The secret room

You enter your bedroom, feeling a sense of relief as you walk towards your bathroom, ready to start your daily routine. You reach for the door handle, twist it open, and step inside.

But as you take a few steps forward not into a bathroom  Instead, it's a secret detective room, hidden behind the facade of a typical bathroom.

The room is dimly lit, with a small desk in the corner, a wall of shelves filled with books and some handy tools, and a large map of the city on the wall. The air is filled with the scent of old books and leather, and the room feels like a secret haven, a place where you can be yourself and work on your detective cases without interruption.

As you look around the room, you notice the details that make it feel like a real detective's office. The desk is cluttered with papers, notes, and a magnifying glass, and there's a corkboard on the wall with photos pinned to it. The shelves are filled with books on forensics, criminology, and detective work, as well as gadgets like fingerprint kits, cameras, and walkie-talkies.

The map on the wall is the centrepiece of the room, with different coloured pins marking the locations of your case. You walk up to it and examine it closely, tracing the lines of your investigations with your finger. You feel a sudden anger overcome your body as you remember who is it you are fighting for.

You open up your laptop again trying to solve what was written on that paper. You looked at the words. They made no sense or whatever. Completely different jotting down each word you began to scramble it. After a few minutes of just lazing your brain around you focused on a word in the farthest corner of the paper. You took out your pen and arranged it

'Lily Satoshi' On further scrambling of words you found out every name you found other than Lily's name had been a victim in the case. Soon you found other alive people. Kazuo, Akira, Subaru, Takumi, Hikaru, Yukio and a few more. You squeezed your eyes to see the last name it was written in almost a frenzied manner. After a few minutes of trying to figure out you got some letters. Trying to think if you do remember anyone who has similar letters and it clicked.

Aya ito.  This made you think the list you are currently holding is and death pool. Someone is possibly killing every last one of the said people. For reasons unknown. The only similarity these people had was they were all very rich some more than others.

All of them attended your current high school some as students some as teacher aides and some as teachers themselves. All except one. The very first victim had no whatsoever relationship with this school.

You would know. After all, he was your younger brother. Your twin. Who has been missing for 2 years now

One other similarity all of them shared was they all went to an institute. Some under the guise of summer camp, skill courses, and scholarship programs and your brother went there on a case.

The signature move of this serial kidnapper /killer was a flower the scientific given name was Convallaria majalis. Despite its sweet scent and petite look that flower was poisonous and one of the most effective poisons.

The oddest thing was all of them returned home on the very same day. The reasons were not stated in the report and it was classified. The only people who could enter the classified zone were the main adults from your family and current generations' top three in line.

You couldn't and neither would your older brother help you get in. Forget about your cousins. He being second in line was a highly responsible individual. You several times tried to guilt trip him. Telling him it would help his little brother. But his only response was 'There is nothing in there that would help him'

This family made them all like this. Curt and hardened. But fret not you were soon going to be free. You also had plans to break in there and steal the necessary documents.

If anything your best move should be to start from the very infrastructure where all the listed people went to.

As you sat there, lost in thought, you hear a knock on the door. You quickly compose yourself, close the secret door, and walk back into your bedroom.

Two figures sitting on top of your bed were talking about some K-pop group going under and if they should fund it. You looked at how very soon their talking turned to arguing which led to their wrestling. You decided you need to stop them before they start knocking down your lamp. And to your dismay, it got knocked down shattering in million pieces. You didn't move for a few seconds. Looked down at your precious lamp down in lumps. Slowly looking up to see your sisters escaping through the windows.

"yasumi, Sayuri "  you thundered dragging both in by their collars.

You took a deep breath and massaged your head.

"We are going to clean this "Yasumi mumbled as she got down from your bed to collect supplies from the kitchen.

" Of course, you are going to do that" A half smile played on your face " You both got some big issues with my lamp always breaking them"

After cleaning up the mess three of you sat down to play your favourite video game. Kasumi reluctantly agreed to play. You three got lost in time and soon it was way past midnight.

The three of you start yawning and soon sleep on each other. Your eyes drift open as sunlight bends in unnatural angles you shield your face with the closest thing you find and it happens to be kyo. Kyo didn't like the intrusion on his sleep schedule and decided to wake you up with a jolt.

June 15th. Monday

You stood up from the floor on which you slept alone. The girls must have left sometime in the night. Brushing past you looked in the mirror and regretted looking at it. You were a real mess.

Tidying yourself up a bit you mentally agreed that it was a little too early to be out of bed. It was only six am but your blissful rest was interrupted by the loud ringing of your phone.

After a few more annoying ringing you decided to see who was it that was trying to keep you awake.

"Hello, this is asuna right.?" the person on the opposite end stated. The voice was familiar and it was apparent to you that it belonged to a male.

You rubbed sleepiness in your eyes as you groggily answered." yeah it's me. Who are you"

"Guess right and you will be rewarded"  the male chirped on the other end in a playful tone.

You took a moment to properly focus on this game the caller had started. " Mr golden Retriever" you mussed. Laying back on your pillow.

" Close enough, sugary just wanted to make sure you were awake. I will be at your doorstep in half an hour"

You squinted your eyes in confusion "Why.?"

