20th Year of December

The Man Surrounded By Cats

Middle schooler can be very cruel at times, whether it is towards their peers or even someone else. Tooru had heard a lot of stories about Tatsumaki Satoru, their janitor. Most of it he's pretty sure is just some baseless rumour based on the man's loner attitude. Tatsumaki is a divorced man with a permanent frown on his face. He doesn't talk much, only glare whenever someone stared at him too long. Tooru isn't the type to follow baseless rumours but tried to stay away from that man as much as he could.

But the moment he saw Tobio with Tatsumaki, he instinctively called out to him,

"Tobio-chan!"

Tobio looks up and his eyes seem to sparkle at the sight of Tooru. He ran towards Tooru after bowing to Tatsumaki and Tooru shudders at the glare Tatsumaki is giving him. Immediately he put his arm around Tobio's shoulder and drag him inside. He can still feel the glare at the back of his head.

"Tobio-chan, what are you doing out here with that man?"

Tobio looked at him innocently, "I'm almost always with Tatsumaki-san during lunch. He teaches me how to get along with the cats,"

Tooru frowns, "Don't you hang out with your classmates or something? What about Kindaichi and Kunimi?"

Tobio lowers his eyes to the ground and clenches his fist on his uniform, "I don't really have lunch with my classmates... Kindaichi and Kunimi are in a different class than me so sometimes we don't hang out during lunch..."

Tooru sighs. Of course, the quiet and volleyball obsessed Tobio wouldn't have friends. Even during practice, he only sticks to Kindaichi and Kunimi.

"Well, you shouldn't just hang out with strangers. Didn't your mother ever teach you about stranger danger?"

Tobio looks annoyed, "Tatsumaki-san is not a stranger! He's my friend. And I don't know where else to go to during lunch..."

'You could have lunch with me,'

"Well, not my problem. But you should definitely work on your friendship skill, Tobio-chan. Being a loner won't do you any good. Bye!"

He should have just said what was on his mind that day.

Two months after Tobio's body was found, a new rumour surface and Tatsumaki Satoru's life was forever destroyed.

Apparently, Tooru wasn't the only one who had seen Tobio hanging out with Tatsumaki and thus Tatsumaki Satoru became the first suspect for Kageyama Tobio's case. He was released a few days later but the accusations by the people around him remain.

Tooru had passed by Tatsumaki's house once and it was horribly vandalised. Kidnapper, murderer, child rapist and other derogatory words painted violently in red on his house as the man silently cleans it up. Even with no solid evidence, it was easy enough to push all the blame on the man isolated by the whole community.

After that Tatsumaki moves out of Miyagi and Tooru never heard from him again.

He wonders what happens to the lonely man who was often surrounded by cats.

***

The scene in front of him was uncanny to the one in his memory. Tobio seems to be talking animatedly with Tatsumaki while the sullen man kept quiet and nodded once in a while.

"Tobio-chan!"

Tobio looked up in surprise and his eyes light up at the sight of Tooru and Tobio waves at him though he remains sitting next to Tatsumaki. Tooru moves closer and he warily eyed Tatsumaki who's now looking at Tooru with an unreadable look.

"Oikawa-san! What are you doing here?"

"I met Kunimi and Kindaichi on my way for lunch and they were looking for you. We're about to go on lunch together,"