"So who's next?!"
I turn to them, a small smile coming on my face as they all look at each other. Sora curls more into me, my eyes momentarily moving to the top of her head before I kiss it.
She looks up at me now, her blue eyes twinkling as she says, "You like doing that a lot."
"Falling in love with you with every second?" I ask.
She laughs, about to push back strands of her hair but I stop her, using my own hand to do it as she says, "My hair. You have a thing for my hair."
"Maybe I do." I say, grinning. "Maybe I don't."
"Mhm." She reaches to my face and kisses me. The first thing I do is let my hand move into her hair as I pull her closer, taking in her vanilla scented perfume before someone coughs.
Sora pulls away now, a laugh leaving her lips as the person who coughed says, "Honestly, guys. What's the point of you guys being here if you're too involved with each other to actually be here?"
"Oh come on, Abe." The girl next to him, Violetta says, her eyes staring dreamily at us. "They're just madly in love with each other."
"It's literally been four years." Another girl, her name being Zara, says, "I get that's sweet and all, but they still act like they just met."
"Maybe it's because Kai is perfect." Gabriella shrugs.
Simon rolls his eyes, throwing more potato chips into his mouth. "No one's perfect, Gabby."
"He might be, laying next to me tonight." Fay says, while they give me a wink.
Sora laughs, picking up a stick and throwing it at them which they dodge quickly, sticking their tongue back at her. "Go get your own boyfriend."
"Nah. I want the one you have, but fine, I'd make do with the one I have." They say, picking up their phone and pretending to scroll through it before letting out a sigh and setting it back on their thigh. "Nah. Still want Kai."
Simon groans now. "Can someone want me please?"
Gabriella, his girlfriend, quickly elbows him. "Hey!"
I laugh, pulling Sora closer. "Sorry about that, Fay but—" I turn to look at the girl next to me "I'm dedicated to one person alone."
"Cringe and dedicating yourself to just one person is soooo last season." They say, rolling their eyes. "Besides, we're graduating tomorrow, for crying out loud. Y'all don't have to be sweethearts anymore."
"Oops. They didn't." Samantha says with a fake panic look.
Zara facepalms, "Now we gotta hear more cringe shit."
"We aren't together for anyone, Fae." Sora says, turning to look at me. Her eyes are twinkling now. "We just... Are."
The girls coos while the boys groan before Fay says, "Yes. You most definitely are for him, but we don't know about Kai. You're the one always doing the talking."
This was how a usual, normal day with all of us gathered went. Them picking at Sora's and I's relationship then Fay firing at me. Which I don't mind. I know it's just them wanting to find a reason to say Sora and I aren't perfect.
As always, Violetta comes to my defence. "No one can deny the fact Kai looks at Sora like she's the most precious thing to walk the Earth."
"But he could talk a little though. He never talks. We barely even know him. He tells us nothing and the things we do know, was our investigation." Fay says, their eyes on me. "Which is, his real name is Kai Light. He's a Libra and he most definitely is a stupid ass rich kid."
Sora sighs, "Fay."
"What?" They ask and scoff. Not surprising, they never have a filter. "We all know he, never lacks. And Sora hasn't either, ever since they met."
"Neither has anyone." Abraham says, as if trying to remind them to be grateful. "He keeps footing our bills like it's nothing to him." Then he turns to me. "And we appreciate it, dude."
I laugh there. "But it is nothing."
Samantha sighs, now resting her chin on the back of her hand as she stares at me. "He's so perfect."
"Not perfect," Zara grumbles. It's obvious h
she's been in love with Sam for God knows how long but it's either Sam's totally oblivious or too straight to even try a relationship. "Who knows he might be a mafia leader infiltrating our school or something."
Violetta claps and giggles. "Or a super hot agent working for the FBI."
"In college?" Simon asks, "Oh, come on."
"What?" Gabriella asks, folding her arms and glaring at him. "He can be a mafia leader but not an FBI agent?"
"Guys." I'm laughing now. It's crazy how they can keep doing this, or have been doing it for four years. Trying to guess who I am, or what I am.
