Weekend. Finally.

I slept in, and when I stood up around eleven, I made breakfast. While I made fried egg, I texted my father to tell him I was fine. He would pass it to my mother – she didn't own a mobile.

Those text messages were part of the conditions I agreed to when I got permission to move to Ikebukuro. My parents visited me twice a month, and the rest of the days I send them a text message so that they could be sure that I was doing well.

I ate my breakfast, looked at the clock – and almost got a heart attack.

I was supposed to be at work in twenty minutes.

I jumped up, grabbed my purse and keys, put on my shoes and ran off.

I made it barely in time, shouted a quick "I'm here!" and ran off to get my uniform. I worked as waitress in a little café and I was glad to have the job. It wasn't very exhausting, but it paid off rather well and I was financing the fuel of my bike with it.

I put on my apron, grabbed my notepad and went to say hi to the kitchen staff.

"Hey guys." I greeted. It was as usual – Mira ignored me for some unknown reason (I've never talked to her, don't ask me how that is possible), Rima was babbling about some otaku-stuff, and when she saw me, she greeted me in her over reactive, super-cute loli way (I bet that half of the guys in our café came for her, and from what I've heard, some maid-cafes wanted to employ her as well), Sakura nodded and smiled at me, and the cook, Rico (A foreigner, if I remembered right, Portuguese) grinned and asked: "Ah, there you are, you tomboy. How was your day?"

Shortly, it was as always. I took orders, served, and after four hours, I was finally done. By that time, it was four in the afternoon, in other words, the day was still long enough to have fun. I left (Rima cried: "Rei-chi, staaaaaay! I heard there were some guys coming over, and I'm scared all alone!") and made my way through the streets of Ikebukuro. I ate sushi, bought me a bottle of water afterwards (I liked soft drinks just as everyone else at my age, but usually, I stuck to water.) and took a walk.

Ikebukuro was one heck of a place to live. Next to urban legends as the Headless Rider (or, for lucky guys like me, Celty), there were guys like Shizuo Heiwajima – well, actually, there was only one guy like Shizuo Heiwajima. And this guy used to throw vending machines around when he was pissed. Well, you could say that Simon from Russian Sushi was like Shizuo Heiwajima too, but that'd be a lie. Simon was more of a peaceful guy and didn't try to destroy half of the city. He was the only one who could stop Heiwajima. I grinned.

I loved living in Ikebukuro. You could meet the weirdest people next to the most normal ones. If you wanted, you could find friends for a life, and for those who were interested – I was sure that there were a lot of girls to hit on, just as many guys to flirt with. The city was buzzing with life.

I drank the bottle empty and threw it into a trash bin nearby. Of course, there were a lot of not so nice places or people. And not everyone enjoyed living as I did. I nodded towards a girl sitting in a corner. Her clothes were dirty, her hair more than just a mess, and in her right hand she held a bottle of vodka. She nodded back.

I walked on, humming a song which title I didn't remember clearly and was simply happy to be.

"Ah, if this isn't Rei-chan."

I stopped short like a wall appeared in front of me and turned on my heel to see who was talking to me. Although that was unnecessary, I've recognized the voice immediately.

"Orihara Izaya." I glared at him. "What do you want?"

He lifted his hands in defense. "No need to freak out, Rei-chan. I just happened to bump into you." His tone was calm, and still, something about him made me feel more than just uncomfortable. I tried to shake it off.

"First of all, stop calling me 'Rei-chan'. It's Saizew-san for you." Forgot to mention. I'm half Russian. "Secondly: Considering you're an info broker, it feels more than just weird to bump into you. Do you have any objections if I pretend not to know you?"

He chuckled. "You're so mean, Rei-chan." I was sure of it; he was trying to piss me off. I turned around and walked away, hoping that he lost interest in me.

Too bad that I was dealing with the Orihara Izaya. If he decided to piss someone off, he would do his best at it. I growled.

"Stop following me. That's creepy." He didn't respond but kept following me. I stopped. "I said. Stop. Following. Me." He stopped right behind me, and this time, he responded.

"Are you scared of me, Rei-chan?"

Somewhere, a securing burned through, and I turned around and tried to hit him. He dodged so easily as if he knew that I was going to hit him all along. Which, probably, just had been the case.

"I ain't scared of anyone. Heard that? Not of anyone." That was a bold lie; I knew that I was scared of him. But I'd rather die than telling him something like that.

