Chapter 22
Chapter 22 is here! Hehehe, i gave a little shout out to twilight in the story... or more like reference. I couldn't resist =P I couldn't resist beating up Hayato either..... Enjoy ^^
Chapter 22
I continued to watch his innocent face as it got closer to mine. It was only a matter of seconds where I could feel Hayato’s breath on my face. He looked so innocently beautiful at that moment. His content expression, the earnest look he had in his eyes. The falling snow added to this effect, making the moment as beautifully wonderful as possible. His face continued to get closer. By instinct, as we drew closer I started to close my eyes, giving in to my emotions.
I don’t know what happened next. My heart was beating fast and my knees went weak-too weak-causing me to collapse. Hayato caught me as I fell towards the ground, so I didn’t fall that hard.
“Jennifer?!” his voice called. “Jennifer?”
I didn’t faint. I was perfectly conscious, it’s just my knees gave out on me. I quickly shook my head to snap out of the trance I was in. I looked at Hayato.
“Are you okay?” he asked with concern.
I gave a small smile and nodded.
He sighed and smiled. “Good…” He went silent for a moment, probably because his mind was doing the same thing as mine; registering what just happened. He looked at the sky, “It’s really getting dark. Let’s go home.”
I quickly nodded. “O-o-okay,” I replied as I tried to get up, but couldn’t. My knees were still weak.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I can’t feel my legs,” I said surprised and looked at him with a dumbfounded expression.
He smiled and got up. He took a step back and then held out his hand. “C’mon,” he said.
I smiled at his hand and grabbed it. With one large pull, I was able to stand up. We continued to walk towards the subway station, hand in hand.
We reached the station and paid for our tokens. We were at the place where you wait for the train to come. Hayato was still holding my hand, which was making me slightly blush.
Were we about to kiss back there? I asked myself. I wanted to ask him. I gathered up all my strength and formed the question.
“Ne… Haya-” My eyes went wide with fear at that moment. My heart was pounding fast, up to the point it was hard to breathe. At that point, I was reminded of all the cuts and bruises I had received from the day before.
“Well, well,” said a voice.
Hayato didn’t concern himself with the two men walking behind him, yet. He mainly paid more attention to my expression. “Jennifer?” he asked, “what’s wrong?”
I couldn’t speak. I was filled with fear.
“Yeah, Jennifer,” said the short skinny man in a voice that was almost mocking Hayato, “what’s wrong? Don’t you recognize us?”
Hayato’s head turned to look at them and then he looked back at me. “Do you know them?”
I shook my head rapidly in response.
“Aww… you don’t remember us?” asked the tall muscular man, “Well, we sure do. These cuts and bruises you gave us remind us of you, making it hard to forget about you. But since your own cuts don’t remind us of you, I guess we still need to give you more to repay the memories you gave us.”
The tall muscular man had a sinister look in his face. His eyes went big like a mad man, ready to kill. Both men took a step closer, causing me to flinch and place a hand over one of my cut arms. I was terrified. My body went numb and my throat went dry. I began to tremble in Hayato’s hand. I think he noticed because he pushed me a step back when they took another step forward.
I looked at Hayato. “Hayato?” I whispered, but he didn’t show any reaction when I called his name. He continued to focus on the two men, which I think his mind registered that these men meant danger.
“Check it out,” said the smaller man, “the bitch has got herself a pretty boyfriend. Hey pretty boy, let’s share her.” He took another step forward.
“Stay back…” Hayato warned. His voice was practically threatening them.
“Is that a threat…?” asked the taller man, “cuz’ I don’t like to be threatened.” The taller man was walking a steady pace towards us now, causing Hayato to let go of my hand so he could position himself better between me and the other two men.
He walked up to Hayato. He was so close that from behind, it looked like they were kissing. “What my friend said,” said the taller one, “was not a question. It was an offer for you to join in, but I can see that you’ll be some trouble for us-”
There was sound composed of a grunt and groan. Afterwards, I saw Hayato on the ground on his knees holding onto his stomach and coughing at the same time.
