_Chapter 63~ Stumbling Over Love_

         Needless to say, as soon as we arrived at the site where Erika had given us the details to, I kind of regretted coming to such a lively function.

I was not a party person.

The same could really be said for Satoru, too, because when we entered through the doors only to find a swarm of raucous teenagers, we were both not very impressed. Granted, it was Erika's birthday and she had invited anyone she could get into contact with—which clearly proved to be the entire school population—thus I rooted myself to the promise to stay until the end, at least for this one event. Still, for somebody who had arrived and had been fairly new to the city, she had mustered a mass hold of connections I could only wish to have.

As music pounded through the back speakers of the dark room, it resounded against my heart as if it were a drum. I remained at my position beside Satoru near the rear end of the room where the snacks and drinks were being handed out.

          "Why did we even come here?" Satoru murmured, picking up yet another peanut butter cookie from the stack on the table. He'd already eaten about four since we arrived.

          I scowled at him for ever saying such a thing. "Because we're here to celebrate with my cousin," I enunciated. "She went out of her way for mine so this is the least I can do for her."

           "But even without going large scale you were still satisfied with a small gathering," Satoru pointed out, reaching to swipe the last cookie.

          I snatched it before he could dare eat it. Satoru gaped in disbelief as I took a bite. Humming with my cheeks full, I flashed him a cheeky smile.

          "Reina!"

          "You basically finished them," I told him with a snort. "I want the last one."

          Satoru didn't look to elated but most likely recalling the whole ice cream bit earlier, he didn't refute. It wasn't long before he began snacking on the other options.

          Chewing down the rest of the thing, I took a moment to scour the surroundings for any sight of my cousin. Where could she be anyway? This was her party. The obvious thing would be for her to be present.

           "Reina, want to dance to pass the time?" Satoru asked.

           "But aren't we clumsy dancers?" I countered with a cocked brow.

           Dusting the crumbs off his hands, Satoru nodded. "For a slow song, sure," he said, a tiny smirk curving up the corners of his lips. "But we can always fix that."

         Before I could ponder his vague statement, Satoru fastened his hand over mine and lead me towards the DJ of the party. His back against us, sporting ink black clothing and hat, messy red strands of hair poked out. The male was flicking switches and amplifying sounds with one hand, bobbing his head and holding his headphones to his ear with the other.

          "Excuse me," Satoru spoke loudly to catch his attention over the slow tune. "Think I can request a song change?"

           Almost reluctantly, the male tilted his head to the side view. This time his red bangs rested flatly over his black shades because obvious to me. "Whatcha looking for?" he responded, voice heavy with a thick accent of some sort.

            Satoru's features flooded with relief. "Actually—"

           "I wasn't talkin' to ya'," he cut him off, brusquely. Both Satoru and I were shocked when the male reached over from across the table and lifted my hand. Even without the appearance of the charming smile, I could imagine the guy possessed a playful glint in his eye from behind his shades. "I was talkin' to the pretty lady."

My eyelids rose a fraction, startled. Heat reached my cheeks but before I could come to terms with anything, Satoru gruffly yanked my hand away from him, glaring hard.

"She wasn't talking to you," he snapped.

Equal anger crossed the DJ's face as he adjusted his slouched posture. "And how do ya' know that? Did ya' even ask her?"

"Just change the song," Satoru seethed.

"Is that the way you're gonna speak to someone you're trying to ask a favour from?"

Satoru recoiled and only ended up settling with, "What happened to your accent?"

"The same thing that'll happen to you if you don't—"

"Change it to an upbeat song, kind stranger," I interjected with a slight titter, taking Satoru's hand and tugging him away to the dance floor.

Satoru seemed reluctant while the other teenager didn't seem too angry anymore. He smiled weakly.

"Jus' leave it to me," he promised in that rusty accent again, turning towards the swirl of wires surrounding him.

Even after stepping foot on the dance floor where countless of other teenagers were sweaty and herded together, Satoru's scowl never left the DJ. Rolling my eyes, I nudged him back to his senses.

"Satoru."

Reluctantly, he turned my way, bringing me close to him and sending out an array of dirty looks from the other people on the floor.

"Satoru?" I tried again exasperatedly. "Come on."

Almost reluctantly, Satoru's gaze slid to me. I gestured to him in exasperation and apologetically, he released his hold on me a little.

"Sorry."

