Chapter 16 - Akio FurusawaTuesday, October 17th“Hey, we’ve been walking around for ages.” Katoru compined. “Let’s just pick somewhere already. Or has that Good Samaritan energy wore off? ”

  I was reluctant, and he knew it.

  “Nonono!” I blurted. “Sorry, I know you must be hungry. I guess I just can’t make up my mind.”

  At this, he smirked wryly with a knowing look.

  “Then I’ll pick.” He suggested, or rather, commanded, leaving me no time to reply before his verdict had come through. “You’re familiar with Asia Fantasia, yeah?”

  Crap. Of course I was familiar with my favourite restaurant – I’d been avoiding it for a reason!

  “S-Sure, Fantasia works.” I agreed sheepishly, trying my best to disguise my apprehension.

  As if exasperated by my very existence, he sighed and trudged off in the direction of Center Street, leaving me to follow behind like an anxious child. I could tell he was starting to evaluate whether or not starvation was still on the table – or at the very least, eating with anyone else was still on the table.

  Perhaps I should’ve turned him down, you’re probably thinking. And you’d be right.

  Honestly, I couldn’t say for why I’d entertained him for this long – more than a few times in the st half hour or so we’d been gallivanting, I’d been tempted to just take him to any old pce, pay for his meal, and then walk away.

  We barely talked. Heck, I didn’t know if he was even aware of my existence prior to st night.

  Even so, he had that look in his eye. The one that was clearly screaming and crying for help, but didn’t know how to ask.

  I knew because my Dad had it too.

  “S-So, Katoru-kun,“ I began. “What do you-“

  He spun round to face me, his visage overwhelmed with disgust.

  “Ew. Ditch the honorific, it sounds weird.” He instructed. “What are we, childhood friends?”

  Evidently not.

  A few beats passed in silence, and there must have been substantial amounts of hurt dispyed on my face, because he began to cackle after catching a sidelong gnce at me.

  “Dude…” He wheezed, hands around his stomach, trying to find his breath. I’d never heard him ugh like this before. “What are you, an injured puppy?”

  “Heh, sorry…” I replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of my neck. “I just wanted to, uh…break the ice?”

  At my honesty, his expression suddenly became more level. Was that compassion I just detected?

  “I…I hear ya, man.” He admitted, surprisingly. “But shit, after the craziness that we went through st night, you’d have to try real hard to surprise me at this point. Unless you’re actually serial killer.”

  This was my chance.

  “Tonight’ll be my debut.” I smiled.

  I turned to meet his eyes, narrowing my own and smiling menacingly like a vilin whose meticulous pn had been executed fwlessly.

  Eventually, he couldn’t contain his ughter, and this time I joined him in a hearty guffaw, my hands clutching at my hair as I looked up. My eyes opened to catch the setting sun.

  Darkness was encroaching – moving in – and sooner or ter, neither of us would be able to escape it.

  And that was okay.

  These little moments - getting rejected by the girl I like, feeling awkward making a new friend, eventually ughing our heads off together – they proved that it wasn’t over yet. That I could still fight.

  That I could still live.

  Once, Ryuzaki had told me a story.

  A long time ago, there was once a ramen cart by the name of Neko Ramen, travelling along the entire country from Kyoto, to Osaka, and beyond.

  The name was - and get this - a reference to the chef’s secret ingredient, namely, actual cats.

  The worst part?

  Every customer that encountered the enigmatic establishment was smitten by the sheer tastiness and quality of the bowls they devoured.

  “Bullshit.” Katoru replied, eloquent as ever, and eyeing our takoyaki tray for his next victim.

  I chuckled.

  “Had a feeling you’d say that. But just imagine! You walk up to it thinking it’s any old ramen pce, next thing you know, your family pet’s been missing for days.”

  This time it was his turn to ugh, and it was ced with substantially less disdain than anything I’d witnessed from Liu before.

  “I might just have to off myself after that,” He conceded. “Or dedicate my life to the rescue of abandoned animals. Shit, maybe I’d even get my own line of pet food.”

  I began to twist my fork between my fingers, the warm orange glow of the busy restaurant shining in its reflection.

  Maybe I should get Dad a pet. Someone to keep him company, I mused to myself.

  “Yeah? What kind?” Katoru inquired. I’d been thinking out loud.

  “I- well, uh…”

  No turning back now, I supposed.

  “Maybe an Akita?” I suggested.

  “Like Hachiko?”

  “Yeah, exactly. He’s always been a real big fan of that story. I suppose it…gives him comfort.”

  I couldn’t meet his eyes any longer, otherwise I feared he’d be able to see right through me – to see all my father’s pain reflected in these same eyes I inherited from him.

