Please don't leave (Shin Soukoku)

Please help me

Today was a Saturday, Saturdays were my day off of work, usually that is. But at the moment I have new work, a type of work surprised even myself. 

Today, I have to go on a date with Atsushi.

"ask him." said Tomioka, I aggressively shook my head no, I only intended to date Jinko to get closer to Dazai-san, not to be stuck in puppy love. "I'll remove a tally." He threatened, the tallies were how many more chances I got if I disobeyed him. I knew he always, always keeps his word when threatening. I sighed, aggravated. "fine." I obeyed, looking for Jinko.

When I did ask he said no, Jinko refused to explain as well, but I knew Tomioka wouldn't take no for an answer, so I tried to convince him for a few minutes by saying "I need to stay by your side until the threat is gone, a date should make sure we won't seperate." he finally gave in.

I didn't know what to do for dates. Dates weren't something I see as "fun" as I've been on many dates with my subordinate, "Higuchi". Nothing romantic between us, but she saw it that way, I on the other hand, I didn't. "Akutagawa?" A voice spoke, I looked behind me, to see Tomioka. "What're you doing here?" I glared at him, he laughed speaking. "I'm your supervisor, better act lovey dovey with Nakajima." He said, holding 3 fingers up. I grunted, annoyed.

"R-Ryuunosuke!" I've never heard someone call me Ryuunosuke other than Gin, was it her? What would Gin be doing here? Looking around I saw a gray hair laughing sheepishly, "Do you mind me calling you Ryuunosuke..?" I blinked lifelessly, in a monotone voice I replied "no, I don't." He sighed a breath of relief, than asking, "so... Is there a reason you wanted to take me to Chinatown?" Atsushi asked looking around. I didn't pay attention to his question, but only to his clothing.

Atsushi had on a blue button up shirt with a belt made of what looked to be fur, his pants were a navy blue while wearing gray shoes. His hair was slightly different today as well, it was held back with what looked like hair gel, and overall he smelled really good. I personally like an icy flavor and he smelled just like that. I didn't even notice I was sniffing him.

Flustered, Atsushi stepped away from me, "a-ah... So.... My question!" He asked again a little too loud, I apologized. "It's okay! It's nothing really." He explained, I coughed, "Your question?" I asked, just so that we could forget I did something so ridiculous. "Why'd you want me to go to Chinatown?" Atsushi asked again. Well, I didn't wanna go to Chinatown, the bastard behind me wanted too. Speaking of the bastard, he tapped my shoulder handing me a map of Chinatown, it had small dots in small stores.

I knew what he wanted. Today, some shop owners set up a treasure hunt quest for couples or family, this map was for where the locations of our "treasure" is. The rules are simple, one player is aware where all the items are, the other player(s) have to go through every shop/store to find the items. 

Sighing, I turned to Atsushi showing him the map, quickly taking it back. "ohh that..!" Atsushi spoke realizing. "At least..." He began, "please help me..?" He tried cheating, I took his head away, "no cheating." I instructed, he whined guessing where first. I followed him around Chinatown, finding the items weren't hard, they were in plain sight. We looked around for a red lantern, an orange ball, a woman wearing a red-yellow kimono, and a fake talisman.

Jinko found them all because of their smell, and his tiger eyes. It was fairly easy to find everything. I sighed at how fast we found the items, it took us literally 40 minutes. Tomioka met up with me in front of Atsushi, impressed. "Wow..! That was fast! Hey, how about you both go to Yamashita Park, it's quite the lovey dovey place!" He enthusiastically explained to us, Atsushi didn't want to, saying "He probably would rather want to return home....." Tomioka gave Atsushi an innocent confused look, "no he doesn't," Atsushi turned his head towards me, I continued glaring at Tomioka. "riiight? Akutagawa-kun.." He added lifting up 3 fingers. I took Atsushi's hand and forced him to follow me to a taxi to take us to the destination. 

Once finally arriving at Yamashita Park, I helped Atsushi out of the taxi, paying the driver what he was owed. Looking at the park, I saw a lot of joggers running around, small children chased each other, and adults sitting down enjoying themselves nearby. 