“HAYATO!” I screamed and took a step towards him.
“Stay back!” he managed to yell.
The man looked at him and then at me. He smirked and rolled up his sleeves, acting like he was ready for a struggle, and was going to enjoy it at the very least.
“Run!” Hayato screamed. But I couldn’t. I was frozen in fear again. The tall one took several steps towards me, only stopping once because Hayato grabbed the man’s legs in an attempt to stop him, but kicked Hayato off. I whimpered. The man looked back at me and continued to walk towards me.
I tried to run away but my feet were somehow planted to the ground. When I backed up, I only ended up tripping, and falling straight on my butt. From the ground, the taller man was towering over me, amplifying the fear I had. I began to whimper and tried to back away from him by desperately kicking away and pushing myself away from him on the ground. Yeah, didn’t work.
The man stepped behind me, kneeled down and put me in a choke hold. His arm was wrapped around my neck tightly, so that if I struggled, it’d be hard to breathe.
“What should I do that would make you remember us, hmm?” he whispered in my ear. I continued to whimper. He was moving his hand seductively all over my neck and face. I tried to turn away from his hand, but when I’d turn my head, I’d choke from his hold.
We were interrupted by Hayato’s grunting struggles to get up. “Let go of her…” he continued to threaten as he was trying to crawl towards us on the ground. The man behind me gestured towards the shorter man. The short one nodded in agreement and placed a firm foot on Hayato’s back, making it painful for Hayato to move.
“Now, where were we?” said the taller man.
“Hayato…” I whimpered. My eyes widened at the sight of seeing Hayato in pain. I turned away. The one holding me must’ve seen my reaction because it unfolded what happened next.
“Oh,” the taller one gleed, “Would this make you remember us?” He grabbed my face by my chin and made me stare at Hayato on the ground. The taller one gestured once more to the shorter one, making the short one produce an evil smirk. He lifted his foot and stomped onto Hayato’s back, causing Hayato to scream out loud in pain.
“HAYATO-” My voice was cut off because I choked. It was a reflex for me to move towards Hayato when he screamed; to come reassure him. I completely forgot that I was going to choke if I moved. I coughed on the spot.
“WHAT A NICE REACTION!” yelled the one holding me. I could just picture his stupid smirk. It was pissing me off. “Again!”
The shorter one continued to stomp at a steady pace on Hayato. With each stomp, I could hear Hayato’s pain-filled yells. I tried to look away, but the taller one’s hold was too strong. I was left to just sit there and watch Hayato, my new best friend, the one I know I can open up to anytime, be in pain. It was excruciating. I wanted to help him. I NEEDED to help him. A sudden boost of courage ran through me.
Wind suddenly entered the tunnel, indicating that the train was coming. I better do something fast! I thought to myself, or else… I wouldn’t let my imagination run away with what I was picturing. I couldn’t bare it. I calmed down and tried to think of a plan.
“Jennifer…” Hayato groaned and reached his hand out to me. Both men were laughing at how ‘pathetic’ he was.
“What a weakling!” said the shorter man, “He didn’t even lay a hit on us at all!”
Now’s my chance. I thought to myself, I gripped my bag hard. “That’s because you guys cheated and laid a fast one on him!”
Everything went dead silent, all you could hear was the distant train slowly yet quickly approaching at the same time. All three men (including Hayato) looked at me oddly.
“What did you say…?” threatened the taller man. His grip was getting tighter around my neck, making me slightly nervous.
Don’t get him too mad… not yet… my mind said. I turned slowly to look at the one holding me. “You heard me. He was down on the ground at the beginning because you cheated.”
“Jennifer,” Hayato groaned, “What are you doing?” His voice was raspy because it hurt to talk.
“Stay out of this, Hayato,” I shot a look at him.
