Chapter 16

She smoothed out the wrinkles on her upper clothing and gently closed the stall door.

Ringo hummed a lively tune, exhaled softly, then walked to the bathroom sink, pulled out a pink small pouch from her body, and began retouching her makeup in the mirror.

Her eyeliner had smudged, the glossy lip oil had lost its color from drinking, but her foundation remained intact...

"Ding-ding-ding!"

A cheerful phone ring interrupted Ringo's makeup rhythm.

With her left hand focused on lining her eyes, she replied indifferently to the caller: "I know, it's only seven-fifty—still an hour till I need to go home."

"... I'll take care of myself. It's just the last gathering before I quit the club—Kizushi and Meiling said they're going to cram school, so I'm alone..."

"Bye."

After hanging up, Ringo stared at her brand-new Q-version character phone case, flipped it face-down on the sink, and resumed her makeup.

After a few minutes, seeing the sweet, youthful, radiant girl reflected in the mirror, Ringo finally left satisfied.

The corridor still glowed with warm, dim yellow lights; wave-themed ukiyo-e stickers adorned the walls; laughter and singing from passing private rooms drifted out faintly.

Ringo cast a disgusted glance.

In this place overflowing with desire, no one was normal.

She re-collected herself and re-entered the private room; the stench of alcohol and the dry air-conditioning wind made her feel sick.

Takagi Ryosuke and Ishida Kawakami, during brief pauses between singing duets, shoved bottle after bottle into their mouths, gulping wildly until their brains succumbed to alcohol's numbness and they collapsed onto the sofa.

—From the accounts of Okura Sa'u, Hiramatsu, and Taniguchi.

"Ringo-san, have you seen Niino-kun? He left before you." After casually explaining the condition of the two collapsed on the sofa, Okura Sa'u immediately asked about Niino Li.

It felt like he had been gone a long time.

"What's there to worry about? He just went to the bathroom. Or are you planning to do something secret with him?" Hiramatsu teased half-jokingly as Okura Sa'u pressed further.

Normally, Okura Sa'u was the center of the party, lively alongside the two drunkards on the sofa—but today, his behavior was extremely unusual.

Or rather, two extremes.

"I've got my eye on Niino-kun, Okura-kun—are you trying to compete with me?" Ringo sat at the edge of the sofa, smiled faintly across the coffee table at him.

Only Taniguchi remained silent, sitting there silently downing alcohol, as if he cared about nothing.

Then Hiramatsu reached for the whiskey on the low table and swallowed it like water; his face instantly turned a corpse-like purplish-brown.

The thumping music surged like a night storm, rising and falling without pause.

"Taniguchi! Hiramatsu! What's wrong with you?" Okura Sa'u instinctively straightened up, watching the two who wouldn't stop, finally realizing something was wrong.

Ringo sat motionless on the sofa, her eyes smiling faintly ahead, as if frozen in shock.

"Ringo-san, please call an ambulance!"

He gritted his teeth and stepped forward to wrench the bottles from their hands.

But the two frenzied men possessed astonishing strength—they swung their arms and knocked Okura Sa'u away, bit through the glass bottle rims, and swallowed the brownish liquor mixed with shards.