His driver, Goro, was sick.
He had texted Haru he wouldn't be able to drive him to school the day before while Haru had been still soaking at the bathtub. He told the boy he would send a replacement but Haru refused. He didn't know why he had to have a driver in the first place, it made no sense. His parents trusted him enough to live on his own but not to get to school every day?
Well, they were right. He hadn't gone to go to school the day before and if it wasn't because he had no one to ask for notes if he skipped today's lessons too -which were slightly more important- he wouldn't bother to leave the bathtub all day either.
He would be starting his senior year of high school not that far into the future. He sighed. It couldn't be helped; he had to go to school, if only to get his parents off his back.
It's not like he cared about graduating, he didn't, he couldn't care less; there was nothing he wanted to do after high school. He had no goals and dreams like Rin did; he had found no reason to move forwards like Nagisa had. It was a shame, it was a shame life was wasted on him instead of…
He supposed he had no choice but to take the train to school. He rarely did but it wasn't like he didn't know how to use it, he just rather not to make use of that knowledge, especially not at rush hour.
He hated his personal space being invaded and he hated high concentrations of people, especially on packed places.
It didn't take a genius to figure out why the train wasn't exactly his favorite place on earth.
Maybe he should stop questioning Goro's purpose in his life.
He got out at his school's stop and took a deep breath. He had to admit, for a second he had felt true panic thinking he would die squashed by the ominous mass of people that seemed to run over everything that dared cross its path.
You either learned to swim the horde, became one with the flow of bodies pushing forward, or drowned in it.
Sadly -or gladly- Haru was only built to swim in water.
He checked his clock and discovered that yes, he was in fact, already late for his first lesson. He didn't bother to pick up the peace, what for? He was going to get reprimanded anyway. He stole one last glance at the giant tin worm that took off behind his back, it seemed to be reminding him that he hadn't won yet, it wasn't over and it would try to eat Haru again on his way home later that day.
Haru gulped… he wasn't scare of dying but, being crushed to death… didn't seem a good way to go.
There are worst ways to go
A voice inside his head reminded him, almost as a whisper and his face fell, his mind lashing out at him for bringing the subject to surface, instead of drowning it as he always wish it did.
School didn't seem so bad anymore.
As soon as he set a foot in class, he regretted it immediately.
Their teacher had decided it was a good day to remind them they had little over a year until they would graduate and that they should be thinking of the future, for they were almost adults now, and apparently that's what adults do, worry about things they can't control.
The way she had said it, with a sparkle in her eyes, as if she was talking about some magical occurrence that was about to happen in their lives made him scoff.
Growing up, he never understood why people thought it was any good.
You are born, you become a child, you think life is colorful and bright and full of possibilities and then you grow up and you realize it's not, you age, you work and then you die.
That wasn't true though, not everyone aged before they died.
The image of a black coffin flashed before his eyes. Small, so small Haru never understood how he could fit inside.
That's right; there was nothing good about growing up, just a dawning realization of what kind of world you live in.
Just like there's no solace or peace in the truth either.
After Makoto disappeared, they searched for him until their legs quivered, though exhaustion wasn't the sole culprit.
Insults were exchanged, fingers were pointed, and words were uttered that they would never be able to take back.
It didn't matter, it didn't absolve any of them, and it didn't bring Makoto back.
They finally told the Tachibanas, who told the police, who searched for the lost ball and the boy with the upturn eyebrows and the gentle smile just as hard as they did.
They found the ball, but not a sign of Makoto.
His dad was just rising in the world of politics at the time, Haru never cared for it but he thought maybe, it would finally be useful for something other than keeping his parents away from home for long periods of time.
It seemed his dad thought it could be useful too, Makoto's disappearance that was, it made for a good campaign apparently.
He appeared on tv a lot, promised to return his son's best friend to his parents side. Empty words.
A ransom was the hypothesis the police worked with from the start, and they all waited impatiently for a phone call that never happened.
Haru didn't understand, if they wanted money in exchange for Makoto, what were they waiting for?
But that didn't seem to be the case, and Haru, for the life of him, couldn't understand why else would someone want to take a young boy away.
