Hidden Stash

*Vrr~!* *Vrr~!* *Vrr~!*

Inside Damien's studio apartment house, an incessant buzzing noise was continuously echoing without rest for the last couple of minutes.

Two softly breathing people slowly rustled on the messy bed in the darkness, both of them trying their best to ignore the disturbing noise and continue their sleep for a few moments longer.

*Vrr~!* *Vrr~!* 

*Trrnnk–!*

The irritating sound continued buzzing for a few more seconds before abruptly coming to a stop, restoring the peaceful silence in the house. 

The two resting on the bed also stopped moving. Now that the source of disturbance was gone, they too had returned to their much-deserved sleep.

...The silence didn't last for much longer, however. 

*Vrr~!* *Vrr~!*

The buzzing noise had returned once again, and this time with a vengeance, seemingly hellbent on not letting the current residents of the house have a single wink of sleep on this fine night.

"Ugh..."

Damien groaned in annoyance, quietly slipping out of bed while making sure not to wake the tired girl, before groggily beginning his search for the source of this incessant buzzing sound. 

Not finding it anywhere nearby, he then absentmindedly walked up to the couch, before lazily turning over its cushions and starting to search around its corners in a haphazard manner.

His head was a little foggy because of how much he had to physically exert himself a few hours prior, so he had to fumble around in the dark for a few moments to finally find what he was looking for.

"Urgh. Damn this thing..."

Leaning on the floor, he pulled out a brightly flashing square device from under the couch and held it in front of him, before swiftly narrowing his eyes due to the sudden bright light shining on his face. 

He grimaced, recognizing the familiar object he held in his hand. It was Sierra's phone that he left on top of the couch this morning!

"Who the hell is—"

But seeing the caller's name flashing on the brightly lit screen of her buzzing phone, all the remaining sleepiness in his eyes quickly evaporated.

– [Incoming Call: Mom!]

"—Ah, shit. Why is 'she' calling again?"

Looking at the time, he saw it was close to 8:30 in the evening. It wasn't even that late in the night, at least not late enough for her mother to start calling her madly like this!

From the lack of response since he sent that message in the morning, it seemed like she bought his excuse pretty nicely too. Then, what else could be the reason behind Sierra's mother suddenly trying to call her so restlessly?

Unable to further speculate on the reason behind this call, Damien tensely stood up from the floor, walking closer to the half-naked girl who was cluelessly still sleeping on his bed, coming to a stop when was standing right beside her.

*Trrnnk–!*

The incoming call was soon automatically dismissed, and Damien immediately took the chance to unlock the phone by pointing the phone's front camera at Sierra's sleeping face.

Her face twisted in discomfort for a moment due to the bright light, but Damien had already taken it far away from her closed eyes, having successfully unlocked the device.

– [Alert: 28 unread messages from Mom.]

"...Woah. This is looking pretty serious, isn't it?"

Sierra's chat inbox was absolutely littered with her mother's countless urgent messages. 

Not to mention, she had already called Sierra's phone 15 times in the last half an hour or so, making it obvious just how distressed she was.

– Click.

...Damien didn't know what exactly made Sierra's mother so anxious, but he hoped that her messages would at least give him some clues about it.

[Displaying latest chat records....]

– [Sia, where are you?] (1hr ago)

– [Could you answer your phone, please?] (1hr ago)

– [...Hey, I know you're not at any of your friend's houses. I called all their homes and they said they hadn't seen you since yesterday. You really have a lot of explaining to do. So call me, okay?] (36min ago)

– [Sia, I promise I won't be angry. Please just respond to my calls. I'm really getting worried over here...] (24min ago)

"...Dammit. So she ended up calling their homes, huh? Tsk, this is looking pretty bad."

The look on his face distorted a little as he went through her mother's messages, quickly scrolling to the last few messages she sent to Sierra.

– [Sia, if you are there, please pick up my call. Let me know that you're safe. Otherwise I'll be forced to call the police. I'm really sorry, but this is the only way left for me.] (3min ago)

"...F*ck."

As he scrolled to the final message her mother had sent, Damien's heart went heavy. 

Not answering her calls any longer would turn this into an extremely sticky situation – a situation he absolutely didn't want to deal with at the moment.

Still, this meant that he had to wake the sleeping girl up and send her home immediately. 

Just thinking about how he was going to miss out on her warmth for the night because of this made his temper flare out of control as he gnashed his teeth together.

But thankfully, before he could do anything impulsive, he noticed his own abnormal mood and quickly stopped himself from accidentally crushing her phone. 

"No, it's fine. I need to reorganize myself too, and I can't focus on any kind of work when she's close. This is for the best..."

