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“Yufuin-senpai…”
En glanced up from his manga to find Io standing next to him, nervously pulling at the knot of his tie. En raised a brow and looked over at Atsushi. Atsushi was watching the two with a curious expression, but when he caught En’s eye, he shrugged.
En sighed, “What’s up Io?”
“It’s Ryuu.”
En’s chair immediately slammed down on four legs (he had been leaning it back on two precariously). “What? What’d you do to him? Where is he? Is he hurt?”
“No, no, no! I didn’t do anything to him!” Io exclaimed, backing up a bi,t his hands raised in front of him. Io’s brows knitted together in a worried sort of confusion. “I would never do anything to harm him. You know that.”
“Then what is it?”
“I think there’re some people picking on Ryuu.”
En blinked, “Aren’t you his boyfriend? Aren’t you supposed to take care of that?”
Io shook his head, “I can’t, En. Look at me. Do I strike you as intimidating?”
“No,” En admitted in a long drawl.
“And Ryuu isn’t just getting it from one guy. There’re multiple perpetrators.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Io bit his bottom lip, “Ryuu sometimes comes home with bruises on his upper arms, like someone’s been holding him back, while there are other bruises on his torso. I’ve asked him about them, but he just says he’s clumsy. He’s not that clumsy, En, and the bruising patterns are too consistent.”
En sighed again and scrubbed a hand over his face, “How long do you think this has been going on?”
Io sighed, “I’m not sure. A while. Before we got together. But I think it got worse once we did.”
“When do you think it happens?”
“There’s a period of time where Ryuu wanders off on his own, and I can’t account for his whereabouts. He just disappears after the last bell and then reappears here. It’s got to be happening then.”
“So you think that’s where’s he’s at right now? Getting beat up?”
Io nodded, and En groaned. The dirty blonde pulled himself to his feet, “Guess I better go find—“
But the clubroom door clicked open at that moment, and Ryuu slipped in, pushing the door shut softly behind him. He turned around and was greeted with an audible gasp from the other four members of the Defense Club.
His cheek was swollen and bruised and his ear was bleeding where one of his earcuffs had been removed forcefully.
“Ryuu!” Io cried, rushing forward to embrace the quietly crying pinkette.
“It’s getting worse, Io,” Ryuu admitted quietly. “I can’t do this much longer.”
“En?” Atsushi asked concern dripping from his voice.
En stood in the middle of the room, his fists clenched, body shaking with silent rage.
“You won’t have to anymore, Ryuu,” En said, voice dangerously quiet. “Tomorrow. I’ll take care of it.”
***
As the last bell tolled, En stood in the hall, arms crossed. The door of the second-years’ class slid open, and Ryuu darted out. En gave him a few seconds head start but not enough time that he lost sight of him. He pushed himself off the wall and shoved his hands in his pockets, silently tailing his kouhai.
Looking around nervously, Ryuu opened a door that lead to the exterior corridor between the school buildings. En arched a brow. The corridor was basically an alleyway that staff used to move quickly from building to building. The corridor was unmonitored so it made perfect sense that bullies would use it to corner their victims. Before the door could clank shut, En slipped out, ducking behind a box of cafeteria crates.
Ryuu stood in the center of the corridor, body visibly shaking. His head swiveled around, eyes wide, waiting. En shifted on the balls of his feet. Shouldn’t be long now.
As if on cue, the door across the corridor slammed open, and four guys ambled out into the alleyway with Ryuu. Ryuu seemed to shrink back, body tremors increasing in intensity. En narrowed his eyes. After today, his pink-haired kouhai would never look so terrified again. Papa En would make sure of that.
A heavier-set red head stepped forward causing Ryuu to take a step back. The bully smirked, “Got the money today?”
“Money?” En mouthed, confused. Io had never said anything about the bullies wanting money out of Ryuu. Of course, Ryuu hadn’t admitted to Io that he was being bullied until yesterday.
“I—I have some,” Ryuu reached a trembling hand into the inside pocket of his blazer, pulling out a crumpled envelope.
“Some?” the bully snarled, snatching the envelope from Ryuu’s fingers. He opened the envelope and thumbed through the contents. He huffed, throwing a pointed look at Ryuu. “You’re short. You were supposed to pay us 2000 yen for today plus another 1500 because you didn’t have enough for yesterday. There’s only 1000 in here.”
“I’m sorry,” Ryuu trembled. “I’ve been paying you all that I have. It’s hard for me to get the money every day. I—I don’t have a job, remember?”
“Yeah, but you have a rich boyfriend.”
Ryuu’s eyes widened, “I would never ask him for money!”
The bully beckoned a few of his lackeys forward, and they immediately moved to Ryuu’s sides, each lackey taking an arm.
“If you don’t start delivering the full amount, you aren’t fulfilling your end of the bargain. And we’ll start going after him too.”
“No!” Ryuu cried.
The leader of the pack moved forward quickly, fist colliding with Ryuu’s jaw. He grabbed Ryuu’s shirt and pulled him forward. “Yes,” he hissed. “That was the deal. You pay, we leave the green-haired snob alone. He’s weak. We could break him in an instant.”
