Love truly did make people do asinine things.
But then again, it wouldn't all be for naught once he had you all for his, right?
For his to take care of...
For his to love...
For his to own.
The reward unequivocally outweighed all the risks that he had to take. How very much flawed this mindset was, Takuma merely didn't care. Years had taken him before he'd finally found something, or someone, rather, to live for and he'd be damned if he were to let you go in spite of the empathic part of his mind hollering- bellowing at him to cause a halt to whatever the hell he was doing.
But he was far too gone to stop now, wasn't he?
Standing in the middle of the room where he'd arranged the meeting, he was simply just waiting for the person to arrive. It amused him, you see. For such a big establishment, he shouldn't even be surprised that the Royal Brix had an untouched underground room like this for people to go in and out of as they wished. And apparently, over the past decade, none had done the job. This room was abandoned for that long, and the dusty interior accompanied by the musky scent said it all.
Contradictory to the state of this room, he found this place perfect. Just the right location for them to discuss the deets of the plan that he'd formed as soon as the chief had told him that the mission was off. Naturally, he should be wary enough for his boss might suspect him of being the one behind this, especially not long after him telling the albino the morbid news. But ah, the old man was too laid-back around him. Yet why wouldn't he?
Takuma was the best of the best inside his company, after all.
However, the red-hued boy knew that being too complacent could end things quicker before they even started; henceforth, he adjusted a bit of his plans before relaying it to his accomplice. Just one daft error could cost him everything.
A cough alerted him of the newcomer's presence.
"Ah, you're here," his voice reverberated throughout the whole room.
"Indeed I am," the person replied with their gruff voice. Even if they wished to go elsewhere, they just couldn't.
Not when Takuma had concrete evidence about this person's sprees.
"Let's not waste any more time, no? Let us get down to business," Takuma had a smile on his face yet his eyes were a whole different matter.
The night passed by with the cicadas singing their songs with the man whose tufts were of the lightest shade of ivory intonating the macabre dispositions he had in mind.
Heartless.
Inhumane.
All those was he. Who could blame him, though? He was just doing all of this for love.
Reckless.
You were too impetuous for your own damn good.
But seeing as you'd survived up 'til now when you were supposed to be nothing but a mere cadaver, you surmised that's what had kept you going despite it being a seemingly bad trait for a person to yield.
And albeit you'd churned out a plan to initially utilize Takuma, none other than your ersatz lover, as a scapegoat, you figured that involving someone else in your cacophony of dilemmas was a move that only the heartless would make. You came down in favor of doing such act in the first place since he 'did' do the same thing to you, but after a moment of pensiveness, you concluded that his reason for doing so was much more righteous than yours.
He'd done it to prevent other lives from being further taken by this still unknown perpetrator... While you? You decided to do that just to escape from a certain psychopath. But hey (you thought in an attempt to quell down your guilt for even thinking of manipulating someone to turn things in your favor), anyone in your shoes probably would've done the same thing, right? You were thrown down into this universal plane without your consent, add to the fact that you'd taken the role of someone who was to die early in the plot, so it shouldn't be a surprise that you would be too desperate enough at times to think coherently.
Later on, you'd bring the male you'd been talking about to your father. And while Takuma was reserved for that seat originally, he didn't deserve being handled as a tool like that...
Feasibly enough, now seemed like the perfect time to hit Jiryu up on his offer. You'd talk to him later on, and in the teeth of you saying it to him last minute, you were sure that he would be able to prepare himself just in time to appear as gentlemanly as he could be in front of your father for the latter to finally rest the case.
. . .
You bit your lips as freights of deliberations inundated your brain right after you sent Jiryu a text as to what would transpire later on. You hadn't seen Takuma at all during the first half of the school schedule. While you didn't share a single class with that male, you would occasionally see him outside the halls when you were moving to prance from one classroom to another, so where was he? It would be a lie to say that you weren't worried about that boy in defiance of you not having that much of a close-knit relationship with him.
For all one knows, the case regarding that one student could've been closed per the request of the family... However unlikely that was, it was still highly probable. You just couldn't think of a single reason as to why they would even go through with that- that was, if they ever did. In the likelihood of that scenario, it was possible that they were threatened or even blackmailed-
"A perilous pastime, thinking, I mean," a familiar voice drove you out from your contemplations.
You released an involuntary sigh, out of relief, you presumed, as these familiar locks of hair greeted your e/c orbs without warning. You stopped just by the side of the hallway to ensure that you wouldn't obstruct anyone from going on their merry way as you two discoursed.
"Where've you been? You're present every single day, with you reasoning that you want to snatch that perfect attendance award, so it's quite unnerving to find you gone without you even giving a measly hint of your departure," you rebuked him, the scrunching of your eyebrows made apparent yet he seemed like he was taking your scolding too lightly for hell's sake.
Takuma was a force to be reckoned with, that much you were sure of. And with him suddenly withdrawing without a word, your intuition told you that something wrong was going on behind the scenes and you just couldn't pinpoint it out.
"Just faced some... issues," and the way his eyes darkened caused a chill to overcome you. Yet it was gone as soon as it came- like that fleeting moment of change was just a figment of your wandering imagination prob'ly caused by sleep deprivation.
"I see..." He looked like he still wanted to tell you something, but seeing that he didn't take the first step, you decided to take the chance before he did. "I...I need to talk to you once lunch break arrives. Fetch me?" You flashed him a wry smile. Takuma's calculating eyes took note of it right away, yet he didn't say anything, just returning the beam that you'd graced him with.