The train was getting closer. It was almost 4pm, so people would be coming back from work. Way to go to choose an empty station to wait at… I told myself. Usually, by this time, stations would be filled with people waiting for the train to take them back home. Everyone would get off work at 4pm to 6pm, so usually the stations were crowded. It was just my luck to choose an empty one that had these idiots.
“I bet if it was one on one without any sneak punches, Hayato could beat you!” I yelled to both men.
That did it. Whatever I said made both men mad. Men are so typical, attack their ego and they become predictable useless pawns. The taller one’s grip became too tight and it was really hard to breathe.
“Say that again!” he threatened.
“I don’t need to…” I managed to say in a raspy voice.
The taller one got so mad, he let go of me in frustration. I was practically thrown to the ground. When I hit the ground, I was coughing to regain all the air I lost. I looked back at the other three. The tall one walked towards, Hayato and the shorter one.
“Hoist him up!” he commanded.
The taller one grabbed Hayato’s hair along with his arm and pulled him up. Hayato grunted in pain, but looked at the taller one with a glare full of hate. His eyes quickly changed when he looked at me and came into realization what I was doing.
I was pointing to the tunnel the train would be coming out of in only a few seconds. It was then, Hayato looked back at the taller one and smirked.
“Bring it on,” he mocked.
The tall one turned red in fury and ordered the shorter man to let go of Hayato. The shorter man followed and at that moment, the train came. Hayato and the taller man were keeping a fair distance between each other but were walking in a circle. It was like watching two cheetahs ready to pounce on each other. Thank god Hayato is a good actor.
When the train’s door opened, I shot up and ran towards Hayato. Hayato immediately ducked, went on all fours and positioned himself at the taller man’s legs. Understanding what he was doing (but wasn’t originally part of my plan, I was just going to grab him and run into the train), I pushed the taller man, causing him to fall and lose balance.
Hayato got up and grabbed my hand. “LET’S GO!” he yelled.
We ran through the train door, thankfully, when it was starting to close. We looked back at the windows of the closed doors, and saw the taller man get up and run towards the train. But then we started to move, indicating that the train was leaving. We sighed in relief. We looked inside the train. What do ya know… also empty.
Hayato gestured for me to sit down, so I sat down at one of those two seats. Hayato sat beside me. We were both silent for a moment. I gave out a sigh.
“Do…” I began to say nervously, “Do you hate me?” I looked up at Hayato. I wanted to face him directly.
Hayato looked back at me with a confused expression. “What are you talking about?”
When Hayato turned to look at me, my heart stopped. “You’re hurt!” I shrieked. I grabbed his face to examine the wound on his cheekbone. “Oh my god! Hayato! I’m so sorry!”
He reached for my hand calmly. “It’s okay,” he said in a soothing voice, “It looks much worse than it feels. I didn’t even realize I had it.”
“But still!” I exasperated, “Maybe… maybe you and the others should stop hanging around me.” I didn’t want to say anything. I felt so guilty… because of me… because he was with me… Hayato… what if the same thing was to happen to the other members… I would be known as the YE attacker or worse… the YE killer. My head drooped in shame.
“What are you talking about?” he asked.
“Hayato… I met those men yesterday by chance,” I told him. He looked at me with interest. “I don’t know, I guess I just have the worst luck ever. Yesterday, on my way home, I saw them mugging someone. They saw me and well, everything else happened so fast. They chased me.”
“So they hurt you?” His voice sounded mad.
I shook my head. “Not entirely,” I told him, “The wounds you treated last night… they were pretty much self-inflicted. The cuts on my arms were from running through bushes to try and slow them down. The one on my knee was from tripping. The only one I think they inflicted on me was my head, but I still think that was self-inflicted because I tripped then too.
