tomodachi - VI. Needing Yasu (final)

[ayang902]

~友達~
~tomodachi~

VI. Needing Yasu



Just like Ryo had suspected, when class was about to end, the teacher called for him to stay after dismissal once more. Ohkura bit his lip. Everything is going to go according to plan, he reassured himself as he snuck a glance over at the hidden camera he had planted in the corner of the room. This is going to work, he insisted, failing to calm his own nerves. Right after the teacher ended class, Ohkura hurriedly passed a note to Ryo, and keeping his eyes locked onto the older boy’s, nodded just once. The plan was to be set in action; there was no turning back now. Ryo understood, and skimmed his eyes over the scrawled note.

I’ll be waiting right outside, and as soon as you yell STOP, I’ll rush in and stop him.

By the time he looked up from reading, Ryo was alone in the room. The lights flickered as the teacher slowly stood up from his desk. Or maybe Ryo was just imagining things. A mind can go berserk when it’s under stress like his was.

“What do you want from me?” Ryo stated his question as best as he could, without letting his voice tremble.

“I don’t want anything from you, little Ryo,” the teacher smirked.

It suddenly felt like the room had shrunk down on him, as if everything, including Ryo himself, had been reduced; he was helplessly insignificant.

He couldn’t lie, he had the capacity for control, for dominance, but Ryo wondered: could he stop him?

~~

Ohkura paced back and forth in the hallway just outside the door; he was ready to burst in at any moment. The eerie silence hanging in the air did little to settle his nerves. He had no idea what was going on beyond the wooden classroom door, but he prayed Ryo would be safe, and that he could live up to his own promise and actually protect him.

The ominous tranquility teasing him with questions, Ohkura’s footsteps resounded hollowly in the stillness. A second passed, then two. It was nearly impossible to stand, he had never been so anxious before in his life, and he wasn’t even the one inside. Just as he was beginning to regret letting Ryo follow through with his plan, his thoughts were interrupted by a bright “Tacchon!”

And just like that, Yasu bounded over, today dressed in a pair of oversized, striped blue overalls worn over a multicolored polka-dotted red T-shirt, topped with a vibrant green cap adorned with a pin shaped like an intense yellow lightening bolt, and closing off with hot pink sneakers that each looked large enough to stomp on both of Ohkura’s feet at once, not just one.

A smile lit up on Ohkura’s worried expression when he saw his ever-colorful friend approach. He may have horrible timing, showing up at this particular moment, but at least it would be comforting to have a friend like Yasu with him.

“Hey, what brings you here?” Ohkura asked, his smile never fading. Yasu had that kind of effect on people, he supposed. Or maybe it was just on Ohkura.

“I was just passing by; I have my chemistry class in the upstairs wing. Why are you standing in the middle of the hallway?” he inquired curiously.

“Just, uh, waiting for a friend,” Ohkura answered offhandedly.

“Oh~ should I go then?” Yasu grinned, a little devious glint in his eyes.

“It’s not that kind of friend!” Ohkura laughed. “You can stay if you want, I suppose.” He pondered whether he should just send Yasu away, but he really could use the company to calm his jumpy nerves. Besides, he couldn’t just tell the older boy to leave.

“This reminds me of that time when we were waiting after school for your mom to come pick us up… When was that? When I was in third grade?” Yasu beamed, reminiscing joyfully.

“Yeah, and I was in second,” Ohkura smiled. “I remember we were just waiting there for the longest time, and we got so bored we started daring each other to do the craziest things… I think at one point, I even dared you to run all the way around the school building five times and then immediately chug down a whole jug of water.”

Yasu giggled. “I made it around three times over before collapsing from exhaustion. I even almost got heatstroke!” he exclaimed.

“I remember that, it was a record high temperature that day, and we were still forced to wait outside for over an hour to get picked up!” he added.

“It was your mom that was late…” Yasu pouted.

Ohkura chuckled at the familiar expression. “You really haven’t changed a bit, Yasu,” he smiled.

“Well I hope I at least grew a little-”

“STOP!”

