Artificial Love: Chapter 16

Three days later.

Kimiko POV

I awoke from a stinging pain that came rushing up to my entire body. When I laid over to my side a gasp of pain escaped from me as I went back laying onto my back.  I put my hand underneath my stomach and rubbed it where I felt a deep sharp pain kicking in. My head leaned over to the side as I sighed in pain, but when I felt the cover sheets I was on, it felt different than my own bed, it was soft, silky like, I wondered, where was I right now?

 I started to lift my eyes slowly as my vision started to clear up bit by bit at a fast pace. A light frightened gasp escaped from me as I saw a slim, yet a broad back if a man. His shoulders were perfectly well-built as well as their backs being long and slim. I couldn’t see his face because it was dug deep onto their pillow.

My eyes had widened opened, ‘Did I get ?’ I thought horrified. I looked under the blanket but finding myself wearing some patient garments that you would wear at the hospitals. I also noticed that there were several white thin bandages on both my arms.

The pain rushed down to my stomach once more, “Why does it hurt so much?” I ed the shirt finding a huge bruise that tattooed onto my stomach. “What? Why is this here?”

The body next to me started to moan and only moved slightly closer to me. Being afraid naturally, I re-buttoned the shirt and started to move away from them and off the bed with a pillow in my hands for defense. When a sudden ring was made onto the small lamp post, my body slightly jumped as it scared me. The person’s arm had started to lift up onto to the small table next to them and searched for their phone. Finally picking it up he looked at the screen seeing who it was and turned off his phone, putting it back where it was and moan as he stretched his arms forward. 

He realized something was strange as his hands moved about onto his right side.

When he got off the bed and stood up, he only wearing a long black sweat pants, and I realized from the side that he also had a well-defined six pack. With his hands covering his face, he groaned as he started to rub his eyes and then stretched his arms over his head. Once he had turned around I found myself wide agape and wide eyed.

“Aoi?”  I called his name. His mouth opened slightly as he was about to speak,

“Ki--” a pillow was thrown at his face and dropped to the ground.

“Where am I?! What did you do?! Why am I here?!” I started to panic. He made a small grunt followed by a sigh and leaned forward grabbing the pillow into his grasp and tossed it back onto the bed.

“Wow, I saved your back there, and this is your way of thanking me?” he sighed, “I see you’re doing better now.” He added.

“Saved me?” I quietly said, my eyes wandered around the room, “Am I at your house?” I asked.

 “Duh, where else would you think you’d be? Back at the alley way?” He answered. My mouth dropped slightly, “Alley way?” I said to myself quietly. “What alley way?” I asked having no clue what he was talking about. He turned around with a surprised expression, “You don’t remember?”

“Remember what?” I asked. His eyes lowered, a sigh suddenly came out of him and his eyes started to advert away angrily, “I guess that drug hit you hard.” he said. I looked at him with a confused expression and tilted my head slightly.

“What? What drug?! You gave me drugs! Is that why I’m feeling like this?! What di--”

“A doctor is going to come here soon to check on you. In the meantime stay put. I’m going take a shower.” He walked off to the other side towards another door and closed it should after he had entered.

[Fast forward]

“Alright miss, you are all set. Luckily you’re doing better than three days ago. I’m surprised that you slept through all the days that passed.” The doctor said putting her equipment’s away into her medical bag.

‘I’ve been sleeping for three days?’ I thought. “Excuse me.” I called out to her. “Hai” she turned to me after she had put away the last equipment away.

“Ano, I don’t understand, what exactly happened to me?” I asked. Before she could answer, a deep sigh came out of her and adjusted her glasses, “Well, you were in a pretty bad state I’ll tell you that. But that’s all I can tell you. I am prohibited to tell you the rest.” She answered.

“Why is that?” I asked her.

“As a doctor, as well as I am told to do so, it’s my job to not tell a patient the cause of their current state once they completely forgotten the reason why they are like that.” She answered sadly to me, “In better words, it’s best if I didn’t tell you what happened because if I did, there’s a big chance that the memory will make your condition worse.” she answered.

“Trust me, I won’t go into dramatization after finding out what happened. Just… Please tell me.” I begged her.

“I am sorry ma’am I can’t.” she answered back. Catching me by surprise, I scrunched my brows at her and tilted my head slightly in confusion.

“Chotto matte I have the right to know, I was the one---”

“Miss if you would like to know any more info--”

“Was Aoi the one that ordered you to do this?” I asked but she only looked down at the ground and breathed out a small sigh. “Thanks, I’ll speak with him, thanks so much for taking care of me” I thanked her and rushed towards Aoi’s room.

“Aoi!” I shouted his name, but right when I came into the room my mouth dropped in such surprise. From the looks of it, he was fresh out of the shower, still, with a long white towel wrapped around his hips and went down to his ankles. There were still little droplets of water from his back sliding down ever so slowly towards his lower back as well as water dripping from his hair landing onto the small towel that was on the back of his neck that he was hanging onto.

“Do you not know how to knock? You could have walked in seeing me you know.” He looked at me with an unusual expression and came to his drawers.

“Oh…” I quickly turned around. “Sorry, that was rude” I said. “Mhhm.” He agreed. It started out silent at first but

“Aoi, tell me what happened, tell me everything. I don’t remember a thing.” I pleaded him. I heard him sigh from behind. “No.” he answered.

“Please Aoi” I said.

“No.” he answered again and stopped looking around into his drawers. “Why?” I turned around angrily, “Why can’t I know?!”

“Because.” He answered in a hoarse voice.

“Because what? I deserve to know what happened to me!” I shouted

“Then try to remember!” he shouted back.

“I can’t! I’m not going move forward with my life until I know, I can’t just forget about it and live life like its normal.” I said seriously. “Besides, what do you expect me to think what happened to me while seeing these injuries and bruises on me?!” I added.

“You said that I was drugged, who did this to me? Or …did you drug me?” I asked to stir up his heat. He turned around with an angry and an unbelievable expression.

“OFCOURSE I DIDN’T! WHY THE HELL WOULD I EVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!” he shouted, “You really want to know what happened that night three days ago?” he started to walk closer to me, “Aoi…” I had called out to him. Each time I took a step back he came a bit closer and walked faster, by then when I had run out of room, I was trapped to a wall behind me and he drew himself closer to me.

“Aoi, you’re a bit too clo--”

“YOU WERE DRUGGED AND ALMOST BEATEN TO DEATH YOU IDIOT!! YOU ALMOST GOT GOD DAMN IT DON’T YOU REMEMBER?!” he hit both his hands onto the wall trapping me in between them. My eyes frightfully widened up, “? I was ra--…” I questioned, suddenly it hit me, and all the terrifying memories had started to rush through my mind. “Chotto matte…” I started to chuckle unbelievably.

“I thought all that was a dream... There’s no way… right?” I smiled awkwardly and started to tremble. He had sighed to calm himself down, dropping his head for a minute and rose it back up.

“You know, I thought that if I left you and Hiroto alone yesterday night that nothing bad would happen. But no.” he rose his voice.

“You saw us?” I asked quickly, but with no answer he adverted his eyes away from mine.

“For some reason, after when I left you two alone, I’ve been getting pissed off about everything… and I couldn’t figure out why so it just pissed me off even more.” He said drawing himself closer to me. I could small the fresh, clean fragrance that left off a refreshing scent from his body. My hand suddenly touched his muscular abs when he drew one more inch closer to me and slightly pushed him back.

“Aoi you’re--”

“So I ran back… because something felt wrong.” He paused, “And when I did, I found you all beaten up, lying helplessly on the ground…I came too late…” he whispered the last words and looked away with such a disappointed appointed expression. When I examined his expression I couldn’t help but feel so guilty, and somehow feeling pity for him. He would run that far to find me? I ran miles away from the studio, and yet he decided to still look for me far and near despite the long distances. Why Aoi? I don’t understand.

