BLACK CHERRY / The Game (Chapter 20)
Title: The Game (Chapter 20)
Fandom: BLACK CHERRY
Characters: Ryo x はるき
Genre: Romance, erotica
Table: One
Prompt: 077. Upset
Word Count: 2020
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The rules of The Game were simple.
Author's Notes: Chapters 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19
The Game
Chapter Twenty
(077. Upset)
Haruki decided to stay on as Kei’s assistant for the rest of the semester. She worked in his office three days a week after class, helping him encode grades and prepare lesson plans. Along with a grade incentive, she was now provided an allowance by the university in exchange for her services. While the stipend was small, it was still a welcome help to her finances.
On days the workload was lighter Kei allowed her to study in his office, letting her lock up after him when he wasn’t around. Surprisingly most nights they worked together in peaceful silence, speaking to each other only when they needed to. Becoming Kei’s assistant had become an unexpectedly pleasant experience thus far, especially when she’d been bracing herself for something sinister up Kei’s sleeve. Perhaps two weeks was too soon to tell, but it was a welcome reprieve nonetheless.
The week after midterms was always a busy time for professors, who scrambled to check all their papers on time. Kei had over two hundred students this semester, a fact he bemoaned out loud one Wednesday evening in his office.
“I don’t know what I was thinking, going for an essay exam.” He grumbled at the numerous stacks of papers before him. “It was meant to make my life easier.”
Haruki’s lips couldn’t help but curve up at his misfortune. “Fewer questions, but longer answers. Ones you really have to read through too.”
“I should’ve gone with good ol’ definition of terms.” He sighed. “Would’ve been less of a pain to check with you around, but I’d long made the exams prior to you coming in.”
“Well, can I help with anything?” she offered, looking up from her laptop.
Kei drummed his fingers on his desk and stared long and hard at the papers. “You wouldn’t happen to have read any Virginia Woolf in your spare time, have you?”
“Which one?”
His eyebrows arched up. “A Room of One’s Own?”
“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction,” she quoted.
Kei fell back to his chair with a chuckle. “Well, aren’t you full of surprises.”
She gave a single shrug. “I like to read.”
“More girls should be like you,” he mused as he eyed her with an unwavering amusement in his eyes that almost made her squirm in her seat.
“Here. You can check this one.” He patted the stack of papers leftmost to him. “This is for my freshman class. They’re still Literature majors, so don’t go easy on them just because they’re first years.”
Her forehead creased. “You’re trusting me to grade your students’ midterms?”
He grinned. “I trust anyone who can quote Woolf by heart.”
Haruki opened her mouth to speak, but words left her as she approached his desk. She put a hand on the topmost sheet. “You’re sure about this?”
Kei picked up the telephone. “Oh, yeah. Tonight’s gonna be a long night. I’m ordering Chinese.”
Two hours and thirty papers later, Haruki could feel the beginnings of a headache. She’d just reached for her unfinished box of lo mein when Kei suddenly laughed from across the room.
“I give up,” he said, slumping in his chair and staring at the ceiling. “I am so done with this.”
Haruki sat up straighter in curiosity. “What is it?”
Kei outstretched the paper in his hand. “Second paragraph, first line.”
She walked up to his desk and reached for it. Her eyes scanned the lines as she read aloud, “I enjoyed this book so much that it has made me add reading to my list of things to love, along with cooking my family and my dog…”
Laughter escaped her lips. “Long live the Oxford comma.”
“She cooks her family and her dog,” Kei groaned with a shake of his head. “I didn’t know I had such an interesting student.”
The sound of their laughter filled his office.
The door opened. The smile from Haruki’s lips waned at the sight of Ryou by the doorway.
Ryou’s gaze barely fell on her as he handed Kei a folder. “The Registrar needs this passed before lunch tomorrow.”
“I’m on it.” Kei accepted the document with a sigh. “Are you going home?”
“Yeah.” Ryou said, leaving the room without another word.
