❝ QUESTION OF VOID ❞

13

Morning came in quickly as if you just slept seconds ago. You tried to get up, but the sharp jolt of pain in your brain and body instigated you to lie down again.

You hissed in pain as you slowly sat up, groaning. Your cheeks heat up as you remembered what had just happened last night.

"Yeah, I'm fucked up." You facepalmed your face, and when you meant that, you meant it literally.

Entering the bathroom, your mind went flying as you almost dozed off while brushing your teeth.

Minutes passed, and you went out of your room, only to see Rindou leaning against the wall beside your door, his arms crossed as his head lazily turned to you.

"Um, hi? Morning?" You greeted.

Rindou scoffed as he leaned his head on the wall, avoiding your gaze until he spoke. "Stop acting clueless. I've been calling you for a certain order for the whole night, and it's urgent but you're nowhere to be found. One employee informed me you went to Ran's office. What happened?" 

You almost choked on your words. "Huh? Oh, I'm sorry." You tried to act it off, sheepishly answering his other question. "But Sir Haitani Ran also asked me for something, and it's compulsory."

Rindou looks at you, from eye to toe, with a raised brow. "Know who you are kidding." 

You looked around, sighing as you try to find a loophole out of this situation.

"Anyway, they asked me to call you for a meeting." Rindou said and turned his back to you, but when he noticed you not following him, he looked behind with a frown.

"Fuck you waiting for?" He snarled, and you immediately followed him, walking down the hallway, not wanting to initiate a fight early in the morning.

"Hell I ain't stressing over this." You thought, wanting him to hear how LOUD your eye roll is.

"Look, let me make it clear, I don't care if something happened between you or not," He said, causing you to turn your head to him while walking. "I'm just worried about my brother and our organization, considering you got here in the first place, you're now planning to seduce my brother, huh?"

"What?" Your brows furrowed, shocked by his words. "Excuse me, sir. With all due respect, I'm the one who's coerced here. Nonetheless, I am making a living, and you have no right to hurl me your bold assumptions. All of you are the reason why I'm here, and that includes you." 

"Oh you know nothing," Rindou snorted and scoffed in sarcasm. "Tho' aside from that, I'll just give you a heads up-- You're a nuisance in any way possible." 

"I don't even know what got into their heads that they even let you stay here," Rindou said. "What can you provide to our group? What benefit can we get from you?"

"You know, at this point, if it weren't for that contract and the accident, you would've been gone for a long time now."

"You're lucky we're providing these things for you, giving you a high-paid job that is owned by us, giving you anything as long as you satisfy their orders." He aggravatedly said. "And hey, you think too highly of yourself."

"You're nothing but a patch for a void, and to cease our boredom." Rindou added, and then he opened the door and walked away.

"Oh."

You fell silent, heart aching from his words that stabbed in your chest like a knife.

You shouldn't feel that way, you know that, but his words stung a lot. You didn't choose to be here at all in the first place, yet why is he blaming you as if you're the cause of all of this?

"Y/n! Come here." You felt lost until Sanzu called your attention to come with him, entering a certain chamber. You walked to the table and sat there quietly.

"As we promised, if you accept the offer, we'll give you information about your parents!" Sanzu exclaimed.

Mikey just nodded, signaling Sanzu to place the folder in front of you.

"What's this?" You asked

"Information about your parents that we got." A little glimpse in your eyes shone at least. Quickly opening it, you saw your parents' pictures and pieces of information you were familiar with.

You were so absorbed and busy reading the paper that you didn't realize Ran was seated beside you, his hands in his pockets, leaning back in his chair, rocking it a little as he whistled and glanced at the paper.

"Happy? You know how long it took us to find that."  Ran smirked. Your eyes widened as you heard his familiar voice, and you turned my head to meet his, remembering the look he gave you while you were under him, feeling tense, my face heated but you quickly turned away from him and pretended to be reading my parents' information, completely oblivious to the point that you didn't even notice you're reading the paper upside down.

"Here, let me help." Ran laughed as he grabbed the paper from your hands and placed it properly again.

"What got her so tensed up, Ran?" Sanzu asked as he stuck his tongue out playfully.

"I dunno." Ran only shrugged, the sides of his mouth rising subtly.

"I'll be going now." You said as you handed the paper back to Mikey, and gave them a quick thanks as you stood up.

"You can bring the paper with you." Mikey said as you nodded and walked away, but you paused as you heard Sanzu talk.

"Hey, you know everything has gold expenditures here," Sanzu said as he smiled innocently.

