13 Between Two Alphas

[HARUKI! HARUKI]

"Kenta ...?" replied a sleepy Haruki.

He had been slow to fall asleep. And it seemed that he had not slept for more than a few minutes when he heard his name deep in his soul being repeated several times by the illustrator.

[I FOUND OUT, HARUKI!]

"What did you find out?" sleepy, he mumbled, "I don't understand."

[YOUR AGENCY REPORTED YOU AS MISSING! YOUR MOTHER CALLED YOUR AGENT SINCE SHE COULDN'T SPEAK TO YOU. AND THEY REPORTED IT TO THE POLICE! YOUR BAND HAS POSTPONED THE DEBUT SHOW. YOUR MOTHER MADE IT A SCANDAL IN THE KPOP WORLD! IT'S IN ALL THE NEWS!]

"My mom ?!" Haruki woke up completely, upon hearing the first news that made sense in hIS confused mind, "Did you call her? Did you tell her that I'm okay?"

[I FEARED FOR YOUR SAFETY WITHIN THE GAME, IF I CALLED YOUR HOME. FIRST LET'S FIND OUT HOW TO GET YOU OUT OF THERE.] Kenta spoke imperatively, and continued,

[HEAR! NOGUCHI-SAN, YOSHIDA-SAN, YAMADA-SAN, SASAKI-SAN, ALL ARE REPORTED MISSING! I JUST CANNOT FIND ANYTHING ABOUT OKANE HINATA.]

"Man, it's important that you go to the police. Tell them the truth."

[YES. I ARRIVE AT THE POLICE STATION AND DECLARE: SEE, THESE MISSING GUYS ARE WITHIN A GAME. WAKE UP, HARUKI! IT'S THE EASIEST WAY TO GET A ROOM IN A MADHOUSE. AND YOU, GETTING DELETED!]

Kenta whispered. Fast breathing. Haruki understood: the illustrator was afraid. And he was right. This technology was too revolutionary to be accepted as true without Kenta having irrefutable proof.

[I MADE A SECRET BUNKER FOR YOU. DON'T TELL ANYONE THERE. YOU CANNOT TRUST ANYONE.]

Next to Haruki, a necklace with a key popped up, along with a map.

[THE BUNKER HAS SOME THINGS YOU MAY NEED. I DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO MAKE A METICULOUS THING. ONLY THAT'S NOT MY AREA. MY SPECIALTY IS DRAWING PEOPLE. OTHER ILLUSTRATORS WERE CREATING THE ISLAND, THE MANSION, THE FURNITURE, AND SO ON. THE TEAM IS HUGE! MOST ARE FREELANCERS LIKE ME.]

"Kenta, just tell me the raw truth. Did they disappear with our bodies?"

[I DON'T KNOW IF THERE WAS A BODY TO HIDE. HARUKI, LISTEN, ONLY THREE PEOPLE HAVE ACCESS TO THE SERVER'S ROOM: HONDA-SAN; ABE-SAN, AND NOW, Ph.D. IN BIOMEDICINE, DR. WALLACE WANG-SAN. I THINK I WON'T BE ABLE TO TALK TO YOU FOR A TIME.] Kenta's voice was a whisper again as he finished revealing his findings.

[I WILL HELP YOU GET OUT OF THERE. IT'S MY REDEMPTION WITH YOU, HARUKI. I'm so sorry ...]

********

Haruki couldn't sleep after this news. Eventually, he got up and went to see where the bunker was.

With the map, it was easy to find. Kenta was inspired, contrary to his words. The illustrator thought well, using the inner part of the rock formation. Nothing had changed externally, which hid the bunker very well. In addition to a simple bathroom with a shower, sink, and toilet, there were two other rooms. It was like a small empty apartment, except for closed boxes that had labels. The labels said what each of the crates contained: FOOD, MEDICINE, WATER, BED, TOOLS, and so on.

He needed to think, to think hard about how to act. He started getting out of there, double-checking to not to be seen,

"But now, I need to go back to the mansion, I don't want them to miss me."

In another moment Haruki would have run up to them to tell everything, but after last night's show, not anymore.

He finally understood he wasn't among friends.

Haruki hated being kneeled, tied, and submitted as a 'sub' in front of others. It got on his nerves. And Jun…

Well, Jun was a different case altogether. Would they have kissed?

The singer knew that Jun realized how excited and disturbed Haruki was when he was around him. But by the way, for Jun it was pretty normal. The only thing that really explained it was that they designed their characters to be very sexy. Why did he have to be fascinated by that devilish smile? It was usually the other way around. The girls almost passed out when Haruki was around!

"GRRR how annoying!"

"Talking to yourself, Haruki?" asked Jun, rudely as always, a little far away. Narrowing his eyes, Haruki realized the baker was lying on the sand.

Without knowing what Jun had seen, and even without remembering how much he thought out loud, Haruki chose to remain silent.

"Come here. Hm?" Jun called, patting the sand beside him as he sat down, and commented, "I wanted to talk to you, but after the performance, you closed yourself in your room."

