ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜰɪᴠᴇ

୨⎯ ...You're Such a Fever Dream ⎯୧

How long is it before we all graduate? Right, about four months left before graduation day. That means I'm turning into a fully grown adult sooner than I expected, then I can finally be independent and leave that hell of a big brother. He's an adult, I'm sure he won't be needing me. Who am I to him anyway?

I found myself relaxing in the cool breeze by the fountain of the school grounds. It's the center of the establishment so it's easy for people to be spotted. I don't know what I was doing. I was just sitting down on one of the benches resting by the fountain, drifting away at the light blue sky with puffy white clouds. "The weather's great today, I see." I uttered with a blank head.

"It sure is."

"Mhm." I followed along.

Then I noticed that voice, so I looked to my left to see it was him, Haitani Rindou. I snapped out of my relaxed state and began questioning him, "What are you doing here? Do you know how long it has been since you last attended classes?"

"Aww, did you miss me, Y/n?" Rindou bantered. "It's only been three weeks. I'm sure you're doing fine as always."

Suspicions arose in my stomach. I raised my eyebrow at him as I responded, "I'm fine. What's with this behavior you're wearing, Haitani?" Everything about this didn't seem right to me. First, his sudden appearance and second, his cordial demeanor towards me.

"Can't I see my friend after a long while?" Rindou replied, tilting his head as if he was an innocent victim of my uncertainties. I stood up, saying, "I'll be leaving now. You don't look like you're here for a good talk."

"Ah, wait-" His cellphone then rang continuously until he picked up the call. Distancing himself from where we were just now, I stayed to see where this was headed. I accidentally sat down on his bag that flopped open on the bench. "...Shoujo manga?" I said under my breath as I unintentionally saw the content of his school bag. Is this a part of his interests?

Once he was done with his abrupt call, Rindou came back to a girl reading a manga he was a bit familiar with. He snatched the manga out of my hands and spoke in a flustered tone, "W-What are you doing with this?!"

"It's just in your nature to always be rude, huh. I was getting to the good part!" I argued.

Rindou, embarrassed as ever, raised his tone at me as he answered back, "What..?? You shouldn't take my stuff-actually this isn't even mine. It belongs to my brother."

"Uh-huh. There's no need to hide your true self, Haitani." I replied, standing up from the bench and walking towards him. Teasing him a bit more, I continued, "We all have our hobbies, right? You shouldn't feel ashamed for having interest in shoujo manga."

"I told you it belongs to my brother, Ran!" He then exhaled a deep breath as he faced away from my direction. "I shouldn't have accepted his request to buy the latest volume for him."

Wow, he looks terribly humiliated by this. What a child...

Rindou grabbed his school bag and shoved the manga back inside, treating it like it wasn't anything special. Then he brought up a topic, though upholding his embarrassed face. "Where are your friends by the way? It's rare for them to not be here with you."

"Are you stalking me or something?" I joked around.

He said, squinting his eyes at me. "Yeah, right."

It then hit me that feeling of melancholy as that thought about graduation from earlier and the idea of not being able to be with them for a while popped inside my head. "You see," I said with a beating heart. "Seishu has been recruited into a gang recently while Yuzuha has been busy with her paperworks. She's going to America to pursue her dreams. As for me, I don't know what I should do for my future."

All I could ever imagine was me going nowhere, staying somewhere hidden from the world. I didn't have any interests at all. No dream career. No dream goals. No nothing. It was like I was accidentally placed here with no missions to accomplish. What am I here for? To have a never-ending argument with Takeomi? To keep living in the dark, finding my worth?

Rindou suddenly handed me the shoujo manga I was reading that apparently belonged to his brother. "Why are you giving me this?" I asked.

"You looked like you were enjoying yourself reading this." He simply answered.

I was pushing away the manga in his hands, saying, "Doesn't this belong to your brother? I can't just-"

"Y/n, I can lie." The Haitani grinned. "I'll just say the store ran out of stock before I could buy one."

I was stunned to hear his response. Why would he go all the way in giving me, a "friend" he doesn't really know yet, to trust me with something that is basically valuable to his brother? All of this didn't make sense to me. This meeting, his friendliness, just everything up to this point.

I accepted his gift of friendship at the end, thinking this wouldn't end unless I grabbed it out of his hands. "Thank you." I uttered. My trust for him wasn't really up there yet, but maybe he wasn't so bad after all.