“Aoi…” I called his name quietly. Unintentionally without thinking, my hands rose to touch his face. But just as they almost went into contact he moved away and walked to his drawers.

“Go. I need to change.” He commanded. “Your clothes and cellphone should be in the living room, once your done changing yourself you can leave.” He added. I lowered my hands, “Hai.” I looked at my arms as they were tattooed with bruises and some random red marks.

“Actually Aoi, would it be okay, if I used your clothes?” I asked, he gave a look and titled his head slightly so to ask why I needed them. “I mean, if I wore my uniform it’ll show all the marks and bruises, and… I don’t want anyone to know about it.” I said honestly. He stood there quietly for a few short seconds and lingered his eyes onto his drawers and pulled out a white long sleeved shirt with a some black spattered design onto it and threw it to me.

“I want that back in good condition.” He said going back to his own choice of clothing.

“Oh… hai.” I answered taking one last glimpse of him, just as I was about to walk away he had called me name, “hey wait…”

“Eh?” I swiftly turned around. He stood quiet for a while, just as he was about to say something he had stopped himself from saying it, a moment later a small frown grew on his lips and his words from what he was about to say were exchanged for a new sentence. “By the way, there’s a car for you that should be down ready to go. It’ll take you to Miyuki, she’s been dying to know where you were.” He said. “Oh… ” my head slightly went down, I couldn’t help be feel a little disappointed for some reason, I didn’t why. Maybe I was expecting a little bit more from him, but what?

“Okay then… I’ll just go now, Sorry to be a bother.” I bowed goodbye to him and slowly walked out of his room.

Aoi POV

As she closed the door shut, a sigh came out of me and I turned around letting my hands rest back against the ends of the drawers and leaned my lower back onto he drawers slightly. I couldn’t tell her after all, about the calls and text messages Hiroto had made to her the last three days. I also couldn’t tell her that I deleted them afterwards. It was ridiculous, calling her every morning, afternoons, and night; he must be really worried where she is and why she isn’t picking up or calling him back. I sighed once more turning around again to take out some clothes from the drawers as well as my closet. When I was done dressing myself up into my regular clothes I headed out the door and was suddenly met by the doctor.

“Shiroyama-san it’s time for your checkup too.” She said, I nodded and followed her into the other room. When we passed the living room I found that Kimiko’s clothes and cellphone were no longer onto the large couch. ‘Dang, she’s quicker than I assumed her to be.’ I thought and laughed to myself mentally as I went into the room with the doctor.

“Okay Shiroyama-san, place your leg onto this small mattress and I’ll have a look to see if it had gotten any better.” She commanded and I did as I was told to do so and I folded up the bottom of my sweat pants as high as they could go.

That was the other thing I couldn’t tell Kimiko, that I was badly injured on my left leg while trying to fight off the gangs that night. Son of a swung a metal deformed stick at my leg hard twice and had my legs all painted in the colors of dark blues, purples and bloody red.

 [Fast forward]

When the car drove away from the place, I flip my phone open to see if I had any missed calls or text from anybody. It so happens Aoi wasn’t lying, Miyuki called several times, and so did mom but only about 3 three times on the day I was supposed to come home.  Worried, I dialed Miyuki’s number and waited for her to pick up. Three rings were made and finally right in the middle of the fourth, she picked up.“Kimiko?!” she answered.

“Miyuki” I called back.

“Ahhh! Kimiko! Oh my goodness thank god you called” she sighed in relief, “Are you alright?! Aoi didn’t do anything you did he?!” she asked.

“No, he didn’t, don’t worry I’m fine.” I chuckled a bit as my eyes began to wander out the car window as we passed building to building. “Hey how’s my mom by the way? She didn’t call you o--”

“Oh don’t worry about her, I told her that you were staying at my place.” She answered. I sighed in relief, leaning myself back on the seat and closed my eyes for just a while. “You know, I really owe you, big time!” I smiled and then chuckled.

“You know you do!” she said proudly after for a short while my phone had died. About 15 minutes or so, I arrived at her uncle’s studio with opened arms as Miyuki came rushing towards me giving me a tight hug. “OH GIRL! Where have you been?! Aoi called me so suddenly with your phone to tell your mother that you were with me…” she demanded me to answer. “I ask him why and he said it was an emergency; for three days girl! What’s going on?”

“Um nothing, it’s just a little meeting thing we had together.” I lied, she looked at me in disbelief and crossed her arms on her chest. “Little? For three days? I’d say you’re a big, fat Liar.” She said and led me inside the studio and upstairs to her room.

“By the way, is that a new shirt? Looks a bit big on you.” She commented. I looked at the oversized shirt I had on me, “Oh this? It’s Aoi’s, I had to borrow it because my uniform was dirty.” I said and sat down on her bed.

“Do you feel closer to him when you wear that?” she asked almost wanting to chuckle. I looked at her in disbelief,“Wha- no! I told you, I’m just—“

“Just borrowing it I know, I know, geez I was only joking.” She laughed and pushed me gently and then walked towards her door, “I’ll bring something to drink.” She smiled and off she went leaving the door closed. I looked at the shirt and started to admire the black splattered design on it, the material was very soft and light, unintentionally my hands gently clutched onto the top of shirt gently bringing it near my nose.

A nice scent came to my nose, it was a very manly scent I thought to myself; it was definitely Aoi’s essence. Somehow, I felt as though he was hovering over me this instant or hugging me? Just the thought of it made me twitch a little making my hand let go of the shirt. For a slight moment, I had a funny feeling tingling all over me chills came up to my shoulders and down to the tips of my fingers.

 “YOU WERE DRUGGED AND ALMOST BEATEN TO DEATH YOU IDIOT!! YOU ALMOST GOT GOD DAMN IT DON’T YOU REMEMBER?!”

“For some reason, after when I left you two alone, I’ve been getting pissed off about everything… and I couldn’t figure out why so it just pissed me off even more.”

“So I ran back… because something felt wrong.”

“Wow, I saved your back there, and this is your way of thanking me?”

I remembered his sayings this morning, ‘that’s right’ I started. I didn’t thank him at all I thought and was ashamed of myself for throwing a pillow at him. I jump myself off the bed going out the door and down stairs where I found Miyuki with drinks in her hands just as she was about to go upstairs herself, “Oh Kimiko where you going?” she asked curiously with a bit of surprise in her tone.

“Sorry Miyuki, there’s something I forgot to do, I’ll come back.” I answered and continued to walk down, she came down and followed from behind and put down the cups on the corner of the front desk, “Forgot what?”

“Something important, I swear I’ll come back! Sorry for the sudden leave.” I smiled and went out the door and left her with a confused facial expression. I came across several streets by the time I headed for the next subway station closest to take me back to Aoi’s place. I know I could have just called him and said thank you from there, but that wouldn’t be a very polite thing to do right? Especially if he saved me from getting myself by those erts. When I ran to buy a ticket at the ticket window around the corner, it so happens once again I was suddenly bumped into someone, only this time I was just quick enough to stop myself from fully crushing into them. The person whom I almost bumped into was rather tall and slim, and had hooded man.

“Oops! Excuse me!” I said rather in a high pitched voice. The tall hooded man jumped back with a tiny step as he was startled by my sudden appearance near the corner way, “Oh sorry.” He said and walked away and so did I.  After I had got myself a ticket, I jumped into the train just before they were fully going to lock themselves together. When the train started to move forward, I grabbed an empty seat next to the doors and sat quietly messing around with my phone.

A cough came from the corner just behind another man in front who stood holding the hangers up top. Naturally, my eyes wandered towards the direction of the cough and found myself looking at a well-dressed man in a black suit with a pair of dark shades of sun glasses; almost impossible for me to tell whether or not he was looking directly at me. He looked down for a couple of seconds and then looked back at me, or so I thought he was? I had a weird sense coming up my spine suddenly giving me the chills. I looked away from him and decided to ignore him for the time being and went back on my phone.

