The Gods Are Fighting Over Me - Chapter 2

Pale golden sunlight crept along the hallway, getting sliced into a continuous string of diamonds by the windowpanes.

Kenji Hagiwara sat idly on a bench, holding a can of coffee that he had already taken a few sips from.

Colleagues in police uniforms and suits walked back and forth, their passing forms cutting the patches of light into moving flecks of gold.

Light and shadow shifted across Kenji’s body. He kept his head down, his eyelids half-closed, his purplish-blue eyes hiding a deep, somber mood.

“Fancy seeing you here, Officer Hagiwara.” A woman’s voice, tinged with a bit of excitement, rang out from down the hall. Yumi Miyamoto, a traffic cop in a short skirt, walked toward him with a big smile and waved.

His thick eyelashes cast a trembling shadow. When Kenji looked up at her, a smile had already sprung to his lips. “Miyamoto-chan, is something up?”

“I was looking for Mihoko, just happened to be passing by.”

Kenji smiled and raised an eyebrow. “The Criminal Investigation Division is on the fifth floor, though. This is the eleventh.”

“Oh, come on! Don’t call me out like that.”

Yumi laughed, putting her hands on her hips in front of him. She got straight to the point. “There’s a mixer tomorrow night. Are you in?”

Kenji gave a wry smile and waved his hand. “Please, have mercy. My girlfriend would kill me.”

Yumi’s eyes widened in shock. “Huh? I thought you guys had already…”

She stopped herself, quickly swallowing the rrest of her words.

“Already what?” Jinpei Matsuda appeared out of nowhere. He held a half-eaten energy bar, walked past Yumi, and sat down next to Kenji.

Yumi scratched her face and let out a string of awkward laughs before quietly replying, “Officer Hagiwara has seemed really off for the past few months, so we thought you and your girlfriend had broken up. Just to be sure, we even watched you for two months before deciding to ask.”

She put her hands together in apology. “My bad. I should’ve figured out the situation first before inviting you.”

Kenji waved her off, unbothered, and countered with a grin, “I thought I was hiding it pretty well. Is it that obvious?”

“Not really. You always smile at everyone, so you hide your feelings pretty well. But you’re the most popular guy in the department, so more than half of the single female officers have their eyes on you. Of course, they’d notice.”

Jinpei took a bite of his energy bar and joined the conversation. “He even overslept this morning. When I woke him up, he was like a deflated balloon.”

Kenji let out a slow sigh, his back slumping as if he’d lost all support. “It’s not exactly a complete breakup, it’s just…”

He managed a tired smile. “Miyamoto-chan, could you… Give me a little time to think about the mixer?”

Yumi nodded in understanding. “Breakups are definitely painful. Don’t force yourself, Officer Hagiwara.”

Kenji’s voice went up at the end as he put on a wounded look. “Come on, I haven’t broken up with her. Miyamoto-chan, don’t jinx me. I’ll get mad, you know.”

“You should go,” Jinpei said, his left cheek bulging as he finished the last piece of the energy bar. “It’ll be a good distraction. Besides, you might find someone you like, right?”

Kenji couldn’t help but scowl at him. “You’re the last person who should be giving me relationship advice.”

Jinpei shrugged, unfazed.

“Officer Matsuda is right. You should come, Officer Hagiwara. You might just meet someone you fall in love with at first sight.”

Yumi held up a finger and leaned in conspiratorially. “This time, we have a new girl coming. They say she’s a super cute foreign exchange student.”

Kenji’s expression was a mix of helplessness and amusement. “Miyamoto-chan, you’re still the same, aren’t you? You just go to these mixers to drink like crazy and show no interest in the guys who show up.”

Yumi chuckled, her eyes full of hope as she looked at him.

But Kenji just stared back in silence, slowly shaking his head. “Sorry, Miyamoto-chan. I haven’t figured out how to handle things with my girlfriend yet, so I can’t give you an answer.”

Yumi sighed in disappointment and nodded. “What a shame. I was so sure I could get you this time. I even promised my colleagues I’d get the most popular heartthrob in the whole department to show up.”

Kenji smiled, pointing to his childhood friend beside him. “If you want a heartthrob, Jinpei’s right here. Just look at his face, he’s handsome enough to be a game character.”

Yumi immediately put her hands together above her head in a pleading gesture. “Officer Hagiwara, please have mercy on me. Officer Matsuda would ruin the mixer. Every time, he just sits there eating, then he starts analyzing everyone as if they’re his research subjects, or he’s just on his phone.”

“Besides, his aura is too strong. Even when he’s not doing anything, everyone feels on edge. The nurse from Beika Hospital ran away screaming last time.”

“Well, Jinpei, that’s what she thinks of you.”

Jinpei and the unreliable junior officer in front of him were on a semi-friendly basis, though this was mostly because she’d ticketed Kenji for traffic violations a few times, and they kept running into each other at the same bars.

