Character Ages: 16/17/18
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There were no words to describe the emotions I was experiencing at that moment.
I was hit by the hot weather of July the moment I got off the airplane and stared around the area.
I took a moment to myself to close my eyes and face upwards, letting the warm sunrays of Japan hit my face as I breathed the scent of the atmosphere. I took a deep inhale through my nostrils and gently exhaled through my nostrils.
It felt so weird being back.
I could barely comprehend the fact that I was back. Back in the country I was raised in with my fathers, H/n and all my friends.
I was feeling so much thrill, excitement and anxiousness as I was heading towards the airport, where my dads and H/n would find me there and we would retrieve my luggage and finally go home, in a place I hadn't been in four years.
Fours years had passed.... I would not necessarily say in the blink of the eye, yet at the same time, maybe it felt right to say that.
I was hit with the nostalgia of the day I left Japan to move away for the next four years for my studies. That day almost felt like yesterday. I met many people during those four years of studying abroad, I made some good friends that I was sad to leave along the way. I would also miss the married couple taking care of me all this time and the city I lived in. I had a good time there and I learned so many things.
Although I would miss them all a lot.... I had to admit that I felt mostly happy to be back in Japan. After all, no matter the beautiful places I went to and the wonderful people I met, I knew where my heart belonged.
Here, with everyone. Where I grew up and the people I grew up with.
I was back. No matter how many times I'd repeat this over and over again, it was impossible for me to completely comprehend it.
These four years passed after such a long time, at last. I was back. I'd finally go back to my house. I would see my parents again, my brother and my friends, too.
It had been four years since I last had seen my friends. I couldn't say the same about my parents and twin brother, because during these four years, they did manage to visit me... Maybe two or three times during the first two years, but either way, I did get to see them a bit. It was better than nothing.
Keeping in touch with everyone over the phone was nice, but nothing could ever beat seeing each other face to face and hanging out. I could only imagine how much my friends had changed.
It was crazy to think that I'd be seeing everyone again.
I could just picture the moment of seeing them up close. I could but at the same time could not imagine my friends looking different than the last time I saw them. How much have they all grown? They sure got taller - are they taller than me? Did they get new haircuts, piercings? Did they change anything in particular regarding their style?
Did they change as people? Are they more or less mature? Maybe more or less adventurous, childish, energetic....?
My brother and parents agreed to surprise everyone. None of us informed anyone about my arrival today, so I was excited to see everybody's surprised faces to see me when they'd least expect it. I just hoped I wouldn't see any crying faces, even from happiness. I wanted to see them all cheerful, just as happy as I would be to see them again.
The moment I walked inside the airport, where a lot of people hugging their loved ones after returning from their own trips, my deep thoughts were cut short the moment I locked eyes with a pair that looked almost exactly like mine.
Both of us smiled and our faces lit up at the same time, as we ran to each other, pulling each other in a very tight, loving hug.
"Holy shit, Y/n...." H/n spoke in an excited tone. His voice sounded different over the phone. His voice had deepened and changed a lot over these years, if it weren't for seeing his face, I would not have realized it was my twin brother.
We pulled away from the hug, staring each other as he held my cheeks while I held his forearms. He grinned at me. "Welcome back, sis!"
"I missed you so much, H/n..." I said and hugged him again. "Hell, you've grown taller and stronger.. What have they been feeding you?"
And then, the faces of Harry and Yuri appeared in the crowd. Harry's soft brown eyes smiled as he grinned from ear to ear, and even Yuri, who was not the type of guy to smile often was seen smiling, definitely happy to have me back.
I reached my arms to them and we all got in a tight group hug, as I laughed happily, and so did Harry. "Sweetheart, welcome back! ♡" He said to me as he ruffled my head lovingly, while Yuri rubbed my shoulders, looking at me affectionately with soft, narrowed eyes and a smile. "You've changed a lot, kiddo."
"I missed you a lot, guys!" I told them. "Oh I'm so happy to be back!" I said with such a huge, happy smile on my face. There was just something about this moment... being back with them. They had changed a bit as well, all of them, especially H/n. Just like I did, some parts of his appearance had changed as well, as expected.
"You must be tired from the trip. Let's go get your luggage and we'll go home." Yuri said as we all started walking together, smiling. "Let's celebrate this day!" Harry suggested, wrapping his arms around my shoulders, H/n being on the other side next to me and Yuri over Harry's way. "We can order food and throw a party now that you're back! Oh, and you need to see what renovations we have ran and the new decorations in the house, you're gonna love it!"
