BLACK CHERRY / The Game (Chapter 12)
Title: The Game (Chapter 12)
Fandom: BLACK CHERRY
Characters: Ryo x はるき
Genre: Romance, erotica
Table: One
Prompt: 056. Choke
Word Count: 1714
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The rules of The Game were very simple.
Author's Notes: Chapters 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11
The Game
Chapter Twelve
(056. Choke)
The second floor hallway of Paxton Hall stretched long and dark before Ryou. His shoes were loud and echoing against the marble floors-no doubt having long alerted whoever was inside the building-but it didn’t matter. He wanted his presence known, and for that girl to prepare herself the moment he found out who she was.
Ryou gripped the phone tighter in his hand. You know who I am, she’d said. It meant only one thing. She had to be a former student of his, and yet Haruki’s descriptions of a girl with long, dark hair brought no one to his mind whatsoever.
He stopped in front of Room 212. He would find out soon enough.
It could be Haruki all along. She could’ve figured it out on her own, did research, pretended to be someone else. It was the much better alternative. He would readily face her wrath, her quest for vengeance, over the thought of her figuring out the truth from someone else.
He brought a hand to the doorknob and gritted his teeth. As soon as this stupid farce was over, he was going straight for Haruki’s apartment, explanations be damned.
The classroom was just as dark and empty as the rest of the building. A lone shadow stood by the window, her silhouette tall and slim. He turned on the lights to find a girl with long, black hair with her back turned on him.
“Who the hell are you?” he demanded without preamble.
The girl remained still by the window, where snow continued falling outside. “Have you forgotten about me already, Professor Hirose?”
His eyebrows met at her light and lilting voice. He took a step forward, walking closer until he was an arm’s breadth from her. Slowly, she turned around.
Her green eyes had been the first thing he noticed about her five years ago. They’d been bright and captivating against her wavy, red locks. Now in her straight, black hair, no wonder she was unrecognizable.
He drew in a breath. “Suzume.”
His first student. His first pet from five years ago. Kei had won that year, but Suzume had been memorable in her own right. She’d been wild and so eager to please him, until long after the game she’d remained hot on his heels, pursuing a relationship that never truly existed.
Her hands remained inside the pockets of her leather jacket as she leaned against the window. “It’s good to see you again, Professor. Did you miss me?”
Only a single word left his lips. “How?”
Her eyes traveled over the empty room around them. “Let’s just say I’ve never really left your side. Not really. And yet when you watch over someone for five years, you begin to notice certain things.”
Her jacket brushed his shoulder when she walked past him. Her boots were loud as she walked around, trailing a lazy hand over the chairs. “I’ve known about your little game for a long time now. I was shocked, of course, until I realized you and Professor Mikura are just doing what all bored, young men like to do. You just came up with a more interesting way to do it.”
He followed her warily with his gaze, scanning her frame, wondering if she possibly hid a weapon in her clothes.
“Oh, congratulations, by the way,” she said with a smile that did not reach her eyes. “This is your third win now, isn’t it? You picked a good student this term.”
“You haven’t answered my question,” he snapped. “How did you find out?”
She gave him a light shrug. “It wasn’t hard to figure out about the cameras since you kept returning to the same locations. You have a remote for it, right? To turn them on and off any time? I understand you did it to avoid useless footage, but that’s a severe oversight on your end, Professor. It only allowed me to observe the cameras up close without being noticed.
“Now I’m no technology expert, but it was obvious the videos were being stored somewhere. It was brilliant of you to have the files deleted after 24 hours. I’ll admit I almost gave up until my guy figured it out.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Your guy?”
“Some hacker. Had to go through several of them just to bypass your friend’s code,” she said, now walking in slow circles before him. “Shin Yoshino’s pretty good, but the right amount of money will get you someone better. Now I have copies of all the videos deleted from your servers, even ones from years ago.”
He slipped his phone into his pocket before he could break it from gripping it too tightly. “And now you’re blackmailing me for revenge because of what I did to you.”
Suzume stopped moving. Her eyes grew wide with feigned innocence. “Blackmail? Oh, no. I’ll admit that was my goal for quite some time, but then I realized it was all impersonal to you. Different term, different girl. You did what you had to do to win.”
