JR's POV

 

No. Not now.

Not when I am truly happy for this one day. Not when my close friend faces problems in hospital. Not when Ren is sleeping so peaceful

right next to me... Nevertheless, knowing that I cannot possibly escape this threat, I decide to open the letter. My eyes adapt to the dim

light surrounding me as they finally make out the deep red letters. The paper slips through my fingers and lands on the ground without

making a sound.

 

***

Ren's POV

 

When I awake I find myself in a strangely comfortable place. So soft and - wait. My eyes flutter open and absorb the light falling

through a small window beside me. Where am I? I sit up in slowmotion, trying to figure out what happened last night- my memory is all

blurry. I don't remember. Oh, there was JR's face and... We went shopping, right? The clothes hanging over a chair just a few meters

away tell me that my guess is right. So I am at his place?

 

With one hand I adjust my hair while standing up with trembling legs. My head aches and I feel really weak. Weird since I never felt this

way before. I touch the smooth stuff of the pink t-shirt, and unconsciously smile a bit, an event that occurs more and more frequently

lately. That fluttering feeling and my heart beating faster than normal- it's quite nice. I don't dislike it at all.

I notice that JR is not with me. My gaze wanders through the room but I can't seem to spot him or any trace of his greyish aura, so I

figure he must be awake already (or maybe he's sleeping somewhere else). Thinking that he might have sacrificed his bed for makes

my face go all warm and red. I decide to step out of the room and search for JR, my throat is terribly dry and I'd do everything for a

bottle of water now. The bedroom leads right into a small corridor with another room right opposite to this one. If I go right now, I'll end

up in the living room. Some noises can be heard from that direction and I follow them, hoping they'll lead me to a happily grinning JR.

 

I actually find him. But he is not smiling at all. I stay in the doorframe, observing him from afar because I can read his current mood.

And I have no idea on how to handle it. He never showed that kind of color combination before. A deep, depressing black - so black I

can hardly make out JR himself. And then, sometimes, silver threads like a lightning. Anger, maybe? Though I want to know what made

him be like this, I don't dare to set a foot closer yet. Eventually, he notices my presence.

 

"Ren-ah... Slept well?" He says, and for a short time his aura brightens visibly, but then goes back to before. His voice is not mean or

anything, but it's not friendly either. I don't like seeing him like that.

 

"Yes." I say, finally approaching him. He sits on a wooden table, a letter in front of him, and his eyes follow every line hectically. He

reads the letter over and over. I feel like it's none of my business, still I step behind him, wrapping my arms around his neck, placing my

chin on his head. Without reading a word, I stare straight at the wall before me. And then, totally unexpected, I'm being drawn into

familiar darkness.

 

"If you follow our orders, everything will be alright. For both of you."

 

The boy is too afraid to answer, but he manages somehow in his terror. He is fighting the tears again. The male voice on the other side

sounds so threatening and evil that he wants to hang up and hide for the rest of his live. If it wasn't for her, he would have.

 

 

Then it's over. I didn't prepare for this, since it was totally unexpected. Here I thought that I could touch JR without fearing the

consequences. But there's no time to bother with that now.

 

 

"What's wrong?" I ask carefully, to not rush him. He breathes in heavily, I can feel his body move a little. Right now he must consider

telling me or not. Seems like JR decides for the first one, which relieves me actually.

 

"It's so complicated that you might not even want to listen." JR says, and as he continues, his voice is filled with desperation. "But I

can't keep it to myself anymore!"  I tighten my grab around him, it feels like the right thing to do. I want to comfort him. Be there for him.

Like he was for me yesterday.

 

"I've got plenty of time to listen." I whisper, close to his ear, and I don't even resist when he frees himself from my hug and pulls me onto

his lap, now hugging me.

 

"You're so soft, Ren-ah..." He mumbles, his words are very silent, partly because his face is most likely buried into my shirt, partly

because he seems like he's about to cry. I'd never have thought a guy like him would possibly cry. I am a bit afraid of what he's about

to tell me, it must be horrible.

 

"It happened a long time ago." JR then starts after gathering the right words. "I lived with my family back then. Guess that was about -

four years ago." He interrupts himself, taking another deep breath. "Then, one day, I lost all of them. Some mysterious guys broke into

our house, destroying all our possessions, and then they-" My mind connects his story with the part of his past I saw before. "they took

them away from me. Dad. Mom. Letting only me alive, but worst of all, kidnapping my sister." Another pause, hot tears fall onto my

neck, but I don't dare to move. "They kidnapped her in order to blackmail me." JR grabs the red envelope and shreds it to pieces.

"This is what they send me once in a while. At first, it happened rarely. But now it comes more frequently, and they demand more and

more-" He doesn't need to finish his explanation since I already put all the parts together. The reason he lives in poor conditions. It is

all for his sister, the only one he has left, the one he wants to protect at all costs. A feeling of melancholy overruns me. We are pretty

similar in that matter. Both alone, only that he has a sister, just can't see her and needs to constantly worry about her. I, on the other

hand, am alone for real. Having a real family, I don't know about it.

 

"I- I'm so sorry." I stutter, because no words can make up for what happened to him. Nothing can make up for it. I wish I could reunite

him with his sister somehow.

 

"It's not that bad... I don't really have any memories of them. I lost them." A flash of thought rushes through my brain, and it's so clear

now. The reason why he is covered in black and white, not actual colors. He has no past. Having revealed the secret surrounding him

doesn't make me happy at all, however. The cause that woke my interested in him now seems so trivial. 

 

"Now the worst part" JR suddenly says, even though I expected him to be done. Worst part? He points at the paper in front of him, still

intact.

 

"You can read it." I move around on his lap to be able read it, and as soon as I finish, my eyes widen.

 

Knowing this, there's only one thing I can do for him. If my abilities will ever come in handy, they will now. And I will use them as far as I

can to pull JR out of his misery.

 

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Keke~ It's fun to end the chapters like this xD

You will have to bear with the cliffhangers, haha :D

So, I hope a lot of things cleared up for you now. Also, we get closer to a of the story. 

I'm so excited and wanna write moooore ^-^

 

Enjoy! ♥