The ointment the nurse bought proved to be somewhat soothing to the pain coming from the burns Kokona had on her legs and feet.
The nurse's latex gloved hand had been gentle as she applied the ointment to her burns, and though Kokona winced greatly, she was able to stop herself from making any sound of pain by tightening the grip she had on Saki's supportive hand, the girl who stood dutifully at her side seeming to try to give a soothing smile, though she never managed to through Kokona's evidently pained expressions, whilst forcing herself not to look at her burns as she stood behind a curtain, her efforts to support Kokona somewhat vain in that Kokona wasn't even looking at her.
When the nurse finished with treating Kokona's wounds, she would smile lightly up at her from the crouched down position she assumed to Kokona's right side as she stood next to Saki, "Alright, now to get to rubbing this stuff into your friend."
Kokona, for the first time since the nurse started treating her wounds, looked up at Saki, who still smiled down at her whilst starting to squeeze her hand back, before the purple haired girl's gaze shifted over to Kai, who mirrored Saki's would-be comforting expression to her as he looked at her through the small crack of space between the wall and the curtain's edge that revealed her face to him.
His look dropped in its entirety when he saw the nurse walking from behind the curtain, taking off her used latex gloves, and replacing them after washing her hands for good measure, Kokona's friends standing near the sink, Kai knowing what was to come.
As she approached his bedside, whilst applying ointment to her middle and ring-fingers, clasped as closely together as possible like her other fingers, he looked up her, watching as she crouched down to the side of his bed.
"Are you ready?" She asked, the question rhetorical.
He nodded glumly, expression solemn as he closed his eyes, bracing himself for the ointment to be applied.
At the sight of his wincing upon the nurse touching his burns, Kokona felt guilt rise within her again.
Though her getting set on fire, needles to say, was definitely not of her own volition, and the choice he made to step into the fire to help her wasn't within her realm of influence, she felt guilt simply for the fact that she was the pivotal reason for him being in pain then.
She provided none of the awkward comfort-smiles he and Saki had given to her, as his closed eyes defeated the purpose of such a gesture, her only watching silently as he endured the sensation of the ointment being applied to his burns.
When the nurse finally finished minutes later, she would stand up, Kai's eyes opening themselves up to look up at her after he heard the sound of the curtain opening itself up.
"I've given you both all the ointment you'll need for now. Thank you both for cooperating with me as much as you have." She looked at him primarily as he listened, but still gave a glance back at Kokona nonetheless, who was revealed completely now, her burns signficantly less painful to look at, but not much else.
Kai simply crossed his arms, forcing a playful smile to his face, "It was no problem. Not like we had much of a choice in the matter though."
"Fair enough," the nurse smiled, looking behind herself at Kokona, "By the way, I tried calling your house to explain the situation after I came back from the store, but no one picked up. Is there any way you could contact your father for me?"
Kokona blinked in surprise at this, but relaxed as suddenly as her body stiffened.
"I don't think so. I think I'll be able to explain the situation to my dad myself, but thank you for trying anyways." Kokona said calmly, not letting Saki's suddenly worried expression hinder this.
"Are you sure?"
The nurse seemed hesitant to ask going off of her tone.
Kokona nodded firmly, "Yes. Do you think we'll be able to walk normally soon?" Kokona looked down at her legs for emphasis, "It'd be best if I told him ASAP."
The nurse followed her gaze to her legs, then shrugged reluctantly, "I'd say so. I'll need you to come to me first thing tomorrow morning to check your legs again though."
She turned to look at Kai now.
"When I called your house, someone said she'd be coming here as soon as possible. That was several minutes ago, so I can't be sure how far away she'll be now. Can I assume that that was your mother?"
Kai gave an incredibly taken aback look at this, but shook his head quickly, "No, that was probably my roommate."
The nurse quirked an eyebrow.
"Your roommate's a girl?"
"Yes." Kai nodded firmly.
"Is there anyone else living with you two?"
"No. It's just me and her." Kai crossed his arms as he became aware of the looks everyone gave him.
Kokona, though not being as extreme a case as those around her, still felt surprise nonetheless, the full implications of Kai's living circumstances not dawning on her until just then, when her head wasn't delving deep into her extracurricular problems (she had a lot of problems in her life, didn't she?).
"Is she your legal guardian?" The nurse asked, an edge to her tone.
"You could say that. We haven't had the chance to make her my legal guardian yet, but we're hoping to go to the Family Court soon." Kai met the nurse's gaze, "Could you tell me what exactly is the matter with that though?"
"There's nothing wrong with it."
She wasn't even trying to hide the fact that she wasn't meeting his eyes.
"Why are all of you looking at me like that then?" Kai looked around at the other girls in the room, who immediately averted their gazes in a manner not unlike the nurse, his tone, although curious, being very much annoyed.
"How old is she?" The nurse asked, glancing at him again.
He gave her a weird look in response.
"I thought girls were supposed to hate the subject of their age coming up." He said, his confusion and surprise evident.
"Usually, but this is an exception." She'd sound more convincing if she didn't look so awkward about it, Kai thought. "I need to know that your guardian isn't too young after all."
He did nothing to hide the skepticism he felt from coming to his face, but answered honestly nonetheless.
"She's in her mid-20s."
"Oh." The nurse looked behind herself, at Kokona, then looked back at Kai, "How old are you then?"
"I'm 17." He replied, eyes narrowing at the way she looked behind herself at Kokona again.
"You're a third year, right?" The nurse asked her.
"Yes." Kokona said warily, made a bit uncomfortable by the small glint in the pink haired woman's eyes. "Why?"
She leaned down to be on her eye level, whispering with her left hand curled near, but not on, the left side of her mouth, "I think he might have a thing for older women. You might have a fair shot with him, so you should go for it."
Kokona flinched, the nurse's words being as surprising for her as the obligatory jump scare in horror films for most.
"What?" She asked, voice as hushed as the nurse's, and the older of the two smiled.
"How often do you come across a boy so willing to say that he loves and wants to protect you? What that girl said earlier was right; he'd make a wonderful boyfriend to have. So go for it."
Kokona simply stared silently at the woman for a moment.
"You do know I can still hear you right?" Kai said behind her.
"People shouldn't eavesdrop in matters as sensitive as these." The nurse looked behind herself to him.
"I have every right to eavesdrop. If it weren't so obvious you were talking about me, then I'd probably be guilty."
"Fine then. Would you be willing to be this girl's boyfriend?" The nurse turned to him, hands on her hips.
Kai closed his eyes tiredly and supported his forehead on the palm of his right hand.
"Like I said before, she deserves better."
"That isn't what I asked." The nurse crossed her arms at him.
"Fine, then no." He opened an eye to her, then amended his words. "I wouldn't be willing, because she deserves better."
"So you're saying you don't deserve to be her boyfriend?"
"No, I don't deserve to be that to her," he said simply, "Or to anyone, really."
He whispered the last part, as an afterthought, looking away for a moment.
Even without his religion's opposition to pride and arrogance, Kai would never be so pig-headed as to think that he honestly, truthfully, deserved to be something special, in the romantic sense or otherwise, to anyone.
From his perspective, a relationship was just a successful mixture of two people's efforts to allow some type of emotional bondage to be put between them both.
If one person was trying to have a relationship with someone else, but the other person never gave any effort back, it would be one-sided, and therefore, obselete as a relationship.
In this circumstance, that rule was applicable for both him and, as he could only assume, Kokona.
His relationship of friendship with her had barely rooted itself deeply enough for him to justify the lengths he'd gone to just to help her, and even then, their impromptu friendship was simply his excuse for wanting to help her in the first place (he still took his self-claimed position as Kokona's friend seriously, excuse or no excuse, but still).
Regardless of his reasons, however, his relationship with Kokona had barely even cemented itself fully, in part because they simply knew next to nothing about one another.
Kokona, as she'd revealed several minutes before then, hadn't even had a chance to know his name for much of the day they'd known each other, and the same went for him.
So, in short, they hadn't even properly introduced themselves to each other, even at that point in time, simply opting to call each other by their placement of school year experience.
Given the extremely short time they'd known each other, coupled with the above facts, calling them friends would be stretching the implications of the word GREATLY, to say the least.
Therefore, a relationship of anything of more weight than friendship with Kokona, for him, would be as unnatural a thing to have as he percieved the act of one getting a mail-order bride from a foreign country would be.
In truth, their relationship edged onto the jurisdiction of being compared to the cases of when said brides didn't even know the same language as the husbands who ordered them, as far as he was concerned, considering he wouldn't even know the Japanese language had it not been for his roommate.