He then took in deep, calming breaths, while convincing himself that it wasn't a bad thing to happen right now. He had already obtained her heart, and before he wrapped up his side of the business, keeping her at his place would inevitably invite trouble for her.

...Trouble that he might not be able to afford.

Myra Xavier hadn't returned since that day she left with an embarrassed cry, but knowing her, she wouldn't be able to stay away from her favorite 'pet' for too long. 

'Hah, and I immediately blew my cover of recovering from all the drug abuse in front of her too...'

Now that his ignorant transmigrated self had proclaimed that he liked her back despite all the terrible things she put him through, there was going to be hell to pay if she somehow discovered his true relationship with Sierra.

"...Yeah, too much unfinished business on my end. I can't fully enjoy my nights with her just yet."

Next, with a calm look on his face, he began typing on the phone.

– [Don't do that. I will escort her to her home in about an hour or so. And don't keep calling again and again, we can all talk when we get there.]

*Ting!*

The message was just sent to her mother, and almost immediately, he got a response back from her.

– [Wait, what 'we' are you talking about? ....Who exactly are you?]

"...Huh, should I do it?"

While reading her message, Damien hesitated a little, contemplating whether or not it would be okay to reveal himself in front of Sierra's mother.

"There's no harm in letting her know, is there? It might even come in handy in dealing with that soon-to-be-dead ex-boyfriend of hers."

He once again began typing. And this time, he had a big mischievous smile on his face.

– [I'm your lovely daughter's beloved boyfriend. We had quite a long date, you see? Since you've already waited so long, please wait for some more time. Sierra will clear it up for you. See you in an hour then, mother-in-law!]

"...and send!"

*Ting!* *Ting!* *Ting–!*

Almost as soon as he sent the message, the other side started bombarding him with a truckload of messages. The phone started ringing almost unceasingly, making the grin on his face even bigger.

"With that, it should be official, I guess. Shame that I can't let the protagonist know about it just yet..."

Not paying any attention to the ringing phone anymore, he quickly turned on the lights, before sitting down next to the sleeping figure of Sierra and slowly tidying up her messy hair little by little.

"...Sia. Sia, it's time to wake up."

He then shook her by her shoulders a little, calling out to her with the nickname that her mother had been using in the texts.

"Umm, just five more minutes... Zzzzzz..."

Unfortunately, instead of waking up, the sleepy girl simply curled up into a ball on the bed, looking like a cute little squirrel. 

Damien wanted to let her sleep as well, but Sierra's mother would probably run to the police if they didn't show up within the promised hour. So he didn't really have a choice but to shake her even more vigorously.

"Hey, come on. Mommy is calling you to get back home. You need to get dressed."

"Uhmm...? Is it morning already?"

The girl was finally awake, awkwardly looking around while rubbing her eyes like a child. But when her eyes landed on Damien's figure after some time, her eyes immediately shot wide open.

"...Oh my gosh, I already told you I'm too tired, you fiend! How long will you keep going?!"

"—Hey, wait, stop. I woke you up because your mom was on the verge of calling the police to search for you. I told her that I'll take you home in an hour. Not because of what you're thinking right now..."

"...H-Huh? B-But why did Mom suddenly—"

"—Yeah, so you need to quickly get dressed. I'll get your clothes in a minute. Don't worry, I've already washed them clean in the morning. Quickly go and freshen up and then we'll take a cab to your home."

With his eyebrows twitching from the wrongful allegations, he quickly dumped the entire situation on her and walked out of the room, leaving her alone to slowly process everything. 

'Damn, I hope I didn't traumatize her. That reaction right after waking up didn't look very good...'

It looked like Damien had to strictly control his overcharged libido a little from now on, lest he accidentally damaged this budding relationship early on.

He then ran to the backyard of his house. His wallet was almost empty, and the recent job he took only paid weekly. Despite him saying that they were going to take a cab earlier, he didn't even have the cash to pay the driver.

'Hmm, or do I...?'

Honestly, he couldn't blame his previous self for ignorantly taking that cleaning job in the restaurant because of his low bank balance. Being a straight-laced guy his whole life, his transmigrated self had absolutely no idea about how criminal people like him managed their wealth.

Keeping all his money in the bank would only give the government a free pass to come after him like a bloodthirsty hound. And a small-timer like him didn't have the qualifications to freely launder his money as well.

Just buying this small apartment house took three times as much money than it was actually worth!

After all, none of his money came from clean sources. Before it could be used in large amounts, it had to be laundered first, wasting a significant part of his accumulated fortune as the launderer's cut. 

Still, there was a sizable chunk of it lying around in his backyard, masterfully hidden by him from all prying eyes.

'I wonder, how much of it is still around after my addiction problem?'

...And now, it was time for him to get that hidden stash out of the bag.