Chapter 20 (2/2)
We exchanged solemn looks, and I soon shrugged my shoulders with a self-deprecating smile. I might as well be honest about not being honest.
”Yeah. I keep lots of secrets. So many I wouldn't even know where to begin telling you what I cannot tell you about, except I wouldn't, because I cannot tell you what I cannot tell you about either.” At this point I let out a rueful sigh and shook my head. ”Oh come on! Don't look at me like that! Secrets wouldn't be secret if people were telling them to their friends all the time.”
”So you say.”
”Actually, that's kind of the definition of a secret, but yeah, so I say.”
He let out a thoughtful ‘Hm.' and then asked, ”Then let me be more precise: is there one about Lili?”
”Snowy? Sure, a few, yes.”
”Will you share them if I ask directly?”
”... Again, that is not how secrets work...” I began, but then shut my mouth once more. There was something about the way he was looking at me that made me consider my words very carefully. ”You know what? Tell me why you are asking, and if nothing else I will tell you whether I could, theoretically, answer them. Deal?”
Josh gave me a skeptical look, no doubt aware of the way I steered the conversation into a more vague territory, but in the end he spoke up in a quiet voice.
”I'm worried because she is acting strange.”
”Does she? I didn't notice.”
Frankly speaking, I wasn't interacting with Snowy all that much during the past week, but after our talk on the track field, she seemed to be back to normal as far as I was concerned.
”Because you are the only one she talks to anymore,” my friend stated bluntly, and I was shocked to detect resentment in his voice. Or maybe it was just frustration? Either way, he sounded particularly bitter. ”Whenever I try to talk to her, she makes up some excuse to go away. It's not just me either; Angie says the same thing happened to her multiple times.”
”Really?”
I closed my eyes for a moment. It made sense. A twisted, socially awkward kind of sense, but it did all the same. She was going away for who knew how long and she wasn't the most socially adept person I knew. I could easily imagine her hiding away and trying to distance herself from her friends to make the separation hurt less. I was the exception since I already knew about it. It was a childish thing to do, but then again, Snowy was the youngest of us, and she always struck me as someone who was extremely inexperienced when it came to dealing with interpersonal relationships. It might've had something to do with her upbringing in the Abyss which, in retrospect, also explained her adoption of the vamp persona, though I could only guess about that part.
Unfortunately, my thoughtful silence probably lasted a wee bit too long, as by the time I turned back to Josh to answer, he was already speaking again.
”Leo, we are really worried. Not just me, but Angie and Ammy and even Elly and Judy. Are you sure it's a secret worth keeping?”
”Well, I'm not the one who decides that, really,” I told him with a shrug. ”If you really want me to, I could ask her to talk to you about it, but that's the best I could do.”
”Good enough.”
”I make no promises though. I already told her once that she should talk to you, so maybe she's just waiting for the right moment. You might as well wait and see a little longer.”
”How much longer?”
”Actually... I don't know either.”
There was a short pause, then Josh let out a long breath.
”Why does everything in my life have to be so complicated,” he muttered with a frown, and I couldn't help but burst out laughing at the comment. He frowned at me and uttered a confused ”What?”
”S-Sorry,” I stuttered between two bouts of self-derisive laughter. ”Dude, you think your life is complicated? Then what about mine?”
”Maybe you should stop double-dating. That might help.”
”Dude...” My laughter instantly stopped. ”I know you think my interpersonal situation is hilarious, but would you please stop hammering on it? It's annoying and it is far from the biggest of my problems.”
”Wanna talk about it?”
I gave him a long, hard look, and dismissed him with a wave of my hand.
”I can't. It's secret”
”There you go again. I think I figured out what your biggest problem is.” He paused, waiting for a reaction on my part, so I handed him a quizzically raised eyebrow as a prompt and he immediately continued. ”You are keeping too many secrets. Especially for a guy with no memory.”
”Well, to be fair, the former problem kind of grew from the latter.”
”I see...” He nodded like I just said something deep. ”Are you one hundred percent sure you don't want to talk about it?”
”Listen, Josh,” I spoke softly but with as much gravity as I could muster under the circumstances. ”You should be glad you are not wrapped up in this mess yet.”
”Yet? You expect I will join your harem as well? Dude, I don't swing that w-- OW!”
I restrained the urge to shout ‘You are one to talk!' and instead I only flicked his forehead again, this time without even looking. I took a deep breath and told him, ”To be honest, I think it's only a matter of time before you get roped in anyways. Rather sooner than later too, I'm afraid. If it makes you feel any better, once that happens, you can come to me and I will explain things as well as I possibly can.”
My friend was still rubbing his forehead when he looked away, obviously deep in thought. There was a several seconds long pause between us, during which neither of us spoke, but then he abruptly turned back to me with an awkward grimace on his lips.
”Could you bear with me for a moment?”
I involuntarily cocked my head to the side.
”Sure.”
”You see... Since we were already talking about secrets and everything, I think that I probably won't find a better moment to ask this question, but before I do that I want you to remember that we are friends and that I am not judging you either way.”
”Okay, you are starting to weird me out right now.”
Josh only smiled awkwardly, then took a deep breath and asked, ”Are you involved with organized crime?”
This time I couldn't help but cock my head in the other direction before answering with a question on my own.
”... Where the hell did that come from?”
He fell silent for several seconds before he spoke again.
”Hear me out, because this might sound like a bit of a stretch. Things began changing when Elly came along, right? Her family is obviously very rich, but when I tried to ask if they owned a corporation or something, the butler warned me not to dig too deep or he would have to hunt me down.”
”He says that to everyone.”
”If you say so.” He shrugged, but his expression said he didn't appreciate the interruption so I shut it for the time being. ”Then there's Lili and her brother. From the moment she showed up, everyone was wary of her for some reason, and her brother was giving me the chills even though I only met him once.”
”The chills?”
”He looks like a mafioso, doesn't he? He had a limousine too, and wore a suit and leather gloves. That's not normal.”
”I suppose...” I mumbled and nodded non-committedly.
”Okay, so here is my theory. Hear me out, and tell me if I am wrong at the end: Both Elly's and Lili's families are connected to organized crime. That's why they have all that money and why no one wants to talk about them. You are connected to both of them, and you have a lot of money too, so I figure you might've worked with them, or for them, before your amnesia, and that's why you are hanging out with them all the time now. I don't know how Judy fits into the picture, but I'll figure out something. Am I right this far?”
”Nope,” I answered cheerfully. ”You are waaaaay off the mark.”
”Amon courtesy to see me out.
”So, what are you going to do after this?” Josh attempted some small-talk while I put on my shoes.
”Internet stuff. I have to finish up designing a site.”
”You do web design?”
”Not really. I'm still learning.”
”That's neat. I always wanted to try my hand at that, but I don't have the patience to learn to code.”
”It's not that hard. You can get started with some templates and then...”
With that discussion in the background, I let him see me off. In retrospect, I might've saved myself some headache if I stayed over. Or I might've died. I couldn't know, but either way, hindsight is a bitch.