I walked into the office knowing all I would have to do was help Suzuki with some files or some paperwork. Truth is, it's been a month since we'd come back from France and Tsukasa hasn't assigned me any sort of a negotiation job – I was starting to feel a bit sullen. I also hadn't seen Ikuto in a month… Strange, huh? Especially when our offices are like five seconds away from each other. We haven't spoken or anything. This is also strange, because I'd been talking to Kukai and Kain more than usual lately – it was as though he had just gone up and left…
"Good morning, Suzuki."
"Oh, good morning. I have some work for you."
"Besides the usual," I smiled picking up the already ready stack of papers.
"Paper work isn't so bad."
"Yeah, but I don't want to be sitting on the sidelines," I groaned. "I want to negotiate already!"
"Ew, why would you want to work?" asked a familiar voice.
Suzuki and I both turned around to see Kukai leaning on the wall with his arms crossed over his chest like those bad boys at school would do.
"Because I'm sick of filing the reports about your cases."
"I'd rather do paper work."
"Says the person who's done twelve cases since we've come back from France," I mumbled.
He got up off the wall and walked towards me grabbing half of the papers out of my hand.
"You free right now? Let's go to lunch."
I gave him the 'Are you stupid' look.
"First off it's morning, second I just got here."
"So. Just come with me in the afternoon, okay?"
"Geez, police and their weird eating habits. You should just take your girlfriend out."
"She's not my girlfriend yet."
"I'll think about it."
For a second there I thought I saw his eyes turn dark – but I was for a fact certain that the usual playful green eyes were now dead serious.
"It's important."
Rolling my eyes, I reclaimed my original stack of papers from Kukai's grasp and turned away.
"Fine, I meet you for your lunch date."
"Cool, meet me here at like 1'ish okay?"
"Sure."
Leaving me with a final smirk, he turned away and headed back towards his office while I made my way into mine.
Later
"Okay, spill it. What's so important that you called me all the way from work to here?" I asked taking a sip from my smoothie.
"Don't you want to just hang out with me?"
"Not really."
"You hurt me deep."
I threw a French fry at him jokingly. We'd been friends and all but after France we'd become closer than that. He was like my older brother now. He held his hands up in defense when I raised another fry.
"Okay, okay I get it. I'm not lovable," he said tossing me a puppy dog look which only made me snort then start snickering.
"If you don't tell me what's going on I'm leaving," I threatened.
He took a long drink from his cup and intertwined his hands together.
"First let me ask you this, have you heard anything from Rima, Nagi or Kain about Ikuto?"
I furrowed my brows thinking if I'd heard anything.
"No, why?"
"Well I had been advised by Rima and Utau not to tell you anything."
"Utau – she's involved too?"
"Eh…kind of. Anyways they thought it'd be best if I didn't tell you, but considering all that's happened with the two of you I thought it'd be best if you knew."
"If I knew what?"
I nearly shouted out my question. He was just building layers of suspense over each other like blocks. What was Ikuto dead? Was he kidnapped or something? Is he not coming back?
"Ikuto's undergoing SWAT training in Kyoto, so he won't be here for a while."
"SWAT training…isn't that dangerous?"
"Yeah – even more than a cop or a negotiator."
"How long will he be gone?"
Idiot! I cursed at myself for letting it slip out a little to…desperate.
"Um…a month or so last time I heard from him."
I took another drink from my smoothie and shrugged at Kukai.
"Well that's good, if you see him tell him I said 'congrats'".
"Amu…you okay about this?"
"Why shouldn't I be okay? Because my ex-boyfriend is taking on a dangerous career and he'll be away for another month? It's not any of my business…I could care less if he gets his ass kicked."
At home
After the lunch date with Kukai I'd come home a bit more frustrated than I should've been. And I wasn't sure if it had built up as the idea grew on me or because I was the last to find out. Either way I stormed upstairs and found myself walking to the spare bedroom with all the newspaper things still hung on the wall. I tossed my bag in the corner and found myself staring from the headings to Tadase's present. I had hung the little note he had written me right above the frame.
I stepped closer to the portrait of me. I looked so confident…so strong yet soft. Is that how he really perceived me when he was painting this? Then I turned to stare at the headings pinned on the wall. I had been so close yet so far.
None of the ones that were on the wall were about Ikuto…but I did have two – only two about him. The one I took from his desk and the one I had come across on the internet about him saving some kid. Geez, I only had to Google him and I would've found out everything in a blink of an eye.
