Chapter Text
This should have been an easy mission.
August peers over the cliff’s edge. There’s nothing below but roaring sea. The drop must be about… he can’t tell, actually, adrenaline pumping through him so hard he can’t think. There isn’t time to make a clear assessment of anything, including the alarm now sounding in the distance. It doesn’t matter right now. And neither does the distance of that drop. It must be at least a safe distance for him. For them.
He whirls around, faced directly with his partner. “December-”
The half-formed plan dies on his lips. December is staggering, an arm awkwardly curved towards his shoulder.
In the harsh light of the full moon looming behind him, August can make out the blood seeping through December’s fingers.
December doesn’t say a word. The expression on his face is clear.
“You’ll be fine.” A closer look is all August needs to be able to tell that it’s nothing. The bullet must have struck him in the shoulder. That isn’t going to kill him.
… As long as they can stop the bleeding.
December whips his head around to check behind him and August catches the sheer panic on his face. There are bright lights on the horizon, but they aren’t close yet. They have time.
“Take off your jacket.” How many times has August patched December up? For all the training he’s had, a small gunshot wound is nothing.
The wound is closer to his neck than August had first thought. He won’t be able to use a tourniquet, but that’s fine. It still isn’t serious. December got lucky.
“… There’s no time.” December withdraws, wincing. As he shifts, the moonlight catches on the thin chain around his neck.
“Then we need to jump into the water.” August responds quickly. “I know it’ll be hard to swim, but I’ll help you. I won’t leave you.”
December makes no move towards the edge and looks back again instead. Their enemy is advancing quickly.
“December.” But he can’t be going into shock already. “Come on.” August takes his hand. If he can just get December into the water, he’s sure adrenaline will do the rest.
“I won’t make it.”
“Don’t say that.”
“… You should go.”
“Don’t say that. You know I won’t. You know I’d never leave you.”
December takes a shaky step forward. This time it’s August who looks past his shoulder at the quickly-approaching enemy. If they don’t jump now, they’ll be in serious danger.
“I need… to tell you something.”
August drops his shoulders, exasperated, but he lets December lean in, lips brushing up against his ear.
For a moment, December only breathes carefully, unstable. August knew December was panicking, and for nothing.
His quiet voice comes—
—And then August is stumbling backwards, reaching the edge of the cliff before he can stop himself and there’s nothing he can do but plummet down, alone.
Before the ocean swallows him whole, the blinding light of the full moon leaves an echo on the inside of his eyelids.
August sits up, narrowly avoiding hitting his head on a low ceiling. He doesn’t recognise the beige walls or the unmade bed he’d been sleeping on.
Light peeks in through the drawn curtains, dimly illuminating the room.
It would have made sense for instinct to take over. It didn’t. Unable to do anything more than tread water, August wondered if he would die there, waiting for the cold to numb his limbs and drown him.
The memory crashes over him.
Eventually, August understood that he didn’t have a choice. With the dwindling energy he had left, he forced himself to swim.
August descends the ladder from the bunk. It’s a slow process—every muscle aches. There are a second set of windows beneath the bed, with the curtains wide open. He peers outside and is met with an ordinary looking street. It looks like he’s one floor up, but that information isn’t helpful.
His eyes flicker back to the bed.
“Sorry about the ladder.” He can just about recall someone saying.
Blurred faces are pulled to the front of his mind. How did he get here? He must have made it to land somewhere, and then been picked up by the people he faintly remembers.
Did they let him stay here? Yes. They must have. The room smells musty, like it hasn’t been lived in in a long while. Maybe this is a spare room, albeit a strangely designed one.
August stretches carefully. He’s stiff all over, but it doesn’t feel as though anything is injured. In that case, he may as well investigate further.
Left with no choice, he opens the door—
—and almost walks straight into a woman standing outside.
“Ah. Hi! I was just about to come check on you.” Her features vaguely register in his mind, but not quite. He met her last night, didn’t he? “I’m so glad you’re awake. I bet you’re hungry, right?”
He stands frozen for a moment, still struggling to adjust to the sudden bright light. “Kind of.”
She nods. “I’ll take you to the kitchen. There should still be some leftovers for you.”
Without missing a beat, she leads him down a flight of stone steps and through… a courtyard? It looks as though there are many other rooms in a small complex, but no people are around.
“So um. Are you feeling okay? Have you been able to remember anything?”
“No, not really.” Right. Now, ironically, he remembers. At a loss yesterday, he’d chosen to feign amnesia. “I think I must have hit my head.”
She nods. “You said that yesterday too, didn’t you? I guess that would explain things.”
A group of people surrounded August, peering at him with concern. He wasn’t exactly sure how he’d gotten from the middle of the ocean to their couch.
“You don’t remember anything at all?”
“I really think we should hand him over to the police.”
“Let’s give him a chance first.”
“Don’t you at least remember your name?”
“My name…” Instinctively, he started to form his alias. He shook his head. “No. There’s nothing.”
“It might be a concussion. Maybe for now it would be best to let you sleep on it. You’re more than welcome to rest here.”
The medical knowledge between the group of adults was as laughable as it was convenient.
“I’d appreciate that.”
“Your head doesn’t still hurt, does it?” The woman asks carefully.
“No, it’s-”
“And you don’t feel sick? I really hope you don’t have a concussion.”
“I’m fine, thank you. I think I slept it off.” He says, donning a shy smile to put her at ease.
He glances back at the room he came from again. Strange. It’s almost like an apartment complex. A hostel maybe? Although he would expect a hostel to utilise their space more efficiently.
August enters a glass door at the back of a building and walks straight into a kitchen.
“I’ll get you something to eat. I’m sure you need it.”
“Thank you.”
