Vacation...? - epilogue
Ryo walked along the corridor, happy to be back. It took a while but they finally found help in the form of a group of trekkers. He felt so relieved when he saw them. He had never felt so happy before in his life. The things that happened after was all a blur. All he cared about was that Tegoshi was suspended and was under investigation. He smiled at that thought. He wanted that psycho to rot in jail for what he had done to his friends.
Ryo stopped as he faced the grey door. His smiling face was replaced by a blank one. He twisted the doorknob. It wasn’t locked. He stepped in slowly, without making a sound. His heart was throbbing loudly. Sweat trickled down his face. He didn’t want to do this but he had to. He had to know the truth. He entered the living room and saw a pitiful sight. Yamapi was slumped on the armchair in the corner of the room. Cans and bottles of beer were littered around him. He was asleep and his mouth was slightly open. Ryo noticed that his friend’s eyelids were swollen. A path of dried tears ran down his cheeks. The sight of his friend being so vulnerable pulled at his heartstrings. But he straightened up and closed and locked the safe to his heart. This wasn’t the time to feel pity he chided himself. If Tegoshi was right, Yamapi had probably ordered the younger guy to kill off his friends - and that was unforgivable. He poked Yamapi’s arms. Yamapi stirred but didn’t wake up. Ryo nudged him again, harder this time. Yamapi slowly opened his eyes and turned to look at Ryo.
“Ryo?” he asked softly.
Ryo didn’t reply.
“Are you real?”
“Yeah, I am. And so is the rest of Eito. They’re still alive. That’s too bad for you isn’t it?” Ryo said in an even tone.
His black eyes looked directly at Yamapi’s brown ones. He saw the panic rising in those eyes.
“It wasn’t supposed to be that way! You weren’t supposed to be there! I told you not to go didn’t I? But you didn’t listen! You didn’t LISTEN!”
Yamapi was sobbing loudly now. He was pulling his hair and stamping his legs. Ryo took a step back. Yamapi abruptly stood up and grabbed Ryo’s shirt.
“YOU DIDN’T LISTEN!” he shouted.
“You tried to kill my friends,” Ryo said in a low voice.
Yamapi’s previous frustrated expression turned into a calm one. He stroke Ryo’s cheeks with his right hand.
“So what? It would be for the greater good wouldn’t it? Everyone would be happy without those barbarians hanging around. And you and me could be together all the time,” Yamapi explained softly.
Ryo looked away. Fed up with the whole drama, he swung his right arm and it connected Yamapi’s chin with a loud thwack. Yamapi fell to the floor. Ryo squatted down and looked Yamapi in the eyes. What he saw wasn’t the Yamapi he had known and considered as his friend. It was the eyes of a man who had gone over the edge. Ryo sighed.
“You hurt my friends. If I could, I would kill you right now. But I’m not like you. I won’t stoop that low. Goodbye, Yamashita-san.”
With that Ryo walked away, leaving behind a deranged man that he barely knew.
A few days later
Ryo sat in the big boss’s office, his face as hard as stone. In fact, the whole room - which consists of the remaining NEWS members who weren’t insane or locked up - was sombre. They have just received a reprimanding from the big boss himself, who had gone out of the room in a huff.
“Ne, do you think we’re going to get suspended again?” Massu asked.
Koyama squeezed the Massu’s shoulder as a gesture of comfort. Shige just stared at the wall opposite him, his smart brain probably not functioning at all right now. Ryo bit his lips. He felt as though all of it was his fault.
“It’s not your fault,” Koyama said gently.
At that moment, the door opened. The big boss strode in and sat at the edge of his desk. He looked at them. Ryo couldn’t quiet figure out the expression on his face.
“Come in,” his loud voice boomed.
Two people entered then. Ryo leapt up from his chair when he saw them. Even though there were two of them, his focus was mainly on the taller guy on the left.
“From, now on, this will be the new NEWS,” Johnny announced.
Ryo ran towards the taller guy and hugged him. It’s been years since they were able to be in a same room like this. The guy hugged him back.
“Welcome home, Uchi,” he whispered softly, tears were already streaming down.
In the background, he heard Koyama and Massu welcoming Kusano back. But he didn’t care. Somehow his world was right again. With Uchi, he could do anything.
“Glad to be back.”
Note: And that officially ends this fic. Phew... I hope it's good...