"It's fine," I dismissed as he appropriately took my hand, dropping his other to my waist. The music of the dance floor was still plaintive in my ears but due to the rapid beat of my heart all of that seemed to null. My cheeks reddened after awhile of us swaying to the tempo. "Isn't he supposed to change it?"

Satoru briefly looked over his shoulder and hummed as he did. The DJ was staring at us, and at our eye contact he immediately flashed us a thumbs up—a get on with it gesture, as he turned up the music. Both Satoru and I deadpanned as we returned our focus back to each other.

Satoru clicked his tongue. "That snake."

I turned my attention to my toes as I moved my body left and right. I ended up forgetting how clumsy I really was because when I accidentally stepped on his foot, I withdrew with a gasp.

"S-sorry!"

"It's fine." Satoru winced, but immediately feigned it over with a smile as he pulled me back towards him.

It wasn't long before I grew flustered again, and I stopped, slipping my hand away.

"I said I'm all right," Satoru reassured me, snatching my hand into his again. Mimicking the other people in the room, his hold around me tightened as he forged their movements to the slow music. "Let's keep dancing."

Heat crossed my cheek as I awkwardly complied. "I'll step on your foot again."

"If I'll be able to dance with you I'll just have to accept that," Satoru countered with that adorning smile of his. "Besides, knowing me I'll most likely step on yours sooner or later so you should be more worried for that."

Momentary relief sagged my shoulders as I returned his smile. Without any further talk, we allowed our bodies to be taken over by the music. I made sure to watch the positioning of my feet extra carefully this time, and it seemed to be working.

"Hey, Reina," Satoru spoke up out of nowhere, seizing my focus from my feet, "I finally decided."

Baffled, I craned my neck to see his face. "Decided on what?"

"What I'm doing after high school," Satoru responded.

Excitement enveloped my features. "What? That's awesome! Wait, so are you going to become a doctor after all?"

"Yeah," Satoru answered with a chuckle. "You seem to know me better than I know myself."

"This is great!" I resisted the urge to crash him into a hug. "You can do so it!"

"I hope so." Satoru grinned. "I already applied. For the rest of winter vacation I have to study twice as hard if I want to pass Seikaku University's entrance exams."

All at once, my features went stiff. All the muscles in my body tensed.

"We can go together so you can explore the field you want to, too," Satoru went on, obliviously moving to the music. "Let's both work hard, okay?"

My smile twisted into a wry one as I once again submitted. Why didn't I anticipate something like this would happen? "I... don't know about that."

Satoru blinked. "Why? It'll work out if we try—"

"You're trying to get into the Seikaku University," I responded, biting my bottom lip.

Satoru stared at me with a frown, unable to understand. "Well, it is one of the best schools. I'd get the best education there."

"And that's incredible," I breathed, a forced smile in place. "But it's like, a super smart school. Perfect for my super smart genius."

"Perfect for my super amazing girlfriend too," he said with a quirked brow. "I'm not seeing what the problem is."

"I already decided on Jikukawa College."

Abruptly, Satoru stopped dancing. Although I moved to nudge him to continue, Satoru didn't budge. The shocked frown painting the bottom half of his face didn't either, only succeeding in making my gut churn with overwhelming sadness. My look mimicked his in no time.

"We really should've discussed this ahead of time."

Satoru shook his head, attempting to wake up from his daze. "N-no, it's... We can work with it. I'll just—"

I cut him off with the curt shake of my head. "You can't!"

"But...."

     "But nothing."

     "But everything!" Luckily he wasn't loud enough to steer people's attention towards us. "Jikukawa College is in the next city over. Are you planning on staying in the dorms?"

A weight sank in my gut; Satoru's reaction only spurned for the agony that came with it. "Well, it's far away so I have to—"

"No," he finalized, shaking his head. "I don't want to be away from you."

"And I don't want to get in the way of your dreams!" I remarked, squeezing his hand. "You already decided and I did too. C'mon, we shouldn't be discussing this right now."

"But, Reina...."

My heart succeeded in filling with immeasurable pain as I only took in Satoru's pout. Though forced, we returned to our heavy dancing.

"Don't do this to me," I warned him, biting my lower lip. "I'm not letting you apply to the school I did for a stupid reason like this."

"It's not stupid," Satoru said.

"Yes, it is," I enunciated. "I'm not your first priority."

