When he saw the boy, Shuu's coffee fell from his hand.
The ghost looked to him, and leaned down to pick up the paper cup.
He had stopped in the middle of the path in the small outdoor shopping center, and luckily there were not too many people to stare. Except him. They were nice brick pathways, though, with some shade overhead. It gave the walkway a relaxed atmosphere. At least, it had been relaxed to begin with. Shuu had forced himself to go outside that afternoon and now regretted it immensely.
"Haha, wow, lucky that it fell on the bottom. It didn't spill at all. Here you go."
So cheerful. How he should have been. How he deserved to have been.
Shuu stared, and he was certain he had paled. He had, after all, seen a ghost. He should walk away, he thought. He should walk away and pass it off as a dream. He meant to take the coffee from the boy, but he hesitated for a moment too long.
"Are you okay?"
Shuu quickly regained his composure. He tried to turn on his charm and hide the fact that he felt as though he was about to cry or vomit or pass out or some combination of the three brought on by whatever emotions were churning in his stomach. He swallowed the lump in his throat. Calmato.
When Shuu opened his mouth he was glad that his emotions didn't betray him. He was suave as ever, aside from the slight tremble of his hand as he took the coffee.
"Apologies, you simply look like someone straight from my dreams."
A terrible line, but how true it was.
The boy gave a nervous laugh and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. Those glasses were the only things out of place, and Shuu was uncertain whether it made him glad or slightly disappointed that the boy's appearance was broken up. He gave a little stutter and pushed the glasses again, as if it was impossible for them to find a comfortable spot on his nose.
"Thank you?"
Shuu smiled softly. Maybe that was what he had been like before Rize. The thought made him feel a faint sadness, but the other, unidentifiable, feelings in his middle took precedence.
"No, thank you. For saving my drink."
They stood in silence for a moment.
Shuu tried to be rational and say a goodbye, but he couldn't find it in himself to let the boy just leave. Not when he looked so- he dropped the train of thought. He pulled out the receipt for his coffee and scribbled out his phone number onto it. A bad idea, he reasoned, but he couldn't stop himself.
Shuu handed the receipt to the ghost of a boy.
"A bit sudden, but.."
The boy took the receipt and looked at Shuu with confusion drawn all over his face. His face. How wrong.
"Should you want to get a coffee. I promise not to drop it this time." He gave the boy a wink.
With that, he began walking away. He turned back to look at the cruel doppelgänger. They made eye contact, and Shuu shot him another wink. The boy got a little flustered and walked off as well, a tad hastily.
Shuu maneuvered onto a busy street, turned a corner, and made his way to one of the tunnels. For all his usual flamboyance, right now he didn't want to be seen. The dark concrete walls and looming ceilings would be more comfortable, more appropriate to his mood than the bustling street he had intended to take back to his flat.
He set his coffee down and slunk down the wall, slightly damp and cold against his back. He noticed that he was shivering. He blamed the cold, but he knew it wasn't that. It was whatever the weight in his chest was, some obscene slurry of emotions he couldn't identify.
He felt sick, but somewhat elated. He had to remind himself that, no, it couldn't be possible. The boy hadn't even smelled that good- not that he had smelled bad, but no scent would ever compare. Maybe there was a hint of the smell he desired, in a subtle undertone- nothing immediately evident. He had smelled like any other young man.
But his face, the ghost's face. Round, with soft cheeks. Best described as "cute" rather than as "handsome", though that could be a tad insulting.
He even had the same shock-white hair, strange for someone his age. Unless it was...no. The roots were growing in slightly, Shuu remembered, it must have been a fashion statement. Shuu hadn't been up to date on trends while he was locked in his home, maybe white hair was a new one. Even though the boy's ill-fitting, baggy clothes were immediate indicators he didn't have a taste for fashion. No. He dismissed that. A trend was the only way.
The ghost's eyes were even the same soft grey. But both of them. Shuu would have felt more comfort if one of them had been red.
He sat there, shaking, for longer than he probably should have.
He brought a hand to his cheeks and found that they were damp. His stomach turned at the realization that he had been crying. Calmato.
He needed to stop. He had moved on from the rooftop, he told himself, he wasn't lingering on it anymore. Never mind that he had been up there for days. Never mind that he still, even now, would lose time, realizing that he had been staring at the wall for hours. Never mind that it wasn't even an occasional occurrence.
No, he wasn't over it. His growling stomach and pallid cheeks were sign of that. His gourmet taste had all but left him, he had no desire to eat. All he had now was a show. A show for one- himself. His only remaining friend saw through it- they were a perceptive one, but they didn't even need to be perceptive to pick up on it. Shuu was a wreck, it was obvious. But he wouldn't let himself accept it.
He was over it, he told himself once again. He had moved on and the ghost had ruined it.
His hand crushed the empty paper cup and he stood from his spot on the ground.
It couldn't be him.
Shuu had settled on an emotion.
He was disgusted.
Kaneki Ken was dead, and that imposter was masquerading around wearing his face.