It wasn’t long before I had finally got of the stop near where Aoi lived, my footsteps kept moving forward and forward until I was at the plain sight of a green park, kids playing onto the jungle gyms, boys running around in circles with their airplane toys and girls in the sand box with their dolls. A chuckle escaped from me when I was suddenly reminded how I first met Snatcher, Aimi, and …Aoi. When I continued to walk, an unusual feeling came to my senses. I stopped at the very corner of the pathway of the sidewalk and turned around. The same man from the train was behind me about 12 yards away from me. Once he realized I had stopped, he too stopped walking and pretended to look around enjoying the breezes of the wind. 

To the corners of my eyes I saw another man who wore the same exact threads as the man behind me. He waited on the street across from me, sitting on a chair near a street food stand. My guts had told me to keep moving forward and pay attention to nothing else but to go straight to Aoi’s house. So I continued to walk without having to look back, ‘just four more blocks away’ I thought to myself.  I’ve noticed that each corner I take, more of those men would pop out; it was scaring me, the same fearful emotions I had back at the ally was beginning to chill up my spine making my heart beat pump a little more faster than usual.

Just as soon as I quickened my pace onto the next corner, I heard several other footsteps coming closer and quicker. I couldn’t handle it, it was like I was on the verge of panicking and wanting to burst out crying for help. I started to get this scary feeling that I’m going to lose my mind; it is truly distressing and terrifying. Just before I was about to scream and run, unexpectedly, a single hand grabbed my left wrist pulling me forward rather quickly.

“They’re after you! Run!”  They said pulling me forward with them abruptly. I started to panic and hesitated to go with the stranger, it was the same hooded person at the subway station, they made a last attempt for a small tug on my arms, “Run! What are you doing?! RUN!” he shouted and made the last pull on me. The sound of their voice kept me off guard; I ran inches behind them and heard the other men from behind shouting to get me.

“Here! To the corner!” they said and we both ran behind the mid dark corner of an empty ally way hiding behind a large trash bin. “Shh” he implied me to stay quiet and looked slightly to the corner to see if they were still after us. Noises were being heard from the corner, consisting of ‘where is she’ and ‘where’d she go?’, the person next to me quickly looked away and leaned close to the wall behind him as close as possible.

“Here, you go that way and we’ll go this way” we heard them say. “If the boss finds out we lost her, we’re dead meat!”

“Alright guys calm down, just try to look where she went. Call me if you spot her, we’ll run straight where you are.” Another man had to his group of friends said as all of them started to go to their separate ways. A relived sigh came from both of us as we began to stand up quietly.

“T-Thanks.” I said rather timidly.

“No problem…” he replied back and faced his body towards me removing his hoodie from his head.  “Just keeping my dear friend safe.” He said revealing his face clearly; it was Hiroto that came to my rescue. Both my hands went up my mouth as a small gasp escaped from me.

“Hiroto!” I suddenly started to hug him, his hands placed themselves onto my shoulders pulling me closer to him.

“You were scared… It’s okay, I’m here.” He assured me.

[Fast Forward]

We sat outside at a small café just around the corner from the closest street from where Aoi lived. We sat quietly when the waitress came with our drinks and small baked sweets, “Arigato gozaimasu.” He thanked the waitress after she had left with a smile and a nod. There was an awkward silence between us, just like before, he was the first to grab his drink and took a small sip from it. It was my turn to do the same, every time our eyes had caught each other’s glimpse we’d blush and look away with nervousness coming up to our spine.  He started out with a nervous swallow and began to speak.

“Are you okay now?” he had asked in a soft tone, I nodded my head smiling and taking my drink sipping it once.

“Yes thank you.” I answered, he looked at me with uncertainty as he was judging me with the tone of my answer.

“Ano… Is something going on? Why were they following you? Considering that they mentioned a boss that wanted you.” he asked and looking deeply into my eyes, just waiting for my answer. “Ano…” My hands gently dropped my cup onto the small tea cup plate and started fiddle with each other beneath the table.

“I can’t say, to be honest, I’m not even so sure myself on what’s going on.” I said, he didn’t respond to that except to nod once. I too nodded, and then hesitantly I asked him how he knew I was here in this area of Tokyo. He seemed a bit embarrassed to answer considering he was starting to blush bright pink on his cheeks.

“Um, well that is, this be hard to believe but I was actually heading down to a friend’s house that had just moved around this area recently… the same way you were heading I assumed.” He started. “But I didn’t know it was you until we were down at the corner 4 blocks away from here. Then I spotted three other guys following you, before I knew it there were more.” He explained, a minute later a small laugh came out of him, “I thought it was a bit strange for you to go the same direction I was going.” He smiled.

A louder laugh came from me, “But I’m thankful for that, or otherwise I would have been in trouble.” I said. He nodded while a smile grew on him. We’ve talked for a couple of minutes later about random things, what we did the last month, what we wanted to do, what we hoped for… just everything really, even about my job with Aoi.

“So is that Aoi treating you well?” he asked.

“Yes, you can say that. I learn more about him every day… it’s actually very surprising to me.”  I answered. Hiroto’s eyes looked into mine deeply once again, retaining that air of mystery within his expression.

“Do you like him?” he asked. A surprising look painted my face, “Hai?” I asked. He repeated his question again, only it was in a deeper tone. “Do you like him?”

“Ano, well, he’s not a bad person, and he’s caring at times, although he can be pushy at some point. I would like to say yes, I do like him. But only as a friend…er I mean…” I said the last words too quickly and calmly sighed to continue, “Put it as simpler terms I’m just an employee and he’s my employer. We work together and that’s that.” I answered firmly. For some reason Hiroto gave out what seemed like a small relieved sigh and had creased a small smile.

“You must have been very busy the past couple of days.” He said taking his drink and then putting it down. “I apologize for calling you so much for the last three days. It must have been bothersome to you.”

“Eh?” I said in confusion, last time I remembered there was no calls that came besides from my mom and Miyuki. I started to pull my phone out of my pocket and flipped it open to my calls just to double check.

“Hiroto, are you sure you called me? It doesn’t say you did on mine.” I confirmed to him showing my phone in front of him. He gave the same confused expression and pulled out his own phone giving it to me to look at.

“I’m pretty sure I dialed you several times these past three days…” my mouth slightly dropped from disbelief, it was true, every single call was for me. But I was so confused, why didn’t my phone had his calls on memory? No one touched my phone besides me… no…

[Flash Back]

“By the way, there’s a car for you that should be down ready to go. It’ll take you to Miyuki, she’s been dying to know where you were.”

 [Flash back ends]

Miyuki called several times too…If he said that, then the only logical answer is that… HE LOOKED THROUGH MY PHONE.

“Kimi-chan?” Hiroto called me and helped me broke off my thoughts. “Oh sorry, I was just thinking…” I said and continued to look through his phone.

“Oh my gosh, that’s a lot… Did you need me for something? Oh no! Did I forget we had a meeting together?!” I asked worriedly hoping that wasn’t the case. A small smile form and he shook his head.

“No, no, it was nothing like that. I just wanted to talk with you and well see if you were available to hangout. But since you didn’t picked up, I’d figured you were really busy.” He said. “But the main reason why I called was because I was worried about you.” He started to blush, “I was wondering if you returned home safely that night… I was really worried that you didn’t because you didn’t pick up. I thought something might have happened to you.”

My body froze for a bit, first I was blushing and felt taken in by his sweet words that he was worried about me. But then I remembered the event that happened that night, I took a small gulp before I started to talk again. “Well, good thing I did though right? I’m sorry, I’ll call next time.” I lied to him putting on a fake smile.

“Right.” He smiled as well, “Well, didn’t you need to go somewhere?” he then asked.