"Sure, anything for you."
You'd been steeling your nerves while your Music class commenced. Luck wasn't on your side when all of you were supposed to sing akin to a choir. With your already horrid singing voice alongside your jittery self, the cracking of your voice stood out amongst the many. It was hard to keep yourself from flushing when Kozan made it clear that he had no intentions of hiding his cackled.
'Asshole,' you muttered, and he didn't take any offense in it. In fact, he was just amused by your present temperament.
You didn't forget his proposition, not at all. Not when the both of you had experienced something simultaneously... A strange phenomenon, at that. You recalled finding something like this when you were researching random topics back in your original world.
The Mandela Effect, was it? The uncanny occurrence wherein a bevy of people recall things that had a huge discrepancy with what had actually happened. But was that it? Was the explanation as easy as that? No, it couldn't be.
The world liked making things harder for you, so you ascertained that it was more than that.
No- You'd reflect on that in due course. Right now, what you need to ready yourself for was your break-up with Takuma. It was such a comical thought, seriously. This was all just a fake relationship, so why must you feel trepidation in causing breakage to something that wasn't didn't even exist in the first place?
Plus, with how things were going, getting closer to all the suspects when the populace knew that he was with you would more than likely make his mission a tad bit harder. Assuming that most of the group had at least some kind of infatuation with you, they would be warier of him... The proof was right there when you'd introduced him to the club that he'd wanted to join. The harsh glares hurled toward his way was enough of an indication that he wasn't welcome there, not when he was 'in a relationship' with you.
And you weren't high-handed when you thought of that, okay? Denying it would be a fatuous move on your part when it was just so conspicuous, like they weren't even planning on hiding it in the first place. You'd despise yourself if you let yourself be one of those oblivious ladies in the soap operas that you'd indulged in back in the day-
"Miss Y/n Ross, wrong note!"
"Sorry, Ma'am!" And you narrowed your eyes at that one particular snicker just from your side. Why did you even let Kozan take a seat right beside you?
- Not knowing that you were already one.
. . .
Now was the time.
You pulled Takuma en route to the gazebo that was only filled with a few people here and there, but seeing that they were sort of scattered, you didn't fear them listening in on what you were going to drop on the aforementioned male.
Once perched on the ledges of the pavilion, you permitted noiselessness to encapsulate you two.
It didn't startle you when your companion took it in him to rupture it.
"What did you want to talk about?" At first, Takuma was kind of excited since it was seldom that you initiated to take him elsewhere, but as he peered at the way you bit your lips in obvious distraught, he braced himself for what's about to come.
"Takuma, let's break up," and you winced at how small you sounded. You went straight to the point, already wanting to flee from this place.
"What?"His voice cracked. Once you caught sight of the distressed expression that sat itself on Takuma's visage, you felt your heart breaking. Was it him acting or was the emotion that he was showing actually genuine? But developing feelings for you in the short time that you two acted like you were together (in your part, at least), you hypothesized that even if this went on for over half a year, someone like him wouldn't feel even the slightest bit of interest towards someone like you.
You exhaled through your parted lips as you kept up with your upturned lips. "You deserve someone better, Takuma, not me. Can't you see how much of a wreck I am? I... I just think that somebody as perfect as you should pine for a person who's not this," and for emphasis, you used your index to point at yourself.
Why was Takuma making this so hard? Hadn't he noticed it as well that his plan wasn't working as intended and that he could come up with something better? He could. Definitely. He was a genius- the cream of the crop of his organization! Surely he wouldn't be at a standstill just because one strategy had gone wrong?
In conjunction with that, you were now linked to too many boys than you could handle. There was Yukio who basically was forcing you into an engagement coupled with Jiryu providing you assistance apropos of this matter. There was also Enki who you'd just turned down... And with how things were going, who knows how many more! Minusing one wasn't enough, but it could definitely ease off some of your worries.... It also wasn't as if you were going to be the only one who would benefit from this. In fact, this was a win-win situation for you both.
"No. I do not accept this." You would've been frightened by the conviction in his tone if he didn't look like someone who was on the verge of breaking down. Why must he make you feel so bad?
"Y/n I- I love you too much to let you go. Please... Please don't do this to me," he stood up and went in front of you. You wondered what he was about to do before he knelt down on his knees, an act that was enough to garner the attention of the few that surrounded you two.
"Takuma, stand up," you coaxed him as you removed yourself from your seat and took ahold of his shoulders to support him so that he could right himself up, but no matter how much you'd tried, he just wouldn't budge- betokening the vast difference you two had in regard to strength.
"Did I do something wrong? Tell me, I'll make it up to you-"
"No you didn't... It's just that..." Much to your relief, he stood up, moving to place his grip on your arms. It was light, and it appeared as if the last thing he'd wanted to do as of the moment was to hurt you by tightening his hold on you.
"What do you want me to do to have you retract your statement? Whatever it is, I'll do- Just don't leave me," he pulled you in his embrace, his left arm wrapped around your head and his free one enveloping your waist as he buried his face on your shoulder.
You didn't know what to do- you were left aghast.
You were about to reply, but it all happened too hastily for you to comprehend. He stepped leaned away from you before cupping your cheek with one of his hands that wasn't on your waist. And before you knew it...
His lips had landed on top of yours.
If only you'd thought things out before enacting upon them. Mayhaps now was the time for you to stop going with the flow.