Although every inch of Okiya Subaru seemed to scream, "I don't want to hear this anymore" and "I want to leave," he didn't dare toss aside Uzo's cat and head straight for the apartment. He could only swallow his humiliation and stop trying to flee.
"Um..." Unable to directly say that he wanted to leave, Okiya Subaru could only turn his hopeful gaze toward the two High School Detectives. "What are you planning to do next?"
—Hurry up and say you're both busy and have things to do!
"We were originally planning to hang out with two friends from Osaka, but they haven't been answering their phones, so we're going to look for them first," Mouri Ran said. Then she noticed the hope in Okiya Subaru's eyes, paused slightly, and invited him, "Why don't you come with us? It's more fun when there are more people."
Jiang Xia showed no objection either.
"..."
Feeling the sharp cat claws pressed against his calf, Okiya Subaru forced out a smile and accepted the High School Detectives' invitation. "...Haha, sure."
His escape had failed.
Okiya Subaru regretted spacing out earlier and failing to leave as decisively as Amuro Tooru had. At the same time, he could only quickly pull himself together and try to look ahead.
Come to think of it, there was something bothering him...
"They haven't answered their phones at all? Does that mean your two Osaka friends have gone missing?"
This situation felt very familiar to Okiya Subaru—he had once had a friend who was supposed to come meet him for fun, only to lose contact halfway there. By the time they met again, that friend was already in custody.
Later, the police told him that the friend had wanted Okiya Subaru to provide an alibi, but then ran into