Haruki stared at the open doorway. Like Ryou’s presence, the mirth had escaped her all but too soon, and now she was back to feeling blank, if not a little hollow. She’d run into Ryou in the faculty room a handful of times since she started working as Kei’s assistant, but he seemed far from bothered the way he’d kept his distance for the last few weeks. At least now she could truly be left alone. His pretentious show of concern was becoming tiresome to watch.
“You look tired,” Kei said, snapping her gaze away from the door. “Maybe we should call it a night.”
His voice grew soft, along with his gaze. The faintest crease of concern marred his forehead, but she turned around lest their eyes locked on each other for too long.
“It’s fine,” she said, walking back to her laptop. “I’ll get this done tonight.”
She picked up the next paper from the pile, feeling Kei’s lingering gaze on her. She didn’t look up or say anything more.
It was nearly ten in the evening when Haruki took out the keys from Kei’s doorknob and made sure his office was locked. Kei had left half an hour prior at his sister’s call, and Haruki had politely refused when he offered to drive her home along the way.
“I know this isn’t the first time I’m letting you lock up after me, but are you sure you’re going to be fine?” he’d asked on his way to the door. “It’s already pretty late.”
“Mr. Okada can walk me home,” she’d said, referring to the security guard posted at Knights Hall. The kind man had walked her home on several occasions, and it had been weeks since that incident with the hooded stranger anyway. She hadn’t so much as had a whiff of suspicious activity ever since. Perhaps it really happened to be a random, unfortunate encounter all along. The idea of her being targeted just seemed so preposterous now.
The faculty room was already deserted with most of the lights off, save for a faint illumination coming from the blinds of an office at the far end of the room. Someone else was burning the midnight oil, it seemed.
Haruki headed for the brightly lit hallway outside, frowning at the empty spot by the building entrance where Okada usually stood.
“Where’s Kei?”
She tensed at the voice behind her. There was no need to turn around to know who it was.
“He’s gone home,” she replied, her back still on him. “I thought you already left?”
“I was just about to leave.”
“Right,” she said, echoing the flatness in his voice. “Well, goodnight then.”
Her grip tightened on the strap of her sling bag as she began walking towards the exit. The sound of her own footsteps had never been any louder to her ears.
His deep voice bounced off the walls. “How are you getting home?”
“Walking,” she answered without stopping.
The summer evening breeze was warm and slightly humid as soon as she stepped outside. The faint smell of wet grass reached her nostrils, providing a welcome distraction from her encounter with Ryou inside. The asphalt was wet with rain she hadn’t noticed had fallen.
Haruki descended the steps. She needed to get home soon, in case it rained again.
The glass doors behind her opened again. At the top of the stairs stood Ryou, looking down on her, saying nothing.
His steady, somber gaze was a silent offer to walk her home, to which she neither accepted nor refused. For seconds they only stared at each other, until she took the first step toward the campus gates.
The walk back to her apartment felt like the longest ten minutes of her life. She’d only looked back once to find Ryou keeping a safe distance from her, hands in his pockets as he walked behind her. Only the sound of his heels reminded her he was still there, ever silent, with her nape feeling both warm and cold from the gaze that surely never left her back.
She lingered by the entryway of her apartment at their arrival. The keys in his pocket jangled as he stopped an arm’s breadth from her.
“Thanks for walking me home,” she said, still not facing him.
No response. He probably wouldn’t say anything more for as long as she refused to give him another glance.
Till the very end, Haruki did not indulge him. She walked up the front doors and looked straight ahead, even as Ryou remained unmoving from the corner of her eye.
Ryou turned on his heel as soon as Haruki disappeared inside.
The pounding in his temples had been so incessant that he now felt the beginnings of a headache. He didn’t know what he wanted to achieve by walking Haruki home, even though the lesser part of him had been raring to pick a fight only moments ago.