“Somehow, by some miracle, I found my way to the Rogers Centre… where I met you guys. I ran into the center, hoping I’d find some help. I found the cop that we met earlier yesterday, the one you told that I was a friend.” I buried my face in my hands. “I hate downtown Toronto…” I don’t know whether or not he heard me correctly because my voice was muffled in my hands.
I heard Hayato chuckle and felt his hand touch my arm, pulling away one of my hands from my face. “It’s never a dull moment around you, huh?” he said, “One minute you’re serious, then happy, then you cry in my arms.” He smirked. “Then you collapse, then go back to being happy and finally… you almost get attacked… again.”
I smiled. What he just said reminded me of Bella from Twilight; how it’s never a dull moment around her and trouble always tries to find her. But trouble never really tried to find me… I just had ONE situation that was trouble, the rest were just emotions. Oh god… I thought to myself, I’m a schizophrenic.
I didn’t know how to respond to what Hayato just said. All I did was give an embarrassed laugh and apologize. “Are you sure that you’re not hurt?” I asked once more.
“My stomach’s feeling much better already and my back will heal in time. Just don’t smack it, okay?”
I smile and nodded. “Okay.”
“But my ego…” he drifted off in a joking manner.
“What?” I was confused, “You’re ego?”
“The thought that I got saved by a girl… that just hurts my manly ego so much…”
I laughed out loud. “You idiot!” I smacked him on the shoulder.
“ITTAI!” he yelled and groaned in pain.
I jumped on my seat and held the spot I smacked. “I’m so sorry, Hayato! You said I just couldn’t smack you on your back! I’M SO SORRY!” I continued to freak over his shoulder.
He started to laugh. “Hayato?” I asked concerned.
He smirked at me. “Gotcha’!”
I became hot with embarrassment. “Look! You’re turning red!” Hayato laughed. I bit my lip to hold back a scream and smacked Hayato on his back… hard.
“ITTAI!!!!!!!!!!!” he screamed. “Ittai! Ittai! Ittai!” he continued to repeat as he rubbed his back. “Why are you so strong for a girl?!”
I sat on my spot and turned away from him. I crossed my arms and gave out a big, “hmph!” and muttered, “Jerk!” to myself.
Chapter 22
I continued to watch his innocent face as it got closer to mine. It was only a matter of seconds where I could feel Hayato’s breath on my face. He looked so innocently beautiful at that moment. His content expression, the earnest look he had in his eyes. The falling snow added to this effect, making the moment as beautifully wonderful as possible. His face continued to get closer. By instinct, as we drew closer I started to close my eyes, giving in to my emotions.
I don’t know what happened next. My heart was beating fast and my knees went weak-too weak-causing me to collapse. Hayato caught me as I fell towards the ground, so I didn’t fall that hard.
“Jennifer?!” his voice called. “Jennifer?”
I didn’t faint. I was perfectly conscious, it’s just my knees gave out on me. I quickly shook my head to snap out of the trance I was in. I looked at Hayato.
“Are you okay?” he asked with concern.
I gave a small smile and nodded.
He sighed and smiled. “Good…” He went silent for a moment, probably because his mind was doing the same thing as mine; registering what just happened. He looked at the sky, “It’s really getting dark. Let’s go home.”
I quickly nodded. “O-o-okay,” I replied as I tried to get up, but couldn’t. My knees were still weak.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I can’t feel my legs,” I said surprised and looked at him with a dumbfounded expression.
He smiled and got up. He took a step back and then held out his hand. “C’mon,” he said.
I smiled at his hand and grabbed it. With one large pull, I was able to stand up. We continued to walk towards the subway station, hand in hand.
We reached the station and paid for our tokens. We were at the place where you wait for the train to come. Hayato was still holding my hand, which was making me slightly blush.
Were we about to kiss back there? I asked myself. I wanted to ask him. I gathered up all my strength and formed the question.
“Ne… Haya-” My eyes went wide with fear at that moment. My heart was pounding fast, up to the point it was hard to breathe. At that point, I was reminded of all the cuts and bruises I had received from the day before.
