AUTHOR'S NOTATION: The last story I posted was what, 2 months ago? Considering my track record for updates, that actually isn't half bad. Besides, it's summer and I have no excuse for not writing other than laziness and maybe writer's block. But mostly the former. Regardless, please enjoy the piece of writing I decided to write for all you wonderful people.
Disclaimer: Persona and Atlus don't belong to me. I don't own Atlas or an atlas either.
"Damnit…" Minato muttered bitterly. He slammed his glass down on a table and rubbed his face wearily. Alcohol did little to help a headache. The loud music and voices on the lower level of Club Escapade only amplified his pain.
"Yukari… Why?" He mumbled. There was no other girl who had him feel for her in such a way before. He had always been so aloof and uninterested in others, but she had a charm that he was drawn to. Many guys were, but unlike anyone else, he knew he had it in himself to match her allure. And when it came time for him to confess, he was truly confident about himself. But her rejection came down like a ton of bricks on his chest. Was he still not good enough for her?
What'd she see in Junpei, anyway? He was the epitome of what defined a loser: unpopular, moronic and an inept fighter, whereas Minato was superior in each way he thought conceivable: intelligent, strong and good-looking, not to mention unique, with his Wild Card ability. Didn't it make him special in her eyes? Why couldn't he win her over? Was it something else Junpei had that he didn't?
Minato chuckled dejectedly as he swirled the brownish pungent fluid in his glass. He was impressed at how lucidly he was thinking despite how much whiskey he drunk. Still, he felt sluggish and probably looked awful to other people.
"Oy, kid," A gruff voice from the side snapped him out of his thoughts. "You shouldn't just drink your sorrows away; it ain't healthy, trust me," The monk snatched Minato's glass out of his hand as he was taking a sip. "I know from experience. Can't believe you're gettin' so bent out of shape over a girl of all things," Mutatsu sat down beside Minato. "Ya know, I used to get rejected all the goddamn time. No girl would give me the time of the day," He began. "I'll tell you, it took long enough to find someone who was actually interested in me," He pointed a thumb at himself. "And you know what? A few years later, she became my wife. 'Course, she, er, left me a while after that, but that's beside the point," He shook his head. "Look, kid, no matter how hard you try, sometimes you'll never get the girl you want. You just gotta accept it wasn't meant to be." The monk blew on his cigar.
"I tried pretty hard, alright," Minato sighed. "Practically killed myself trying to please her."
"See? And you saw how it worked out for you; you're just wasting your sweat an' tears at that point. So what'cha gotta do is move on, find some other dame who you fancy. And who knows? Maybe they'll fancy you too! Hell, maybe one likes you right now and you don't even know it yet! Haha!" Mutatsu slapped his leg. "Well anyway, go home, sleep it off instead of drowning yourself in booze and you'll feel way better, I promise. I can't take you home myself, but maybe you can get one of your friends – who isn't the girl you just got dumped by – to come an' take you home. With how you look, I wouldn't trust you to walk on the street and not get run over," The monk yawned loudly. "Yeah, it's about time for me to get home too…" He mumbled as he glanced at his wristwatch. "Hm? What, not gonna call anyone?" He noticed Minato was sitting still with a cell phone in his hand, though he was reluctant to open it.
"I'm… I don't really want to talk to any of them right now," Minato responded. He went to pocket it, but not before it was grabbed out of his hand just like his drink glass.
"Tch, I'll just call one of 'em for you," Mutatsu scrolled through Minato's contact list. "Which one of these people can you stand to look at right now?" He showed the list to Minato, who half-heartedly pointed at a contact on the screen. "Arisato Hamuko, huh? She your sister or something? You two got the same last name," Minato shook his head.
"No, we're not related. It's just a coincidence. She'd make a good sister, though."
"Is that so… Whatever." Mutatsu dialed her number and waited on the phone.
"Hello? Minato?"An upbeat and cheery female voice on the other line inquired.
"Hey, you're Hamuko right? A friend of yours – yeah, Minato – is hanging out here with me at Club Escapade and looking pretty pathetic while doing it. He needs you to bring him home." Minato sighed at hearing the monk's blunt yet brutally accurate words.
