_Chapter 54~ Betrayal_

         You know those moments where you find yourself in a surreal situation, desperately wishing you were dreaming. That's why you begged to be woken up in order to feel reassured that everything was fine?

Well, no matter how long I waited, no matter how long I stood there, stiff, not breathing, in shock, I didn't wake up. I couldn't close my eyelids and peel them apart to be staring up at my ceiling, reminiscing about the fabulous date I'd spent with Ryu.

Instead, when I pried open my eyelids I was stuck looking at the face of my best friend, surrounded by the puppy-eyed delinquents I was familiar with, uttering incredulous words that could only zoom past my ears.

"How did your date go?" Daichi went on, simpering when he'd seen us flinch. "I figured if you weren't going to tell me potential things I could use as blackmail I might as well follow you guys around."

Stuffing his hands into his pockets, Daichi cocked his head back towards the delinquents hovering around him. In that moment, he seemed to fit so well with them.

"It's so cute how Reina cares so much about friendships, right?" Daichi snorted. "Always trying to be the bigger person. As if people can be that simple. Satoru over there understands what I'm saying, right? That with just a few simple words you can ruin somebody's life."

Ryu's grip around my hand loosened considerably. Still as can be, my lungs ached for a means of air. When I couldn't hold my breath any longer and began to suck in gasp after gasp—as if following the coordination of my erratic heartbeat. I didn't even realize I was hyperventilating until Daichi's laughter resounded in my ears.

"It's so freakin' ironic, Satoru! Sure it was apart of our plan, but you just allowed yourself to get close to somebody else thinking you could be happy again? After you ruined Mamoru's life?" Daichi's laughter became more hysteric as he smirked from ear to ear. "As if! This kind of thing only haunts a human being until they die."

Daichi was guffawing at seemingly nothing, wrapping his arms around his stomach in his exaggerated humour.

"Sure it was an accident spurned from the delinquents at a different middle school but it's still because of you that Mamoru even went to that area! Alone! And yet you still have the audacity to feel sorry?" Daichi wryly sniggered yet again. "You put on that fake persona, change your name, try your hardest to keep people away from you—then what? You thought that would magically wish away your past? That as long as you didn't try to be happy—get close to anyone—you couldn't hurt anybody else the way you hurt Mamoru? What utter bullshit, Satoru. Please tell me you realize what an ass you are for thinking that."

All this information was gibberish to my mind. Daichi's lips moving, I caught that, but the words he was saying—they made no sense to me. But it was clear he wasn't acting like himself. He wasn't the same nonchalant dork I typically had grown so fond of. And he'd seemed to know stuff about Ryu that was making the said guy to look as if his entire world had tumbled apart.

"D-Daichi." His name had left my mouth before I knew it, my breathing unsteady and ragged. His laughter stopped abruptly, and with his face suddenly void of any emotion, he turned my way. Though jittery all over, my voice trembled as I spoke, "th-this is all j-just a sick j-joke, right?"

I didn't know what I was hoping for, but Daichi certainly didn't deliver. Once again, his shoulders began to jostle as loud laughter yet again left his mouth.

"A joke?" Daichi only seemed to guffaw harder at the idea. "You're seeing this as a joke? Then again I guess you are seeing the asshole in front of you as an innocent and sweet human being so I'm not surprised your entire viewpoint is warped."

Without warning, Daichi took a step forward towards us. I stumbled backwards. Though, I guess I didn't have to because Ryu moved to block me off from him.

Daichi came to a halt. A scowl grew upon his face, opposite to an anguished Ryu in front of him.

Daichi spat, "What? You didn't tell her?"

Ryu clenched his teeth. "Reina doesn't...."

"What kind of shit is that?" Daichi demanded, now pissed. "You're scared she'll hate you if you tell her is that it? It's already too late for that idea because she'll come to hate you eventually. If you don't believe me, look at where you've put her now. She's regretting this all as we speak."

"Sh-she...."

Daichi went on, "Well, even if you didn't become fond of her like we wanted Miyabi probably would've used somebody else as another way to get back at you." Just then, he maneuvered to face me. My body was stricken. Daichi appeared enlightened to see just how petrified I was. "Just so you know, Reina, Miyabi and I worked together to bring you and him together. Miyabi approached Satoru solo for a year but when things weren't working out, he told me to approach a random student in our second year so I decided to choose you. It didn't necessarily have to be you so you can consider yourself lucky. Who I allowed you to fall for—now you have my condolences for that."

His attention went back to Ryu.