  Luckily, Katoru decided not to follow it up, though I didn’t know if it was due to indifference or sympathy.

  “Think your family could use a pet?” I asked after a few beats of silence.

  “Hell no.” He concluded quickly. “Let’s just say they’re not the most responsible people I know, and that’s putting it lightly.”

  I decided to repay the favour and let the moment pass, though it was hard to ignore the now broken chopsticks he dropped from his palm.

  As if unsatisfied with the existence of his emotions, he sat back in his chair, taking a deep breath with a slight shake of his head.

  Then his eyes fell back onto me. If looks could have weight, I was being crushed.

  “I…I had an older sister.” He began, looking down at the now empty tray. “She passed away a while ago, and things haven’t been the same with us since.”

  I didn’t speak.

  “I miss her sometimes. Or, I guess, I miss the way things used to be when she was still around, y’know? But I guess you never know what you have until it’s gone. It’s real pathetic, huh?”

  He looked up at me, and his eyes widened.

  “H-Hey, you good?”

  It was only then that I’d noticed something small and wet had run down my right cheek. I grabbed at a nearby napkin and dabbed my eyes.

  “Yeah, I – I’m sorry to hear that.”

  He nodded, but said no more. I decided to even the pying field.

  “My family situation’s not the best either,” I began.

  I took a deep breath, and then I told him everything.

  For a while, the conversation petered out. We sat there, two very different souls that had been hurt in two very simir ways, perhaps wondering what to do with all the anguish that we’d been trying to ignore for so long.

  We hadn’t yet found an answer. I didn’t know if we ever would. Even so, simply having been vulnerable to one another – as frightening as it was – had made all the difference.

  My Pact may originally have lied with Eiji, but my heart was telling me an entirely new one had just been born.

  It was a strange feeling, engaging in ordinary, day-to-day stuff when you knew full well that today could be your st.

  “I’d streak all of Center Street. Butt naked, all my dangly parts flowing freely in the wind,” Yakky once said. “It’d be goddamn glorious.”

  “Really? That’s the final memory you’d like people to have of you?” Ryuzaki mocked. “Here lies Yuki Nakajima – son, friend, and brother, buried in his award-winning birthday suit.”

  At our ughs, Yakky jutted his chin out at Ryuzaki.

  “Then what would you be doing, smartass? Trying to beat the world record of having wacked off the most times to some bishoujo?”

  “Actually,” Kenta replied, pushing up his gsses. “I think I’d finally finish that Gundam suit I’ve been working on. Then spend the rest of my waking hours cospying it around the city. Maybe even talk to a few strangers.”

  I was surprised. That was actually kind of nice.

  “That’s all? Man, I’d be all over the pce!” Nakamura cheered. “I’d streak, AND wear some mecha robot suit, THEN take the Beef Bowl Challenge at Donburi Town, go sky-diving, crash a car into a tree –“

  “We get it, we get it!” Yakky smiled. “Sounds like an outw’s to-do list.”

  Suddenly, all of their eyes had fallen onto me. I realized that, despite proposing the question, I was the only one who hadn’t yet given my answer.

  My mouth was open when the rooftop door had swung open. Eiji had walked in with her friends, and casted a sidelong gnce at us – at Nakamura – before leading her posse to another corner of the space.

  “I’d let everyone I care about know I feel,” I found myself saying. “Even if they’d never feel the same way. I would just say everything I had left to say. That’s all.”

  Without my intention, the group had fallen silent, their eyes still on me, but noticeably softer.

  “…W-woah, sorry! I didn’t mean to –“

  Before I’d even finished my sentence, the three of them had materialized next to me, their arms draped around each of our necks.

  “Let’s make a pact,” Nakamura announced, his tone surprisingly grounded. “No matter what, we’ll always be friends. We’ll always look out for each other. And most importantly, if one of us is ever in trouble, the others will drop everything to help them out.”

  I felt something fall down my cheek.

  “Naturally.” Ryuzaki agreed.

  “Do we even gotta say it?” Yakky cheered.

  “Damn right!” I managed, before closing my eyes, squeezing the tears down, my heart pounding with gratitude.

  “Great!” Nakamura excimed. “Now, speaking of help – Ryuzaki, I’m gonna need that Chem homework from st Thursday –“

  “Oh, screw you!”

  And then we did what we were best at – ughing and ughing and ughing until our throats were hoarse and dry.

  As I y in the coldness of my bed, for perhaps the st time, I found my chest was warming with the memory of those days long past.

  If I could wrap them up and bury them into the ground, etch them into the earth, as proof of my existence, proof that I was here, that I lived, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

  My door creaked open.

  “G’night, “ I heard him whisper.

  “Night.” I replied. “And Dad?”

  I closed my eyes.

  “I love you.”