Satoru veered his gaze for a brief moment, quiet, careful. The tension in the air was needlessly thick despite the romantic song that continued to play. Carefully, he leaned towards me. My heart rate quickened when he pressed his forehead against mine.

"I'd miss you way too much."

Pushing back the lump forming in my throat, I blinked back tears. "And you think I wouldn't too? You think I want you to go to another school, miles and miles away from me?"

Satoru's brows furrowed together, eyes gaining a glint. "Then—"

"But there's no way I'm letting you downgrade yourself just because of me. Just because I'm not smart enough to get into Seikaku...."

"That's not true," Satoru said. "You can still study hard. The exams are in March."

My bottom lip quivered uncontrollably and I shook my head. "Even if I do those exams, I'm barely passing as it is. I missed school for weeks so if I go back it'll be difficult to catch up. Trust me, I would've suggested that I work hard to get into the school, but I know I can't even do that. I'm an idiot; not a genius like you."

He reached for my face, gingerly wiping away my tears forming in my eyes. "Reina."

I looked at him through my blurry vision. "Please understand, Satoru."

Although a sliver of pain was evident in his gaze, Satoru blanked his features. He cracked a wry smile. "What a great timing to bring this up now, huh; of all places."

It really was.

"How would I be able to get through the day without seeing you?"

"We can just meet up," I said.

"Whenever we want?"

"Whenever we want."

He went on, "You're not an idiot, Reina; you're intelligent. You work really hard. You're extremely kind—so much so, it makes me want to cry sometimes... It has, actually. You don't need me, or anyone else, to stand on your own two feet. You can be stubborn, but I find it adorable how determined you get. Just like whenever you get frightened of something, which is often, you start panicking and you need someone to tell you it's okay for you to break out into that pretty smile that makes me melt inside. Do you know how it feels like to melt? Let me tell you, it's not fun." His forehead against mine, I was entranced by his reeling eyes. "You've made me obsessed with you; utterly. How will you take responsibility for this?"

A bashful grin had spread across my cheeks.

"What? I'm not going to get complimented back?" he asked with a grin.

I laughed as well. "Okay, well, I was extremely fond of your orange hair."

"You... Really?"

"But even with your black hair you're still handsome enough to make me swoon," I went on. "Granted, in the beginning you did scare me a lot. I really thought you'd legitimately hurt me whenever I opened my mouth because I said really mean stuff which I'm sorry for. But then I got to know you better you turned out to be incredibly sweet; countless times you went out of your way to keep me safe and I can't be any more grateful."

"Aww."

"You're sentimental, which is really refreshing. You're a bit of a gluttony, have a terrible sense of direction and possess the most adorable fear of the supernatural and dogs. And yet ironically you have the most heart rendering puppy-dog pout of all time. It's seriously disrespectful how easily you use it on me, and how much I allow you to use it on me."

He laughed, urging me on.

"I love that you're taller than me, and that you're athletic. You're even obsessed with video games like some cute dork. You always try your hardest and never let anyone around you—me—give up... Often times I have to question if someone so amazing really exist but then I'm reminded that he does exist and he actually loves someone like me...."

"It's because it's someone like you." Satoru despite his goofy smile, was blushing hard. He choked out, "But yeah, I think you won."

"What are you talking about, you won by a landslide," I argued.

Reeling apart, we met each other's gazes, more emotions than we could convey welling up inside of us. Albeit knowing I shouldn't have fallen captive to doing it, I ended standing on my tippy-toes to close the distance between our lips. My heartbeat picking up in my chest, I shut my eyes. Our lips grazed when—

"Let's liven up the party with some upbeat music!"

My senses flooded back to me as loud music began to pound through the speakers. I halted, and Satoru did as well, our eyes widening a fraction. As the catchy song took over the entire mood of the room, people pulled apart from their partners and began to hop around. Aki had finally changed the song.

With a simultaneous laugh, Satoru and I drew apart. Without any further delay, we began to dance like the uncoordinated losers we were. Beneath the music, we were engulfed with our laughter.

And in that moment, that was all that mattered.

* * *

Ten minutes later, Erika showed up. Dressed in an extravagant dress, she walked into the room with poise like the princess she was. She also suggested since she were late she give the audience a small performance as an apology. Even though everyone else seemed reluctant in hearing her, I gladly cheered her on and as soon as her voice filled the room, everyone was stunned into silence, including me. She was an amazing singer.

