ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜰᴏᴜʀᴛᴇᴇɴ

୨⎯ Exhume a Now-Cracked Decanter ⎯୧

Wow. Another night with him isn't what I really expected. Life is always unpredictable, huh. I have never guessed that a random conversation inside his car would end up having an impact on our relationship, or to how I see him at least.

What are we even right now? Definitely not friends, I can see that. Enemies? ...That's maybe just from my perspective. Huh, what am I to him...? It's quite obvious that he is, I don't know, obsessed with me? But is it all real this time? How will I know if it is real? What sign will fate give me to identify the difference between real or fake?

"Hey, Y/n." Mari calls me as she stands behind the kitchen counter, washing the dishes. I get up from lying down on the couch, staring into nothing, and notice my phone ringing. "You finally noticed it. It's been buzzing for 7 minutes. Maybe it's urgent?"

When I reached the mansion yesterday, it was roughly 8:30 PM and I found Mari grumbling to herself as she fixed the error she mentioned by the gate. "Hey, how's everything? Is it still a work in progress?" I asked.

She turned around and said in an out-of-breath manner, "I'm glad you're back home safe. It's just, uh, tricky. You know I'm no tech-savvy. I guess I will deal with this tomorrow."

"You sure we won't be fed to the wolves with the doors wide open tonight?" I joked around, hoping to alleviate the stress she dealt with in my absence. Mari simply chuckled and escorted me back inside the mansion with her arm wrapped around my waist.

"Nothing will happen to you, dear. I promise. All you need to do is to relax and detach from anything else but yourself."

It was one of the few nights where I didn't get much sleep when I was certain it would be a quiet night with assurance of Mari's words. In the back of my head, there was something hindering me from dozing off and wandering onto my pitch dark dream.

"Hello? Who's this-"

"Y/n!" Rindou exclaims upon hearing that I have picked up the call after a few rings. "I'm happy to hear your voice."

Sighing, I complained with a tired-as in tired of listening to this guy-tone, "What do you need, Haitani? You're ruining my after lunch nap."

"You sound like a helpless grandma. It's one in the afternoon! What are you doing taking a nap? Anyways, back to my purpose of calling you."

"I'm... listening." I say with a clueless mind. "As long as it's important."

His voice then switches to a calm and composed behavior. "Well... I don't know how to properly say this on the phone so can you come over to this place? Here, I'll send you the location."

A notification pops up on my phone right away and I see it's a private bar that can only be accessed with people who have money: artists, doctors, models, or just simply a rich person. "We just talked yesterday, remember? What is it that you want to talk about now?"

"I miss you, Y/n." Rindou says with a dragging, upset tone which he quickly follows up with, "Okay, I'll stop." as he notices the silence I give to him. Then, he briefly explains, "It's just... I think you need to hear what I have to say. So, can you come?"

"Only if you pay for my drinks."

It's an hour drive to this place and when I realize it, I get stuck in traffic which further delays my arrival. Why is he even at a bar in the afternoon right about when lunch has settled in? Is he trying to get us both drunk and then what?

I don't plan on buying anything. I am curious about what he has to say since it sounded pretty mysterious yet also concrete like it is about himself, the things that are factual. Now, this actually makes me look like I'm hungry for knowledge about this guy.

Once I arrive at the location he sent me, I park my car right in front of the building and enter through the front door. "Welcome." as the bartender greets me with an unbothered stance. There by the far left, I see that weird hairstyle that no one else has but him.

Confronting him, I ask as I take my seat beside him, "Hey, are you drunk already?"

Rindou lifts his head from resting his forehead on the table and looks at me with sleepy eyes. "What? No, I only drank one so far. It took you a while to get here so I just grabbed myself a drink."

"You look tipsy, Haitani. Come talk to me when you are completely sober." I say while getting up but he stops me by holding my wrist firmly. I stare into his eyes and now I can quite get a good look at his face. It is telling me something I am slowly putting into pieces.

He utters with a serious gesture, "Stay."

I follow his command and wait for him to speak again, hoping for this whole thing to reveal itself. I'll let him lead the conversation since it was him who made me come all the way just to have a chat with me.

"You want any drink?"

I disagree fast, saying, "No. I want to hear you talk, Haitani. What were you trying to say in that call?"

"Oh, right." Rindou utters before taking a sip of, I assume, alcohol in this glass he has been holding when I got here. "You know, yesterday after I drove you to your house, a woman named Homura Rain approached me."

Absolutely great. The least person that I wanna talk about is of course the topic of this conversation. "What about her?"

