L15 Agreement

There had been an awkward tension between Suruga and Kujo since morning. Every time Suruga spoke to her, Kujo answered only perfunctorily and appeared to be avoiding him. Observing them from the sofa, L enjoyed his extra sweet morning coffee from a bowl-sized cup, which he held in both hands like an offering.

"It seems you've fallen out of favor with Dr. Kujo," L pointed out as soon as Kujo disappeared into the kitchen with the dishes.

"Yeah, well...you know." Suruga replied.

"Hey, you didn't try anything funny with Dr. Kujo, did you?" Maki asked. Suruga shrank his large frame apologetically.

"I-I tried to sweet-talk her, you know, out of habit from my days living in the States, and she completely shot me down."

"See? I told you not to try anything!" Maki ran into the kitchen to check on Kujo. Suruga scratched his head awkwardly.

"Perhaps this isn't for me to say, but it's inappropriate to go to a lady's room at that hour."

"So you think so too-hey, wait! You weren't..." Rushing to the sofa, Suruga pushed L aside and looked into the monitor hidden by his feet. As expected, the monitor showed the image of Kujo washing dishes in the kitchen. "You weren't watching when I was in Kujo's room last night were you?"

"Of course."

"Damn, that's what I was afraid of! You pervert!"

"There's no need to be embarrassed, Mr. Suruga."

"It's not that I'm embarrassed..."

"Why are you being so serious, Mr. Suruga?" L asked, his face sober.

Suruga walked away with no answer but a blush. It had been worth the trouble to put on a show if L had been watching. After all, the quarrel enacted inside Kujo's room had all been for L's benefit.

"I wonder if we can plant a bug in the Operations Room. It would help if we could listen in on L's conversations with Maki when we're not there."

"You might be able to smuggle it onto the premises, Mr. Suruga, but L is sure to find it if we plant it in the Operations Room. That room likely has an alarm that reacts to any signal a bug would transmit," Kujo said. She was wearing a summery sleeveless dress today. The air conditioner inside the server room was set at a lower temperature than the rest of the rooms, and perhaps due to the cold, Kujo occasionally wrapped her arms around her shoulders. Suruga couldn't help but admire how white her exposed arms were.

"Is something the matter?" she asked.

"Um...you must be cold." Suruga took off his jacket and draped it around her shoulders. After hesitating a bit, Kujo thanked him with a shy smile. Suruga was aware that he was beginning to have feelings that were something more than camaradarie between fellow operatives.

"Mr. Suruga, would you happen to have more than one cell phone?

"Sure I do." Due to the nature of his job, he often kept two cell phones, which he used for different purposes.

"Then we'll be able to use these as listening devices."

That night Suruga made up an excuse of not feeing well and retired to his room early. Though he knew he wasn't being watched, he jumped into bed and slipped under the covers first before taking out his cell phone. Earlier he had made a point of "forgetting" his other phone near the sofa where L usually sat. Since the phone was on auto pick-up, if he called the phone, it was possible to be con- nected without the phone ringing.

As he listened in, Suruga heared two voices:

"Then you were living in the same neighborhood as Misa Amane in Osaka?"

"Yes. Misa was known around the neighborhood for being pretty. We also used to go on vacation together because our families were close."

"You knew Misa Amane before she made her debut? I'm jealous."

L did sound green with envy, in contrast with his usual stoic demeanor. With Maki and her Osaka dialect and L with his strangely polite way of speaking, they continued this odd exchange like a bad comedy team. After Suruga listened for about half an hour, L. finally broached the subject Suruga wanted to hear.

"You really won't give me the data no matter how much I ask?"

"Nope. I'm not handing over this data to anyone."

"Then what would you say to a trade for my cherished notebook?"

"A notebook?"

"Yes. It's more precious than my own life. Would you trade the data for that?"

"Well...all right. If you feel that strongly about it."

"Thank you. Here's my notebook."

"Ryuzaki, this is a bag of potato chips."

"Yes, the notebook is inside. Nobody would think anything important would be inside a bag of potato chips, don't you think?"

Dammit if you aren't the only one who'd hide something so important in a place like that! Suruga wanted to shout, but had to stop himself since, unlike a proper listening device, they would also hear him on the other end of the cell phone if he spoke.

"Yeah, but..." Maki said, still suspicious.

"I'll put the data you gave me in a different bag of potato chips and keep it in my snacks compartment for safekeeping. It will be a lot safer than putting it in a normal safe."

"You won't eat it by mistake, will you, Ryuzaki?"

L answered in his oddly confident way, "Don't worry. I don't eat consommé-flavor."