She stared at a vacant chair for several seconds. The silence seemed to stretch until she faced him again with a sour smile on her lips. “But that Haruki girl… ever since she came in, your actions have made no sense. You’ve broken your pattern. You sleep with her even when you’re not playing. Why is that?”
Something twisted in his stomach. “You’ve bugged my apartment.”
“Of course I have!” She laughed, cold and shrill. “You know, I was willing to overlook the first, few times. I knew you always had a bit of a sadistic streak in you-and it seemed you hit jackpot with Little Miss Submissive-but then I began to see her with you every single fucking day. What is it about her, Ryou? Don’t tell me you like her?”
She walked up to him until they were face-to-face. He looked down on her, and her eyes were dark with anger and bitterness.
“But now that the game’s over, you won’t return to her anymore, right?” she whispered, her voice suddenly soft and broken. “You’ll play a new game with someone else, and you’ll forget all about her.”
He slowly shook his head in confusion. “What the hell do you want, Suzume?”
“I still love you,” she said, putting her hands on his shoulders. “I could be just like her, you know. I can learn to love the pain.”
He brusquely removed her hands off of him. “You’re out of your fucking mind.”
“If I can’t have you, nobody else can!” she cried, her voice echoing down the hallways. “I’ll expose your filthy game for all the world to see. I’ll destroy your life.”
“I won’t let you do that,” he muttered, grabbing her by the wrist. Her body succumbed immediately to him when he kissed her. It was pathetic, almost pitiful, when he easily turned her around and wrapped his arms around her neck in a sleeper hold. She barely struggled as she fell back against him, unconscious.
He gingerly laid her on the floor and quickly scanned her pockets. He found her phone and browsed through it.
“I’m sorry, Suzume,” he said, slipping her phone in his coat. He left the room without looking back.
--
“I hate to admit it, but this guy’s actually pretty fucking ingenious.”
Ryou stopped pacing and stood before Shin and his laptop, where Suzume’s phone was connected on the table. Before them, multiple screens of code appeared while Shin typed as fast as his fingers could let him.
“Well this is some stellar progress right here,” Kei grumbled, leaning against a desk back in Ryou’s office as he massaged the bridge of his nose. “I guess we have your old student Suzume to thank for deciding to drop the bomb on us at one in the fucking morning.”
“So you’d rather wake up to realize you’ve lost your job with your sex videos all over the Internet?” Ryou snarled. “Frankly, I’m thankful for her convenient choice of timing.”
“The bigger question is if we’ll be able to get rid of her copies.” Kei shook his head with a sigh. “I can’t believe all it takes is one crazy bitch to ruin everything.”
“Fortunately for us, she isn’t very smart.” Shin snickered. “She’s got everything right here on her phone. Not even a single bit of password encryption, considering she’s got a top-tier hacker on speed dial. She probably never expected to have her shit taken from her.”
“We just need to make sure those videos never see the light of day.” Ryou crossed his arms. “Give me an update.”
“Well, our guy’s got a masked IP, but he was careless to leave a trail from his recording of one of your sessions with Haruki a few days ago. I’m still trying to zone in on which server he’s using.”
“What if she’s got another back-up?” Kei brought hands to his waist. “We could blow this dude’s server to bits and next thing you’ll know she’s still got copies of it on DVD.”
“That’ll be a problem for another day,” Ryou muttered under his breath. “She’s got my place bugged, for Christ’s sake.”
“Hopefully not for long. I’ve got a feeling she’s put in all her eggs in one basket,” Shin said, his eyes unwavering from the screen. “Aha! I’m in!”
Kei rushed to Shin’s side as they all hovered before the laptop.
“Just as I thought,” Shin thoughtfully murmured as code after code of text Ryou could barely fathom scrolled past him. “Well, you guys can be rest assured. The videos are only being accessed from a single address, with no download history logged.”
“Great. Let’s obliterate the shit out of this thing and be done with it,” Kei said, pushing away from the table. “I don’t know why you left her out cold in Paxton, Ryou. Who knows what the hell that girl’s going to do once she wakes up to find all her blackmail material gone?”
“Not my problem.” Ryou grabbed his coat. “Shin, sorry and thanks for doing this.”
“Where the fuck are you going?” Kei demanded.
