Snow and Ash - Fourteen
Koyama:
A few days later
I close the door behind me as quietly as possible though there’s really no point - every night we all go to sleep knowing who is here and who isn’t.
The gesture is made even more pointless by the fact that Shige’s looking at me from the couch over the rim of the cup he’s holding.
“Waiting up for me?” I ask jokingly.
He takes a sip of whatever he’s drinking before placing it quietly on the coffee table. He does look like he’s waiting for something - if he wasn’t, he’d be up in Ryo’s bed instead of on the couch with a blanket draped over his legs.
“Ryo-chan’s not back yet?”
“No,” he says dryly. “I don’t even know why I wait. It’s just hard to sleep knowing where he is, you know?”
Not too long ago that very thought and the feelings of jealousy it produced made it next to impossible to fall asleep.
“You do, don’t you,” he answers for me. Sometimes I love that he can read my thoughts and understand my feelings now more than he could in the past. Some things just can’t fit perfectly into words. Some things need to be learned by experience, and others can only be shared with someone with a power as rare as his.
That’s why I think our powers are beautiful instead of burdens. Sure, they get in the way, and I can’t truly understand since mine comes with no handicap, but each of us can do something no one else can.
“We fight all the time it seems. And I hate it because I don’t even want to think about breaking up with him, but that is the path I have stepped foot on. It’s not easy to turn around, especially when he’s already ahead of me, almost out of my sight.”
I lean over the couch, and he moves his legs, inviting me to sit down.
“Don’t let him then. Catch up.”
He doesn’t respond, but I know what he’s thinking - it’s not that easy. I couldn’t stop Reiko from pulling Yamapi down that same path. Her pull was too strong.
He places a gentle hand on my shoulder and leans his head against the couch cushion. “I’m proud of you, you know? For not running back to Yamapi though it hurt to lose him.”
“If he did apologize and say he wanted to take me back, I don’t know if I could. It doesn’t feel like he’s there anymore. When I look at him it’s like I’m looking into the blank eyes of a stranger. So I looked away.”
We both jump in surprise when a dark figure appears next to the couch though we should be used to it. We would be, if he didn’t pick the most unobvious moment to pop in.
Ryo-chan acknowledges me for a moment but his attention is clearly on Shige. He takes Shige’s hand and pulls him off of the couch.
“I was talking to Koyama,” Shige protests and Ryo looks over to me, his eyes desperate.
“There’s always tomorrow. It’s okay,” I say with a smile, hoping that this will lead to a solution instead of another night of muting the fighting with headphones.
I watch as Ryo pulls him into the kitchen and out the back door.
He’s pulling you towards him - don’t let go of him so easily.
---
Shige:
I yank my hand away when we reach the basketball court. “Don’t drag me wherever you please.”
He furrows his eyebrows and I know he’s trying to control his emotions. “I don’t want to fight with you anymore.”
“Great timing for this revelation.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
As if it isn’t obvious. “You come back after spending hours with her late at night and then you do this.” Ryo pulls out his cell phone and holds it out to me but I continue anyway, ignoring it. “I don’t like it either but how can I stop fighting when the problem is right in front of my face?”
He frowns again, pressing a button to make the screen light up and holding it out to me again. “Maybe if you looked at what was right in front of your face you’d have your answer.”
I look down and read the message.
Ryo! The guys are getting together tonight. You there?
“I wasn’t with her. I was with my friends - is that bad too? You’ll yell at me for that, too?”
I don’t respond - the feeling of his struggle is overwhelming and it only grows with my silence. He pulls me close to him, keeping me there with his power.
“Do you really have to use your power on me?” I say angrily, probably a bit louder than I should have.
He releases the hold and steps away. “You want to shout that to the world?”
“Sorry.”
“Even if I hold you here you’ll still find a way around it and disappear without notice.”
I’d laugh at the irony of that statement if it were any other situation. “You’re the one who always disappears. Always have been.”
He sighs deeply and the feelings behind it reach me, making the harsh words get caught in my throat.
“What are we doing, Shige? Both of us are afraid of the same thing yet we’re the ones making it happen.”
