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"You and Numai are hanging out on Saturday night... like a date?!" Yuka Nakagawa's voice was loud- far too loud for Izumi's liking.
Hushing her, her pale cheeks now burning bright red, Izumi shook her hands in a panic. "N-No, it's not like that!"
"Good," Haruka replied, sipping at her strawberry milk with her cheek propped in her hand, "That boy is trouble."
"To be fair, he's not so bad to the girls," Yukie said, "But I have to agree that I'm a little worried about you meeting with him alone, Izumi."
"It'll be okay," Izumi reasoned, "We'll be working on our project. Hayashida-sensei was nice enough to give us an extension until after we both got over our colds..."
"Right, see, this is what we worry about!" Yuka jumped in again, "He already gave you a cold! That's like, a red flag, right?"
"Not quite, Yuka," Yukie laughed.
"Red flag? No. Bad Omen? Weeell…" Haruka let her voice drift off.
"Lets trust Izumi on this," Chisato said, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "You still have a cell phone, right?"
"You guys!" Izumi cried out, her tone somewhat desperate.
A similar conversation had been repeated at lunch ever since Izumi had come back from a couple of consecutive sick days at the beginning of the week, the same days that Mitsuru, not so coincidentally, had been gone for. Since the rest of the class had finished their presentations, there would no longer be class time left to work on them, so the two had made arrangements to work together during the upcoming weekend, Saturday night in particular.
"Just make sure you keep in touch with us, alright? Text us if you need anything at all." Yukie said softly, standing from her seat to throw away her trash. The rest of the group, minus Yuka and Izumi, followed suit.
"Pssst, Izumi," Yuka whispered, even though nobody else was around. "I think you should just... y'know, go for it!"
"Huh?" Izumi whispered back, "What do you mean?"
"You like him, right? So when you meet up, I think you should totally just go for it!"
"W-What?! I don't-- What does that even mean? Go for what?"
"Go for it! Tell him that you like him!"
"Yuka!"
"I'm just saying!" Yuka laughed, "No need to feel any shame! Go. For. It!" Yuka clapped her hands between works, and Izumi couldn't help but laugh at the display.
"You're reading too into things here!"
"Okay, okay, I'll let up!" Yuka replied, standing up. She picked up her trash and walked passed Izumi. When she brushed by her, she leaned in and whispered jokingly into her ear, "Still think you should go for it."
The only one left sitting, Izumi laughed to herself as she shook her head. Her friends could be too much sometimes, not that she minded. Still, she wondered where anybody had gotten the idea that he liked Mitsuru. She'd never said anything that sounded remotely like she'd be interested in him, had she? If she had, then it would be news even to herself. Maybe they were just being a little extra teasing, since hanging out alone with a boy wasn't very common for the girls in her friend group.
Drawing her line of vision throughout the room, her eyes silently fell upon another group of friends across the room- this one belonging to Mitsuru Numai. The idea of meeting him alone was daunting, she couldn't lie, but there was also something about Mitsuru that wasn't as intimidating as the rest of his friends. If she had been alone with somebody like Ryuhei Sasagawa or (especially) Kazuo Kiriyama, she was sure she would pass out from the intimidation. Not that Mitsuru wasn't tough like them; on the contrary, he was one of the toughest, but he was strangely feminist for a fifteen-year-old juvenile delinquent. He even tried to watch his swearing around the girls, not that he was very successful at it.
Izumi had only gotten to know him a little bit ever since they'd been paired together on their latest school project, but even that time had been cut short when they both got sent home for being sick. They hadn't spoken since, except to briefly agree on a time and place to finish the project together. It would be on Saturday afternoon, behind the Shiroiwa Public Library. They wouldn't go inside because Mitsuru and his friends were banned, but that was fine because there were picnic tables outside where they would be able to spread out their books and papers.
At least it'll be when the sun is still out, Izumi caught herself thinking, which she quickly punished herself for, He wouldn't do anything I have to worry about. He's been nothing but nice to me. Now Haruka has me all paranoid...
Finally standing to follow the lead of her other friends, Izumi's eyes wandered to a new destination just as Mitsuru glanced over at her, observing as she tossed out her trash and left the room.
"Ooh, baby's first crush," Sho Tsukioka hummed, tapping the tips of his fingers on the tabletop.
"What're you going on about now?" Mitsuru responded coolly, returning his attention to his friends.
"You know," Sho tilted his head, "The way you've been looking at Kanai all day?"
"Haha, yeah! We notice that kinda shit, asshole!" Hiroshi horned in, his mouth still full of food.