"Don't get me wrong, I do find her very attractive, and she has a good personality, but we barely know each other that well."
Kokona imagined she'd have a sweat drop on her head if she were in an anime when Kai said this.
Though she indeed appreciated the compliments, she had a strong feeling that they only served to hurt his case more than help it.
The living embodiment of the proof of her thoughts came in the smile the nurse gave her in the next moment.
It wasn't kind by any stretch of the word, and was instead sly, as though searching Kokona's expression for any hint of embarassment, only to find disappointment when Kokona decided to nod to affirm Kai's words, after a moment of hesitation.
"He's right. We've barely known each other for over a day, probably not even that long, so having him as a boyfriend would be pretty weird in itself."
As though on cue, one of the two pairs of double doors slid open, the thing drawing everyone's attention to the cause of this being the voice of the woman who opened the door.
"Well that's a boring thing for you to decide." She said loudly upon entrance, shaking her head at Kokona as everyone looked towards her.
She was a woman of Japanese ethnicity, her black hair coming down in moderately long locks, scraping down near the bottom of her neck, her skin a bit pale.
She wore a long traditional style dress, it reaching so low that her feet were covered, her waist accentuated by the fabric wrapping tightly around it.
"It's better to be boring than not to make sense." Kai replied almost immediately, looking up at her, "Also, just out of curiosity, how long were you listening Sekai?"
"Around the time where you said something about someone deserving something better." She replied to his question unashamedly, not seeming to care about the fact that everyone was staring at her yukata.
"Alright then." Kai looked over to the nurse, not reacting in the slightest to the boldness of Sekai's admission, for he'd become a hypocrite if he reacted negatively. "Do you know how long before our burns should heal over?"
The nurse, still blatantly surprised at Sekai's entrance, looked over to him, her adopting a thoughtful look.
"It'd be best if you didn't put yourselves into too much strain for a few days. They should heal over in a week or so."
"Alright." Kai looked up at Sekai now. "I suppose you'd like to go about now."
"I would, yes. I don't want you to force yourself though."
A knowing flicker came into Sekai's brown eyes despite her words, and Kai knew what she was thinking.
He'd been through much worse than a few burns on his legs, and he rarely, if ever, complained during those times, he thought.
"I'm about as ready to leave now as you are. But before that," Kai's gaze turned to Kokona, "There's something I need to ask her first."
"What is it?" Kokona asked, tone now curious.
"Do you think your dad can come to take you home?"
Kokona blinked, but shook her head, "No. I'll be able to go home myself."
"Would it be okay if I walked you home?" Kai did his best to keep a straight face amidst the looks he gained. "I want to be sure that you're safe after all."
Kokona looked somewhat taken aback.
"Oh, uh..." She forced herself to give him a smile, "Don't worry. I'm sure I'll be fine."
Why couldn't she ever sound convincing when she needed to most?
Kokona knew within herself that she worried about the chances of the person with the mask coming after her again as she went home, but couldn't bring herself to say anything before her friends.
Or perhaps it wasn't just them, Kokona thought.
There came the inherent fear of others dying because of her, and she didn't want to experience that sort of guilt, her fear of death notwithstanding.
Not to mention that Kai's own suffering had been because of her.
She already felt awful enough as it was with Dorama's death hanging over her head then.
She didn't want to risk anyone else getting hurt unnecessarily, or worse, dying.
She'd already had enough of death after her mother passed away.
"Maybe you're sure," Kai's voice brought her out of her thoughts, "But to be frank, I'm not," he then looked down, a trace of guilt in his voice now, "Besides, I don't want to imagine how worried your parents would be if something happened."
The looks that Kokona's friends had fell, becoming somewhat awkward, them all reflexively looking at Kokona at Kai's use of the plural word for her primary birth givers.
Kokona could tell that they were worried Kai's comment about her parents would strike a nerve by bringing up a sore subject, but she showed not the slightest sign of this being the case.
It wasn't his fault he knew nothing of her familial situation.
"You shouldn't worry." Kokona said, her voice now flat.
"I doubt that. It can be good in these situations to worry. It makes me feel like my wanting to walk you home is something that makes perfect sense."
"What would you do if something were to happen?" Kokona asked, surprised at how challenging her own voice was.
Kai blinked in surprise, but he gave an answer she half-expected and feared.
"Shouldn't that be obvious?" He stared. "Do all I can to keep anything from happening."
"Will me saying "no" be enough to get you to not come with me?" Kokona decided to ask this outright, her tone having a trace of tiredness, as though she expected him to fight her on the matter.
To her own surprise, he didn't persevere.
"It probably would be enough." Kai sighed softly, almost defeatedly, as he looked away from her, his look and voice becoming distant. "I can't force you to let me stick around until you're safe at home. But if you give me the okay, I won't hesitate to. So, really, the choice is yours. You already know my answer."
Kokona stared at him in surprise, but soon nodded.
"I understand."
"I'm glad you do." He glanced over to her. "But I'd like it most if you could answer me. If you don't want me to come along with you, then I might as well be on my way now. But at the same time, I would still worry about you."
Kokona mulled the decision within her head for but a moment.
"I think... I'd like it if you came with me after all."
In the end, she allowed her fear for herself override her fear for others, she thought to herself with strong bitterness.
The walk home felt quite different for her that afternoon.
There was a strange tension in the air, despite the amount of conversation being done, a result of Kokona's group deciding to tag themselves along as they went to her house.
Kai and his guardian, who had identified herself as Sekai, stood a small distance away from the group, enough to respect the boundaries of personal space, but it wasn't unlike there being an invisible bubble between both groups of people, separating them.
Despite the separation, Kai didn't seem to mind, giving more attention to his surroundings and his guardian rather than to Kokona and her friends' conversation.
The victims of the fire both wore their normal shoes at that moment, yet the small but ever-present wince of pain each gave for every step remained for the duration of the walk.
The majority of her conversation felt different perhaps due to its dark nature, centering around the gym burning down.
"Do you know why someone would set the gym on fire?" Mei asked, blue eyes curious as she looked at Kokona, who shook her head.
A better question would be why anyone would want to set HER on fire, Kokona thought to herself.
It'd be understandable that they didn't wonder this however.
At this point, she still had yet to tell them what exactly had happened to her to get burned, and they hadn't asked.
"Do you know how the fire started?" Sekai asked, and Kokona looked up at the woman, who gazed at her with concern.
"Someone with a mask on their face started the fire while my club was rehearsing for a play." Kokona said, reaching up and fingering her club president band half-mindedly.
"What did they do? Did you see what they looked like besides the mask?" Sekai asked.
"No, only that the person responsible was a girl."
"Did anyone else get burned other than you two?"
The thought of Dorama popped into her mind.
"Yes, one did get burned." She said, her tone very much dark.
"I see." Sekai said, looking down at Kai, but didn't question her further.
"Would you mind it if I asked how you two met?" Koharu looked at Sekai and Kai, looking between them, her having held in the question for a long time now. "You don't really look like you're family."
"Isn't that kind of a given?" Sekai asked, "I mean, unless having different hair, skin, accents, and eye colors doesn't give that away."
"I can see where he got his snark from." Yui said in as deadpan a tone as Sekai spoke in.
She smiled bitterly at them, and Kai answered Koharu's question.
"You could say I'm a... friend of her family." He said after a moment of consideration for the right way to phrase it.
"How so?" Koharu asked.
Kai glanced up at Sekai, and she gave an almost imperceptable nod.
"I was married for a short time, and he was a member of the family I married into."
Koharu tilted her head in confusion, "Wait, wouldn't that make you relatives by marriage?"
"It's... complicated." Kai said with a sigh.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Koharu asked, and Kai shook his head.
"It's a bit of a sore subject, so I'd prefer not to." Kai said.
Koharu nodded in understanding.
"Alright."
With these simple questions, it seemed that the invisible bubble separating the two groups dissipated.
Kokona quickly noticed that her friends became more willing to question Kai about himself, and though he was somewhat awkward about the attention they gave him, he still seemed open to conversation.
By the time they arrived at her house, Kai was deep in conversation about the nature of his job as a manga artist.
"Is it usually hard to make up plotlines for certain things?" Saki asked, to which Kai nodded.
"Yes. It can be a little frustrating sometimes." Kai sighed fitfully, "You can usually go through a lot of effort to make up something good, but then it can turn out that no one likes it very much. I usually don't enjoy writing things like romance or things like that, but since I want to be successful, I have to make what's popular."
"What other genres do you write for then?"
