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It was evening time.
In that welcome amber glow the time of slower thoughts had arrived, those moments when with open eyes your brain became as a perfect empty horizon, seeing, yet content to sit. You felt the soothing breeze kiss your skin, becoming absorbed in the music of crickets, letting the gentle energy of nature wash in.
You were currently outside, laying in the hammock with your eyes closed, allowing the gentle breeze to rock you back and forth like a baby in a crib. You had nothing to do today, and so, you decided that this was the perfect time to rest and relax while you still could, and you were doing that by choosing to become one with nature. Curled up in the comfort of your loving arms was Daisuke, keeping you company. You were stroking his caramel fur, and you could tell that Daisuke seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it.
This little guy had been your companion in quiet moments and those great blossomings of hilarity that only dogs could bring. He had that look about him when he was puzzled, or excited or serious, all those emotions that were so similar to humans. He was your hot-water bottle in the middle of the night and the welcome wagon after you had been working in your office all day.
He was your best friend.
Your eyes were closed—and you were practically on the verge of falling asleep at any given moment now. To nap in the dapple shade and dream in poetic muse was such sweetness this evening, as you allowed your body to fully relax, finally succumbing to the curtains of the day closing.
And just as you were finally entering your personal wonderland full of the best dreams and the worst nightmares, the sudden sound of a deep and familiar voice calling out your name had instantly jerked you awake. It sounded echoey and distant at first, but once you managed to tune into the real world and sit upright without toppling over whilst the hammock was still being rocked back and forth by the wind, you quickly noticed an excited Tachihara running towards you.
Daisuke immediately jumped out of your lap; the furry little creature suddenly feeling energetic upon Tachihara's arrival, as if he were amped up on at least five cans of Monster. Daisuke, who was now excited and elevated because he just loved being around people, leaped like a puppy into Tachihara's arms. In seconds, Tachihara's hand was covered in slobber, the dog's tongue of sandpaper almost dripping with every lick. His tail wasn't wagging side to side, but rather, going round and round like a helicopter blade; happy and content to see yet another one of his many owners.
"Hey boy!" Tachihara smiled brightly, stroking the dog's caramel fur. Daisuke really liked Tachihara, because Tachihara was always the one to secretly give him treats when nobody was looking. You couldn't help but smile along with Tachihara, genuinely enjoying this adorable little interaction between them.
Daisuke being Daisuke, gave Tachihara's hand one last lick before scurrying off. He was probably going to head to the water fountain now. You watched him trot away, before you finally turned your attention to Tachihara, who seemed like he was looking for you everywhere. You had gotten out of the hammock at this point, now standing directly in front of the amber-eyed man.
"Hi Tachi!" You greeted the man happily. He smiled at you, rubbing the nape of his neck with his hand. "Is everything okay?"
"Hi beautiful," he cooed, which caused a small smile to appear on your face. "I was looking for you everywhere!"
You shot him a confused look. "Oh...really? Why?"
He cocked his head to the side; his amber eyes flitting across your face, looking at you as if you should have already known the answer. His eyes were shimmering and bright under the liquified evening sun; like a melted pot of the richest, finest gold. "You don't know?"
"Know...what?" You gave him a dazed look of bewilderment, scratching your cheek. From a few feet away, you could hear the sound of Daisuke happily splashing around in the fountain water.
"It's game night!"
"Huh?" This was the first time you were ever hearing of this since you had become an official member of the Port Mafia, and you were pretty sure that it was quite obvious just by the quizzical expression on your face.
"Oh, I forget that you haven't been here for too long." He chuckled airily. "Well, twice a year, we all get together in the evening and play games—board games, frat house party games, you name it."
You nodded your head, softly humming to the tune of his words, taking in all this information which seemed to have piqued your interest. "That's so cool! Can I ask why you guys host a random game night twice a year?"
"I suppose it's because a lot of us missed out on our high school and college experiences." Tachihara said, shrugging his broad shoulders nonchalantly in response. You could relate to this on a spiritual level. "You know...stupid shit like attending parties and playing cliché games in big groups like Truth or Dare, Spin the Bottle...all that cliché crap they like to glamorise in those western movies we like to watch. It's our shared guilty pleasure as a group."
"I see..." you tucked a loose strand of your hair behind your ear, not knowing what else to say. The light breeze played with your hair, giving it the same buoyant wave as the Yokohama sea so nearby. "And you really want me to join? I wouldn't be like...intruding or anything?"
"Of course not! Don't be silly!" He playfully nudged your shoulder; grinning from ear to ear with his pearly white teeth on display. "You're a member of the Port Mafia too, so you just have to join."
"Alright," you laughed lightheartedly. "Why not? It seems like it'd be a lot of fun."