This led to a whole karaoke bit though where random teens went onto the stage and showed off their own singing talents. It was a blast. Satoru still denied going up there no matter how much I begged him, though.

Towards the end of the evening, I excused myself to go to the restroom and had to maneuver my way around the building in order to find it. Soon enough, I came across it and freshened myself up. After exiting I walked through a bleak and vacant hallway. Distant echoes of the music resounded around but the uncanny mood of the area allowed goosebumps to arise on my arms. Shrugging it aside, I spun on my heels to return to the dance floor.

I didn't get far before footfalls erupted after me. I paused, my shoulders freezing up. You're imagining it, I tried to tell myself. The silence that followed only increased the premonition as I took another step forward. Immediately, footsteps pattered after me.

My heart halted in my chest. My fingers around my dress furled. My legs grew jittery. Craning my neck backwards, I looked into the dark and narrow hallway for a face. Nothing reached my vision, settling my nerves the slightest.

It didn't last.

Just like that night, they flooded out from the corridor. Hideki, Chikao, Rin, Kazuo and every other delinquent I'd known. But not with Daichi in the lead. Instead it was him—dressed up in a formal attire so he could blend in with the rest likewise for the delinquents behind him. Brown wisps clung to the sides of his face, his smile as welcoming as it always was; as sickening as it always was.

I took a defensive stance, my heart beating like a drill in my chest. "Miyabi."

His name sounded like ice on my tongue, radiating as much venom as possible. Regardless, only a wide smirk plastered his devilish features as he knocked his head to the right. "It's been awhile, Reina."

*               *               *

My guards were high, higher than usual. My muscles locked into place as I raked the body of the male over time and time again. It was because it was a big party—a party my cousin invited everyone to—he had heard the news and showed up. And yet I just dropped all means of caution and dawdled on into the building he decided to strike. So typical. And yet... "I didn't see it coming," I cursed.

Miyabi let out a low chuckle, it prickling me with needles. "Enjoying the party?" he said. "I don't even know why I'm asking, I know you are considering how happy you and Satoru looked all evening."

Two steps and he was in front of me. It took all I could to stay in place. Running never seemed to end well for anything. Showing my back, bare, tail between my legs. I didn't have hope to make it back to the first floor. I was better off waiting to see—hear—what he was to say and hope to come out of this unscathed.

"You've been cramped up, not coming to school. Because Daichi left you thought I wouldn't make a move, is that it?" Miyabi scoffed, brown eyes lingering with disgust. "Trust me, I'm glad that pathetic baby is gone. This entire time he's been trying to get sympathy out of me. 'Reina doesn't deserve this, she's too nice.' So delusional. I knew I shouldn't have accepted that weakling into my ranks in middle school."

"Wh-why are you here?" My voice was croaky, stiff. The distance between us didn't allow me to loosen the grip of my phone in my hand.

"I've waited long enough," Miyabi simply responded. "Too long. The seeds have sprouted into flowers; the roots you possess around Satoru won't easily be removed. If I hurt you now, I can hurt him more than I could've before."

He met my eyes, his lips curving upwards in a simper as he pinched my cheeks.

"Aww, the fear in your eyes is so cute. Still finding this hard to believe?" Miyabi cooed.

His hands were slimy against my skin. I resisted the urge to smack them away; I couldn't, anyway. Not the way that I was.

Without warning, his grip tightened. I hissed in pain as he drew his face in closer close, amusement scratch free from his features. "All those times you ridiculed me, you're lucky I was kind enough to hold back. If my old gang heard how submissive I was to some bitch I'd probably die of embarrassment!"

"O-ow." I winced, shutting my eyes as his fingers only compressed my skin further. It burned. Tight and hot, it never mended me well. "I-I'm s-s..."

"Huh?" Miyabi asked with a smug cackle. "What was that? I can't hear you."

His hold was becoming unbearable. I squirmed for freedom. "I-I-I'm—"

"What?" Miyabi drawled, hysterically titling his head back to the delinquents hovering behind him, who were stock-still as they gaped with bulged eyes at my predicament. They flinched at Miyabi's glance. "Hey, somebody brought some rope, right? Let's hurry up and deal with this chick before someone shows up."

At first, none of them moved. I continued to squirm in pain as Miyabi yanked me forward, liberating my left cheek to pull my hair in his direction.