"Usually horror, but..." He adopted a thoughtful look. "I guess I can understand why that's not very popular. No one enjoys bad endings or unlikable characters after all. Though some of the romantic things I've drawn have some of the latter and are still popular..."
A trace of bitterness tinged his voice as he said this, and Koharu tilted her head, "Would you let me read some if I asked for a copy?"
His answer was almost immediate.
"I don't think that'd be a good idea."
"Why not? I'll even pay for it."
He didn't meet her eyes as he responded, "I guess it'd make me a bit self-conscious if you did."
"What's the point of hoping it gets popular if you don't want to let me read?"
"It's not it being popular that's the problem." Kai said, "It's the things inside the more popular ones that would make me self-conscious about you reading them."
She gave a short giggle at him, "I don't want to read the popular things. I wanted to read the horror ones."
Kai blinked in surprise at this.
"What?"
"I want to help you enjoy drawing your manga. After all, if you do things you dislike with a great skill, all you'll end up doing is making yourself hate doing it."
He smiled awkwardly at that, "Well, I appreciate the gesture," he glanced away from her, "But I REALLY don't think anyone should be reading something like that."
"Why not? Do you think it's too scary for a girl like me?" She said teasingly.
He actually thought it over in his head.
"Considering it was scary enough for my boss' wife to be afraid of going to sleep at night, I'm not sure what to say." Kai looked up at the sky. "She said I draw pretty well, but that I should focus on something other than horror."
"What's the fun of that?" Koharu asked, "Come on, I'm sure I can handle it."
"Are you absolutely sure?" Kai looked her in the eye, genuine concern in his gaze.
There was a moment of silence.
"Yes." Koharu said, somewhat unconvincingly.
"Are you REALLY sure?" Mei asked next to her, her gaze to the green haired girl's response mirroring Kai's.
"I'm doing what I can to support my friend. If it makes him happy and makes his life a bit easier, then what's the worst that can happen?"
"If this were a horror manga, I'm willing to bet the second you said that, terrible things would prepare themselves to happen to you." Kai said, his bitter smile faint.
Koharu pouted, "Hey, don't jinx it."
"Calm down. I'm sure you'll be fine. I might be thinking of the wrong type of horror, but the only people who get hurt or anything first are usually the people who don't have the same ethnicity as the demographic," he lifted an index finger, "Don't do the more sensible things when faced with danger," a middle finger, "Or are the first ones to fornicate or get sexualized in some way."
He then shrugged, "So, going based off the fact that I fit the first thing the most out of everyone here, bad things are liable to happen to me first, right?"
The large majority of the group's eyes turned towards Kokona and Saki despite his words, the third thing he'd said causing their actions.
"Well thanks for the confidence boost guys." Saki rolled her eyes lightly at the implication of their gazes. "I feel SO safe from how you're looking at us right now."
Kai looked over to her at this, blinking in confusion, "Huh? What are you talking about?"
"Forget it Nasir," Kokona said quickly, cocking her head back and closing her eyes, "You don't need to know."
In the worst case scenario, their gazes would be because of the Fakebook post from the night before, under which case Kokona would qualify for the third thing Kai had said.
In the best case scenario, with a mild stretching of the word "best", their looks would be fueled by the fact that they knew of the "big breasted damsel in distress being the first to get killed by the horror movie antagonist" cliche, and had reacted according to which of the group would qualify for the part of that, this being Saki and Kokona.
They couldn't help the fact that they were well-endowed, Kokona thought to herself, so there shouldn't have been any reason for anyone to assume that they would be the first victims of the villain-character in some horror story scenario.
Right?
Sekai followed the gazes of the four girls, and seeming to understand, she stifled a laugh to herself, bringing her fingers to her mouth, but only managing to do this to a point that mellowed her laugh down to a snicker.
Looking up at the woman next to him, Kai looked a her curiously, "What is it?"
"It's nothing." Her tone was even, though she was betrayed by her small smile, her lifting a hand and placing it on his shoulder supportively. "Just retain what little innocence you wish you had left."
"Huh?" Kai tilted his head in confusion.
"You don't need to know. Just do as your senpai said and forget the whole discussion altogether." Sekai insisted.
"Well this took a turn." Kai thought aloud.
"Would you be willing to let me read your manga, if I paid for it?" Koharu decided to ask again.
"I wouldn't be." Kai replied.
"Oh come on, what have you got to lose?" She asked playfully.
"The absence of my guilt not getting any worse than it already is, the chance to not see you become more and more tired from sleep deprivation before you ask me to never let you read it again, some other third thing, et cetera."
"I'll be the judge of that." Koharu said boldly.
"Okay." Kai said, glancing over at her, "Don't say I didn't warn you though."
"Hey, why does she get to read it?" Kokona looked over at him with a pout.
"Well, for starters, she was willing to pay. Do you know how invigorating the thought is for someone being willing to read your hard work and pay you to do it, coupled with the hope that they might enjoy it?" Kai smiled blissfully at the thought.
"But I thought you said that since it came from you, it's supposed to have the darkest limits to human imagination or something. Am I wrong?"
"Nope, my claim still stands." Kai said with a chipper tone, "My imagination is the darkest you can hope to see in this life."
"How can you be so sure?" Yui asked, "Do you think just because you know a few horror cliches you're a master at horror?"
"No. I think I'm a master at horror because I know what people are afraid of, and I horribly exploit it."
There was no mistaking that the smile on his lips then was that of genuine evil.
"Ha." Koharu's forced laugh seemed to carry an edge of nervousness now. "Well, on second thought, if that's the case..."
His smile dropped at this, him looking curiously at her, "Oh, getting cold feet?"
"I guess, given your claims of a track record for this sort of thing."
He smiled bitterly at her, "Well, I suppose I'm glad you made that decision."
"Sorry." Koharu crossed her arms, returning his bitter smile with her own.
"It's fine. People do say the horror ones are a little too intense for most. So I don't want you to see it, now that I think of it."
Koharu pouted, "Stop saying that. You're making me curious."
"Oh?" Kai crossed his arms, "Is that really my fault?"
"Yes. You're toying with my emotions. You make it sound interesting, then you make it sound too scary, then you make it interesting again. You have to make up your mind if you're going to try selling me something."
"Isn't doing that a basic way of being ethical about this kind of thing?" Kai asked, "I mean, you don't want someone to sell you something and you don't know what you're buying, right?"
"That is a good point." Yuna said, "Though he sounded a little creepy a second ago, he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who'd scam other people. He's too honest for that."
"What makes you so sure he wouldn't be above scamming people?" Koharu asked the blonde.
"You mean BESIDES his not-so-subtle compliments to drama queen over here, when he was trying to say he didn't like her?" Yuna looked over at Kokona, "I think the whole thing of him blowing his cap over how we all reacted to that post yesterday should say something."
Koharu blinked, then felt guilt fester within her.
"Oh... right." She said, suddenly uncomfortable.
"So, in that instance, if he got that mad because we were treating Kokona badly, when he'd barely known her for a day, then I doubt that you need to worry about him scamming you out of your money when you two seem so friendly yourselves."
"Hm?" Koharu and Kai vocalized their emotions simultaneously.
"I mean, it's kind of obvious. You two seem to mesh well together. Right?" Yuna looked at her friends for affirmation, and they all nodded.
"Going based off the fact that you're talking a lot more than you usually do, when you don't need to, is a strong sign of it." Sekai said, looking at Kai.
"Really?" Kai looked over at his guardian in surprise. "I hadn't noticed."
"I didn't count on you doing that." She smiled at him.
"This is the house." Kokona said suddenly, stopping in front of her home, everyone else stopping quickly after her.
She turned to them, smiling lightly, "Thanks for walking me home. I'm not sure if I needed it, but it's still nice to take a walk like this."
Kai smiled at her, "I'm happy that I offered. I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to."
He beamed somewhat as he looked at everyone else present, and Kokona smiled.
Though her fears had been for naught, she was glad to see him able to enjoy himself in conversing with others.
She knew nothing of how social a person he was, but it was nice for him to be able to have some sort of preoccupation from the less than savory details of the last twenty four hours or so of his life.
"Be safe everyone. I think I'll be going to sleep now." Kokona said, walking towards her front door, her knowing that she couldn't afford to rest there for very long.
She still needed to pick up the rest of her money after all.
"Get some good rest Kokona-senpai." Kai called to her back, and she smiled despite herself, turning and waving back at him.
"I will, see you all later!"
By this point, she'd reached the front door, and finding her key, she would open the door seconds later, entering her home and closing the door behind herself.
