Chapter Text
Langa’s skating was always magic. Every time he pulled off a complicated trick and won a beef, Reki’s heart swelled with pride. Langa outshone everyone and nobody could beat him. At the moment, he was neck in neck with Joe, but Reki wasn’t worried. Langa would win.
“Go, Langa!” he shouted and raised a fist. Langa likely couldn’t hear him over the hubbub in the mine, but Reki still liked to cheer him on.
“Don’t you think there’s something weird about Langa’s skating tonight?” Miya asked.
Reki momentarily stopped cheering and turned to Miya. “Huh? What do you mean?”
Miya gave him a scathing look. “Can’t you tell? I thought he was your best friend.”
Puzzled, Reki looked up at the mine staircase. Joe flew past, kicked off an a swinging girder, and easily dodged a second one. Langa was further behind now and didn’t appear to be slowing down as he approached the girder. Miya was right. This wasn’t how Langa skated. Langa didn’t make clumsy mistakes like that.
“Watch out!” Reki shouted, his voice drowned out by all the other skaters shouting for Langa to be careful.
Langa ducked down and coasted under the girder. He shifted and jumped down onto one of the old railings to avoid the second one. A collective gasp drew in the air from the mine as Langa’s skateboard slipped off the railing. Langa’s arms flailed, the panic evident on his face. He toppled backwards off the rail, fingers fruitlessly reaching for something to grab onto, and screamed in terror.
“Langa!”
Time slowed as Reki pushed off on his skateboard. The other skaters cried out in horror. Some covered their faces. Reki hurried past them all, hoping against hope that he could reach Langa in time and break his fall somehow. He couldn’t . . . No, he wouldn’t let anything happen to him.
Reki felt the air go out of his lungs. The distance between the broken rail and the concrete floor was too great. He was too far away and Langa was still falling.
“No—Langa! Langa!”
—
Gasping, Reki’s eyes flew open. Sunlight streamed through the window and the smell of sausage and eggs wafted through his bedroom door. Shaking, he untangled himself from his sheets, pressed a trembling hand against his thudding heart, and took a deep breath.
Just a bad dream, he thought and wiped some of the cold sweat off his forehead. Langa’s okay. He’s at home. He’s okay.
Langa had fallen off the railing last night during his beef with Joe, but he’d managed to grab onto the handrail and hoist himself up just in time. His skateboard hadn’t been so lucky. The broken pieces of the deck were waiting in the garage for Reki to salvage whatever parts he could and build a new one. That was the one thing Langa had been upset about. Not the fact that he'd almost fallen or that he'd lost to Joe, but the fact that his skateboard had gotten damaged. He always won so effortlessly that Reki had forgotten that Langa didn’t really care about winning or losing.
Most of the time, that was all Reki cared about too. Having fun and cheering on his friends. But near accidents like the ones last night reminded him of the friend he’d lost. The thought of losing Langa the same way made so sick at heart that he could hardly breathe.
Someone knocked loudly on his bedroom door and Reki jumped. The door slid open and Koyomi poked her head through with a disapproving frown.
“Aren’t you up yet? Mom says you’re gonna be late for school if you don’t go eat breakfast now.”
Reki sighed. “I’m up, I’m up. Can you get out of my room now?”
Koyomi didn’t move. Instead, she tilted her head and her expression softened with concern. “You okay?”
Reki reached for his phone and sent a quick text to Langa, telling him he’d be late to meet him at their usual spot. “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not. Did something happen last night? You got home later than usual.”
The worry in Koyomi’s voice made Reki feel guilty, so he mustered up a reassuring smile and said, “Really, I’m fine. Tell Mom I’ll be out in a sec.”
Looking unconvinced, Koyomi slid the door closed. Reki hopped off his bed and quickly dressed for school. He checked his phone to see if Langa had texted back and saw that he was going to be really late if he didn’t leave right this second.
“Damn it,” he muttered and pocketed his phone.
Reki hurried down the hallway and nearly slipped in his haste. He rushed into the kitchen and grabbed his bento box.
Masae looked up from her pan of fried eggs and asked, “Reki, aren’t you going to eat breakfast?”
“No time!”
His mother sighed and picked up a smaller bento box. She walked to the front door where Reki was jamming his feet in his shoes and grabbed the back of his hoodie before he stepped on his skateboard.