“Yeah, actually I needed to go to Aoi’s place for a while. I needed to talk to him.” I said.

“Well I’ll you there then” he got up from his seat.

“Oh no, you really don’t have to do that. Didn’t you say you were going to visit at a friend’s house?”

“Well yeah, but they could wait, it’s not like they gave me a specific time to come by. So it’ll be okay, besides, don’t want those thugs to come back chasing you now do you?” he said reaching out his arms to me and offered his hand to get me off of my seat. “Good point. Thanks” I grabbed his hand and held it with the same amount of strength he had put into and got up.

Just as I was about to let go of his hand, his own hand gently squeezed on to mine. “Do you think… We could hold hands for a while?” he asked with his face flushed in bright red. “ano—I- I just t-thought that it might be safer if you were close to me.” He quickly said. I came out with the same flushed expression as him, but my hand calmly made its way to a proper way of holding hands. 

“Sure, I’d love that.” I said bringing myself closer to him on the side wrapping my other arm close to me as if I was hugging them. “Shall we get moving?” I asked and started to walk.

“H-Hai!” he answered and continued to walk with me, at the end I saw a smile grew on him. 

[Fast Forward]

“See! It’s just up there the third window on the 5^th floor.” I pointed Aoi’s apartment window. Hiroto looked up at eh luxurious apartment and glazed at his window, “I s that so? I thought it be a little higher than that.” He said.

“Why is that?” I asked, he perk his lips and gave a little shrug, “Well, knowing Aoi-san, wouldn’t it be a bother to hear so much noise from the upstairs and from the apartments from the side? He doesn’t like that.” He started. “But then again, he’d like to be the first one to escape save himself if a fire had started.” He chuckled the last few words.

“True, True.” I laughed along, not long after I sigh came out of me and looked at him with a sad expression.  “Well I guess this is where we say goodbye huh? Thank you so much for walking me here safely.” 

“No problem, the pleasure is all mine of doing so.” He smiled. At the same time, our hands slowly let go of each other, the warmth of our soft hands was no longer in contact. I was starting to miss the gentle hold already, I just wanted to grab it back and hold onto it forever.

“Well, I’ll see you around” I said and bowed.

“Matte!”(wait!) I heard him say just as soon as I was about to walk away and he grabbed my hand once again.

“Eh? What is it?” I asked him.

“Ano… I want to ask you another thing.” He stated and let go of my hand. Before he could go on, He itched the back of his head and took a deep breath, stood straight and then looked deep in my eyes filled with hope and nervousness.

“Would you like to go out to dinner with me tonight?” he asked. My body froze and my eyes broadened up, “D-dinner? T-tonight?” I asked, the words gave the shivers but at the same time, excitement and joy.

“Hai.” He answered and looked at me with curious eyes, just waiting for my answer. I felt my heart pumping fast and hard, almost leaving me breathless. This was my big chance, if I turn him down, I’d probably would never get another chance like this. Besides, I really, really like Hiroto… no, I was absolutely in love him.

“Hai! I’d love to go out to dinner with you. It’ll be fun!” a large bright smile creased from me. His eyes started to widen up and a grin appeared, “Hontouni?! Great! Then… does six o’clock work at the Sukiyabashi Jiro Diner? Down at 87^th Kurasuma avenue?” he asked.

“Yes! Even though I’ve never heard of such restaurant but I bet it’s great. I’ll meet you there!”

“Oh are you sure? We could go together, I could pick you up.”

“No its fine, besides, Aoi would get mad at me for being with you. I-I mean don’t get the wrong idea! I’d love go together but…He worries that his family, especially his mother would catch us on this artificial love we have for each other. Sure the public doesn’t know about us yet but his mother would do anything to ruin her own son’s reputation… because he would humiliate their family’s name. It would affect my family’s name in a way too“ I said. He looked down at me with a nod and formed a smile.

“I completely understand. It’s okay Kimi-chan. If that’s how it needs to be, then I accept it.” He chuckled and ruffled my hair. “I guess I’ll meet you there then.” He started to walk backwards away from me, “Just call me when something happens, if you do change your mind I’ll pick you up or if you want, I’ll call a cab for you.” He grinned and waved goodbye.

“Uh huh.” I nodded and waved goodbye to him. Once he was far enough where I couldn’t see him anymore, my arms went up and bringing them in, bending them close to my chest, “YES! I’m going out to dinner with him!!” I laughed opening the door and skipped happily into the apartment entry. 

When I had finally come up to Aoi’s door, I ranged his door bell once and waited for him to get the door. “Why is he so slow?” I complained and ranged the bell several times to notify it was me. “Moshi moshi? Who is it?” I heard Aoi’s voice on the camera above the doorbell called out. 

“Your mom.” I answered and I stepped forward to examine the camera, it had a voice machine too.

Aoi’s POV

“Your mom.” I heard her voice. I stopped myself from dressing up into new set of clothes, ‘Kimiko?’ I thought as I stared at the screen of the answering machine. She came closer to the camera and waving her hand confused. I chuckle came from me, has she ever seen an answering machine?

Those bodyguard idiots, they told me she was ‘kidnapped’ by some hooded guy. I simply told them to look out for her and they lose her on the first day, wow, some body guards they are, was I the one who had to do everything myself? When I heard that she was kidnapped, I started to panic and worried sick that she might have been beaten again and was about to get . I worried so much I stopped everything I was doing, got dressed, about to call the police and head out to search. But what is this? She comes at my door unharmed and wore that goofy face of hers. 

“Aoi? Are you there? Whoa this a camera? Man, we only have a voice answering machine…” I heard her say and chuckled quietly and then I sighed in relief that she was safe and was right at my door. I started to take everything off, putting on just a regular t-shirt and some pair of comfortable black pants, and then I started to pick up the trails of clothes that started from my room to where I was standing… That’s how worried I was, I was rushing to get some clothes on that I literally threw myself in random clothes and didn’t care that the other clothes landed onto the floor.

“Aoiiiii! Get the door! I know you’re in there you just picked up! Don’t you dare ignore me!” she said some more. “Hai, hai, I’m coming…” I blurted out quietly to myself after I had placed the rest of my clothes away into my room, I came on out. ‘Baka, who did you ran off with?’ I thought to myself and picked up the phone looking at the screen of the answering machine seeing her still standing there waving at the camera.

Kimiko’s POV

Just a few minutes later, I heard a frustrated sigh and a grunted in annoyance, “What the hell do you want Kimiko? Did you come here bother me?” I heard Aoi say through the answering machine.

“Oh, ahaha I was just about to think I was hearing things when you answered” I awkwardly chuckled. “But anyways, I needed to talk to you about something and I’m really mad at you.”

“Well then, proceed speaking.” He said. I rolled my eyes and then heard a chuckle from the machine.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me?” he laughed. “Does it bother you?”

“Of course it does, I’m not going to talk to you out here with this answering machine, and people are going to watch! They’ll think I’m crazy or something.” I said folding my arms to my chest. “Now are you gonna let me in or not?”

“Baka, that’s the whole point” he laughed some more, “I love making you so frustrated.”

“Aoi I’m serious! Talking to you like this is ridiculous! It makes it worse because I can’t see you but you can with your answering camera machine thingy inside and I’m--” I stopped talking when I realized a person who walked passed me was unfortunately the neighbor next door and looked at me with a weird expression.

“Oh no, I’m just, uh, my friend isn’t letting me in… and ---” just before I could explain, they had already went into their home quickly and shut the door with the same weird expression. A burst of laughter came from Aoi. “Now that was funny!”

“Aoi! I swear! I’ll knock down the door if I have to!” I hit the sides of my arms onto the door making a loud thump. ”OWW!” A huge ache of pain came on my arms as I squirmed. I was so embarrassed and angry I had forgotten all about my injuries. “Nice…Whatever, just go away I had all the fun I needed today goodbye.” I heard him say and hanging up.