"How many times do I gotta tell you that that shit is all in your head, Zuki?" Mitsuru grumbled, leaning back on his chair with his hands in his pockets. "It's a lame project. I ain't gettin' involved with anybody that posh."
"Huh? Why not? She's cute, ain't she?" Ryuhei replied, "Plus ain't money a bonus? No tits, sure, but at least she'd be able to afford a honkin' set one day."
Sho snickered, while Hiroshi laughed wildly.
"Hey!" Mitsuru cut in, "Have some decency, man!"
"So defensiveee," Sho hummed again, lips curled into a teasing smile. "But seriously, it's totally cute that you're into her, and she'd be pretty silly if she didn't feel the same way."
Ryuhei added in, "Yeah, who else is she gonna like, anyway? A douchebag like Mimura-"
"Oh, ha-ha." Sho rolled his eyes.
"Or a loser like Nanahara? Dude has a mullet. A fuckin' mullet."
"Doesn't make a difference to me," Mitsuru responded, "She could like one of you assholes for all I care."
"So one of us could call dibs and you wouldn't give a single shit?" Ryuhei asked.
"No." Mitsuru replied quickly, "You can't treat a girl like she's property, man."
"HA! You totally like her!" Hiroshi laughed, bits of sandwich flying all over the table. "You like, respect her and shit."
"Whatever," Mitsuru grumbled, rolling up some of the trash from the table in his hands as he stood, "Keep entertaining yourselves, dickheads."
With that, he departed from the group, tossing the ball of trash into the bin as he passed it on his way out.
The rest of the day went by quickly after that. Soon enough, the school day came to an end, and Saturday morning passed just as quickly until finally, it was time for Mitsuru to head to the library to meet with Izumi. He hoped to get the project over with quickly because, despite actually retaining a bit of the information that Izumi had shared with him, it was still boring as hell to actually do. He didn't care much for schoolwork or grades or anything like that, but he didn't want to drag down Izumi in the process since she seemed to take it more seriously than not.
Mitsuru was the first to arrive, surprisingly, but he didn't have long to wait. Standing at the agreed location, a picnic table behind the library and beneath the tall tree, he felt a tap on his shoulder after only a moment of waiting.
"Hey, Ka-" Turning to face the girl, Mitsuru was instead surprised to come face-to-face with a group of taller, older boys. There were four of them, though one sat at the picnic table, smoking a joint and observing the interaction instead.
"The fuck do you want?" Mitsuru asked, bluntly, sensing contempt from the other boys.
The boy who had tapped his shoulder, a pudgy boy with a shaved head and no eyebrows, merely scoffed in response.
"This asshole really doesn't remember us?" A second boy said. This one was tall, lanky, and had paper-thin lips. "Ya got some fuckin' nerve."
"Just tell me what the hell you want, I've got more important shit to do." Mitsuru barked in return.
"Couple of you and your little girlfriends tried to start some shit awhile back, and now that our hideaway has burnt down, it's not that hard to figure out who the hell is responsible."
"You think we burnt down your crappy little trailer?" Mitsuru snickered, "We've got better things to do."
"Who said it was a trailer?" The guy at the table asked, crushing the half-burnt joint into the wood, (Mitsuru cringed at what a waste it was). "You just happened to know without us mentioning, huh?"
Shit. Mitsuru tried to keep his cool, rolling his eyes to the side, "It's a small town. People talk."
"They do, yeah. Do they ever. Talk, talk, talk." The joint guy stood up, taking long, smooth strides until he was face-to-face with Mitsuru. Despite being older, with stubble on his cheeks and chin, he wasn't much taller. "So we know shit. More shit than you think we do."
"Yeah? Your mommies must be real proud of you." Mitsuru replied condescendingly.
"Hah. We have a little smart ass here, don't we?" Joint guy roared, "You're really pissing me off now, kid!"
Just then, a noise could be heard from the side of the library building. It distracted Mitsuru briefly as he turned to face it, trying to make sure more of Joint guy's crew wasn't arriving, but the other thugs used the distraction to their advantage, planting a punch right against Mitsuru's jaw while he had his guard down.
On the other side of the building, Izumi Kanai stood with her hands over her mouth, stifling a scream in the back of her throat. Just as she had walked up to the building, she had spotted Mitsuru surrounded by older boys trying to intimidate him, and worse yet, when she had taken a step back, accidentally kicking discarded trash in the process, she had made the noise that the boys had used as an advantage to attack Mitsuru.
She rummaged through her school bag, brushing passed the books and pencils, until she came across her cellphone, the dangling keychains clattering as she pulled it out. She quickly clamped them shut in the palm of her hand, eyes shifting over at the confrontation nervously to see if the noise had been heard. However, the sight she gazed upon was worse than expected.
