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Seeing Bunny after ten or so years didn’t affect him much.
It’s just Bunny. The same snotty-faced kid next door who used to live across from them back in Spain, and whose mom was a diplomat in the UK or something.
So, no. It didn’t affect him much. Bunny Iglesias was just another person in the long list of nobodies he had in his head. He didn’t freeze in the doorway because he saw Bunny.
He froze in the doorway because he saw blood.
“¡Cuánto tiempo sin verte, Sae!”
Blood…
Except ten or so years now dry. It leaked from three healed scars running across that familiar face—pale pink ridges on white skin catching the light like the dead, cast from branches, knuckles, and bark.
Suddenly, Sae remembered stars.
Stark white stars over stark white snow.
And stark white snow over Bunny’s dad’s car.
Winter, 2017
Paralysis again. The world looked just as colorless as it did in the middle of the eighth year breeze and the thin December snow. The term exams were finally over, but walking out of the building felt heavier than it should.
That’s how it always was in winter, Sae thought. Time stretched. People slowed. The corridors carried the weight of tired laughter, muffled by scarves and the scrape of boots. Someone’s always flexing their limited edition North Face parka. Others talked about ski trips and cousins coming over from Monaco or Canada.
There really shouldn’t be classes when it snows. Sae just found Christmas more dreadful by the year.
“Number seventeen’s bullshit,” Sendou said beside him, still going on and on about their just-finished algebra exam with Lorenzo. “How the hell did that shit even become 67?”
“What’s your answer?”
“Negative 134.”
“I think you’re just fucking stupid.”
“Shut up! You can’t even multiply.”
“I’ll show you how to multiply.”
“Fuck you!”
Even the hallways seemed to mock him—garlands choking the windows, red glittery baubles glinting under flickering lights, paper Santas smiling with factory-printed cheer. A banner at the far end of the hallway even read Have a Warm Winter Break! in curling gold letters, as if warmth was something that could be manufactured by a simple wish. For an international school, it was all terribly tacky. Or maybe it wasn’t, and Sae just hated how everything insisted on being happy in the saddest month of the year.
“Whatever,” Lorenzo drawled, snapping Sae back to the present. Somewhere between garlands and glitter, the group had already agreed to hang out at Aiku’s after class—his family driver apparently only five minutes away. “That good with you, Sae? Actually, wait: Aiku, is Loki coming?”
“Do you want Loki coming?” Ness asked under his breath.
“Does Loki even want Loki coming?” Aiku cracked himself up, and the group dissolved into laughter. “He has a family dinner thing, so probably not.”
Just like that, Lorenzo’s original question to Sae laid forgotten. Such are their days without football practice. Talk of winter vacations and Christmas plans floated between the cracks of dumb jokes and lectures from teachers who’d already given up. For Sae, it was miserable. Winter itself? Miserable. Everyone’s always talking about flying back to their respective hometowns.
Even Kaiser, who only had his mother, still had some distant cousins in Berlin to celebrate Christmas and his birthday with him. Lorenzo? A full Italian house in Turin, the kind that smelled of food and laughter, and a father who somehow knew everyone worth knowing. The only person to perhaps understand his situation was Ness, whose family was atheist.
But even Ness is going to fly to Switzerland to celebrate New Year’s Eve with his sister—so that leaves Sae here, stuck in Spain alone for another long, cold two months of absolute nothing.
Should be a dream, in theory. No more homework. Free to do whatever the hell he wants. But it had been three weeks since his mother last called, and his father hadn’t been home since last night. No talk of flights to Japan, no mention of spending Christmas with her and Rin or anyone from Kanagawa. He figured it’d be the same as last year—no holiday, just a belated plane ticket home for Rin’s birthday next September. He’d be home for Easter if he’s lucky.
“Yo, what the fuck?!”
Sendou cursed first, tugging his hood so low he nearly tripped while the others barreled out behind him. They finally pushed through the front doors, and the winter air smacked them all at once.
“Look at Elsa over here being all nonchalant and shit.” A few steps into the snow and Lorenzo was already shoving Kaiser sideways.