He mustered me, and I expected him to say something, but instead, he suddenly jumped backwards. Not a half second too early, because the moment Izaya left the place, a vending machine rammed into the asphalt. I stared at it in shock.

That thing could've hit me pretty easily.

"Shizu-chan...You're as violent as usual…" I stared at Izaya, whose face had changed somehow, just as his tone. I turned my head and whimpered as I saw a furious, blonde Shizuo Heiwajima. I swallowed. Everyone knew that there was nothing that pissed Heiwajima more off than the sight of Orihara Izaya.

And I so didn't want to get dragged into a fight between them; from what I knew, they had destroyed half of the city when they had fought the last time.

"You damn flea…didn't I tell you to never show your face in Ikebukuro again? Didn't I? Izaya-kun?" He stretched the last word long, while taking off his violet sunglasses. And the way he said 'Izaya-kun' made clear what he was about to do. He was either about to kill the information broker in front of him or he was going to destroy half of the city. With me in it.

I stumbled back, hoping not get into the men's fight. Izaya had pulled a knife, and I was certain that I didn't want to get into his way while he had that thing in his hand.

Stumbling, swearing and as fast as I could, I ran through the streets of Ikebukuro. The noise behind me told me exactly what was going on there, and I didn't turn back even once.

Though, I was happy that Heiwajima had shown up. Who knew what Orihara had been up to?

It was around six at that time, and I decided to take a ride on my bike. I hadn't seen any cops, and even if there would be some around, their attention would be on Orihara and Heiwajima.

I was right with that, I didn't see a cop that evening. I had a nice tour and was successful with forgetting Orihara for at least some hours.

Sunday was a nice, calm day, and when I went to school on Monday, I was certain that my problems with the information broker would be part of the past from then on.

I was quite shocked when I found him waiting for me after school.

I glared at the man in front of me. I just had left the school building and stood at the entrance of the school yard, and before I could leave the school, he appeared right in front of me. I had no clue why the heck he had been waiting there, and I didn't want to know. Heck, the only thing that I would like to know was how the hell he knew what school I was attending.

"What are you doing here?!" I asked, and I didn't even try to hide my anger. "People might think the wrong things of you, you know that?" He smirked. "Is there some boy you don't want to see you with another guy, Rei-chan?" I shook my head lightly. "Of course not, you dork. And it's still Saizew-san." That moment, I realized that I was standing exposed to my classmates and talking with a guy who was certainly over twenty years old.

Did I already mention the bunch of girls I used to have problems with? Well, they were looking for a fight again.

"He? Saizew-san, is that your boyfriend? Quite old, isn't he?" Three girls giggled, and the girl who spoke seemed to be confident about herself.

Awesome. I shot Izaya a look and hissed: "Don't you dare to interfere, dork. I'll deal with you later." I prayed he would really stay out of it – I could imagine that if he would do something at that moment, that I would have a lot of trouble later.

"Sarigawasa-san, I can understand that you want to get in a fight with me, after all I made you look stupid in front of the class once again, but right now, I don't have time for this, ok? I have to deal with that guy right now. But you can save your insults for later if you don't mind." She started laughing. Of course. She's never been the brightest.

"Don't tell me you're that type of girl, Saizew. I mean, really."

A group of students had gathered around us, and I was starting to feel nervous. I didn't have time for that, I had one of the most dangerous men of Ikebukuro standing behind me, but if I wouldn't clear that, I'd have to deal with a lot of rumors afterwards.

"Look, I'm not that type of girl, and that guy is nothing but an acquaintance of mine, and we sort of have business to settle." It wasn't enough, I knew it. I inhaled deeply and self-centered myself. Way better.

I relaxed and lifted my head. "But hey, if you are so desperate to get a guy, you can have him. He's not my type anyway." She snorted. "Like I would want someone as old as him. And I'm not desperate." I grinned. "How was I supposed to know? But now that you mention it, you're always picking fights with me; maybe you're not interested in guys at all." She gasped for air. "How-"

I turned. "Sorry, but I'm tired of this. Gotta go. See ya'." I was confident on how things worked out, and I could even hear some laughter.

Just when I was sure that everything worked out, Izaya destroyed everything. "My, my, Rei-chan." He said, hearable for the whole group of students. "You're getting jealous easily. Didn't I show you that I don't care about others?" I stopped short and stared at him, until I realized what he had said.