“Well, well,” said a voice.
Hayato didn’t concern himself with the two men walking behind him, yet. He mainly paid more attention to my expression. “Jennifer?” he asked, “what’s wrong?”
I couldn’t speak. I was filled with fear.
“Yeah, Jennifer,” said the short skinny man in a voice that was almost mocking Hayato, “what’s wrong? Don’t you recognize us?”
Hayato’s head turned to look at them and then he looked back at me. “Do you know them?”
I shook my head rapidly in response.
“Aww… you don’t remember us?” asked the tall muscular man, “Well, we sure do. These cuts and bruises you gave us remind us of you, making it hard to forget about you. But since your own cuts don’t remind us of you, I guess we still need to give you more to repay the memories you gave us.”
The tall muscular man had a sinister look in his face. His eyes went big like a mad man, ready to kill. Both men took a step closer, causing me to flinch and place a hand over one of my cut arms. I was terrified. My body went numb and my throat went dry. I began to tremble in Hayato’s hand. I think he noticed because he pushed me a step back when they took another step forward.
I looked at Hayato. “Hayato?” I whispered, but he didn’t show any reaction when I called his name. He continued to focus on the two men, which I think his mind registered that these men meant danger.
“Check it out,” said the smaller man, “the bitch has got herself a pretty boyfriend. Hey pretty boy, let’s share her.” He took another step forward.
“Stay back…” Hayato warned. His voice was practically threatening them.
“Is that a threat…?” asked the taller man, “cuz’ I don’t like to be threatened.” The taller man was walking a steady pace towards us now, causing Hayato to let go of my hand so he could position himself better between me and the other two men.
He walked up to Hayato. He was so close that from behind, it looked like they were kissing. “What my friend said,” said the taller one, “was not a question. It was an offer for you to join in, but I can see that you’ll be some trouble for us-”
There was sound composed of a grunt and groan. Afterwards, I saw Hayato on the ground on his knees holding onto his stomach and coughing at the same time.
“HAYATO!” I screamed and took a step towards him.
“Stay back!” he managed to yell.
The man looked at him and then at me. He smirked and rolled up his sleeves, acting like he was ready for a struggle, and was going to enjoy it at the very least.
“Run!” Hayato screamed. But I couldn’t. I was frozen in fear again. The tall one took several steps towards me, only stopping once because Hayato grabbed the man’s legs in an attempt to stop him, but kicked Hayato off. I whimpered. The man looked back at me and continued to walk towards me.
I tried to run away but my feet were somehow planted to the ground. When I backed up, I only ended up tripping, and falling straight on my butt. From the ground, the taller man was towering over me, amplifying the fear I had. I began to whimper and tried to back away from him by desperately kicking away and pushing myself away from him on the ground. Yeah, didn’t work.
The man stepped behind me, kneeled down and put me in a choke hold. His arm was wrapped around my neck tightly, so that if I struggled, it’d be hard to breathe.
“What should I do that would make you remember us, hmm?” he whispered in my ear. I continued to whimper. He was moving his hand seductively all over my neck and face. I tried to turn away from his hand, but when I’d turn my head, I’d choke from his hold.
We were interrupted by Hayato’s grunting struggles to get up. “Let go of her…” he continued to threaten as he was trying to crawl towards us on the ground. The man behind me gestured towards the shorter man. The short one nodded in agreement and placed a firm foot on Hayato’s back, making it painful for Hayato to move.
“Now, where were we?” said the taller man.
“Hayato…” I whimpered. My eyes widened at the sight of seeing Hayato in pain. I turned away. The one holding me must’ve seen my reaction because it unfolded what happened next.
“Oh,” the taller one gleed, “Would this make you remember us?” He grabbed my face by my chin and made me stare at Hayato on the ground. The taller one gestured once more to the shorter one, making the short one produce an evil smirk. He lifted his foot and stomped onto Hayato’s back, causing Hayato to scream out loud in pain.