“What was that?!” Yasu’s eyes widened almost instantly, a chilling shock crawling up his spine from the sickening scream. “Ohkura, what’s going on?” he asked frantically, but before Ohkura had a chance to reply, Yasu had already made up his mind. “We’ve got to go in there!”

“Yasu, wait!”

But in a split second, the flamboyant boy had already burst into the room, coming to the rescue. “What are you doing!?” Yasu shouted upon throwing open the door and running inside; he was horrified by the sight.

“Yasu!” Ohkura rushed in after him, stumbling as he tripped over a body lying limply on the floor. “R-Ryo?”

“G-Get the t-tape,” the older one managed to mutter under a strained breath. Ohkura hurriedly nodded.

“You did this to him?” Yasu questioned incredulously at the only other person in the room, cornering him to ensure the teacher would have to answer his demand.

“Sh-shota? What the hell are you doing back in my classroom?!”

“I respected you,” Yasu hissed, not bothering to take heed of his question. “I respected you as my teacher last year. I thought I could trust you. I used to come to you for help!” he yelled furiously, flames raging in his glare.

The teacher seemed to wobble under Yasu’s ferocity. “I-I did help you, didn’t I? I’m a teacher, Shota. You can’t honestly believe I would hurt one of my own students!”

Yasu’s eyes narrowed. “There’s no use trying to make up excuses! I’m not blind! I can see plainly what you’ve done. I don’t believe you… You’re no teacher. You don’t deserve to teach anyone.”  He dug a finger into the teacher’s chest. “I’m ashamed to have been your student.”

The severity of Yasu’s words weighed down, the air heavy with indignity. Lacking any further protest, the teacher collapsed to the ground, defeated, and disgraced.

“Ohkura, go get the principal. Bring him here. He’ll take out this trash for us,” Yasu muttered sullenly.

Ohkura drew a sharp breath. He didn’t want to leave Ryo, but…

“Go!” Yasu shouted, pointing to the door.

The youngest boy shook his head, but followed Yasu’s command, running out before his friend could yell at him any longer. He hated having Yasu angry at him. For Ohkura, it was the worst feeling in the world, the only thing he didn’t miss about having been separated from Yasu for so long.

As soon as Ohkura fled the scene, Yasu remembered suddenly, “Oh no, Ryo!” Jerking out of his resentment to hurry to the younger one’s side, he checked his frail body for any injuries. Yasu swung Ryo’s arm over his shoulder, and pulled Ryo to his feet, helping him stand up and limp (hurriedly) out of the room. He had a feeling it would be best to get Ryo as far away as soon as possible, since he didn’t appear to bear any outer wounds, but Yasu didn’t have much of a choice, as Ryo’s weary body crumpled to the floor as soon as they had turned the corner in the hall.

“Ryo, are you all right?” Yasu immediately bent down beside him worriedly.

The younger boy merely smiled feebly. “Well, he didn’t actually get to hurt me before you stopped him… So I’m fine, just a little…”

“Tired?” Yasu finished his sentence for him, assuming from Ryo’s inability to stand any longer.

“I don’t know really…” Ryo mumbled quietly. “I-I just feel like all the energy’s been drained out of me. H-He almost got me. Again. Having to live through it all a second time… It’s like I can never escape; h-he keeps on coming back… You have no idea,” Ryo shuddered and sealed shut his eyes as the sickening words, feelings, and even touches clouded his memories. How he wished it would all disappear. He wanted to forget it all, lose it all, but he couldn’t.

“Th-this has happened before?!” Yasu exclaimed in shock. “Wh-why didn’t you tell someone about it the first time?” he asked in bewilderment. “You can’t just let something like this go! Don’t you understand how serious this is?”

“I… I did tell someone. Or rather, someone else knew… but he wasn’t able to help me. It wasn’t really his fault…”

“There’s no excuse!” Yasu face contorted with anger, the darkness marring his smiling features. “You have to protect yourself from this kind of thing; you can’t just ignore it! What would’ve happened if I hadn’t been there to pull you out of there? I-I can’t even imagine…”

“Thank you,” Ryo finally managed to whisper, his gaze searching until it found Yasu’s. “…for saving me.”

