Ryouji was dead. Hideyasu had seen it happen-how the white rider had struck him down mercilessly when he tried to defend Hideyasu, how his transformation broke and he fell limply to the ground. Usually, he would struggle to stand after something like that, but he didn't even twitch. Hideyasu's transformation had already been broken, so he did the only thing he could-he ran. He took off as fast as his legs could carry him through the forest, back to where they had left the lockseed vehicles.
He didn't look back, not even to see if the white rider was chasing him-he surely was, as the forest seemed to echo with not only his footsteps, but the footsteps of the dozens of Invess inhabitants, now alerted that Hideyasu was easy prey. He didn't stop when he reached the bikes, nor when he left the forest; little things like a dimension change wouldn't stop riders or monsters, after all.
Hideyasu beelined for Charmant, not bothering to park the bike properly, instead letting it fall to the ground as he practically ran off it and into the store. Oren wasn't back yet, but that hardly mattered; he was the only one that stood a chance of beating that white rider-Hideyasu would wait. It wasn't as though his cheap apartment would be any safer-those Invess space zippers could open anywhere, after all.
The workers weren't sure what to do with the nervous wreck that had charged into their store, but they did their best to calm him down. Hideyasu was distantly aware how strange he must seem, glancing over his shoulder constantly, a barely-touched drink and a dainty-looking cake set in front of him. He hadn't ordered either-the workers thought eating something might help. It did, only marginally, fending off his hyperventilating and giving his trembling hands something to hold onto.
That was how Oren found him-eyes darting around constantly, clutching a glass with both hands like a child, the ice mostly melted and the drink visibly watered down, a cake with a bite separated from it but not eaten, sitting half on the fork that he had abandoned on the plate. Hideyasu didn't seem to notice that half the store was staring at him when he begged Oren to accept him as an apprentice, nor that Oren had been roughed up as well. He was too relieved that Oren would accept him, protect him from the white rider and the Invess that were bound to attack.
Slowly, Hideyasu began to return to something that resembled a normal life. He spent as much time as possible at Charmant, dropping out of Invitto and avoiding anything that had to do with the Invess game; he had learned the hard way how dangerous it was. Every now and then, he'd remember Ryouji, and how comforting it was to be wrapped in his arms. Hideyasu wouldn't be so scared if Ryouji was still around-he went to sleep every night thinking he'd be killed before morning, walked to and from Charmant sure that an Invess was around every corner. Ryouji had always been the fighter-Hideyasu wouldn't stand a chance if he had to defend himself now.
His fear didn't vanish as the days went on-he tried to reason it away, forcing himself to go home when he wanted to crawl into one of Charmant's cabinets for the night, but sometimes it was too much, and he couldn't do anything more than shut his eyes and hope it would be over quickly. Nothing jumped out to kill him, though, no matter how much movement he caught at the edges of his vision or how many times he thought he heard something moving around his apartment.
It was a particularly bad night when he didn't just think, but knew something had unlocked his apartment door, when he heard the footsteps unfalteringly approach first his bedroom, then his bed itself. He had been facing the wall, afraid to move-sure that it was the white rider, he could only clamp his hand over his own mouth to hold back his whimpers and clench his eyes shut and hope he wasn't seen in the dark.
He didn't feel the soft kisses on his neck and cheek as his boyfriend climbed into bed as he had every night-he didn't feel Ryouji's arms wrap protectively around him, or the voice softly whispering that everything was going to be okay and to just hang in there a little longer. He had never noticed Ryouji's arm slung possessively over Hideyasu's shoulder as he walked him to and from Charmant, just in case the Invess Hideyasu saw from the corner of his eye was real this time.
He couldn't feel Ryouji holding him and covering his cheeks with kisses when he couldn't summon the courage to keep walking, when he could only shut his eyes and wait for death. He never saw Ryouji sitting awkwardly in Charmant with some frilly pastry, waiting for Hideyasu's shift to end, or felt him when he squeezed the thinner boy tightly to make his shaking go away.
No, Hideyasu hadn't seen his boyfriend since he ran from the forest with his broken belt still around his waist.