"No, Y/n will rest." Yuri glared at Harry. "We'll party later. Another time, maybe tomorrow. She must be tired from the trip and she needs sleep."
"What are you saying?" Harry argued with a laugh. "Don't you see how energetic she is? I'm sure she wants nothing but to celebrate this day with us! I'll order as much food as she wants!"
H/n and I exchanged glances, grinning to each other as the two men next to us were fighting over silly matters. H/n must have grown bored to witness their idiotic arguments without me being there all this time.
Just like old times. Maybe some things never do change.
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I stood right in the middle of my bed room, staring around with a soft, warm look on my face.
It felt like it had been ages since I last slept here, studied or hang out with a friend. It was my room, the same as I had left it. Mostly empty, as I had taken most of the things from my room with me before I left. However, the room was crystal clean, with clean pillows, bed sheets, a few new plushies waiting for me to cuddle them like my new precious babies, a box of chocolate laying on my bed and some balloons over my room, different ltters in a row that showed the clear message of 'WELCOME BACK ♡!' What a warm welcome.
H/n wrapped an arm around my shoulders and looked at my luggage. He eyed them and then me, raising an eyebrow. "So, need help unpacking?"
And so, we started unpacking my things. H/n was helping me re-decorate my room with some old and new posters I had gathered, as well as other pictures and decorations. I was filling my drawers with all my clothes and he even helped me place all my books and manga on my shelves. There was still a lot of work to be done, but I was sure that my room would look amazing in the end.
"It's still so weird..." I mumbled as I placed some folded clothes inside the drawers. H/n glanced over to me as he was carefully setting my books in order, the way I told him to. "I still can't believe I'm back- It's crazy!" I said. "It feels like everything is the same.. But as if everything has changed at the same time."
My brother smiled at me. "Well, you're not entirely wrong." He shuffled gently through one of my books, looking at the pictures before setting it on the shelf. "You need to see the town. A few shops have closed down ever since you've left. But a lot of new interesting shops have opened up as well."
I looked at him with eyes widened and eyebrows a bit frowned. "Don't tell me they closed down the arcade."
"They didn't," He replied to my relief as he undusted his hands as he took a look at his work after having finished with the books and manga. "Maybe a few machines have been replaced with some newer ones... But the place is still as popular as ever. Let's go there sometime."
I smiled. "That's great." I said and looked down for a second, pausing and my smile faltering a bit. ".... How has everyone been all this time?" I asked.
He noticed my change in tone and voice. "Hm? Everyone's been doing well. I thought you spoke often with them?" He said, and we both were talking about our friends.
"Yeah," I nodded. "It's just that... It's different speaking just from the phone, you know. I've missed out on a lot of things. And I haven't been able to be by everyone's side every since... well, you know...." I muttered quietly and stared down at my hands blankly.
We both remained silent for a bit before I spoke again. "Emma and Mikey sounded alright everytime we spoke on the phone. They always acted like everything was okay. Even though Emma did end up ... well, breaking down talking to me about Shinichiro on the phone." I said, remembering back at the first phonecalls after Shinichiro's death. They were... extremely miserable, to say the least. And not only they. "I did try not to bring the topic up whenever we spoke, but... I just could tell things weren't the same for a very long time after... that." My voice was quiet. H/n was listening to me carefully with a blank look. "They were all hurt and less joyful than usual." I spoke and looked at H/n. "Emma and Mikey did get a bit better after a while and we did end up speaking to each other more frequently after a while. But Baji grew a bit distant." I sighed and scratched my head. "I... I know that Shinichiro's death took a toll on him, like all of us. And I can't imagine how awful it was for him to witness his death." I spoke, my voice trembling slightly as my eyes started getting glossy.
After H/n told me the news of Shinichiro's death, I was devastated. Everybody was having a very difficult time accepting his death. I had gotten depressed for a very long time. I just could not accept the fact that Shinichiro was gone, and neither could his siblings and friends.
The worst thing was that I was not even in Japan with my family and friends during that period to at least be by everyone's side. One part of me, however, felt like it was a good thing that I was away. My heart would be unable to handle seeing everyone's crying faces or show up at his funeral. I think I would not have been able to take it. Although everybody had tried to reassure me over the phone, I had missed a lot of days of school for a very long time, as I felt like I did not have the energy, mood or will to go outside. I had spent many days and nights being miserable in my room, crying myself to sleep, not even eating at times. Not even the married couple taking care of me could cheer me up or comfort me no matter how much talking they did, no matter how much of my favorite food and snacks they offered or whatever. It was taking me an extremely long time to heal, and I still had not healed completely. Although I was doing better.