“Aoi!” I yelled. “That’s it, you asked for it I’m gonna knock down the door and beat your , even if I have injuries!” I started to roll up my shirt and stepped back from the door counting to three.

“One… two… three! Here I come!” I ran towards the door but just as soon as I came charging in, the door had finally unlocked and open seeing him right in front of me.

“OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!!” I screamed.

“Whoa!” he panicked and moved away quickly to the right. “Ahh” I yelled and swooshed right in and fell flat out onto the brown wooden floor. “Ouch. That hurt really bad.” I proclaimed. I heard the door close and footsteps coming closer to me as I felt someone hovering over my lower back.

“Baka… you ought to be the most insane person I’ve ever met.” Aoi said hitting me onto the head. I made a small grunt turning over lying on my back facing him and whacked him onto the head as well.

“You’re far worse.” I said. When I was about to move away from him to get up, his entire body sat onto my stomach forcing me back down. “Aoi get off.” I commanded and tried to wiggle myself out, it was no use. He smiled leaning down his head slightly, “Wow, I’m not even putting all my weight on you and you still can’t get out?”

“Its cause you’re too fat.” I commented

“Says the one who eats a whole gigantic bowl of ramen in one sitting.”  He shot back. “You piabbit”

“What did you call me? A piabbit?” I stared at him confused.

“Yeah, you’re a rabbit and a pig. You look innocent, sensitive, and honorable yet you eat like a monstrous beast and you have a lot of pride and strength. And your also greedy… for money that is.” He answered.

“Not true! At least I’m not a huge fat stu—OH MY GOSH…” he shifted his weight more. “What was that? I can’t hear you.” He smirked, I gave him a disgusted look sticking out my tongue at him, “You ……hole… OH MY GOSH AOI!” he started to put his whole weight on me.

“That was for the name calling.” He grinned, my hands tapped onto his legs informing him to get off of me as I laid there breathlessly and suffered.

“I—Aoi… get off… Can’t-breathe!” I squirmed and struggled to pull away from him.

“Not uh, not until you say sorry.” He smiled imitating me just like before. “Okay okay! I’m sorry! Just get off!” I squirmed in a begging tone. He finally got off of me and walked away as I lay on my side breathing in the sweet air of oxygen; after my breathing was back to normal, I rolled around onto my knees getting myself up and followed where Aoi was heading.

“I take that back! And everything else you said before, well… all of them, the pig and rabbit stuff are true BUT besides the greedy part.” I darted back. He laughed and went to the corners into the kitchen and opening the fridge, getting a bottle of water out. “I’m only greedy now because of my family condition, you know that as well as I do.”

“You’re such a child piabbit.” He commented.

“Stop calling me that. You know it goes on your payment charges for me for calling me rude names.” I reminded him giving him a stern look. He shrugged in response, opening his drink and took a sip before saying anything. “I do what I want, and it’s not a rude name, it’s just a nick name for you I made up… it suits you very well too.” He smiled taking another drink from the bottle.

“Now, what was it you wanted to talk about?” he asked setting down the water bottle onto the counter and leaned forward onto the counter side. I walked forward towards the kitchen table sitting myself down on a chair with my knees tucked to my chest. “How come you didn’t tell me Hiroto called? Why did you erase the calls?” I asked and demanded for an answer from him. He bent his head down and sighed grabbing his water bottle and putting it back into the fridge. “Really?” he started closing the fridge door turning himself around and came towards me, leaning both his hands onto the table and came forth close to my face.

“You came all the way back just to ask that?” he started in disbelief, “What? Are you going to get mad at me that I did that?” he asked.

“Yes, and I already was when Hiroto showed me all the calls he sent to me… He walked with me all the way over here.” I answered him, when he heard the name Hiroto; he started to roll his eyes and kept himself calm. “So it was him that kidnapped you, wow, should have known.” he said rather quietly, but I heard every single word he said.

“What? Hiroto kidnapping me?” I looked away from him and gave myself time to think. Then I remembered those men who chased both of us, “Is there something you aren’t telling me? Do you know who those thugs who chased us? Besides how do you even know that?”

“They’re not thugs, their hired “body guards” that were supposed to watch out for you, I hired them.” He confessed, I looked at him in disbelief, getting angrier by the minute.

“What was that? I’m being watched now?! Look, I appreciate you looking out for me and I understood what happened three days ago had you worried and all, but I don’t need to be kept watch just because something like that happened once.” I said, “It really scared me today when I saw the men you hired chasing me. So please don’t have them following me anymore. I can’t even have any privacy to myself then.” I looked away from him. I felt his eyes staring at me with a surprised expression, “Sorry, I didn’t mean for them to do that. I’ll tell them to dismiss as soon as possible.” He assured.

“As for the first question you asked, I did it because he was being such a bother, who calls every single hour of the day?” he started to raise his voice.

“There’s something call ‘Turning off a phone’” I shot back at him.

“If I did that, would you have wanted Hiroto to think you were ignoring him?” he beamed back. Aoi did have a point there, I sighed putting my legs down to the ground and tried to keep calm from bursting any anger out of me, “But I still don’t understand why you would delete them… wouldn’t that make it worse for me not to call him back? It would still mean I’d be ignoring him.” I said.

“Look, I had to do it. I had no other choice.” He sighed and turning around walking slowly away from the table and then turned his whole body around to me.  “Ayumi was here to visit and I had you hide you from her so she wouldn’t see your condition, I just…I forgot to hide your phone. She spotted your phone and before anything else happened I deleted all the text and calls from Hiroto for our sake, I’m sorry about it too. It’s really not my thing to go over someone’s phone like that.”

“Ayumi?” I breathed out a frustrated sigh.

“Typically huh?”  Aoi commented “Anyways, since you got your answer why don’t you go exit yourself out of here.” He pointed out and started to walk away. “Wait!” I started, getting off the seat quickly and walked over towards him with apologist eyes and “Um…” my right arm reached for my left elbow slightly gripping onto my shirt, he turned around with both hands hiding in his pockets and stood still looking down at me.

“What?” My head rose up to stare up at the tall man, was he always this tall? I asked myself. His expression looked so distressed, why? My fist curled not wanting to say the things I was about to say, it was already hard enough being such an idiot for yelling at him today. “Ano, now that you made me look like a big fool. I’m ---I’m sorry. There I said it.” I said looking away from him embarrassed.

I felt his eyes on me, an unusual smirk creased from his lips “Say it again.” he commanded me. “What? Nn-n-” by the time I looked up, his face was so close to my own, his glossy eyes deeply focused themselves onto the cautious brown orbs of mine.

“Say it again, I couldn’t hear it clearly.” 

“W-why? No! I said it once, I won’t say it again.” I beamed back at him, before I knew it, each time as I stepped back, he’d come twice a s close finally trapping me onto a wall. “Aw did piabbit said that she was sorry and that she was wrong?… I love it when you admit defeat.” He grinned coming to the side of my face. “I Love it when I torture you like this.” He whispered in amusement pulling back his face to gaze at me once more. I glared at him and tried to push him away or moving away, but no success.

“Aoi, I will seriously kick you if you don’t move.” I warned him, my threat didn’t seem to work as he chuckled and creased a smirk. I didn’t know why but I felt a sudden painful beat within my heart as it pumped faster and faster each second. My eyes shied away from his gaze and my foot started to kick his leg at a fairly gentle touch.

He let out a small grunt and quickly stepped back from me, “Ow.” He groaned. At first I had stared in disbelief that a simple gentle touch could hurt so badly. I almost wanted to laugh at him saying what was the big deal, but he kneeled down half way to massage his leg with a worried look on his face.

 I stood there confused almost reaching my arms out to him, “Aoi, are you okay?”  just as I was about to touch him onto the shoulders his hand flew up for me to stop and got back up slowly.

