She was never involved in gangs and he should have known better than to have dragged her into this whole mess. Tricking an innocent girl to be his girlfriend, he was the worst.

----

You were walking home from your part-time job at night, tired out from the long day you had. You sighed but you had no choice since you lived alone. Your parents had already passed away in a tragic car accident when you were three and you were left under the care of your grandmother. However, not long after you had graduated high school, she succumbed to an illness and too, had to leave this world. Since then, you had left the countryside to pursue an education in art, in hopes of fulfilling your dream to become an artist. Once settled in, you decided to take up a job on the side, knowing that even with the inheritance money that was left to you, it could not support you forever.

While thinking about trivial things like what you should have for dinner tonight, you heard a voice call out. Curious, you turned back to take a look. Under the dim streetlight illuminated the figures of two men and judging from their appearances, they were not businessmen who just got off work or anything of that sort.

“Hey!” One of them called out again.

Looking around, you noticed for the first time that no one else was in the vicinity. At that moment, the alarm bells rang in your head. This morning on the way to school, you had heard some housewives talking about how gang activities at night were on the rise lately. Could they be gang members? You hated to think that you were going to get caught up in some kind of trouble; you were never good at handling sticky situations. You picked up your pace, praying that you would not have to deal with those two men behind you.

Unfortunately, after a minute or so, they both had caught up with you and a feeling of dread started to sink in inside of you.  

“Are you trying to run away from us?” asked one of them who had dyed his hair blond.

“Don’t worry, we won’t harm you. We just wanted to ask if you wanted to hang out with us!” The other joined in, grabbing your wrist.

“N-no thanks…!” You tried pulling your hand away but fell down in the process. The two figures that were now towering over your fallen self made you feel smaller than ever, and you did not know what to expect next.

----

Kitayama Hiromitsu decided to get some fresh air after a whole day of settling disputes with rival gangs and making sure other gangs in the area did not cause too much chaos. He was lucky today, considering that no fights erupted since even one small fight can escalate into a big one. It was not that he did not enjoy being the leader of the number one gang in the area, but rather the responsibilities that came along with the title could be tiring sometimes. Suddenly, a shout pierced through the silent night and he immediately snapped his head around to see what was going on. Across the street, he saw two men and a girl, probably a few years younger than him, who was on the ground. There was definitely something going on.

“Tsk…” he clicked his tongue in disapproval.

Sure, he was not the most good-hearted man in all of town, being the top gang leader around, but he hated it when people try to bully those they perceive to be weaker than them. Briskly walking towards them, he confronted the vile men.

“Hey, leave her alone.”

“Who do you-” They tore their gaze away from the girl.

As recognition of whoever was standing in front of them sunk in, he saw fear in their eyes. The both of them sputtered an almost incoherent apology before running off. Then, he extended his hand out to the girl to help her up, his eyes softening as they met hers.

“Are you okay?”

----

After walking for a few minutes, the grey building of your apartment came into view. Turning to your savior- Kitayama, as you learnt from asking him earlier, you gave him a quick thanks. “Thank you for waling me home.” you said politely.

 He smiled in response. “No problem. Well, goodnight now.”

“Goodnight.”

And with that the both of you parted, with you ascending up the stairs to your apartment unit and Kitayama walking off.

----

The next night, as you were walking out of the store where you worked at after your shift ended, you spotted a familiar dark-haired person. “Eh? What are you doing here?” you asked. “Ah, a friend asked me to meet him nearby but he could not make it in the end… I thought of walking you home again since it can be dangerous at night.” Honestly, you were kind of flattered. “Oh…” was all you could reply.

The walk home was awkward since you could not find anything to about with him. Finally, you decided to ask him more questions to get to know him better, just like you did the night before.

A few exchanges of questions later, you reached your destination.

“Well we’re here already…”

“Wait, before you leave, can I ask you one last question?”

“Okay, shoot.” he replied casually.

“Uh…” You did not know how to go about with this. “What’s your line of work? I’m just curious…” Yesterday, those men fled at the mere sight of him so you figured that he must be some kind of scary person, for them to run like that.

“I…run a dojo.”

You nodded. “He must be well-known for his skills or something I guess.” you thought to yourself. And with that, you said y