Tedium. Life was so dull without the excitement that her chaos conveys. Besides boredom, there was another feeling:

Loneliness. No one makes him feel so 'at home' like she does. No one else provokes the need to vent and reveal his true sensations. Only she is capable of saying the right words in the exact moment that they are needed. This cascades to:

Anger. She comes barging into his life, creates a disturbance of his status quo, brings noise to his household, makes his mother stupidly happy, gives him a career path, provides his brother lessons of humility and perseverance and even saves his life, and then she simply leaves their house and disappears with that imbecile! Which brings yet another emotion:

Preoccupation. Even if she is not the most skilled student, she was indeed showing satisfactory signs of improvement, so why did she have to quit university? Why did she had to go as far as living with a stupid boyfriend, only two measly months into the relationship? How does she dare to make his father miserable, forcing him to age the equivalent of two years in only two months?

Surely studying to be a doctor was pleasing and challenging even though he evidently could understand facts and learn skills very much faster than his classmates learn, but still those horrid feelings inside him did not allow him to fully enjoy this stage in his life. Something was amiss and since he didn't liked it he decided he was to recover it. Fast. His resolution was made stronger by the memory of her being awfully yelled at the convenience store. Unquestionably, when Kotoko called him 'meanie', she did not know what kind of dumbass she was going to have in her life. Was he always such an asshole to her? Those were the thoughts that accompanied Naoki while he was commuting from university, not to home, but to her workplace. Nevertheless, nothing prepared him to see what he was seeing right then: a frightened and running Kotoko who bumped into him and, as she looked up to his face and started formulating a quick excuse, she realized who he was and dragged him with an unknown force to an ally.

"What is wrong with you, you should be more…" His words died in his throat as he saw her left cheek red and swollen, with a thin trickle of blood coming out of the left corner of her lips. Her tearful eyes and trembling body told him more than any word that she could say, but still he needed her to speak up.

"Irie-kun please go home, I beg of you… You don't have any business in this area. Just leave!"

"Where did you get injured that much?" He was trying his best not to convey with his voice how mad or scared he was. He could kill someone right now and then take her to a place where no damned one could touch her again.

"I… I just tripped and fell, you know how I am. This neighborhood is not safe for you. I'll pay you a visit some other day, ok? Nice seeing you Irie-kun. Bye bye! So long!"

"I am not leaving unless you come with me to a doctor."

"I'm in a hurry right now, maybe some other day. Please leave now!"

"No! Is someone chasing you? I won't leave you here!" "Why isn't she providing more details? I need to understand what is going on!"

"I just need you to go home so he won't find you! He will be so angry, he is drunk, I don't want anything to happen to you, I don't want otousan to find out about this, and you are just complicating everything! I can perfectly handle this by myself so go away!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Just what am I complicating?" His eyes were bigger with each of her replies, he just couldn't believe that the fearful and hurt Kotoko was the brave and cheerful girl he used to know.

"So if you want to stay here be my guest. Nice to see you." Kotoko started marching to resume her previous route and Naoki was a couple of steps behind her when a sudden shadow tackled her down with a scream.

"So you're already cheating on me bitch? Moreover, with that bastard!? Say I'm better than him! Say it!"

Naoki already had his hands clenching the drunk idiot that dared to hurt her again and without much effort, he throw him some meters away. Then he took her hand and dragged her while running away from a very confused and disoriented drunkard.

"Let go of me right now Irie-kun, he must be injured and this is just making everything worst!"

"I must differ and until I see you safe I won't leave you alone."

"I can't go to your place; I don't want otousan to see me like this."

"Then let's go to my apartment."

They kept running until Naoki stopped a cab and they hopped in, complete silence surrounding them. He never let go of her hand though, like if she was going to fade away if he did so.

"This is a freaking nightmare… She doesn't deserve this, so why is she living like this? I want to kill that scumbag!"