Chapter 13: You haven't given me a kiss yet

Friday, 2 May, 20XX - Part 3

“You are Iyama Haruto, correct? Could you please come with us?”

I blinked.

What did he just say?

“Y-Yes…I’m Iyama Haruto…” I stammered.

“We’re looking for you. Please come with us to the station.”

W-Wait, no. I don’t understand. Why are the police looking for me? Shouldn’t they be looking for Yui?

If they take us to the police station, they will see our student IDs and find out that we are both still high schoolers. They will also discover the large amounts of money and bank cards we have in the car—things high schoolers shouldn’t have. They will contact Yui’s parents. Our journey will be over.

Calm down. Delay as much as possible until I can find a way to get out of this.

“Uhm…could you please tell me what the matter is? This might be a misunderstanding.”

“You match the photo and name we have received. Please do not worry. There is nothing wrong. Your father is looking for you.”

The police officer looked at me. I averted my eyes, my heart pounding in my chest. The ground underneath shifted, my vision felt hazy.

My father was looking for me?

“I don’t understand…”

“We will explain everything at the station. Please come with us.”

This time he was more insistent.

Somebody grabbed my arm. It wasn’t the police officer. I turned my head and saw that it was Yui hanging on my arm.

“Geez~ What’s taking you so long. Let’s go to the hotel already~”

She said those words with hearts in her eyes.

Huh…?

What?

My face grew hot. The police officer’s professional mask broke as he looked to the ground, his eyes filled with embarrassment.

“Haru~ You haven’t given me a kiss today yet.”

What? Why is she acting like a clingy girlfriend? I don’t understand. Now isn’t the time for this kind of play! Our entire journey is close to ending.

Yui looked at the police officer. She tilted her head slightly with a quizzical look in her eyes.

“Officer, is something wrong?”

“Ah…” He cleared his throat, regaining his composure. “Iyama Haruto’s father is looking for him. He has been reported as missing, and we have been instructed to help him go home.”

Yui blinked. For a sliver for a moment, her expression was blank, processing the information that had been presented to her. Then she quickly put on her ‘clingy girlfriend’ mask again.

She clung to me even harder this time, as if telling me to just go along with her act for now. I could feel her heartbeat against my arm. 

“Haruto! How can you be so forgetful! Geez! You always cause others to worry about you.”

She pouted adorably.

I knew she was putting on an act, but I still couldn’t help but feel that she’s cute. She clearly wanted to take the lead. I assume she had something in mind, although I couldn’t imagine what kind of scheme of hers could get us out of this kind of trouble.

“Officer! We are on our honeymoon holiday! We are using Haruto’s father’s car for a road trip we’ve been planning for a long time. Geez! Haruto, you forgot to tell your father that we’re borrowing his car. And I reminded you before, too! We’re expecting a child! How can you be so unreliable!”

She slapped my arm with enough force to make it hurt.

“Your honeymoon?” the officer asked.

Yui answered. “We just graduated from high school. You see…uhm…we’re expecting a baby girl, so we decided to get married immediately after graduating.”

“Y-Yes. I want to take responsibility,” I said stiffly.

Yui put a hand on her stomach. “I can feel that she is going to be a beautiful baby girl. We haven’t decided on a name yet, but I can feel that she is going to be wonderful. Don’t you think so, officer?”

She peered at him with joy and love radiating around her.

The police officer looked confused for a moment, as if he was unsure of what to do. He scratched the back of his head.

“Uhm…in any case, please come with us to the station so we can clear up this misunderstanding. Once we have reached the station, we can contact Iyama Haruto’s father to confirm the information.”

Crap, he is refusing to let us go. It was quite typical of him to want to do everything by the book.

“But it will delay our schedule,” Yui whined.

“I’m afraid there is no other way.”

“We just need to get confirmation from Haruto’s father, right? In that case, let me call father-in-law. That way we don’t need to go all the way to the station.”

“That – “

“I’ll go get my phone. Darling, wait here, okay?”

Before anyone could say anything, Yui went back to the car with a spring in her step, the very image of a newlywed wife who was deeply in love.

That’s strange. Yui usually had her phone in her pocket. Why did she have to go back to the car?

Oh well…

She must have some kind of plan.

I could’ve gone back to the car with her and then we could’ve tried to outrun the police, but that wasn’t an option. Our little Kei car could barely go fast enough to drive on the highway. The police car was a far more powerful model. We would never be able to get away.

“Erm…I’m very sorry about my girlfriend – I mean, wife. She can be quite pushy sometimes.”

“…yes…I understand. Uhm…congratulations on your child.”

“Thank you…”

The police officer and I had no idea what to say to each other. This was an extremely unusual situation. Our brains were drawing blanks regarding what to say. The police officer looked quite young too. I heard new police officers were usually sent to positions in the countryside before they were promoted to more prestigious positions in the larger cities. Everyone wanted to live and work in Tokyo and only the ones with the most achievements were sent there.

His inexperience may be working to our advantage.

Five minutes passed. Then ten. What was Yui doing?

“Does your wife need help?”

“I’m not sure…”

Yui came back. She was speaking to someone on the phone.

“Yes, that’s right. Father-in-law, I’m sorry about our stupid Haruto. We wanted to go on a trip into the mountains. The red Kei car is with us. Yes…the doctor said the fresh mountain air would be good for the baby. If you could explain everything to the police officer…yes, one moment.”

She pressed something on the screen, then handed the phone over to the police officer.

He put the phone to his ear.

“Sir, is this – yes, I apologize for interrupting you during such a busy time. I understand. Mh…yes, I can see that. Thank you.”

He handed the phone back to Yui.

Huh? Who did he just talk to on the phone?

“Can I check your car?” he asked.

I gulped. Why did he want to check the car? Was he suspicious of something?

He went to the front of the car and checked our license plate. He made a satisfied nod.

“It seems everything has been sorted,” he said to both of us. “I apologize for interrupting your journey. Please be careful on your way.”

“Mh…yeah…”

“Haruto, let’s go~”

I was about to go back to the car, when Yui stopped me.

“Ah, office. I almost forgot.”

I peered at her. What the hell did she still want? The police officer told us that we could go. Shouldn’t we get away as quickly as possible?

She wrote something down on a piece of paper and handed it to him.

“This is my phone number. Please call me if there is anything you need from us.”

“Thank you very much. I will take good care of this.”

He made a slight bow. We did the same.

She grabbed my arm and almost dragged me into the car.

Yui and I got into the car. As soon as the doors were closed, Yui’s lovey dovey newlywed wife act stopped.

“Drive away slowly,” she said. “Don’t make them think that we’re trying to get away.”

I started the engine, pulled onto the road and drove away at below the speed limit. In the mirror I could see the police car driving behind us.

“Why are they still following us?” I asked.

“Don’t worry,” Yui said, although she only sounded half convinced.

At the next intersection, the police car made a turn. It gradually drove further away until we could barely see it anymore.

I let out a deep breath. It felt like my heart was about to burst.

“Yui, what did you do?”

She grinned and made the peace sign.

“Heh-heh~ Let me explain.”