This World To You | tokyo revengers x reader

[41] Understanding Your Sorrow

"Hina-san, I think I found him."

"That's right! Class 1-5! I remember now." Hina waved towards her brother who was still standing still by the entrance of the classroom. "Naoto, sorry for being late."

"...Hi... Um, hi [name]-san."

"Hey, Naoto. I'm looking forward to see what your class did." Hina puffed out her cheeks after being ignored. "Have you been waiting for us long?"

"Not really... I'm just glad that you were able to make it. Nee-san, I think Takemichi-kun is here, you know." You noticed the weird winks he was giving his sister. Was this a secret sibling code or something? "Can you go get him?"

"...Oh! Yeah. He, um, sent me a text a while ago. He's probably still waiting at the gate. [name]-chan, hang around with Naoto for a little while! I'll come back with Takemichi-kun." And with that, she ran down the hall out of your line of sight.

"So, it's just the two of us." You pat Naoto's head, "What did you do for the festival?"

"Our class did an art exhibit. Come in!" He grabbed your hand and pulled you into the class, "See?" Yes, you did see. Around the edges of the room, were easels with canvases on them. In the middle of the room, were clay statues; you weren't sure what they were supposed to be shaped after.

"This is pretty cool."

"Naoto! This is the cute girl from before." A boy Naoto's age—the classmate from before—had approached the two of you. "Hi, I'm Fujiwara!"

"...Hello." You gave a curt nod at the boy.

"Fujiwara, I told you today that I didn't want you bothering me. This is my special guest."

"I know." Naoto was about to punch his friend, "But, I wanted to introduce myself to the cute girl. What's your name?" You didn't like how the younger boy was looking at you. "...Not a talker? That's okay, we'll–"

"Fujiwara, she's with me! Okay? Please leave her– Us, alone. Just for the rest of today!" Woah, Naoto sure had the vocals to yell at people. That was pretty brave of him.

"There we go, Naoto." Fujiwara pat his friend on the shoulder, "I was wondering when you were gonna say something! Good job..." He then leaned closer into Naoto's ear, "and good luck! I saw how lovestruck you were when she came into view. I only wanted to mess with you a bit. Sorry!"

"F-Fujiwara!"

"See you!"

"He's a bit of a tricky friend." You mentioned, "I'm sure he means well though. Anyways, what did you paint or draw... or sculpt?" Naoto gestured to come follow him to the opposite side of the class. His painting was in the corner of the room—it wasn't the main attraction, yet, it brought so much attention from the general public; including yours.

"I painted this one."

"...Naoto, I didn't know you were so good at art. It looks, well, really beautiful. But, it's kind of sad in a way." It was a bit strange, his art that was. There were two hands coming from either corner of the canvas, the one in the top left corner being drawn in a lighter colour and the bottom right hand, in darker shades. The hands weren't touching, but more so reaching out to one another. You could describe it as something like an angel and a devil about to shake hands.

"I call it 'Understanding Your Sorrow.'"

"Why is that?"

"I drew it with the focus of forgiveness as the main message. The hand in the dark, represents the 'past self' in sorrow and confusion, reaching out to the hand in the light, which is the 'present self', who is aware of the past and wants to move on from their mistakes. To me, forgiving means understanding what one has done and reflects upon their actions.

"And I believe that nowadays, people find it difficult to forgive themselves for what they did in the past. It's difficult to forgive oneself, I know, but... it would be a better world if society learned to forgive, but not forget."

"Naoto, you're very intelligent. I like that idea, a lot. Thank you for sharing it to the world."

"No, it was my pleasure! I worked really hard on it. It took me over a month to actually start painting it since I didn't know where to start."

"Good to see that all that time spent thinking about it came to good use though. So, can I ask where you got this idea from?"

"It was last year, around Christmas time actually." Naoto scratched the back of his neck, "I remember that nee-san and Takemichi broke up for like a day... but then on Christmas they made up. Nee-san forgave him even though he was being stupid."

"Oh, I remember that. That's a pretty weird connection though—your sister's break-up story with this painting. But, it led to an amazing piece of art, so I shouldn't question it too much." He nodded along with your spoken thoughts.

Naoto definitely did not want you inquiring more things about it; only because it wasn't actually his sister's problem that inspired him, but your story instead.

"[name]-san, can I show you around the school? We can hang out... and stuff!"

"Since Hina-san hasn't sent me a message, I'm assuming she's also roaming around with Takemichi-san." You closed your phone and put it away, grabbed Naoto's wrist and dragged him out the class. "Lead the way, Naoto."

Stage 8: complete!

word count—1606