It was one of the things I was sure I would miss about them.
Fay folds their hands. "Seriously, Kai. We're all going separate ways tomorrow. The least we deserve is your backstory."
I stare at all of them. Even though some of them had this look of not wanting me to pressure myself into talking, I knew all of them had been dying to hear who I was so I shrug. "Fine."
Sora looks at me now. Her eyes soft while she places her hand on my knee and says, "You don't have to tell anyone."
Among everyone, she was the one I was closest too, which made sense since we were together, but she didn't know everything, and after today, I think she deserved to know the sort of person she was with.
I smile back at her, resting mine on hers. "It's okay. They deserve to know, you as well."
"Finally!" Zara hoots, raising her hands up. "Who's making a bet that Kai's a mafia leader?"
"Okay, don't do that, cause I'm mostly definitely not." I say laughing. "I'd just start from the basic right?" Then I take in a breath and say at once. "I'm supposed to be dead at the moment."
Violetta's mouth lands open. "Plot twist."
Zara nods, "Dark."
Abraham has a worried look on his face. "Whoa, dude. You literally do not start a story like that."
Fay, looks interested. They had always been interested in me so this wasn't surprising. "Why? What'd you do?"
I shrug, "I am not exactly sure what I did. One moment, I was fine, then the next, I was locked up somewhere, and realizing that the oxygen in that room was depleting and breathing was becoming harder."
"Okay. Okay. Can we backtrack?" Gabriella cuts in, "Where exactly are you from? And how'd you get all of your money? Your parents? Let's start with something less darker."
"Alright." I nod, "I'm Vinian, a citizen of Vino."
"You're what?" Simon asks, then looks at Gabby. "What's that? A city in Japan?"
"Vino." Samantha is staring at me like I just told her she won a lottery. "Are you talking about Vino? Like, Aeria's Vino?"
I look at her, and give a brief nod. "Yes?"
Fae's head swings back and forth, their eyebrows furrowed. "And what's Vino?"
"It's..." Samantha stares at me, then at everyone else. "Vino is part of a country called Isle. Which is, surprisingly off the world map because it was discovered not too long ago and the only people who know about it are the higher tops. Like you gotta be super up in the power chain to know about it."
"Why?" Zara asks.
"Cause Isle's like Neverland on fucking steroids. It's perfect for stupendously rich people to have holiday." She says, "And they're like, really secretive. The citizens never even leave their country. Everything you'd ever want, it's right there. You just gotta be rich enough to afford it."
"So like, Gucci store but a whole country of it?" Violetta asks.
"They can't leave?" Fay asks.
"No, you could but no one ever does." She replies and nods, "Yeah, it's that awesome. Plus, you have to be born there, to be able to even live there. Tourists aren't given permanent stay."
"Isle isn't perfect." I cut in, "Ever heard of glamour?"
Samantha looks at me, her eyes glowing. It's times like this I remember she wants to be a reporter. "Like what?"
"First, give me your phone Sam." I say.
She groans, "Oh come on."
I chuckle, "I did say I'm supposed to be dead. I don't need people who shouldn't know I'm alive to know before they should."
She grumbles but hands it to me regardless before I say, "Every country has its dark side, and that's Vino. Aeria can only be inhabited if you're rich, rich enough to afford it, and the people at the top, would do anything to stay there. Vinians can't keep up."
"Like, no Vinian goes to Aeria?" Violetta asks.
I shake my head. "They don't give us a choice to move up the social ladder. They don't even look at us. We're nothing less than trash to them."
"Then just leave?" Zara asks.
"We're too poor to afford leaving." I say, chuckling so I can push down the frustration in me. "Plus, the only education we get is middle school, literally, you gotta be ten before you even learn your bloody alphabets. So obviously, most of us are too dumb to even afford Vino. The only way to even survive, is through sex."
"Prostitution?" Fay asks.
"Particularly." I shrug, "But it's only strict homosexual prostitution. You don't get to try straight sex if you really want that cash."