“We’re only letting it happen because we haven’t found a solution.”
He steps closer to me again, hesitantly. On that path, he has stopped and is now facing me, taking a small step towards me.
“Be my boyfriend,” I say.
He stares at me for a few moments and when his hands are placed on my hips, I wrap my arms around him and hold him tightly - how long has it been?
“You can feel it, can’t you?” He pulls away a bit and takes my hand, placing it over his heart, showing me the pattern that never fully changed. “You can feel that I love you.”
That feeling overwhelms everything else and this is what I’ve been wanting, this is what I’ve been yearning to feel.
“I don’t love her,” he continues. “I like hanging out with her but I told you I can stop.”
“…No. Don’t. I just miss you, Ryo.”
I rest my cheek against his and instead of continuing to talk, I show him just how much.
He pulls away and looks at me with half-lidded eyes before leaning forward and kissing me.
My back hits the wall of the house before I realize we moved (we didn’t - he teleported us) and he pulls me off of it enough to rub my back where it made contact with the wall.
“I miss you too, Shige,” he breathes against my lips and I can feel that. It is as if he has awoken from some dream that blinded him. A part of me, a part I quickly suppress in favor of feeling everything this moment offers, tells me it’s too good to be true. But then I experience the feelings behind the words and there’s no way they’re empty. “No matter what happens to me or us, I love you.”
---
Yamapi:
My stomach is completely empty and once again my wrists are chained to the wall. I don’t know why they insist on doing it - it’s not like I’d try to escape anyway. It’s not like Shiori couldn’t stop me from wanting to in the first place.
“How long are you going to keep me like this?” I ask, hoping one of them will give me an answer.
“Until Ryo-chan passes the curse,” Shiori says easily.
“But he won’t do that no matter what you do. And besides, how is keeping me helping your cause if they don’t even know I’m here?”
“Because we’re not using your freedom as bait. I didn’t force you to say those things to Koyama for nothing. The longer he waits, the more you two are torn apart.”
I feel the heat rising up in my chest. “That’s punishing me.”
“Maybe. But you two are over because of Ryo-chan. Guilt is a scary thing, Tomo-chan.”
“But once you tell him, we won’t be over anymore. He’ll know then that it’s all fake.”
“Yes, but until Ryo-chan passes the curse, you’ll always believe you don’t love Koyama when you’re around him. We’ll make sure of it.”
They always find the worst way to punish someone, a way that cuts more deeply than any wound or any beating.
“So you’d continue punishing Kei, too, by telling him that I’m trapped by you two but he can’t help me.”
Kumiko steps into the room, holding a box of something. “I guess you could say we’re giving you a disease he can’t cure.”
I look into Kumiko’s black marble eyes. I’ve seen Ryo-chan with those same eyes but with her they’re frightening. Behind them lie no kindness, no desire to help other people, and no drive to end the suffering. Behind her black eyes lie vengeance, anger, and the desire to make everyone feel what it was like to be outcasted and shoved in a corner with no human contact at all, to be looked at like a demon for having eyes like hers - something that was never in her control.
Can we stop this? Is there any solution other than to give them what they want? But even if Ryo-chan gives up the curse, it doesn’t mean we’ve won. We would be beaten.
“It’s almost time,” she says eerily. “Don’t worry.”
---
Ryo:
I know I shouldn’t be here. I should have put the phone down after I answered it and lay back down next to Shige, should have put my arms around him and fallen asleep.
But instead I’m here, green grass under my feet, the same grass I used to sleep on during nights when I wanted to get away but didn’t know where to go. The same grass I sat on with Shige after a year of being away from him, holding his hand and knowing that I never wanted to let it go even though I knew I had to once the night ended.
Why am I doing this? Why did I leave him even though I know that I just received his forgiveness, and things are still as fragile as a piece of glass?
But then I see her, sitting with long black braids and a smile, and I have no power to stop myself.
“I didn’t think you’d come,” she says sweetly and hands me a cookie she said she baked today. She said she burnt them, but they don’t taste strange at all. “But I’m glad you did.”
“I can’t stay long. I really shouldn’t be here at all.”