“The fuck-?” Kaiser snapped, ripping off his earphones. Now he is chasing Lorenzo in the snow. And Aiku was laughing, Ness was piling on, and Sendou was already scooping snow into his gloves. That only ever meant one thing:
Snowball fight.
Within seconds, chaos was flying. Snowballs, curses in a total of three languages, and boots slipping against slippery ice. Sae made it a point to hide by a lamppost, itself also freezing to the touch. Everyone was so rowdy he almost didn’t hear his phone buzz.
He shoved his hands deep in his coat as the cold bit through him. Pulling the text out, it read:
Dad: Can’t pick you up tonight. Please call the driver. Sorry.
Sae stared at the message for a few seconds, watching his breath fog up the air. His hands felt too cold to text back, his mind also too burnt out to care. The noise around him blurred into something distant—the laughter, the shouting, the sound of snow crunching under boots.
So he shoves his phone back into his pocket, thankful it at least functions as a makeshift handwarmer.
Right now, he just wants his damn bed.
“I’m going home,” he says, a goodbye only meant for Ness who was nearest packing snow into a ball on his gloves. Someone—Aiku?—called his name through the cold, but he didn’t bother answering. Only his leave catches everyone’s attention.
“Wait. You’re not coming with to Aiku’s?” Sendou sounds surprised.
“Boo. We don’t have a heeealer.” Lorenzo groaned, stumbling toward him in mock despair. “And Ness takes all the kills.”
“I do not!”
Sae turned the other way, footsteps soft against fresh snow, burying his face onto his scarf.
“I don’t care. I’m going home.”
“You serious?”
For a second, nobody said anything. Even Kaiser, halfway through a snowball wind-up, lowered his arm and stared, frowning. Only Sendou recovers, loud enough to chase the silence away:
“Then at least hop on Discord later!”
To that, Sae only flips a singular middle finger, letting the group’s laughter fade. He tucked his chin deeper into his scarf and kept walking down the snowy street.
It’s been a while since he walked home. Maybe it’s a good snowy day to try it for once.
By the time he reached the next intersection, the red of the stoplight glowed like a lone beacon in the stark white sidewalks. He looked up and found the world opened up in front of him—empty streets lined with big mansions, adorned with twinkling Christmas lights, wreaths on double polished doors, and tiny nativity scenes set up on big front lawns.
And for the first time in a long while, he breathed deep. Cold air filled his lungs as the stillness around him almost felt…nice.
He really should do this more often.
No wonder people walk to places for the sake of it.
It’s therapeutic.
The red light turns green eventually. The verdigris of the signage spilled across the pavement and reflected off the ice-slick road. He wasn’t exactly looking. He was just staring at his undone shoelaces, one foot already off the curb, wondering what he’d cook for himself tonight-
Suddenly, a loud horn sounded.
“…!”
A loud car tore past, horns deafening, and tires screaming against ice. Something other than instinct made Sae leap back just in time. Luck. A guardian angel. The result of hours of reaction practice. He stood there almost falling on the snow as a vehicle roared past and the tires screeched barely an inch from his shoes there on the pedestrian lane.
Then, for a second or two, he felt nothing but the heat of metal. And glancing around him, the intersection stretched empty in all directions, devoid of human life. Nobody fucking saw that! The light for the vehicles is clearly fucking red!
“What the fuck?!” he finally found his voice and exclaimed, glaring at the car. It was vintage, clearly expensive, in a shade of deep red that’s almost maroonish black. Also: almost sent him to hell.
The windows lower, and Sae found a strange sight inside of…
Silver hair and red eyes.
Their eyes met, and they both tilted their heads sideways in mutual recognition.
“You…”
They chorused, and on Sae’s end, the pale light caught that face less like recognition and more like a trick of memory. He recognised that face, for sure: that is a face that belonged to winters long gone, to some funeral where Sae had been made to wear black and stand beside his parents while this same boy cried over a coffin a few years back. Familiar, but not close. He knew him before his brain admitted it. He just forgot the name…
“Ah-! HOLY SHIT!” the boy suddenly spoke, and Sae just realised he was actually staring at a real life person in real life. The boy began snapping his fingers as Sae stepped backwards, freaked out. “Sae… Itoshi! You’re Itoshi Sae! What the hell- hi!”
