How Long is Forever | Hanma Shuji x Reader

Part 17: End

They both nod and return goodbyes. Shuji doesn't exit the car.

"You coming Shuji?" I ask

"I'm gonna stay at Leaf's."

I stand on the sidewalk feeling a sense of emptiness. "Alright."

I watch the car pull away and drive down the road, quietly standing there for a few seconds after it is out of view. Then I turn and go home. I'm greeted by my mom who is excited to hear about my day.

"Y/n! How was it? Where's Hanma?" She asks, holding my shoulders. He studies my face. "Are you ok?"

The tears flow freely from my eyes now as I hug my mom. "We got into a fight." I blubber.

She holds me close. "Y/n..." she says, concerned and sits down on the couch with me. Tiger hops up on my moms lap, she moves him to mine, annoyed. "I don't know why he likes me so much."

I giggle wiping my tears "Yeah." I pet tiger.

"Do you want to talk about it?" My mom asks.

I nod and start to tell her what happened. The fun we had catching up with Leaf and then I got to my old bullies.

"They what??" She gasps and touches my neck "are you ok? Are you hurt??"

I move her hands away. "I'm fine, really."

"Once I get my hands on them-" she starts.

"Mom! It's fine!" I say a bit louder.

She closes her mouth "Sorry."

"Sorry." I repeat.

Then I tell her about Shuji with my bully and about how we left early and the car ride and... The yelling, and Shuji won't be staying here tonight.

She sits quietly. "Wow."

I nod as Tiger purrs in my lap. "Yeah."

She stands up. "I'm going to call Leaf's mom to make sure Hanma made it there ok."

I nod staying seated. I'm tired.

"Good evening!" She says in a cheery voice. "Yeah, y/n had a good time today how's Leaf?... Good? That's good to hear."

I sit nervously biting my nails.

"Anyway I wanted to ask, is Hanma with Leaf?... No, not kazutora, the tall one.. he has an earring, tattoos on his hands? Laughs really loud? Yeah haha that one." My mom laughs as they recognize Hanma from his laugh "You haven't heard them? Can you check?.. alright." My mom holds the phone to her chest and shrugs. "He's not there? Are you sure?.."

My heart drops to my stomach, I quickly set Tiger down and stand up.

"Alright, uhm I'll call you later, it was nice talking, yeah, have Leaf call me if anything changes, ok, yes, bye." My mom quickly sets the phone down. "Do you know where he could be?" My mom asks hurriedly as she puts her jacket on.

I think hard trying to stay composed. "I.. I'm not sure."

My mom squeezes my shoulder "Alright, I'm gonna check where I can, you keep in touch with me, take your phone."

We rush out of the house in separate directions. My shoes slap against the pavement as I rush to wherever I can think of, the park where we met after school and kissed after his concussion, the streets we walked on and talked for hours, Kazutora's old hideout, the street lamps that illuminated his happy eyes, the theatre... I stop and look up, the small cramped house where I learned the most about Shuji. His grandpa's house. I walk to the front door, it's slightly ajar. One push and it opens easily.

"Shuji?" I call.

No response.

"Mr. Hanma?"

No response.

I carefully step over the carpet of trash and snoop around the house, the living room is filled to the brim with trash, boxes of nothing and everything collected higher than my head, it smells terrible. The table where I saw Shuji's grandfather is exactly the same, the only absence is that man himself. The sour smell of cigarettes and rotting food overwhelms me. As I'm about to leave my ears perk up as I hear the strum of a guitar in the background. I decided to follow the sound. I sift through the boxes crowing the way as I squish past the hallway to follow that sad sound, at the end of the hall there is a singular door, I turn the handle with a creak and am greeted with a staircase.

"Hello?" I call.

Still, no response.

I step on the first stair and it groans under my weight, then the next and the next. I reach the bottom of the stairs without incident and open the second door at the bottom. Warm light and the smell of dust welcomes me. The guitar stops.

"How dull right?" Shuji grins, his face tear stained. "I missed my grandpa's funeral."

I stand frozen staring at him. I've never really seen him like this. He looks so defeated.

"Neighbor told me they are bulldozing this place next week." Shuji says setting down the guitar. "Good riddance I guess."

"Are you gonna miss it?" I ask while sitting down across from him on the floor.

"I don't think I'll live to."

"Shuji.." I start.

"No it's fine really. I'm happy." He says lighting a cigarette. "I got to meet you and Leaf after all, your mom and Tiger too." he smokes his cigarette blowing smoke up into the ceiling "You know when we first met I was actually thinking of running away?"

I look at him quietly.

"Yeah." He looks down and laughs "I felt like there was nothing left in this god forsaken town, there is this sweet bando me and Kazutora found. I was thinking of setting up my life there." He sighs wistfully and takes another puff. "They took that away from me too."

He plucks a couple strings.

"Would you miss me if I left?"

An: Thank you so much for sticking with me till the end. I've been working on this fic for almost three years now and I'm so sad that it is done. I might do a second book to accompany this but we will see. Thank you sm

You can find my other socials here

@bushier.brow.arts on insta

@average.cartoon.enjoyer on TikTok:)

Love y'all bye!