“You should be able to see whoever you want, Ryo-chan.”
I sit down next to her on the grass, but when she reaches for my hand I pull it away. She still thinks I have that “phobia” but at times she still touches me. Even if I didn’t, I can’t hold her hand here.
“I know, but I’m afraid I’ll do something stupid like-“
“Kiss me?” she says and moves a bit closer. “Do you want to?”
“No.”
She leans in even closer, her breath tickling my cheek. “Are you sure? You don’t have to be afraid of me. Let me become one of those people you trust. Until that happens, I’ll never leave you, Ryo-chan.”
Before I even know what I’m doing, I turn towards her, cup her face with one of my hands, and while carefully counting I lean in and kiss her.
I feel something flow through me, like a feeling of guilt but also something darker at the same time.
…7…8
I pull away, knowing I should have never done that. She smiles triumphantly and I can almost feel her happiness.
“See? It’s okay. You don’t have to be afraid.”
“But I do, Mika. I always have to be afraid, careful. I can’t tell you why but I can’t do this.”
“Strange. And here I was thinking the reason would be your boyfriend.”
Shige’s words from earlier come back to me and I close my eyes, saying sorry over and over in my head though the words won’t reach him. Can’t he read my mind from where he is?
Her hands are on my shoulders, pushing me down onto the grass and she crawls on top of me, kissing me once again. And once again, I have no power to stop her. It’s like there’s a wall blocking every one of my thoughts and the few that make their way over this wall draw me to her, like nothing else exists.
The only other thing that exists is the curse, and when I try to push her away after 8 seconds she just holds on even more, as if somehow knowing that I would try to get away.
…9…10.
The first touch.
After another minute of this, she pulls away, still smiling. “I really like you, Ryo-chan.”
“Trust me…you don’t want to. I’m sorry.”
She tilts her head to the side. “For what? I’m the one who jumped on top of you.”
“This can’t ever happen again.”
I get up, leaving her there and once I get to the point where she can no longer see me, I look down at the city below and disappear. But before I do, in the distance I can hear the sound of shattering glass.
---
A moment after I teleport inside the house, I find myself crashing down to the floor with a weight on top of me.
“Ah…Ryo-chan, where did you come from?” Aoi-chan says with a laugh and rubs her elbow where she fell.
I stand up, brushing off my jeans before reaching out a hand to help her up. “Sorry. I should have looked before I did that.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she says happily and after she stands up she flashes a peace sign. “I’m okay.”
Slowly, I make my way upstairs to my bedroom. I know I have to tell him what I did (even though I don’t know why I did it), but I’m afraid.
When I open the door, he’s awake and sitting quietly on the bed.
“Would one night have killed you?” he asks harshly. “One night without sneaking off and seeing her?”
“I’m sorry” is all I manage to say.
“What was that outside, Ryo? When you said you missed me? That you didn’t want to fight with me? How am I supposed to believe those things when you go off and see her two hours later? I don’t understand you anymore.”
I can’t bring myself to look at him. “Look inside my mind, Shige. I don’t want to say it.”
“Say what? Whatever it is you should tell me yourself.”
“Just look, okay?” My eyes meet his. “Look at me.”
After a moment of uncertainty, he does. His face falls and I don’t have to have some power to read emotions to know how much I’ve hurt him. I didn’t want him to see it, but he deserves to know the whole truth, not some sugarcoated version or simplified version.
“Is that the answer to my question?” His voice is shaky and I want to take it all back, start over from the moment that I embraced him outside under the cover of the black sky but I know I can’t. “I get it. I guess I understand you now.”
He walks past me and I see flashes of moments we’ve spent together in my mind, and I turn around, stopping him in place as if that would keep him with me.
Not even a moment later, I feel myself slipping away, like my body doesn’t belong to me anymore and when he turns around to look at me, I know it’s because he’s controlling me. So many times he’s been angry at me for using my power on him. Before, the force of immobilizing him was too strong for him to break but now he’s broken it.
He shuts the door and ends his control over me, and my legs feel weak when I come back to myself again. I topple onto the bed and close my eyes. My phone buzzes in my pocket and take it out, throwing it across the floor.