The joyful iteration of his name flinches Sae back to earth. The sound of his name made his stomach knot for some reason, and from that, he had a feeling he just didn’t like this kid enough.
But he knows him. For sure. For some reason.
“What are you doing outside? It’s storming.”
Sae couldn’t say anything as he still maneuvers his memories to the boy’s name. He remembers he’s the kid from across the street from when he was five. Who transferred away somewhere in fourth grade. Something something Iglesias. Ben…Bun…
Bunny.
Sae scowls, hands buried back in his warm pockets.
“Why the hell are you driving?”
“Why the hell are you walking?” For half a second, the boy looked just as caught out by his quick response, before grinning and running a hand through his hair. “Got no ride home or something?”
Sae’s eyes narrowed. Aiku’s dad is in law enforcement. This kid definitely shouldn’t be driving.
“I’m calling the police.”
“Ooookay, what the fuck.” Bunny shot back, before glancing down on him. “Did I hit you? Why are you not even looking at where you’re going? Are you stupid?”
“The light’s green for me and red for you, are you stupid?” Sae rolled his eyes before burying his hands in his pockets. He is definitely telling Aiku’s dad. Later. “What are you even doing here? You moved away.”
To Barcelona, he heard.
“So you do remember me!” Bunny laughs, and Sae notices the rosaries on the rearview mirror swaying. Something in the boy’s expression faltered—barely—but he forced a crooked grin. “Wow. It's been years!”
Sae didn’t answer. This is pissing him off. His pulse was still loud in his ears from the near miss, the cold biting his fingertips.
“Damn. You really are as unfriendly as you were back then, huh?”
“You don’t know me. Go away or I'm calling the cops.”
That’s when the light turns green for the car. Sae saw the reflection change in the glass of the car’s windshield. Bunny noticed too, eyes cautious behind silver strands. Sae takes it as a sign to go and turn away, leaving nothing but an eyeroll in his wake.
He was already back on the pedestrian sidewalks, 100% ready to bury this at the back of his mind and forget about the whole thing, when:
“Hey.”
Just from the tone, Sae can hear an offer in the air. He stopped, but did not turn around just yet.
“Get in,” the boy says. “I’ll drive you.”
Sae slowly glances back, face crumpled in genuine confusion.
“Why on Earth would you do that?”
It was a real question. They’re not friends. They hadn’t seen each other in years. Neither of them care. Besides, he knew they’re the same age. He knew that he’s way too young to be behind the wheel of a car and that he definitely does not have a permit, much less a fucking license. The two words were already at the tip of Sae’s tongue—Stranger. Danger.
“Uh, I don’t know?” Only then Bunny gave him his own awkward smile, hands back at the wheel and shrugging as if it’s strange for him too. “Don’t tell me you like freezing your ass off for fun. And I kinda feel bad about almost running you over and our parents are friends anyway. That reason enough for you?”
Their parents are friends, huh? That explains…absolutely nothing.
“Are you even allowed to drive?”
“Oh, wow.”
“Is this shitty box of a car even yours?”
“What the hell,” Bunny laughs in disbelief at the sudden interrogation. “Dad’s will, prissy! Technically the car’s mine now. Talk to my lawyer to prove it. Did I answer all your questions, officer?”
Will?
The words hung in the cold air, and a sharp breeze swept down the street. The same wind that had whipped through the cemetery years ago, when he’d stood there quietly…
…watching Bunny’s father lowered into the ground.
Right. Right. That was why they moved to Barcelona, to his mom’s town, in the first place.
“Uh—hello? Earth to Sae? You there?” Bunny’s voice cut through it, fingers snapping in front of his face. “How long are we pretending you didn’t already decide to get in?”
Another gust of wind shoved at Sae’s back, needling straight through his coat. He hissed quietly and folded in on himself despite his pride. The same wind swept Bunny’s bangs aside, and whatever sharpness had been in his expression earlier dulled just a little.