"Ha ha," he sniggered as soon as he tugged at my hair, in that mockingly cheery tone I'd always known, "What happened with your sheep hair? You straightened it. It's so strange!" His widened eyes met mine. "Sheep without their wool are useless to me. Why do you think I gave you that nickname? You should just keep being the livestock you are and let the big wolves have their fun with you, all right? You'll still be 'dead' at the end of the day anyway."

The world around me spun. It was difficult to get a hold of myself and even with a glimpse in the direction of my only hope, Rin and the others weren't able to withhold proper eye contact. They nimbly moved to follow Miyabi's orders.

I didn't know what I expected to happen, but clearly they didn't deliver. They only performed what I knew they would. Because in actuality, these guys didn't have my back. They succumbed to power, and Miyabi was clearly this tyrannical entity with their banchou gone.

I was only a mascot to them; and I should've seen that earlier.

"M-Miyabi," I choked out through the pain, grounding my teeth. Puzzled, he halted his fit of laughter to stare at me.

"What do you want?"

The guys from behind him were in reach. As a result, the corners of my lips quirked upwards. "Idiots really are idiots, huh?"

Miyabi's brows scrunched together and he blinked rapidly. "What shit are you high on? Make some sense."

I personally grabbed his hand from my face. His grip had loosened like I expected it would, allowing it to dart away from me. Miyabi recoiled, his eyelids elevating.

Opposite to his incredulity, my smile grew more profound as the delinquents went to surround Miyabi. His head jerked back and forth, newfound panic breaching his features. One guy—Chikao—seized his arms, holding it behind his back as the rest plunged in to grab his other body parts. Miyabi was rendered utterly useless and overwhelmed by a mix of emotions.

"Wh-what's going on? What are you asses doing?" Miyabi shouted as they continued to keep him from escaping. "This—"

"—is just a set up," I finished, rubbing my stinging cheeks and holding up the voice recorder on my phone. "You just got played, idiot."

"A-a..." Miyabi stuttered.

I snorted at his bemusement, raising my head to see the group I expected I'd see come hustling down the corridor.

"Reina!" Erika hollered, scrunching up her large dress and throwing me into a hug. "I'm so glad you're fine!"

"It wasn't anything hard," I chuckled, tapping her shoulder as she withdrew. "Did you get the—"

"Video footage should be ready to go," Erika responded with a nod. "Ms. Murai is in the camera room. We can pick up the evidence soon."

A breath I hadn't known I'd been holding finally left my mouth. My shoulders sagged in relief, my limbs beginning to tremble along with it. Thank goodness.

"What~? It's over already?" Aki whistled, his hand over his forehead as he swaggered ahead with his exaggerated smile. With his SnapBack encasing his red hair, it poked out messily between the cracks. Even his shades from being the 'DJ' were off his face as well, dangling by his shirt collar. "Aww, and here I was hoping to whoop his ass if things got stiff."

"Who needed you to," scoffed the being to his left, his sour frown prominent on his face as it always was. Which was the reason his prim attire didn't suit him much at all. "Firstly, if those idiots tried something after promising Raidon to stick to the plan I would've given it to them."

Aki rolled his eyes. "Of course you would've, Kei-Kei."

Keisuke glowered. "Stop freakin' calling me that!"

"Calling you what?"

"That 'Kei-Kei!' I've told you since middle school I don't like it!"

Aki playfully jostled him. "That's why I say it, silly."

Keisuke seized his arms, anger filling his face. "You goddamn brat—"

"Idiots, shut the hell up." With only five words, Aki and Keisuke went as stiff as a statue. Trickles of sweat beaded down their faces at the sight of Raidon Tsuki's scowl. Despite his rough ulterior, the dress shirt and pants he wore suited him rather well. Though, to my surprise, he had his arm enclosed around a particular girl's waist—Momoka Kisanagi's.

She continuously thrashed to be set free but Raidon's hold wasn't relenting. With clear discontent and colour on her cheeks, she deadpanned and allowed him to keep the position as they arrived.

'Save me,' she mouthed as soon as we made eye-contact.

'Save me first,' I recited back just as I saw Satoru dash full force past all of them. In only an instant, I was in his arms, teetering back on the balls of my feet.

"You're all right? You're all right, right?"

"I'm fine, Satoru," I laughed, as he retreated back, scanning my face for injuries.