One thug was on the ground, grumbling about something while cradling his head in his arms. The others had Mitsuru pulled back while the joint guy landed hits on him. A trail of blood spluttered from Mitsuru's lips, a deep cut forming all the way to his chin. A sickening thud followed not even seconds later, and when Izumi looked next, he was on the ground.
Her voice caught in her throat, Izumi could barely muster the ability to scream. She stretched her throat but no noise escaped. Her hand shakily covered her mouth, her eyes unable to move away from the scene no matter how much it horrified her.
Nobody was coming to help. Not Kiryama, not Sasagawa, not Tsukioka, and not Kuronaga. Even if they wanted to, they might not have even been aware of where Mitsuru was. He was unfairly outnumbered by much older thugs. If this continued then...
She didn't want to think about what would happen.
She didn't want to witness it either.
But what could she do?
She didn't have any of the boy's numbers, and even if she had-- she wasn't even sure if they had cell phones, now that she thought about it. Calling the authorities was a bad idea too because Mitsuru himself would undoubtedly be in trouble as well, and in the worst case, may even be detained along with the older boys.
"Numai-kun," She mumbled beneath her breath, as if an unheard plea may somehow help him, "Please... please be okay."
Just then, Izumi felt her cellphone vibrating in her pocket. She pulled it out, checking her messages it a panic.
It was a single text, from Yuka Nakagawa. It said:
"Izumi, remember-- just GO FOR IT!!"
Time began to stand still for a single, chilling instance. Izumi felt her body go light, all previous thoughts evading her mind. She knew what to do. It might not have been a good idea- it may have even been the worst idea, but she didn't consider that. Her bag slipping down her shoulder and landing on the ground, Izumi dropped her cellphone down on top of it. She turned around the corner and made a running start towards the violent scene.
Only when she was about halfway through did she question what she was doing, although by then it was already too late to stop.
"Stop it! Leave him alone!"
With no specific goal in mind, Izumi threw her entire body weight towards the main thug bent over Mitsuru's body, who was pulling his arm back to land another punch. Despite being so small that her weight was nothing in comparison to his, Izumi had managed to catch the thug in a moment where he'd been adjusting his footing, causing him to trip over himself when she was suddenly thrown against him.
Instinctively, the thug pushed Izumi away as they landed to the ground with a harsh thud. She slid off a good distance, scraping her thigh against the pavement as she did so. The thug jumped to his feet, swearing up a storm, now standing over Izumi instead of Mitsuru. She quickly sat up, the other remaining thugs making their way over now.
"Who the hell is this? Your little girlfriend?" The tallest of the thugs snickered. "She's pretty cute."
Now the outnumbered violence turns into outnumbered sexual assault. What was I thinking? My cellphone is too far away to reach...
"F-Fuck off," Mitsuru grumbled, and then his tone went cold, "She's bleeding. What the hell is wrong with you assholes?!"
Izumi changed her line of vision to Mitsuru in the distance. He was sitting up, clutching onto his head. The blood from his lip had flown down his cheeks and chin, making the bottom half of his face a mess of rustic red. She scrambled to her feet, her outer thigh now coated in blood and rubble from the fall. She'd been too scared to feel the pain.
The thugs, preoccupied with talking amongst themselves, were too distracted to notice as Izumi hurried passed them with a limp. She didn't stop until she had reached Mitsuru's side, where she ducked down.
"Are you okay?"
They had asked each other at the same time.
"Should we get out of here?" Izumi whispered.
"Can you move on that leg?" Mitsuru asked in return.
Izumi nodded her head, "Yeah... Can you move?"
"Yeah," Mitsuru said, "For the record, I ain't the type to run away but since you're here and you're, y'know, a girl and uninvolved in this, let's get the fuck out of here."
"I-I understand, yeah," Izumi murmured in a panic as she heard the sound of footsteps behind her.
Before the gang could reach the two, Mitsuru grabbed Izumi's wrist and jumped to his feet, rushing passed the picnic tables and towards the street. Izumi barely had enough time to bend over and scoop up her discarded schoolbag and cellphone.
The two continued to run down the street, blood trailing down Izumi's thigh, absorbing into her knee-high school. Similarly, Mitsuru's lip continued to bleed, the path now reaching as far as the collar of his school uniform top. Neither had time to notice or care, running at too high a speed to risk looking back and losing their momentum. Even after they were sure they weren't being followed anymore, and Izumi began to get a metallic taste in her mouth, they continued to run. They stopped only when their running legs had slowed to a jogging pace, and then eventually, they walked weakly to the shoreline of the local beach.