“But—“
“Quiet!” the red-head snarled, flicking the blade out a switchblade he’d had in his pocket. He placed the blade against Ryuu’s forehead, underneath the strand of hair Ryuu never had pushed back. “If you can’t pay the full amount and still don’t want us to take it out on Io, we’ll just have to amp up your punishment.” He pressed the blade into Ryuu’s skin, and the pinkette gave a whimper.
“Enough!” En roared, bounding out from behind the cafeteria crates.
The two guys holding onto Ryuu’s arms let go quickly, and the leader with the knife pulled away. En’s fist connected with the leader’s jaw as his hand reached forward and curled around the bully’s hand that held the knife, the blade biting into its master’s hand. The bully yelped and dropped the blade.
En quickly knocked the bully to the ground with a powerful spin kick before lunging after the other bullies who were scrambling along the wall trying to get to the door. Ryuu screwed his eyes shut and slid down along the wall. He heard yelps and cries from the bullies for a few more minutes before he heard the door bang open and shut and the sounds of retreating footsteps. It was eerily quiet in the corridor, but Ryuu stayed right where he was. The door squeaked back open, and Ryuu flinched visibly.
“Ryuu. It’s over now. They won’t be bothering you again,” En’s voice said gently.
Ryuu blearily opened his eyes to find his senior standing before him, hair a little more disheveled than normal but looking otherwise unscathed.
“Really?”
“Really,” En stated firmly. He held the envelope with Ryuu’s money in it out towards the second year. “I got all of your money back from today. How much have you lost?”
“En, no. It’s fine. I-I’m just glad to have this back. I had to borrow this from my grandma’s purse…”
“Ryuu,” En sighed exasperated, kneeling down to brush away the dried blood that had trickled from the little scratch on his forehead from the knife. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? I could have helped you sooner!”
“They told me they’d hurt Io if I told anybody.”
“Ryuu.”
“I couldn’t risk it, En!” Ryuu cried. He sniffed, “Besides, someone else has been black-mailing me. Those guys found out and decided to join in on the fun,” Ryuu mumbled.
“What? There’s someone else?”
Ryuu’s eyes widened. “No,” he said quickly.
“Ryuu,” En warned.
With a sigh, Ryuu reached into his pant’s pocket and pulled out another envelope, this one a creamy pastel pink. “He’s been blackmailing me since before I got together with Io.”
“Why?” En questioned, pulling the letter out of the envelope.
Ryuu shrugged, “Not sure. He never has liked me.”
En’s eyes narrowed as he scanned the contents of the letter. He stood, handing the envelope back to Ryuu. “Leave it to me, Ryuu.”
“En-senpai, no! Please!”
“Ryuu the contents of that letter are lies. He’s never going to pull Io away from you with those. You know that.”
“I’m just scared, senpai.”
“So, you’ve been doing his history homework for him and buying him coffee every day...”
“And macaroons,” Ryuu added quietly.
“Just so he wouldn’t tell Io a bunch of lies.”
“Io would believe him! Because he’s in a position of power!”
“Do you really think that little of your boyfriend, Ryuu?”
Ryuu opened and closed his mouth without saying anything. “No,” he finally whispered.
“Io adores you, Ryuu. It would kill him if he knew you’d been going through all of this because of him.”
“I know,” Ryuu said quietly.
“Ryuu, go cuddle with your boyfriend. I’m going to handle this.”
At that En, stalked off back into the school without giving Ryuu a chance to dissuade him.
***
Akoya came out of the restroom, twirling a strand of hair around his finger.
“Hello, Gero-kun,” En smirked from his postion against the wall by the door.
Akoya tensed but quickly relaxed. He turned, a haughty expression on his face. “What do you want, Yufuin?”
“I think you and I need to have a little chat.” En pushed himself off the wall and looped his arm around the perlite’s shoulders. “About my precious pink-haired kouhai.”
***
When En walked in the clubroom, he couldn’t help but smile. Ryuu had followed his order and was curled into Io’s side as the two sat on the clubroom floor. Io had one arm wrapped Ryuu, the other holding his tablet, scrolling through different stock listings.
En reached over, scooping his manga off the table and rolling it up. He sauntered over and hit Ryuu lightly on the shoulder with the rolled up manga, “Hey you. Don’t go for that coffee run tomorrow morning. You don’t have to do that anymore.”
Ryuu peeked up from his where his head was nuzzled in the crook of Io’s neck, “Really?”
“Really.”
“Yufuin-senpai, thank you so much,” Io said with a soft smile. “You were able to do what I couldn’t.”
En smiled in return, “Don’t mention it.” He winked, “A Papa bear’s gotta take care of his cubs.”
“And I’m the baby!” Yumoto piped up from the opposite corner of the room.
“That you are,” En grumbled playfully racing across the room and attacking Yumoto with tickles.
“En-chan!” Atsushi chided with a laugh.
With a devious grin, En pulled Atsushi off his chair and began tickling the navy-haired third year. Io shrugged and placed his tablet on the floor, turning into Ryuu and scratching his boyfriend’s sensitive sides teasingly with his fingertips.
The clubroom was filled with laughter, and thoughts of bullying were far away. Besides if that ever was a problem for any other Defense Club again, En wouldn’t hesitate to take care of it.