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“Tch,” Saiko scoffed,”You plebs are seriously passing up an opportunity.” It was another day when Saiko’s father told him that he would be suspending his money for a day and that he’d be living with the commoners for a day.
“Opportunity for what, Saiko? The opportunity of having to carry you all the way to your house?” Kuboyasu said, with his brow furrowed. Damn he hated this kid. He was so spoiled. It’s like he hasn’t worked a day in his life. Aren was sure that he didn’t even have to brush his own teeth. The one person who would stupidly accept his offer without taking the money, Nendou, was absent that day.
“I said that I’d give you four thousand yen for it.”
“Not everything is about the money, Saiko. And that isn’t even as much as you usually offer. If you want to go home, take a taxi.” Kaidou intervened, defending Kuboyasu. “Is it really that hard for you to walk for once?” Saiko had no response to the question and scoffed again
“Well fine then! I don’t need you pesents anyway!” Saiko grumbled as he started to walk away from the two people, leaving Kuboyasu and Kaidou alone, staring at the rich kid as he walked away.
“I don’t understand him, Shun.” Kuboyasu sighed after a minute of staring at Saiko as he walked away.
“Me neither.” Kaidou replied. They both stood there for a moment in silence.
“Mind if I walk with you for a moment Kaidou? My house is in the same direction as his and I don’t want to run into him on the way there.” Aren asked his blue haired friend.
“That’s cool, but I have cram school today and my mom would kill me if I got there late, so I can’t stay with you long.”
“It’s alright. I actually know a shortcut to my house not far from here. There is a convenience store near it so we could go get something from there while we wait for Saiko to walk further and you won’t be late for your cram school.”
“That sounds great, Aren! Let’s go!” Kaidou cheered.
–
"Thanks for the snack Aren! See you tomorrow!" Kaidou waved goodbye to his friend as he walked away. Kuboyasu waves back and starts heading down the shortcut he mentioned after putting an extra box of Pocky sticks he bought in his bag. He cut through alleyway after alleyway, getting closer to his home. He paused just before he was about to step out of another alleyway as he heard some footsteps and a familiar voice.
"Psh, stupid plebs. How dare they leave me to walk." The voice mumbled. Saiko. What are the chances?! If Aren was still in his gang, he would've grabbed Saiko from his collar and beat him in that very alleyway to teach him some respect. But those days were in the past so he just stood still, unnoticed by Saiko as he passed him by. He stood there until Saiko was at an intersection not far from where he was and crossed roads. Thankfully for Aren, he was 100% sure that his house was in the exact opposite way of where Saiko was going. The rest of the street was empty and quiet and once he knew Saiko would be out of sight if he turned around, Kuboyasu smiled a bit. Good, he won't have to deal with that guy until tomorrow.
Just as he thought that, he noticed a tall, older sketchy guy, probably in his early 30's, walking past him on the other side of the street. He thought he recognized the man but as he looked again, he realized that he didn't. Kuboyasu shrugged and continued walking to his house. Still he had that weird gut feeling about him and it made Kuboyasu think he was up to no good. The guy had a look in his eye that just screamed that he was in a not-so-good mood. He was about to shrug the feeling off when he remembered that the man was heading in Saiko's direction.
'Didn't Saiko say that he was the heir to his father's extremely rich company once? Wouldn't that make him really valuable?'
Gah?! What was he thinking?? He shouldn't care what happens to that spoiled brat. He shouldn't even be thinking about him. Whatever that kid had to deal with was none of his business and shouldn't be his problem. So he just kept walking.
'Just walk, Aren. Don't think about Saiko. The old man is probably just having a bad day and is just blowing off steam.' He told himself before stopping completely, turning around and running quickly to where Saiko was headed. He was just going to check if the mysterious guy was bad news, that's all. Not because of Saiko.
He had started to see the older man in the distance. To not cause the man to look back, he ducked into the alleyway next to him and cut corners to make it ahead of where Saiko was. Behind a wall, he watched the two people, carefully watching their every move.
As Saiko was walking past an adjacent alley, the man was already way closer to him than if was walking at normal speed. He took his chance and grabbed the gray haired kid and dragged him quickly down the alley with his mouth covered so he couldn't make any noise. Kuboyasu widened his eyes at what he just saw. Saiko got freaking kidnapped. Without a second thought, he raced his way to the ally and hid behind a wall. If Saiko saw him and made a snarky remark once he saw him, Kuboyasu might just leave him to whatever the man wanted to do with him and forget about what he saw, only to regret it the next day when Saiko would not show up to the school and make it on the news a few hours later.