A soft smile crept across Yasu’s lips, and for a fixed moment, his gaze lost itself in Ryo’s.

Severing the silence, Yasu abruptly pulled off his cap and bowed jokingly. “Anytime, sir,” he giggled airily. Somehow, Ryo found it comforting as Yasu then proceeded to place the cap on his head.

“What’s this for?” he laughed.

Yasu pouted. “If you don’t want it, I’ll take it back.”

“Hey, I never said that!” Ryo smiled, surprised by how flamboyant boy could even manage to make him smile at a time like this. Yasu stuck his tongue out playfully at Ryo and flicked him on the forehead. Lightly, of course, but Ryo doubled over in pain, teasing the older boy for his reaction. And he got exactly what he had been hoping for.

“Ryo, are you okay? Oh no, I’m so sorry, I forgot that you were still feeling weak and all! I didn’t mean to hurt you, really, I’m sorry!” Yasu bowed to him again, this time, for real.

Ryo burst into laughter. “It’s all right, I was just kidding, Yasu,” he assured.

“Are you sure?” the older boy asked, touching his hand to Ryo’s cheek softly so he would stop laughing and look up into his eyes once more.

~~

“This way, hurry!” Ohkura yelled, running as fast as his slender legs could carry him.

“Boy, you’ve got to slow down, or I won’t be able to catch up,” the principal huffed. He was still a little agitated at having been dragged out of his office to come running across the school. “This so-called proof of yours better be some solid evidence!” he growled.

Ohkura didn’t reply; he just needed to keep running. With two witnesses, a wounded Ryo, and a tape, there was no way the principal could say no now. “Only one more hallway, then it’s the first room on the right!” he called to the man bumbling behind him.

“Slow down!” he shouted back.

But as soon as Ohkura turned the corner onto that last hallway, he froze. From a distance, he saw two figures huddled on the floor together intimately. One, he could tell was Yasu from his easily discernible clothes, had his hand placed tenderly on the other’s face, who Ohkura could only guess was Ryo. There was no doubt about it, but he couldn’t believe his eyes. When did the two of them become so close?

Suddenly, the principal came running from behind him, even surpassing him in the race to the finish. “Weren’t you telling me to hurry, boy?”

“O-Oh, right,” Ohkura snapped out of his daze. Time itself seemed to slow as he sprinted past the two on the ground, them not taking notice of his fleeting presence. Inaudibly, Ryo’s lips moved, whispering something to Yasu, and Ohkura watched in horror as Yasu then leaned forward and placed his lips gently onto the younger one’s forehead, both of them never breaking their gaze or their smiles for even a second. Ohkura clenched his fists; he could feel salty tears accumulating in the corners of his eyes as his footsteps thudded dreamily, mindlessly in sync with his throbbing heart.

But he didn’t stop running.

And just like that, it was all over.

The principal caught and fired the teacher, as he was unable to twist the telling proof, and he was vanished forever from their lives. Ryo had luckily managed to escape marginally unscathed from the whole experience, although mentally afflicted, but only time would have the strength to heal the invisible wounds. As for Ohkura, the crushing pain of betrayal tore at his heart, but he didn’t even know which hurt him more; the fact that one of his best friends kissed Ryo or that Ryo even looked happy to receive the kiss. His thoughts hovered around one question:

To whom does my heart truly belong?

~~

A/N: Yes, it's the last chapter! I kind of ended on an unfinished idea, but I'm debating whether I should continue with the ryo/ohkura/yasu plot... any thoughts?? ^^ But regardless, this is the end of first kanjani8 fanfic! O.O *feels accomplished* Thanks SO MUCH (really, I'm very, very grateful) for reading all the way through and supporting me, even though it got kind of rough through the middle there....... xD and now I can go study in peace :) Wish me luck on my last exam tomorrow! It's for science... >.>