Dangerous Souls

Post Case 5

Post Case 5- Truths

February, Monday, 5:43 P.M.

A week later, Mai was back in her apartment and her friends had been helping her catch up after missing two weeks of school. She hadn't been back to work all week, but she was assured that Shouta had finally stopped looking for her. To her knowledge, he wasn't violent and it wasn't difficult for him to get the picture. He believed that she moved away. She took special precautions to make sure he couldn't find her, she changed her phone number in her apartment.

That morning was the first time she went running with Tsubame, who made sure that their route was no where near where Shouta would be. Mai was grateful that her friend was willing to go to such lengths, but she also felt like a burden. She tried to shake the feeling away.

Now she was with Hozumi, she told him briefly about the case she had been on and how her friends were willing to help get rid of her ex. But there was one thing that she had to resolve. One thing that had been bugging her for the last month. "Are you sure you want to do this?" the young man asked outside of the store.

Mai took a deep breath and tightened her grip on the object in her pocket. "Yeah. I have to know," she said with a nod. Hozumi opened the door and the two of them walked into the cell phone store.

You see, before she and Shouta broke up, Mai had been having issues with contacts being deleted. She had believed it was just a glitch with her phone and meant to get it looked at, but had forgotten. Now, after realizing what kind of man her ex was, she wasn't sure what to believe. After all, he gave her the phone.

She had separated the phone from the battery and presented both to the man behind the counter. She awkwardly looked up at Hozumi and he did most of the talking. She really didn't know how to explain any of it. She was just glad her eye had almost fully healed and barely required makeup to cover it up. The employee took the phone and plugged it into the computer behind him.

"Are you okay?" Mai looked up and saw Hozumi looking worriedly at her. She hadn't realized she was holding her breath.

"Yeah," she breathed. She just wasn't sure whether or not to be afraid of the answers they would find. She didn't have to wait long, the employee was back within minutes.

"Okay," the man said, placing the phone on the counter. "You and your boyfriend's phones were connected to the same account," he explained. "He most likely did that because he was paying for the plan, but it made your contacts linked. So when he added a contact it would show up on your phone, and when you deleted one, it would delete from his phone as well."

Or if it were the other way around...Mai thought bitterly. She didn't know what to feel with this information. She was glad she knew the truth, but still...Somewhere deep down, she hoped she had been wrong. Hoped that Shouta hadn't given her this phone just so he had more control over her. "Can..." She drew a breath. "Is he able to track this phone? Is there like some sort of GPS thing in there that would tell him where I am?"

The employee looked between the two people in front of him, a little confused. "Yes, actually," he answered, and Mai's heart sank. Was he going to look for her now that the phone was online again? "But I turned it off when I plugged it in," the man explained. "The battery was dead and the tracking feature makes the charging process longer."

"Were there any other features that he never told her about?" Hozumi asked.

"Well, you both had access to each other's text messages," the man said, pulling up the contact for one of Shouta's friends. He tapped a button and Mai was looking at a conversation she never had. "This looks like one of his friends, it's almost like a group chat, but two separate conversations. You could see his and he could see yours."