Where’s Kei? Isn’t he around to send you home anymore? had burned unspoken on his tongue. She’d been laughing with Kei a while ago like they’d become the best of friends. Each time he saw her in and out of Kei’s office was like a jab in the chest, mocking him, taunting him to do something terrible. The last few weeks had drained him of his strength exercising his self-control. He didn’t know what he was thinking, bothering to send her home tonight, not when she barely seemed to tolerate his presence.
Of course. She fucking hates you, a voice in his mind reminded him. True enough, pigs would fly on the day she forgave him.
Ryou made a left turn on his way back, but the corner of his eye caught a presence standing on the front steps of Haruki’s apartment. He doubled back, squinting his eyes to take a closer look, until none other than Haruki’s presence actualized before him. Her fingers were tight on the handrail, eyes too wide; her chest rising and falling in rapid breaths.
His hand impulsively reached for her arm. “Haruki, what’s going on?”
She swallowed, lips parting, and his ears strained to hear words that never came out. He grabbed her inside and her body followed like a rag doll; her gaze still too terrified and distant as they went up the flight of stairs to her room.
Haruki’s open door was visible even from the far end of the corridor. Her legs refused to budge when he pulled her again. Reluctantly he released her, only to dash towards her room. He last saw her stock still by the stairwell until he froze at the sight of her apartment.
Haruki’s room was completely ransacked. Her bed was turned over, windows smashed, with shards of glass and clothes all over the place. More than the blatant fact that the place had been trashed not to rob but to terrorize, it was the red paint all over her wall, smeared haphazardly with the words:
You’re going to die.
Ryou tore his gaze from the room and ran back for Haruki. Her hands were clammy when he took hold of them.
“Haruki,” he coaxed, placing a palm against her cheek. Gently he tilted her face to look at him, and finally her bewildered gaze focused on him.
“You’re not safe here,” he murmured. “Do you have anywhere else to stay?”
He gave her hand a firm squeeze when she didn’t respond. She shook her head as the first tears began to well in her eyes.
“Let me get you out of here.” The request left his lips too soon for him to brace himself for her refusal.
Haruki’s whisper was cracked. “Please.”
That was all it took for him to take her hand in his and guide her out of the apartment.
to be continued
Fandom: BLACK CHERRY
Characters: Ryo x はるき
Genre: Romance, erotica
Table: One
Prompt: 077. Upset
Word Count: 2020
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The rules of The Game were simple.
Author's Notes: Chapters 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19
The Game
Chapter Twenty
(077. Upset)
Haruki decided to stay on as Kei’s assistant for the rest of the semester. She worked in his office three days a week after class, helping him encode grades and prepare lesson plans. Along with a grade incentive, she was now provided an allowance by the university in exchange for her services. While the stipend was small, it was still a welcome help to her finances.
On days the workload was lighter Kei allowed her to study in his office, letting her lock up after him when he wasn’t around. Surprisingly most nights they worked together in peaceful silence, speaking to each other only when they needed to. Becoming Kei’s assistant had become an unexpectedly pleasant experience thus far, especially when she’d been bracing herself for something sinister up Kei’s sleeve. Perhaps two weeks was too soon to tell, but it was a welcome reprieve nonetheless.
The week after midterms was always a busy time for professors, who scrambled to check all their papers on time. Kei had over two hundred students this semester, a fact he bemoaned out loud one Wednesday evening in his office.
“I don’t know what I was thinking, going for an essay exam.” He grumbled at the numerous stacks of papers before him. “It was meant to make my life easier.”
Haruki’s lips couldn’t help but curve up at his misfortune. “Fewer questions, but longer answers. Ones you really have to read through too.”
“I should’ve gone with good ol’ definition of terms.” He sighed. “Would’ve been less of a pain to check with you around, but I’d long made the exams prior to you coming in.”
“Well, can I help with anything?” she offered, looking up from her laptop.
Kei drummed his fingers on his desk and stared long and hard at the papers. “You wouldn’t happen to have read any Virginia Woolf in your spare time, have you?”
“Which one?”
His eyebrows arched up. “A Room of One’s Own?”
“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction,” she quoted.