“Hold on a minute, young man.”
“Mom! I’m gonna be late!”
“You’ll be fine,” Masae said with a smile and handed him the bento box. “Here. Some sata andagi for you and Langa-kun to share.”
Reki’s eyes lit up as he took the bento box. Langa liked sweet things and he always seemed fascinated by whatever Reki had in his bento box. He would definitely love the sata andagi. He grinned at his mom and safely stowed away the bento box.
“Thanks, Mom! See you later!” he called and pushed off.
The weather was unusually warm and the sky was an eye-aching blue with nary a cloud in sight. It felt like a good day and Reki hoped it would be. He ollied off a set of stairs, took a turn, and attempted a pressure flip, but caught his foot while attempting to scoop the deck and stumbled. Sighing, he hopped back on the board and pushed off.
I’ll land it someday, he thought.
The spot where he met Langa came into view, but Langa wasn’t anywhere in site. Confused, Reki stopped and looked around. Cars whizzed passed on the street, but the sidewalk remained empty. Reki felt a little shiver of fear, but squashed down the feeling and slowly pushed off again.
He’s fine. He’s probably at school.
—
He’s still not here. Where is he?
Reki propped up his textbook and surreptitiously checked his phone for any missed messages. His phone blinked with an unread message from Miya. Feeling a glimmer of hope, Reki opened it, but his expression fell when he saw a bunch of angry cat stickers and Miya telling him that his phone going off in class had almost gotten him in trouble and how was he supposed to know where Langa was? Groaning, Reki dropped his head on his desk and stared at his phone.
Should I call him? Do people still use these things for phone calls?
Reki’s thumb hovered uncertainly over the call button. He nearly pressed it, but decided it would be too weird, and sent another text instead.
C’mon, Langa. Answer.
Reki waited and counted out a full minute, but the text remained unread. Sighing, he propped his chin up with his hand and stared out the window. Everything looked colorless without Langa.
The school bell rang softly, indicating the start of the lunch period. The sound of his classmates chattering and the screech of desks being pushed together made Reki feel Langa’s absence more keenly. It really hadn’t been that long ago that Reki had been okay going from classmate to classmate, trying to find somebody who he could enthusiastically talk to about skating. Now he didn’t know if he could stomach their polite disinterest.
Reki checked his phone one more time and took out his bento. The smaller box with the sata andagi caught his eye and he took it out as well. He pried off the lid and popped one of the sugary fried balls of dough in his mouth, but it didn’t taste as sweet as it normally did. Deciding he wasn’t hungry, Reki snapped the lid back on and stored both boxes away.
Langa’s never messed up like that at S. What happened?
Reki’s heart pounded as he recalled the look of sheer terror on Langa’s face when he’d realized his mistake.
If he hadn’t grabbed onto the railing . . .
The fear Reki had felt last night washed over him like a chilly tidal wave. Everybody knew S was dangerous. People walked out with injuries all the time. But a fall from that height would’ve done more than broken some bones. Much more.
“Kyan? Kyan!”
Startled, Reki unclenched his fists and looked up. His homeroom teacher stood at the door and beckoned him to come out into the hallway. Hastily, Reki pocketed his phone and hurried out the classroom.
“Everything all right with you?” his teacher asked. “You’ve been absentminded all day.”
“Me? Oh, I’m fine,” Reki replied with a nervous laugh and the biggest smile he could muster.
The teacher stared at him in slight disbelief, then shook his head and handed Reki a thin folder. “Can I trust you to make sure this gets to Hasegawa in one piece?”
Puzzled, Reki took the folder. “To Langa? What is it?”
“Homework and today’s assignments. His mother called him out sick, so just make sure it gets to him in one piece.”
The folder trembled in his hands. How sick was Langa that he couldn’t even reply to a text?
“Is he . . . Is he okay?” Reki asked, a slight tremor making his voice catch. “Maybe I should go check on him now.”
The teacher raised an eyebrow. “Now? It’s the middle of the day.”
“I’m fast. I can go check on him and be back before lunch ends,” Reki insisted. “I just . . . want to make sure he’s okay.”
“Kyan, he’s fine. He wouldn’t be at home if it was anything serious. Look, I’ll let you skip cleaning duty today if you go straight to Hasegawa’s after school.”
“But—!”
“He’s fine. Go finish your lunch.”