“Yeah, I just wanted to see if you would get worried about me.” He grinned putting both his hands into his pockets and walked away again into his room. My mouth dropped at his words in disbelief, what? So that was a joke? Unbelievable.

“Wha—That’s urgh, you’re annoying.” I pouted with a small amount of redness coming from my cheeks. “Anyways Aoi, I came here for another reason.” I proclaimed following him into his room.

“Annoying” he stated and shut his door before I could even welcome myself inside.

“RUDE.” I said rolling my eyes hearing a laugh coming from inside of the room. “Just say what you need to say, I need to clean here before you even have the chance to step foot in here.” He said. 

Aoi’s POV

“Okay then…” I heard her say, I walked about around the room cleaning up the Medicaid from this morning and hid them away into my closet. I went near my bed and tidied it up as well as going into my own bathroom and cleaned there as well.

“Um, I never got the chance to say it this morning…” she stared out, once I threw away the last bits of mess in the bathroom I walked myself to my door and leaned against it to hear a bit clearer. I heard her sigh with some gibberish she said underneath her breath and feeling the pressure of her back leaning onto my door as I felt a little bump on it. “But… oh my god why I’m I doing this?” she whispered.

“Look if you’re not going to hurrying and say what you need to say then I’m going to ignore you.” I stated.

“No! okay okay, hold on… I just wanted to say… Thank you. Thank you very much for what you did for me these past few days since the terrible night.” She thanked and breathed a deep sigh. A satisfied smiled snickered on my lips, “You really that thankful?” I asked opening the door, knowing that she would fall backwards from leaning against it.

“WHOAA!” She yelled. Just in time I caught her swiftly in my arms, her arms naturally threw them around my neck and shoulders for support; she looked so scared looking at me with those worried brown glossy orbs of hers. Just as I was about to say a jokingly mean comment to her, some strange vibes came up rushing up to my spine and somehow to my whole face, my eyes started to broaden when I took realization that she and I were completely close.

Both of our eyes locked onto to each other, was her eyes really that sparkly? I didn’t notice before but they were the most intriguing eyes I’ve ever seen, hand her hair was soft and silky. In general, when I see her up close, everything of her was just almost … perfect. My heart suddenly started to pump itself faster and faster for unknown reasons. I took a deep gulp and suddenly started to blush, why was my body suddenly reacting like this? This isn’t normal. I looked away from her and got her up gently back on her feet. “Sorry, I didn’t know you were leaning against my door” I lied.

Kimiko’s POV

“Sorry, I didn’t know you were leaning against my door” he said looking away.

“Oh n-no, sorry, it’s my fault for being careless like that, leaning on the door when you even told me to wait for me to come in.” I itched the back of my head. That was strange, heat rose up to my cheeks and heart pounding like never before. Staring into his dark brown eyes and holding onto him, it was weird yet, exciting… Maybe it’s because I was nervous, yeah, it was that. Pretty sure…it was.

“Well anyways, I just thought that, maybe I could do something for you in return for three days” I added.

“Hanging out with you for three days huh? I don’t really like the sound of that.” He chuckled, my mouth slightly dropped at the jokingly rude comment and both my arms rested on my hips. “Well, if you really not want to then how about just a day the? Or for 10 minutes if that satisfies you even more.”

“No its fine, this could be fun… after all, it’s fun to mess around and piss off my slave. It’s very entertaining.” He ruffled my hair gently.

 “Starting right now you could hang out with me for whole day and have dinner” he smiled, “I have nothing to do today, so it’ll be nice for a change to get out and do something rather than staying here.”

“Today? Oh, well, actually Aoi... I can’t today.” I said.

“Why? What’s up?” he asked curiously.

“You see, I’m going on a dinner date tonight with Hiroto… and I was planning to go out and buy something nice and suitable to wear after I had said my thanks to you here.” I answered, one brow rose from him and both his hands hid in his pockets.

“Where exactly is he planning on taking you? Usually you could just go anywhere with casual clothing.”

“It’s a restaurant called Sukiyabashi Jiro Diner.” I answered, his eyes started to widen up along with a goofy smile plastered on his lips.

“Hiroto is willing to buy you dinner over there? He must spoil you a lot.” He said in a surprised manner and chuckled afterwards. I stood there in confusion tilting my head slightly onto the left.

“What you heard of it? What do you mean? What kind of a restaurant is it?” I asked.

“The place is huge! It’s the most luxurious restaurant filled with the finest worldwide foods you could ever get your hands on. It’s really expensive but I can tell you that it’s worth going.” He said with full interest on the topic. “You could say that that restaurant is a cafeteria for the rich and stars out here in Japan, so it’s best if you wore something formal.” He added on.

“That’s too much…” my mouth dropped in shock.  “I mean, it sounds really nice and tasty and all… but I would feel guilty for him to use so much money.” I stated with a guilty frown and looked down to the ground.

I felt a hand rest on my arm suddenly, “Kimiko, it’s not an everyday experience that commoners like you get a chance to go to a restaurant like that… it’s a once in a life time you get a chance like that, so just go for it and stop being such a worry wart.” he said with a smile nudging me onto the head gently. He told me to hold on for ten minutes as came on over to his drawers pulling out some clothes and going into the bathroom to change.

“Our three-day plan can wait till tomorrow, now come on.” He came out of the bathroom and grabbed my hand leading me out the room and into the hallways towards the front door.

“Where are we going?” I asked confused and unintentionally putting on my shoes along with him.

“Going to help you find something nice to wear of course.” He answered putting on his last shoe.

[Fast forward]

“You know, you really don’t have to do this… I could just ask Miyuki if I could borrow one of her dresses. ” I tried explaining to him, but he kept on continuing to look at some dresses that were displayed in the store.

“Do you always borrow clothes from her? I’d say it’s time to get your own.” He commented, “Besides, I know Hiroto’s style very well.” He snickered patting my head and continued to walk forward.

“Really?” I said in a surprised tone.

“Yep. It’s so obvious; you could literally read him like a book.” He stated and walked over to a display that had caught his eyes. He stared at a stunning white sleeveless evening dress bordered with transparent floral design and a medium sized bow in the middle and shoes that came along with it. “This one, this will suit you for sure.” He said calling out a worker telling her that he’d like some assistance on getting me into the dress. She looked my with a bright smile and escorted me into a dressing room.

By the time I came out the dressing room I found Aoi sitting on a chair waiting while reading a new paper in his hand.  “Ahem, Aoi” I called his name; he looked over straight away putting down the newspaper slowly with his eyes looking at me from the bottom to the top. My teeth gently bit the bottom of my lip, “Does it look weird?” I asked him, there was no response for the first few seconds until his mouth slightly opened and eyes broadening.

“Astonishing…” he whispered.

“What?” I asked not hearing his answer.

“I-I mean, you look great in it. Just as I thought it would be…” He blushed away.

“You really think so?” I asked with a smile forming. He nodded his head twice, giving me two thumbs up. “Yeah, you really do…” he replied back making me blush red as ever for unknown reasons I couldn’t figure out. I couldn’t help but to just smile and nod my head a couple of times while raising up my hands to itch the back of my head.

“Thank you.” I thanked and headed back to change back. In the end, Aoi ended up buying the dress for me after I had given up on forcing him not to pay for such an expensive dress as well as the shoes and the accessories that came along with it. As we were walking around the city, we played a few jokes on each other, going through some green parks while talking about random stuff, and stopped by an ice cream shop to have a small bite on the way. Before I realized it, it was already 5:00, we had hung out with each other all day today. And I’d have to say… it was pretty fun despite the jokingly rude comments and teasing. For the first time in our lives we were actually being somewhat nice to eachother.

Just when we were talking about some other memorable moments, he suddenly completely stopped at a window display of a watch shop. I came on over to see a particular watch he was staring at, “That’s a neat watch, looks really cool, well for a guy that is.” I said.