He could have spent all his life not understanding, stayed a naïve - however brokenhearted- kid, who thought monsters only belonged to scary tales; but time is not forgiving, and with time comes knowledge.
What good was there to growing up when you realize just what the fate of your best friend was.
He was in dire need of a pool.
He ended up staying at the schools pool until late. He also ended up swimming faster and more aggressively than he was comfortable admitting, it didn't make him feel better; it made him feel disgusted with himself.
On the plus side, he managed to escape rush hour when returning home. There were very few people around the station when Haru got there.
Granted, waiting for the last train by himself at that hour wasn't exactly the brightest of ideas, but he supposed he liked not having brilliant thoughts. It made him...
Ordinary
How we wished to be that.
When the train arrived it was just him, a couple of school girls, and some shady guys. The last should have made him, at the very least, anxious… especially because one of them -the dark haired one- was considerably tall even sitting down, with shoulders that refused to be contained by just one seat. He looked strong enough to beat anyone to a bloody pulp, if he so desired to.
Yet it was hard feeling threatened when his companion, however tall, owned a mane the most ridiculous shade of pastel pink Haru had never imagined a human would ever submit themselves to.
He snorted and shifted his eyes away from his travel buddies, cursed himself for forgetting his headphones at his nightstand and tried his best to ignore the obnoxious giggling and high pitched squeals of the school girls a few seats away from him. They were crowded around the girl in the middle's smart phone and –Haru guessed- looking at pictures of adorable animals … or… pictures of half naked men… -if Rin's sister was anything to go by when deciphering the mind and habits of school girls-
He settled for resting his head back and day dreaming about eating a freshly made dish of mackerel in the bathtub, he spent all day at the pool but there was always room for soaking at home.
He was happily submerging in his fantasy land when the girls stood up at the signal of their stop; he was going to look away, he didn't know why he even looked at them in the first place but then he noticed the shady guys stood up as well.
Strange, he thought.
The guys stood behind the girls who seemed oblivious of the "danger"
"Excuse me miss, you dropped your handkerchief" said the dark haired one, who was wearing a washed out blue bandana tightly around his forehead, from which his unkempt shoulder-length hair escaped, making him look like a cheap imitation of a pirate.
He had a charming smile, he had to hand him that. And it worked wonders to the girls who seemed to completely forget their phone and whatever contents it held.
"Aww thank you"
"We don't want you lovely ladies to find yourselves without it if you happen to need it!" the pink haired one exclaimed much too cheerily -for what Haru declared- should be anyone's taste, showing the white of his teeth.
He reminded Haru of that cartoon cat in the Alice in wonderland movie.
The girls giggled, seemingly not fazed at all by being approached by two weird looking strangers on the train. Ahhh...the power of good looks.
Idiots thought Haru, as he clearly saw how the pink haired one sunk his hand into one of their bags while the dark haired one drew their attention by making small talk.
Suddenly, the tall guy elbowed the pink haired one who removed his hand from the girl's bag as quick as a cat, a cat who didn't catch a single mouse.
He lifted his head and realized they were both staring at him warily. They probably thought Haru was about to give them a hard time, not that Haru could do anything –or desire to do anything, it wasn't his fault the girls minds were ruled by their hormones – if anything, Haru should be wary of them watching him watching them. It was two against one, and even if it wasn't he still had the short end of the stick. He was confident he could take pink locks on a one on one, but the other guy...
"Ah this is our stop" the girls said and looked at the guys questioningly to see if they were to luck out and have their strange companions for a while longer.
However the pink haired one smiled that feline grin of his and pretended to have gotten the stops mixed up, asked the girls for directions and waved them goodbye, wishing them a safe trip home.
The big guy however, hadn't moved his gaze from Haru, Haru who had stopped breathing the second their eyes met each other.
Vivid green
Breathtaking wasn't the right word to describe the effect of those large orbs guarded by upturn eyebrows that shouldn't belong to such a rough face.
Being stabbed by invisible sharp needles all over was more like it .
Why, why had nature given a copy of those eyes... His eyes...
Makoto's eyes...
...to a train pickpocketer?
It was wrong.