"Of course, we could've decided to pummel you so badly you'd end up in the hospital with the same condition as Mamoru but Miyabi decided it'd be better if we can take away somebody you cared about instead. Your brother Aki is a little difficult because he's backed up by Raidon Tsuki—so getting you to become fond of somebody else made that even better. Take away somebody you love just like you did for Miyabi—it'd be the perfect payback.

"Plus, emotional wounds don't just heal like physical ones. And although it took forever for you two to reach this sickening happy ending, Miyabi's plan couldn't have worked out any better. Because now that Reina is important to you, if we just hurt her you'll probably break even more. Now, isn't that fun?"

Th-thump. Th-thump. My heart's pace slowed before crazily starting back up again. Insurmountable thoughts filled my head—ones I honestly didn't want to figure out an answer to. I could clearly hear the malice oozing from Daichi's voice but I didn't want to hear malice. I didn't want to hear what he was saying. They couldn't be true. They couldn't....

Could they?

Daichi gestured over his arm at the horde of males behind him. "Oh delinquents who Reina believed loved her—why don't you go teach Satoru here a little lesson?"

In almost accordance, they cracked their knuckles in a menacing manner, sauntering forward. Ryu didn't move from his position in front of me, though he did falter the slightest. He pushed me back, readying himself in a stance to defend us.

"Killshot! I'm here for fun. I'm number one (what are you saying?)"

The unexpected low singing succeeded in catching us all off guard.

Ryu, Daichi and I as well as the rest of his assailants shifted our attention towards the source. He was bobbing his head, eyes shut, red bangs flowing after him. Earbuds in his ears, Aki Mitsoyu continued to jam out, unaware of what exactly he had just walked into.

"I'm gonna be the strongest. One punch! That's it!"

He bumped straight into Rin, halting his off-key singing entirely. His features scrunched the slightest as he backed away, glaring up at the one responsible. Rin returned one but Aki didn't find it intimidating in the least.

His gaze flickered from person to person, until they landed upon Ryu and I. Almost immediately, his eyes sparkled. Yanking one earbud out of his ear, he waved.

"Yo, Senpai! What a coincidence! Why do you look so gloomy? Like you've been..." Without even bothering to let him finish his sentence, the delinquents crowded around Aki, cutting him off from me. Aki's expression had shifted into one of menace as he aimed a glare at the first person in his path. "Rin," Aki started, his voice low and unforgiving, "why is Kikuchi-senpai crying?"

Rin had wavered, his body falling back a bit. Not only him, but the rest of the people around Aki had grown pale, shuddering in his presence. Carefully, Aki's eyes narrowed into slits as he surveyed his surroundings yet again. Until he fixed his gaze onto Daichi, who was also looking rather uncomfortable.

"Who do you think you are?" Aki demanded.

Daichi's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. His smile faltered. "It's nice to see you, Aki Ryutaro."

"What is this? Someone like you is aware of my birth name?" Aki whistled, as if amused. His eyes, though, were wide with insanity. "If you know what's good for you, Daichi Sugiyama, you won't ever utter it again."

Daichi tensed up—a clear indication he was terrified. "You're as scary as you were the last time you did me a favour."

"Because I helped a crybaby like you get out of detention does that suddenly make you entitled? Aren't you a little too pompous?" Aki drawled as if to provoke him. "Besides, last time I checked you were Kikuchi-senpai's closest friend, but... it doesn't really seem that way to me."

The term made me feel as if a sliver of ice travelled through my veins. My vision and hearing was starting to even itself out but I still couldn't move my legs.

"Reina was just easy to manipulate," Daichi finally spoke, forcing a laugh as he did. "Why're you acting like a better person anyway? You probably already knew what Miyabi Koshiro was planning from the start."

"Huh? Koshiro?" Aki demanded. "Why would I give a damn about whatever that family's doing?"

"You were apart of the same group," Daichi pointed out.

"A group I left behind me," Aki spat, clicking his tongue as he veered his gaze. He stuffed his hands into his pockets, grey eyes darting towards his brother. "Aniki, I'm not going to ask what's going on, but bottom line, it's fine if I whoop this guy's ass isn't it?"

Daichi recoiled. Ryu seemed to snap out of his thoughts at Aki's words and aimed a similarly ominous glower Daichi's way. "I don't need you to."

Aki sniggered at that one, tilting his head to the side for emphasis. "Whoa, you even got my brother angry enough to want to beat you up! This is hella hilarious!" Wiping a dramatic tear, Aki's trademark smirk was back on his face. "It's fine, Aniki, you're a bad fighter. I don't want you to lose your cred in front of Senpai."

Ryu avoided to look in my direction, a heaviness sifting through the air. "I've already lost it all."

