The V-tuber Who Became Obsessed With Me

Chapter 111: The procedures of disappearing

( this Chapter is told from Ethan’s prospective)

The knock came just as I was pouring my first cup of coffee.

I’d managed maybe three hours of sleep.

Not enough for my body to recover. Just enough to remind me how tired I was.

I set the mug down and rubbed at my eyes before making my way to the front door.

Nine o’clock.

Whoever it was had excellent timing.

I unlocked the door.

Susan stood in the hallway, dressed in a charcoal blazer over a cream blouse, dark sunglasses resting on top of her head. Tucked beneath one arm was a thick leather document case with polished brass clasps.

She looked from my face to the untouched coffee behind me and smiled.

"I was going to say good morning, but judging by your face, I think I’ll settle for good luck."

I stepped aside.

"Come in."

She walked past me as though she’d been visiting my apartment for years, taking in the familiar space with a quick glance before setting the leather case carefully on the dining table.

I closed the door behind her.

My eyes never left the case.

"That was fast."

"I told you."

She rested both hands on the table.

"When you have enough money and you know the right people, twenty-four hours is actually a very long time."

I frowned.

"You actually did it."

She laughed.

"You still don’t believe me."

"I want to."

"But?"

"It feels impossible."

"Most useful things do."

With a practiced motion, she unclipped the brass locks.

Click.

Click.

She folded the lid back.

Inside, the case was divided into neatly labelled sections. Every document sat perfectly aligned, each protected inside transparent sleeves.

She began sliding them across the table one at a time.

A passport. A driver’s licence. A birth certificate. A Social Security card. Medical records. Employment history. Banking documents. A debit card. A boarding pass.

By the time she finished, nearly half my dining table had disappeared beneath paperwork.

I stared.

There wasn’t just a passport.

There was an entire life.

Every piece connected seamlessly to the next.

The bank account matched the address.

The address matched the utility bills.

The medical records matched the identity.

Even the boarding pass had already been issued under the new name.

And every photograph in the document appeared to be Jade’s...

The exact one he had texted to me .

Slowly, I picked up the passport.

The cover felt genuine beneath my fingertips.

The pages carried the faint texture I’d expect from an official government document.

I tilted it toward the window.

The watermark appeared exactly where it should.

I looked up.

"It looks real."

Susan smiled.

"It is."

I blinked.

She leaned back in her chair.

"Everything on that table is genuine. Real paper, real security features, real registration. The only thing that doesn’t exist is the person." She nodded toward the name printed under Jade’s photograph. "If airport security scans that passport they’ll find exactly what they’re supposed to find. Every document links back to the others. The bank account exists. The tax records exist. The employment history exists. Someone ran a background check on this man and would find a perfectly ordinary life."

I set the passport down.

It was unsettling in a way I had not expected. A person who had never existed, documented more thoroughly than most people I actually knew.

"How?" I asked.

She shifted in her chair . "I’ve worked with people in the public eye for years. Actors, musicians, athletes, internet personalities. You’d be surprised how many of them occasionally need to move through the world without being found. An actress avoiding press after a public breakdown. A singer trying to travel without being followed. Someone with a stalker who has found their home address." She shrugged. "The reasons change. The paperwork is the same."

"You’ve done this before."

"More times than I can count." She looked at the documents on the table. "Most of my clients come back to their real identities eventually." A pause. "I don’t think your friend will."

The room went quiet.

She was right and we both knew it.

I opened the drawer beside the table and took out the envelope I had prepared the night before. A cheque. I slid it across to her.

She looked at it.

"Ethan."

"You spent twenty-four hours making this happen. You called in favours. You dropped everything because I asked at ten o’clock at night."

"So?"

"So you earned it."

She pushed the cheque back. I pushed it forward again. She looked at me for a long moment with the expression of someone deciding whether the argument was worth having.

"I hate it when you’re stubborn," she said.

"I know."

She picked up the envelope. "I’m accepting this for one reason."

"What’s that?"

"So you don’t spend the next week trying to sneak it into my bag."

