ai | s. manjiro & m. takashi

にじゅういち

"Hey Ai" Yuzuha starts to say, holding onto the wrist of the younger girl. "You trust me, right?"

Without any hesitation, Ai nodded her head.

"Even if were in under a lot of pain right now, as your older sister, I'll make the pain go away. Anything for my younger sister." Yuzuha says, turning her body around to smile at Ai before pulling her into a tight hug.

"The sun still shines after the heavy rain, right? I'll make the sun shine for us again. I'll definitely do that." Yuzuha says, promising her.

But behind her promising words, there was something that didn't sit right with Ai. But nevertheless, she hugged her older sister back.

. . . . . . . . . . ♡

"Damn. Yuna and her boyfriend broke up. Tragic." Nami says, holding a melon bread in one hand and the other with a cold green tea bottle.

"Breaking up before the holidays? That's real tragedy." Kairi agrees, swinging her left leg that's crossed over her right leg. "But look at our ace and golden girl, Shiba Ai, four months and still counting with Sano san." Kairi peers her face a little close to Ai. "Right, Ai?"

But Ai was still, lost in her own world while a piece of sushi remained unchewed in her mouth.

"Hey, are you alright? You've been like that since you got here." Kairi asks, patting Ai in the shoulder. "Talk to us."

Snapping back to reality, Ai started to chew on the sushi inside her mouth before speaking up. "Family matters. Kind of private but I love you two so much." She smiles to the two of them, wrapping her arms around them.

"Thanks to you two, you make my life a little lighter." She beams to them.

Whenever school ends, Ai wouldn't walk out of the school grounds from the main gate anymore, only going to the back gate. She didn't want to face Kokonoi nor Inui just yet, and she knew those two were always looking for ways to get to her. The two didn't stop blowing up her phone's notifications as well.

If Kokonoi and Inui were the ones who usually take her to her ballet academy, it was Mikey now. Taking her to the ballet academy and back to her house, but only stopping by the end of their street, in fear that Taiju would or might be outside waiting for her. If Ai had told him that she's dating, Taiju would definitely be coming after Mikey's neck, her two other older siblings and the rest of Toman.

 . . . . . . . . . . ♡

Somewhere in the middle of busy, bustling Tokyo were five people waiting inside a private room. A stack of 100,000 yen displayed on top of the table.

The five people inside the private room failed to hear the sound of clacking boots and heavy footsteps in the hallway. Only snapping their heads up when the door burst open and three people wearing the Black Dragons uniform steps in.

"Damn. This room reeks of rat here." Kokonoi says, sticking his tongue out as he averted his eyes on the guy wearing a white jacket.

"Our last guy got trouble with the heat and decided to kill himself. Saved us from the dirty work too." He grins, snapping his fingers. The two other men with him entered inside, took a hold of the guy's arms and bringing him up on his feet.

"It's torture time for you~" Kokonoi sing songs, grinning down at him before turning his head to the two with him. "Get this eye sore out already." and under his command, he heaved a heavy sigh. Blocking out the pleas of the man sparing for his life.

"Now" Kokonoi begins to say, opening his eyes to turn to the remaining four people inside the private room. "What to do with the four of you?" He asks. What failed to catch his attention in the first place suddenly glimmered in his eyes, looking down, he notices the stack of freshly printed money inside the envelope.

"For a hundred thousand, I'll tell you what you all want to know." Kokonoi grins, taking a sit in front of them, pocketing the money.

"I want to know when Taiju is alone." Kisaki demanded.

With a straight face, Kokonoi begins to answer their question. "The boss is never alone. He always has five men with him. Except for one day."

"And what day is that?" Kisaki asks

"Christmas day" Kokonoi curtly spoke. "Despite his rouge appearance, the boss is a zealous Christian. Every year, on Christmas night, he goes to the Church to give worship." Kokonoi says, grinning afterwards. "And he's always by himself on that day."

"I see." was all Kisaki said, the remaining three kept quiet.

"Is that all you four want to know?" Kokonoi asks, tilting his head to the side.

"That's all we needed to know." Kisaki concludes

"Even if the boss is alone on the twenty fifth, he's really strong. Do you four think you can tackle him?" Kokonoi lets out a contented sigh. "I can't wait for Christmas." He says, getting up from his seat and walking out the door.

"Why are you betraying Taiju kun?" Takemichi asks

Kokonoi stopped by the doorway, hand gripping onto the door knob of their private room. "I just like strong guys." He shrugs, turning his head to the side. "And think of it this way, I'm trying to amends with someone too. Based on your uniform, you know this person very well."

Before Kokonoi could fully walk away, he spoke up once more. "If you wanna know more, that'll be another hundred thousand yen." He says, closing the door behind him.

As Kokonoi walked alone, his call tone rang up. Taking his phone out before pressing it onto his left ear.

"I gave them the info they needed. I'm willing to risk my neck out more if they want to." He spoke on his line.

"You're not alone, Inupi. I miss Ai too." Kokonoi says before completely exiting the commercial building.