there.
anwhile, three n dressed in casual pants and t-shirts erged from the exit of the aquarium, smiling to themselves as they continued to tail the group. They stayed at a manageable distance from the group since a particular individual there seed to have a good sense when it cos to being followed. They were actually almost caught a couple of tis, that’s why they didn’t risk tailing the group right by their tail.
"Almost there, fellas. The boss will really like this one." One of the three n licked his lips in satisfaction. "But first, let’s treat ourselves to sothing nice after getting their money?"
"Yeah, I can’t wait." The second man, the lankiest man of the group, clenched his fists in excitent, imagining the kidnapping as if it was the most successful kidnapping in history.
"We’d better be careful, all right? Once we got our fill, we should bring him straight to the boss so he could negotiate for a ransom. That way we’d be able to squeeze all the money this kid has."
"You an, his parents’ money? ha-ha!" The third man continued, laughing under his breath.
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