Chapter 8: Why we said no to A5 Kobe beef

Thursday, 1 May, 20XX - Part 2

We stood next to the car. Yui was holding the metal box she took from her parents. It was locked.

“Do you have the key?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I didn’t plan on stealing the box. It’s just that yesterday there was a chance to take it, so I did.”

I see. It was a crime of opportunity.

“My mother and stepfather were sleeping in yesterday morning because it was Golden Week. So I took the box and smuggled it to the station. By the time they woke up, it was time for us to go to the dinner, so we rushed out of the house. They never had a chance to notice that the box was gone.”

“W-Wow.”

Yui took a huge risk. It was a crazy tightrope to walk, but she managed to do it.

“You said there’s important documents in here, right?”

“I’m not sure. But I know my mother put our health insurance cards in here.”

Yui didn’t have the key, and we were in the middle of the countryside. We picked up a rock by the roadside and used that to smash open the lock.

We opened the box with bated breaths. It felt like we were opening a forbidden treasure chest.

““Ah!”” We sounded at the same time.

Inside we found several credit cards, ATM cards and envelopes filled with cash.

“It’s the money my stepfather took when he searched my room!” Yui exclaimed.

“Wait, how do you know it is yours?”

“Here, look.” She pointed to a corner of the envelope. There was a small red dot. “I mark all of my envelopes like this.”

She took out the envelopes from the box I dug out of from behind the bathroom and pointed to a corner. They all had the same red mark.

“I marked all of them, just in case something like this ever happens.”

We continued to dig through the box. The credit cards were all valid.

"Should we use these credit cards?" Yui said hesitantly. She stared at the credit cards, as if she was bewitched by them. She swallowed nervously. Her eyes began to sparkle."Yes, let's use the credit cards. Wanna get some A5 Kobe beef? I heard it costs 30,000 yen per 150 grams at a restaurant. Oh! And maybe we can buy new shoes. The new ones! And – how about we buy new phones! Haruto, let’s go on a shop till you drop shopping spree!”

She grabbed my hand, as if she was going to drag me to a shopping mall. 

Her hands felt cold. She was grinning, but her expression was stiff. She wanted to spend all this money, and at the same time, she seemed to feel uneasy about it. 

It was tempting to use her parents’ money, to stop with abandon, and I almost wanted to give in to this temptation…

But –

“Uhm...it's better if we don't use these...No, we shouldn’t use this, even as a last resort.”

Yui pouted. I could practically see cuts of high grade beef floating above her head.

So she had a gluttonous side too. Although now that she mentions it, I was also curious about these kinds of food. I had no idea what Kobe beef even tasted like. Sushi was a distant memory.

“Come on! There is no need to hesitate.” She waved the credit card in front of me.

I took a breath. “I understand why you want to do some revenge spending, but we’d be ruining our journey if we did that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Every credit card transaction is recorded. These days, people get a notification on their phones informing them of a transaction the moment it is made. Information like when and at what store the credit card was used will be immediately visible.”

“Ah – “ Her expression turned glum. “I guess we can’t use this then…”

Our attention returned to the box. There were more things in there. 

Underneath those cards were more white envelopes. They were thick and heavy. They didn’t have the red dot in the corner.

My heart pounded in my ears. I was sure Yui’s was beating hard as well.

She opened one of the envelopes. They were stuffed to the brim with 10,000 yen notes.

“YES!” she cried out. “There’s so much of it! I had no idea they had all of this. Praise the Buddha! Hail the Three Treasures!”

I wasn’t sure how the Buddha would feel about her using His name like this to feel glad about stolen money – but it should be fine.

Altogether, there were three envelopes, each filled with one million yen.

“Why would they have so much cash locked away in a box?” Yui asked. “Wouldn’t adults usually put this much cash in a bank account?”

“Erm…”

I averted my eyes. I knew the answer.

I decided to clarify things first.

“Yui, what kind of job do your parents have?”

“My mother works part-time jobs, but my stepfather…I think he used to work in nightclubs or something like that. My mother complained before that his salary is always paid out in cash. He said it’s better this way, but I don’t really understand why.”

I said, “This way he doesn’t have to pay income tax. Cash payments are untraceable.”

“Huhn?” Yui tilted her head slightly.

“Uhm…never mind. I’ll explain later.” Now wasn’t the time to explain how income tax worked. While my mother was at work, it was my job to take care of such paperwork. And after her passing, I took care of everything else as well.

We opened all of the envelopes, as well as some of the petty cash that was stuffed into the box. After counting it twice, we had 3.2 million yen and change from her parents envelopes.

Huh…

So that was all the money her stepfather managed to save.

“If this is all the money he saved, it would make sense that there’d be more,” I said.

My mother worked part-time jobs and saved 10 million yen. 3.2 million was on the modest side.

“I think he spent a lot of it on pachinko,” Yui said. “Mother always complained that he spent too much of his paycheck before bringing it home.”

Scumbags like that really existed in this world.

There were seven hours until the traffic lights were scheduled to go out. For now, we decided to drive to the next town.

The town was quiet, the weather pleasant. There were barely any cars on the streets. A few people were walking here and there. The children were at school, the adults at work. The world continued to turn.

For now, we went to a 24 hour manga cafe to take a shower. After taking a shower, I fell asleep inside one of the private booths. By the time I woke up, it was 2pm.

Crap.

Only two more hours until the lights go out.

“Yui.”

I knocked on the door to her booth.

“Hnghh…”

She opened the door. Her hair was disheveled, her eyes half open. Even though she was fully clothed, I still had the sense that I was seeing something I shouldn’t.

I averted my eyes.

“Haruto?” She rubbed her eyes.

“It’s 2pm. We should go.”

“Oh!” The sleep instantly vanished from her eyes.

We quickly gathered our things, then left the manga cafe. After driving for a few minutes, decided to stop at a small local restaurant at the edge of town. It only served thick cut pork steaks. We made our orders, guzzled down a few glasses of cold water, and waited for our food.

Yui’s stomach was audibly rumbling. She wrapped her arms around her stomach and shot me a look.

“I’m really hungry…”

“I know. Me too.”

Almost as if greeting her stomach, my stomach rumbled too. Yui grinned.

A TV mounted on the wall was showing a news broadcast.

“Excuse me,” Yui raised her hand. “Would it be okay to put on the baseball game? I’m curious about the score.”

“Ho-ho!” The chef sounded from the kitchen. “You’re a fan of the Sharks, I see.”

“You’re a fan of baseball?” I asked.

Yui leaned closer.

“No, I don’t care about baseball. I just wanted them to change the channel. My parents will have noticed by now that I’ve run away. There might be a report on the news.”

The traffic lights hadn’t gone out yet. There would be nothing to overshadow the news of tearful parents making a public appeal for their daughter to come back home.

“How do you know there’s a baseball game going on?” I asked.

Yui shrugged. “There’s always a baseball game going on.”

She might be a little clueless about adult things like credit card records and income tax, but she was extremely street smart and quick witted.

The pork steaks were served, along with generous servings of rice and cabbage.

Yui ate with gusto. Devouring her steak, eating every last grain of rice. I had never seen anyone eat with so much enthusiasm.

“Haruto! This food is amazing!”

Her eyes shone like jewels.

I thought the food was good, but not great.

Just what were her parents serving her at home? I decided not to ask. It might ruin her appetite.

After we finished our food, there was just half an hour until 4pm.

Half an hour until the deadline.

We had to quickly find a safe place to watch the chaos unfold.

“Let’s hurry,” I said quietly.