"What the—." Simon looks at me, "What type of choices are those?"
"It's not a choice." I say. "You could get jailed for life in Aeria, or stoned to death in Vino so Aerians who are gay find Vinians who can't refuse them. My brother was, for example."
"Oh, Kai." Sora finally speaks, a hand on her chest. "I had no idea."
"It's fine." I say with a smile at her before turning to them, "Not everyone can do that of course, so some in Vino find ways to sneak past the borders and steal in Aeria. That's life imprisonment but being rich people fuck toys is equally the same, considering the fact that if you're caught, you're going down alone."
"Jesus." Gabriella says, "And no one's trying to fix this?"
"We're nothing more than rats to them, abd we keep playing to their music. Not like we have a choice." I reply.
"What about you?" This is Fay. Not surprising. "How'd you... How'd you leave?"
"Well, my dad, he um, used to go to this trash dump and read discarded books." I chuckle, "Yeah, I know, overachiever. Anyway, he makes this antidote for this disease that was everywhere at the time and takes it to Aeria, showing it to this surprisingly nice, non Vinian hater who sponsors his research and they both get married."
"Oh, so you're half Aerian?" Fay asks, a small smile on their face.
"Nah." I shake my head. "He left my mum and I in Vino."
A downcast looks fills their face."Oh."
"Anyway, when he's done with them, it's a big success and his wife,convinces him to use her name instead of his on its patent so she gets all the credit and after a year or two, divorces my dad. So he's heartbroken about the whole thing and hangs himself."
"Kai—."Sora starts.
But I don't stop. "And then a while later, an old colleague of my dad, I hadn't known who it was then, gave me a scholarship into Aeria High and I studied there for a while, then met this girl—."
"There was a girl! Ha!" Simon yells, turning to my girlfriend. "Sora, you weren't the only one in his life."
"That had the sons of the five richest family in Isle wanting her as well." I complete.
The mood now changed, Zara stands, searching around. "Where's the popcorn?!"
Abraham sighs. "There's no popcorn, Z."
"And well?" Gabriella asks, "Did you get her?"
"At first, it was kinda hard." I admit. "It felt like the Aerians would always take all that I wanted, that was supposed to mine and no matter what I did, she was in love with them, wanted them."
"All four of 'em?" Zara asks, mouth open.
Simon nods, singing. "Pussy is wet, come take a dive."
I laugh, "Yeah. It sucked. Kept thinking it was probably because I was too nice, and oh, the boys were dating themselves as well."
"Oh. It gets better." Zara says with a dramatic look on her face.
"But then one day, she tells me that she loves me as well. And that's the day I nearly die."
Samantha nods, "They totally went yandere on your ass."
"The news is everywhere and you know how Aeria is, so I'm... Well, I'm endangered and again, I'm helped by someone else. A friend of the friend that got me the scholarship. She becomes my mentor and takes care of everything, sending me away from Isle and you know, funding everything here."
"She must be stupid rich to let you spend this much." Gabriella says.
"Considering that I'm the name she left on her will?" I ask, then nod. "Yes."
Violetta has a teary look on her face as she says, "Is she dying?"
I shake my head. "I won't let her."
"And the girl?" Fay asks, face serious. "What happened to her?"
"She... She drowned that day. I haven't seen her since." I say then fix a happy smile on my face. "So that's basically it. My backstory."
"Would you ever go back? Cause you're like, rich now right? You can afford Aeria?" Samantha asks, "Shove some money into people's faces and probably send us plane tickets?"
I smile. "Yes. I could but that's all a probability."
"But—"
"It's enough, he looks tired." Sora says, rubbing my arm. "I think he should return home. He needs to rest."
"Do you?" Samantha asks. Pouting. "I have so many questions!"
I laugh, standing and Sora follows. "I do feel tired, and it's late. I'd be traveling tomorrow."
"You're not staying?" Abraham asks.
"No. I have something I can't miss." I reply.
"Right. I bet that's another secret we'd have to wait another four years to find out." Fay says, rolling their eyes.
