Chapter One: Reunions
"Neku?"
That name. It's my name.
The thought registered in the boy's mind, but he didn't stir.
"Neku?"
He was okay just lying there. Floating in his personal darkness.
Whoever was calling him made an irritated noise.
"Come on Nekky dear. Wakey, wakey."
Neku woke with a start, sitting bolt upright on his bed, "Joshua!" His head snapped left and right, eyes darting around for any sight of the pale haired boy. He knew Josh wasn't there. How could he? Yet he could've sworn he heard that mocking giggle. Faintly, as if carried by the wind.
He slid back into his bed, eyes wide and awake. It had been only a short time since the game had ended. A month or so.
"Why am I even thinking about that asshole?" growled Neku to nobody in particular. He still hadn't forgiven him. For countless reasons...but... He shook his head, and covered his eyes with his pillow, willing himself to fall asleep.
Neku adjusted his headphones and shoved his hands in his pockets. He didn't wear them on his ears; they bounced loosely around where they hung on the back of his neck. He couldn't really bring himself to get rid of them. They reminded him so much of the Games. He kept them there as a sort of memento. He sighed, running a hand through his flame orange hair. The statue of Hachiko was up ahead.
A faint smile lit his features as he thought of seeing his friends again. Beat, Rhyme, Shiki. She had even begun to bring Eri along sometimes, the two were almost inseparable.
He reached the statue, but aside from the few people hanging straggling around the area. His friends were nowhere to be seen. That was strange; he checked the clock on his cell phone. They were all supposed to meet at 2:30. And right now it was- Neku's eyes snapped open in surprise. "1:00!"
That was impossible. He had left the house at that time! Had his cell phone stopped working? He looked up and around, jogging over to a schoolgirl who was fiddling with the straw of her soda. "Excuse me." He said. She turned to look at him, confused.
"Er, hi?" she eyed him curiously.
"Do you know the time?" he said, skipping the formalities. The girl looked more confused as ever, flipping her plush pink phone open, and checking the time with a quick glance, eyes hesitant to leave Neku in case he was pulling some sort of trick on her.
"It's 1:00, why?" she flipped her phone back closed, putting it back into her handbag.
Neku's eyes narrowed, "Okay. Thanks." He turned to walk away, hearing the clatters as the girl quickly seized her things and marched away hastily.
He slowly walked back to the statue. Scrolling through a list of possibilities. They forgot, they rescheduled and he didn't get the message, both of them, his and that girls, phones were wack...
"Hello Neku."
The voice made the orange-haired boy freeze. Of course. Only one person would do something like this, could do something like this. He looked up as the one person he had dreaded to see step out from behind the statue, ashy hair ruffling slightly in the soft breeze. Joshua.
"Miss me?"