Ryou said nothing more and closed the door behind him on his way to Haruki’s apartment.
to be continued
Fandom: BLACK CHERRY
Characters: Ryo x はるき
Genre: Romance, erotica
Table: One
Prompt: 056. Choke
Word Count: 1714
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The rules of The Game were very simple.
Author's Notes: Chapters 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11
The Game
Chapter Twelve
(056. Choke)
The second floor hallway of Paxton Hall stretched long and dark before Ryou. His shoes were loud and echoing against the marble floors-no doubt having long alerted whoever was inside the building-but it didn’t matter. He wanted his presence known, and for that girl to prepare herself the moment he found out who she was.
Ryou gripped the phone tighter in his hand. You know who I am, she’d said. It meant only one thing. She had to be a former student of his, and yet Haruki’s descriptions of a girl with long, dark hair brought no one to his mind whatsoever.
He stopped in front of Room 212. He would find out soon enough.
It could be Haruki all along. She could’ve figured it out on her own, did research, pretended to be someone else. It was the much better alternative. He would readily face her wrath, her quest for vengeance, over the thought of her figuring out the truth from someone else.
He brought a hand to the doorknob and gritted his teeth. As soon as this stupid farce was over, he was going straight for Haruki’s apartment, explanations be damned.
The classroom was just as dark and empty as the rest of the building. A lone shadow stood by the window, her silhouette tall and slim. He turned on the lights to find a girl with long, black hair with her back turned on him.
“Who the hell are you?” he demanded without preamble.
The girl remained still by the window, where snow continued falling outside. “Have you forgotten about me already, Professor Hirose?”
His eyebrows met at her light and lilting voice. He took a step forward, walking closer until he was an arm’s breadth from her. Slowly, she turned around.
Her green eyes had been the first thing he noticed about her five years ago. They’d been bright and captivating against her wavy, red locks. Now in her straight, black hair, no wonder she was unrecognizable.
He drew in a breath. “Suzume.”
His first student. His first pet from five years ago. Kei had won that year, but Suzume had been memorable in her own right. She’d been wild and so eager to please him, until long after the game she’d remained hot on his heels, pursuing a relationship that never truly existed.
Her hands remained inside the pockets of her leather jacket as she leaned against the window. “It’s good to see you again, Professor. Did you miss me?”
Only a single word left his lips. “How?”
Her eyes traveled over the empty room around them. “Let’s just say I’ve never really left your side. Not really. And yet when you watch over someone for five years, you begin to notice certain things.”
Her jacket brushed his shoulder when she walked past him. Her boots were loud as she walked around, trailing a lazy hand over the chairs. “I’ve known about your little game for a long time now. I was shocked, of course, until I realized you and Professor Mikura are just doing what all bored, young men like to do. You just came up with a more interesting way to do it.”
He followed her warily with his gaze, scanning her frame, wondering if she possibly hid a weapon in her clothes.
“Oh, congratulations, by the way,” she said with a smile that did not reach her eyes. “This is your third win now, isn’t it? You picked a good student this term.”
“You haven’t answered my question,” he snapped. “How did you find out?”
She gave him a light shrug. “It wasn’t hard to figure out about the cameras since you kept returning to the same locations. You have a remote for it, right? To turn them on and off any time? I understand you did it to avoid useless footage, but that’s a severe oversight on your end, Professor. It only allowed me to observe the cameras up close without being noticed.
“Now I’m no technology expert, but it was obvious the videos were being stored somewhere. It was brilliant of you to have the files deleted after 24 hours. I’ll admit I almost gave up until my guy figured it out.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Your guy?”
“Some hacker. Had to go through several of them just to bypass your friend’s code,” she said, now walking in slow circles before him. “Shin Yoshino’s pretty good, but the right amount of money will get you someone better. Now I have copies of all the videos deleted from your servers, even ones from years ago.”
He slipped his phone into his pocket before he could break it from gripping it too tightly. “And now you’re blackmailing me for revenge because of what I did to you.”
Suzume stopped moving. Her eyes grew wide with feigned innocence. “Blackmail? Oh, no. I’ll admit that was my goal for quite some time, but then I realized it was all impersonal to you. Different term, different girl. You did what you had to do to win.”
