Chapter Text
To say Kohane was “worried” was absolutely an understatement.
Ever since Vivid BAD SQUAD’s fight with Taiga, An had become unreachable. Leaving everybody's texts on delivered and declining any phone calls. It had only been a day, but it was extremely unlike An to go even an hour without answering her phone unless she was sleeping; which, after the news she received, Kohane doubted she was doing much of.
Kohane even asked Akito to contact a close friend of An's (Akiyama-san, if she remembers correctly.) to see if they'd reply to her. Kohane also asked Minori to see if Haruka could get a response. So far, nothing from either. The boys both reported that they hadn't shown up to school either. The Virtual Singers in SEKAI either couldn't reach their phone or were being blanked by them.
Realistically, Kohane could easily go over to Vivid Street and to An’s house to see him, but she felt that if An wasn't responding to a bombardment of text messages and phone calls, he wouldn't respond well to being bombarded in person.
Kohane was stuck, really. She'd never lost anybody like that before, especially not somebody so close. Nor had she ever known Nagi, she wasn't even at RAD WEEKEND. Not to mention how it had been kept a secret for years. Neither Akito nor Toya could think of a solution either - and Ken was probably so overridden by guilt that he wouldn't be able to handle it correctly either.
She supposed the only positive in this situation was that An hadn't run away from home, somewhere that nobody could think to find her, like she was supposedly notorious for doing. (Though to Kohane's knowledge, it only happened twice, both occasions when An was very young)
Kohane exhaled shakily, she'd returned from school about an hour ago, and she'd been biting back tears all day. She felt so horrible. The whole situation was a massive mess, and she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep it together if An continued ghosting her, ghosting everybody. She was so, so concerned. She didn't even know if An had eaten, or slept, or had anything to drink, or even gotten out of bed. And God, she hoped An hadn't hurt herself. It wasn't something she knew An to do often, but she'd been told about past incidents that pushed her poor partner to the edge.
-
They were all cooped up in an empty Weekend Garage, the atmosphere was tense. An was still trying to process what she'd been told.
Nagi was… no. No she couldn't be. But, why would Taiga lie about that?
So Nagi really was gone…? But she'd promised, she promised they'd stay together. She promised they'd perform on stage together one day!
But… Nagi lied, didn't she? She did that a lot. An knew that Nagi lied a lot. He supposed he didn't think she'd lie about a terminal illness, or dying.
“An-chan…?”
An didn't respond, just turned to face Kohane, who looked so, so worried. Fuck, he didn't want to see that expression on her, least of all caused by him.
“Shiraishi-san, if you need to talk about how you're feeling, please allow us to listen.”
An's eye twitched, pent up frustration bubbling to the surface.
“Listen? You want to listen now?!” she slammed her hands on the table. “Now you want to be here for me? Not when Taiga threw that at me out of nowhere?”
Everybody looked surprised, they definitely hadn't expected An to blow up like that. Even Akito flinched. “An, that's not—”
“Shut up! If you guys wanted to be there for me then why did you completely throw me to the side?! You were all singing while I was trying to simply process a loss that everybody on Vivid Street has had years to grieve!” An stood from the booth, making her way to the stairs.
“An-chan, wait! We didn't mean to hurt you, you know that right?” Kohane pleaded, chasing close after An.
It was all so overwhelming. Everybody hovering over them, the news about Nagi. All An could think was that everybody lied. They all lied, they lied, they lied. Nagi, Vivid Street, her family, her friends, her own partner. They're all liars. She didn't know why she let herself believe that they'd all stay loyal to her.
“No, I don't know. I don't know anything right now, Kohane. I don't know anything other than the fact that everybody I know is a liar!” she exhaled shakily, fresh tears streaming down her face.
“I need to be alone. I'm sorry.” An stormed up to her room, the slamming of the door shaking the foundation.
-
An didn't think they could feel any worse than they did upon hearing the news, but as it turned out, grieving was harder than it sounded.
They felt horrible, not only because they hadn't left their room since they stormed off the previous night, but also because of what they said.
“Everybody I know is a liar, huh…?” she mumbled, to nobody in particular. Her voice was raspy, dry and scratchy. Her throat strained from screaming and crying all night. Her eyes were a muted orange, opposed to their usual sparkly apricot.
An knew really that he didn't believe everybody lied. Least of all Kohane. An couldn't even think of a time Kohane had said even a white lie. Kohane was probably the most honest person he knew.
An knew they'd been bombarded with texts, due to the many phone calls that they'd declined rather than ignored. The ringtone and the buzzing bothered them too much. They hadn't really read any of the texts, just skimmed the notifications. Seeing how even Mizuki and Haruka went out of their ways to check on her made her feel so much worse. Her group had definitely put them up to it, no doubt. Neither of them were the type to spontaneously ask how you're doing without reason, or outside of typical conversation.
An stared at the missed texts from Kohane. 67 unread texts. An decided she'd skim some of them.
Kohane💞 Yesterday at 20:17: (8:17pm)
I'm sorry about what happened.
Please, talk to me if you need to. I want to listen.
I'm sorry.
I love you <3
I'll be here when you're ready.
A choked sob escaped their throat. An wanted to talk to her so badly, to apologise for everything he said. Well, she wanted to apologise to everybody. He needed to.
Through a fresh wave of tears, An opened their chat, trying to not acknowledge all of the messages he'd chosen to ignore.
He wasn't sure what to say. Typing a sentence and then deleting it. He wanted to give her a whole paragraph, hell, he wanted to give her the whole world. The back and forth went on for at least 5 minutes. Eventually, An got frustrated with himself and wrote a short sentence.
“I'm sorry. Come over?”