Kei fell back to his chair with a chuckle. “Well, aren’t you full of surprises.”
She gave a single shrug. “I like to read.”
“More girls should be like you,” he mused as he eyed her with an unwavering amusement in his eyes that almost made her squirm in her seat.
“Here. You can check this one.” He patted the stack of papers leftmost to him. “This is for my freshman class. They’re still Literature majors, so don’t go easy on them just because they’re first years.”
Her forehead creased. “You’re trusting me to grade your students’ midterms?”
He grinned. “I trust anyone who can quote Woolf by heart.”
Haruki opened her mouth to speak, but words left her as she approached his desk. She put a hand on the topmost sheet. “You’re sure about this?”
Kei picked up the telephone. “Oh, yeah. Tonight’s gonna be a long night. I’m ordering Chinese.”
Two hours and thirty papers later, Haruki could feel the beginnings of a headache. She’d just reached for her unfinished box of lo mein when Kei suddenly laughed from across the room.
“I give up,” he said, slumping in his chair and staring at the ceiling. “I am so done with this.”
Haruki sat up straighter in curiosity. “What is it?”
Kei outstretched the paper in his hand. “Second paragraph, first line.”
She walked up to his desk and reached for it. Her eyes scanned the lines as she read aloud, “I enjoyed this book so much that it has made me add reading to my list of things to love, along with cooking my family and my dog…”
Laughter escaped her lips. “Long live the Oxford comma.”
“She cooks her family and her dog,” Kei groaned with a shake of his head. “I didn’t know I had such an interesting student.”
The sound of their laughter filled his office.
The door opened. The smile from Haruki’s lips waned at the sight of Ryou by the doorway.
Ryou’s gaze barely fell on her as he handed Kei a folder. “The Registrar needs this passed before lunch tomorrow.”
“I’m on it.” Kei accepted the document with a sigh. “Are you going home?”
“Yeah.” Ryou said, leaving the room without another word.
Haruki stared at the open doorway. Like Ryou’s presence, the mirth had escaped her all but too soon, and now she was back to feeling blank, if not a little hollow. She’d run into Ryou in the faculty room a handful of times since she started working as Kei’s assistant, but he seemed far from bothered the way he’d kept his distance for the last few weeks. At least now she could truly be left alone. His pretentious show of concern was becoming tiresome to watch.
“You look tired,” Kei said, snapping her gaze away from the door. “Maybe we should call it a night.”
His voice grew soft, along with his gaze. The faintest crease of concern marred his forehead, but she turned around lest their eyes locked on each other for too long.
“It’s fine,” she said, walking back to her laptop. “I’ll get this done tonight.”
She picked up the next paper from the pile, feeling Kei’s lingering gaze on her. She didn’t look up or say anything more.
It was nearly ten in the evening when Haruki took out the keys from Kei’s doorknob and made sure his office was locked. Kei had left half an hour prior at his sister’s call, and Haruki had politely refused when he offered to drive her home along the way.
“I know this isn’t the first time I’m letting you lock up after me, but are you sure you’re going to be fine?” he’d asked on his way to the door. “It’s already pretty late.”
“Mr. Okada can walk me home,” she’d said, referring to the security guard posted at Knights Hall. The kind man had walked her home on several occasions, and it had been weeks since that incident with the hooded stranger anyway. She hadn’t so much as had a whiff of suspicious activity ever since. Perhaps it really happened to be a random, unfortunate encounter all along. The idea of her being targeted just seemed so preposterous now.
The faculty room was already deserted with most of the lights off, save for a faint illumination coming from the blinds of an office at the far end of the room. Someone else was burning the midnight oil, it seemed.
Haruki headed for the brightly lit hallway outside, frowning at the empty spot by the building entrance where Okada usually stood.
“Where’s Kei?”
She tensed at the voice behind her. There was no need to turn around to know who it was.
“He’s gone home,” she replied, her back still on him. “I thought you already left?”
“I was just about to leave.”
“Right,” she said, echoing the flatness in his voice. “Well, goodnight then.”