A quiet laugh came out of me before I could stop it. Genuine, which surprised me. I had not made that sound in a while.

Susan closed the leather folder and toss me the boarding pass. "I’ve already booked him on the earliest available flight. He leaves before sunrise this weekend. By the time anyone notices he’s gone -."

I stared at the boarding pass.

For the first time since walking out of Harrington Prison...

It felt like we’d actually managed to stay one step ahead.

Just this once.

Then—

Three slow knocks echoed through the apartment.

Every thought in my head stopped.

Susan looked toward the hallway.

Another knock.

Then a voice.

"Ethan..."

My heartbeat stumbled.

Raina

"So," Susan said quietly, following my expression toward the front door.

"It looks like we have company."

Another knock echoed through the apartment.

Then Raina’s voice came again, softer this time, but no less persistent.

Ethan... please. I know you’re in there. I can hear your phone."

My eyes shifted automatically toward the narrow console table by the entrance.

My phone lit up.

RAINA CALLING

The ringtone filled the apartment with a quiet insistence that somehow felt louder than the silence surrounding it.

Susan looked at me.

"You going to answer that?"

I stood.

For one brief second, my body moved before my mind caught up.

Two months ago, I would have opened that door before she’d finished saying my name.

Now...

I walked into the hallway, picked up the phone, and pressed the mute button.

The ringtone died instantly.

Outside, Raina spoke again.

"Please... five minutes. That’s all I’m asking."

I slipped the phone into my pocket and stood there for a moment, staring at the door.

I wanted to move.

I wanted to open it.

Instead, I turned around and walked back into the dining room.

"I can’t," I said quietly.

Another knock, then another .

Susan watched me for a long moment before letting out a slow sigh.

"Oh, for God’s sake."

She stood.

"Susan..."

Too late.

She was already walking toward the front door.

I remained where I was.

From the dining room I couldn’t actually see Raina.

Only Susan standing in the doorway after she pulled it open.

Then I heard Raina.

"What are you doing here?"

Susan answered calmly.

"I’m sorry, Raina. Ethan doesn’t want to see you right now."

A few seconds of silence followed.

Then Raina spoke again.

"I’d like to hear that from him."

My chest tightened.

Susan’s voice remained gentle.

"He’s resting."

Another pause.

"That’s okay."

Raina sounded tired.

"I’ll wait."

I already knew what was being said. I knew the shape of it.

I pressed two fingers against my temple and waited.

A few minutes later the front door clicked shut.

Susan came back and leaned against the doorframe with her arms folded, looking at me with an expression that had no judgment in it, which was somehow more difficult to receive than judgment.

Outside, cars passed below the apartment building.

Someone laughed somewhere on the street.

The world continued exactly as it always had.

Inside my apartment...

Everything felt suspended.

Susan finally broke the silence.

"She would’ve stayed out there until sunrise."

I stared at the passport lying in front of me.

"I know."

A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

"So...you’re welcome."

I looked at her and smiled a fake smile " Thank you Susan ".

Because she was right.

Raina was unbelievably stubborn.

It was one of the very first things I’d fallen in love with.

No matter how many times life pushed her down...

She always stood back up.

She never stopped trying.

She never stopped believing the next attempt might change everything.

Susan watched me carefully.

"You still love her."

I did not answer.

But the images came anyway, the way they always came when I did not have enough noise around me to keep them out. Raina at my mother’s kitchen table, laughing at something Nathan had said with her whole face. Jonathan grabbing her hand during a game night and refusing to let go until she agreed to be on his team. The particular way she listened to people, fully, like whatever they were saying was the only thing in the room.

Then the warehouse.

Felix.

Blood on the floor .

Kuro in prison .

The years of things she had not told me.

The passport bent slightly under my grip before I noticed I was holding it.

I smoothed the page carefully and set it back on the table.

"Let’s make sure everything is in order," I said.

Susan did not respond immediately.

When I looked up she was watching me with the patient expression of someone who had already received the answer she was looking for and was not going to make me say it out loud.

She gave a small nod.

Pulled the folder back toward her.

And we got to work.