"[Y/N]?! What are you doing here?" Takemichi asks, opening the door. You raised the plastic bag full of mandarins that you were carrying, "Wanted to check up on you."
He let you in and you both went upstairs to his room. He hurriedly tells you to wait outside the door before coming in and closing it. You hear him rustling around for a good 5 minutes before he lets you in. Seeing that his room was tidy, considering he was a teenage boy, he cleaned it.
You sit down and place the bag of oranges on the table, carefully trying not to let it touch the incomplete puzzle he had. Takemichi sits down across from you, "I appreciate that you were worried about me," he starts to blush, "...But uh, I've never had a girl in my room before."
"I hope no other girl has the misfortune of being in your room..." You say bluntly, disgusted at his sudden flusteredness. He looks at you, mouth agape, obviously offended.
"Glad you seem better," You shift the subject, taking two mandarins out of the plastic bag and offering one to Takemichi. He accepts it and begins to peel it. "I mostly came here because I'm curious..." You continue to speak, "About the future."
Takemichi swallows the fruit in his mouth before answering, "What about?"
"Where's Mikey? You've told me about Hina, Naoto, Draken and even Akkun... Is Mikey even alive?" You ask, the boy's mood seemed to have dropped. "I'm not even sure... Future Naoto says they've been trying to locate him for a while."
"You haven't seen me in the future, have you?" You ask another question and he shakes his head. You think to yourself and wonder if you've affected the future now that you're acquainted with them. Takemichi waves his hand in front of you, "You okay?" you nod in response.
You lean back and sigh, "All this is so complicated, I can't even imagine how you feel right now."
"Me?" Takemichi says in confusion, "I'm fine." You tilt your head, the expression on your face disagreeing with him. "There's no way you're fine after knowing the deaths of people you know personally."
Takemichi slouches, "I try not to think about that, actually," he confesses, "What's more important to me is to correct what happens here so that it doesn't happen in the future." His optimism gives you more energy and you unknowingly smile at him. You wondered how he can be so brave and determined in a situation like this. You couldn't help but compare yourself. He was the real hero compared to you. You were and still are scared of being involved in all this. You still felt helpless.
You got up off the floor and Takemichi looks up at you, "That's all I wanted to ask," you tell the blonde, "You can keep the oranges, by the way."
The two of you say goodbye before Takemichi closes the door to his home. You walk to your apartment. Still thinking about the conflict and Draken's death. Contemplating if you should go to the shopping district to see if you'd bump into Draken again. As you approached the door to your suite, you bumped into a different person. Mikey.
"Where've you been?" He asks. You look in shock, it's as if your thoughts about the conflict summoned him to you. "How long have you been standing here?" You ask and he shrugs.
As you open the door, you let Mikey in. You contemplate whether or not to ask him questions about the conflict or to just leave him be. Furthermore, you were still confused as to why he was in front of your door in the first place.
Mikey, making himself comfortable, sits on the couch. Already taken a snack from the cupboards in the kitchen. "Why are you here?" You ask the boy, glaring at him. You were appalled that he didn't at least ask to have a piece of dorayaki before taking it.
"You let me in," he says matter-of-factly, which kind of tics you off.
"I mean WHY were you at the front of my door waiting for me earlier?" You reword your question, making sure he has no other way to be clever with his answer.
You suddenly got a vision.
"I don't care what you do, just get it over with," Mikey says irritatedly. He wore a trench and his hair was slicked back. A dragon tattoo, the same as Draken's, was visible on his neck.
"Yes sir," a man responds, supposedly a lackey of Mikey's.
Another male barges into the door of the office. Though Mikey's face was expressionless, you could tell he was angered by the sudden appearance.
"Forgive me for intruding," the man who walked in says. He wore glasses, his hair a light shade of brown and clean-shaven on the sides. "What is it that you want, Kisaki?" Mikey responds to the man with a low tone.
"Hanagaki Takemichi is helping the police tail you, sir," The glassed man informs.
Snap.
"Takemitchy?"
Snap.
"Yes, I heard over that-"
SNAP.
You blink and Mikey was snapping his fingers at you. "You okay? You're freaking me out..."
"Sorry..." You apologize to the blonde, not realizing you spaced out. You sat down next to him, still processing the vision you had. Who was the man in glasses? And where was Mikey? At least you know he's still alive, but what happened? You continued to feel baffled, you didn't want to believe Toman became a full Yakuza when they're only just teenage delinquents right now. And what was that man going to say about Takemichi? "Something bothering you?" Mikey asks, you didn't notice how close he was.
You then remembered that night he almost kissed you and backed away from him in embarrassment. "Uh, no... Well, I... Uh..." You stammer over your words as the boy is gazing at you in both confusion and worry. You continue to think of what to say to him. You didn't want to tell him the truth, but you also didn't want to say you were fine.
"I'm just worried about Takemichi," you finally say, "I visited him earlier today and he still seemed light-headed." You look at the boy, hoping he can't tell you're lying.
"He's out of the hospital?" Mikey asks and you nod. The boy frowns, "I should visit tomorrow and check on him too." You turn away from him. You still felt embarrassed that you got a vision in front of him. Who knows how long you stared at him blankly and how long he tried snapping you out of it. "Why don't you visit him now?" You suggest, hoping he would leave.
Mikey shrugs, "Nah, I'll go tomorrow." You groan, failing to make him leave. "You seem like you could use the company."
"Me or you?" You reply sternly. You still don't know why he's even here. "Who's the one who's clearly in distress?" He teases a little, you lightly punch his shoulder. Chuckling in disbelief. Mikey stares at you, smiling. He gets up off the couch and towards the TV. Crouching, he takes a peak at the selection of DVDs.
"Gonna choose another shitty rom-com?" You joke, referencing the last time he came over. He laughs, "Would that make you less tense?"
"Maybe."
Mikey quickly grabs a DVD and hands it to you. You take it and get up to put it in the DVD player. "You better not sleep this time," you say, clicking the buttons on the remote to play the movie.
"Why? So I don't catch you talking to food?" He laughs in between his words. You throw the remote at him before getting up, which makes him laugh even more.
Sitting down, you wonder how he can be so comfortable around you when you both still barely know each other. You worry that his easily trusting attitude will lead him to be acquainted with awful people.
-
While cringing at the film you were watching you got a knock on your door. You get up to check. Unknown to you, Mikey follows you. You open the door and see Hina and Emma.
"Hi?" You greet the two girls, who seemed to be in a happy mood. "Are you free right now? Emma and I were planning to go shopping for the festival coming up," Hina invites. Mikey opens the door wider from behind you, revealing himself to the two girls. "We're in the middle of something," he says. His wording was too vague that it could lead to anything
Is it hard to just say we were watching a movie?! You internally panic as the two girls' eyes widen at his response.
"Are you dating my brother?!" Emma says in shock.
"Brother?!" You say, equally as shocked.
"Dating..?" Mikey chimes in.
Hina begins to push Emma away, as the blonde is still shocked to see Mikey with you. "Sorry to bother you, go ahead and continue! Call me later!" Hina says cheerfully, walking away from the door. You close it slowly and turn to him, "Emma's your sister?"
"Half," he replies, "Same dad, different mom."
The both of you walk back to the couch, the movie still playing. "You could've said we were watching a movie, you know..." You tell him.
"I did," he responds.
"No..." You quickly deny, "You said something."
"A movie is something," he says.
You can't tell if he's oblivious or just messing around. You turn away, not wanting to continue the conversation. You really couldn't read him. One minute, he's joking around and the next he's all tough and intimidating. Every vision you got was never as happy as he seems he is.
Who was he really?
Chapter eight, end.