Connect

27: Gone

"Gone?" Len’s eyes widened. Miku stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder. He spun around and looked at her, and then at me. "Rin…"

"When I went to her school, she wasn’t there…so I tried calling her. She doesn’t pick up. The rings aren’t even reaching her," Kaito shook his head. I had heard him speak this much but he had never seemed so troubled. He must have really loved her, really, actually loved her. The feelings were probably completely different from the things I felt when I was around Kaito.

"Len, it’ll be okay…" Miku was trying to calm him down but I could see that Len was just about ready to either explode at Kaito or break down. Neither would’ve been completely unlike him. "Let’s try calling her again."

"I’ve been doing that for the past half hour," Kaito ended his sentence with a tired groan and ran his fingers through his hair. "She was fine this morning."

"She was." Len was so quiet, I thought I was imagining his words. He nodded slowly before suddenly lunging forward and grabbing Kaito’s shoulders. "What did you do to her? She was fine, perfectly fine, this morning! Why can’t you ever be there for her, dammit?"

"Len, stop!" I grabbed his arms and tried to pull him away. He and Kaito were eyeing each other like predator and prey, scowls on both their faces, though Len’s expression was intense, whereas Kaito’s was calmer.

"I’m just as upset as you are," Kaito said slowly. "I’m worried, too."

"H-He’s right, Len, we should calm down, think this through," Miku said. Len let go of the blue haired boy’s shoulders. "You could try calling her again, maybe it’ll get through. We’ll come up with a list of places where she could be and find her. I’m sure she’s fine."

"Okay," Len nodded slowly, letting go of Kaito. He dialled Rin’s number on his phone and put it to his ear. We waited and after a few seconds, Len sighed. 

"It goes right to her voicemail," he said, pocketing his phone. "Dammit, Rin…" He ran a hand through his hair and looked at us. "Maybe it’s our parents?"

"Huh?" Miku and I exchanged glances.

"The divorce," Len said. "She doesn’t really talk about it with me. Every time I bring it up, she changes the subject."

"The city’s so huge, she could be anywhere," Kaito said, kicking the pavement with the toe of his shoe. "Should we split up? If this has anything to do with your parents’ divorce, do you think she’d be somewhere related to memories of your family being together?"

"I think so," Len paused and then groaned loudly. "What the hell am I saying? I don’t think so…I just…I hope so…"

"We should start searching before it gets dark," I said. "Len, are you going to tell your parents?"

"I have to, Gumi, but I’d rather not," he said. "I could hold it off till later. They’ll just start fighting over this or something."

"I hope she’s okay," I said. Len took a few aimless steps around the vicinity.

"What if she’s not?" He whispered.

"Huh?" Miku ran up to him. "Len…"

"She’s not like that," Kaito said. "She’d never…"

"What if she’s dead?" Len rasped. He stared at Miku blankly. I could see the tears forming in her eyes.

"S-She’s not, okay?" Miku hugged him. He didn’t react.

"Miku’s right," I said, walking up to the two. "She’s your sister and she loves you," I paused and turned to face Kaito, "and you. B-But not in the same way, of course. I mean…ugh…this sounds weird…"