“HAYATO-” My voice was cut off because I choked. It was a reflex for me to move towards Hayato when he screamed; to come reassure him. I completely forgot that I was going to choke if I moved. I coughed on the spot.
“WHAT A NICE REACTION!” yelled the one holding me. I could just picture his stupid smirk. It was pissing me off. “Again!”
The shorter one continued to stomp at a steady pace on Hayato. With each stomp, I could hear Hayato’s pain-filled yells. I tried to look away, but the taller one’s hold was too strong. I was left to just sit there and watch Hayato, my new best friend, the one I know I can open up to anytime, be in pain. It was excruciating. I wanted to help him. I NEEDED to help him. A sudden boost of courage ran through me.
Wind suddenly entered the tunnel, indicating that the train was coming. I better do something fast! I thought to myself, or else… I wouldn’t let my imagination run away with what I was picturing. I couldn’t bare it. I calmed down and tried to think of a plan.
“Jennifer…” Hayato groaned and reached his hand out to me. Both men were laughing at how ‘pathetic’ he was.
“What a weakling!” said the shorter man, “He didn’t even lay a hit on us at all!”
Now’s my chance. I thought to myself, I gripped my bag hard. “That’s because you guys cheated and laid a fast one on him!”
Everything went dead silent, all you could hear was the distant train slowly yet quickly approaching at the same time. All three men (including Hayato) looked at me oddly.
“What did you say…?” threatened the taller man. His grip was getting tighter around my neck, making me slightly nervous.
Don’t get him too mad… not yet… my mind said. I turned slowly to look at the one holding me. “You heard me. He was down on the ground at the beginning because you cheated.”
“Jennifer,” Hayato groaned, “What are you doing?” His voice was raspy because it hurt to talk.
“Stay out of this, Hayato,” I shot a look at him.
The train was getting closer. It was almost 4pm, so people would be coming back from work. Way to go to choose an empty station to wait at… I told myself. Usually, by this time, stations would be filled with people waiting for the train to take them back home. Everyone would get off work at 4pm to 6pm, so usually the stations were crowded. It was just my luck to choose an empty one that had these idiots.
“I bet if it was one on one without any sneak punches, Hayato could beat you!” I yelled to both men.
That did it. Whatever I said made both men mad. Men are so typical, attack their ego and they become predictable useless pawns. The taller one’s grip became too tight and it was really hard to breathe.
“Say that again!” he threatened.
“I don’t need to…” I managed to say in a raspy voice.
The taller one got so mad, he let go of me in frustration. I was practically thrown to the ground. When I hit the ground, I was coughing to regain all the air I lost. I looked back at the other three. The tall one walked towards, Hayato and the shorter one.
“Hoist him up!” he commanded.
The taller one grabbed Hayato’s hair along with his arm and pulled him up. Hayato grunted in pain, but looked at the taller one with a glare full of hate. His eyes quickly changed when he looked at me and came into realization what I was doing.
I was pointing to the tunnel the train would be coming out of in only a few seconds. It was then, Hayato looked back at the taller one and smirked.
“Bring it on,” he mocked.
The tall one turned red in fury and ordered the shorter man to let go of Hayato. The shorter man followed and at that moment, the train came. Hayato and the taller man were keeping a fair distance between each other but were walking in a circle. It was like watching two cheetahs ready to pounce on each other. Thank god Hayato is a good actor.
When the train’s door opened, I shot up and ran towards Hayato. Hayato immediately ducked, went on all fours and positioned himself at the taller man’s legs. Understanding what he was doing (but wasn’t originally part of my plan, I was just going to grab him and run into the train), I pushed the taller man, causing him to fall and lose balance.
Hayato got up and grabbed my hand. “LET’S GO!” he yelled.