He looks at me and says with a straight face, "That random encounter I had with her made me realize that the reason all my efforts are flopping is because I haven't explained it to you yet."

My mind goes to a blank page. I do not know what this guy is talking about. Heck, he might even be speaking gibberish to me right now under the influence of alcohol. "What is 'it'? Just get to the point, will you?"

"Rain is the person I fake dated back in high school."

I feel something shatter inside me. Homura Rain?! The ignorant person I loathe??

Did I just completely shut down by hearing those words come out of his mouth? In this exact moment, all of my sweet memories of him, us together, comes running back in my veins like multiple flashbacks sucking me inside a coffin.

Rindou continues to explain, "Back in high school, Rain asked me out and my seventeen year old brain thought, 'I can probably have fun for a while with this girl and just ditch her afterwards.' I didn't know what I was getting into. I thought relationships would be so easy to come and go, but turns out, I was dead wrong."

"Was she just not your type after all that's why you called it off?" I ask but he shakes his head and answers, "She's the one who called it off. Not me. Because... I have been talking to other girls aside from her."

I narrow my eyes at him, sounding disbelieved by his reply, "Uh-huh..."

Rindou exclaims with the alcohol almost spilling, "I know I sound like a complete douchebag and I was! Seventeen year old me is just a guy who flirts with girls thanks to my brother's influence. I thought I could be like him, 'One with the Ladies', but it's so hard pretending to be someone I am not."

Keeping the conversation, I ask another question, "Did you have feelings for her though?"

He places the glass on the table and replies, "No, never. Maybe the seventeen year old me would most likely say yes but it's absolutely a no. I pretended in front of Rain all the time to see how she would react to my positive responses."

I am stumped. I don't know what else to say. I mean, I appreciate him for being honest with me about all this, but I can't find my words to say anything to him. Is it okay to know about all this when I have dug the past behind me? It is like reopening a wound with blood patiently waiting to stream.

Before I know it, Rindou speaks with a sulking tone, "I regret many things I have done as a teenager. I regret all of it but the one that hurts the most is if only I had been patient, we wouldn't be talking about this now with such a dark atmosphere."

"Are you saying... you had feelings for me? But I thought..."

"I was stupid for letting you go on your own. I was immature for denying my feelings for you, thinking staying friends with you is better above anything else."

I shout, anger rises to my head, "No. You-!" but he cut me off, speaking with guilt written all over his face, "I know. I mentioned 'friends' but what actually happened was the opposite of that. I had too much pride in myself that I thought I would be fine with you gone."

Tear ducts are finally awake as I can feel it rising towards the exit. I proceed to shout at him, "Why now?! Why not back then?? You could have easily won me back if you came back to clear things up. But you just disappeared as if you never existed! I would have easily forgiven you back then, but you led me to believe I was all for your stupid, ridiculous entertainment...!"

"That's why I'm trying my best now to do everything in my power for you to see that I have changed for the better! I have and still am changing for you! Please, trust me when I say it. It has always been you, Y/n. I have realized that after 8 years, you are still living in my head."

Why does everything unfold in this way? Why couldn't it just be plain and simple and doesn't have to reach to a point where we are shouting inside a bar?

It is not that hard to please me as a teen who was needy for love and attention from people who weren't my so-called family. However, it is totally different now that I no longer have to stress myself thinking about my brother or my unknown future.

"All of this is an act, right?" I say with a trace of tear slipping down my eye. "You have nothing to do, you said it yourself! So you're playing with me again. And you will do it over and over again until you are satisfied. Until you have broken me to death. Then, you will find another-"

"Stop that, Y/n!" He raises his voice. "You know deep down that I can't do that to you. I won't. Because what I am feeling towards you is real." Rindou then grips both of my shoulders and says, "Everything up to now is real!"

I pull away his touch and grit my teeth, "Prove to me that you are real, Haitani." Then, I walk faster than before as I wipe my uncontrollable tears, escaping his sight, but he chases after me, calling my name. "Y/n! Wait! Please, just hear me out!"

As we are both outside the private bar, I shout at him, sobbing, "Can't you just let go of me for once?! I want to be alone!" Having trouble grabbing my car keys out of my satchel, I take a deep breath and prepare for his long speech of apology and promises that I do not want to hear right now.

I slowly turn around, hoping to end all this and go straight back home, but the moment I face that direction, someone places a bag over my head and knocks me out before I could even attempt to scream for help. It all happened in under half a minute.

♥ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴄᴏɴᴛɪɴᴜᴇᴅ...