Before I knew it, he would tag along, following me behind my back wherever I went like some stray cat that I once fed. Rindou would come around the corner and inadvertently jumpscare me.

"Hello again, Haitani. Why did you come here this time?" I questioned with doubt in my head. I was about to head home only to be stopped by the school gate because of this guy.

Rindou, with his usual grin, answered, "Not with your friends again? Then why don't I fill in their places for now?" I turned him down with no hesitation, saying, "Sorry, but I'm heading home already. There's no reason for me to go elsewhere when it's not with them."

"Wow. Does everything have to have a meaning to it? Why not just go because you want to? Besides, you'll be safe no matter what thanks to me!"

With annoyance filling my head, I aggressively pinched his cheeks impulsively. "No thank you, Haitani! Go find other people who can tolerate your childish behavior."

As I released my grip on his cheeks, I could see him gently caressing them. Rindou forced a smile at me and said, "You're quite the funny one. What is it with you? How come you aren't like other people I've met?"

I remained silent as I stared at him with a baffled expression. He continued along his rant, saying, "All of them knew me for my big brother. Just by my surname, they would assume I am Ran or they would come looking for him."

He then paused when he noticed I was deeply listening to what he was blabbering about. With a palm covering the side of his face, Rindou grunted, "Ugh, I don't even know what I'm saying anymore. Forget it. You said you were going home already, right?"

I shortly nodded.

"Then you'll be fine on your own?" He assured, though he sounded irritated. "See you around, Y/n." Rindou left the place before I expected him to leave. I thought this would last longer than the time we had a random encounter.

Later that night as I was all set to go to bed, I heard a soft thump on my window. Curious about what caused that random noise, I got up from my comfortable seat and slightly opened the curtains. Peeking from the side, I saw the unexpected Haitani right outside my window. He waved me a hand and pointed at me, most likely signaling for me to slide open it.

"What are you doing here, Haitani?" I questioned with a grumpy voice. He simply chuckled, speaking in a casual pleasant tone, "Y/n, can I stay for the night?"

Thinking how late it already was, I gave in to the guy's request. "Alright, alright. Come in."

"That was... unexpectedly easy." Rindou was surprised as to how smooth this was on his end. "Aren't you, uhm, you know...?"

"What?"

He continued his hesitance, finding it difficult to deliver his message, "Cautious?"

I didn't know where he was getting at. What's weird about helping someone? ...But, this is a guy. But I also kinda know him, so it's fine. Right?

"You know, that I might take advantage of you?"

"Will you?"

He was taken aback by my comebacks at him. "No! That was just... sorry if I weirded you out." He seemed guilty with his remarks. What was he trying to point out, really? Breaking the awkward silence, I invited him inside without doubting him. This must be the first time I had no suspicions raised against him. Well, I probably didn't care anymore. I just wanted to rest after a long tiring day.

Sitting by the fluffy rug on the floor, Rindou brought up a topic. "Hey, I heard you have an older brother?"

Great, now he wants to talk about him. I plopped down on my bed, lying on my back as I stared at the ceiling. I hoped this conversation would end soon. "What about it?" I asked. "Are you interested in him?"

"I was just wondering what your brother would do if he'd find out about this." Rindou replied, coming closer to me and sitting down on the edge of my single bed.

I rolled to my left side, sighing, "Takeomi doesn't really care." Then, I felt Rindou lying down as well the same way I was a second ago. He commented, "Why? Have you slept with a guy friend before?" I couldn't imagine how he looked right now as a mischievous plan was definitely cooking up in his thoughts.

I simply answered, "No. He doesn't care about me, that's all."

"Hmm." Rindou noised. "Do you wanna see his reaction then? I bet it'd be amusing for both you and me."

I turned to the other side, now completely facing him with a grin on my face as I agreed to this crazy plan of his. "That's not a bad idea actually. Wait, how did you end up here anyway?"

"Oh, you know, I had a fight with my brother but we'll be fine by tomorrow morning. He can't go on a day without contacting me." Rindou answered. He didn't seem pretty affected by this, which was most probably a common thing between the Haitani brothers.

He then added, "Thanks for this, Y/n." as he flicked my forehead. Rindou then proceeded to sleep snugly on my bed beside me. He sure did make himself at home, resting on my bed and all.

"What's with you..." I whispered with a puzzled look, gazing at his snoring face.

♥ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴄᴏɴᴛɪɴᴜᴇᴅ...