Kokona sighed softly to herself, walking forward, sensing the house to be much more silent than it usually was at this time.
Walking into the household, she found several bottles of alcohol lying about, and quirking an eyebrow at the sight of there being significantly more, Kokona decided to go up the staircase, towards her room.
Upon entering, Kokona felt little need to turn on the light, instead looking towards her bed.
The sight of it brought a wave of cold to go through her body.
She walked to the edge of the bed, looking around its perimeter.
Where was it?
She looked under both sides of the bed, yet didn't find it.
She looked all around the room, but couldn't find it anywhere, even after turning on her light.
Where had the envelope gone?
Even if 5,000 yen wasn't very much, it would be useful for her.
After checking the time after several minutes, Kokona quickly gave up her search for the 5,000 yen, instead choosing to change her clothes to get ready to meet her client, practically rushing out of the door minutes later, failing to notice that her envelope lay in the dark hallway, torn apart, with only the letter that came with it being there, the money long gone before she even originally arrived home for the day.
When she arrived at the same area as the night before, Kokona felt much calmer than she had twenty four hours prior to then.
They had never agreed to a specific time, but she managed to arrive at the same time as before, a few minutes early in fact.
Upon her arrival, she found something that surprised her.
Standing a block away from the hotel stood the man she'd been helping for all this time, faced away from her as he talked to someone else.
She could faintly hear his voice as she approached, rising every so often in anger at the person he spoke to, the distance closing between him and Kokona at an incredibly slowing pace, Kokona doing this consciously as she studied him.
Her obversations caused her to become confused about two things.
The first thing was the fact that the man seemed empty handed, though Kokona chalked this up to her getting the mental image of all the yen stuffed into a briefcase of some sort.
It was very possible for him to simply be carrying the money in an envelope like before, though Kokona didn't really like the idea of this happening again.
She would prefer it if she could keep the money in a more conspicuous place, or at least somewhere she could remember it more easily, so she wouldn't be in the predicament of the envelope being lost again in the span of a single day.
Her confusion for the first thing was dwarfed in its entirety by the second thing.
Talking to the man, with a visble look that Kokona couldn't discern whether it was anger or irritation, was Kai.
He stood with his arms crossed, not a single sign of the burns he very likely was still suffering from displaying itself in his body language, sans his grit teeth, though this could have just as easily been another sign of his emotional state rather than its physical counterpart.
As she neared, Kokona was able to make out certain parts of the conversation, or argument more-like, that had started between the two.
"... no reason for you to be this nosy. This is a private matter." The man said, in apparent anger.
Though she was in Kai's peripheral vision, he didn't seem to notice her.
"It WOULD be a private matter if it didn't involve any of my friends." Kai said, his tone filled with a subdued anger, despite his overall calm voice.
"Did your "friend" ask you to get yourself involved?" The man held his hip.
"No. But that's besides the point." Kai said, his hands' grip tightening around his arms.
"No," the man insisted fervently, "You have a problem with worrying about other people's issues too much. Again, this isn't any of your business, so you shouldn't be here to begin with."
He decided to take a look around himself, and Kokona instinctively hid behind the corner of the building the two males stood in front of, managing to get out of sight before she could be seen.
"That doesn't matter." Kai said in response.
Kokona dared to peek around the corner, hearing Kai's voice raising itself, though not loud enough to truly be considered a yell.
"You're obviously making the wrong decision by being here. Just how long have you been doing this?"
As she listened to Kai speaking, she imagined that the part of the street she was standing in having no lights was the primary cause for why they hadn't noticed her.
Despite this, she couldn't help wondering a few things.
Why was Kai asking that?
What had that man told him?
Again, said man remained cagey about details.
"That isn't any of your business." He seemed to grow more and more irritated with every few words.
"Whose business is it then?" Kai asked, scorn within his gaze as he did, arms uncrossing themselves as he spread his hands. "Your wife doesn't seem to know what's going on, and seeing as how no one else really even knows you that well, who else should this role fall to?"
"No one." He almost growled in response. "The only reason I ever got involved with you was because I thought you, of all people, would understand me."
Kai blinked at this, surprise taking his features.
"What?"
"You don't have any right to criticize me for what I'm doing." He continued, saying this in a voice that was several times calmer than before, composure regained as if in exchange for Kai losing his own. "Seeing as how you've done much worse than things like this, can you honestly say that isn't the truth?"
Kai's expression darkened at this, and the control he seemed to have over his anger faltered.
"No, you aren't wrong." His voice shook as he spoke, reluctance heavily meshing with it, his eyes growing somewhat distant as he looked down, "I HAVE done worse..."
"Then shouldn't I be the one criticizing you? After all, I'm at least helping her by doing this. What about you?" His voice became scornful now. "Can you say you actually helped anyone with the things you've done?"
Kai met his eyes again, and the shakiness receded, replaced by anger.
"Do you think the things that I've done wrong make you any more right?" Kai narrowed his eyes at him. "It doesn't matter if it makes me a hypocrite or not if I'm telling you that this is wrong. What I'm saying and doing right now is the best thing I can do in this situation. Hypocrisy be damned, you're the one who's wrong here."
"You say that, but you still haven't answered my question. Have you managed to help anyone in the way I have to her? You act all high and mighty, but beneath all that, you're still just a selfish bastard who acted in his own interests because he was angry."
"I. Said. Hypocrisy. Be. Damned!" Kai snarled at him, fists clenching, him not seeming to care for the looks passerby gave him. "If you REALLY want to say that you're helping someone, don't even TRY comparing what you're doing with me!"
"Why are you getting angry?" Kokona could hear the confident smile conveying its reappearance in the man's voice. "I thought you said you're calmer than you used to be."
"Because no matter how you try justifying it, what you're saying - what you're DOING - just isn't right!"
"What of it? Can't we just agree to disagree on this sort of thing?" He gave another cursory look around, and Kokona did nothing to move from her peeking spot, as she was already well hidden from view.
"This is too important an issue to pretend like it's just some debate." Kai's voice brought his attention back to him. "This is YOUR wife, and MY friends we're talking about here."
Friends?
Kokona wondered who he could've meant, other than her.
"All I want to do is make the story I want to tell as true as the ones you've told. Is that really so wrong of me?"
"In this case, yes." His voice became softer as he looked away. "But even if it wasn't, the stories I've told are much too horrible for anyone to want to have as the truth. And besides that," he looked up at him, "If you want to make your story as true as mine's have been, you'll need to change it. Mine's don't have half the glaring omissions that yours does."
"Are you against this or for this now?" He replied with a laugh.
"I'm still very much against this." Kai said tonelessly. "But if you're going to make your story mirror reality like mine's do, at least have the moral sense not to paint yourself in the right, like some hero."
"It's my story. I'll do what I want with it." He crossed his arms in reply to Kai's words.
"No. It's not just yours. You're affecting more than just yourself by doing this. You can't just ignore how your actions hurt other people."
"Weren't you listening? All I've done is help a girl out. I've done nothing wrong."
"Are you just going to forget about your wife? Where's her place in this story, if you want it to reflect reality so much?"
A pause.
For a moment, Kokona peered more around the corner, wondering if she hadn't heard the man's answer.
He answered him the next second however.
"She has no place in this story." He said simply, though in a solemn tone that implied it to be a confession. "I don't want her in any more of them."
Kai blinked.
"What?"
"I don't want her in any more of my "stories". I want to take her out of them completely." He elaborated, his tone light.
Kai stared at him for a moment.
"But... she's your wife." He said in disbelief. "There shouldn't be any reason for you to want to do that. You still want everything to be true... right?"
"I do." The man brought a hand to his head, "But I've found a better character than that woman to fill in the role I want."
Kai stared at him for a moment more.
"No." Kai shook his head at him in realization for how serious he was, "You're not serious. Tell me you aren't being serious right now."
"I am."
"But this is your wife we're talking about. Do you even know what you're saying? Do you know what you'd be giving up by doing that?"
"I know full well what I'm giving up. That woman you call my wife doesn't have anything. No friends, no family, nothing. When I met her, she was just an impoverished, but beautiful, girl. When I took her in, she was willing to support me in all the things I did, and I loved her for that. But now, she doesn't do that. She isn't as beautiful as she once was either. A person like that deserves to be omitted from my story, regardless of how much it mirrors real life."
For a moment, Kai looked too dumbstruck to respond.
When he found himself able to concentrate again, he raised a hand to his head and held it to his forehead, him adopting a more stressed out appearance than Kokona imagined him with.
