italicized means flashback
cw: violence, mentions of beating up and mentions of death
A twelve year old boy was walking down the unfamiliar neighborhood while his hands were holding a single rose, attached to it was a little pink teddy bear and a bar of chocolate that he heard from his friends were Ai's favorite.
However, as he continued to walk down the path towards her house, he was greeted by a group of men who all wore a similar white uniform with the letters B and D in bold, cursive font and a dragon design behind. The air around this particular area was thick and a little heated. Because there was so many guys in the said area, he didn't know which one was Ai's house.
"Excuse me" the boy shyly asks as he approached a man with light and dark blue hair color, wearing a red uniform similar to the ones the other men wore. "Do you know which one is the Shiba Ai's house?" He boldly asks to him. What he didn't know was that the sixteen year old boy he asked for directions was the older brother of the girl he wanted to court and give the gifts in his hands to.
Suddenly, the twelve year old boy's eyes widens as he felt a shiny, pointed object pressed onto the skin of his neck from behind.
"State your business" Said the boy behind him
The twelve year old's mind went into haze, the man wearing a red uniform looked at him with a maniacal expression on his face when he couldn't find the words to say.
"Bold of you to ask me where my house is." He says, laughing loudly as he watches the fear slowly creep into the boy's eyes.
"I-I didn't know!!" He reasons, beads of sweat trickling down from his head, dangerously sliding down onto his skin.
"Look boss! He even has gifts for your sister!" The boy with curly hair says.
Taiju averted his eyes into his hands. Suddenly, anger coursed through his veins. When Inui saw the change in his boss' eyes, he removed his knife from the boy's neck before Taiju could land a punch on his jaw. The gifts in his hands flew up and landed on Kokonoi's feet.
"Pathetic" He mutters, his nose scrunching at the sight of measly gifts on the road pavement. "The amount of this doesn't even match up her worth." He says, stepping on them before walking to stand behind Inui.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" The boy pleads. But Taiju couldn't hear anything. All he could see was rage as he continues to beat him up, resulting his knuckles to be bloodied.
The aftermath of what happened that day was no good. The twelve year old boy was left bloodied and dying in the area, when the people living in the same said area found him and called the ambulance, he was already pronounced dead. His family was heartbroken and devastated upon hearing the news. Resulting to them moving away from the city and into the quiet, provincial area of Japan.
And no one was an eye witness when everything happened.
. . . . . . . . . . ♡
"I'm glad Pah got out from the police. What they did to his friends were horrible." Ai says, slightly swinging herself in the swing in the playground of her neighborhood.
"Me too. Meanwhile, my other friend Kazutora is still in house arrest." Mikey says, chuckling.
"Hm? House arrest? For what?" Ai asks, turning her head to look at him.
"Dumbass thought all the keys to their apartment were the same, so he tried stealing one but got caught. Bold of him to even threaten the authorities by ripping their nails off." Mikey laughs as he recalls what had happened that night. "So, he's on house arrest until next week."
Upon hearing the story, even Ai couldn't help but chuckle softly. "That is kind of funny." She admits, lightly nodding her head.
Silence engulfed the two of them. Neither one spoke a word, just slowly moving back and forth while sitting on the swing set. Just the two of them while the afternoon sun sets behind them.
All of a sudden, Mikey gets up and stands over something, bending down while his hands worked on something.
"What are you doing?" Ai asks, looking at his back profile.
Mikey turns his heels around and shows to her a flower, its green stem tied into a circular knot. "We haven't established a relationship yet but I would like to court you, Ai. At the same time, in the near future, I would like you to walk down the aisle with me when we get older."
Ai's eyes widens as Mikey took her left hand and slipped the flower makeshift ring in her ring finger. Feeling her eyes getting glossy with tears, she immediately stood up and plucked the same flower he took, tying the green stem into a circular knot as well before walking back to Mikey.
"I'll say yes to both." She smiles, slipping the same flower makeshift ring into his left ring finger.
. . . . . . . . . . ♡
That night, Ai couldn't sleep yet as she was still busy studying on a new topic that was discussed to them in school. Her sessions at the ballet academy began to have pressure on her, considering she's playing a leading role. Though stress began to eat it's way through her, Ai knew not to let herself be succumbed to it.
Thud!
Turning her head around, Ai turned to look at her window. Was it a burglar? an intruder? a psycho killer?
Thud!
Ai grimaced when she caught sight of a stone being thrown into the window panel. A shiver ran down her spine. Slowly, she got up from her seat and started to walk towards the door, the knob in her hand, ready to bolt out and run into Yuzuha's room.
"Ai!"
"Ai!"
Thud!
Her eyes widened when she heard her name being called outside. Walking with cautious steps towards her window, she lifted it up and found a smiling Kokonoi and Inui outside, waving their hands up to her.
"Idiot! You should have called or texted me first! I was about to die from heart attack, you know?!" Ai whisper shouts.
"Don't die on us yet, Ai!" Kokonoi smirks, dropping the stones on the ground. "Pull me up, Inui." He says before climbing up and entering the window of her room. Once inside, it was Kokonoi's turn to help Inui up. Ai closed her window as they got inside.
"Why do I get the feeling that you two went here without my brother knowing?" Ai asks, sitting down on the seat of her vanity mirror.
"Sharp thinking you got there." Inui says, laying down on her bed with his arms spread out.
"Yeah we really came here without letting him know. Who knows what they could be doing at the hideout right now." Kokonoi chuckles, laying down on her bed as well.
"Aren't you scared that he might lash out on you two?" Ai asks, placing her hands in between her knees.
"Nah"
"Nope"
"Are you two serious right now?!"
"Yeah we are." Inui says, lifting his head a little to look at her.
"Why would we be scared of boss? It's not like he can kick us out. Kicking us out means losing connections to money and security." Kokonoi retorts.
Sighing softly, Ai stood up and laid down in between the two.
"You know" Ai begins to say, earning the attention of the two delinquents. "Earlier at school, we were talking about the festival happening tomorrow. I wanted to ask you two if you could come with me." She says
Kokonoi grins, turning his body around before taking a strand of Ai's long hair into his finger, twirling it. "Of course we'd go with you. Right, Inui?"
Inui smiles, turning his body around as well so he could face Ai properly. "Wouldn't want to miss seeing you wearing a kimono."
Ai smiles, closing her eyes as Kokonoi continued to twirl a strand of her hair in his index finger.
"Hey Ai" Kokonoi calls
"Yeah?"
"Can you take the two of us?"
"Of course I can" Ai says. With her eyes still closed, Inui raised his eyebrows in surprise while Kokonoi stopped twirling her hair and began to laugh inaudibly.
"You mean...in a fight, right?" Ai asks, opening her eyes while turning her head to look at Kokonoi. Immediately, Ai's cheeks blushed bright red as a vivid of image of her being sandwiched between Kokonoi and Inui came into her mind, getting up from her bed and started to wack the two of them with her pillow.
"Pervert!" Ai says, still blushing as she continues to hit Kokonoi with her pillow.
"Ouch!" Kokonoi propped his arms up, running away from Ai. "Inui help me!"
But the sunflower haired boy shook his head, placed his hands on top of his stomach and closed his eyes. "Do your best, Koko." He says, softly humming to himself.
"Traitor!" Kokonoi yells before getting wacked in the head with a pillow.
"Keep quiet or else my other siblings will hear you!" Ai says, wacking Kokonoi again.
"Don't want them to know who's keeping you up at night?" Kokonoi teases again, sticking his tongue out. Unfortunately, it earned him another wack in the head with a pillow.