It’s a small kitchen for the number of rooms August saw outside. Connected is a living area with two sofas surrounding a TV.
A teenage boy hovers in the kitchenette, about to put a plate in a microwave.
The woman frowns. “Is that the last of Omi’s casserole?”
“It might be.”
“Didn’t you eat enough at lunch time? I feel like you’ve been eating at weird times a lot lately.”
The boy is wearing a high school uniform August vaguely recognises. His eyes, hair and the entire structure of his face down to the slope of his nose look entirely different to the woman’s. They’re unlikely to be blood relatives.
“It’s fine. I’ll still eat dinner, don’t you worry.”
“As long as you’re eating enough. Sorry,” she says, glancing back at August. “Let’s get you something to eat. How does an omelette sound?”
“That sounds fine, thank you.”
“I’m Banri, by the way. I heard about you yesterday.”
August nods. “Nice to meet you.”
Perhaps he’s just a tenant of another one of the rooms, but then why are they sharing the same leftovers?
“Is this some kind of hostel or something?”
“Oh! No, this is a dorm. We-”
“I’m home.” A new voice calls.
“Welcome home.” The woman chirps back.
August looks up and is met with familiar pink eyes and blonde highlights.
“So he’s the super cute kouhai you’ve been mentioning.” August remarked as he watched the charismatic actor on their screen.
Even if he’d forgotten his name, August would have been able to guess which one was April’s coworker at just a glance. While the others all seemed rough around the edges, Itaru Chigasaki radiated a practised charm.
April scoffed. “He’s my super un-cute kouhai.”
The image of this man in an elevator or perhaps standing by a water cooler with Chikage, having an ordinary conversation. Perhaps not friends yet, but something that will inevitably lead to that.
“He’s really pretty, isn't he?”
“My female co-workers certainly think so.”
Suddenly, it all clicked into place. Theatre company. Dorm. Itaru lived with the other actors, didn’t he?
Miraculously, August must not be far from home at all.
“Did you have a good day, Itaru?” The woman asks, cracking eggs into a pan.
Itaru Chigasaki brushes past her to get to the fridge, pulling out an energy drink.
“I guess.” He glances over at August. “Is this the guy you messaged the GC about?”
“Yeah. We found him collapsed on the street on the way back last night. We’re not really sure what happened, so he’s staying with us for now.”
Like a switch has been flipped, Itaru flashes his corporate smile at August. “Well, it’s nice to meet you.”
“And you.”
He downs half of the can at once. “I might be late for practice tomorrow. Turns out I’m gonna have to stay and do last-minute overtime to get that project in.”
“Okay, thank you for letting me know. Can you pass me a plate, please?”
“Practice?” August asks with feigned curiosity as the woman tips the omelette onto the plate.
“I’m so glad you asked.” She says, beaming. “Have you ever thought about becoming an actor?”
Banri very poorly tries to conceal a laugh with a cough into his hand.
“I’m… sorry?”
“Well, the thing is, we’re actually a theatre company. This is our dorm, and if you join us you could stay here for as long as you like, completely for free. Three meals a day included! Although, um, we can’t afford to pay you yet. We held auditions recently for one of our troupes, but we’re still a member short so…”
She throws her hands up defensively. “Oh, but if you don’t want to stay with us, we wouldn’t kick you out! We could help you find a job too. I think between us we’ve probably had every part-time job under the sun by now. But it would be great if you did stay. Um, no pressure.”
August scans her face for the barest hint of shame.
“Called it.” Banri smirks.
Itaru sighs. “Fine, fine.”
“What was that?”
“Hm? Nothing.”
The woman raises her eyebrows. “Called what.”
Banri clicks his tongue. “I said it would be less than a week before you begged some random guy who has nothing to do with theatre to join Winter Troupe.” He looks back at August and gives him a once over. “Like, no offence.”
“And how long did you bet?”
“A day. Lol. I’m surprised you didn’t ask this guy last night, actually.”
“A day?”
“I’m literally only here because you walked up to me in the middle of the street and offered me a place to live on a random Tuesday. You have no shame.”
The interview August had seen had shown a much more carefully constructed company. Of course the members of Spring Troupe had been an endearing mess, but he had assumed that the theatre itself was run, well, professionally. Clearly that wasn’t quite the case.
“Hold on, who else was in on that?”
“Well, Citron had faith in you.” Banri says. “And now he owes me ten thousand yen.”
So in other words, this woman is relatively desperate to recruit for her theatre troupe, and has extremely low expectations.
Suddenly remembering August, she whips around. “Um, sorry about that. Things can get a little hectic here but, you know. These guys didn’t regret it, so…”
August can act. And the free accommodation would be a good way to lie low. It would give him more time to consider his next steps without wasting time worrying about keeping himself alive.
“I'm not sure how I feel about acting, but I could really do with a place to stay. I’ll give it a try.”
The woman’s face lights up immediately. “I’ll make sure you don’t regret it.”
“Yeah, that’s how she gets you.” Itaru adds idly. “You’ll get attached and then the next thing you know you’re being dragged into some emergency family RP when you try to leave.”
She claps her hands together. “Itaru was apprehensive at first, but he really enjoys theatre now.”
“Yeah, he even goes to early morning practice with barely any complaining.” Banri smirks.
This won’t be hard. August softens his gaze and shoots his best unassuming smile. “You’ve definitely made it sound like fun. I’d like to give it a shot, if that’s okay.”
“Of course! I’m so glad! We were really worried things weren’t going to turn out, so you’re really saving us.”
“It’s no problem. Um, I never caught your name.”
“Ah, I completely forgot! I’m Izumi, but everyone just calls me ‘Director’. Welcome to Mankai Company!”