Fine, maybe a free ride home doesn’t sound bad in this stupidass weather.
“Ugh,” Bunny muttered, already leaning over. “Just get in.”
The passenger door swung open. Somehow, despite himself, he was seated and buckled in seconds later, fingers numb, breath fogging faintly.
“See?” Bunny said, pulling the car back into motion as the window slid shut, sealing the storm outside. The snowstorm’s roar dulled to a distant hiss. “Not that hard. No heater, though, so don’t get any ideas. Keep the coat on.”
Sae barely heard him. His eyes immediately snagged on the back seat via the rearview mirror, onto a large bundle of white lilies laid carefully against the upholstery. Now that he noticed it, the whole car smells like churches and funerals. Is…Bunny going to the cemetery?
Sae didn’t ask and he never will.
“You good?” Bunny glanced over.
Sae followed Bunny’s gaze down to the seatbelt, tugged it once as proof, and nodded. The car was already rolling when he noticed it though:
Bunny wasn’t wearing his.
“So,” Bunny said lightly, hands settling back on the wheel. “How’re Aiku and Sendou?”
Sae’s gaze flicked to the rearview mirror and away just as quickly. Neither of them commented on what he’d seen. The car picked up speed, the streetlights smearing into streaks.
“What?”
“I kinda miss them. They still a duo or what?”
Sae shifted in his seat until the leather stopped creaking beneath him. The car was old, stiff, but not unpleasant. Comfortable in a way that suggested it had survived things.
The fact Bunny knows Aiku and Sendou also unsettles him a little. He may have already forgotten they went to a small private elementary school. Everyone knows each other and their second cousins over there.
“Still morons.”
“Hey. Tell them you saw me! Say I said hi. I think they’d remember.”
They wouldn’t.
“They wouldn’t,” Sae muttered, eyes fixed on the window. “And I’m not doing that.”
“Okay.” Bunny laughed. “You know, there’s this thing called trying to make conversation. You should look into it.”
Sae didn’t respond. He just tucked his chin into his coat and breathed out fog, letting the engine dull the last of the ebbing in his chest. At least he wasn’t walking anymore. That alone almost made the rest worth it—even if the trade-off was an illegally confident driver with too much to say.
Despite himself, Sae glanced back at Bunny’s hands.
Personally, his parents may be unbearable sometimes in their presence and absence, but they did teach him about getting in unfamiliar people's cars and basic survival skills. (Especially after last year's kidnapping attempt that no one's talking about already).
He knows this guy is still not old enough to drive.
And he would know, because Aiku already owns a car and yet his dad doesn’t let him drive the Ford until he's 16.
Right now, Sae's only reassurance is that Bunny’s hands seem steady and his house is just a few streets away. He knows what he’s doing, Sae told himself. Probably.
Still.
Something tells him he should’ve just walked.
The car stopped abruptly. Sae’s gaze lifted, and there was a slightly rusted metal gate opening onto a field dotted with mossy headstones and tall, restless grass.
Bunny killed the engine with a sigh. The sudden silence felt like it pressed against Sae’s chest. Sae then watched him open the backseat door and lifted the white lilies into his hand.
Only then he finally understands what he’s doing.
“Hey, genius.” Bunny knocks on the roof before leaning down. “You can come with if you want.”
Sae…had nothing ready to say, nor nothing to offer. He only stayed still for a long moment, and then, slowly, shuffled out.
Not like he had a choice, he tells himself. He’s being driven home for free, escaping a chilly snowstorm that had since at least calmed down in this area. Least he could do is pay respects.
“This is the errand?” Gravel crunched beneath his shoes as he rounds the car and meets Bunny right where he was waiting.
“Coolest errand ever. He could use a new visitor for once,” Bunny says back. There, it finally strikes Sae how formal he looked. Dressed, to be specific. Black suit, crisp tie. The only article out of place was an old, worn black leather jacket with some patches handsewn into it.
(Sae had an inkling on who that used to belong to.)
They crossed the street and slipped past the gate smoothly. Bunny then quietly leads them down a narrow path between snow-covered tombstones, grass brushing against their ankles and the winter air sharp in his lungs.