Atsushi looked around confused, "so... What'd you wanna do here? I'm not used to dates so...." He admitted looking as if he wasn't sure how to strike up a conversation. I coughed replying "I wanted too...." Trying to not tell Atsushi about Tomioka, my brain tried thinking of excuses to give him. Behind Atsushi, Tomioka had a large whiteboard and marker in hand, showing me the writing on the whiteboard. 

Today was going to suck ass.

I coughed to remove the awkward tension of what I was about to say, "I wanted... to- to show you the cherry blossom trees, be-because they're just as amazing as you!" I stuttered out my reply. Atsushi blushed looking away from me, I looked away as well, the fact I had to do this annoyed every inch of my body... I wanted to get away from Tomioka since he was "supervising" me and Atsushi, so I took Atsushi's hand and lead him to an area nobody was near. "Ryuunosuke..?" Atsushi asked worried why I forced him to follow me to an area where nobody could see us. "Don't worry." I said, the area we were at had a flower bed and fountain filled with other flowers nearby, I think we lost Tomioka for a while. 

Looking upon the flower bed, I picked off a flower, not caring if anyone working for the city complained. The flower was that of a flower I can't remember, it had been too long since I last heard of it, really.

Looking at it back then...

Fumiko had this snow globe thing, but instead of small specks of snow and a clay painting, was a single flower. She kept it in a globe, trapped in the glass, only for those who owned it to look at. She always hated it when we touched it, I can't remember if she never touched it before, it was so long ago, the flower she kept back then was white but faded into a pink. The flower she kept had a meaning she often told me about, sadistic as she was, she loved talking about her possessions. As if they were her only things in life she could talk to about problems, as if she had any.

"The ----s is a flower meaning of purity and enlightenment, do you think it's unfair for this little l---s to be trapped only for others to stare at?" She asked me one day, strange question as always. I knew she was just trying to mock the kids for forcing them to lose their purity. I knew she was only trying to insult them, she wanted me to understand. This flower which represents purity and enlightenment, can no longer be pure, for it is locked and confined for a show filled with nasty creatures to take away that purity, just to feel the flower's enlightenment and purity. 

Disgusting, it always was. 

In the water of the fountain, laid the very flower Fumiko kept to herself and never allowed anyone to touch. I felt my lips quiver out a question, "Jinko." "hm?" He replied, "what type of flower is that?" I asked, pointing at the flower colored in white and pink. "The lotus flower?" He answered walking closer to it, pointing at the flower in the water. I nodded. Atsushi blinked in confusion asking me, "Did you like lotus flowers?" I retorted angrily "no." He flinched at my tone, coughing, I apologized and explained why I resented the flower. Atsushi nodded in response apologizing to me. "No need too, you were not aware." I defended him, looking at the little pure lotus in the water. 

Eventually, Tomioka found us and scolded me for running off, "I'll remove a tally since you've been so bad!" He lowly laughed in a mannerly way, he was in front of Atsushi. "Hm? Tallies? What're you guys doing with tallies?" Looking through my excuse book, I responded, "They-" "The tallies stand for if he does something bad, his sister will punish him!" Tomioka laughed holding his tallies up with his fingers. I gritted my teeth trying to hide the anger inside me. Atsushi nodded looking down at his phone, "Whoops! Gotta go, Kunikida-san will scold me if I return late!" He said running off, just then, Tomioka got a text from someone. 

He nodded slowly, looking at his phone screen. "What is it now?" I asked agitated, he smiled replying "congratulations, looks like someone got off lucky." "what?" I asked, he showed his phone to me, and in the picture was me and Atsushi standing with each other closely, looking at the fountain. I felt an urk inside.

Tomioka said his farewells, and left Yamashita Park. I left too, these dreadful lotus' ruined my mood today.

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Sorry it got dark there but I personally had the idea to make a meaningful message with just a flower in a globe, because I was shopping with my sister and we saw these cute little roses in globes. I'm sorry for taking forever just to update this book! I've been getting into chinese bl's and they're occupying my time.