It doesn’t break, and therefore the only sound in the dark room is the loud vibrations against the wooden floor. The sound that is a constant reminder of how so many things can change in one night.
---
Three days later:
“I feel like ice cream,” Tegoshi comments and Massu voices his approval.
Shige takes the seat next to Koyama and says something that makes them both smile.
“I don’t think we have any,” Koyama says apologetically. “We could go out, though.”
Aoi-chan makes it into the dining room a moment later, bursting with happiness as always and helping to ease the awkward tension.
Once she sits down, we begin to eat lunch though I’m not very hungry. I can’t help but focus on Shige, but he doesn’t look at me. When he does, I look away. Eye contact is surprisingly difficult to manage with him after what happened.
Whenever I used to see someone acting like that, I’d think, Why doesn’t he just look into her eyes and apologize? What’s the use of being silent with each other? But I never realized how hard it really is. Instead, I try to feel more. I know he doesn’t read my mind but at the very least I know he can still feel my emotions.
“Ah,” Aoi-chan squeaks suddenly and she holds up her cell phone. “Excuse me for a moment.” She answers the phone and takes it into the other room.
When she comes back, she flips the phone shut. “That was weird. Sorry about that, it was my aunt. She doesn’t call often and so I thought something was wrong.”
“Was there?” Massu asks, concerned.
She shakes her head. “Nope. She said she just wanted to talk to me.”
“Maybe she misses you?” Koyama suggests and she sits back down at the table.
“I don’t know. A lot of people have been calling me recently. It makes me think that lately I haven’t been as social as I should be.”
I shake away the thoughts that pop into my head and instead focusing on swallowing a few mouthfuls of rice.
“Speaking of ice cream though, it’ll be my treat!” she announces.
“Alright!~” Tegoshi exclaims in excitement. He likes being treated to places and sometimes purposely forgets his wallet in order to guarantee it.
“You sure?” Massu asks her and she responds with a smile.
“Of course. I found this old wallet in my room.” She pulls out a pink wallet covered in blue bows. She must like the same kind of thing Reiko does. “I don’t remember it, but it’s filled with money.”
It can’t be.
For what seems like the first time, Shige looks at me, probably sensing my anxiety.
But it’s not possible.
“When did you start getting a lot of calls?” I ask her nervously and she seems to be caught off guard.
“About three days ago? Right after I left here my grandma called me. I haven’t spoken to her in over a year.”
“And when did you find that?”
She backs away shyly like she’s being interrogated by the police for a horrible crime. “That night actually. I wasn’t sleepy so I decided to clean.”
“Ryo, don’t tell me,” Massu asks, a hint of anger in his usually calm voice.
“I bumped into her that night, but it was only for a second. And then I helped her up but that was it.” I turn to Aoi. “Wasn’t it?”
“Yeah. It was very quick. Wait - does this mean I’m cursed?!”
“No,” Shige cuts in before I can say anything. “Popularity, riches…that’s only two. But how? It’s supposed to be ten seconds. You’ve touched people before for less than that and nothing ever happened.”
Everything starts becoming blurry and I close my eyes. The voices around me begin to melt into each other and the only sound I can clearly hear is Shiku’s giggling.
It hurts - I feel something dark flow through me, something that would make people scream in horror.
I can’t see. My eyes sting and I feel someone’s arms around me, gently shaking me, and I hear a voice saying my name. Shige?
When I come to, I’m lying on the floor and when I open my eyes, the expression on everyone’s faces is enough to tell me everything. Massu is holding Aoi away from me.
“What…” I choke out, still unwilling to believe. “Why is everyone staring?”
Shige’s thumb runs under my eye. “Why” is all he whispers.
It’s true, isn’t it?
I push him away and look into the other room, teleporting in front of the mirror. When I look into it, the eyes that look back at me are fully black.
She giggles again and I slam my fist into the mirror.
End of Chapter Fourteen
A/N: Sorry for all the POV changes ^^; There are a lot of different things going on. Thank you again to
rainy_fruit for fixing it up~ <3 I hope you all enjoyed this chapter :D
A few days later
I close the door behind me as quietly as possible though there’s really no point - every night we all go to sleep knowing who is here and who isn’t.