"Very funny. Do you want to spread some more rumors? Like, that I work in a brothel or something?" I shook my head. "You were always lousy when it came to make me look stupid, you know that? " I was trembling. The students didn't know me well; in fact, they didn't know me at all. A rumor like that would spread around very fast. I heard them already talking. It was probably already too late to prevent myself from every rumor, but I had to keep the damage low. "What? No more jokes?" I looked up to Izaya, keeping eye contact. I didn't want to look in those eyes, but what other choice did I have?

The thing I hated about that guy, although I didn't knew him for long, was the way he looked at others. Like he knew exactly what the other person was thinking. In my case, he would know that I was scared of him.

"You're scary, Rei-chan." I snorted. "I told you often enough that my name is Saizew-san, got it?" I looked at the couple of students who were watching us. "And what do you guys keep looking at? I already said that I'm not a slut nor anything else related." I turned around and started walking home, ignoring Izaya who followed me. I walked in normal speed, and after the school was out of sight, I stopped.

"Ok. First question: What the heck were you doing in front of my school? Second one: Why did you say that crap? Third and last one: Why do you keep following me?" Izaya chuckled behind me. "These are a lot of questions at once, don't you think? We could go and talk about it with a cup of tea." I turned around so I could face him. "Over my dead body, dork. Answer my questions or not, but get lost in any case. I'm sick of you." He made a dramatic gesture and looked at me out of the corner of his eye: "You're so cruel, Rei-chan!"

I glared at him. I didn't dare to walk home; the last thing I wanted was to have him in my flat. But at this rate, I had to come up with something, because that dork didn't seem to want to leave me alone in the next time.

We stood there, glaring at each other. Until I gave in. "Ok, dork. What do you want from me?" He grinned, and I felt the sudden urge to run away from him. I controlled myself.

"Well, I suppose I can tell you that." His tone was calm, but I could feel the threat in it. I tried to look self-confident, but I was scared. Who wouldn't be?

"I play with humans. I love them. And right now, you're my toy. Once I feel bored of playing with you, I will drop you. But right now, I am still entertained with the way you struggle against me." The hidden threat I had felt before was open now. He didn't even try to hide the fact that he wanted to frighten me.

The thing I hated the most about it was that I was actually frightened. Forget it. I was terrified. I stepped back, staring at him with wide eyes. My mouth felt dry, and I knew that all of my nightmares would have his face from then. He smirked, like he knew it too.

"You're too easy to scare, Rei-chan." I swallowed. "I'm not scared. And don't call me Rei-chan." I backed off, hoping that he would be satisfied. He wasn't. He approached me further, his eyes glittering.

We were standing in a quiet street, a few blocks away from my home, and I wished that someone would appear and make Izaya let off of me. Of course nobody came.

Izaya was close to me now, and I wanted to flee. "You are so scared of me that you can't breathe properly anymore, Rei-chan." He paused. "This fear makes you feel confused, because usually, there's no one you're afraid of. You were self-confident, sure that you didn't need anyone to help you. You thought you were strong both physically and psychically. You weren't the one to be helped, no, you helped yourself. In your eyes, the one helping is the strong one. You were looking down on others because they needed help. And you thought that you were better than them because you didn't need any." He paused to see the effect his words had on me.

I felt cold and yet, I was sweating. Slowly, I shook my head. "That's not…that's not true…" My voice was hoarse and quiet, and it made him grin.

"Are you sure? Did you never think 'Seriously, how weak of him.' Or 'She won't make it on her own, she's too weak. I'll better help her, I'm strong enough.'" I stared at him.

It wasn't true. It couldn't be. I was helping people because I liked helping, not because I was looking down on them.

Izaya took some steps back, turned and said in a threatening tone: "Be careful, you don't know who might be sneaking up on you. After all, I just showed you that you're not as strong as you thought you were. Call me if you need help. " His tone changed to a cheerful cooing: "See ya, Rei-chan. It was my pleasure."

I watched him leaving, and once he turned into a curve, I sank down on my knees. I was trembling, and only then I realized that there were tears in my eyes.

I was scared of him, now even more. He had threatened me. I stared at the street in front of me. He was an info broker. It would be easy for him to find out everything that was to know.

Where I lived.

That I lived alone.

My trembling increased. This was bad. Really bad.