He grunted and shot Yumi a teasing glance. “That’s rude. I’ve been with the force longer than you, and my rank is higher. You should use formal language with me, Miyamoto.”

“See? See that look? He’s not even mad, but that’s the look that scares away all the girls I bring.”

Kenji couldn’t help but laugh out loud, though it was a brief moment.

The morning light was warm on his eyelashes, but his smile quickly faded, leaving no trace. He lifted his can of coffee and drank the rest in one go, then looked back at Yumi. “I’ll give you an answer about the mixer before 10 p.m.”

Yumi glanced at her watch. “Alright! I should get back to work anyway.”

She held up her phone and shook it at him. “Waiting for some good news, Officer Hagiwara!” Then she turned and left.

After Yumi was gone, a brief silence fell between the two men.

Jinpei was the first to break it. “Wanna go to a bar after work today?”

“The one he works at?” Kenji didn’t name the person, but Jinpei knew who he meant.

“Yeah.”

Kenji was silent for a moment. “Okay. It’ll be good to hear what he thinks, too.”

“I thought you and your dream girlfriend had broken up a long time ago.”

At the bar counter, Rei Furuya wore a form-fitting bartender’s outfit with a pair of non-prescription glasses. The stainless steel shaker gleamed in the light as ice cubes clinked against the glass.

It was a weekday, so the bar was mostly empty.

Rei placed a blue cocktail in front of Kenji. “Your ‘First Love Girlfriend,’ sir.”

Kenji’s voice stretched out like an elastic band, rippling in the warm, yellow glow of the bar. He tapped the glass. “That’s not fair. I ordered a ‘Mojito.’ I could report you for this, you know.”

“I’m afraid I can’t allow that, customer. It would cost me my bonus,” Rei said with a polite but insincere smile.

A man with three jobs certainly wouldn’t care about a measly bartender’s bonus.

Jinpei rested his cheek in his hand, lazily chiming in, “Serves you right.”

It was hard to tell who he was talking to, or if he was insulting both of them.

The other four from the police academy knew all about Lin Jianyue and had tried to intervene.

No one wanted their friend to date a woman from a dream. It sounded like being bewitched by a ghost, especially when their friend was a police officer who should believe in materialism.

But they respected Kenji’s choice.

And they had also managed to save themselves thanks to Lin Jianyue’s information, so in a way, they owed her one.

Still, none of them expected the relationship to last this long.

Kenji’s fingers tapped the base of the glass before he lifted it and took a big gulp. Unlike the sweet and sour taste he remembered, Rei’s special cocktail was smooth on his tongue. As the liquid washed over his palate, the spicy taste of alcohol mixed with the bitterness of lime zest, like a piece of silk soaked in ice water.

Like the first time we kissed, Kenji thought, unprompted.

Soft, clumsy, and so nervous that her canines had even scraped his tongue.

Kenji stared at his blurred reflection in the glass, lost in focused, troubled thought. After a long moment, he gave a forced, lighthearted laugh. “I was completely dumped. I should probably give up now.”

Kenji set the glass down. He had to work tomorrow, so even though one cocktail wasn’t enough to cloud his senses, he would stop drinking now.

“Dating a woman in a dream… I’ll probably become the police department’s joke of the year.” His voice was as light as a feather, but the words were cut short by the sudden sound of a text message from behind the counter.

Rei glanced at the message, his expression suddenly grim. His eyes were glued to the screen.

The two bomb squad specialists at the counter also turned serious, lowering their voices. “What happened?”

“I’m not sure,” Rei said as he started pulling off his gloves. “I have to get back to the Public Security Bureau right away.”

Without giving Kenji or Jinpei a chance to speak, he grabbed his trench coat from under the counter and dashed out of their sight.

With Rei gone, the huge bar was left with just the two officers and a few attendants chatting in the distance.

One of the attendants, seeing Rei leave, shrugged as if this were a common occurrence and stepped behind the bar to take over.

“My apologies, our bartender had a sudden emergency. I’ll be taking over for you two.”

Jinpei looked at the unfamiliar face and asked curiously, “Will Mr. Amuro get fired for leaving work like that?”

The new bartender’s face twitched for a second as he tried to maintain a smile, a hint of gnashing jealousy in his tone. “There’s nothing we can do. Mr. Amuro is the face of this bar. His rare mixed-race looks and his masterful bartending skills attract a steady stream of connoisseurs.”

Jinpei simply raised an eyebrow, saying nothing.

In his white Mazda, Rei’s knuckles turned stark white as he gripped the steering wheel.

Yuya Kazami’s voice came through his Bluetooth headset. Rei’s pupils instantly constricted, his blond hair casting a mottled shadow on his face.

He probably knew what had happened to Kenji’s “girlfriend.”

But he had something far more urgent to deal with.

Rei let out a frustrated click of his tongue and floored the gas pedal. The white Mazda shot down the empty road like a cheetah, the moonlight casting a cold gleam on its body.