The gesture is made even more pointless by the fact that Shige’s looking at me from the couch over the rim of the cup he’s holding.
“Waiting up for me?” I ask jokingly.
He takes a sip of whatever he’s drinking before placing it quietly on the coffee table. He does look like he’s waiting for something - if he wasn’t, he’d be up in Ryo’s bed instead of on the couch with a blanket draped over his legs.
“Ryo-chan’s not back yet?”
“No,” he says dryly. “I don’t even know why I wait. It’s just hard to sleep knowing where he is, you know?”
Not too long ago that very thought and the feelings of jealousy it produced made it next to impossible to fall asleep.
“You do, don’t you,” he answers for me. Sometimes I love that he can read my thoughts and understand my feelings now more than he could in the past. Some things just can’t fit perfectly into words. Some things need to be learned by experience, and others can only be shared with someone with a power as rare as his.
That’s why I think our powers are beautiful instead of burdens. Sure, they get in the way, and I can’t truly understand since mine comes with no handicap, but each of us can do something no one else can.
“We fight all the time it seems. And I hate it because I don’t even want to think about breaking up with him, but that is the path I have stepped foot on. It’s not easy to turn around, especially when he’s already ahead of me, almost out of my sight.”
I lean over the couch, and he moves his legs, inviting me to sit down.
“Don’t let him then. Catch up.”
He doesn’t respond, but I know what he’s thinking - it’s not that easy. I couldn’t stop Reiko from pulling Yamapi down that same path. Her pull was too strong.
He places a gentle hand on my shoulder and leans his head against the couch cushion. “I’m proud of you, you know? For not running back to Yamapi though it hurt to lose him.”
“If he did apologize and say he wanted to take me back, I don’t know if I could. It doesn’t feel like he’s there anymore. When I look at him it’s like I’m looking into the blank eyes of a stranger. So I looked away.”
We both jump in surprise when a dark figure appears next to the couch though we should be used to it. We would be, if he didn’t pick the most unobvious moment to pop in.
Ryo-chan acknowledges me for a moment but his attention is clearly on Shige. He takes Shige’s hand and pulls him off of the couch.
“I was talking to Koyama,” Shige protests and Ryo looks over to me, his eyes desperate.
“There’s always tomorrow. It’s okay,” I say with a smile, hoping that this will lead to a solution instead of another night of muting the fighting with headphones.
I watch as Ryo pulls him into the kitchen and out the back door.
He’s pulling you towards him - don’t let go of him so easily.
---
Shige:
I yank my hand away when we reach the basketball court. “Don’t drag me wherever you please.”
He furrows his eyebrows and I know he’s trying to control his emotions. “I don’t want to fight with you anymore.”
“Great timing for this revelation.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
As if it isn’t obvious. “You come back after spending hours with her late at night and then you do this.” Ryo pulls out his cell phone and holds it out to me but I continue anyway, ignoring it. “I don’t like it either but how can I stop fighting when the problem is right in front of my face?”
He frowns again, pressing a button to make the screen light up and holding it out to me again. “Maybe if you looked at what was right in front of your face you’d have your answer.”
I look down and read the message.
Ryo! The guys are getting together tonight. You there?
“I wasn’t with her. I was with my friends - is that bad too? You’ll yell at me for that, too?”
I don’t respond - the feeling of his struggle is overwhelming and it only grows with my silence. He pulls me close to him, keeping me there with his power.
“Do you really have to use your power on me?” I say angrily, probably a bit louder than I should have.
He releases the hold and steps away. “You want to shout that to the world?”
“Sorry.”
“Even if I hold you here you’ll still find a way around it and disappear without notice.”
I’d laugh at the irony of that statement if it were any other situation. “You’re the one who always disappears. Always have been.”
He sighs deeply and the feelings behind it reach me, making the harsh words get caught in my throat.
“What are we doing, Shige? Both of us are afraid of the same thing yet we’re the ones making it happen.”
