There was a stunned silence. He couldn't comprehend any of it. Not the words that he just heard, nor the action that surprised him out of his wits. The tattoo was on fire. His pride was on fire. He was on fire. Growling at the person across from him, his eyes threatened to make him pay for insulting the symbol of his pride/ identity. The person facing him only gave him a look he could not comprehend. He never knew that his best friend, no, maybe his only friend from high school, could manage such expressions, let alone such actions. He scorched his own body, he thought It all felt alien to him, and it scared him.
How could I have known him for so long, yet feel like I have never known him at all? He was scared, yet he was also angry.
Was everything just a lie?
I will kill the traitor with my own hands then, a voice snarled in his mind. Traitor...of what? Of whom?...Of Homra. Traitor of Homra. Unaware of his own rage and confusion, Misaki tells his best friend just that.
"You traitor! You betrayed Homra... and I will kill you!" Misaki glared at Saruhiko, and the traitor kept staring back in that strange way.
A crooked smile, Misaki thought irritably. What is he smiling at? What is there to smile at? He found himself feeling even angrier than before. As if sensing Misaki's intensified rage, Saruhiko's warped grin widened.
"Yes, Misaki. Look at me, look at me only," the boy said with a shaky voice that sounded pained and euphoric at the same time. Misaki's frown deepened as he became even more baffled by this response. He felt his blood racing as he could contain his anger no more.
"Damn you!" Misaki shouted as he threw his fist in Saruhiko's face with all his might. The other boy lightly sidestepped from the attack, the smile still plastered on his face as his eyes still focused on Misaki's face. Misaki's right hand was now ablaze, and he was getting angrier by the second. Why won't he just stop smiling? He thought as he attempted to throw another punch at the other boy. Like the last one, it was easily evaded by Saruhiko. To Misaki, the grin on the traitor's face seemed to have widened just a bit more. Was it even possible? And with such a thought, he continued to attack his former best friend.
"Misaki," Saruhiko said with an exaggerated sigh at last. "I think that is enough for now..." Both of them were in some way injured and out of breath.
"Don't you... dare call me by that name you traitor!"
"Why, Misaki? Because only I ever used to called you by that name? Doesn't it remind you of our old days...?" Saruhiko's smile softened, but Misaki didn't notice, taking in only the mocking tone Saruhiko used to address him.
"Shut up, damn monkey! You betrayed us! Don't you dare come acting all close with me!" Misaki felt like his feet were glued to the spot although his mind was filled with thoughts of finishing this off with Saruhiko. The traitor's grin slackened and he closed his eyes with a melancholic expression.
"You just won't understand, won't you?" Saruhiko whispered defeatedly.
"Huh...? What did you say! Speak up. I can't hear you!" Understand what?
"Never mind, Mi~sa~ki~ We will meet again soon. And next time, we will truely be be on different sides," the taller boy said as he turned to walk away.
You will never understand me, Misaki.
"Damn it! Traitor!" Realizing that the other boy was really leaving this time, Misaki was left where he was as he cursed the other boy with all his anger.
...What don't I understand?
