Mine had just left from a long and certainly soporific meeting about his company. He had no problem with that kind of talks, but this one in particular angered him because it had been useless; the place was full of immature men who behaved as if they were younger than they really were even if they were twenty years older than Mine and eventhough Yoshitaka was able to face the weaker times of the company with more patience and intelligence than them.
Besides, in the morning a group of his subordinates decided to leave the company because they disagreed with his future plans and ended with some complaints about Mine's attitude toward some things that Yoshitaka couldn't fully comprehend.
It was truly depressing, thought. It was so easy to lost the few people with whom he felt he had a kind of bond that he had been trying to find all his life, feeling less successfully as the time passed and embracing solitude as the only possible option after losing bonds with people that he realized were extremely volatile.
He abandoned Café Alps thinking that in five minutes he had another meeting, which would be the last one of the day, and thought that the feeling of the cold air of Kamurocho would relieve him a little, or at least help him clear his troubled mind.
However, he walked out of the door so quickly and was so distracted that he didn't realize how he crashed with someone.
The crash was short but immediate, and as he backed away Mine realized that the person he had collided with was surrounded by others, almost creating a circle around him and it was very likely that the person with whom he crashed with was the leader of a gang.
"Why don't you watch where you're going?" The person asked. Then Mine could see who it was: a man in a white coat, tight black t-shirt and shiny pants. He also wore a somewhat peculiar necklace, and it all combined a fashionable ensemble that he had only seen by people who were looking for a fight near the nightclubs and bars of the Pink Street area, so Mine immediately found himself cursing his bad luck.
Even so, the man's voice sounded incredibly calm, but adorned with a mild hostility which warned that the scene could escalate to a dangerous level if Mine didn't know how to manage the situation in a good way, perhaps not so much for the leader of the gang, but for the rebel and much more threatening-looking group than the supposed leader that focused their warning eyes on Yoshitaka.
"Oh… Sorry, I should have been more careful", Mine replied slowly, trying to formulate the most sincere apology he could. He had no idea how this was going to escalate but he didn't wanted it to be long, and he slowly walked away in a peaceful way trying to communicate that he wasn't looking for trouble as he felt thousands of dangerous glances on him.
Still, the other man's face caught Mine's attention. Despite his somewhat rebellious pose and fashion sense of someone more immature and younger, looking at the features of his face he must have been the same age as him, with light but messy facial and black hair in which the neon lights were starting to fade away and it wasn't entirely nighttime yet. He had scowled and seemed to be prepared to pull his fists out of his puffy white coat pockets in case a fight appeared in front of him, it didn't matter if he was the one that started the fight or the other way around, but he still seemed to be much calmer than he seemed to imply by his looks.
"Tch, be more careful next time." The other man mumbled between his teeth.
The next thing Mine saw left him frozen in the street. With a few simple words, those around the man automatically relaxed their violent pose and went back to their place following him, shedding the hostility towards Mine that had previously blinded them.
The black-haired man made a pretense of leaving as the members of their group took their eyes off mine, but there was still something occupying Yoshitaka's mind.
"What is your name?" Mine asked, pursuing his curiosity for the other man and that was because the way his followers pounced on him thinking he had crashed into their leader with bad intentions certainly caught Mine's attention. He never saw anything like that before.
"What?" The white coat guy asked, specially to himself as he turned his head. But as he connected his eyes with Mine's and caught the determination gazing into his pupils —which infected him as well—, he sensed that there was something between them that he was not yet able to perceive. "My name's Daigo. What about you?"
"Mine. Yoshitaka Mine."
He answered. Then Daigo shook his head lightly, as if he was trying to affirmate something, and without another word coming out of his mouth he continued his way forward the street as his gang followed him as well.
Mine stayed still as he thought about what just happened. He had been on a lifelong quest for deep bonds with people and the only thing closest he had found was the one he had with his subordinates, who still seemed to always abandon or betray him. But that did not seem to be the case with this "Daigo" guy.
Those who followed him had the temper of people who would follow their leader to the end of the world and face death for him; at the slightest they will defend him because it is the safety of the man they follow that gives them a prominent place in the world.
Mine though it was amazing that there was a person who was able to achieve something like that with others, regardless of wether he was the leader of a semi-criminal gang and that to the civilian population he caused more discomfort than pleasure, because he still had at his back people willing to sacrifice themselves for him; to give everything for the respect and admiration they felt for him.
As the same time and as he watched him leave the scene, Mine wondered if one day he would be able to find something similar.