Sleeping With Money (MewGulf AU)

🌞Chapter 9🌻

🌞🌻

At the factory, Gulf and Mew were greeted by another water hose.

"Don't come here again! I have no money to give maggots like you!" Rachan snapped.

Gulf wanted to yell back, but a cop car was parked nearby. Shady loan sharks were a real problem in this part of town.

Yakuza always avoided the police as much as possible. They would have to try to collect again later that night, when the cops were not around.

When they left the factory, it was even colder outside than it was yesterday. They both felt chilled to the bone. Gulf's teeth chattered. Mew had gotten doused, too, leaving little puddles of water in his wake.

"Maggots!" Gulf snarled.

Mew laughed at him, looking like a happy boy wo'd just been swimming.

"He eas talking to you, too!" Gulf screamed as they reached the street where he'd parked the Benz. He had a change of clothes inside. But when he got there, his car had been towed away, replaced by a telephone number written on the road in chalk.

Don't give me this shit, Gulf thought, sick with rage and frustration.

He kicked the wall and stormed off, teeth chattering. Even if he tried to flag a taxi to get home, no driver would pick up a wet Yakuza rat. They'd be afraid to get caught up in something dangerous.

"Hmph. Yakuza have it pretty rough, huh?"

Mew was following him down the sidewalk. He'd whispered those words, sounding almost impressed.

"Just shut the fuck up," Gulf snarled. "This is all your goddamn fault."

"So! What are you gonna do now?" Mew asked.

"What?" Gulf questioned back.

Mew checked his rolex. "You told me this was all mh fault. Are you gonna leave me now? You need ten million by the day after tomorrow. It's 11:59 p.m. now. One day left. Got any ideas?"

"If I don't, will you lend me the money?" Gulf said, looking surly. Nothing was going right. Another taxi passed him by.

"You could try a loan shark," Mew said.

How did Mew know about that?

"Already did," Gulf told him. "All I could get was two million."

He'd spent the entire day looking for money. Now the cold and his frustration released themselves in a long, drawn-out sigh. He lost all desire to pretend. He was convinced that nobody understood how broke and how miserable a Yakuza could actually be.

I can't do this.

No way could he get the money now. Nowadays Yakuza needed more than muscle, they needed business savvy. Gulf had the muscle but not the business sense. In this modern world, physical strength was simply obsolete.

He sneezed. He had no hope. He just wanted to disappear.

"Wow. Usually you're so cheerful. Right now you look like a lost puppy," Mew commented.

"Just shut the fuck up," Gulf said.

Mew was persistent as ever. Gulf raised an eyebrow. Did nothing intimidate this guy?

"Wanna come to my place? We can walk there from here. You can take a bath and I'll lend you some clothes," Mew suggested.

"Who the hell wants your help?" Gulf grouched.

He pulled out his cellphone to call First, but the stupid thing was waterlogged and wouldn't work.

"No use?" Mew said dryly.

Frustrated yet again, Gulf throw the phone to the ground.

Would this living hell never stop?

Despite all this, Mew was still smiling.

"Come on. You'll catch a cold," he said kindly grabbing Gulf's wrist to pull him along.

"Let go of me," Gulf protested.

He pulled away, but Mew continued walking, leaving him behind. The man almost looked like he enjoyed being soaked clear though.

Why him?

Gulf glared at Mew's back, but could feel his rage subsiding.

It was strange.

Why wasn't Mew scared of him? What could Gulf do to someone he didn't understand.

And then...

He didn't even know why he followed Mew.

Because it's cold.

That was the excuse he told himself.

No taxi would stop, and his cell was wet. He sneezed again and turned the corner. Mew waited at the crosswalk and pulled something from his pocket.

"I forgot to give you my business card," he said, holding out a card that was damp around the edges.

Gulf looked down at it.

Lovely (Ltd) Kantou Assistant to the Branch Manager.

Lovely?

He'd been had.

"You work for Lovely?" Gulf frowned.

"My grandfather founded the company," Mew admitted. "I'll be the third person to inherit it. I've been off training in New York. Finally got back to Japan last month."

"What?" Gulf muttered. He twitched nervously.

Now he knew why Mew looked like money. Last year, Lovely had made the "top 10 richest companies" list. But behind closed doors, they had a secret business relationship with the Kantou Hinodegumi.

Of course, that didn't mean that Gulf would back down. He couldn't.

"If you need money, we can lend it to you," Mew said, hurrying across the crosswalk.

"Huh?" Gulf blinked.

"Officially, we can't lend to crooks" Mew said. "This will be a special case. We'd need some collateral, of course."

"Really?" Gulf squeaked. His voice had raised a whole octave at Mew's offer to help. If he could just gather enough money now, he could sort it all out later. The knot in his stomach started to unravel.

"Really," Mew assured him.

"But I don't have any collateral," Gulf said. "this will have to be a secret from the gang. I have no house. Even my car is borrowed."

"Your body is fine," Mew said.

Gulf exited the crosswalk and stopped. He turned to see Mew looking at him with piercing eyes.

"Your body will do fine, I said," Mew repeated.

"Hah?" Guld gaped at Mew in astonishment. He couldn't form any other words.

Mew wasn't joking. Gulf knew the offer was genuine.

"Sleep with me," Mew said. "You said it remember? That you loved that moment of ecstasy where nothing matters. I think I could give you that."

"Fuck you!" Gulf snarled.

He hated being toyed with like this. He swiftly raised his knee to Mew's crotch. Mew blocked to avoid him, but Gulf swung back and kicked Mew's face.

It hit clearly this time.

Gulf wanted to hit him again, but his eyes caught the beam of a patrol car coming down the street.

He left Mew and ran into the night.

TBC