Stop Digging Your Own Grave! (BL)

Chapter 30: Double Date

   We decided that this was a good opportunity to do some impulse shopping then watch a movie in the new theater and get boba afterwards. And since we were spending the day together, this would be considered our double date.
   "What store do you wanna go to first?" I asked Hayato, who was walking beside me.
   "I'm leaning towards anime merch, what about you?" He replied.
   "I'm cool with anywhere you wanna go." I said, allowing Hayato to drag me anywhere he pleases.
   "Okay, we'll buy some anime merch then!" Hayato said, grabbing the cuff of my sleeve and hauling me towards whatever anime-related store he had just seen on the right.
   15 minutes later we came out with a bunch of shirts and other various items like keychains and iron-on embroidery patches. Hayato seemed content with his 5 shirts, 2 hoodies, and 4 iron-on patches. I had 3 hoodies and one iron-on patch, I wouldn't overdo it because Toza was the only one of us with a wallet and I wasn't about to make Hayato or Hiro pay for anything I bought.
   "Let's go buy some video games! I wanna get this awesome game that replicates sword art online but you can log out!" Hayato continued to drag me in the direction of the video game store.
   Then, something caught my attention. As we neared the game store, I watched a familiar face emerge from its doorway. Dark hair, liquid gold eyes, pale skin... Mizuki.
   In only a second of realization, I jerked my hand back, causing Hayato to rip my sleeve and me to fall to the ground.
   "Takahashi wh-" Hayato started but I backed up, flung myself off the floor, and bolted in the opposite direction. I needed to get away, I felt as though my life depended on it.
   After what seemed like a lifetime of running, I finally felt it was safe to try and relax. I sat down on the cool tile of the men's restroom in a stall, I felt paralyzed. Seeing his face made everything more painful, and I knew he had more information about me than just my phone number and where I lived.
   I heard the bathroom door creak open, and I froze. 'It's not him, it's not him, it's not him.' I told myself over and over, hearing the footsteps grow closer to my stall.
   "Sumi, you in here?" It was Toza, thank god it wasn't him! I opened the door of my stall slowly to reveal Toza standing in front of it. He looked so worried.
   He leaned forward and hugged me, telling me everything was alright and not to go running off like that again.
   "I-I'm sorry, Toza..." I choked out, clenching his shirt and crying into it. "M-Mizuki was e-exiting that store... a-and I saw h-him..."
   Toza pulled me away from his chest and looked at me, seeing the pure horror in my gaze.
   "I won't let him touch you, and whenever you see him let me know before you go running off, okay?" He said, making sure I had heard him. I nodded, and pulled him back into a hug.
   The bathroom door creaked open again, Hayato and Hiro emerged with grim expressions.
   "Takahashi, what the hell-" Hiro covered Hayato's mouth before he could finish, then Hayato noticed the tears streaming down my face and how I was trembling like a leaf. "Takahashi, what happened?" Hayato asked, running over to me and Toza, kneeling on the floor beside me.
   So I explained everything, meeting Mizuki, his terrifying aura, the phone call from a couple days ago, then the real reason why I had called Hayato to hang out in the first place.
   "Gosh Takahashi, if I had known I would've comforted you more. I feel awful for not seeing that." Hayato confessed, avoiding my gaze.
   "Hayato, you helped distract me from all of that just by being yourself. If you had coddled me I wouldn't have gotten over it as quickly. I realize now that it was unavoidable and eventually I would have to think about it." I said, bringing Hayato's gaze back up to me. "Thank you."
   "How about we just go get some Boba, sneak it into our movie, and get the hell outta here?" Hiro said, offering me a hand. I took it and nodded, Hiro lifted me up to my feet. "If push comes to shove, Kitozawa and I will step in. We can protect you."
   "Ah, excuse me but I'm the one with abs in this relationship. I don't mean to be rude babe, but are you planning on throwing a scalpel at them?" Hayato butted in, resting his hands on his hips.
   "I'm a surgeon, and I'm not going to risk having to operate on my boyfriend if things go south. The point is that we can help." Hiro replied.
   "Guys, I really appreciate it, but I can take care of myself. I might have a phobia of Mizuki, but that doesn't mean I can't either run like hell or fight him if it comes to that." I said, and walked out of the bathroom.
   Toza, Hayato, and Hiro followed me out. Hayato ran ahead to catch up with me while we walked down the corridor to the boba place he had mentioned earlier. I couldn't shake the feeling of being watched, maybe I was just paranoid or still in shock, but it wasn't a very appeasing feeling.
   "Here we are. The world's greatest boba place." Hayato exclaimed, stopping in front of a cute cafe-styled building.
   We entered and all sat down at a table by the window, I had to sit on the side by the wall though because if I saw Mizuki through the window I would freak out and if Mizuki saw me through the window he might feel tempted to enter and mess up our day.
   We didn't stay long, we just ordered and waited for it to arrive so we could take it with us. I ordered blended strawberry with tapioca pearls, Toza ordered a blended Taro with popping boba, Hayato ordered blended honeydew with rainbow jelly, and Hiro ordered iced milk tea with tapioca pearls.