Shinichiro was an amazing person and everybody looked up to him like a big brother. No matter how silly he was, he had a heart of gold and a place in his heart for everyone. It was devastating to think that seeing Shinichiro in the airport, telling him goodbye was my last time seeing him or hugging him. I kept remembering his smile, his voice, the way he looked at me and all of us with such love, care and adoration, all the moments we had together hanging out, him supporting me and helping me out, teasing me, ruffling my hair... All those little moments were forever cherished and I wanted his memories and face to be engraved in my mind and heart forever.
I could not imagine the kind of pain Mikey and Emma had to go through and still were going through deep down in their hearts to lose such an amazing brother.
And I could not imagine Baji's pain, guilt and suffering after witnessing his death right before his eyes.
Right... H/n told me. One day on the phone while we were talking, H/n confessed some things I never knew about, right after Shini's death.
He told me about a gang that had been created not a long time ago named 'Tokyo Manji Gang', or 'Toman' as he called it for short. It was a gang in which every member would be willing to sacrifice themselves for each other. A gang build like a strong family and rule all over Japan... or something like that. H/n's words, not mine.
That gang's leader was none other than Manjiro Sano.
The people following him under his commands were a lot of people I most likely did not know about.
Oh, guess what. H/n and Baji were part of it. And in fact, those two were part of the six or seven founding members of the gang, I do not remember how many of them they were exactly. Baji was the captain of the First Division, while H/n was a member under the Second Division of Toman. The captain of the Second Division was a guy named 'Mitsuya Takashi', a founding member of Toman, and by H/n's words, he sounded like a great and reliable person, H/n had a good relationship with him.
It was shocking to hear that my brother, along with Mikey and Baji created a gang together, let alone having Mikey run as its leader. Mikey was rather immature and childish, but at the same time, knowing that he always had the natural gift of fighting, it also did not surprise me that much. H/n reassured me that the gang had lots of wonderful and nice people in it and that he had made a lot of friends there.
At first, when H/n had mentioned this gang to me, I thought he was talking about some kind of silly play... But he was all serious, and so was the gang he was talking about. They had gathered a lot of people in it, as he told me.
H/n told me that Baji and a friend of his by the name of... 'Kazutora Hanemiya' wanted to steal a motorcycle from a shop and give it to Mikey as a birthday gift. This Kazutora guy was, surprisingly or not, another founding member of Toman. H/n told me that the owner of the shop was attacked and killed by Baji's friend immediately the moment the two were caught having broken in at night, right before Baji could stop the murder from happening.
The owner of the motorcycle shop was Shinichiro Sano.
H/n told me how much Baji and Kazutora suffered and the heavy weight and guilt Baji was carrying on his shoulders. Baji felt responsible for Shinichiro's death, although he was more of a witness rather than the one to actually kill Shinichiro. H/n did not know that much about Kazutora after that.
Needless to say, Baji had a hard time accepting the tragic situation and he forever felt guilty. Despite him not being taken to juvie like his friend Kazutora, he did grow very distant at a point from many people, thinking that everybody hated him and he deserved the worst for this.
I was one of the people Baji had grown distant from, too. He did not call as much or picked up my calls for a very long time and when he started doing that, he... he didn't sound very well for a long time. He sounded more grim, serious and nothing like the energetic and silly Baji I knew. Though, I couldn't blame him or feel surprised by this and neither could anyone else.
Of course, I would always try to cheer him up by bringing up happier topics, speaking to him about my experiences away from Japan, reassuring him that I was taking a great care of Baji Junior and even asked him about Peke J, the cat he was talking about. I would feel happy whenever I would succed in bringing him a bit out of his shell and making him feel more relaxed, as I offered him the chance to be more carefree and comfortable speaking to me.
~Flashback~
It was one of those rare days that I was speaking with Baji over the phone after Shinichiro's death. Even though Baji and I used to speak with each other almost everyday at least once, after what had happened, our calls started to speaking once every one or two weeks.
It had been almost a year every since Shinichiro's death. Baji had been recovering just like everyone. Although the guilt he was carrying was always there, he was slowly and bit by bit getting better and slowly getting back to his old self, although he never felt the same again after what had happened.
He was doing better and it was a relief to hear that Mikey and Emma never held any grudge or hate or any negativity against him. They were still as close as ever, even closer than before. So the friendship they all had did not disappear.
As Baji, with the help of everyone was doing better, it raised my hopes of us speaking more frequently just like we used to before all that... But apparently he had been getting extremely busy with his own matters. Baji ended up failing once at school, during the year Shinichiro died, so he had to repeat a school year, which meant he had to study a lot more. He told me that this 'Chifuyu' guy was helping him with his studies and that lately he had been extremely busy with that.