"Because I said so and if you refuse I am going to be forced to carry you in bridal style to school" Through the speaker the males child-like tone rang out but his threat towards her lay apparent. You cringed at the image of him carrying you bridal style to school.

Not wanting him to disrupt your sleeping further you answered" Okay give me twenty minutes and I will sleep- " you paused " I will get ready soon"

" I knew you wouldn't refuse, goodbye sweety" Hikaru mused out in a sugary tone through the other end.

You hung up the phone and reached for the alarm only to find its broken pieces 'I swear to god these girls need to stop' After a few seconds you fell back in your original position sleeping without any disruption. Half-conscious a thought crossed her mind 'How did he get my number again.?'.

6:30 in the morning. You woke up spreading out your arms you got ready as fast as you could tossing around all the tools you had.

You decided today you will carry a pepper spray, lipstick gun a small taser and some baby powder and adhesive tape. 

You decided against carrying and gun to school. You didn't want to get caught in an unscheduled bag checking and expose yourself. If need be you could just hurry home and grab it.

Though only time you need a gun is when you are hot on the trail of the suspect. Right now you had none.

You began to walk in your usual route to school, but you couldn't help but feel a chill run through her bloodstream. Your bones were chattering but it wasn't even winter right now. You halted in your tracks and looked around anything in particular making her feel this unpleasant sensation. ' I think I must be getting paranoid ' You checked the area several times only to find nothing threatening.

You had no choice but to move along towards the direction of your school skidding past a cafe which to her surprise was open.' It is not even 7 what are the owners thinking' You rolled your eyes skipping past the cafe. When you were already halfway from school you stopped realising a large form in front of her

"Goodness, you surprised me" you skillfully avoided collapsing into the cheery male.

"I have a bigger surprise for you "Holding his signature smile he led you back to the same way you came from. Soon he started to drag you since you were reluctant to go uphill.

" Why are we climbing back up" You tried to get your wrist free tugging at it but his grip only got tighter.

"We are going to a cafe" the male hummed smiling cheerily as he began to drag you again. Soon you thought there was no harm in going to a cafe a stopped tugging back. But you liked it when you had your body to yourself. So you shrugged him off.

" What cafe opens at 7 am.?"  you questioned only yourself to remember you saw one on your way to school.

" Mine does" he mused in his childlike tone. Hikaru smiles brightly and takes his hand in yours and starts to drag you away.

You reach the cafe. It's rustic with bright adornments while still maintaining a homely touch. It almost puts you on easy.  Hikaru heads for the centre table as you both sit down. All staff members come out to greet you. It was given after all the male did say he owned the cafe.

" Your father bought this cafe for you" Skimming through the menu you noticed that it wasn't expensive which came as a surprise.

" My mother owned it. My father met her here and they fell in love ." he played with the end of his collar

" Classic romance. " you smiled you did remember something pleasant talking about his mom. " wasn't she bullied tho for marrying your father.?"

" yeah she was but she opened her fashion line and soon people started to respect her" he looked proud while talking about his mother all his fake expressions melted then.

"I would like to see some of her work you know" you requested. It was one of the best fashion lines and you did need a ball dress for the summer solstice.

The male in front of you lost his spirit for a few seconds his eyes becoming saddened but then he smiled at you.

" you know what I will make you one"

" yeah sure" Well as long as it was awesome it would work, right?

Soon you both exited the cafe giggling like children. You both had just pulled the best prank ever.

" I got a new partner in crime. Akira is going to be furious"

You raised your eyebrows remembering how shocked the said male was yesterday. You started to think about how could you ask him what he does to his other dates that they don't ever return.

You decide against it and make a self-note to put Sayuri up to the task of finding information about this. you were too unfocused that you did not see Hikaru holding his arm in yours like you both were a married old couple on their morning walk.

" Hey let go. Your fangirls will dig me a grave and bury me alive. I don't want them to get the wrong idea." you were especially worried that if any of them start to come after you. You might expose yourself.

" Wrong idea about what.? " the male's hand slowly started to slide across your body stopping straight above your collarbone. Your cheeks started to heat and you grasped his hand.

"Not to worry all my fan girls would still be doing their makeup so no chance they're here plus they are rich so they won't be taking this alleyway" Hikaru assured you but it didn't put down your guard.

His hand progressively tightened and now you could feel you might have to exert more energy than normal to get out of it.

"Are you kidding me.? You woke me up for going to the cafe. We could have gone after school" you looked at him.

His grip started to get weaker and at the right moment, you jerked out your hand. Running forward towards school. If you were lucky you might get to sleep before the teacher arrives.

" So you want to leave me" You gulped at the change in tone and pitch he chose to speak his words. The emotion and words were nothing like what the h/c girl was used to hearing from the ever-smiling boy.

His lips hovered inches above your ear sending his warm breath to caress your neck it unnerved you in a way.

It felt intimidating and scary, unlike the Hikaru you had known. You stood there analyzing his movement.

You were under the illusion of standing so still would make you invisible.  you then noticed the boy inching towards you. You started to reach for the pepper spray keychain. But the golden-haired male grabbed your hand and started to make you jog.

" then I guess I have no choice. I will have to kidnap you" the male whispered