So he stuck with hiding until things got really bad. Peering around the corner, he saw the man pinning Saiko to the wall with a long, double bladed knife up to his neck, just about ready to cut right through it.
"Hey, kid. Aren't you Saiko's son?"
Kuboyasu looked at the expression on Saiko's face, his eyes were filled with dread and alarm, not surprising to anyone with a brain, but the rest of his face was unexpectedly well collected. His brow was furrowed and his teeth were clenched. If you didn't look close enough, it would just seem that Saiko was just angry or annoyed, as if this was a normal day for him.
"Who's asking?" Saiko responded, his expression not changing.
"Let me tell you kid. I bet you've never heard of it because of how much of a f*cking spoiled brat you are, but I am in a bunch of debt right now, which is when someone has no money to spend but still has things to pay back for. And I realized that you might just be the solution to that problem." Saiko's eyes narrowed at the man. "You're the only heir to your father's company right? How much do you think he is willing to pay if he finds out that something happened to his dear son?" The man smirked, viciously and pushed the knife harder on the boy's neck, nearly piercing it but Saiko's expression didn't change, he just looked down at the knife watching it with caution. "Don't worry, I won't harm you as long as you do what I say. After that, it is up to your father on how much you get hurt. If he does what I say, I won't lay a finger on you. Otherwise, my hands might have to get a bit dirty." His eyes gestured to the knife on Saiko's neck, making sure he got the point.
Kuboyasu decided that now would be a good time to intervene, but he needed to think his moves thoroughly. One wrong move and Saiko could end up dead on the floor. God, he didn't like him but this was just plain cruel. This maniac was going to torture a 16 year old, who had nothing to do with any of this man's problems, just to get out of the debt he got himself in. Not to mention how the father might feel if he figured out that his son went missing and was probably getting tortured. Aren just couldn't let something like that happen. He started to think, if he jumped in unexpectedly, Saiko's neck had a higher possibility of being sliced with the knife. Either accidentally, because the maniac got taken aback or purposely because someone spotted him, either way, that was not an option. He could call the cops, but they would take too long and calling the cops ment that he'd have to take his eyes off the two people in order to not be heard. With how quickly the situation was escalating, who knows where the man could take Saiko in the time he left. After eliminating other options, he thought that either waiting and stalking the man so that he could see where he was taking Saiko to or carefully intervening to deescalate the situation giving him the opportunity to run up and disarm the man were the two best options.
Before Kuboyasu could do anything, however, Saiko bravely spoke. "I know what debt is, you know?"
"Huh?"
"I said I know what debt is." He repeated, in a snarky, annoyed tone, as if the knife wasn't still on his neck. "I may have lived a pampered life but I am not ignorant. I know the basis of what you commoners have to deal with."
"I-i" The man was too stunned to speak, to be honest, so was Kuboyasu. That's…not how a normal person would be reacting in this situation.
"Yeah yeah, I had to do research that you plebs had to pay for your water and electricity every month, but I didn't even have to do research because of the reason you might think. Do you plebs believe that my father refuses to tell me about how my family's company got started? Surprise surprise, it started from someone like you. Probably millions of yen in debt and nowhere to go, if I am correct." Saiko said, the guy reacted as if Saiko just told him his exact position he was in right now. "What? You think that my family just got rich out of nowhere? You think some magical fairy appeared and made my family's wishes come true? I may not have dealt with any of the hard labor, as you can promptly see based on how I act, but that's just the result of my family's success." He scoffed and smirked at the man, who was taken aback, mainly by the kid's attitude. As Saiko said what he said, he realized that the knife was not near his neck anymore. The moment he saw this, he swung his fist upwards on the man's chin, knocking him on the floor with the knife sliding out of his hand. Aren could've sworn that he heard a loud 'crack' as the punch landed.
"Next time you want money from me, ask me for a favor." He said walking farther into the alley, away from the groaning body on the floor, who was too hurt to get up. "You could've earned a good four thousand yen just now by just carrying me. But I guess I should still thank you. I was planning on walking down this alley anyway."
Kuboyasu, with his jaw dropped, had to process what just happened. Saiko just knocked someone down with a single punch to the chin. He may have even broken it as well, then just walked away as if it was a normal Tuesday for him! He shook his head, still unable to speak from the shock, and ran up to Saiko where was. (Which he admits wasn't the best idea.) As he was about to lay a hand on his shoulder, Saiko abruptly turned to him swiftly and brought out another punch. It would've hit Kuboyasu's face if he hadn't grabbed his punch in time, successfully blocking the attack. Saiko looked at the person, frightened before he saw that it was Aren’s face.
