Expectations // Soukoku

17 // Water flows in only to flow out

The cold air hit Dazai's face as he walked the streets without a destination. Only now he realised what he had done, stormed out of his own apartment. Great. This was absolutely fantastic. What was he supposed to do now?

For some time he simply wandered around. He reached for his pockets and grabbed his phone. In all honesty, he was surprised it was there. He unlocked it only to see the pile of messages from his mum that still kept coming in. He chose to ignore them and instead opened his contact list. Chuuya, Kunikida, Akutagawa... the list went on with a bunch of other numbers Chuuya had sent to him. He could text Chuuya. No, he shouldn't. After some thought, he decided on Kunikida, because of not wanting to bother Chuuya or his friends.

Dazai
Hey. Had a fight with my parents, are you busy?

Dazai expected Kunikida to roll his eyes at the message and tell him to piss off. But...

Kunikida
No, where are you? They are spamming me about it as well. Are you okay?

Dazai could feel the water that had gathered starting to fall down. Cold tears gently caressed his skin. He wasn't sure if it was because he was sad or happy. Nonetheless, he had never had a friend like this before. It felt good.

Dazai
In the park, can I come over?

Kunikida
Yeah.

Kunikida opened the door almost immediately after the doorbell had been rung. His face was full of worry but he didn't say anything. Dazai walked in and muttered a left-unanswered greeting. He toed his shoes off and walked down the corridor. He had been over once before to study so he knew where the living room was. Kunikida came after him and sat down on the couch. He didn't pry, instead waited for Dazai to talk when he felt like it.

"I want to leave," Dazai said after some time. Kunikida's eyes moved to him but words were left unsaid. "I want to run away and live my own life without them." Dazai continued.

Kunikida, "Then why not?"

Chuuya yawned as he walked among the large crowd of students. He stretched his arms above his head. He hated Wednesdays. All workdays, really. Just as he was about to enter his classroom a hand wrapped around his wrist and tugged him. He was pulled to the side. "What the fuck?" He yelled in annoyance and looked up to see who was bothering him so early in the day. Oh fuck. Of course, it was Dazai.

Dazai only tightened his grip on Chuuya's arm, "Chuuya."

Chuuya looked at Dazai with awaiting eyes, "Dazai."

Dazai finally let go, "This is gonna sound weird, but listen to the full thing before you say anything." Chuuya nodded. "My parents came over yesterday, so I ran out of my apartment. But don't worry, I stayed over at Kunikida's. Anyway, they tried to make me exchange schools. I refused and we argued. Then I realised, my dad gave me money when I moved here to study but he gave me way too much to ever run out by just buying necessities. And I thought, what if I move away, somewhere they don't know. We're going to graduate soon anyway." After finishing his long monologue Dazai looked down at Chuuya as if waiting for him to accept something.