"You could just ask for a hug." I say, "Or my autograph. If you'd miss me that bad."
"Oooooh." Simon drawls, laughing. "He didn't."
"Dick prints would be nice but I'd digress." He says, "Now y'all should shoo. Before I start talking about my dress for tomorrow and force you to stay."
Before we leave, I tell them to send me pictures. Sora and I get to my car and as I drive, she stays silent, her eyes staring outside the window.
I can smell the fear coming from her, and I was never a bad person. I didn't plan to hurt her, but I had no other choice.
When we get to her dorm, I turn the engine off and look at her. "Sora—."
"You can't." She shakes her head and looks at me. The tears in her eyes hurt me because I do care about her. Very much. "You must feel something. Anything."
No one knew, but I had paid Sora to act as a girlfriend to me. Partly because she was a social butterfly and I didn't want to stand out, staying as normal as possible.
She knew after school we'd part ways. I told her that.
"You mean a lot to me—."
"Shut up." She snaps. The tears falling out more. Even though it had all been acting. I could tell she was falling for me more and more, and I'd wanted to remind her that it wasn't real, but that'd shake the whole plan of everything so I didn't. "How can you still love her?"
I sigh. It was like asking me how could I not like oxygen. "Cause I wouldn't be here without her."
I had ambition, yes, but she gave me a true purpose. A true reason to live. My whole life was dull and meaningless before her.
She gives colour to my life. How couldn't I not want that?
"It's been years." She says, "She left you. Abandoned you. All this time. While you were with me, she never even tried reaching out once."
That was a lie. I did spend time with her, but yes, it was very little. Considering we were trying to stay as low profile as possible. "Years would mean nothing when you love someone."
And she slaps me.
"Fuck you." She says, walking out of the car, slamming the door shut.
Aww.
I sigh, rubbing my cheek before starting the engine again. At least, my conscience can be at peace.
And I can love my Koneko properly.
~
"Thank you."
He takes the money with a curt bow of his head, driving out to the road while I adjust my tweed jacket, my eyes looking up at the building with a dome having shiny lights coming out it's window.
A smile comes on my face now.
Good, I didn't miss it.
I cross the road and walk to the entrance, the bald man standing there moving his eyes around my clothes before he says in accented English, "You should not be here."
I smile and reply in japanese, "Call someone then. I am here with my card, of course, but you would believe I stole it, and do not look so surprised. Call Nanami, he's the head guard here, isn't he? Tell him 005 is here."
As always, he doesn't quite understand or believe why someone in a tweed jacket and wool pants would be interested or perhaps, rich enough to be here.
Not that I couldn't have worn something more suitable, but their faces. God, their faces are just perfect.
"Hey, there's a weirdo here." He's speaking on his intercom and in russian, having absolutely no idea I learnt that language as well, "Using some crazy ass James Bond name. 005? You know him? Oh, alright."
He looks at me as he hangs up, disbelief and something almost envy like in his eyes as he says, "He said he'd come meet you here."
I nod.
Nanami arrives, all apologetic and anxious to please me in whatever form, even if it meant firing the baldie, but I'm forgiving, mostly for the fact I don't want to be associated with the rich assholes that do those sort of things.
We enter the theater, thousands already seated while he and some other guards gather around me and lead me to the top floor, in a private booth that usually only has me in it.
Except today. There's another man here.
Nanami is apologizing again, saying something along the lines of him having no idea that I was coming, which was true. I told no one.
I wave him away, moving to the empty seat next to the man who looks understandably surprised that there is someone else who could afford this booth, and look the way I do.
He's older, with some specks of gray hair even though I can tell he makes an effort to dye it, in a well tailored red suit and tattoos all around his hand.
I bow at him, in respect and he nods, his eyes never leaving mine as I hear an ovation, turning my head forward and looking down, a pleasing smile coming to my face as she comes to the stage.
She walks differently now, everything about her breeds nobility even. With the way she stares at the crowd with a superior glint in her eyes and her body language...
She's, by every means, beautiful.