Plus, you didn't exactly have anything better to do.
"Yes!" Tachihara pumped his fist in the air excitedly; looking victorious, before he held out his hand to you. "Come on then, M'lady."
You smiled, scrunching your nose cutely as you took his hand and allowed him to walk you up to the back entrance of the building.
"By the way," you said, as both of you had now walked into the building hand-in-hand together. He turned his head in your direction to look at you. His jaw was sharp and angular, so sharp actually, that if you ran your finger along the edge, you'd probably end up slicing it open. "Is Chuuya going to be there?"
Tachihara suddenly halted in his stride, which abruptly caused you to stop too. He raised an eyebrow inquisitively, "yes...why?"
"I was just curious," you responded, although Tachihara didn't look even remotely convinced. "Why are you looking at me like that? I only asked because...I don't know...Chuuya just doesn't really seem like the type of person who'd willingly want to get involved with stuff like that. I feel like he'd think it's below him or something."
"Mhm," He slowly nodded his head; there was a teasing lilt to Tachihara's deep voice, one that you were choosing to ignore for now. "Well, you'd be surprised."
"Interesting."
• • •
You entered the room where the rest of the Port Mafia members were currently residing with your arm linked around Tachihara's—the two of you laughing and giggling away after Tachihara had told you a joke. A stupid joke, but because it was so stupid, it was actually funny.
Chuuya was sitting in his leather chair, leaning back, with a glass of wine in his hand. As soon as he heard the sound of your melodious giggling suddenly infiltrating the vicinity, he immediately looked up, his gaze following the cacophony of your harmonious laughter that would sound like music to anyone's ears. Although, as soon as he saw you with Tachihara, his face instantly fell flat, lips pursed into a thin, straight line, highlighting his evident annoyance.
You barely took notice of Chuuya, who seemed to be watching the two of you with narrowed eyes that had resembled a pit viper's slit-like pupils. You were far too focused on Tachihara right now, who had told you another stupidly hilarious joke. Chuuya took a small sip of his wine and straightened his shoulders, trying to push such unpleasant and murderous thoughts that one could not possibly say out loud without sounding like an absolute psychopath to the back of his mind. He had no idea why he was suddenly feeling like this. It made no sense.
But then...
Stupid Tachihara suddenly started chuckling, his muscles were shaking and tears streamed from his half closed eyes. He must have been laughing at his own stupid joke. How utterly pathetic. Chuuya held his breath behind pursed lips to steel himself against the gales of laughter to come. He was clearly seething beneath his stony expression, and he didn't quite know why. His eyes quickly flickered over to your face, not enjoying how close the two of you were. He noticed how your eyelids began to flutter, and the way that your mouth made a pretty little Cupid's bow.
He didn't even like you, for starters.
So what the fuck was this feeling?
Jea—
Absolutely fucking not.
He had no reason to be that treacherous j word.
So then why, why when he heard you giggle girlishly yet again at another stupid joke that Tachihara made, did an extraordinary sense of indignation jerk in his brain and fingers?
"[Y/N]! Tachihara! Come sit!" Gin smiled excitedly, making sure that everyone shuffled their asses in one direction to make space for you and Tachihara. Currently, most of the younger members of the Port Mafia with the exception of Mori, Elise, Kouyou, Hirotsu and Chuuya (who was instead, sitting in a chair because he thought he was far too good to sit on the carpeted floor with everyone else) were sitting in a circle, resembling kids who were sitting around a campfire and ready to sing kumbaya.
Taking a seat alongside Tachihara and officially joining this small and intimate circle, you all but glanced at the random bottle situated directly in the middle.
"What are we playing?" You asked them, noticing the bottle. "Spin the Bottle?"
"Not exactly," Kajii responded, shaking his head. He looked at you; a mischievous glimmer dancing in his eyes that were covered by his purple-tinted goggles. "We're playing Seven Minutes in Heaven."
"Oooo," you wiggled your eyebrows playfully. "Well that's going to be interesting."
"It certainly is." A shit-eating grin was spread across Kajii's face.
"Chuuya," Higuchi called out the redhead's name, who seemed to be lost in his own world for a fleeting moment. "You need to come and join us. The more players, the better."
For some inexplicable reason, you were getting a strange vibe from Chuuya today. You noticed it as soon as you walked into the room with Tachihara, but you weren't sure if you were just imagining it or not. You convinced yourself that it was nothing but your mind playing tricks on you at the start, but now, you weren't quite so sure anymore. You hadn't actually talked to the man since you gave him that wine bottle as a peace offering—and it had almost been two days since then. You merely put it down to the fact that for the past two days, you had both been extremely busy with tasks being assigned to you by Mori from left, right and centre. Despite sharing an office, neither of you had actually been in there at the same time during the last forty-eight hours.