“We’re only letting it happen because we haven’t found a solution.”
He steps closer to me again, hesitantly. On that path, he has stopped and is now facing me, taking a small step towards me.
“Be my boyfriend,” I say.
He stares at me for a few moments and when his hands are placed on my hips, I wrap my arms around him and hold him tightly - how long has it been?
“You can feel it, can’t you?” He pulls away a bit and takes my hand, placing it over his heart, showing me the pattern that never fully changed. “You can feel that I love you.”
That feeling overwhelms everything else and this is what I’ve been wanting, this is what I’ve been yearning to feel.
“I don’t love her,” he continues. “I like hanging out with her but I told you I can stop.”
“…No. Don’t. I just miss you, Ryo.”
I rest my cheek against his and instead of continuing to talk, I show him just how much.
He pulls away and looks at me with half-lidded eyes before leaning forward and kissing me.
My back hits the wall of the house before I realize we moved (we didn’t - he teleported us) and he pulls me off of it enough to rub my back where it made contact with the wall.
“I miss you too, Shige,” he breathes against my lips and I can feel that. It is as if he has awoken from some dream that blinded him. A part of me, a part I quickly suppress in favor of feeling everything this moment offers, tells me it’s too good to be true. But then I experience the feelings behind the words and there’s no way they’re empty. “No matter what happens to me or us, I love you.”
---
Yamapi:
My stomach is completely empty and once again my wrists are chained to the wall. I don’t know why they insist on doing it - it’s not like I’d try to escape anyway. It’s not like Shiori couldn’t stop me from wanting to in the first place.
“How long are you going to keep me like this?” I ask, hoping one of them will give me an answer.
“Until Ryo-chan passes the curse,” Shiori says easily.
“But he won’t do that no matter what you do. And besides, how is keeping me helping your cause if they don’t even know I’m here?”
“Because we’re not using your freedom as bait. I didn’t force you to say those things to Koyama for nothing. The longer he waits, the more you two are torn apart.”
I feel the heat rising up in my chest. “That’s punishing me.”
“Maybe. But you two are over because of Ryo-chan. Guilt is a scary thing, Tomo-chan.”
“But once you tell him, we won’t be over anymore. He’ll know then that it’s all fake.”
“Yes, but until Ryo-chan passes the curse, you’ll always believe you don’t love Koyama when you’re around him. We’ll make sure of it.”
They always find the worst way to punish someone, a way that cuts more deeply than any wound or any beating.
“So you’d continue punishing Kei, too, by telling him that I’m trapped by you two but he can’t help me.”
Kumiko steps into the room, holding a box of something. “I guess you could say we’re giving you a disease he can’t cure.”
I look into Kumiko’s black marble eyes. I’ve seen Ryo-chan with those same eyes but with her they’re frightening. Behind them lie no kindness, no desire to help other people, and no drive to end the suffering. Behind her black eyes lie vengeance, anger, and the desire to make everyone feel what it was like to be outcasted and shoved in a corner with no human contact at all, to be looked at like a demon for having eyes like hers - something that was never in her control.
Can we stop this? Is there any solution other than to give them what they want? But even if Ryo-chan gives up the curse, it doesn’t mean we’ve won. We would be beaten.
“It’s almost time,” she says eerily. “Don’t worry.”
---
Ryo:
I know I shouldn’t be here. I should have put the phone down after I answered it and lay back down next to Shige, should have put my arms around him and fallen asleep.
But instead I’m here, green grass under my feet, the same grass I used to sleep on during nights when I wanted to get away but didn’t know where to go. The same grass I sat on with Shige after a year of being away from him, holding his hand and knowing that I never wanted to let it go even though I knew I had to once the night ended.
Why am I doing this? Why did I leave him even though I know that I just received his forgiveness, and things are still as fragile as a piece of glass?
But then I see her, sitting with long black braids and a smile, and I have no power to stop myself.
“I didn’t think you’d come,” she says sweetly and hands me a cookie she said she baked today. She said she burnt them, but they don’t taste strange at all. “But I’m glad you did.”
“I can’t stay long. I really shouldn’t be here at all.”