Groaning, I stormed back into my room not being able to stand any of it. The same problem occurred once I flopped onto my bed. Every where I looked – he was there. In the frames I had stashed away. His leather jacket that was still hanging on my chair. The broken pendant that I had hung on my jewelry tree.
I squeezed my eyes shut…trying not to think about him. Seeing it wasn't possible I jumped off my bed and ran downstairs and then outside where I just sat laid down in the grass. I felt serene for a moment there. The sun was basking me in its warmth and the grass was softly prickling my bare skin. But then I closed my eyes and the memories suddenly came flooding back. Even in the confinement of my own head I was still haunted by him and all our memories.
Just when I was thinking that I couldn't rid of him a memory of way back then came hurdling at me.
Flashback
When mom opened the door, I stormed inside, throwing my backpack on the floor and immediately running up to the mirror. Her gentle brown eyes met mine from the mirror as she stood behind me with her arms crossed over her chest.
"How was school?"
"I don't want to go to school anymore!" I exclaimed angrily running out of the bathroom with mom trailing behind me patiently.
She found me sitting by another mirror as I pulled at my hair. Smiling, she walked back into the bathroom and came out with a brush. Taking a seat next to me, she began to brush my hair gently.
"How come I have pink hair?"
"You were born with it."
"Why?" I exclaimed stressing the word out.
"Because someone in our family must've been born with pink hair at some point. So how was school?"
"Can I be home schooled?"
"No."
"How come? My classmate's friend Nina gets to be home schooled!" I whined.
"Yeah well I'm not Nina's mom, I'm your mom."
"I hate school."
"You seemed to like it when you were in second grade."
"Yeah, but now-
"Now what?"
"Now everyone is making fun of my hair! Mom, I hate my hair…can I change its color like the ladies on TV do? Please!"
"Why, I like your hair. It's unique."
"So what? I hate it!"
By now she had begun to put my hair into a braid.
"I used to be the only kid in my class who wore glasses. I hated glasses and I desperately wanted to wear contacts like the other kids but my mom wouldn't let me. So she told me something that I'm going to tell you right now. 'If you can't get rid of something you don't like then learn to live with him. And who knows, it could turn out to be your greatest treasure'".
End of Flashback
I hardly ever remembered things about my parents, but the occasional memory that did come to me I enjoyed no matter how sad or happy it was. I got up off of the grass and headed inside to see Ami just coming inside with a boy following her in. I frowned, wasn't she supposed to have come home two hours ago?
Just as the two of them were to head upstairs I stopped them midway.
"Ami, you're two hours late. Where have you been?"
"Out," she replied.
"Oh, sorry Mrs. Hinamori I kept your daughter busy a little. Ami did tell me her sister would be at work right now but she didn't say anything about her mom."
At the same time Ami slapped her forehead with the palm of her hand.
"Shou, that's my sister!" she hissed.
"Oh, sorry," he mumbled lamely.
"Who are you?" I asked directing my attention to 'Shou'.
"I'm Shou, Ami's boyfriend."
I stared at Ami for the longest time before giving in slightly.
"So what are you two planning on doing in her room?"
"What the hell Amu? It's not like we're planning on doing anything vulgar, we're just studying for finals."
Ami then turned around and hooked her arm with Shou's arm.
"Come on Shou let's go to my room. Apparently my sister's acting like she's never had a boyfriend before."
"Alright, whatever you say babe," he replied taking him arm out of Ami's grasp and around her waist…more like on her butt.
When the two of them were in Ami's room, I quickly ran to the phone and called Utau.
"Hello?" she answered groggily.
"Utau, Ami has a boyfriend."
"Congrats. "
"No not congrats," I scolded. "It's the bad boy type of guy…you know the kind of guy that places her arm like around the girl's butt!"
"What the fuck is she doing with that type of guy?" she exclaimed as equally outraged as I was.
"I don't even know. I mean did you know anything about him like while we were at France?"
"No…want me to come over and interrogate his ass off?"
"No thanks."
"If you say so, I'll be coming over tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay."
"Bye."
"See you tomorrow."
I hung up the phone and just collapsed onto the couch. On the plus side I wasn't thinking about Ikuto – at least not right now I wasn't. On the other hand I was stressing out about this Shou kid who I still know nothing about.
Maybe that interrogation offer wouldn't be so bad after all.
Author's Note
I AM A FRESHMEN AT HIGHSCHOOL! Gosh I am so happy to be in high school now. Quick little update. So this chapter really isn't all that interesting. Just some filler information, some new information and that's all. Story updates should be every week now if not every other week due to some project/test.
I'd like to express my thankfulness to the following reviewers:
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Love,
Neko-Meme