"What…? Okay, I'm heading over there now. But… who are you, anyway?"
"Nobody you need to know or care about," Mutatsu grunted. "Now hurry up and help your friend out, yeah?" He hung up. "Don't worry, kid, help is on the way, heheh." He punched Minato's shoulder.
"Minato!" Hamuko climbed up the stairs from the lower floor and rushed over to him, grabbing his shoulders. "Are you okay?! What happened?!"
"Damn kid's depressed he didn't land a date with the girl he liked, that's all," Mutatsu curtly replied, breathing a puff of smoke in Minato's face, which he didn't react to.
"O-Oh... Really?" Hamuko looked back to Minato. The ashamed and embarrassed look on his face said it all. She almost cringed at the sad state he was in.
She was even more hurt knowing she wasn't the girl Minato was interested in.
"Yeah, and he's been busy givin' himself alcohol poisoning before I even got here," Hamuko's eyes widened as she glanced around the table and saw a number of empty whiskey bottles strewn about. "I'll tell you, whatever gal he liked he must've liked a lot for him to be this depressed over being rejected! Get over it, kid, there're much worse things to come in your pitiful life and ya can't dwell on petty things like these forever!" Mutatsu said gruffly. He caught Hamuko's glum expression in the corner of his eye. "Eh? Somethin' wrong? You're looking kinda depressed too."
"Oh… It's… nothing," Hamuko whispered sadly, tilting her head down. Mutatsu rose an eyebrow, but chose to wave it off.
"Whatever. Well? Go on; get this sorry excuse of a teenager home!" Mutatsu shooed.
"H-huh? Oh, right! Come on, Minato-kun," Hamuko lifted his arm over her shoulder and lifted him off the club seat, then turned to face the monk. "Thank you so much for telling me about Minato-kun, err…"
"Call me Mutatsu. Your friend's been hanging out with this old fool for a while now. It's nice havin' him around to ramble on and complain to. He even reminds me of my delinquent son, too!" Mutatsu chuckled. "Ahh, I'm sure he's better than him, though. Just get outta here before he gets into more trouble." He waved dismissively.
Hamuko smiled. "Right. Thank you, Mutatsu-san." She turned away and made her way with Minato down the stairs.
"Ah, young love…" Mutatsu crossed his legs and blew a puff of smoke.
"Hey… Minato, who… Who was it that rejected you?" Hamuko asked on their way to Port Island Station. Minato sighed heavily in response. "I-I mean, it's okay if you don't want to tell me now, or even at all but…"
"No, no, I'll tell you," Minato shook his head. "You're a dear friend to me. You're probably the only person I can trust to keep this a secret."
Hamuko blushed and smiled. "Thanks." She whispered.
"You might be a little surprised to hear this, but… It was Yukari. I love Yukari." Hamuko bit her lip and she felt her heart ache. She had her suspicions, but to hear Minato say it out loud crushed her.
But she hid it and hummed to tell Minato to continue. "It… She means a lot to me. She made me feel… different from any other girl I've met before. Warm. Happy. I wanted to do everything in my power to make her feel the same way," Hamuko's eyes began to tear up at hearing this. "I thought we had formed a genuinely strong bond during all the time we spent together, hanging out after school and watching each other's backs in Tartarus. And all that time, she and I had so much fun. But…" Minato trailed off.
Hamuko's lip began to quiver and her vision blurred more as tears in her eyes continued to well up. Did he not acknowledge all the similar experiences he had with her?
"I confessed. I finally told her about my feelings toward her. But she rejected me, told me it wasn't mutual," Hamuko clenched her fist. "She liked Junpei, she told me. While I was a good friend to her, I guess… I guess Junpei was closer and dearer to her." Hamuko vowed not to forgive either Yukari or Junpei for hurting Minato like this. "Hmph… Junpei doesn't even care about Yukari. He was and still is in love with Chidori."
"Yeah," Hamuko nodded. "I remember how she died in his arms; it must have been devastating for him." Despite the newfound resentment she had for Junpei, she couldn't help but pity him. He had lost his potential lover as well.
