A/N: Yahallo! I'm sorry for letting you all wait like this! Here you go, chappy 17! I'm so glad that even after the one-month-hiatus, there are still people reading my fanfiction! I think for the future chapters after this would be OOC for some characters.
I will need to retrieve my momentum from my writing break. But still, I might not be able to post actively for at least a full month as I'm going to work part-time soon.
Disclaimers: I do not own any of the Skip Beat! characters, but I do own my characters! Contains OOC elements and language (you know what I want to say)
Chapter 17: Potential
They had a little staring contest, in that dark alleyway, with three men passed out on the concrete floor, scattered around the ochre haired boy, who was squatting over one of their bodies with a thin pile of paper money in his hand.
Yashiro still had his mouth hanging open, his glasses reflecting the light to hide his eyes. Shion still stared at him passively, internally finding the most inconspicuous way to explain things.
"Erm…" Shion moved to stand up by placing a palm on the ground to support his body when a loud squelch echoed against the bricked walls of the silent alley.
That sound snapped the bespectacled manager out of his shock as his attention went to the source. A shade of blue covered his face when he saw a miniature pool of blood forming under the boy's hand.
"Shion-kun, you're bleeding!" He exclaimed, rushing to his side while pulling out a handkerchief from his pocket.
Shion lifted his bloodied hand and made a sound of recognition.
"I'll listen to what you have to say after we wrap this up, okay?" Yashiro started wrapping up the wound.
It was only after an hour later that Shion came out from the checkup room in the hospital nearby. He was sulking like a kid whose jar of cookies was taken away.
And here I thought I could've used those useless punks' money for Kyoko-chan's guardianship…
Yashiro stood up from the chair in the lobby and smiled at the boy, "How was it?"
"I'm fine, Yashiro-san." Shion smiled back politely, "The doctor told me not to use the hand for 2 weeks."
Yashiro heaved a sigh of relief, "It's good to hear that it isn't any major injury."
The boy tugged the hood of his white sleeveless shirt to prevent it from falling off, "So…"
Yashiro patted on his head and flashed a brotherly grin, "Tell me about it."
Kyoko was now back in her room, grasping her Corn stone within her palms with a desperate grip. She crouched over her knees and prayed incoherently even for her mind.
She was so afraid. The feeling was coming back to haunt her like a never-ending nightmare. She hated it. She hated how she's feeling this way. She hated how it's Ren that is making her feel this way. She hated how she's allowing all this to happen.
Most of all, she hated how she actually liked the feeling.
Whatever happened to the representative of Japanese maidens?! She shrieked in her mind at her impurity.
The grudges in her are also desperately trying to suppress the Pandora box that was insistently trying to open. Even with all the thick locks, nothing helped to stop the advances.
Now that her mind's an utter chaos, the only thing that kept popping up is the person who's always supportive, protective, and important to her, the person who managed to become her elder brother figure.
Where is Shion-kun?
Ren sighed for the nth time after Kyoko ran out of the room.
He wished he didn't affirm his feelings for her. It made him feel as if he was forcing it on her, which most probably is true.
He sighed again. How he wished he hadn't followed that stupid wolf's advice and man up. It might've been a great deal to his pride as a man, but at least he wouldn't have to see that reaction he feared.
Kyoko was definitely becoming aware of his presence as a man, not as a senpai or as a fellow actor. Maybe that's what actually triggered his confidence.
He frowned deeply. Where did that nosy wolf boy run off to at such predicament?
"Huh…" Yashiro handed a can of orange juice to the boy, who's sitting on the bench in the park near the hospital, "So, basically, you just happened to find this group of old men trying to rape a girl, and you rescued her?"
"Yes, that's about it." Shion nodded as he gratefully accepted the drink.
"So… what of the money?"
Shion glances at the bespectacled man with an undecipherable look. "Well, I thought I would teach them a lesson."
"Isn't beating them up enough?" Yashiro eyed the boy with suspicion as he settled beside him.
"…" Shion looked down at the ground. He just remembered something unpleasant.
"Shion-kun?"
"You know…" The boy started frowning, "I've never brought this up, since I never felt the need to. It's also part of the reason why I'm protecting Kyoko-chan."
Yashiro blinked, waiting for the boy to continue.
Shion sighed. He was the one who brought it up, might as well finish the story.
"It's a secret nobody, not even Lory-sama and Sebastian knows, so, do your job and keep mum about it, okay?" Shion looks at the manager, who nodded in puzzlement.
Shion took a deep breath, and nodded to himself. "Kyoko-chan… I've been watching her since she was a child. I've been observing her, way before Azuma went missing and I was sent to live with the Hizuri couple."
What? Yashiro was shocked. Why would Shion-kun be observing Kyoko-chan since then?
"…There was a time when she went on a school trip with those useless pieces of crap she calls classmates. Nobody paid attention to her, constantly swarming around this pretentious little bitch they praised as the 'prince'."
The venomous tone made Yashiro wince. Whoever made this boy so angry must be pretty bad, in various ways.
"Kyoko-chan was always chasing over that momma boy. That little fucker always treated her like trash, and yet he still had the balls to call her his childhood friend. Tch, if I ever see him again, I'll pull his tongue out." That last part came out as a deadly mutter.
"So…? What happened?"
"They were sightseeing alright, quite typical of a school trip. But she was carried away by the flow of people swarming the street. That was when she lost those 'classmates' and was left wandering the street without anyone she knew."
Yashiro could finally link the story back to why Shion actually overdid in his 'punishment' for those old men. "You don't mean…"
"Yes." Shion crushed the unopened can in his palm, the content exploding like a momentary fountain and dirtied his hand and the floor. Yashiro flinched at the violent action.
"She was captured by some drunkards, dragged into one of the dirtiest and darkest alleyway. It was only alright that I was there observing her in the shadows. If I wasn't there, she would've been…"
He bared his fangs in the form of clenched teeth. Raw fury burned within his beastly blue topaz orbs. Shion was now just a carnivore wishing for carnage at this point to Yashiro. The older man shuddered.
"…Anyway. I was able to finish those old geezers without much effort and I managed to erase that part of her memories. All's well in the end, but I just can't stop being protective towards helpless girls since then." Shion tossed the wasted can into the dustbin just beside him.
There were bunch of questions Yashiro wanted to ask, but after seeing how the boy just vent his anger on a can of drink he wasted 200 yen on by making the content explode… he decided to leave it for now.
There was also one thing he didn't want to know, and that is Shion's definition of 'finishing' the drunkards off.
Clearing his throat, Yashiro stood up and smiled at him again, "Regardless, it's wrong to take what is not yours, Shion-kun."
Shion blinked at the man with a passive look as he stood up too. "Sounds like what a Good Samaritan would say."
"What?"
"It's nothing. Let's go back then. I hope Kyoko-chan hasn't been waiting for too long." Shion smiled back.
Ehh?! He's only concerned about Kyoko-chan?! Even though it shouldn't be too much of a surprise for him… since he just found out that Shion's a potential stalker to Kyoko for a long time now.
I'm sorry if this chapter doesn't contain any excitement for you. lll
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!