Seeing the redness of my cheeks, colour drained from his features as he gently cupped my face. "Reina, this is why I was so against this plan! We shouldn't have trusted Sugiyama's letter so wholeheartedly like this! Even if it said we should try to lure him out how about if it turned out into a trap and you ended up...."

"It was our only hope," I carefully told him, holding up my hand with my phone. "Now we have some very profound evidence so we can rest easy."

Satoru didn't look convinced. His lips pressed pursed. "You're so reckless. He didn't do anything else to you, right? You're feeling fine?"

"Actually, I'm a little worn out," I confessed, turning up my head and fluttering my lashes. "May I get a reward for my bravery?"

Satoru chuckled, lifting me off the ground and squeezing me and twirling me around. "We can go to the ice cream parlour like I promised. Jeez, I can't believe this worked. You were so awesome."

"What can I say?" I said. "You've scored yourself a keeper."

Satoru laughed, giving me a nose kiss. "I really did. Agh, you need to stop worrying me so much. My heart was about to stop."

"Aww, that doesn't sound good." I pressed my lips to his cheek. "Better?"

Satoru returned an equally chaste kiss, this time to my lips. "Better." He smiled.

We both laughed. After set me back down, I looked forward. Raidon's head continuously shifted back and forth between the two of us. Then he looked at Momoka with a disappointed frown.

"Why do you never treat me like that when I get hurt?"

Momoka promptly flushed as red as a tomato, drawing away. "Be quiet about your fantasies already!"

Raidon craned his head away, kicking his foot in defeat.

I smiled a bit. Maybe like Satoru this guy wasn't so bad after all...? Or maybe he was. He was the most feared delinquent after all.

Veering my gaze towards Miyabi who was still struggling to be let free, my heart grew heavy in my chest. Miyabi, catching my staring, scowled hard.

"You bitch."

Satoru stepped forward, clenching his fists. "What'd you—"

I tugged him back, sending him a look. A scoff left my mouth as I flipped my hair over my shoulder. "Is it that hard for you to put it together, Miyabi? Why don't you accept you're not the only one good at acting."

Miyabi's eyes widened. "Th-that can't... All along I was being played...?"

"There's no way we could betray Miss Reina for you," Chikao interjected. "And hurt her, no less. Even if Miss Reina didn't find out, Daichi and us agreed to keep her safe."

"We made a deal way before to bring you off your damn high horse," Kazuo went on. "But for hurting Miss Reina the way that you have I 'oughta—"

"Let me at him first," Hideki growled.

"No, allow me," Rin grounded, cracking his knuckles.

"Don't worry, the guy we know is coming to wipe him off the face of the planet," Aki and Erika said simultaneously—smirks in place. Apparently the guy Erika had brought up in the past had been a guy Aki was well acquainted with.

Miyabi's mouth moved, clearly speechless. Seeing his hopelessness wiped all amusement from my features. It was all written in that letter—the reason Daichi went against Miyabi and exposed the truth to Satoru and I that day. It was to stop him. He couldn't do it himself and requested that the delinquents succumb to Miyabi in order to internally betray him and take him down. Whether it was true or not, I didn't want to think about, but Aki had found a way to get into contact with them and even set up Erika's fake 'birthday party' as a way to lure him here.

"Th-this," Miyabi began again, grappling for words, "this has to be a lie! You can't manipulate the Raidon Tsuki to agree to back you up—"

"I can do whatever I freakin' want," snapped the guy, ominously leaning towards him, an eyelid raised. "I'm only here because I don't like people like you; guys like you disgust me. I want to seriously understand how you think hurting Satoru and an innocent bystander is going to change anything with Mamoru. To me it just looks like you want to fulfill your sick pleasures or something, not carry out revenge. In the first place, Mamoru would never think of hurting Satoru for anything, much less be a coward enough to go after the people he cares about."

"Yikes, roasted by Raidon," sniggered Aki.

I bent forward as well, an exaggerated hand over my mouth. "Looks to me like poor ol' Miyabi is feeling betrayed, broken and pathetic."

Miyabi thrashed, much to no avail. I still inched back a bit and Satoru took my position, glaring daggers at the male. Miyabi returned an equally hostile look.

"I don't care— I won't forgive you, Satoru! For anything!" he promised. "Even if I don't get you for it, the guilt of Mamoru will fucking destroy you you hear me!"

Satoru tensed the slightest and I frowned. Before my concern could get anywhere, his features blanked and he extended out his arm, beckoning his hand. "Aki, hand me a marker."