Sae knew he should say something. Something along the lines of ‘I’m sorry’, mostly because that’s what people do in cemeteries or when talking about other people’s dead relatives, apparently. But it dies as it comes. He couldn’t say anything. He tells himself it’s because he doesn’t even know this guy. He doesn’t even know his dad.
He just kept glancing at Bunny, who didn’t even bat an eye on his path.
He was just rearranging the lilies in his bouquet and moving past the tombstones expertly like he had been here a thousand times.
Finally, they stopped. Sae peeked and saw the tombstone. It was a simple shiny granite gray, with a faint gold outline of letters worn to black by time. Strangely, it just says Iglesias Family. There were three pairs of birth and death dates underneath.
Quietly, Bunny set the flowers down gently at its base and remained crouched down.
Sae almost expected him to say something. He thought it’d be on brand for Bunny to talk to tombstones like the characters in movies do. It was cringe, which was why he expected it, but Bunny is surprisingly tightlipped now. He just studied the surrounding grass around the stone, swiping away some stray dirt and piled up snow on the top.
“Oh. I, uh…” Bunny cleared his throat. “Your mom called me the other day.”
Sae blinked, caught somewhere between thought and disbelief. He stared at Bunny for a long second, letting the words tumble around in his head until they finally settled into something he could respond to. For a split second, he wondered if Bunny was talking to him—until he glanced back, and Sae realised he indeed was.
“My mom?”
“Yeah. She calls every year. Same day.” Bunny returned his eyes on the stone. “They keep asking me to visit you guys in Japan for Christmas. I usually can’t. Maybe next year, though. Who knows.”
Something tight and unpleasant curled in Sae’s stomach. He looked down, watching Bunny’s hand slide easily to the grass.
“What the hell would my mom call you for?”
“Actually? I’ve got no idea,” Bunny said, laughing under his breath. “Our moms were in the same club somewhere back then, I think? I don’t know. Your mom had been calling me since they died. Honestly, it helps more than she thinks. Tell her I said hi.”
Sae stares at him, processing it, before averting his gaze. ‘They’, huh. He buried half his face onto his jacket and pretended the nearby mausoleums were interesting.
“I would actually rather die than do that.”
“Oookay. Tough thing to say in front of dead people but sure,” Bunny said, glancing at him sideways. He caught the stiffness there but he let it go. Eventually, he stood back up and copied Sae, burying his hands in his leather jacket pocket. His eyes remained on the stone, on the lilies he just placed down on the snow, and let the space fill with just breathing instead of questions.
The silence didn't last long.
Bunny picked up the dead air and didn't hesitate to beat it with a huge metaphorical stick.
“Does it not bother you,” he asked as the snow began to pile up again above the cold tombstone, “how dads are almost always not there when it matters?”
Behind him, Sae leans his weight against one leg, bare hands tucked into a borrowed coat. He knows Bunny is talking about death, but he tells himself he’s allowed to feel upset about not getting picked up too. Just to relate. Or maybe it meant the exact same thing.
“Does anyone ever really feel good about their dad?”
Bunny lets that simmer for a moment, watching the snow settle on the edges of the stone. He leaves first, motioning for a brief sign of the cross that Sae followed on instinct.
“You should really appreciate having a mom and dad, Sae,” Bunny says as the grass crunches under their feet, passing by the gate. “I’m pretty sure they really appreciate you more than you think.”
“Didn’t ask for a therapy session.”
Sae frowns as he opens the passenger side door and buckles in. He tagged along for the free ride and to pay respects, not to be dragged along in some sob story that apparently can turn as some sudden life lesson for him too.
“Just take me home.”
“Damn. You’re one bossy passenger, I’m not offering you a free ride again,” Bunny says, fumbling with his keys. Sae didn’t miss how he deliberately did not wear the seatbelt again.
“Good.”
“Good!”
The engine sputters to life, and they return to the road once more. Sae found the entire brief visit odd, even a little awkward, but he decided to just bury it at the back of his mind.
He’s very good at that, he thinks.
Burying things at the back of his mind.
