Hana takes my silence as yes. "Then it's settled. And don't worry, Bopy I won't forget to feed you. Do you want a snack?"
I nod and say, "Yes." To make her go upstairs so that I can have time to think.
She steps away, "I will be back soon." And she heads upstairs. I think to myself, "She is gone. I can finally think in peace." I look around the basement and look at the shelves with sharp tools. "If I somehow manage to reach the tools I can free myself." I try to move my legs but they are heavily tied and I can't move them. "Okay, I need to think of something. I can't do much. Well she loves me so maybe I can use my charm or manipulate her? Wait are they the same thing for me? There's no time to think about it. Let's do this."
I hear footstep coming, Hana comes down and has brought snacks for me, two packs of chips. And also brought a laptop? She then goes to the table and puts the laptop down. And comes towards me.
"Do you like these chips?" She asks me with a kind voice.
I look at her and say, "Yes, they are fine." And then she feeds me and I let her. After she has finished feeding me she moves and brings the table in front of me and opens the laptop, and pulls another chair besides me.
She says with a jolly voice, "I have told you our plan and I thought to do research for it. And decided to include you in it to strengthen our bond."
Normally I would have been unsettled by this but I have a plan in mind.
As she is about to sit down in the chair beside me I take a deep breath and make a cute face and say, "Hana, can you sit in my lap?" Hana pauses and blushes and stammers. "W-what can you repeat that again?"
I repeat it, "Can you sit in my lap?" Hana frantically nods. "Oh! Yes I will gladly fill your request." She then moves and sits sideways on my lap, her right hand wrapping behind my neck. Our heads close and her leg draped over my leg and thigh. She is very happy.
"This is good let's continue the research." The laptop is opened and she uses her left hand on the touchpad and opens YouTube. And types in how to sell house. And clicks on a video. The video continues and after five minute she says, "Oh, I need my parents' signature." She tilts her head and our heads make contact.
She doesn't mind it and says, "I guess I will have to sell the things in my house such as furniture and then save up to buy a van." She grins. "I guess we will have to spend a lot of time together before we buy the van."
I then say to her, "Hana, can you loosen the binds? I am getting uncomfortable." She shows concern for me, clearly doesn't want to ruin this moment and says, "Oh don't worry I will loosen them." She gets off of me and goes behind me to loosen the binds.
"Good, she is a bit irrational when it comes to me." I feel the binds loosen slightly and I can move my legs slightly.
"Is this comfortable enough for you?"
"Yes, this is fine."
She then sits on my lap again and the video continues.
She moves her right thumb to slightly stroke my cheek. The video ends. Hana is content. She says, "This was perfect, Bopy. I feel like you are starting to understand me." She then gets off of me and goes behind me.
"I trust you Bopy, but I am just making sure. The binds are bit loose and you may move and hurt yourself."
"Did she read my plan?!" The thought appears in my mind and I quickly say, "I feel fine. Trust me I won't do anything."
She pauses and says, "I trust you, Bopy. But I am just making sure. I will bring dinner for you just wait." She then very slightly tightens the binds and heads upstairs.
"The binds are still loose. I can probably move towards the shelf and move my arms to loosen the binds more and grab the tools and free myself. But still it's dangerous. I don't know if the front door will be locked or not. I need to think about long term and find out more information." A long term plan crystallises in my mind.
After a while Hana comes down with dinner, I let her feed me after she is done she goes up and gets a pillow for me and place it behind my head and between the chair and says goodnight and turns off the light and heads upstairs.
It's darkness and I close my eyes and sleep. Hana wakes me up the next day and I get surprised. "You aren't wearing your school uniform today?" Hana smiles and replies, "I won't go to school today, I brought breakfast for you. I plan to spend more time with you, I hope you will like that, Bopy."
"So I am stuck with her today, good it's more chance for me to gather information." She then feeds me breakfast and time passes on.
12:30 pm, location: School hallway.
The lunch period has just started and Akira is roaming outside his class and walking in the hallway and then he sees Aizawa aggressively approaching him, and is heading straight for him. She isn't sneaking up but this is more scary. He freezes and doesn't know what to do, so he covers his face and says, "Sorry! I have no interest in literature club." Then silence, he uncovers his face and looks up at Aizawa.
Yuki looks down and says, "This isn't about the club it's about Bopy. He has been absent for two days."
Akira calms down a bit and says, "Oh, he had text me his parents went to the village, so I guess he is at the village?"
Yuki says, "The village? He didn't tell me his parents went to the village. But he said his parents went to the village not him."
Akira says, "Isn't it the same thing? And did something happened to Bopy? He hasn't been replying to my messages, I figured it's bad network of village."
Yuki adjust her glasses and thinks to herself, "I can't directly say it out that Hana did something I need to make him believe something happened." And then Yuki says, "I see, so do you want to check his house after school?"
Akira seems a bit confused and say, "wouldn't the house be locked?" He then puts both hands on his head and says, "Wait, are you implying that his parents are at village and he is skipping school? That's the type of thing I would do! We are close friends and almost have the same mind." He laughs and says, "So you plan to bust him out?"
