A Book Can't Be Judged By The Cover

Chapter 114: Meeting With The Boss

Somewhere in the outskirts of Tokyo.

In a quiet neighborhood right by the edge of the city, a normal-looking house stood, overshadowed by the same normal houses that surrounded it. However, this house served a low-profile purpose, and no one was aware of it.

From time to time, a car would roll in front of the house, carrying three passengers. One lady and two men. A burly man with tanned skin would then open the front door for the three of them, and they will have a nice long chat, catching up with each other. When nighttime rolls down, the three passengers would then exit the house, and say goodbye to the tanned burly man who would see them off before they go.

Other times, a group of three men would roll by in front of that house in question, and the same routine would be repeated. The house in and of itself wasn’t suspicious, and the neighbors would have never expected the house owner to be one. There’s nothing wrong with having visitors once or twice a day. Besides, it’s not like the man and his friends were disrupting the neighborhood.

That day, a nice glow from the sunset illuminated the neighborhood as a familiar car rolled in, parking in front of the house. As usual, they were welcomed by the tanned burly man who owned the house.

"Sir, we have good news," One of the three passengers, the lady, spoke out, acting so giddy with the burly man as they headed inside the house. The other two knew better and they kept their distance from their boss while they headed inside.

"So, did you do what I asked you to do?" There was a hint of Spanish in the burly man’s accent when he spoke. Upon asking the question, he then eased himself on the chair where he usually sat, clasping his hands together after gesturing for his three visitors to sit down as well.

There was a change in the atmosphere. The once welcoming presence of the burly man suddenly shifted to silent rage. His aura became heavy, and the two men who sat on the opposite side of him almost choked in their nervousness. "Yes, sir. We did what you asked for."

"The three brothers." The man began. "They were caught. Hajime brought them to the police."

A series of gasps erupted in the room. The three brothers were long-time members of the gang, and they were basically untouchable due to their affiliation with the said gang that belonged to none other than the burly man himself. And yet, one simple slip and the police caught them.

"I told them never to mess with a Sasajima, and they go messing around with a Sasajima." The man said, pounding his fists on the table. "Their men are out of control, and now with them gone, they’ll be even more out of control!"

This was the first time the three of them saw their boss in a state of pure rage. And at this point, they didn’t dare interrupt him. All they could do was sit quietly in their seats while their boss started speaking in his native tongue. They couldn’t understand a single word he said, but they listened anyways since he was bound to speak Japanese soon enough.

"Shelly.... do you have any idea what happened?" Tamotsu, the muscular man in the group, asked the only woman in their three-person team.

"I... I don’t know... the three brothers, they’re money lenders like us, right? Stationed here in Tokyo? I never heard anything about them being interested in our target."

"Apparently it happened today. I just heard from some of their men that they were caught. Apparently, they tried to kidnap someone for ransom... and Hajime just so happened to be there." Jiro muttered, speaking under his breath so their boss wouldn’t hear them.

"I knew it... no wonder the boss is so angry." Shelly called out.

And she was right. For some odd reason, their boss was very sensitive when it comes to Hajime, even going as far as to assign the three of them to continually harass him. Although they have no idea why they had to do such a thing, they didn’t want to disobey their boss.

"Whenever Hajime is involved, he’s always reacting like that. Honestly, what did the kid do to him?" Jiro whispered.

"If the incident about the three brothers happened without Hajime getting involved, he wouldn’t react so strongly about it," Tamotsu stated.

"I could see that happening. I don’t like where this is going, though. I think the boss is about to assign us something even more ridiculous..." Shelly’s voice trailed off. At the same time, their boss started speaking in Japanese.

"The deed." He muttered. "I want you three to get the deed to his house! I don’t care what you do, just get me the deed. Or something bad will happen to you." The man continued.

Left with not much of a choice, the three of them nodded. They were then dismissed soon after, and they had to get out of the house before their boss loses his temper even further. Without further ado, they headed out of the house as soon as they were dismissed.

Once they reach their car, Tamotsu immediately started the engine before Shelly and Jiro could even get in the car. After saying their farewell to their boss, they drove out of the neighborhood.

"The deed huh... so we’re finally moving on from simply harassing him, to straight up stealing the house from him," Tamotsu muttered.

"Yeah, I feel bad for the kid though," Jiro muttered.

"As if, you were the one who beat him up real bad when we tied him up in the park," Shelly stated the obvious.

"Geh~ of course, I had to act the part, otherwise it wouldn’t seem believable." Jiro defended himself.

"You took all his money." Tamotsu pointed out.

"That... I cannot argue with that. In any case, how much does the kid actually owe the boss?" Jiro asked. "I mean, we’ve been harassing him as debt collectors, right? How much does he actually owe him?"

"Wait... don’t tell me you’ve been a part of this group for so long and you still didn’t know how much?" Shelly’s eyes widened in shock as he stared at Jiro from his head to toe. "Seriously?!"

"I wouldn’t ask the question if I knew. Do you think I’m kidding right now? The kid’s not the only one who owes the boss money. How could I possibly know?" Jiro asked. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

"You know what Jiro... you should probably quit this job," Shelly mumbled, sighing underneath her breath as she shook her head in slight frustration. "I mean, we have no choice but to do this, otherwise we’d end up in a ditch somewhere... but if you had a choice, you shouldn’t have chosen this job."

"What are you talking about?" Jiro lashed at Shelly. He couldn’t understand where her frustration was coming from.

"You see Jiro," This time, it was Tamotsu who spoke. As usual, he was the one with the most patience amongst them. "That kid Hajime, his parents are... well... you don’t need to know what his parents are but they are upright citizens. No way in on earth would they associate with us loan sharks."

"So... what are you implying here? Come on, Tamotsu, stop beating around the bush and just tell me already." Jiro pleaded. Just like Shelly, his patience was also running thin.

"Not a single cent." Shelly exhaled as she told the truth. "His parents owe the boss nothing."

"That’s right, not a single frickin cent. The kid’s parents are clean. The kid’s clean too." Tamotsu seconded, shaking his head with Shelly.

"WHAT?!" Jiro screamed, causing Tamotsu to almost veer off the counterflow lane of the highway.