"Tell me," he began with a slow tone, "By "omitting" her, what do you plan to do, in the event that you want your "story" to mirror your life completely?"
"Isn't it obvious?" His hands found the inner-regions of his pockets. "I'm going to do it in a legal way. I'll divorce her."
"All because she doesn't look as pretty as she used to, and doesn't submit to you anymore?"
"Yes."
"And what do you expect her to do? Can she even support herself?"
"She had her ways of doing that before. If she does it again or not, I don't care."
"What did she do?"
"She always said she'd protected herself, but it doesn't change the fact that she was in quite a rut when I met her in a brothel. I doubt she'd be accepted back in there though, at this point."
Kai stared in shock once more.
"What is wrong with you?" He asked, his free hand clenching into a tightly shaking fist.
"I have no need for someone like her, so what's the problem?"
He clenched his teeth.
"Everything." He growled through his teeth, so lowly that Kokona barely heard what he said, and could only go off of reading his lips.
"I see." The man said this with a small sigh. "I guess we'll never see eye-to-eye then, as I'd hoped."
"I never want to see eye-to-eye with someone like you." Kai said, glowering at the man before him, before his gaze softened somewhat, the subdued hostility within his tone dropping. "But please, tell me, who did you plan on replacing her with?"
"I think you can already guess who I'm talking about. She's the only reason I'm here now."
Kokona's breath had caught in her throat at how casually he said this.
"What makes you so sure she'll settle for someone like you? I'm not sure if you've noticed, but you aren't exactly the best looking guy I've ever met." Kai said, and the man chuckled to himself darkly.
"You of all people would know." He said, before taking another look around himself. "I want her because she has the kind of personality I want."
"And what would that be?" Kai asked, the subdued anger within his voice returning with a strong vengeance.
"I suppose you could say," he assumed a thinking posture, but his voice grew joyful, excited, just like whenever Kokona did whatever he'd wanted, "She has a bit more resistance, which makes her less predictable, even though I know how to make her stop resisting completely."
Kai gave a bitter smile, but that smile never reached his eyes.
"You say you're divorcing your wife because she doesn't listen, but you're attracted to my friend because she resists more?" His voice, mocking in its questioning nature, became cold the next second. "Make up your mind if you're going to be like this."
"I suppose you could say that I like them a bit more feisty, but not too much so." The man responded after a moment of silence. "If I can control how feisty they are, then I'll settle for them. That's how my wife was, but not anymore. Can you understand me now?"
Kai gave an deep, long, tired sigh.
"I kind of wish I didn't, but yes."
"Just to be sure you do," he inclined his head slightly, "I'm attracted to beautiful women who can put up a measured amount of resistance. My wife doesn't have any of those things, so I don't want her anymore."
"I understand." Kai lowered his hand from his head, looking at the man before him, his voice completely calm now. "I just don't understand why you're telling me this."
"Remember those days we talked in private in my home?" The man said, his voice as calm as Kai's then.
"Yes. What about them?"
"I happened to record everything we said at those times. Every. Last. Thing." He made his sentences short for emphasis, and to Kokona's surprise, she could see Kai's skin lose some of its tan color. "So, in the event that you were to try doing anything, I'll go to the police station with all of the recordings in hand, and tell them everything you've done."
"You... You...!" He seemed suddenly at a loss for words, his expression a mixture of emotions.
Surprise, outrage, pain, and, most of all, betrayal showed in a cluster on his face.
"I what?" It was the man's turn to become mocking now, and he crossed his arms. "You might want to watch what you say. Nothing says I can't tell the police now."
Another emotion appeared on Kai's face, one that outshone all the others he conveyed.
Fear.
"But why?" He managed to say, voice raspy. "Why are you going so far for something as stupid as this?"
"I'm only doing what's necessary." He said in a measured tone. "I want to live a good, long life, and I don't need someone like you messing it up for me."
"But you can't do this. After all you'd done for me, what reason would I have to do that?" Kai asked, voice suddenly desperate.
"Don't you remember the fact that you were pretty against me divorcing my wife? Who knows, you may have wanted to do it then. You usually can hide your emotions, yet not well enough for that to be the case here."
Kai stared at him, eyes wide.
"Do you understand now?" The man said, his tone inviting no rebuttal. "Don't interfere with me, and I won't turn you in."
"So that's how it is?" Kai asked, his voice distant.
"Are you still going to interfere, knowing that? If you still want to, I'd advise you think about Sekai before you do so. How do you know she'll be okay, if you're not there to help?"
"She's the only reason you're still alive right now." Kai said, voice still distant as he looked at the man before him.
"Then don't interfere with me, and there won't be any problems."
"There always will be a problem." Kai said, shaking his head. "Because, like it or not, this is still my friend you're talking about. I can't just sit by and let you think this way."
"What is she to you?" The man said. "You haven't even known her a full day."
"My friend." He said, as though this should've been as clear as day. "No matter how long I've known her, that doesn't change that I have to help her."
"How? You aren't helping her at all. At this rate, all you're doing is hurting yourself."
"Because of how this is affecting her outside your wannabe relationship with her." Kai said, anger still remaining amidst his shaking voice. "She doesn't need this kind of crap loaded on her. She's already going through enough as is!"
"Like what?" The man said, voice challenging.
Kai was about to respond, before Kokona's voice caught his attention.
"It's fine Nasir. You don't have to go through any more effort to help me." She said this as she walked forward, into the light, where they could see her.
"Senpai?" Kai said, looking at her in surprise.
"Ah, hello." The man said happily.
She moved to the man's side, wrapping her arms tightly around his, "Don't worry about me. I'll be okay."
"But Senpai, he..."
Though the man gave a glare to him as he said this, the only thing that made Kai trail off was Kokona shaking her head at him.
"I told you, I'll be fine. You've done enough for me as it is. This is something I need to take care of on my own."
"But..." Kai looked at his boss warily, "This guy, he's..."
"I'll be fine." She insisted a third time. "But please, let me handle this."
Kai looked at her for a moment more, then, with a heavy reluctance, sighed in defeat.
"Alright. If that's what you'd like." Kai said, casting a small glare at the man Kokona held onto before turning around slowly. "Just be careful Kokona-senpai. I want things to go well for you. I doubt that will happen if you do everything this guy wants you to."
He walked forward then, head lowered slightly, his form gradually disappearing into darkness.
"He really doesn't know how to keep out of other's business." The man said, through ground teeth.
"Are you angry?" Kokona looked up at him, and meeting her eyes, the man smiled.
"Don't worry about that." He said. "Are you ready?"
"No." Kokona peeled herself away from him, "Do you have all the yen that you promised me?"
He blinked, then nodded, reaching into his coat pocket and pulling two envelopes out, handing them both to Kokona, who took them.
They felt significantly thicker and heavier than what she imagined, yet Kokona, remembering the night before, looked up at the man, "Would you mind it if I checked to see if it's all in here first?"
She searched his expression for the slightest hint of worry, or any other emotion that would betray any chance of him trying to hide anything from her.
Instead, his smile only grew.
"Why?" He leaned closer to her, and recognizing the intent behind his movement, Kokona took a step back to increase the distance between them, dodging the puckered lips he had.
He gave a surprised, embarassed look, but stood back up straight, his expression now a bit troubled.
"Don't you trust me?" He asked her, and Kokona gave him a look that conveyed her answer completely: a look that said "do you honestly think that?".
Acting on the off-chance that he couldn't percieve the meaning behind her face, Kokona spoke flatly, "I didn't want to do the things we did together yesterday. The only reason I did it in the first place was for the money, and you didn't even give me what you promised."
As she reminded herself of the things she'd done, the wave of self-disgust welled up within her again, and she half-lidded her eyes whilst looking away somewhat, not wanting to meet the man's eyes.
"How can I trust you after that?"
He looked somewhat uncomfortable at this.
"I see. I'm sorry about that." He apologized, head bowed slightly.
Kokona almost wanted to say she would forgive him, but alas, the circumstances were too important, and the consequences too strong, for her to be able to believe that she could.
Due to her thoughts not being conveyed to him, the man asked of this very thing, and Kokona's throat constricted upon hearing how he worded it.
"Is there any way that you could forgive me, so we could do this again?"
"No." Kokona said flatly.
Before, admittedly, there wasn't a chance.
Now that he'd worded the question like that, he'd managed to solidify her resolve, the things she'd heard he was hoping to do with his wife, and with her, only serving to worsen this.
"What?" The man seemed surprised, and Kokona shook her head for emphasis.