"What do you mean?"

"Meaning you'll give us something in return for this."

"And what will that be?"

"Anything you desire." Sanzu tilted his head, giving you his signature smirk.

Remembering what Rindou told you a while ago.

"You know, at this point, if it weren't for that contract and reason, you should've been dead for a long time now."

"You're lucky we're providing these things for you, giving you a high-paid job that is owned by us, giving you anything as long as you satisfy their orders." He aggravatedly said. "You think too highly of yourself."

You cast a brief glance at Rindou, but to your surprise, he is staring at you. Your eyes instantly averted to Sanzu.

"Okay." You nodded, surprising him a bit for the first time with your reaction. Usually, you would retort at first, giving them harsh responses and throwing huffs, but today it's different.

"Eh? That's new," Sanzu laughed. "But I'm not complaining though."

"Yeah," you muttered, and with that, you walked out of the room.

Everyone's faces were surprised, except for Rindou whose face is composed and stoic.

Which is aware of the situation very well.

You were sitting on the bed, leaning against the wall, reading the paper for several hours, since what else could you do in this hell hole?

Energy drained, you sighed, embracing the air as the papers and photo are in your lap. You think that these are the only things that remain that are related to your biological parents. Hugging the family photo seemed like hugging their presence as well.

The words that Rindou dropped a while ago were implanted in your head.

"Maybe if I comply with their orders and go with the flow, I'll come out here alive with my parent's information and stepmother alive."

You know the prospects are low, yet you still have hopes left. After all, you know for yourself that you're idealistic, a manner in which you force yourself to look for the bright side in every situation, trying your hardest even if it fails.

Deciding not to think about it more and feeling tired, you drift to sleep.

Ran was working, fixing, and signing some documents on his desk, yawning as he felt a bit tired until he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in."

"What's the commotion?" Ran raised his head as Rindou entered his office in haste.

Rindou sat on one of the chairs in front of Ran's desk, he took a deep breath before dropping his words. "I wanna talk something about Y/n."

"Mhm, go ahead--"

"What is really our intention to her?"

Ran paused, looking at his brother with a raised brow, squinting his eyes as if he's implying something, especially with the rushed question.

"What will we do to her when we're al—"

"Please, Rindou, don't ever continue that word." Ran said as he rubbed his temples.

"Why? Can't you bear to hear the actual reason why she's here?" Rindou retorted.

"That's not what I mean."

"Do you know how absurd is this? How we are risking our lives and our gang just because of that woman?" Rindou said, looking directly at Ran with a stern look.

Rindou is right, an undeniable statement that can't be contradicted, especially by Ran.

"Isn't our first intention is to use her for whatever is in the contract and throw her away like nothing?"

"Rin—" Ran sighed, but his brother kept on interrupting him.

"What if history repeated, just like before?"

Ran froze in his seat, feeling his heart tighten.

"Can't you face the truth?" Rindou shook his head.

"Ran, I don't know what got into all of your heads," Rindou said, almost shouting. "I don't know if Sanzu gave you all some drugs or some shit."

"Focus on our fundamental goal, Ran. Don't ever try to lure yourself into her schemes. I mean, c'mon now, we've been through the same situation. We learned our lesson. We can't handle doing the same mission and ending up with another traitor. Bonten's priority comes first, not her." Rindou said, almost in an insistent tone.

"I don't know, but I think Manjiro got to his conscience. He can't control his vehemence sometimes. I'm sorry but that man is fucking unstable sometimes. His orders recently... I can't trust them." Rindou admitted through his gritted teeth. Manjiro is indeed their boss, but Rindou has other outlooks.

"She's from our tormented past. Fucking remember that, Ran." Rindou said as he banged his fist on the desk.

Y/n alone... was a threat to Bonten already. They don't know what their boss' intention is, or how long will they intend to keep her, but they know it's for the reason that is forever kept a forbidden knowledge.

"Are you even the older brother? Shouldn't you be telling me these things instead?" Rindou clicked his tongue, standing up as he got enough with his own words.

"You're the one acting childish, Ran." Rindou said orotundly before closing the door behind him with a loud shut.

And there, Rindou left Ran's office, leaving a bitter and cold atmosphere.

Ran's chest tightened as if the hole in his chest was starting to worsen again, the void filling in instead.

A part of his brother's words was right.

After all, history repeated, they said.

The truth, reality, and realization were all true.

It saddens him how in the end, he needs to face reality.

The reality of voidness.