"Hm? Oh it's just you, the purple-haired pleb." Saiko quietly sighed in relief as his body and arm visibly untensed. He brought the hand used to nearly punch Kuboyasu down to his side then turned away and started to walk away once again.
For once, Kuboyasu didn't feel insulted, neither by the nickname or the punch. Saiko just escaped getting kidnapped for ransom and being held at knife point. By the way he reacted, Aren could tell that Saiko was a bit jumpy from the attack that happened less than two minutes ago, even if he was good at hiding it.
"Hey Saiko. I saw what happened. Are you okay? You looked pretty afraid." Aren walked quickly to keep up with Saiko who was walking faster than usual.
"Why do you want to know? Why are you even here? Were you also following me?" Saiko glared at the boy behind him and continued walking.
"No, it's just that your house is in the same direction as my house. I just happened to see you nearly get…uhm you know." Saiko sighed, now it was clear as day that he was still shaken up. "Look, I know that you and I have a…complex relationship, but that doesn't mean that I could just stand by as you were nearly taken. I was about to intervene but it seemed like you were able to handle things on your own. Surprisingly." Kuboyasu turned around only to cringe as he saw the almost-kidnapper on his knees with his hands on his chin.
"Pfft-" Saiko laughed. "You really think the owner of a multi-million yen company would just leave their only heir helpless in defending themselves? Of course not! My grandfather has learned that it is best to enroll everyone in my family in the best self defense classes in Japan. Don't you have any idea on how many people tried to follow me or anyone in my family?" Aren, who was still behind Saiko, thought about it for a moment. He did think about how being rich does make you a target for ransom, he just never thought about how often it might occur. "What? You think all those bodyguards were for show."
It was then when Kuboyasu realized that Saiko hasn't done anything that'll annoy him, even if he knows exactly what to do to get on his bad side. No overly snarky remark. No teasing. Nothing to drive him away.
Then it hit Kuboyasu like a brick. "That's why you didn't want to walk to your house alone! You were scared of what would happen to you!" He exclaimed. This caused Saiko to stop walking and turn to Kuboyasu.
"Tch, that world isn't a safe place for the incredibly rich and famous people to walk alone. Just ask that little-miss-perfect girl at your school."
"Huh? You mean Teruhashi? What do you mean?"
"Do you think that people haven't tried following her to see her perfection may slip up? The News club perhaps? The people who'd do anything for a good story, be it real or fake. Like they did with us after we got back from being shipwrecked." Saiko raised an eyebrow, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Oh...well, I guess I haven't thought of that before." Kuboyasu put his hand on his chin, he never thought that he'd be agreeing with his least favorite classmate. But then again, it did make a lot of sense. "You do make a good point." Saiko unraised his eyebrow as Kuboyasu said, satisfied that Kuboyasu understood.
"Us rich and perfect people are never allowed to let our guard down when we are alone, we'll never know what would happen if we did." Saiko closed his eyes, raising his chin while smirking like he always did.
"Well, I admit. You did pretty well at defending yourself. Just one thing though." Saiko opened his eyes and raised an eyebrow as he looked at Kuboyasu but noticed that the man was back on his feet with the knife gripped tightly in his hand ready to stab anyone of them. Kuboyasu, however, didn't seem to notice Saiko's terrified face because it didn't even look like he even cared. Saiko took a step back as the man quickly approached them, not sure if he should run away and leave Aren with the man or deal with him himself. Thankfully he didn't have to decide because without even looking Aren backhanded the man, knocking him out cold. The knife he was holding flew in the air as he fell, Kuboyasu caught it without even looking and put it in his front pocket. "Always make sure to disarm your attacker." He continued his statement. "I don't usually do this, and you shouldn't either, but I'm just going to keep the weapon so that that bastard won't have any ideas if he wakes up."
"Holy sh*t…" Saiko mumbled in pure utter shock.
"Heh, I had the same reaction when you uppercutted that man's chin." He admitted, rubbing his neck sheepishly. "Come on. Let's leave this alley before he wakes up. I won't carry you but I'd be happy to walk next to you." He suggested
"Walk…next to me? You mean like a bodyguard?"
"Well, no. I was thinking more like a friend. Or maybe an acquaintance in this case, considering that you and I don't have that type of a relationship with each other." While hesitant, Saiko eventually agreed to let Kuboyasu follow him. They walked a couple more streets and passed a park before Saiko was getting hungry. He got a snack a while ago, while cheap, it was all he could afford while still having money to spare.
"Are you hungry?" Saiko looked at Kuboyasu, astounded at how this person kept reading him like an open book. "You are holding your stomach weirdly." Kuboyasu remarked.
'Ah so that's how.' Saiko hadn't even realized what he was doing until he had pointed it out.