"No. I don't want to do this again." She opened her closed eyes, and stared the man in the eyes, surprised at how firm she sounded. "I told you already, I never wanted to do that again, and I've already decided to stand by what I said before. I never even wanted to do this whole thing anyways, because I was afraid something like this would happen. The money you offered me yesterday, it didn't make it any better. All it did was make me feel worse about myself. And besides that, you're married. So there's no way we could do this again."
"But what if I wasn't..."
He trailed off, in sudden hesitation.
She knew, for all her being, that she wouldn't like the answer, but asked anyways.
""What if you weren't" what?"
"What if I wasn't married?" He asked, some nervousness tinging his voice.
She mentally sighed.
"My answer would be the same. Because you being married isn't the only problem."
"But, what if you married..."
"No." Kokona said abruptly.
"But..."
"No." She said this with a tone that mixed firmness with finality.
But even so, he persisted.
"But you... You need me." He said, tone becoming more composed. "If you don't want to do this anymore because we aren't married, then how will you be able to take care of yourself?" He looked down at the envelopes in her hands. "That money won't last you forever. If you're afraid of this sort of thing happening, you'd have to stop doing this altogether. But you still need some way to sustain yourself, right?"
Kokona sighed outwardly this time.
She suddenly regretted showing gratefulness for what the man used her for, photography-wise, a month prior to then, as ironic as that might have sounded.
At that time, before things had gone too far between them, Kokona felt fairly happy with their near-daily routine.
She felt happy to help the man who claimed to be working on his manga and needed pictures for reference, both for the fact that her unfortunate position of engaging in compensated dating had suddenly turned into a de facto modeling job, and for the fact that she was helping someone in a way other than feeling subconscious about their age.
It had been when they were at the docks, near the local beach, that he'd first asked the question.
"Hey," he said to get her attention, neither knowing each other's names at all, "You seem like a pretty smart person. Why are you doing this kind of work?"
Passerby would have few ways of knowing what he was talking about from how he was wording it on the off-chance they overheard him, though the people making up said passerby were few and far between.
Kokona, who gazed towards the sunset, would look at the man in surprise.
For someone to actually take interest in her personal life, rather than focus on their own, was an unprecedented action among clients.
Granted, this had been the same man who made it a point to compliment her on every occasion that they met, but though this fact lessened the surprise somewhat, Kokona was still surprised nonetheless.
Looking back towards the sunset, Kokona gained a distant look.
Back then, despite her using the word "client" to describe those who engaged in compensated dating with her, she had grown to see this man as a type of co-worker more so than a client.
Their relationship was cordial, with their repeated meetings but lack of sharing basic information about one another reenforcing this.
Seeing no harm in it, Kokona was honest with him.
"I didn't WANT to do this." She admitted to him, a flicker of sadness entering her gaze. "There just wasn't anything else that I could do, and I was pretty desperate after a while."
Her elaboration had come out before she realized it, Kokona immediately reflected, but she believed that manifested itself in a need to talk about her problems.
She'd never been without a friend who could lend a listening ear, but she kept this particular secret to herself because she lacked the confidence in her friends that she needed that they wouldn't feel like she was a burden to them, whether they'd admit it to anyone, even themselves, or not.
It had occurred to Kokona to try asking her friends for money, but she didn't want to risk them knowing about her family problems.
Thus, with no job, the main provider of wealth being an alcoholic, the above option locked out by choice, and the days she could go on living without a normal amount of food consumption, this was the way her life had ended.
"Why desperate? Is there something you're trying to buy?"
She almost wanted to laugh at that.
This level of desperation would never warrant itself in her wanting to buy something, she thought then.
"No." Kokona shook her head, "It isn't something I want to buy. It's something more important than that."
Like having a roof over her head at night, she added mentally.
"I see. Don't you ever want to find something else to do?"
"I always do." Kokona said, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Do you think I enjoy this kind of thing?"
She realized a second too late how this might have come out wrong, as she actually enjoyed this person's appointments several times more so than others.
But the man showed no sign of offense.
"So you're only in it because you need the money that much?"
His voice was curious, and simply that.
"Well, yeah." She looked up at the sky in thought, choosing then to amend her words. "But this isn't such a bad way of going about this. I like the idea of looking like I'm a modeler A LOT better than I like the idea of going on a compensated date. To be honest, the only time I've actually enjoyed doing this kind of thing was when I'm helping you out."
"Really?" His tone was still curious, and Kokona returned her gaze to the sunset.
"Yes." She then looked over at him, smiling warmly at him, "Because of this, I'm able to take care of me and my dad. So I guess I have you to thank, for helping me through this like you have."
He looked surprised at this, and holding her smile up at him for a moment, Kokona only dropped it when a flash from the camera appeared, her blinking in surprise.
"Sorry," he said, though he sounded anything but, "That smile you just had looked like it'd make for a great shot, so I had to take the chance before it was too late."
Looking down at his camera, his smile dropped just as quickly as it'd grown mischievously innocent.
"But it's a shame though. I didn't even get a good shot. And it was such a beautiful smile too."
Kokona's smile grew again, and she laughed lightly at him.
"Well, thanks for the compliment. I can try to smile again if you'd like."
"I'm not sure if it'll be as heartfelt, but if you could, I'd like you to try." He smiled back at her encouragingly.
She had grown, in a sense, closer to him after this.
Their cordial relationship grew into something of a circumstancial friendship, the man becoming more willing to joke around with her than he was before, and her likewise becoming less tense around him.
It was genuinely saddening, to think of just how greatly her liking for the man standing before her now, in the present, had taken a giant nosedive over the course of two days.
"Maybe, but this has gone too far." Kokona closed her eyes. "You're right. If I want to keep this from happening again, I need to stop this now. So that's exactly what I'm going to do."
She then turned to her left, in the direction she'd come from.
The direction leading her to home.
His hand grasped her arm before she could take the first step however.
"But you won't have to worry about that kind of thing anymore if you're with me. You can't be judged for doing this sort of thing with your husband, right?"
His voice would seem calm and reasoning to all but the greatest of obsevers.
Within the man's tone was a minor hint of desperation.
"You really want me to marry you?" Kokona's voice was calm, but she didn't look back at him.
"Yes, I do." His grip on her arm tigthened ever so slightly, but it didn't hurt Kokona at all.
She breathed in slowly through her nose, then quickly out of her mouth, before turning to look at him, barely able to keep her emotion of anger in check.
"Say my name then."
The order was simple, yes.
But deep down in her gut, Kokona knew it was impossible for him to do so.
As she expected, the man's expression shifted from hope to that of strong surprise.
"What?"
This reaction alone was enough to give Kokona the appropiate ammunition she needed.
"Say. My. Name." Kokona said, voice calm.
He seemed to have a harder time trying to keep a straight face rather than racking his brain for memory of such a simple thing.
"See? You don't even know it." Kokona looked away, eyes narrowing into a scowl. "I barely know the first thing about you. How can you expect me to marry you just because you can take care of me? Do you really think I'm that shallow a person?"
"No!" He said quickly. "I just thought that you'd change your mind if I told you that."
"There's no way that would change my mind!" She yelled back at him, and behind the anger in her eyes, there was a bit of hurt. "If I'm going to be married, I want it to be a good relationship that I'm going into. I want to have a relationship a hell of a lot less crude than this one."
Before she knew it, she was flying into a rage.
"If I'm going to be married, I want it to be with someone I actually love on a deeper level than just co-workers or friendship, and that loves me back. Even if that ends up being too much to ask for, that's my standard! And YOU shouldn't settle for a relationship like this either!" She turned around fully, facing him, his grip on her arm weakening in surprise. "If you base your marriage off of something like money, you'll just end up being lonely and miserable at the end of your life! Money can help with a lot of material things, but it can't help something that isn't superficial like marriage! So before you go around proposing to the first girl you have a good old time with, think about your relationship with her with your BRAIN instead of your TINY DICK!"
She jerked her arm out of his grasp, and turned around, walking away in a huff, uncaring for the pain her burns caused to her feet as she stalked away from him.
The man gave no more effort to his proposal, him looking too shocked and surprised at her back as she walked away.
Then there came the sound of muffled laughter behind him, and looking towards the source of it, the man narrowed his eyes at the sight of Kai, who had never truly left, holding his hand over his mouth as he struggled not to laugh, as was plainly obvious, at him, walking past him and behind Kokona.
The man sighed to himself, mentally wishing that Kai wasn't under a contract that barred the man from putting him into serious trouble for laughing at how poorly his attempt ended.