Aki didn't wait a moment to slip markers from his pockets. "Permanent or washable?"

"What kind of question is that?"

"Right... Silly me."

As soon as Aki placed the permanent marker into his hand, Satoru moved towards him. I watched with amusement as Miyabi recoiled, whipping his head left and right.

"W-what are you— stop!"

No matter how hard he tried he wasn't able to escape in the least and grabbing onto his forehead, Satoru easily doodled onto his face. After writing some very... colourful things, Aki including Erika and I—Momoka too—were stifling back laughs. Keisuke and Raidon looked fairly amused as well.

Aki was doubled over with laughter as he raced up to him. "Aniki, let me draw a monocle on him too!"

Satoru retreated from as Aki took the marker. I could imagine his mini devil horns and pitchfork appearing as he doodled on Miyabi's exposed face.

"I dibs writing "I'm a joke,"" Erika chimed in, sauntering forward to take another marker Aki offered.

"'Fake ass' sounds good too," I pointed out as I was handed one as well. I simpered as I met his eyes. "Comic relief 'till the very end aren't you, Miyabi?"

And despite staring at the face of the companion I'd known for nearly a year now, I felt nothing. Hollow and empty. That was it.

After the man that Erika and Aki had invited came, Satoshi Kitawa, an undercover police officer, arrived and apprehended Miyabi for some questioning, saying we were to come later on. Nami Irei, that one officer from that interrogation when I'd sprained my wrist appeared out of nowhere as well, saying she was to escort us at the end of the evening to Officer Satoshi for some questioning.

A blond boy also came running from the direction of the party, a sweep of snacks in his arms—Sora Kurosaki, the transfer student that was the talk of the classes all last year. He excitedly conversed with Momoka and shared a glaring contest with Raidon, and a timid Erika was just ogling at him from a distance (she'd once in the past told me about her small crush on the blond). Keisuke and Aki were off squabbling on their own as well, making up contests to potentially beat the other one in.

Which left Satoru and I by ourselves to talk. Giving my hand a reassuring squeeze, he asked, "We can finally move on a bit can't we?"

"From what?"

"Reina."

"Kidding." I smiled, returning a compressing hold. "Well, because I have you, I'm sure I'll get through. How about you?"

"Because I have you, I'm sure I will, too," Satoru also rhymed with a smile. "Sure Mamoru eats at me right now, and it definitely will eat at me even more when he wakes up, but if you're around, I don't think I'll hate myself as much as I used to. But, as long as I'm being honest," he added, swallowing hard, "I promise not to allow something like this to happen again. I don't want to lose somebody precious to me anymore...so I'll keep you safe no matter what, Reina."

As it always seemed to, my insides combusted. Just as I opened my mouth to reply, another voice spoke overtop of mine.

"Seriously, putting on this fake birthday girl stuff took a whole load out of me." Erika's head randomly dropped onto my shoulder, allowing for the constriction of my muscles. I froze as she rose her head, a quirked brow in place as she looked back and forth between Satoru and I. "You two did gather us all like this but you never did explain to me what it's all about, or how you knew this 'bad' guy would show up if we summoned a huge crowd anyway. Who gave you the hint?"

Speechless for a bit, I shared a look with Satoru. His warm smile allowed my shoulders to slump, and I soon mimicked his expression. "I guess you can say an old friend had my back," I feebly answered.

"An old friend, huh?" drawled Erika, perplexed smile in place. She high-fived me. "Well, I'm just glad it worked out perfectly."

She was right, yes. But deep down I pondered what about this outcome was perfect. What I had deemed my two closest friends—Daichi, Miyabi—they were gone. It was just us left now.

Nothing could ever feel the same way again, and I just had to accept that.

But, it wasn't as if I were alone. I was still surrounded by wonderful people, one in particular that never did leave me behind from the start.

"We've stumbled around a lot, haven't we?" I said to Satoru, staring at the sight ahead; Raidon bickering with Momoka; a baffled Sora now conversing with a bashful Erika; Keisuke and Aki getting reprimanded by Officer Nami. I produced a laugh. "Since we met, and even until now."

"But all this stumbling only brought us closer together didn't it?" Satoru pointed out. "Maybe it isn't such a bad thing, then."

I grinned, pressing into his side.

I knew he was right, it all could've been for that purpose. It was likely that since we met the two of us had just been stumbling our way over this crazy little thing called love.