Her chest hot and heavy with uneven breaths, Izumi's legs shook like a newborn fawn as she weakly brought herself to her knees on the sand, gripping her chest with her hand. Beside her, Mitsuru slumped down to the ground, hacking up a lung as he clutched handfuls of sand into his fists.
"Wh.....Wha…. were you.... th.… thin..kin'?" Mitsuru huffed between breaths.
"I d.... I don.... don't... know..." Izumi replied. Barely able to hold her weight even on her knees, she sat back and then eventually laid down on the sand, the top of her head brushing passed Mitsuru's curls in the process.
Around five moments passed silently, save for the sounds of the two struggling to catch their breath. Just above them, feathery clouds sailed through the sky, providing a good distraction from the burning feeling in Izumi's lungs. She could occasionally feel a tapping against the top of her head as Mitsuru shifted around, coughing after every few deep breaths.
"Pretty pathetic shape for some middle school kids, huh?" Mitsuru attempted to joke, coughing after he laughed.
Finally feeling like she was in decent enough condition to support her own weight, Izumi sat up, grimacing as bits of sand fell down her uniform blazer. Now, the pain of her scrapped thigh was hitting her, even more prominent now that the muscle beneath it ached as well.
"You okay?" Mitsuru asked, sitting up. He seemed to have realized that she was feeling discomfort and quickly glanced at her thigh to observe the damage.
"I don't want to look at it..." Izumi said, "Is it bad?"
"Uhh…" Mitsuru hesitated, and Izumi knew from that alone that it was worse than expected. "Nah, it's okay. It's... I mean it probably stings like hell, right? But it won't scar or nothin' like that."
"Scar?" Izumi hadn't even considered that. Somehow the boy's reassurance had only worried her more.
"It won't! F'real! It's pretty nasty road rash but I've been there before, alright? It's gonna heal just fine," Mitsuru assured her, "But we gotta rinse it."
"Rinse it?" Izumi repeated again. Glancing over to the cold waves of the beach water, she added, "You mean..?"
"There's some rubble mixed in and it'll get infected if it sits long," Mitsuru explained, "It's better than nothin'."
Izumi pursed her lips in thought, dreading the thought of cold water against her skin with no way to dry off, but equally dreading the thought of such a large abrasion getting itchy with infection, and oh God, what if it got so bad it had to be amputated? She swallowed back and nodded her head.
"O-Okay," Izumi replied, and then pointing to Mitsuru's face, she added, "Your lip, too... It looks really deep."
As if he'd just noticed it was there, Mitsuru touched the cut on his lip with the tip of his finger, wincing in pain when he made contact with it. "Yeah, alright."
The two stood, both hesitating in each step until they reached the shoreline. Then, they removed their shoes and socks, leaving them just out of reach of the waves. Mitsuru rolled up his pants to his ankles and was the first to step into the water, playing it cool despite the hairs on his arms sticking straight out. Izumi, on the other hand, needed a moment to prepare herself.
Mitsuru looked back at her, holding his stare for a moment before he said, "It's not that bad."
"Okay... Yeah, I'm coming," Izumi said, although her feet wouldn't move.
His lips twitching into a brief smile, Mitsuru averted his gaze, and leaned over, cupping his hands full of water which he brought to his mouth, washing away the dried up blood from his chin and neck. As he finished, he stood straight again, rinsing his hands in the water before shaking them dry.
"See? Not that bad."
Izumi felt a touch of guilt then, for letting Mitsuru freeze alone while she stood at a distance and watched. She took a few reluctant steps, gritting her teeth as her feet were exposed to the chilling cold of the water. She clutched the hem of her skirt and held it above the surface as she walked as far out as Mitsuru had.
"It's starting to hurt now," Izumi said, still avoiding looking at the wound, "It didn't really strike me until now..."
"Alright, don't worry. Just stand still, kay? I'll wash it." Mitsuru offered.
But the idea of anybody- especially a boy- touching her thigh made her face burn bright red. "You don't have to..." She mumbled quietly.
"If you don't want me to, I ain't gonna," Mitsuru assured her, "But I don't mind."
"No, it's fine," Izumi murmured, still not wanting to look. She knew if she saw the sight of blood, it would only make the pain worse, "You... You can do it."
"Alright, count of three and I'm running the water up it, kay?"
Izumi tightened her eyes shut, clasping the hem of her skirt even stronger in her grip, in anticipation.
"One..." Mitsuru bent over, cupping water in his hand, "Two..."
Izumi held her breath.