"Thank you all for honouring my last show with your presence here." She states in fluent japanese, "I must admit that I didn't expect to find a family here but you all, have seen me as one of yours, that I sing this song today, which means a lot to me.
"I am an anime fan so being here feels like a dream come true." She says this with a small chuckle, the crowd chuckling along with her. "Even though I am a bit older now. This song I am about to sing, is called Kamado Tanjiro no Uta. It's a song about moving forward, and not despairing no matter what happens, because you have someone to protect. It reminds me of—"
"Her japanese is quite fluent, for a westerner." The man next to me says.
I turn to him, smiling a bit. Of course it is. I taught her myself. "Yes. It is."
He smiles and stretches out his hand, "Yuri Uzumaki."
"Light." I reply, shaking him. "Doctor Light."
Small recognition comes to his face as he takes his hand away, still looking at me, "Oh. You must be a rich one."
Oh yes. You wouldn't believe how much rich people would pay to see that their six year old dog doesn't pass away too early, student or not.
"I just graduated from medical school today actually," I say and then because I have to brag, how can I not?, I add "Job interviews have began to pile up as well, the Haven's request standing out more than the others, but I couldn't miss her last show."
He sounds genuinely surprised as he says, "Oh, Haven's Hospital in England? You must be quite smart for them to seek you out."
I nod, "Thank you."
"And you just graduated. that must explain why you came here this way. You must have been in a rush." He says, "Not that I blame you, of course, Koneko's voice is truly a work of art. I have never heard someone so… angelic."
That, I agreed on. Listening to her made all my worry slip away, like she had me in a hypnotic trance and I was too weak, no, too glad to not be in control of my body anymore.
As she sings, none of us say another word, and I am glad for it and when she's finished, I stand, and so does the crowd below, clapping, as she smiles one more time at us before exiting the stage, another singer coming forward.
Yuri Uzumaki stands as well, even though he seems a bit less stressed than before, his eyes still not leaving my face, "Doctor Light, I understand you must be exhausted from your trip but I would like it if you could accompany me for dinner. I doubt you have been fed well enough."
I smile at him, "I would love to, but I have other… things."
As I say those words, Nanami and the other guards arrive, heads bowed as he tells me that my car is parked outside and ready to leave.
"Next time, then?" Yuri asks.
I chuckle this time and say in english, "I'm not gay."
A look of shock and perhaps shame goes across his face as he looks at the guards then at me, his words coming out in stutters, even though he uses english as well. "F-Forgive me, I wasn't implying— I didn't—."
"It's alright." I say, even though I know it's not. He'd forever remember this moment till he dies, and that gives me great pleasure. "Everyone makes mistakes. Till whenever, Mr Uzumaki."
As I turn and walk away, the guards again lead me down the stairs, and when I am outside, they leave me alone.
The cold air kisses my face, calming me for some seconds before I bring out my phone and make a call.
The person picks almost immediately, her voice low, "Kawaii?"
I can't help the smile that comes to my face as I reply, "Koneko, darling. Tonight's show was excellent, just as always, of course."
Her voice, is softer now. More polished. Made me always wish to keep her talking, "You came? That must mean you missed your grad party."
"I couldn't miss your last show, in Japan, that would be absurd. And besides, I missed you."
She sighs, even though I can tell she's smiling, "I missed you as well, Ki. I shall be resting at the hotel instead of the penthouse tonight, could you come there?"
"What's the name of the hotel?"
"It's one of the branches of that hotel you took me and stole their toothpaste tube."
"And you cost them about five hundred thousand dollars but you do not hear me reminding you, do you?"
She laughs and it pleases me. To hear that, to know I can do that for her even after everything she's been through.
I look up, the moon shining brighter than I remember as I say in a soft whisper, speaking on english this time, "We've gone so far, haven't we?"
She stays silent for a while, and when she speaks, she sounds like she's smiling. "We have. Come, Ki, let's celebrate to more success."
"I shall be there soon enough, just promise not to finish all of the food, Vanilla."
"I can't promise anything, Kiwi."