Booby Trap!

“They’re here!”

Toko-senpai whispered sharply. Reacting to her words, I followed her line of sight. There, I saw a man and a woman walking, practically glued to each other. They were still some distance away, but there was no mistaking them: it was Tetsuya Kamokura and Karen Mitsumoto.

Kamokura had his arm wrapped around Karen’s back, his hand resting under her left armpit as he pulled her close. Karen, in turn, seemed to be clinging to his chest with both arms. Every so often, Kamokura’s hand would grope around Karen’s chest. Instead of rejecting him, Karen leaned her face even closer to his. Her gaze was locked onto Kamokura’s face, and she was talking to him with an incredibly happy expression. Lately, she hadn’t directed a smile like that even at me. This was the very definition of “flirting without a care for who’s watching.”

The two of them radiated a pheromonal aura that practically screamed, “We’re about to mate.”

“Start recording!” Toko-senpai said in a low but sharp voice. I hurriedly turned on my phone’s camera and captured the two of them in video mode.

Toko-senpai, meanwhile, was aiming a digital camera she had borrowed from an acquaintance. It apparently had a high-sensitivity night mode, allowing her to take photos in the dark without a flash. With a dedicated app, she could even make the subjects’ faces appear much clearer.

Entwined with each other, Kamokura and Karen headed toward the apartment. Then, while “clinging tightly to one another,” they disappeared inside Kamokura’s room. They even went so far as to kiss right in front of the door. Wait until you’re inside to do that! I retorted mentally, but no matter. This made their affair definitive.

My phone vibrated. The screen showed it was Ishida.

“Hey, did you see that?”

“Yeah, I saw it perfectly.”

“Us too. Kazumi-san and I saw everything clearly. We were parked in a different direction, and the two of them walked right past us.”

“Same here. I was watching with Toko-senpai.”

“Hold on a second. I’m switching to speaker.”

The sound from the other end suddenly filled with background noise. I switched to speaker as well.

“Toko, you saw that, right? ‘Playboy-Kamo’ and ‘Bitch-Girl’.”

Kazumi-san’s voice flowed through the speaker.

“I saw it. I took photos. Yu-kun should have the video too.”

“We took photos too. Even the kiss in front of the room. This makes ‘Playboy-Kamo’s’ affair a lock, doesn’t it? He can’t run from this now.”

“Not yet. We can’t say the affair is confirmed with just this!”

I was so startled by Toko-senpai’s words that I stared at her in disbelief. The two of them just went into a private room together. There’s no room left for doubt…

Toko-senpai’s next words answered my unspoken question.

“As things stand now, he could make the excuse that ‘we just went in the room for a second; we had some tea and she left right away.’ Even the kiss—he could dodge it by saying ‘it just looked like that because of the angle.’ To prevent that, they need to stay in that room for several hours—at least two. Otherwise, it doesn’t count as ‘proof of infidelity’.”

Kazumi-san’s voice rang out from the phone, sounding exasperated.

“Are you serious, Toko? Really? This should be enough to confirm the cheating. Do you still want to believe in that guy so badly?”

“That’s not what I mean. Even with married couples, a kiss or simply entering a room together isn’t recognized as infidelity in court. They have to spend a certain amount of time alone! That’s why I want to confirm that much.”

“This isn’t a courtroom, so do we really need to watch for hours?”

“You guys can head home now. Since they’ve entered the room, all that’s left is to confirm what time they come out. I can handle the rest alone. Let’s call it a night for the group.”

“Hey, Toko…” Confusion was mixed in Kazumi-san’s voice.

“Everyone, thank you for today. I’ll thank you properly another time. Good work.”

With that, Toko-senpai pressed the “End Call” button without waiting for a reply.

“Toko-senpai?”

When I spoke to her, she kept her eyes fixed on the apartment door.
“You can go home too. I’ll keep watch on them from here. I’ll return the car tomorrow.”

Toko-senpai turned her face away from me. The light from outside the window backlit her, turning her into a silhouette. I couldn’t see her expression. I didn’t want to leave her alone like this.

“I’ll stay and watch for a bit longer too. Like you said, I don’t want them making excuses about ‘just having tea in the room’.”

After a moment of silence, Toko-senpai muttered quietly.

“Do as you like.”