   "I didn't think you were into honeydew Hayato, you know it reflects on your personality right?" I said, avoiding the elephant in the room.
   "Psh, no way. What would honeydew mean, that I'm a big softie or something?" Hayato rolled his eyes.
   "Oh well, it was worth trying. But why the rainbow jelly?" I asked, cocking my head to the side slightly.
   "I like sweet things, okay? Don't judge me." He retorted, casting a quick glance at Hiro then back to the table.
   "Soo, how many dates have you two been on?" Toza asked.
   "This is our 4th date? Is that right Hayato?" Hiro asked, turning to his boyfriend.
   "Yeah, this is our 4th date." Hayato said, blushing a little.
   The waitress came by and set our drinks on the table, she stared at Toza for a while then left, blushing.
   That made me a little pissed off, she was staring, at my boyfriend, and got away with it. Before I realized it I was scowling.
   "Dude, you look totally pissed off. You okay?" Hayato asked, sipping on his drink.
   "No, I'm not okay. She was staring at my boyfriend. In female code, that's the equivalent to flirting." I said, narrowing my eyes.
   Toza started laughing.
   "Sumi, you're jealous of a random girl that came by, gave me a drink, stared for a second, and left?" He asked, still laughing.
   "How did you feel when Mizuki showed up unexpected and openly asked if I was single?" I retorted, making direct eye contact with Toza.
   "He's my brother, there's a difference. Even if he did make a move on you, I know you wouldn't accept it." He said, crossing his arms.
   "Tch, yeah, whatever. But that doesn't give her the right to look at what's mine." I hissed, then felt a hand run through my hair.
   "So I'm yours now, is that right?" Toza asked, playing with my hair.
   "Would you prefer I give you to someone else? That girl over there seems to have an interest in you." I glared at him, making him flinch.
   "Okay, okay, just don't give me over to some random chick! I wouldn't survive 1 hour on my own with a woman!" He panicked, putting his hands up as if he'd just been caught by the police.
   "Fine." I crossed my arms, a smirk tugging at the corner of my mouth.
   "We should get going, I wanna see what movies are playing." Hayato said, getting up. Toza put down 2000¥ and we left. (2000¥ is equivalent to about $18.55)
   We arrived at the mall theater a few minutes later, and walked up to the register.
   "Alright, what are we watching?" I asked.
   "I'm feeling like a romance movie, what about you guys?" Hayato asked, looking at our options.
   "I could go for a classic romance movie." Hiro said, Toza agreed with him.
   Hiro bought the tickets, then we went in and sat down. The movie was good, but I personally liked sitting next to Toza again in the theater and holding his hand. I'm not too interested in hetero relationships so I wasn't completely into the movie.
   "What'd you think, was it a good movie?" Hayato asked, breaking me from my thoughts.
   "It was good, but I would've preferred watching a gay romance instead. I can't seem to relate to straight couples." I said. "What'd you think of it?"
   "Honestly, I had the same opinion. I fell asleep halfway into it and Hiro had to wake me up a few minutes after." Hayato replied, I giggled.
   "Wow, why am I not surprised?" I said between laughs.
   "Probably because it's me we're talking about here, I mean come on, my signature move is falling asleep anywhere at any time." He said.
   "I thought it was cute, but I have to admit, the female reminded me of Sumi." Toza said, I scoffed.
   "No way! She was too... how do you explain it? Dainty and socially challenged." I said.
   "More like slutty, she was totally staring at the male lead's ass the entire first scene, and I'm pretty sure that wasn't part of the script." Hayato said, I laughed.
   "Not gonna lie though, it wasn't much to look at. I've seen better asses in my time and that wasn't one of them." I said, casting Toza a glance. Unfortunately Hayato caught me looking at him and immediately knew why.
   "Real smooth Takahashi, real smooth." Hayato said, elbowing my playfully.
   "Damn, I thought I'd gotten away with it." I said between laughs. We got out of the mall and walked down to the curb.
   "You know, the mall isn't that far from the apartment. I think we could just walk there and be back by 5." I said, my watch read 4:45 pm.
   "Alright. Oi, Hayato, Hiro, we're gonna walk back so we'll see you tomorrow." Toza said, and waved them off as they got in Hiro's car and drove off. We started walking down the sidewalk.
   "I really had fun today." I said, holding Toza's hand. "Thanks."
   "Well, there is a small price for such a fun evening..." I looked over and realized the meaning in Toza's expression. I can't say I hadn't seen this coming though, I knew he would try to distract me from thinking about what happened a few days ago and by the looks of it he had something in mind already.
   I was directed off the sidewalk and into a small alley between a couple of buildings, and lightly pressed up against a wall. He had one hand against the wall and the other cupping my face. He was close enough that I could smell his shampoo and feel his warm breath down my neck, in fact I was so close I could even hear his heartbeat.
   But what I failed to notice, was the sound of faint footsteps rounding the corner. And that, was a very big mistake.