“You should be able to see whoever you want, Ryo-chan.”
I sit down next to her on the grass, but when she reaches for my hand I pull it away. She still thinks I have that “phobia” but at times she still touches me. Even if I didn’t, I can’t hold her hand here.
“I know, but I’m afraid I’ll do something stupid like-“
“Kiss me?” she says and moves a bit closer. “Do you want to?”
“No.”
She leans in even closer, her breath tickling my cheek. “Are you sure? You don’t have to be afraid of me. Let me become one of those people you trust. Until that happens, I’ll never leave you, Ryo-chan.”
Before I even know what I’m doing, I turn towards her, cup her face with one of my hands, and while carefully counting I lean in and kiss her.
I feel something flow through me, like a feeling of guilt but also something darker at the same time.
…7…8
I pull away, knowing I should have never done that. She smiles triumphantly and I can almost feel her happiness.
“See? It’s okay. You don’t have to be afraid.”
“But I do, Mika. I always have to be afraid, careful. I can’t tell you why but I can’t do this.”
“Strange. And here I was thinking the reason would be your boyfriend.”
Shige’s words from earlier come back to me and I close my eyes, saying sorry over and over in my head though the words won’t reach him. Can’t he read my mind from where he is?
Her hands are on my shoulders, pushing me down onto the grass and she crawls on top of me, kissing me once again. And once again, I have no power to stop her. It’s like there’s a wall blocking every one of my thoughts and the few that make their way over this wall draw me to her, like nothing else exists.
The only other thing that exists is the curse, and when I try to push her away after 8 seconds she just holds on even more, as if somehow knowing that I would try to get away.
…9…10.
The first touch.
After another minute of this, she pulls away, still smiling. “I really like you, Ryo-chan.”
“Trust me…you don’t want to. I’m sorry.”
She tilts her head to the side. “For what? I’m the one who jumped on top of you.”
“This can’t ever happen again.”
I get up, leaving her there and once I get to the point where she can no longer see me, I look down at the city below and disappear. But before I do, in the distance I can hear the sound of shattering glass.
---
A moment after I teleport inside the house, I find myself crashing down to the floor with a weight on top of me.
“Ah…Ryo-chan, where did you come from?” Aoi-chan says with a laugh and rubs her elbow where she fell.
I stand up, brushing off my jeans before reaching out a hand to help her up. “Sorry. I should have looked before I did that.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she says happily and after she stands up she flashes a peace sign. “I’m okay.”
Slowly, I make my way upstairs to my bedroom. I know I have to tell him what I did (even though I don’t know why I did it), but I’m afraid.
When I open the door, he’s awake and sitting quietly on the bed.
“Would one night have killed you?” he asks harshly. “One night without sneaking off and seeing her?”
“I’m sorry” is all I manage to say.
“What was that outside, Ryo? When you said you missed me? That you didn’t want to fight with me? How am I supposed to believe those things when you go off and see her two hours later? I don’t understand you anymore.”
I can’t bring myself to look at him. “Look inside my mind, Shige. I don’t want to say it.”
“Say what? Whatever it is you should tell me yourself.”
“Just look, okay?” My eyes meet his. “Look at me.”
After a moment of uncertainty, he does. His face falls and I don’t have to have some power to read emotions to know how much I’ve hurt him. I didn’t want him to see it, but he deserves to know the whole truth, not some sugarcoated version or simplified version.
“Is that the answer to my question?” His voice is shaky and I want to take it all back, start over from the moment that I embraced him outside under the cover of the black sky but I know I can’t. “I get it. I guess I understand you now.”
He walks past me and I see flashes of moments we’ve spent together in my mind, and I turn around, stopping him in place as if that would keep him with me.
Not even a moment later, I feel myself slipping away, like my body doesn’t belong to me anymore and when he turns around to look at me, I know it’s because he’s controlling me. So many times he’s been angry at me for using my power on him. Before, the force of immobilizing him was too strong for him to break but now he’s broken it.
He shuts the door and ends his control over me, and my legs feel weak when I come back to myself again. I topple onto the bed and close my eyes. My phone buzzes in my pocket and take it out, throwing it across the floor.