Haruki went to Jun just to pretend everything was fine, when it wasn't. And he sat a little further away from Jun.

"The buns, I made them for you. I wish we had eaten them together. It was supposed to be my thanks for the food you got from your friend," Jun said, staring at the sky.

Tonight the sky was much brighter than last night, and they could see several constellations.

"They're drawing," Jun said, "They don't think to get us out of here."

Looking at all the additional details that gave life to the scene, Haruki agreed,

"Yes, they will demand that we accept to stay here and, on top of that, like the charming princes Miyu-chan wants."

And looking at Jun he added,

"I'm sorry!"

"It's okay, at least you ate some bread. Did you like it?"

"U-hum!" Haruki gave his best grin and shook his head emphatically. He was charming, which he usually did on specific occasions and with well-defined goals. This time Haruki just wanted to fascinate him. As expected, Jun stared with a lost and fascinated look. But blinking as if to get out of a spell, the baker said,

"The other time we were talking… Hm, well. I want to know something. Can you give me a straight answer?" before the singer responded, Jun saw someone coming up behind Haruki and frowned.

Without having to turn his head to look, Haruki knew who caused Jun's heartburn. It was Saito!

And he came to them, "What a beautiful night! You really don't want to be locked indoors, do you?!

Saito sat next to him. Now Haruki was surrounded by the two men.

"Haruki-san, I hope I didn't offend you earlier. Or did I offend?" Saito was a man who solved matters straightforwardly.

"How could everything be okay?! You saw our shocked faces! You should have warned us beforehand! Mostly, you should have warned Haruki-san!" Jun snapped under his breath.

"Hey! Why do you think I can't defend myself or express myself?! Easy, Sasaki Jun! It's not about you!" Haruki felt the need to refuse his intervention.

The baker could not hide his shock at Haruki's words, who stood up, perhaps not so involuntarily throwing sand around with both feet. The two men cleaned themselves up, stunned, while also getting up.

"Let's get a few things straight here," said Haruki, "1) I hope you're not following me. I don't want to be followed. I don't like to be followed! This place is already too small and claustrophobic without stalkers. 2) Yes, it's polite to ask first!"

When he said that, he blushed, seeing Jun giving a satisfied smirk, relishing his victory.

Saito, on the other hand, seemed contrite and shocked by his sincerity.

Haruki thought it was a good idea to keep saying what was going on in his chest, even though he stammered at first,

"3) And you two… It's pretty normal for some people to not sympathize with others, here. But the seniors should set an example and try to make the environment pleasant for everyone, while we can't get out of here. 4) There's no point in whining around, we must cooperate. If we split our forces, the only ones who will be harmed will be ourselves! 5) and Last: What do you want with me? What's wrong with ME?"

Jun put his hands back, looking astonished. Saito scratched his head, ostensibly showing his confusion with the last part,

"Well, Haruki-san. I'm so sorry. I should have talked to you alone in the morning. To be honest, I think I'll do it if you don't object. You are right in several things you mentioned. But ... Why do you think we're chasing you? Isn't it a little too much? Or… Is anyone really chasing you?"

"Ah, I don't believe this shit! Did you come after him and dare to pretend you didn't?" Jun snarled.

"Ahhhh! I just don't know! Just leave me alone!" Haruki exclaimed, embarrassed and confused. And as soon as he moved away, each of them pulled one of his wrists, urging him to stay.

"GAHHHHH! What are you doing?!" it was his turn to be shocked at their attitude.

Both spoke practically in unison, bowing in contrition,

"FORGIVE ME, HARUKI-SAN! I MEANT YOU NO HARM!" while both looked at each other with contempt, right after.

Haruki was startled by Jun and Saito's plea for forgiveness,

"Let's just keep things calm here. Teamwork, uh? I am in the same situation as all of you. Away from home, and stuck in this strange place because of a machine that didn't work as it should!"

A song, actually, the same song as before, played across the island. The three looked at each other, and Saito said, releasing Haruki's hand,

"Monkeys bite me if it's not an official statement from Mr. Honda. I think we better go to the game room."

When they got there, the others were already fully awake. The screen was turned on, but only with the logo of the game development company, GAMEKOI. Haruki wondered, as did everyone there, why Honda-san decided to hold a meeting in the middle of the night.

In a few minutes Honda-san's long, somewhat cartoon-ish face appeared on the screen and he didn't look happy!

"Gentlemen, I am sorry to interrupt your rest. But it's a serious and urgent matter. We had an unforeseen event, and we need to discuss what to do, TOGETHER. "

"Why don't I believe this guy?" he murmured to whoever was beside him.

"To the facts: we had a report of some unusual activities today in our access logs," began the engineer.

'Damn it! Did they get Kenta?!' he felt sweat immediately dot his forehead.

"And what happened? You found out, didn't you?" Daisuke asked for everyone.

"We found out that the access was done through the login provided to Ms. Abe."

Haruki had a bad feeling when he heard this information. And he felt everyone's eyes slowly turn to him, accusingly.