The two of you stand, face to face, staring hard at eachother. Ume doesn't even know how to react
"Wh- what are you doing here?! KEEP your filthy money, you rat" Ume tries, but her tone falters
You shake your head, but say nothing
Ume stares you down, but you won't give in
"Why are you doing this for me? So you can make me feel bad for kicking your ass?? Well I don't" she takes the coins from your palm, being surprisingly gentle
Your hand falls to your side limply, but you don't take your eyes off of her.
You're scared, but you have the power here; she can't attack you in public. She won't.
"We're both girls right?" You respond shyly
Ume pays the cashier, hiding her face from you. Maybe a smile? But you can't tell
"Yeah, whatever. Thanks."
When she finally turns away to walk out the door, you allow yourself to smile
I don't hate you Ume. Whoever lied to you, I'll make them pay for what they've said
When you left the store and came back to the swimming pool, Tanjirou was out of swimming practice already. In fact, he was standing on the sidewalk by the fence waiting for you, with a wet shirt on and a towel over his shoulder.
"Tanjirou!" You gasp, rushing to hug his arm "you waited!"
Tanjirou looks surprised "well, yeah I waited. I said I'd give you your board back and I meant it"
"It'll get dark soon, so we should get going," he says
Following his lead down the street, you look up at the pale blue and lavender sky—nighttime is coming. If you're not home soon, your parents are gonna blow a fuse.
"It's at my house, but I live two blocks away from here. I got pretty lucky to live so close to school"
You tear your gaze away from the sky to look at the back of Tanjirou's head while he was talking
"I used to live pretty far, but since we moved to this apartment complex in the city, everything's accessible now."
That far?! I wonder where he lived
"So you're a country boy huh?" You tease
"You could say that" he mused
That explains a lot; I wonder if he's been homeschooled before?
You don't know why, but while he's talking, Tanjirou puts a hand on your back and gently moves you to the inner side of the sidewalk
"You're wearing all black today. Did you want to stand out or something?"
"Stand out?!?" You exclaim "I'm trying to do the opposite!"
Tanjirou looks away, his shoulders twitching. You can tell he's trying not to laugh
"I can SEE YOU LAUGHING" you huffed "IM trying to keep a low profile!!! What's so funny huh?"
The two of you turn a corner at the edge of the street and descend the path into a lackluster neighborhood facing away from the bustling streets of the city.
"Nothing, nothing" Tanjiou admits "well—it's a good idea in theory. But in execution? You've effectively made yourself more noticeable that way."
He plucks your glasses off the bridge of your nose and places them onto his
"HEY! Those are expensive!" You swipe at his face, but he's tall enough so that you can't reach when he dodges out of the way
"H-hi, I'm (y/n)! Sorry for stalking you. I totally wasn't being obvious" he mimicked your voice and mannerisms almost perfectly to a T, had it not been for the pitch being too high and unnatural
Your skin felt hot with embarrassment "WHY YOU LITTLE—"
"All jokes!" Tanjirou takes the glasses off, putting his hands up defensively, a half-smile still lingering on his face
You both stop in front of where Tanjirou lives
"Ah! Perfect timing. This is it." He says, walking up to the gate of the apartment complex
This place?! It's so...dreary
And dreary it was; the walls looked dingy and grey, the stairs were old and creaked underfoot, and the sour smell of cigarette smoke seemed to be trapped in this place.
"I know what you're thinking; this isn't really the nicest apartment or the nicest neighborhood..." Tanjirou pulls a key out of his backpack and inserts it into the door
"But it's home. Don't worry, I won't keep you waiting long."
You watch him enter the dark apartment room from the doorway, too afraid to enter. From inside you can hear some commotion from his family and a baby whimpering, but it's surprisingly quiet.
How could someone with such humble origins radiate so much kindness?
Perhaps I've misjudged his situation entirely. This is all so different from what I'm used to
He comes back a moment later, your skateboard in one hand and your glasses in the other
"You should get home as soon as possible. There are some unsavory characters out at this time"
You take the things from him with a soft smile "don't worry about me, I've gone home at night before. I'm more worried about my parents getting mad at me than encountering a pervert."
Tanjirou leans over you with his hand on the doorway "You sure? It doesn't feel right sending you out there alone"
You nod "yea, trust me. I'm gonna be fine,"
As you turn and start to walk away, you cast him a glance over your shoulder "see you at school on Friday! I'll be out for the whole week!"
"Text me when you get home" he replies
You didn't know it at the time, but he stayed on the balcony of the apartment to watch you walk away until you fully disappeared from view, to be absolutely sure. He doesn't know why, but he feels like he already knows you.
You push onward through the dimly lit street, accelerating as fast as you could on your skateboard with no concern for any other pedestrian's safety
Right now, you have only one thing on your mind, and it's getting home.
You swerve a few times, dodging past lampposts and fire hydrants, and even the occasional person standing around doing nothing
With your injury, you know you shouldn't be risking it, but you've already started so you may as well finish it
Clutching the convenience store bag tightly in one hand, you slow to a stop when you reach the bottom of the hill where you live
You stomp on the kick tail of the board and catch the other end, then flip it sideways to hold.
It's dark up there, with the trees and lack of lighting obscuring your view, but you can tell it's the path to your house
"Hey."
You swallowed hard, your palms sweating, feeling your heart race in your chest. The thing is, it wasn't out of the ordinary to see strangers loitering around...
You turn around to face the man who stood hunched over with a hoodie on
no, his presence itself wasn't the problem.
The problem was, he had his eyes fixed on you, standing motionless by the sidewalk
"Yeah, you. You sixteen?"
He steps toward you menacingly
NOPE. Not today, nope nope nope.
You backed away slowly at first, making sure he wouldn't move to chase you.
"Aww come on, don't run. I just wanna give you something" he reaches for you, but you move swiftly out of the way, scrambling backward into a tree
"GO AWAY!" You scream at the top of your lungs, throwing him off. Now's your chance
Once you thought you were out of reach, you turned and sprinted the other way, perhaps faster than you've ever run in your life.
Without exchanging another word, the attacker gives chase, but you're faster than him
No matter what happens I can't let him touch me!
You took a few smacks in the face from tree branches, but you were glad to have that over the man behind you
While innocently wanting to escape, you were leading him right to your house without even thinking of the consequences
Mom and dad...they're here?! Oh no
You leap out of the foliage and across the driveway, just passing through the headlights of your parent's car