It wasn’t easy waking up with a serious headache form a hangover, and having no recollection of what had happened to him. Like how he ended up in a small and shabby apartment room. Though none of that mattered, he just needed to sober up and take some pain relievers for his headache. Unaware of his surroundings, he headed to a room that he figure was a bathroom, ( because of the foul smell) and entered.

The cold touch of water splashing on his face relieved him a little of his headache. But something else seemed to bother him more. He just couldn’t put a finger on it, until he ran his hands under the flowing water from the faucet. Flashbacks of a church, a woman hiding her face under a veil, and the special event that was supposed to have a happy ending to it.

There, on his wedding finger was the gold ring that they exchanged. It pained him to see that ring, the ring that was supposed to officially let them be officially together, He wondered to himself why he even had it on. Raising his hand up, he allowed himself to harshly take the thing off his finger, and threw it somewhere he will bother not looking for.

“Hey,” a breathy voice called out from behind, startling Sho to turn around. “What was that? The thing you threw?”

“No…nothing,” Sho stuttered of nervousness, and looked away. “I…I dropped a coin here somewhere.”

The latter looked at the nervous man with a suspicious look on his eye, but didn’t ask any further questions since the latter started shaking. Maybe he was shy? “Anyways, I’m Masaki Aiba.” He smiled to get rid of the look he just had on earlier.

“Sho.” the newscaster said and turned around to make eye contact, “Sho Sakurai. Nice to meet you.” It was weird, he formally introduced himself to this tall man, unlike how he sloppily introduced himself to his other friends before he met them. Somehow, this tall man made him feel comfortable around him because of Aiba’s smile. All feelings of hatred, and nervousness disappeared. But it only lasted for a minute.

Sho tore his eyes away from their eye contact, and walked past through Aiba. He wanted to leave and go somewhere other than staying in a smelly apartment room. Somewhere he could go to and never be found again after losing someone he loved with all his heart. Somewhere he could go to where there are no people he could fall in love with.

Just as he was about to pick up his belongings that were laying on the floor, a forceful grab stopped him. “Where are you headed? You can’t just go yet, I still have to repay you back!" Aiba worriedly asked Sho.

“For what?” Sho asked without turning around.

“For taking you here with me from those bad guys at the bar running after us yesterday!” Aiba explained and showed Sho how mean looking those men were.

“Why, what did we do to make them run after us?” Sho then turned around to see Aiba imitating the running men.

“After I saw you talking to yourself under the street lamp while laying down there, I came up to you and asked of you were okay. When I picked you up, I saw those multiple bruises on your face. I figured it was from the men that were coming out of the bar that had angry expressions on and I smacked talked them. They got mad at me and then saw you and thought that I was working with you. So I ran as fast as I could until we ended up in this room. Then I took the opportunity to bandage your face up while you were sleeping. I watched you go to sleep and you were muttering something like, ‘don’t leave me.’ And tears were coming from your eyes. ” Aiba thoroughly explained without stopping.

Sho looked at Aiba surprised at what he just heard."Why are you so nice?"

Aiba shrugged, "dunno, I guess I'm just willing to help anyone that needs my help."

"Thank you," Sho said sincerely.

"Anytime," Aiba replied back with a huge grin on his face. "So...why did you go drinking last night? Something happened?" The tall man straight-forwardly asked.

Sho scrunched his eyebrows together, he didn't want to answer that question. He didn't want to embarrass himself in front of Aiba and tell him what happened to him. He's afraid. Afraid of what? Sho just couldn't bring himself to say why. He kept quiet for awhile looking at the floor, his eyesight blurring from the pre-tears that wants to come out.

Breaking the silence, Aiba spoke up first. "You don't have to tell me Sakurai-kun, I'll get some pain relievers from the near drugstore." After saying so, he ran outside leaving Sho to cry his heart out. It was the first time to cry that much since he got his first scar.

Little did Sho know that Aiba was watching him from the doorway.

TBC