Hamuko trembled and tears began to fall from her eyes. Her breaths turned to sobs and she stopped walking.
Minato noticed they had stopped and realised Hamuko was crying. "Hamuko? What's wrong? Are you okay?" He asked softly.
"No… It's just…" Hamuko sniffled, wiping the tears from her eyes. "I'm sorry you and Junpei-kun couldn't be with the one you loved. It… really upsets me. Neither of you deserve that kind of treatment, especially not you," She shook her head and looked at Minato's face. "You're amazing, Minato. The best person I know. I can't bear to see you suffer like this."
Minato stood silently, mulling over her words. Then, he pulled her into a hug and Hamuko buried her face in his chest. "Thank you, Hamuko. That means a lot to me for you to say that," Minato glanced around and noticed they were near Port Island Station. "Hey. We're almost to the monorail. Let's go."
Despite Minato's tipsiness he was the one to walk Hamuko the rest of the way to the station.
When they stepped into the empty monorail they sat down beside each other at the nearest seat.
"Hey… Um…" Hamuko began. "Mutatsu-san said you were drinking a lot. Are you okay now?"
"Yeah, I think I'll be fine. Might wake up tomorrow with a killer headache, but it's nothing I won't be able to handle," Minato smiled reassuringly. "Besides, we're Persona-users. We can fight Shadows; what does it say about us if we can't even handle a few drinks?"
Hamuko giggled. "I guess so. Just… I want you to take care of yourself, that's all. I always get worried when you get carried away when it comes to fighting Shadows. You're so reckless," Her eyes looked downcast. "It scares me when I see you standing against a horde of enemies. One of these days you're going to get yourself killed. Tonight wasn't a good sign of things to come."
"I… know it's stupid of me to act like this. I realize that now. It just felt way worse at the time and I had no other way of coping with it. Even now, I feel alone. Nobody can – hell, nobody would want to help someone like me. Why would they? I'm despicable; I make friends to gain power, nothing else. I use them for my own selfish deeds." Minato spat.
"That isn't true and you know it," Hamuko argued. "Of course you value your friends; you wouldn't feel that way if that weren't the case. Their respect for you should be proof enough of that. And besides," Hamuko continued. "You have me to confide in. Aren't I your 'dear' friend?" Hamuko parroted Minato's words in a joking tone.
"Huh… You are, aren't you?" Minato smirked. "We've known each other since we were children. You were pretty much my only friend since I wasn't too great at making other friends at the time."
"Even still… You were – and still are – a wonderful friend to me. You've done so much for me in the past and I'm glad we met." Hamuko's voice softened as she spoke.
"Yeah," Minato nodded. "We've helped each other through a lot of tough times and now's hardly the time to stop doing that."
"Right," She nodded as well. "If you're with me there won't be anything I can't face. And… if it's danger that we face, I'll protect you, no matter the cost," She looked into Minato's eyes, full of determination. "Even if the cost is my life."
"Hamuko…" Minato's eyes widened. She cupped his face in her hands.
"Even if everyone you love betrays you, I'll still stand by your side. If you're in danger, I'll make sure you survive to see another day, even if I can't see it with you. No matter what happens, I will never leave you. Ever. I want you to remember that for as long as you live." She brought her face close to Minato's.
"…I will. I promise." Hamuko could only smile tearily as she hugged Minato and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Someone else who likes me, huh…" Minato mused in his thoughts. He smiled and wrapped his arm around Hamuko and pulled her closer.
They didn't mind the Dark Hour slowing down their trip to their dorm.
AUTHOR'S NOTATION: I'll build on that one-sided Yukari x Junpei (x Chidori) in a later chapter. I like this pairing because it makes a lot of sense to me.
And if you didn't catch on already, this will be a multi-chapter story, which will be an unknown length (definitely not more than 7 or 8 chapters). I have the next two chapters written already but I'm not going to post them because REASONS. (I'm going away for two weeks and won't have reliable access to internet. I also want to have time to make revisions if I need to; your reviews for this chapter might influence that!)
Favorite if you fancy this story, follow if you want to read more of this story but especially review! Reviews with constructive criticism are my favorite kind.
See you in the next chapter!