Her grip tightened on the strap of her sling bag as she began walking towards the exit. The sound of her own footsteps had never been any louder to her ears.
His deep voice bounced off the walls. “How are you getting home?”
“Walking,” she answered without stopping.
The summer evening breeze was warm and slightly humid as soon as she stepped outside. The faint smell of wet grass reached her nostrils, providing a welcome distraction from her encounter with Ryou inside. The asphalt was wet with rain she hadn’t noticed had fallen.
Haruki descended the steps. She needed to get home soon, in case it rained again.
The glass doors behind her opened again. At the top of the stairs stood Ryou, looking down on her, saying nothing.
His steady, somber gaze was a silent offer to walk her home, to which she neither accepted nor refused. For seconds they only stared at each other, until she took the first step toward the campus gates.
The walk back to her apartment felt like the longest ten minutes of her life. She’d only looked back once to find Ryou keeping a safe distance from her, hands in his pockets as he walked behind her. Only the sound of his heels reminded her he was still there, ever silent, with her nape feeling both warm and cold from the gaze that surely never left her back.
She lingered by the entryway of her apartment at their arrival. The keys in his pocket jangled as he stopped an arm’s breadth from her.
“Thanks for walking me home,” she said, still not facing him.
No response. He probably wouldn’t say anything more for as long as she refused to give him another glance.
Till the very end, Haruki did not indulge him. She walked up the front doors and looked straight ahead, even as Ryou remained unmoving from the corner of her eye.
Ryou turned on his heel as soon as Haruki disappeared inside.
The pounding in his temples had been so incessant that he now felt the beginnings of a headache. He didn’t know what he wanted to achieve by walking Haruki home, even though the lesser part of him had been raring to pick a fight only moments ago.
Where’s Kei? Isn’t he around to send you home anymore? had burned unspoken on his tongue. She’d been laughing with Kei a while ago like they’d become the best of friends. Each time he saw her in and out of Kei’s office was like a jab in the chest, mocking him, taunting him to do something terrible. The last few weeks had drained him of his strength exercising his self-control. He didn’t know what he was thinking, bothering to send her home tonight, not when she barely seemed to tolerate his presence.
Of course. She fucking hates you, a voice in his mind reminded him. True enough, pigs would fly on the day she forgave him.
Ryou made a left turn on his way back, but the corner of his eye caught a presence standing on the front steps of Haruki’s apartment. He doubled back, squinting his eyes to take a closer look, until none other than Haruki’s presence actualized before him. Her fingers were tight on the handrail, eyes too wide; her chest rising and falling in rapid breaths.
His hand impulsively reached for her arm. “Haruki, what’s going on?”
She swallowed, lips parting, and his ears strained to hear words that never came out. He grabbed her inside and her body followed like a rag doll; her gaze still too terrified and distant as they went up the flight of stairs to her room.
Haruki’s open door was visible even from the far end of the corridor. Her legs refused to budge when he pulled her again. Reluctantly he released her, only to dash towards her room. He last saw her stock still by the stairwell until he froze at the sight of her apartment.
Haruki’s room was completely ransacked. Her bed was turned over, windows smashed, with shards of glass and clothes all over the place. More than the blatant fact that the place had been trashed not to rob but to terrorize, it was the red paint all over her wall, smeared haphazardly with the words:
You’re going to die.
Ryou tore his gaze from the room and ran back for Haruki. Her hands were clammy when he took hold of them.
“Haruki,” he coaxed, placing a palm against her cheek. Gently he tilted her face to look at him, and finally her bewildered gaze focused on him.
“You’re not safe here,” he murmured. “Do you have anywhere else to stay?”
He gave her hand a firm squeeze when she didn’t respond. She shook her head as the first tears began to well in her eyes.
“Let me get you out of here.” The request left his lips too soon for him to brace himself for her refusal.
Haruki’s whisper was cracked. “Please.”
That was all it took for him to take her hand in his and guide her out of the apartment.
to be continued