"Three!" Mitsuru splashed the water up Izumi's thigh, washing away some of the rubbles and grass that had gotten mixed into the wound. The blood around it had dried enough that he needed to wipe it with the tips of his fingers, splashing up more handfuls of water as he did so. Each hit caused Izumi to grit her teeth, concentrating on the distant sounds of the world around her instead of the pain.
In the distance, the low hum of a car engine came to a stop, the wind brushed tree branches against buildings, the back and forth smacks of a tennis game taking place at the neighbouring tennis courts, these were the noises that Izumi listened to as she waited for the pain to pass.
"'Kay, I think it looks alright," Mitsuru commented, stepping back to take a look at it, "I won't lie to you. It's pretty damn big. What were you thinkin' jumping in there like that?
"I don't know..." Izumi answered meekly, "You were outnumbered by a bunch of older guys... It wasn't fair."
"You really shouldn't have done that, no matter how many of them there were!" Mitsuru tightened his lips, clearly holding back the urge to yell any louder.
"I'm sorry..." Izumi whispered, loosening the grip she had on her skirt. The hem fell out of her hands and danced at the surface of the water. And then, seemingly for no reason, she began to cry. "I...I didn't want them to hurt you."
Mitsuru froze at the sight of tears on the girl's face. "Wo-Woah, hold on," he attempted to speak up but couldn't find the words to do so.
"You've been nothing but nice to me," Izumi said, despite the tears, her voice was surprisingly calm and steady. She didn't really understand it herself. "So I didn't really stop to think about what might happen, I just... I just didn't want anything bad to happen. If they had a knife or something... I don't know. I'm sorry if I made you mad."
"Nah, that's not-" Mitsuru coughed to clear his throat, his eyebrows furrowed with a concern that he wasn't sure how to express, "I'm not mad or nothin'. Shit, I just didn't want them to hurt you either. Dudes like that are fuckin' bonkers, Kanai. They don't care if somebody is a girl or an animal or somethin', they're gonna beat them just the same."
Izumi nodded her head, sniffling and wiping her eyes with the cuffs of her sleeves.
"I-I'm really not mad about it," Mitsuru stammered, "I don't want you to get hurt 'cause of me. I feel like a real jackass."
"I know," Izumi said lowering her arms.
"It's just that guys like that are-"
"'Fucking bonkers?" Izumi repeated, earning her a slack-jawed expression from Mitsuru. She couldn't help but laugh.
"Yeah," Mitsuru had an air of laughter in his tone, "That's it. Don't go repeating that to anybody else, though. Don't want your friends and family thinkin' I'm a bad influence or somethin'."
"Okay," Izumi laughed, "I swear that's the first and last time I've ever said anything like that!"
Shaking his head, Mitsuru let out a laugh, "Guess we better get outta here before they find us aga-"
"Hey, you kids!" A voice called from the distance. Both Izumi and Mitsuru froze up and turned to face the source of the voice.
Luckily for them, it wasn't anybody looking for a fight. The tall, glasses-wearing gentlemen running towards them was their school teacher, Hayashida-sensei.
"Are you alright?!"
Hurrying to the shoreline, Izumi replied, "Y-Yes, we're fine!"
"What happened?" Hayashida-sensei asked, adjusting his glasses as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"We got jumped," Mitsuru answered bluntly, surprising Izumi with his honesty, "It's nothing, though. We're fine."
"Oh, no, that's awful," Hayashida-sensei replied, "At the very least, let me give you kids a ride home. I've just parked up the street!"
Izumi and Mitsuru exchanged a look with each other, somehow managing to speak many words without saying anything at all.
"Um, the thing is..." Izumi said, "We were trying to finish our project..."
"But we still haven't had the chance to work on it." Mitsuru added.
"I see," Hayashida-sensei mused, "I'm beginning to think that this project has been bad luck for the both of you. No worries, I'll give you another extension, and this time- class time to finish it as well. How does that sound?"
Smiling, Izumi replied, "It sounds good to me if it sounds good to you."
"Yeah, whatever, that's cool," Mitsuru replied.
"Excellent!" Hayashida-sensei exclaimed, "Now, come and follow me! Before you kids catch your death in that freezing water!"
Struggling to quickly pick up their things in a hurry, Izumi whispered to Mitsuru, "Are you sure you should've told him what happened?"
With a shrug, Mitsuru replied, "Sure. Bought us more time, didn't it?"
"That's true," Izumi said, shoving her socks and shoes into her school bag. "Third time's the charm."
Laughing, Mitsuru agreed, "Hell yeah, third time's the charm."
With that, the two followed their teacher out to the warm safety of his car, soon to arrive home and one day eventually- maybe- hopefully- get the chance to finish that damn school project.