My Taste Is Off As I Expected!

Despite the abrupt end of his lecture on Stalking 101, Kogoro wanted to continue teaching his cross-dimensional, imaginary students. The feeling of explaining something to a group of people that could do nothing but nod along was exhilarating!

In his past life, Kogoro was a low level employee, who went to work seminars every so often. The problem was, none of the lecturers in those seminars were as patient as him when imparting their wisdom. That, and the lecturers more often than not were graying, old men in their 50s. As a result, his mind often wandered, seeking out something to alleviate his boredom.

But why was now, in the middle of his date with Velma, his mind couldn’t help but wander? The answer was not because he didn’t find her attractive, but because she had talked nonstop for an hour and a half about something totally foreign to him. Still, Kogoro was a mother-father gentleman (thank you PSY). He tried hard to discreetly peeked at his phone, and try to find out the gist of what she was talking about.

Still, Velma was too observant of a woman, and she figured out what Kogoro was doing after ten minutes in. But instead of putting her off, it excited her, that this hunk of a man tried so hard for her even if he didn’t have the technical background to understand her technobabble. If Kogoro knew what she was thinking, he would have definitely vomited blood.

“...so that’s why the invoice that they sent couldn’t be processed by the web server at all!” Velma explained, her form almost vibrating with excitement. Kogoro nodded along, still maintaining his calm after she let another spiel of words which went over his head.

“Did the guy accusing you at least apologize?” Kogoro tried to steer the conversation again, for the nth time today.

“Nah, and I don’t need him to. I don’t really care about the opinion of someone I don’t like.” Velma cutely waved her fist, clearly still resented the suspect no. 2 that they were talking about.

Suspect no. 2 in Yuko Ikezawa's case was one of the department heads at the talent agency Hexagon, where Miss Yuko was signed. His name was Takeshi Katou. Kogoro suspected him because according to Rukia, he repeatedly hit on female artists, and those who reciprocated his advances moved up the ladder quite quickly.

One thing that held Kogoro up from locking his name as the one who held Miss Yuko's career back was the fact that none of the artists who rejected the 'shortcut' suffered any backlash before.

Of course, this could be an exception, but in order to be sure, Kogoro decided to withhold his judgment.

"I couldn't imagine a man staying mad that long with a woman as ditzy as you. Maybe he secretly liked you or something?"

Velma pouted, "What do you mean, ditzy!? Hmph, and here I thought you were a nice man, Kogoro!"

Kogoro just chuckled at her puffed up cheeks, "Haha, you're cute when you are angry too."

Velma looked down on her lap, shyly grasping her skirt. Then, as if mustering her confidence, she raised her head, "He didn't come at me at all. In fact, the only man that thinks I'm pretty is only you, Kogoro!"

Surprised, Kogoro said, "Really?"

Velma nodded again, before she tucked her hair behind her ears.

"Well, it's their loss then. How about we walk around a little bit? There's a lot of nice places in this area that people rarely visit, and…"

It was Velma's turn to listen to Kogoro babbling along now, but unlike him, she just smiled sweetly. For her, the sight of Kogoro happily talking was one of the sweetest things she had ever seen.

***

"I'm super tired…"

Kogoro sagged into the couch of his office. He just returned from his date slash information gathering with Velma, and she was proving to be a gold mine.

He was finally sure of his deduction about this case. Even though this time, it took him much longer compared to his first case.

After their date, Kogoro had come clean to her about his intention. She wasn't surprised, but looked a little sad when he said that.

Kogoro, seeing her bitter smile, couldn't help but say, "Just because I'm doing it for a case doesn't mean I don't enjoy my time with you! So, why don't you work for me in the agency? That way, we can see each other every day."

Her surprise turned into happiness, but then regret. It turned out her visa was expiring soon, and she had an offer that she couldn't refuse already.

"Then I'll be waiting for you here!" Kogoro had said, before he took her lips gently. Before they parted ways, she finally made the promise of working for him in the agency, and left with a content smile on her face.

And now he was here, alone in his office, with the list he had been carrying around the last couple days. He scratched the final name on the list, Takeshi Katou.

Kogoro then took a pencil, turned the paper over on the table, and started lightly filling the page with pencil strokes. When it was full, some lines were left on the paper, not covered by the graphite.

"Baa-chan. I want to submit my deduction for this case."

[Ding!]

[Congratulations to the host for correctly deducting the true nature of the case!]

[Congratulations to the host for obtaining the item: Healing Dog Bone]

The System's scathing words failed to rouse a response from Kogoro this time. Although he could be happy about the reward and angry about the remark, the emotion that filled him right now was a sad acceptance. It still felt like a joke, even though he knew it was not.

Kogoro left out a deep sigh, before placing the paper inside the drawer. Before he closed it, the lamp above him highlighted the name on the paper:

RUKIA KAZUMOTO

~To Be Continued~

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A/N: I'm stuck writing on my phone again. Please let me know if there's a mistake, because I don't have an editor yet. Anyway, i want to thank all of you who has supported my writing, especially for my first patron Dragon_knight240!

Once again, thank you!

segalengko69