“Yeah it is” He nodded in agreement taking a closer look at it as he leaned in forward. “So cool…” I heard him whisper to himself.

“Are you interested in buying it?” I asked.

“No, I guess not, at least not today. I’d only buy such things if I’m awarding myself. If I felt like I did something incredible that I’m proud of, then I buy things like this.” He answered with normal sigh and started to walk away.

“Come one, we still got to go get your hair done and your make-up… wanna look good for a date right? I’ll take you there, it isn’t that far from here.” he smiled and continued to walk. My eyes lingered back to the watch for a long moment, thinking some thoughts in my head and then soon looked away walking forward on a fast pace to catch up to Aoi.

It was already 6:05 and we were already near the restaurant as we both walked passed another traffic light. My hair was done in long romantic curls and covered up with dazzling accessories, wearing the most beautiful dress I felt I had worn since the music awards, and shoes that felt like they could take me anywhere to beautiful places.

“I could go alone from here now, thanks for today I really appreciate it Aoi.” I thanked him.

“No problem, just remember, have fun and don’t spoil the moment.” He reminded me. I nodded my head as a response with a glimmering smile, confidently I had the courage to give him a hug.

“Thank you, for doing so much for me. Really, thank you.” I said hugging him tighter. Finally I had felt his arms wrap around me as well giving me the most comforting hug I’ve ever received from him.

“I hope you have a good time.” he whispered and released his arms putting his hands into his pockets.

“Aoi…” I called out to him.

“Hm?”

“Why? … why are you being so nice to me today?” I asked. His lips slightly puckered out with his eyes going from the sides and looking back at me with a sigh.

“Honestly I really don’t know. I wish I knew that answer myself. But I could also ask you the same thing.” He replied back. I only smiled and shrugged at him, “Same here, I don’t know.” he nodded his head and started to slowly walk backwards away from me.

“Get going, you’ll be late. Don’t wanna keep him waiting do you?” he pulled out his hands from his pockets and gestured them in a “shoo” swaying manner and turned around to walk forward waving his hand goodbye. I smile formed on me, I turned around and started to walk forward myself towards the restaurant that was just a few steps away.

After a few minutes had passed, I had suddenly stopped myself from walking any further, reminding myself something important. I looked into my bag and pulled out a long, small, skinny black case. Opening it from the side it was the same watch Aoi had wanted back at the watch shop, I had bought it secretly without him noticing just before we had come back to his house to drop off my other clothes.

“Should I had given it to him or later?” I debated in my head. ‘Wait, what if he went back and bought it for himself? No wait, he couldn’t have’, I thought. ‘He said that it was only to reward himself if he did some—thing he’s … proud of. Does helping me count?’

‘I wondered why I was getting so worked up on this; I mean I shouldn’t …shouldn’t I?’ I thought, ‘Maybe I should give him a call to come back, yeah, that’s what I’ll do’ I thought again searching in my bag again.

“Ehh?!” I said confused, I couldn’t find my phone anywhere in this bag. Unfortunately a second later I remembered that I had forgotten it at Aoi’s house.

 “What I’m I going to do now?” I asked myself turning around to the direction Aoi had traveled back to and then looked back at the restaurant in front of me.

“I guess being a little late can’t hurt.” I said with a small smile running back towards the direction Aoi had went, he shouldn’t have gone very far. I had to give it to him, it was only way to show my gratitude and thanks.

[Fast Forward]

Aoi’s POV

I walked along on a lonesome street, away where the busy streets started to die away and where less of glimmering lights in the city were. I started to wonder who everything was going with Kimiko’s date with Hiroto; ‘Was she having a good time? What kind of dish did she chose to eat? I bet she chose something big for her appetite, for such a small girl she is she eats like bear.’ I chuckled at the thought and imagine her eating all the dish she would order, I didn’t know why but, I felt my heart ache a little.

“Aoi come on, pull it together, home is get 2 traffic lights away.” I said to myself. When I had come up to the traffic light I heard some yelling and screaming from an alley away around the corner next to me. Just out of curiosity I went over there myself to check out what was going on.  There stood a young woman who wore a pretty dress with some black high heels trapped in the corner with a bag in her hand along with a man who slammed his hand between her so she couldn’t escape.

“Please sir let me go, I have some where I need to be.” He begged him.

“Look cutie why don’t you forget about going to where you were heading and just go with me out for a drink eh?” he creased a devilish smirk. He leaned down towards her face taking a few sniffs, “You smelling pretty fine girl, why don’t we go somewhere after we take a drink? A hotel maybe?” he chuckled.

“NO! Get off you ert!” she tried to push him away but failed. The man pushed her back on the wall with so much force, making her wince in pain. My fist began to curl up, its just like three days ago.., I’m not going to let this happen.

“Leave her alone!” I yelled coming out from the corner. The man turned around with an angry face, “It’s not your ing business kid! Now get the out of here and go home.” He yelled at me and turned back to the lady. My eyes darted at him with anger as I started walking towards the two lifting my arm to place my hand onto his shoulder, forcing him to turn around in front of me.

“She said no, do you not understand the meaning of NO is?! Can’t you tell she needs to be somewhere and the fact she doesn’t like you.” I remarked.

“What’s with it to you kid?! Are you her boyfriend or something?!” he glared and pushed me off harshly.

“No, I’m not.” I answered firmly.

“Then quit bugging us and off!” he yelled and flipped the middle finger at me. Angrily I pulled him back just as he was about to seduce the woman again and threw a punch right at his face. The woman yelped in fear, the man lingered and wobbled to get his balance back holding his face in pain. My eyes turned to the woman and gestured my head backwards, “Go.” I said to her, she stared at me for a while and nodded whispering thank you to me and quickly ran away from the alley way.

“You piece of .” I heard the man say. Just as he was about to throw a punch at me my hands quickly grabbed his and started to twist it all the way back and kicking him onto the face again until he got down to the ground.

“That was actually supposed to be my line.” I said to him let go of his injured arm and stood up. “You’ll regret what you did, I have a group of men coming here.” He laughed, and just out of nowhere, I heard several voices coming in closer our way. It was a huge group of men coming our way with laughter and smiles, but it all ended when they saw us.

“Boss!” they all yelled running towards us, ‘boss?’ I thought confused, ‘a gang?’ I took huge steps back from them. They all gathered around him holding him into their arms asking what happened and who put him in that condition. He pointed out weakly at me, “Get him boys…” he commanded them, and so, with all their anger and grins they gladly took the opportunity with ready fists and up in arms, as so did I.

[Fast Forward]

Kimiko’s POV

“Aoi!” I called out his name in the empty streets. Just when I turned my head to the right, I saw a familiar figure walking straight to another traffic light, a smile plastered on my face as I yelled his name out and ran towards him.

“Aoi! Wait up!” I yelled, just as I thought I knew for sure it was him an awkward smile came out of me as I backed away a few steps back. It was a completely different man that was just wearing something similar to Aoi’s.

“Sorry! I just thought… I mistook you for someone else. Sorry again!” I bowed as he looked at me with a confused expression and walked away the other direction.

“Did he really left for home that fast?” I questioned myself walking back. Not for long I heard a female’s voice coming from the corner of a street light; she wore a pretty dress with some black high heels.

“Someone! Please help!” she cried coming out of an ally way, she looked left and right for any living thing going around the streets. Once she had spotted me she ran with fear and held my hands, “Ma’am please help me! There’s a guy in that alley way that’s deeply injured and I don’t know what to do!” she cried.

As I followed her into the corner an intolerable stench aded the ominous dark alley way, once I had stepped another foot on the pathway my limbs trembled uncontrollably not because of the cold wind brushing onto my shoulders and legs, but the scenery that was put right in front of me. Aoi laid on the huge trash can with multiple bruises all over his face and arms. The corner of his lips was bleeding as well as one end of his head, all the redness streaming down his face.

