The Dragon's Girl | Taiju Shiba | Tokyo Revengers

Chapter 7

After the day was spent with studying for our chemistry exam and snacking, Yuzuha suggested that we should probably take some timeout to do something. So we ended up doing skincare and had, what she called it, a 'girl's self-love time' in her room. Where we put on face masks, painted each other's nails and gossiped about everyone we knew. And when we reached Hina and Takemichi, Yuzuha couldn't shut up.
And even though that time was supposed to be a time for me to relax, I didn't. Because my mind couldn't stop thinking about him and our little encounter this afternoon. If anything, my anxiety got worse with each minute we spent in our 'girl's self-love time'.

He said he wanted to talk to me. And my mind kept running and jumping with thoughts and each thought kept fracturing into another thought, making a big mess of intertwined roots that ended up with nothing. I hadn't the slightest clue what he wanted to talk about. Even when a silly and naïve part of me thought maybe he wanted to apologize, I shut it up quickly. Because he had a lot of chances to do it, yet he didn't. And I lost that hope already.

So now I was laying under the covers in Yuzuha's room. My eyes were fixed upon nothing in the darkness as the stillness of my surroundings kept shortly disturbed every few seconds with Yuzuha's soft breathing above me, deep in her sleep.

My ears were sharp and alerted, ready and waiting, for that familiar screech of the door. Announcing his arrival home. But even if he did come home, I thought, how was I supposed to talk to him? It was too late, and he'll come straight to go to bed. And I'll be a fool to go to him on my own. Because those sirens were still there, ringing, in my head. Telling me to not approach him.

I knew he was bad at this point, I'm not stupid. But somehow, I wanted to be one for him. And to justify this stupidity, I kept telling myself that it was for Yuzuha's sake. And that because I cared for her, I cared for him. And maybe, just maybe, a small and stupid maybe, I could try and talk to him about it.

Hearing myself thinking that, I wanted to travel out of my body and slap some sense in me.

Then it came, that long awaited, ear splitting screech that I hated so much. And my body jolted and my ears alerted. I kicked the cover away from me to sit up. Like somehow removing it away could make me hear better. But other than that noise, I didn't hear anything else. And instead, my heart started drumming loudly in my ears in the stillness of the room, as I was about to do the most idiotic thing ever.

I pulled myself up and walked towards the bedroom door. And as slowly and quietly as I could, I turned the knob and walked out into the dim hallway. It was empty. My feet shuffled as softly as possible to get near the stairs and I stood, listening. I heard him downstairs in the kitchen. And my heart did something funny and my stomach followed. Then I cursed at myself for what I was doing.

As softly and lightly as possible, my feet descended the wooden stairs and made their way towards the now fully lit kitchen. And there he was, standing over a leftover pizza box on the counter, with an opened beer bottle next to him. Wearing that dark red coat of his and his back was turned to me. My right hand lifted and unconsciously rested on the - now too obvious and not covered with makeup anymore - bruise on my left arm.
Hugging myself, I said. "Hey!"

His head tilted to the side and then his body slightly swayed before he turned his face in my direction. His eyes were carrying that irritated look he always carried.

"You're here!" He said in a manner of announcing something annoyingly. And I frowned.

"I told you I was staying over..." I murmured and then my feet walked further into the kitchen, leaning on the counter opposite from him. He turned back to his pizza and took a swig from the beer.

"What's up?" He said as he grabbed the counter with his other hand to steady himself.

I shrugged. "You said you wanted to talk to me!" My voice came in a whisper.