ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜱɪx

୨⎯ Who am I to You? ⎯୧

Morning woke me up as the bright rays flashed my dozing eyes. Sluggishly rising from the bed, I have easily forgotten that he's sleeping here too. "Haitani, wake up, It's 7 AM already." I said, tapping his shoulder lightly. "When do you plan on leaving?"

I then hear him squirming around, regaining his consciousness. "Just... five more minutes, Ran-nii" He uttered with a raspy voice. The audacity. Did he forget as well? I just let him be, thinking it would be a waste of time pestering him.

I opened my wardrobe and searched for a comfortable outfit to wear for the day. I glanced at him and seemed like he was still heavily sleeping in his dreams. When will he wake up? As if he owns the place. It was about time to head outside, so I took this opportunity to change my clothes here. Fortunately, he hadn't still woken up once I was done changing.

Then, I heard Takeomi's voice approaching my bedroom. Remembering about Haitani's proposed idea yesterday, I quickly jumped back in bed and stayed beside him. I was so determined in witnessing his crazed expression.

"Haitani, wake up." I whispered as I held him by the cheeks with my face on top of his. "Takeomi's coming here. Don't forget about your silly idea."

He finally opened his eyes only to gaze at me. "Y/n...?"

"Y/n, where did you leave the-!" Takeomi was put to a pause as he saw the both of us. I was simply caressing Haitani's cheeks with both of my hands as he was sitting calmly on the bed right in front of me. It was a basic trick to make it seem like we kissed just now.

I then shifted my view to Takeomi's direction and said, "Oh, what were you saying, brother?" It was exactly how I vividly imagined it in my head. He went ballistic, shouting at me, "What the hell is going on here?! You're now becoming a- Tch."

Takeomi pointed at Haitani as he said, "You. Leave now. Remember whose household this is, Y/n." before the big brother left the scene to go on about other important matters that he needed to handle.

I spoke under my breath with a smug expression, "The Akashi household. Not yours only, that is."

Haitani released an uncontrollable laugh he was holding in. I, too, began to laugh along once I heard his quiet giggles. "I'm starting to see you as an actual friend, Haitani." I said after sharing a couple chuckles with him.

He replied, leaning his back on the stacked pillows, "I don't know if I should be happy learning about that or be sad because of your distrust at first."

I scoffed, "Well, how could I not? You had a very different presence from the first time we met compared to now. You're being silly and so unserious like a child."

"That's because we were enemies back then. We don't belong to the same team." Haitani tilted his head as he struck me a cunning gaze, displaying his playfulness. I rested my head next to his as I exhaled a breath. How did we end up being like this?

"Oh, Haitani..." I uttered without a thought inside my mind. He then sat up straight and looked at me directly, suggesting, "Will you stop calling me by my surname? I think it's about time you start calling me by my first name."

"Your first name?"

"Don't tell me you don't know. Y/n, we've been hanging out for like a month now!"

I remained silent, staring at the ceiling instead of his eyes. The Haitani plopped back down on the stacked pillows and said with an upset tone, "Rindou. You can just call me Rin."

"Hmm? Just like how your big brother calls you." I suddenly pointed out with a bright tone in my voice. He snapped at me, saying in a surprised expression, "So you do know my first name!"

"I'm sure 'Rin-rin' is not considered a first name. There's a thing called a nickname. It's a cute one though." I laughed harder that my jaw was starting to hurt. "At least you know my name. You really are a true friend, Rinnie!"

"Rinnie..?" The guy was simply flabbergasted. He didn't know how else to end this conversation with him winning. "You're annoyingly- annoying today." Rinnie said with such low confidence in his voice.

"And you're stupidly funny! Haha!"

Rinnie got off the bed as he said with a flustered expression, "I'll be leaving now! This conversation is done." He shut the door behind him without saying goodbye or any final message to jab my feelings.

When I thought everything had finally come to a peace with him out of the picture, Rinnie came back and let my bedroom door ajar, saying, "Uhm... you can keep calling me that. But, uh, only if you want to!"

Back in school, I finally got the chance to have a decent chat with Yuzuha. We sat down on one of the cafeteria tables unoccupied and ate lunch together.

It was nice to retrace the steps to narrate it to my friend, Yuzu. "You don't have to worry about me. Rinnie's been keeping me company while you two were gone."

"Rinnie? Ah, you mean the Haitani you're talking about. I see you're actually good friends with him now. How is it?" Yuzuha said with such an interested look on her face as she carefully listened to each of my short stories to tell.

I answered, "He's fun to be with. It feels like a dream that everything is just in my head but this is reality, Yuzu! All of this is real, right?"

She patted my shoulder and said with certainty in her voice, "Of course it is. I'm so happy that you found another person like me and Seishu! Isn't this such great timing? For him to waltz in your life when Seishu and I were unable to be with you?"