"Two more years and you're screwed." He muttered under his breath, turning around and walking away, in the opposite direction of the two who'd just left.
In his mind, he attributed the way things had gone to be Kai's fault, embarassment not letting him see reason.
For much of the walk home, Kokona was too angry to care to even look inside the envelopes clutched tightly within her hands.
In the meantime of this, Kai's laughter had died a long time ago, and after several blocks of walking in a rather poorly lit street, he called out to her with his hands stuffed into his pockets.
"Kokona-senpai." He called, and the girl stopped dead in her tracks, turning back to look back at him.
Due to the only lights being that of the full moon however, she couldn't see him all that well.
"Who are you?"
"It's your friend Nasir, Kai." He said with a smile.
"Nasir?" Her tone became less tense after this, becoming more relieved than anything.
"Yup." He walked towards her, smiling all the while, tone light. "You shouldn't be walking around alone at this time of night."
"What's your excuse then?" Kokona said as he reached her side, and she saw his smiling face as he passed her, walking alongside him. "You're a year younger than I am, so you're worse than I am in that regard."
"I can't exactly leave you alone out here." His smile dropped as he said these words, his eyes scanning their surroundings warily.
"Why not?"
"You mean BESIDES the obvious fact that someone seems out to get you?"
Kokona blinked, then remembered the cause of her suffering feet and her falling the day before.
Within her festered surprise at his mentioning it, but she assumed it was fine to talk about the matter, as they were alone.
"It's just not safe to do this sort of thing. God only knows what could be waiting for anyone around here." He took a cautious look at his surroundings, the neighborhood much more eerie now that night had fallen.
"What do you plan on doing then? You have to go home too."
"I told you, you're my friend. And as your friend, I should be willing to lay down my life for you."
She almost wouldn't have taken him seriously, had it not been for his little escapade of saving her a few hours prior to then, for how lightly he spoke of the issue, as though he were talking the sky being clear that night.
"Yeah, well, I'm sure Christ didn't mean for you to literally lay down your life for me."
"And that is where you're wrong." He said automatically. "He died on the same kind of death as two thieves for the people he loved, and he said for his followers to love his friends as much as he loved them. That should make it clear that this should be second nature to me."
Kokona sighed, "Are you sure he didn't mean just your Christian friends?"
"No, he said to love your friends as he did. There's no need to complicate it."
"When it's me you're laying your life down for, I feel the need to. At this point getting killed would probably be a load off my back." She said this much too casually than she would've preferred, and Kai reacted appropiately.
"But what if I don't want you to die?"
Or perhaps semi-appropiately, given his response had been a mixture of concern and curiosity instead of just the former.
"Why does it matter so much to you?" Kokona asked, looking up at him. "We don't even know each other that well. You can barely call us aquaintances, much less friends."
He seemed unsurprised at this, him smiling even.
"Yeah, I know. But can't you say I've lived up to that claim of friendship?"
"You have. It'd just be better if you chose someone else."
"Well, I chose you, so you can either accept it happily, or mope around and accept it, because I'm not taking it back, and I doubt I'm leaving any time soon."
"The only reason I haven't accepted it is because this makes no sense to me." Kokona explained exasperatedly. "I mean, why would you want to help me? Don't you think whoever's after me will hurt you too if you stick around me too much?"
"I'm fully aware of the dangers, and I'm sticking with you. And it might not mean much to them, but with me at least you aren't walking alone in the dark. You weren't even looking around to see if you were safe the entire way here."
"How do you know?" Kokona asked, an edge to her voice.
"I suppose you could suffice it to say I was following you all the way here to be sure you were safe."
"I thought you left when I asked you to."
"No, I just walked into the darkness and just stopped where you guys couldn't see me." His memory of the past time brought his dropped smile back full force. "And I cannot say I regret being paranoid or hypocritical enough to eavesdrop."
"Stalking, more like." Kokona deadpanned. "What was the point of you sticking around then?"
"Because, on the off chance that he pressured you into doing the same things as yesterday, I wanted to be there to back you up in the case that you didn't want to."
Kokona's heart stopped at this.
Did he know...?
Had that man told him?
"Looks like he was right. You're more resistant than he said. I didn't even need to be there for you."
Kokona glared lightly at him, but this only served to make his smile broaden.
"What do you think I am? Some wishy-washy girl who's weak in the knees?"
"No, I think you're a teenage girl with problems that need sorting out, but you don't know how to go about most of them."
His dream of her suicide attempt, along with the few details he knew about the people around Kokona, fueled this response out of him.
Despite him being right, Kokona's glare deepened.
"What makes you so sure?"
He gave a moment of thought.
"I COULD be wrong," he asserted this fact upfront, "But if I guessed right, you haven't told anyone about how we met, have you?"
"No."
"And yet you still came to school again, knowing someone pushed you off the roof?"
"Yes." Kokona had already thought of the possibility of the would-be killer, but she decided to go to school simply because of the post that brought her current friendships into question.
"Why would you go to school, knowing that someone there tried to kill you? Wouldn't it have been a better idea to just stay home and tell your parents or something?"
"I came so I could explain what I was doing yesterday to my friends. Until, of course, YOU threw a wretch in that plan."
The irritation in her voice masked a hidden gratefulness for him being there, caused by his admittedly understandable question, simply due to Kokona being poor at recieving criticism.
"Well, sorry for that. Remind me not to tell your friends my business to help you out again."
At this, Kokona sighed, finding it well within herself to believe that he'd done that for her.
"No, I should be apologizing. You've done nothing but try to help me since we've met, and I've barely shown you how grateful I am for that." Kokona said remorsefully.
He looked up in the sky, in thought, before saying, ""Do to others as you would have them do to you," and, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves," are two things the Bible teaches. Since I said you were my friend, I would naturally want my friend to stick up for me when others are putting me down or accusing me of doing something wrong without anything backing it up, other than someone who keeps to herself saying it and taking pictures. In the same vein, while I know I don't like getting lectured for my wrongdoings, I would rather that than become unrepentent in what I've done wrong."
It took Kokona a moment to realize he was talking about the verbal hostility he'd shown to the members of her group, sans Saki, during which he kept speaking.
"And, if I were to apologize for something I did wrong, I'd definitely want to be forgiven for it. I mean, who doesn't?" Lowering his gaze to look before him, he continued. "Other than that, since I should value you more than myself, I should be willing to do things that I'd normally prefer not to."
Kokona looked down at his feet, his shoes covering the burns that were certainly still there.
"You're a good person." She said this without thinking, knowing within herself this had to be true.
"No, I'm not." He denied firmly, but not vehemently. "As far as I see it, I'm just repaying my debt to Christ to go to heaven. If it weren't for Him, I'd seem like a much more horrible person than I do now."
"How are you so sure?"
His expression visibly darkened at the past events he apparently recalled as he spoke, "I've done... many terrible, terrible things in my life. And... I sometimes get this want to do those things again, despite me converting to Christianity."
For a moment, Kokona stared in surprise at him, his voice revealing that it took a large deal of effort to admit even this.
"I'm sure that should be normal." Kokona said, trying to lighten his mood. "I mean, we all get tempted to do bad things, don't we?"
"Yes, but that doesn't make it any better." Kai closed his eyes. "I have to resist temptations, but I just wish that some of them weren't so strong or frequent. It doesn't help that I don't always follow through with resisting."
"Do you ever talk to someone about this?"
Opening his eyes, he shook his head, "No. Only you."
"Do you think you could? I'm not sure I'm the right person you should talk about this with."
"I know I should, but it's just the matter of following through that's the problem." He said this, as though knowing his feelings were wrong in some way.
"Then... Why are you telling ME this?"
"I..."
Kai, like with the man before, suddenly seemed to at a loss for what to say.
"I... don't know. It's just that you were asking about me and I just started talking without thinking..."
He held his head, sighing heavily, as though somewhat ashamed of himself, and whether this was for his past mistakes or for telling her, although vaguely, about them, Kokona didn't know.
She looked away a bit awkwardly, then stepped a bit closer to him, reaching her right arm up and wrapping it around him, pulling him into her.
At her touch, she felt him flinch ever so slightly, but he didn't do anything other than this, Kokona feeling him looking down at her, her not meeting his eyes.
"You said, "do to others as you would have them do to you," right?" Her voice wasn't any less awkward than her expression.
"Well... yeah, but... I thought you weren't..."
"I'm not Christian, no." Kokona said. "Frankly, I barely know anything about Christianity, besides what you've told me. But since you put what you've done for me on those terms, then I'll do the same for you." After saying this, she found it within herself to look up at him, meeting his eyes. "So, since I consider you my friend, right now I'm just doing what I'd want my friend to do for me in this situation."