Yuki is quiet, maybe processing all of this and says, "Huh? Well whatever, we will check Bopy's house after school."
Akira grins and says, "Yes we would." And walks away.
Yuki watches him go and thinks to herself, "What type of friends do you have Bopy?"
School ends and Yuki is waiting for Akira at the front gate of school. Akira has no sense of urgency and meets Yuki.
Yuki gets annoyed a bit and says, "You are 2 minutes late." Akira happily replies, "Oh I was thinking what I will say to him, like yo bro why didn't you told me? We could have chilled together."
Yuki doesn't know what to say and says to him, "Let's move." And moves forward not looking back to see if Akira would follow her.
Akira says, "Hey wait for me." They move and pass the intersection towards Hana's house. Yuki gives a quick glance at the intersection and moves forward. Soon after they reach Bopy's house, the front gate isn't locked. Akira opens it, and head towards the front door it's locked. Yuki is standing behind him.
Akira says, "I guess he is at the village after all."
Yuki says, "Wait watch this." She pulls out her phone from her bag. Akira says, "This means you brought phone to school? I never thought you would be a law breaker, Aizawa-senpai. I guess Bopy taught you some things." Yuki then calls Bopy's phone. And then they hear a ringing sound. Akira gets confused. "what?"
Yuki then moves towards a window and inside there can be seen a living room and on the table there is a phone, it's ringing.
Akira looks at this his smile goes away. "What? He left his phone? That doesn't make sense, surely even if he did while going to the village he would notice it and come back, right? Aizawa-senpai what's going on?"
Yuki firmly says leaving no room for argument. "Hana did something, I am certain of it."
All the colour is drained from Akira's face and he says, "What do you mean by Hana did something?"
Yuki calmly replies but her voice is strained, "Hana made Bopy disappear."
Akira is quiet for a while and then says, "I don't know the full story but Bopy is my friend and so I believe you. And I can help you. I know where Hana lives, our house are in the same intersection, I have seen her walking in front of me and going to her house. We don't talk, we just mind our own business and walk to our house."
Yuki eyes widen, she immediately says, "Monday! Have you seen Hana walking home on Monday? It was the last time I saw Bopy and Hana together in the club room and after that Bopy disappeared."
Akira says, "No, on Monday I went home early. So I didn't see her."
Yuki thinks to herself. "Did Hana time it?" She then asks Akira. "So your house are in the same intersection as Hana and you two have walked in the same road right?"
Akira nods, "Yes it used to be common."
Yuki says, "Used to be common?"
Akira says, "Well I am not in any club and she only recently joined the Literature club. So before she joined the club it was common for us to leave at the same time and walk on the same road. After she joined the club obviously she started leaving late so our times didn't align. But the weird thing is before she joined the club there were times where I didn't see her, so she left late. I didn't pay any attention to it."
Yuki sharply says, "Before joining the club she didn't leave early because she was busy stalking Bopy."
Akira gets goosebumps and he freezes. "That's scary! So what do we do?"
Yuki adjusts her glasses, "I got a plan."
5 pm, location: Hana's house
Hana is sitting next to me on a chair. She has a book open it's the same book about that man and the woman, we are reading it together. I pretend to look interested in it.
I say, "Do you ever have that feeling of being anxious when you put something in your pocket, and keep checking it whether it's there or not? It's annoying for me, so when my parents left I don't carry my house key with me so I keep it under a rock in the yard."
Hana eyes light up in recognition, "Yes I also feel the same way! I guess we two are similar after all."
"If she worships me then why is she keeping me locked up? It would have been way easier if I could just say release me." A random curious thought appears in my mind and I ignore it. And say, "So you got any weird place that you put your key in like me?"
Hana giggles and says, "Yes but you have to make a guess."
"Looks like this is too early, I can't tell if she is seeing through me or is playful." I look at Hana as I think this. "She is smart, she had figured out I was using her. If she is so smart then how she can be this irrational and delusional?"
Hana looks at me and gives me a smile, "You thinking about something?" I quickly reply, "No it's just that I can't make a guess as I haven't seen your house."
Hana puts her finger under her chin and thinks, "Well that's true but we will see about that in future."
Outside the house Akira passes by Hana's house he stops in front of it for a moment before moving forward. "Aizawa-senpai said Hana can't be absent from school for a long time because it will raise suspicion and she will get calls from the teachers. So she has to come to school, and that's where the plan will begin, I am the only one that can follow her without raising any suspicion, but if I abruptly do it she will know something's up, so first of all I have to join a club so that us leaving at the same time is natural, and I have to establish a pattern to let her guard down."
As he walks he thinks of something. "He had asked 'can't we just call the police?"' And Aizawa-senpai had replied, "We don't know if Bopy is kept in Hana's house or somewhere else, if police knock on Hana's door and don't find anything that it will make Hana alert and she will accelerate her plan. So we need to gather information." After a while he reaches his house, "So we have to stalk a stalker huh. What mess did you get yourself into, Bopy?" He then enters his house.