My eyes were full of sunshine the moment I heard her response. Yuzuha never fails to bring me back to my feet and I'm grateful to the universe for making us acquaintances, for having this driving force that bonded us as great friends.

"Where is Seishu by the way? Can he not join us?" Yuzuha asked to which I pulled out my phone and showed her the message sent to me by him. I shortly said, "He can't make it today."

"...As expected." Yuzuha sighed. "Well, that's fine. More girl talk for us then. Now, you have to tell me everything that's happened between you and him, okay!"

Tomorrow's graduation day. I didn't really want to put much thought into it but it was weird. All of a sudden, I was becoming more and more sensitive as I thought about it and its aftermath.

My heart would begin to sink to the bottom of my stomach whenever I hear the words "graduation" or "graduating" or just anything related to it. After spending so much time together with those who I became friends with, will we ever get a chance to be as we are right now?

"Y/n! Y/n!" said by Yuzuha who was panting from all the running just to catch up with me from behind. I turned around to face her, saying with a heightened voice, "Yuzu? What's wrong?"

"Hai...tani."

"What about Rin-"

"You should cut ties with him from now on. I heard a lot of bad news about him! Plus, he has a girlfriend, Y/n!"

I was speechless. I didn't know what to say, heck even what to think. Why are all of these coming to me just now?

"I mean, he is an infamous delinquent, Yuzu. How bad can he get? Besides, I've been friends with him for a few months and I don't think he's that bad on my end."

I don't know why I'm defending this guy right now. She doesn't prank me like this. I usually spot it from the get-go, but something in her eyes made me take her words seriously.

Yuzuha continued to warn me about him. That he wasn't who I think he is. That he wasn't the person that he is. That he was just there for fun. Not for the friendship.

Later that day, Rinnie and I met just like usual. He would sneak up behind me and talk out of nowhere. "Yo, Y/n. We'll be graduating tomorrow, huh. Any thoughts about it?"

"Not much." I said, speaking to him in a friendly manner. "Why do you care so much about graduation that you wanna talk about it? It's not like you come here to learn."

Rinnie commented in a sassy tone, "Well... yeah. I only come to school just so I could talk to you. School is boring without you, you know?"

I then paused my tracks with the books over my chest as I held them with both arms. My grip tightened as I hesitated, saying, "Do you have a girlfriend?" There was silence between us. I turned around to face him and continued to ask, "Why didn't you tell me you have a girlfriend... Rinnie?"

"I don't have one."

"I don't like it when people lie to me."

He exhaled a breath and spoke as if we're dealing with some kind of joke, "Okay, yes I'm fake dating someone currently. It's not a big deal!"

I was quite disturbed by his manner of speaking. "Fake dating?!" I exclaimed with a triggered expression. "Does the girl know about this whole fake dating?"

"Oh come on, Y/n. This means nothing to you. What are you fighting for?"

My hand balled to a fist. I lowered my voice and questioned him, "What do you take us, girls, for? Do you see us as just playthings that you could replace whenever you like?"

He took a step forward, confronting me with a heated expression, "Why are you so bothered by it?"

"Because..!" I didn't know what words to let go of.

"Because what?" He raised an eyebrow. Then, he clasped his hands and pointed out, "Oh, I get it. You've fallen for me, aren't you?"

I uttered as shame covered half of my face, "I was starting to like you..."

"As I thought so. We're only friends. We have always been! Nothing more, nothing less." He simply replied. I then argued back, saying, "B-But! After everything we've been through? The nickname, the reason you come to school, and that night-!"

He raised his voice at me. One thing he has never done before. "Don't even get me started with that one night you let me sleep in your room! Tell me, is this your first time in love? How easy can you fall in love with someone?"

"How dare you judge me when you can't even truly love a person! 'Fake dating' bullshit! What do you know about love, Haitani? Huh?" I spoke, nudging him by his shoulder with my hand.

He calmed down his tone but was still annoyed by the fact I brought this all up and transpired into a huge mess. "Loving you would be kinda... lame. Entertainment's over, Akashi. We no longer know each other starting today."

He was walking away along with the pleasant memories we shared together as good friends. He was starting to fade away from my sight... so I chased after him, screaming my heart out, "Haitani Rindou! Was I only just for your entertainment from the beginning?!"

However, he did not bother stopping and looking my way. I continued to shout at him, begging for him to look at me one last time, "Answer, damn it! Haitani!"

At the end, I was drowned by my tears that unfortunately turned into fuming anger I felt towards him and it carried on for years until I could no longer hold it in.

He brought me sunshine but he also took it away from me. How cruel this person is.

♥ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴄᴏɴᴛɪɴᴜᴇᴅ...