Kai's eyes widened, surprise lighting up his dark expression.
Then his surprise faded from his expression into nothing, his lips curving into a warm smile.
"Thank you, Kokona-senpai."
Kokona couldn't help returning his smile, and Kai wrapped his arm around her as well, them doing their awkward embrace for a few seconds more as they continued to walk, them in the middle of the first streetlight they'd passed for the entire time they'd entered the neighborhood when it ended.
When they reached Kokona's home, they had long since separated from one another, but the silence between them was evident the entire way.
Kokona felt an odd comfort about the silence, but didn't comment on it.
Kai looked around himself every few minutes to make sure they were alone, but, based on his lack of reaction at any time, Kokona thought it safe to assume all was well.
Upon arriving there, Kokona smiled towards Kai, stopping in her tracks as she spoke for the first time since their embrace, "Thanks for walking me home."
"No problem." Kai said after stopping a second after she did, looking back at her and returning the smile.
"Could I ask you something before I go inside though?" Kokona's tone shifted into one a more serious one then.
Curiosity flickered into his expression once he saw this, "Sure, what?"
"Did that guy tell you what we did together? Your boss, I mean."
"Oh," Kai crossed his arms, thinking for a moment, "In a way you could say that."
"What do you mean?"
"After the little bout of anger I had before with your friends, I decided to ask my dear old boss about the matter myself so I could get the facts straight about what he was doing with you. He did say that he made a mistake that he was hoping to fix a couple of days ago, but he didn't tell me anything until I made it clear to him that I saw a picture of him going into a love hotel with you. I never said it was you by name, but it's pretty obvious right about now that he knew exactly who I was talking about. He didn't even try hiding what he did after that. He just said he had been going on compensated dates with a girl and had gone into the love hotel with her one night. He didn't elaborate on exactly what you guys did, and I got the feeling that I didn't want to know. I had a good idea of what you guys did for most of the dates though."
"Oh. I see." Kokona said this flatly, looking at him curiously. "So... you knew I'd been taking part in compensated dating?"
"Yes. I never really brought it up because you doing that is essentially your choice. But, based on what you said to Soichirou tonight, I doubt you'll be doing much dating anymore, am I right?"
"No. With the money he's given me, I think I should be fine long enough to find a job other than that." Kokona looked down at orange pockets in her hands for emphasis.
Kai smiled, "Good. We wouldn't want a repeat of what happened today after all."
"Agreed." Kokona sighed tiredly. "But the reason I'm asking is because I want to know," she met his curious eyes, "Are you really sure you want to be my friend?"
"Yes." He said without thinking. "Even if I DO feel like this friendship hasn't gotten off to the best start for either of us, I'm sure tomorrow won't be as bad."
"Yup." Kokona said, mentally sighing at the truth behind his words, the nature of today being her primary reason for asking.
In the matter of one day since becoming her self-proclaimed friend, Kai had caused her friends to feel a large deal of guilt towards their actions, had gone to great lengths to try discerning what had happened for the situation with his boss and Kokona to reach the level it had, forsaken his own club activities in favor of spectating her's because he was worried about her psyche, only to watch as someone tied her up and set her on fire, stepped into the fire himself to save her before saving himself, had beaten himself up over the fact that he hesitated to do the last thing, made something of a friendship with her friends after yelling at them a few hours prior, took a long walk with what Kokona could only imagine was constant pains from simply walking, as she'd experienced, had somehow found himself arguing with his boss over how the older man was treating the subject they were talking about, and had now found it within himself to walk her home, with the burns more likely than not still hurting him.
All of these things because he cared just that much.
She could only simply agree and hope that tomorrow wouldn't be as eventful an ordeal to go through, both for her and for him especially.
This was probably the worst idea of a first impression Kokona had ever given to anyone, though she guessed she couldn't hope for much of a better one in how Kai had reacted to the entire thing.
Realizing this, Kokona added her thanks as an afterthought, "But I can rest easy, thanks to you. I'm sorry that you had to go through everything you had to because of me."
"It's fine. Do you want to make it up to me though?" Kai smiled at her, and for a split second feared that he would ask for something that'd put her in a bad position.
She could only imagine that he looked at her differently now that he knew of her job's (former job's, Kokona amended) nature.
She wasn't without her experience in meeting guys who seemed nice but were genuinely jerks underneath that.
Despite this, she still responded normally.
"Yes, but... how?"
"Could I give you a hug?"
Kokona blinked, surprised.
"That's it?"
"Yes. Could I?" He tilted his head, "If you're the kind of person who's sensitive about people touching you, I can understand, but I didn't get that impression from you."
"No, I'm not." Kokona shook her head, surprised expression becoming a smile, "And yes, you can give me a hug."
He smiled, then closed the distance between them, wrapping his arms around her, Kokona responding in kind.
Eyes closed, with his hand grazing against her scalp lightly, Kai breathed a short sigh of what Kokona could only assume was relief.
"I'm glad you're okay, Kokona-senpai." He said this softly, and Kokona couldn't help smiling as his body relaxed with this, as though his hugging her reaffirmed his knowledge that she was safe.
"Thank you for everything today." Kokona said in reply, and he held her for a moment more before he started moving away from her, Kokona unwrapping her arms from him as he did this to her, casting down a warm smile to her one more time.
"It's no problem." He said, and she nodded.
She then turned to look towards her house, and Kokona's smile dropped.
She hesitated for a moment, then turned around, looking at Kai.
"Could I ask you to do me a favor?"
"Yeah, sure, what is it?"
"Can I trust you not to look into this," Kokona lifted up one of the two envelopes for emphasis, "But keep it in a safe place for me, until I ask for it back?"
He looked at the envelope with interest, but nodded all the same.
"I'm guessing I shouldn't ask what's inside, should I?"
"I guess it won't do any harm." Kokona looked at the envelope, "This is something your boss promised me yesterday, but didn't give me until today. He said he'd pay me 500,000 yen for me to go to the hotel with him again, but he only gave me 5,000 yen and a note last time. So using basic math, there should be 495,000 yen between these two things."
"Oh." Kai blinked. "Are... you sure you don't want to just keep that money to yourself?"
"Well, somehow, I left the first 5,000 on my bed yesterday, yet when I first got home today, it was nowhere to be seen. So unless my memory's getting messed up, someone probably took it."
"Who would steal from you? Do you have a sibling or something?"
"No, it's just me and my dad. My mom died a while back, so it's just us."
Kai blinked again.
"Sorry to hear that. My condolences."
"Thank you." Kokona crossed her arms, glad for the night concealing the source of her suddenly stinging eyes. "But the point is, it was probably him. He's been having it a bit rough since Mom died, so it might have been him."
"Why would he steal your money because of that?"
"He's... coping with it right now. Since his coping methods requires a lot of money, I have the wonderful honor of having to chip in. Since his priorities are a bit skewed right now though, I don't really want to trust him with all of the money right now."
Kai looked at the house, as though in thought, but nodded all the same.
"So, what? Should I take one envelope and you take the other?"
"Well... kind of." Kokona then opened one envelope after handing one to Kai, it filled, to her subconscious relief, with several yen notes, and pulled them out, handing them to Kai as he watched, him putting them inside the other envelope at her behest.
When she was finished, Kai's envelope looked thoroughly stuffed, but she was happy with herself.
"Alright, remember to keep that thing safe, alright?" Kokona said whilst turning around, walking towards her home.
"Yes," Kai said in a surprised tone, watching her as she reached her door, before adding, as an afterthough, "Good night."
She looked back at him, and in the faint moonlight, Kai could see her smiling as she replied, "Good night."
Then she entered her house, sighing softly to herself in tiredness.
Home at last, she thought to herself, upon the door closing behind her.
She could only hope she could get a decent, good night's rest tonight.
A/N: Longest chapter yet. Sans this Author's Note, there's roughly 15,000 words here on it's own.
Alright then, the second day of this rival week has passed.
During the time I take to post a new chapter however, I'll be busying myself with transferring this story to the Yandere Simulator archive.
It's a bit weird though. If this isn't the Yandere Simulator fandom archive, then just what has everyone who's been posting here been posting for?
Another weird thing about the Yandere Simulator fanfiction archive is that, while possible filtering options for characters include people like Pippi Osu and Budo Masuta, Osana Naijimi isn't a filter option yet. That might change in the future, but right now it's kind of weird considering she's supposed to be the first rival and everything.
