FC Chapter 1.3

Rei, who had fallen to the ground, touched the asphalt with his palm. He could vaguely see the headlights illuminating the raindrops scattering in all directions.

 

“Hey, you. You did that on purpose!”

 

A man with an earpiece like a bodyguard roughly opened the driver’s seat door of the Rolls Royce and came out. He was raising his voice right away, and it seemed that he had assumed that Rei was a transient scammer trying to get money by pretending to be hit by a car.

 

Now that it’s happened, it wouldn’t be bad to extort money. Rei was angry at the driver’s words, who was only vaguely visible like a ghost, but he soon changed his mind. He was in dire need of cash as he had to run away, and if he used this situation well, he might be able to get enough money to last for a few days.

 

“What’s going on?”

 

A person got out of the back seat of the Rolls Royce, wondering why it had stopped.

 

“N-nothing’s wrong! I’ll take care of it right away.”

 

The driver, who was also a bodyguard, hurriedly took out an umbrella and put it over the man.

 

“I don’t think a fender bender is something to dismiss as nothing.”

 

The man looked down at Rei, who was lying on the floor. He couldn’t see his face well yet because his vision was still blurry, but his voice was young enough to be estimated in his thirties.

 

“I think you were hit by my car, can you move?”

 

The man asked, pushing back the driver who was trying to stop him from getting close to a homeless man whose identity was not clear. As if he had been appreciating opera, the man was wearing a tuxedo.

 

“No. I can’t move at all. This might interfere with my livelihood.”

 

Rei, soaked in the rain, made a groaning sound and stirred. He thought he could get more settlement money than he thought.

 

Judging from the fact that he was ignoring the bodyguard’s advice, the man in front of him was clearly an upper-class person who had grown up well and didn’t know anything about the world.

 

“I understand. Let’s go to the hospital together.”

 

The moment the man reached out his hand, Rei’s face contorted. Damn it, there’s a simple way, but he’s making things complicated.

 

Rei hoped that the bodyguard would give the man a discreet hint, but he was silently holding the umbrella as if he couldn’t interfere with his master’s work.

 

“I don’t have time to go to the hospital. I, uh. Hiss. I have something urgent to do.”

 

He pushed away the man’s outstretched hand and got up, and a groan escaped through his teeth. It wasn’t just pretending to be in pain, there was real pain near his ribs.

 

Rei couldn’t tell whether he was injured when he was ganged up on at the club earlier, or when he was thrown out of the taxi, or whether the fender bender just now caused the problem. The only good thing was that his eyes were returning to normal.

 

“You don’t have to worry about that. This building is a hospital. It’s in the middle of a charity fundraising party, but the emergency room will be open.”

 

The expression suddenly disappeared from Rei’s face. As far as he knew, there was only one large hospital in this area. But if the hospital the man was talking about was ‘that one’, there was no way he wouldn’t have recognized it.

 

Rei threw a look at the building entrance with a face that said not to talk nonsense. But the sign at the building entrance looked familiar. Damn it, that building was the general hospital he had frequented until last year.

 

“I, I don’t need treatment, just give me money.”

 

Rei stepped back, his lips pale. As Rei retreated, the man came closer, and the sound of raindrops bouncing off the umbrella was loud.

 

“I won’t take up much of your time.”

 

“Damn it, I said no!”

 

“Hey, watch your mouth.”

 

The bodyguard stepped forward in anger, but the blond man gestured for him to stay still.

 

“Huff, huff. I really don’t need it… Don’t touch me.”

 

He didn’t care about the settlement money anymore. Painful memories flooded in, and he only repeated in a low voice that he had to run away from here.

 

“Are you on drugs?”

 

The man twisted Rei’s arm, noticing the needle marks. The blond man’s shoulder began to get wet as he came out from under the umbrella the bodyguard was holding.

 

Pain brought Rei back to reality.

 

“Kuh. It’s none of your business.”

 

“Is that why you refused to go to the hospital? How long has it been since you took the drugs?”

 

“Damn it, I told you to mind your own business! Is charity your hobby? Or are you trying to trick me because you don’t want to pay a few hundred dollars in settlement money?”

 

Rei struggled to shake off the man’s hand, which was clinging to him like a leech. It was really annoying. He thought that being a good Samaritan was enough, but if he had known that he was so eager to do unnecessary favors, he wouldn’t have thought of dealing with him in the first place.

 

“Charity is my hobby.”

 

The man, who replied with a light smile, had a strange expression, and suddenly took off Rei’s hood.

 

“I thought you looked familiar, so it was you.”

 

The man stared at Rei with a surprised look.

 

“What’s Dell’s fighting dog doing wandering the streets? Is there something wrong with Colossus?”

 

“You…”

 

Rei’s eyes widened as if they were about to tear. He never thought that the name of the fight club would come out of the mouth of the man who hit him with the car.

 

Curses welled up in his throat.

 

‘How can I be so unlucky?’

 

Knowing that Colossus is a members-only club meant that the man in front of him was Dell’s customer.

 

“You look pale. Let’s go inside first.”

 

“Let go of me!”

 

Rei shook off the man’s arm, which was sweeping back his rain-soaked hair, with all his might. A chill ran down his spine. Now he could see the man’s face properly. Even excluding the fact that he was a member of the fight club, he was by no means a kind or good-natured person.

 

“Being wary is not a flaw, but don’t you think this is a bit too much?”

 

He ran away without looking back at whatever he was saying. He never had any intention of following him in the first place, but now that he knew who he was, he had even less intention of following him. No, chasing after him was crazy. There was no way that a customer of Dell’s would do him a favor without any compensation.

 

Thunder rumbled in the dark sky covered with dark clouds. Rei’s desperate figure was now obscured by the rain.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

The bodyguard, who had been watching, carefully approached and handed the man a towel. The man nodded lightly and got into the Rolls Royce.

 

“I unintentionally scared him.”

 

The man smiled, recalling the eyes of Dell’s most ferocious fighting dog.