"No thanks." He said, turning away his head and shifting his full attention to the beguiling view outside the large window; showing that he was not at all interested in dillydallying with the rest of you. With the setting sun came a sky of fire, the orange of every wintry hearth. "I'm not interested in playing a childish game like this."
"Dude," Akutagawa did not sound happy to hear this at all; a small cough getting lodged in his throat in the process. "If I have to play this stupid ass game, then so do you."
Chuuya exhaled through his nose, but he merely chose not to say anything in response.
"Leave him be," you said, a fierce grin starting on your face. Chuuya knew, as soon as those words had left your annoying lips, that your sole intention now was to try and push his buttons. "He's no fun, anyway. We can just play as a group of six, at least that way we also have an even number of people."
He immediately snapped his head towards you, glaring optimal daggers at you; his brows furrowed. "Are you calling me boring?"
You lifted your shoulders into a nonchalant shrug; giving the man a disparaging smile. "If the shoe fits."
He scoffed in response to your snide little remark, "I'm not fucking boring."
"No, you just think you're too good to play with us." You jibed, causing everyone else to glance at each other with amused expressions plastered on their distinctly unique faces.
"No I don't—" but the rest of his statement was immediately cut short when he noticed how everyone else seemed to be agreeing with you by nodding their heads in perfect unison. This didn't sit too well with him, because he did not want to appear on the surface as if he believed he was far superior to the others, even though he may have thought it in his mind. He huffed out an annoyed breath, suddenly chugging down the rest of his wine and rising to his feet. "Fine. Fine. I'll fucking play this stupid fucking game."
He walked up to the circle, and wedged himself between Kajii and Akutagawa; sitting directly opposite you. You momentarily made eye contact with Gin, who was smirking at you, sending a sly little wink in your direction.
"Alright, so for those of you who don't know how to play the game," Kajii began to explain, and you couldn't help but notice that he was a very flamboyant and expressive man. "Basically, two people are selected to go into a closet or any other dark enclosed space and do whatever they like for seven minutes straight. It is very common for the participants to kiss or make out, I mean, that's what they all do in those college frat parties and whatnot that we see in American Teen movies, but if they don't want to do either of those things, they may instead choose to talk, engage in sexual activity—" the perpetual silence lingering in the atmosphere that followed those last two words almost made you want to laugh out loud, as the notorious lemon bomber had cleared his throat before continuing, "or they simply may choose to do nothing at all and wait for the time to expire. Luckily for us, there is a storage closet right over there—"
Kajii pointed to the small storage closet. Everyone's eyes followed the direction of his finger, as you all took a good look at the mahogany door that led into this enclosed space.
"How practical." Chuuya sarcastically remarked. He decided that if he was chosen as one of the participants, regardless of who he was forced to go into the dreaded closet with, he would simply stand there and just wait for the time to expire. That was the best and only option in his mind.
"Alright, so the person who is willing to go first gets to spin the bottle. Whoever the bottle lands on is the second participant. They'll both then be sent to the closet, and that's when I'll start the timer for seven minutes." Kajii stated. "They key rule of this game is—whatever happens in the closet stays in the closet. Got it?"
Everyone simultaneously nodded their heads in agreement.
"So...I suppose the question is, who wants to go first?" Higuchi asked, glancing around the circle.
Tachihara slyly bumped his shoulder with yours. "Since this is [Y/N]'s first game night with the Port Mafia, I think it'd only make sense for her to go first."
"Alright then," you didn't seem to mind at all. In fact, you were quite excited. You would literally kiss every single person currently sitting in this circle—even Kajii, but like, only after a couple of shots of the hard stuff. "Here goes nothing."
As you reached over to spin the bottle, you momentarily locked eyes with Chuuya, who quickly averted his gaze. Not thinking much of it, you closed your eyes, took a deep breath, and then spun the bottle.
"Please be me." Gin, Higuchi and Tachihara all secretly prayed in their minds at the exact same time.
"Please don't be me. Please don't be me. Please don't be me." Chuuya had his eyes clenched shut, internally begging and praying to any God that was willing to listen. If he wasn't religious before, then he certainly was now. He couldn't even last twenty seconds in a room alone with you without wanting to absolutely throttle you, the whole peace offering situation that had occurred only two days ago obviously being an exception, but right now, he genuinely couldn't imagine being forced to be stuck in an enclosed space with you for seven whole fucking minutes. That would be torturous; a worse punishment than death itself. Chuuya could hear the bottle still spinning, and suddenly, his heart started racing.
