[Izaya's POV]

Uggh.. This fuckin' sucks. Izaya mentally groaned, opening his eyes from sleep to a pain in his side that had been present for four days and could only be fixed with the fast-acting pain killer that Shinra had given him. He didn't want to get up and get them himself, seeing as it would just be more painful in the process, but if he didn't then he would have to take them once he got up for work anyways and hope they kicked in by the time he got on set so he wouldn't be wincing wherever he walked and alerting Dong-Yul to the pain he was in.

God forbid that man think something had happened to him again, Kasuka was the only thing stopping him last time from marching along right after 'Kobayashi' to her home and taking care him himself. And sure, relying on Kasuka while they were both on set wasn't all that bad, but having to do it all the time just made him irritated.

So, the ravenett pushed himself up and hissed softly, barely paying attention to the little plushie that rolled away from him when he did. Izaya glanced at it and smiled, pulling the green Alpaca to his chest as he waited for the pain to go down a bit, letting him know he could stand up and walk to the bathroom. He got his pills as quickly as possible and pulled on his clothes for the day as well before heading downstairs and almost tripping over himself on the way to the kitchen, shoving open his fridge door to see what was inside.

The ravenett noted blankly that there wasn't any meat in the fridge, having slowly gotten used to not eating while he was around Kasuka, which was most of the time. It wasn't a great loss, he never really loved it in the first place, but he did order steak sometimes when out and about. Izaya pulled together a breakfast for himself and ate quickly, calling a cab to come pick him up before slipping on his shoes and heading outside. He was going to be awfully early for work that day but he really couldn't give a damn. At least if the people there saw him wincing from something, unlike Namie, they would show concern for him and just get him absolutely anything he needed. Plus, Kasuka was probably already there.

Izaya had no idea when he blanked out in the cab but he was shaken awake all too soon when he was at his destination, paying the man and stumbling inside before he collapsed on his couch. "Fuuck, why aren't the pills working yet?" he grumbled to himself, staring at the wall in boredom until he heard more people showing up to start filming, letting him know to sit up and tough it out while he got work done.

He could barely focus on the paper in front of him as he read over his lines, wanting to go back to sleep. The informant almost nodded off a second time until there was a knock on his door, probably Kasuka to see if he was alright again. So far his boyfriend had tried his best to not fuss over the man too much, seeing as he knew it was annoying from experience, but he still made a point to check on Izaya every morning and a little after lunch if they didn't see each other much that certain day. All the same, Izaya couldn't be more grateful for it now.

Except, instead of his boyfriend, someone unwelcome was standing there in his place; Dong-Yul, holding a few roses out to him the moment he opened the door. "Good morning, Kobayashi-san~" he said cheerfully, still holding out the flowers for Izaya to take. He did eventually, after glancing a few times passed him to see if Kasuka was coming yet, disappointed to see he still hadn't shown up.

"Thank you, these are very nice." he said automatically, slowly getting used to being polite to people even if he didn't want to be. Most of the people he worked with had managed to tick him off at some point in the last couple months of working there, so anyone at any given time was on his list to ignore completely, but he still had to tolerate the ones that talked to him. Like Shara. Speaking of which, where has she been? I'll have to check later.

"Really? I'm glad you like them! I noticed you like to wear red sometimes so I just thought you wo-" Izaya started tuning him out after that, leaning against his doorway more heavily as he waited for him to finish, twirling the flowers in his hand and touching the petals since they were real, making them soft to the touch. Dong-Yul was going on about flowers and how they have different meanings and things like that, nothing Izaya cared to listen to either. His attention, along with Dong-Yul's, was caught by their director who came in looking unusually sullen. He had called out to the people nearby for their attention, asking one of the helpers to gather the rest of the workers to come listen to him.

"Everyone, I have something to inform you.. Me, along with others running this set, have been told that Orikane Shara has passed away. If you want to know the details, then just ask me, but I wanted to let anyone who knew her personally know at once. I am sorry for all of your loss.." Mr. Watane said aloud, looking around at the crowd until his eyes set on Izaya, obviously thinking he would have some kind of connection to her since she had been working with him this whole time.

On the contrary, he didn't feel sad or depressed, he didn't even feel triumphant that one of the troublesome people here were finally gone. To his own surprise, he just felt empty. The informant glanced at the tech director beside him, not sure what to say or even sure if he wanted to say anything, then suddenly turned and went back to his dressing room, shutting the door behind him and locking it.

The ravenett dropped back where he had been before, script still cast to the side nearby. He stared off into space and recalled his assistant, a short girl who always had her hair in pig-tails and always wore clothes that didn't quite match. She would have been the perfect subject for him to off before getting this job, and she could have made quite a good friend to someone working with her, if that someone was anything but him. But the more he thought about it, the more he noticed he hadn't even payed attention to her, only knowing her name so he could call on her and get her to get him something he wanted. That wasn't what bothered him, at least not completely, but what did was exactly his first thought - he never paid attention to her.

Izaya, one of the strongest men in Ikebukuro, a greatly-feared informant who could get anyone killed, maimed, shot or convinced to do the previous to themselves with such a large smile on his face - had not paid attention to such an easy target. He'd never even thought of it after the third week here, seeing most of the people as neutral game sine he was working on set - but that also mainly applied to people with an important part.

Dong-Yul could tell him everything about the set, top to bottom, with almost nothing wrong in his inspection. Mr. Watane was his boss, obviously, and besides that held a lot of persuasive power if Izaya ever felt like exploiting it. Kasuka was currently his boyfriend, but even before that, being his co-star, he had never made Izaya's mental list of people who he could tip off.

But Shara? She would have been so easy. It could have taken only a very few choice words to get her and let Izaya have a laugh, but he didn't even talk to her harshly. He'd just waved her off and asked for her assistance when he needed it. And it was just so frighteningly unlike himself, that he couldn't look passed it.

For the first time a long while, he down at himself, then at his dressing room and his eyes landed on the script next to him, still waiting to be memorized. "What the fuck am I doing...?"

Chapter 30!

I actually thought through a whole domestic-fluffy chapter in my head while at school, but then I sat down at the computer and...

Existential crisis kinda came in and threw it out the window... Sorry..

But! I hope you all liked this little insight anyways, since I'll be expanding on it in the next chapter and maybe even the chapter after that.

I hope you all liked this chapter! Favorite, follow and review to see more!

PS- We have officially reached the mark that puts this story as longer and larger than the original series, PLUS this story now has 40 reviews on it!

Thank you guys so much for your support, it means so much to me~