"I can imagine," Aki cooed. "Senpai has just heard all our secrets in one fell swoop hasn't she. I told you you should've told her ahead of time."

Chortling at Ryu's silence, Aki trained his gaze back onto Daichi and the trembling delinquents behind him.

"There you have it, Daichi," Aki said, smiling wide. "So before you and your weak backup get your petty little asses handed to you, why don't you save yourselves the embarrassment? Go and crawl back into the hole you came from will ya'?

Both delinquents and Daichi had begun to cower. Grounding his teeth, Daichi attempted to stand firm. He started, "D-do you really think I'm scared—"

"Boo!" Aki leapt up in front of Daichi's face, hands posted at the sides of his face.

Daichi produced a screech, lurching backwards. He nearly collapsed but caught his footing at the last second. He spared a swift glance in my direction, freezing me on the spot. The eye contact allowed him to grow more frustrated as a result.

"Th-this isn't over!" Daichi shouted as loud as he could before making a mad dash down the street he'd arrived from, the group of delinquents in pursuit.

After they were gone, the silence that had flitted into the air was difficult to fill. My shaking hands made their way to my cheeks were they immediately felt tears. I was crying before I'd even realized it. What the heck? But what was going on? Was I dreaming? Daichi and Miyabi... they were against Ryu? Because of what? Mamoru... Who was Mamoru?

My heartbeat had grown even louder in my ears. But more than that, what Daichi said....

"That guy—Miyabi. His last name's Koshiro?" Aki finally spoke, as if grudgingly. He turned his gaze onto Ryu. "Brothers? Twins, if he's in the same grade as you. Did you know that? You knew it, didn't you?"

"I did think their faces looked alike, but he never once mentioned his last name..." Ryu responded, clenching his teeth. "Or anything related to... Shit, I screwed up."

"We both should've anticipated this," Aki dismissed. For the first time ever, Aki didn't sound exasperated whilst talking to his brother. He'd dropped his differences. "But I didn't imagine he'd go out of his way of using you and Senpai. He put on that fake personality on purpose to approach you; that Daichi kid did the same with her, too."

The corners of Ryu's lips twitched. "I guess you weren't the only one thinking of using Reina to get back at me."

Aki was quiet at first, probably not being able to find it in him to argue. His eyes settled to me and I immediately darted my gaze to the ground. Ryu tentatively did the same, peering at me in immense regret. My chest hurt, but I couldn't dare look at him.

"Reina..." Ryu started, his voice trembling. The call of my name made me flinch a step backwards. As a result, Ryu stiffened, distraught breaching his features.

"Daichi and Miyabi..." I murmured. "This has to be a lie, right, Iwasaki?"

Nothing but silence met my question, only ravishing my mind to none. I grounded my teeth, clasping my hands over my mouth.

"No... I was going to make up with him tomorrow!" I dropped my hands and trained my blurry, tear-filled vision on him. "He's just mad at me! That's why he— even Miyabi! They're our friends! Why are they acting like our enemies then? I... I don't get what's going on. Iwasaki, this isn't fair. Tell me what's going on. Who's Koshiro? What did Daichi mean you sent somebody to the hospital?"

My voice had risen to an incredibly high decibel, but I didn't care. I stared into Ryu's eyes without any delay only to be met with unparalleled discomfort. He didn't even try to defend himself; tell me otherwise.

"I'm sorry, Reina," Ryu whispered, ducking his head.

"I don't want a freakin' sorry, Iwasaki!" I didn't mean to shout, but it startled him nonetheless. "I'm sick of your sorry's," I went on regardless. "I don't care if it's you or Aki—just tell me what the heck is going on!"

"Maybe you were right about keeping Kikuchi-senpai away, Aniki..." Aki said after a long while, his voice dropping in a similar amount of melancholy that coated Ryu's features. "Ha, that idiot's really succeeded in making it look as if you're a criminal or something."

Ryu balled his fists, but Aki heaved a sigh, strolling up to his brother and throwing his arm across his shoulder. Aki's grey eyes flitted to me, then he proceeded to flash his brother a dry smile.

"If you don't say anything now, Senpai will really hate us. Well, it may already too late for that but maybe we should still try," Aki said, locking eyes with me yet again. "We might as well start from when we were kids. The story about the very sad and pitiful Ryutaro's...."

______________________________

Next chapter will be a flashback~ I wasn't initially gonna do one but it seems like it'd be good lol. Plus, everything mentioned in this chapter will make sense so that's always nice. Look forward to read about the entire gang back in elementary and middle school~! >:D

(PS: Aki totally coming barging into a tense scene singing the One Punch Man opening is the type of dork he is lmao. I believe I love his character even more now xD)

-Misty