I was aware of the fact that Baji had to repeat a year and he had to study well if he wanted to pass.... But when he said that he was extremely busy, I also knew that Baji was dealing with things regarding gangs. Baji himself probably wanted to keep this information away from me, but my brother covered me. But it was alright if Baji did not want to talk to me about his gang life. I just wanted him to be alright.
"..... And then Chifuyu and Ryusei got so terrified, that they started screaming and running like crazy out of the cave, holding each other thinking I was some kind of ghost!" Baji was laughing, focused on telling me some funny stories with his friends. I found myself laughing like a kid, as Baji was talking to me about his funny experiences and I could perfectly imagine these theatrical scenes in my head, despite not knowing what his friends looked like.
"Hahahaha, no way! You must have looked like a zombie jumping out of nowhere like that! Oh God, poor them-" I grinned and covered my mouth, not minding the noise I was making in my room.
Baji went serious for a moment as my laughter was quieting down. ".... Thank you, Y/n." His low voice was gentle and softer than usual.
"Huh?" I hummed and blinked, chuckling softly from my laughter fit, wiping away a small tear from my eye, even if he could not see the confusion taking over my face after his sudden .... gratitude, tone and change. "Thanks for what?"
Baji took a few seconds to reply. ".... For... being here. For being here for me." He cleared his throat. "For not being mad at me and..... Hey, nevermind." He muttered, interrupting himself from talking further and immediately jumped on a new topic.
Although he decided to retreat and not continue with his words, a soft, knowing smile appeared on my lips as well as a warm sensation in my heart. I already had a feeling about what he was referring to when he thanked me for 'being there for him and not being mad' and I decided not to push it in any way, and instead let him feel free and get comfortable talking to me about some funny situations with Chifuyu and Ryusei in the carnival.
~End of Flashback~
H/n placed a hand on my shoulder. I looked up at him, my eyes still slightly glossy as I was shaken off my thoughts. "They're all okay, Y/n. I promise." He reassured me quietly, smiling at me softly from above, as I was down on the floor and he was standing next to me. "... It still hurts. Nobody has forgotten about Shinichiro's death, but... we've all been moving a bit on." H/n explained with a quick shrug and a comforting rub on my shoulder with his warm hand. "Mikey, Baji, Emma... They're doing alright. Because they have a lot of friends to rely on." He smiled. "And Baji is doing a lot better, too. I promise, he's been going back to his old self. But he's doing well. He's strong." He sighed. "You'll see for yourself. No need to overthink anything, sis." H/n said. He was quick to notice my emotions at that time, so he decided that the best decision was to lighten up the mood. "Just focus on having fun now with everyone after your rest. Can't wait to have you see everyone again. You'll see how much they have changed ever since the last time you saw them. You'll see how well they are all doing. Don't beat yourself thinking about what happened. The past is in the past, everyone has been moving on and getting better." He quickly patted my back and before the conversation could continue, he placed his hands on his hips and admired the work he had done over arranging my books, manga and other objects on my shelves.
"So, what do you think? Did I do a good job?"
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The pictures of the chapter were created with AI art. I wanted to depict what I sort of imagine Y/n and H/n's adoptive parents to look like in terms of characteristics, in case you guys would like a picture of them. The black haired one with the gray eyes is Yuri, whereas the brown haired guy with glasses is Harry. I had originally created more pictures, but since I could not use them all, I settled for these specific ones and let's pray the quality here will not ruin the pictures 😀 ....
Now.... If you didn't notice, I made a mistake with the plot of TR.
In the previous chapter, I already showed a scene of Baji being on the phone with Y/n while hanging out with Chifuyu and Ryusei.
So, in TR, Baji meets Chifuyu (and Ryusei) after Shinichiro's death. Baji fails a class and he meets Chifuyu who helps him out with the letter he was writing to Kazutora and... well, we know the rest ig.
But in this story, I slightly messed that up and apparently, Baji has already met Chifuyu (and Ryusei) before Shinichiro's death. So, that's that.
Am I too lazy to change anything as simple as that? Yes.
Is this going to ruin the plot of the story and create a future problem to the story or with me writing it? Nope, probably not.
So, yeah, nothing serious here, just pointing that out :p.
And sorry if this chapter was fruitless in terms of not including any interactions with the other characters in tho chapter, but we'll have a lot of that on the next chapters, so... Stay tuned! :))
NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE PUBLISHED ON: May 12th.