It doesn’t break, and therefore the only sound in the dark room is the loud vibrations against the wooden floor. The sound that is a constant reminder of how so many things can change in one night.
---
Three days later:
“I feel like ice cream,” Tegoshi comments and Massu voices his approval.
Shige takes the seat next to Koyama and says something that makes them both smile.
“I don’t think we have any,” Koyama says apologetically. “We could go out, though.”
Aoi-chan makes it into the dining room a moment later, bursting with happiness as always and helping to ease the awkward tension.
Once she sits down, we begin to eat lunch though I’m not very hungry. I can’t help but focus on Shige, but he doesn’t look at me. When he does, I look away. Eye contact is surprisingly difficult to manage with him after what happened.
Whenever I used to see someone acting like that, I’d think, Why doesn’t he just look into her eyes and apologize? What’s the use of being silent with each other? But I never realized how hard it really is. Instead, I try to feel more. I know he doesn’t read my mind but at the very least I know he can still feel my emotions.
“Ah,” Aoi-chan squeaks suddenly and she holds up her cell phone. “Excuse me for a moment.” She answers the phone and takes it into the other room.
When she comes back, she flips the phone shut. “That was weird. Sorry about that, it was my aunt. She doesn’t call often and so I thought something was wrong.”
“Was there?” Massu asks, concerned.
She shakes her head. “Nope. She said she just wanted to talk to me.”
“Maybe she misses you?” Koyama suggests and she sits back down at the table.
“I don’t know. A lot of people have been calling me recently. It makes me think that lately I haven’t been as social as I should be.”
I shake away the thoughts that pop into my head and instead focusing on swallowing a few mouthfuls of rice.
“Speaking of ice cream though, it’ll be my treat!” she announces.
“Alright!~” Tegoshi exclaims in excitement. He likes being treated to places and sometimes purposely forgets his wallet in order to guarantee it.
“You sure?” Massu asks her and she responds with a smile.
“Of course. I found this old wallet in my room.” She pulls out a pink wallet covered in blue bows. She must like the same kind of thing Reiko does. “I don’t remember it, but it’s filled with money.”
It can’t be.
For what seems like the first time, Shige looks at me, probably sensing my anxiety.
But it’s not possible.
“When did you start getting a lot of calls?” I ask her nervously and she seems to be caught off guard.
“About three days ago? Right after I left here my grandma called me. I haven’t spoken to her in over a year.”
“And when did you find that?”
She backs away shyly like she’s being interrogated by the police for a horrible crime. “That night actually. I wasn’t sleepy so I decided to clean.”
“Ryo, don’t tell me,” Massu asks, a hint of anger in his usually calm voice.
“I bumped into her that night, but it was only for a second. And then I helped her up but that was it.” I turn to Aoi. “Wasn’t it?”
“Yeah. It was very quick. Wait - does this mean I’m cursed?!”
“No,” Shige cuts in before I can say anything. “Popularity, riches…that’s only two. But how? It’s supposed to be ten seconds. You’ve touched people before for less than that and nothing ever happened.”
Everything starts becoming blurry and I close my eyes. The voices around me begin to melt into each other and the only sound I can clearly hear is Shiku’s giggling.
It hurts - I feel something dark flow through me, something that would make people scream in horror.
I can’t see. My eyes sting and I feel someone’s arms around me, gently shaking me, and I hear a voice saying my name. Shige?
When I come to, I’m lying on the floor and when I open my eyes, the expression on everyone’s faces is enough to tell me everything. Massu is holding Aoi away from me.
“What…” I choke out, still unwilling to believe. “Why is everyone staring?”
Shige’s thumb runs under my eye. “Why” is all he whispers.
It’s true, isn’t it?
I push him away and look into the other room, teleporting in front of the mirror. When I look into it, the eyes that look back at me are fully black.
She giggles again and I slam my fist into the mirror.
End of Chapter Fourteen
A/N: Sorry for all the POV changes ^^; There are a lot of different things going on. Thank you again to
rainy_fruit for fixing it up~ <3 I hope you all enjoyed this chapter :D