“AOI!” I screamed his name dropping everything I had in my hands including the watch case I was supposed to give him and ran to him and got down to my knees.

“Aoi! Aoi! Hey! What happened?! Aoi!” I asked, he was unconscious and stood very still only calling out some gibberish. “Aoi! Come on now, please look at me!” I said worriedly. The lady came next to me with a worried face and answered,

“I was being harassed by a man earlier and this man had saved me and told me to run, but I couldn’t just leave him with that man, I was worried what might happen, so I hid behind a corner on the other side of the road… then a group of men came after him and started a huge violent fight. He did so well until one of them hit his legs with a stick and that’s when he got weak and beaten up.” She started, “Though, I don’t think I did a very good job but those two over there are passed out by him, their friends had left them here without noticing” she pointed forward where the two thugs laid behind one another with a rope tied around them.

“Anyways I called the ambulance and the police so they should get here soon. I just hope he’s going to be fine.” She concluded.

“Thanks… but his legs though why?” I asked out loud.

“I’ll stand over there to see if their coming.” She said getting up and walked at the end of the alley way.

[Flash Back]

“Aoi, I will seriously kick you if you don’t move.” I warned him, my eyes shied away from his gaze and my foot started to kick his leg at a fairly gentle touch.

He let out a small grunt and quickly stepped back from me, “Ow.” He groaned. At first I had stared in disbelief that a simple gentle touch could hurt so badly. I almost wanted to laugh at him saying what was the big deal, but he kneeled down half way to massage his leg with a worried look on his face.

 I stood there confused almost reaching my arms out to him, “Aoi, are you okay?” just as I was about to touch him onto the shoulders his hand flew up for me to stop and got back up slowly.

“Yeah, I just wanted to see if you would get worried about me.” He said with a smile.

[Flash Back Ends]

“Your…leg…” I breathed out quietly, wandering my eyes to his legs. I grabbed one of his legs and started to pull up his pants from the bottom and saw no injury on that particular side. Putting the leg down I got the other as carefully as I could, when I had pulled the whole pants up my eyes widened up and my jaws dropped. His legs were painted in deep red from the inside of his skin and on the out with dark blues and purples. He wasn’t necessarily bleeding on the outside but internally bleeding, the redness started to reach up to his knees.

“Hey! How many times did he get hit here?!” I asked the lady.

“Only once I believe! why?!”she replied back.

“ONCE?!” I said in disbelief, there was no way one hit could have turned his legs into this. Then I began to think about the day he saved me, “No way…” I said in realization, he must have gotten hurt that day… he was just hiding it...

“They’re here!” the woman cried out, several officers and paramedics came running our way with stretchers and a board in their hands. The police force hand cuffed the two thugs while the others quickly took Aoi’s body onto the board and rushed into the paramedic vehicle, I quickly followed them towards the vehicle but one man had blocked my way. “Ma’am  I need you to stay here and te--”

“No! I need to get on with him!” I yelled moving away from the man but stopped me again.

“Ma’am I’m telling you again, I need both you and the other woman to stay here a--”

“NO! HE IS MY BOYFRIEND! I’M NOT JUST GOING TO STAY HERE AND ANSWER QUESTIONS; SHE CAN DO THAT ON HER OWN! I NEED TO BE WITH MY BOYFRIEND.” I beamed at him on top of my lungs pushing him away and got onto the vehicle, he looked at me and then to his co-worker.

“She can come with. She’s a close loved one. She counts.” He answered him and he nodded back, closing the back doors and tapped onto the vehicle that it was alright to go. Just like that, we went driving to the nearest hospital. Scared and shaking, I held his hands and uttered in prayers in whispers, wishing Aoi would be alright in the end.

“Kimi…ko.” I heard him say.

“Aoi? Yeah I’m here.” I squeezed his hands a little bit tighter and with the other brushing his hair away from his face and placed them on the side of his face. His eyes blinked slowly a couple of times and leaned his face at side looking at me.

“Kimiko…” he breathed my name again with a weaker tone. We stared at each other for quite a while until his eyes could no longer open anymore and betrayed him, slowly closing them. “Aoi?” I began shaking him lightly.

“Excuse me, could you drive a little faster.” I demanded the paramedic and looked back to Aoi with a painful worried expression. “Come on Aoi, you’re strong… please, make it and be alright.” I whispered into his ears.

[Fast Forward]

Hiroto’s POV

I started at the window where the streets were slowly beginning to quiet down with less cars and people passing by. I took a deep sigh and decided to look back at my watch and sighed again, putting it back down on the table and the other supporting to hold my chin as I leaned against onto the palm of my hands. It was already 8:45, by the time the clinking of glasses, knives and forks, shouts and busboys, the music, chatter of people, the jeer and laughter were no longer present inside this restaurant. I had sat at a two seat booth alone with just only two glasses of water and two menu books, not once did I look at the menu nor took an order. I took a sip of my water with a slice of lemon and remained silent, it wasn’t until then I heard small footsteps approaching my way.

“Um…Sir?” I feminine voice came ringing into my ears. I turned my head placing down the glass in my hand and looked at my left, I was approached by a small waitress with her hands tangled together in front.

“Um, I hate to say this but… it’s almost closing time sir we’ll be closing up in 10 minutes. Please take notice of this and I hope that you had a wonderful dinner here.” She bowed and then taking the two menu books off the table.

“Wait!” I called her just as she was about to walk away. she turned around with a confused expression and asked if I needed anything.

“Could you please ask your boss to wait for another 20 minutes… please that’s all I ask.” I asked in a desperate voice. She stared at me with an unconfident expression as she looked away from my gaze for a second to think.

“Um, well, I’m unsure if he’ll accept but I’ll ask just in case. Be right back sir.” She bowed again and walked off.  “Arigato!” I said taking a look around the place; it was filled with complete emptiness and hollowness. I took out my phone to call her once more and dialed her number, unfortunately she didn’t pick up for the fourth time. I closed my phone setting it onto the table and looked back at the window leaning my cheek against the palm of my hand again, “Kimiko, you will come right?” I whispered to myself.

[Flash back]

“I’M SO SORRY! DID I KEPT YOU WAITING TOO LONG?!” I breathed out and continued to pant.

“Oh no, not at all, besides, you’re right on time.” she patted my back gently. “You didn’t have to run you know.” She laughed at me. I shook my head with a dumbfounded expression, “HONTOUNI?! (Really?!)” I quietly yelled, I moved my jacket from my wrist looking at my watch, “Oh would you look at that, I must have looked at my clock wrong.” I laughed. “I was worried you might have left angrily at me.”

“Oh… well I wouldn’t be angry, instead, I would be worried that something might have happened to you.” she said smiling. “Either way, I’d still would have waited for you.” She admitted with a smile.

[Flash back end]

“Did something happen to you? Kimiko?” I thought worriedly, taking out two movie tickets from my pockets and looked to my right to see the perfectly, well decorated red gift bag next to me that I was supposed to give to her after the movie I was planning on seeing with her just after dinner. “Kimiko…” I called her name in a worried tone quietly and I took another deep sigh continuing to wait for her arrival.

To be continued.

A/N:

FINSIHED THIS CHAPTER AT 12:00 AT MIDNIGHT SO IF THERE'S ANY MISTAKES ON SENTENCE FUENCY OR SPELLINGS YOU KNOW WHY. (I WAS SOO TIRED T^T)

Thank you to all whose been supportive on my story and patient with me! I'm sorry for the late long update, I've been quite busy with summer school. But its long though right? it makes up for it xD

Anyways,

Comments would be really appreciated!~ ^^ please tell me how this story is going, I feel that I'm going really slow at the romantic timing... please let me know if its too slow, or what there needs to be more of PLEASE! thanks! :)