She stared at a vacant chair for several seconds. The silence seemed to stretch until she faced him again with a sour smile on her lips. “But that Haruki girl… ever since she came in, your actions have made no sense. You’ve broken your pattern. You sleep with her even when you’re not playing. Why is that?”
Something twisted in his stomach. “You’ve bugged my apartment.”
“Of course I have!” She laughed, cold and shrill. “You know, I was willing to overlook the first, few times. I knew you always had a bit of a sadistic streak in you-and it seemed you hit jackpot with Little Miss Submissive-but then I began to see her with you every single fucking day. What is it about her, Ryou? Don’t tell me you like her?”
She walked up to him until they were face-to-face. He looked down on her, and her eyes were dark with anger and bitterness.
“But now that the game’s over, you won’t return to her anymore, right?” she whispered, her voice suddenly soft and broken. “You’ll play a new game with someone else, and you’ll forget all about her.”
He slowly shook his head in confusion. “What the hell do you want, Suzume?”
“I still love you,” she said, putting her hands on his shoulders. “I could be just like her, you know. I can learn to love the pain.”
He brusquely removed her hands off of him. “You’re out of your fucking mind.”
“If I can’t have you, nobody else can!” she cried, her voice echoing down the hallways. “I’ll expose your filthy game for all the world to see. I’ll destroy your life.”
“I won’t let you do that,” he muttered, grabbing her by the wrist. Her body succumbed immediately to him when he kissed her. It was pathetic, almost pitiful, when he easily turned her around and wrapped his arms around her neck in a sleeper hold. She barely struggled as she fell back against him, unconscious.
He gingerly laid her on the floor and quickly scanned her pockets. He found her phone and browsed through it.
“I’m sorry, Suzume,” he said, slipping her phone in his coat. He left the room without looking back.
--
“I hate to admit it, but this guy’s actually pretty fucking ingenious.”
Ryou stopped pacing and stood before Shin and his laptop, where Suzume’s phone was connected on the table. Before them, multiple screens of code appeared while Shin typed as fast as his fingers could let him.
“Well this is some stellar progress right here,” Kei grumbled, leaning against a desk back in Ryou’s office as he massaged the bridge of his nose. “I guess we have your old student Suzume to thank for deciding to drop the bomb on us at one in the fucking morning.”
“So you’d rather wake up to realize you’ve lost your job with your sex videos all over the Internet?” Ryou snarled. “Frankly, I’m thankful for her convenient choice of timing.”
“The bigger question is if we’ll be able to get rid of her copies.” Kei shook his head with a sigh. “I can’t believe all it takes is one crazy bitch to ruin everything.”
“Fortunately for us, she isn’t very smart.” Shin snickered. “She’s got everything right here on her phone. Not even a single bit of password encryption, considering she’s got a top-tier hacker on speed dial. She probably never expected to have her shit taken from her.”
“We just need to make sure those videos never see the light of day.” Ryou crossed his arms. “Give me an update.”
“Well, our guy’s got a masked IP, but he was careless to leave a trail from his recording of one of your sessions with Haruki a few days ago. I’m still trying to zone in on which server he’s using.”
“What if she’s got another back-up?” Kei brought hands to his waist. “We could blow this dude’s server to bits and next thing you’ll know she’s still got copies of it on DVD.”
“That’ll be a problem for another day,” Ryou muttered under his breath. “She’s got my place bugged, for Christ’s sake.”
“Hopefully not for long. I’ve got a feeling she’s put in all her eggs in one basket,” Shin said, his eyes unwavering from the screen. “Aha! I’m in!”
Kei rushed to Shin’s side as they all hovered before the laptop.
“Just as I thought,” Shin thoughtfully murmured as code after code of text Ryou could barely fathom scrolled past him. “Well, you guys can be rest assured. The videos are only being accessed from a single address, with no download history logged.”
“Great. Let’s obliterate the shit out of this thing and be done with it,” Kei said, pushing away from the table. “I don’t know why you left her out cold in Paxton, Ryou. Who knows what the hell that girl’s going to do once she wakes up to find all her blackmail material gone?”
“Not my problem.” Ryou grabbed his coat. “Shin, sorry and thanks for doing this.”
“Where the fuck are you going?” Kei demanded.
Ryou said nothing more and closed the door behind him on his way to Haruki’s apartment.
to be continued