"Hold on." Aren reached into his bag, pulling out a new box of Pocky sticks. "You can have them. I already had a box. There's a bench right there." Kuboyasu pointed to the bench that was a few feet from them.
"Aren't these things cheap?" Saiko questioned, to which Kuboyasu responded by glaring at him. "..Fine." He snatched the box from Aren's hands. "How much do you want for it? I only have six thousand yen on me right now."
"No thanks Saiko."
"Fine, just name the price and I will give it to you by tomorrow." He sighed in defeat
"I don't want your money Saiko. Just take the box and eat it."
With the look in Aren's eye, it was impossible for him to tell if he was being genuine. Saiko groaned, Kuboyasu was just as hard to read as the idiot Nendou, and he hated it. Was he actually telling the truth, just like Nendou?
"I am being serious. Just eat it, you don't have to pay me."
Saiko exhaled. It was the same story wasn't it? Kuboyasu really didn't have an alternative motive, did he? He didn't mind that Nendou had pure intentions, but now it seemed that even his enemy was the same?! Metori gave up and walked to the bench Kuboyasu was talking about. He didn't like having to sit in the same place where presents sat but it would have to do. He opened the packaging and started eating the sweet sticks. He admitted, for how cheap they were, they didn't have a bad taste. He actually liked them. As Kuboyasu sat next to him, he might as well have asked a burning question he had.
"Was it obvious?"
"Hm? Was what obvious?"
"You said that I seemed scared when that pleb 'attacked' me. Was it obvious?" Saiko took another bite of a Pocky, finishing it, then grabbing another one.
"Uh, no not really. I had to look closely to see that you were afraid. At first I actually thought that you were annoyed by the maniac." Kuboyasu confessed, though he was confused on why Saiko was worried about what emotion he looked like he was feeling. Then again, in that situation, you wouldn't want your attacker to know you are afraid so they won't feel like they have the advantage over you.
"Ah, okay." Saiko answered, not having anything else to say. They both sat there awkwardly for a few minutes, not looking at each other. Saiko hadn't thanked Kuboyasu yet for saving him. He wasn't used to thanking people. Was it too late to thank him? Should he just say it? He didn't know what to do and he was running low on Pocky sticks. "Thank you." He said, taking the risk. "For saving me back then."
'Ugh, this feels weird. Do normal plebs always feel this way when they thank someone?'
Kuboyasu looked at Saiko in mild astonishment. “Hehe, where was this attitude when we gave you that Instant Ramen on that deserted island?” Saiko enlarged his eyes in embarrassment (and slight guilt) and sneered at the comment. “But really! I appreciate it, Saiko. It’s just weird hearing it come from you.”
“Yeah well don’t get used to it.”
“I won’t.” Kuboyasu said.
In time, Saiko finished his snack and they both proceeded to his mansion, both of them still on edge. The streets were mostly silent while they walked, besides the sounds of cars passing by, but the good type of silence. It helped Saiko mentally relax. His breathing slowed to a more steady rhythm as they walked through the empty street, as the sun was setting. Watching the change in Saiko's demeanor, Kuboyasu started to relax more himself. He admitted that he began to not despise his classmate as much as he did an hour ago, courtesy to that alleyway conversation. There was some reason why he acts that way, and perhaps he had judged him too quickly at first.
The two of them eventually came across their destination. They stood in front of the gate for a brief moment before saying their goodbyes (with Metori quietly adding another thanks as he turned away) and going their separate ways.
–
"What the hell happened to you guys?" Kaidou asked Kuboyasu, who had just seen Aren and Metori say 'hi' to each other without any insults or fighting. It was just a simple wave and the two moved on but considering the relationship those two had, it was an action that was pretty outrageous. Kaidou just stared between the two before he realized Kuboyasu was walking ahead. He rushed back to Aren, with his jaw dropped.
"I don't know Shun." Kuboyasu chuckled to himself. It didn't feel like it was a good time to tell Kaidou what happened last night so Kuboyasu merely shrugged. "Perhaps, I have judged Saiko too quickly."
Kaidou blinked. Then blinked again. "The hell is that supposed to mean?!" He blurted out and extended his arms in the air. "We've known him for months! You two were enemies less than 24 hours ago! What the hell happened that could've changed that in a few hours."
Kuboyasu smiled and turned his head to Saiko who was now barely visible due to his bodyguards covering him. "I don't know, but I have a feeling that Saiko and I will at least have a healthier relationship from now on."
Kaidou continued to look back and forth at the two students. "What the actual f*ck. Did I manage to teleport to another dimension overnight? Or is this the work of the Dark Reunion?!"
"No Shun. No you didn't."