Yours was racing too. You were a mixture of both nervous and excited, taking deep breaths, unable to anticipate whose fate was going to be dictated entirely by this goddamn bottle. The wait was agonisingly painful.
Chuuya's eyes were still closed, afraid to open them, and he could hear the bottle slowing down. He was begging one last time that it would land on anyone, literally anyone but him. Not Tachihara, though. Chuuya wasn't going to be very happy if it landed on Tachihara. He was desperately hoping and praying to any otherworldly being that it would at least land on Akutagawa. If Akutagawa happened to be the poor victim of this fiendish bottle, then Chuuya would be satisfied with the knowledge that nothing would happen between you two in that closet. Maybe a conversation, but that would be all.
However, his hopes were dwindling by the time it slowed down even more, now passing Akutagawa. He didn't need to physically see what was going on in front of him, because he could just feel it taking the form of an icy chill racing down his spine. Chuuya held his breath, afraid that if he had opened his eyes, then all of his nightmares would come true. His heart was pounding relentlessly.
And then—everyone suddenly gasped in complete and utter surprise.
And that's when Chuuya's eyes immediately flung wide open.
And when he saw the tip of the bottle pointing directly at him, his stomach dropped. This must have been how Primrose Everdeen felt when she was first chosen to partake in the Hunger Games that ultimately led to her tragic demise.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
"Well, I suppose the bottle has spoken." Gin sounded somewhat disappointed. "And it chose you, Chuuya."
Chuuya groaned in exasperation.
One corner of your mouth lifted in a mockery of a smile as you made direct eye contact with the blue-eyed man, who was staring back at you icily. "What are the odds?"
"Someone shoot me." He didn't appear to be joking. "Please. Please just shoot me."
"Rules are rules," Kajii shrugged. "Now, both of you get up. I'll start the timer as soon as the closet door shuts."
You stood up first, and proceeded to de-wrinkle your skirt using your hands. Chuuya stood up shortly afterwards, and now, the two of you were the only people who were currently standing in a circle where everyone else was sitting.
"Good luck guys!" You heard Higuchi say as you both began slowly walking towards the storage closet.
"I'm going to need it." Chuuya mumbled under his breath. He was genuinely dreading this, and he wasn't too sure why, especially since he literally promised himself that no matter who he was going to end up being stuck in this storage closet with, friend or foe alike, he would do nothing but allow the time to pass.
And yet...
And yet his heart was threatening to break out of his ribcage the closer that he had approached the storage closet door. The door seemed like it was laughing at him evilly; mocking him; taunting him.
He reached for the doorknob with his gloved hand and twisted the rusted silver sphere; the door made an inauspicious creaking sound as he pushed it open. His insides felt like a ball of tangled yarn as soon as he noticed how small and enclosed this space actually was. He gulped, patiently waiting for you to enter first.
"After you." He said; his voice barely above a hushed whisper.
You nodded at him, before entering the storage closet. After a brief second of hesitation, Chuuya finally stepped over the threshold; his entire body now stuck inside this metaphorical torture chamber.
And then he shut the door.
And that's when the timer began.
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A/N - hi guys!! So I'm just going to be answering a few common questions that I have been asked quite a few times right here ‼️
First and foremost; when is the next update going to be?
So I get asked this question very often, usually after I've updated a chapter—the answer is, that I do not have an updating schedule, so I can never give anyone a clear answer. If I have writer's block, the update will take longer. If I'm busy, the update will take longer, or if I'm not in the mood, the update will also take longer. There is no certain timeframe, it really just depends on if I have free time, or if I have enough motivation to write a chapter. Regarding this very next chapter, I cannot tell you when the next update is going to be because I have not started writing it yet. So the answer is, I don't know. Also, I really like surprising you guys with random updates here and there lol 🤷🏽♀️
Secondly, a lot of people have been asking about my ethnicity recently. No, I am not white as some people have been assuming???? I kinda thought that was bloody obvious???? But anyway, I'm Bangladeshi <3
And last but certainly not least, quite a few people have asked me how I managed to balance writing and college work. The truth is, I don't know how to and that's why I had to take a short hiatus during exam season, which is why I also got really mad when people were demanding for updates and being really rude about it. I made the mistake of prioritising Wattpad instead of focusing on my GCSEs back when I was in year 11 (I'm in year 13 now, well technically going to be a university student soon but yeah) and let's just say...because of this, GCSE results day was a very traumatic experience for me.
Anyway—that is all, and I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!! I know it's not the best but I tried lmao. ALSO, I SWEAR WHEN I SAY SHIT LIKE THIS I'M NOT FISHING FOR COMPLIMENTS. I just personally feel like it's subpar idk but that's just me, we writers are always overly critical about our books 😔