We ran through the train door, thankfully, when it was starting to close. We looked back at the windows of the closed doors, and saw the taller man get up and run towards the train. But then we started to move, indicating that the train was leaving. We sighed in relief. We looked inside the train. What do ya know… also empty.
Hayato gestured for me to sit down, so I sat down at one of those two seats. Hayato sat beside me. We were both silent for a moment. I gave out a sigh.
“Do…” I began to say nervously, “Do you hate me?” I looked up at Hayato. I wanted to face him directly.
Hayato looked back at me with a confused expression. “What are you talking about?”
When Hayato turned to look at me, my heart stopped. “You’re hurt!” I shrieked. I grabbed his face to examine the wound on his cheekbone. “Oh my god! Hayato! I’m so sorry!”
He reached for my hand calmly. “It’s okay,” he said in a soothing voice, “It looks much worse than it feels. I didn’t even realize I had it.”
“But still!” I exasperated, “Maybe… maybe you and the others should stop hanging around me.” I didn’t want to say anything. I felt so guilty… because of me… because he was with me… Hayato… what if the same thing was to happen to the other members… I would be known as the YE attacker or worse… the YE killer. My head drooped in shame.
“What are you talking about?” he asked.
“Hayato… I met those men yesterday by chance,” I told him. He looked at me with interest. “I don’t know, I guess I just have the worst luck ever. Yesterday, on my way home, I saw them mugging someone. They saw me and well, everything else happened so fast. They chased me.”
“So they hurt you?” His voice sounded mad.
I shook my head. “Not entirely,” I told him, “The wounds you treated last night… they were pretty much self-inflicted. The cuts on my arms were from running through bushes to try and slow them down. The one on my knee was from tripping. The only one I think they inflicted on me was my head, but I still think that was self-inflicted because I tripped then too.
“Somehow, by some miracle, I found my way to the Rogers Centre… where I met you guys. I ran into the center, hoping I’d find some help. I found the cop that we met earlier yesterday, the one you told that I was a friend.” I buried my face in my hands. “I hate downtown Toronto…” I don’t know whether or not he heard me correctly because my voice was muffled in my hands.
I heard Hayato chuckle and felt his hand touch my arm, pulling away one of my hands from my face. “It’s never a dull moment around you, huh?” he said, “One minute you’re serious, then happy, then you cry in my arms.” He smirked. “Then you collapse, then go back to being happy and finally… you almost get attacked… again.”
I smiled. What he just said reminded me of Bella from Twilight; how it’s never a dull moment around her and trouble always tries to find her. But trouble never really tried to find me… I just had ONE situation that was trouble, the rest were just emotions. Oh god… I thought to myself, I’m a schizophrenic.
I didn’t know how to respond to what Hayato just said. All I did was give an embarrassed laugh and apologize. “Are you sure that you’re not hurt?” I asked once more.
“My stomach’s feeling much better already and my back will heal in time. Just don’t smack it, okay?”
I smile and nodded. “Okay.”
“But my ego…” he drifted off in a joking manner.
“What?” I was confused, “You’re ego?”
“The thought that I got saved by a girl… that just hurts my manly ego so much…”
I laughed out loud. “You idiot!” I smacked him on the shoulder.
“ITTAI!” he yelled and groaned in pain.
I jumped on my seat and held the spot I smacked. “I’m so sorry, Hayato! You said I just couldn’t smack you on your back! I’M SO SORRY!” I continued to freak over his shoulder.
He started to laugh. “Hayato?” I asked concerned.
He smirked at me. “Gotcha’!”
I became hot with embarrassment. “Look! You’re turning red!” Hayato laughed. I bit my lip to hold back a scream and smacked Hayato on his back… hard.
“ITTAI!!!!!!!!!!!” he screamed. “Ittai! Ittai! Ittai!” he continued to repeat as he rubbed his back. “Why are you so strong for a girl?!”
I sat on my spot and turned away from him. I crossed my arms and gave out a big, “hmph!” and muttered, “Jerk!” to myself.