“My dad used to hate driving slow.”
Unfortunately, Bunny, in fact, continued talking—much to Sae’s misery. There’s just no ending to his yapping, apparently.
“He said it makes him think too much, so he drives fast all the time. Upside was we were never late to anything. Give him a time and place and we’d always be there ten minutes early.”
Sae could probably guess the downside. He shifts uncomfortably in his seat, and tries to bury the monologues as background noise until he gets home. He did hear the death had something to do with a car.
Hopefully not this one though.
“Oh, and I actually pass by here a lot nowadays. I still remember the way around,” Bunny went on. They returned to familiar territory, the subdivision now in view past the vast grassy lots and fields. “Not much changed, just a house renovation here and there. I even saw you and your friends one time playing football! And I heard someone bought our place across from yours. I kinda miss trying to play football with you in your backyard. I don’t think Dad’s gonna like someone buying our house though.”
“What are you even talking about?” Sae doesn’t remember that, nor does he know much about their neighbours. He didn’t even know much, nor cared, as the years passed. Everyone keeps to their own around here. Everyone’s houses are just fenced too high, windows hidden too well behind walls of tall bushes and trees, lawns too long to take the casual walk up to anyone’s doorstep.
Which, now that he noticed it, the houses outside began to thin into mere colours. The tires began to hum louder, and the higher pitch beneath the engine snapped Sae back to reality.
“Hey, slow down,” he said, quietly at first. “You’re speeding.”
Bunny glanced at the speedometer, then back to the road. “Oh- Am I?”
“Yes,” Sae says, frowning like he’s stupid. “You want to be arrested or what? Slow down before you run over a mailbox or something.”
“Jesus. Relax,” Bunny said. “The road’s basically empty. And it’s a private road.”
“You’re. Underage.” Sae snapped, glancing at the steadying speedometer. “Are you stupid?”
“Why are you yelling at me?” Bunny laughs. “Do you always talk like that? Like you’re the highest being on the planet?”
“That’s not the point,” Sae said, rolling his eyes. “Slow down.”
“Psh. It just feels fast because it’s quiet,” Bunny replied, spoken like Sae’s stupid. “Empty roads mess with your sense of speed. Inside, you’ll never really know how fast you’re going. If anything, you’re actually slower than you thought.”
The car surged gently as he spoke, not a jerk, just a smooth, deliberate press of the gas. And Sae saw it because he can clearly see Bunny’s white shoes against the pedals on the black carpet. The engine’s pitch climbed. The sound lodged under Sae’s ribs.
“You don’t need to fucking do that.” Sae shifted, the seatbelt cutting sharper across his chest.
“Do what?”
“Go faster.”
Bunny tilted his head slightly, as if considering the question. “I’m not, though. Are you even listening?”
Sae glares at the face-to-face gaslighting. He can see Bunny floor the whole thing right the fuck now. “You’re stepping. on. the pedal.”
“It’s called gas, genius. That’s how you-” Bunny laughed, looking at him like he was adorable in his panic. “Holy shit, do you even know how to drive? You step on the pedals to make the car go vroom.”
As if on cue, the world outside blurred another notch. The streetlights came farther apart now, longer shadows between them.
“Now you’re just fucking with it. Slow down!” Sae’s voice rose a notch, fingers tightening on his sleeves. “Slow down or I’m calling the police! Seriously!”
“Oh, stop it. Mom used to say the same thing.”
Sae stared at him. “Huh?”
“That it feels fast right before it doesn’t. The rush. The point where it might end. For me, that’s the best part, actually.” Bunny smiled faintly, eyes still locked ahead. Sae scoffed in the ridiculousness of it all, but also the terrifying bottomline:
He’s insane.
“Guess she’s right though. In it not being fun.”
Something cold crept into Sae’s spine.
“This is not funny, Bunny,” he said, more controlled now. “Stop the car right now or I’m calling the police.”
“Oh, go on! Be my guest.” Bunny drove wide-eyed to the road, and just from that, Sae could tell he’s not even here anymore. “What crime did I do, huh? Can you even tell? Can you even say where you are?”
The tires hissed against the road. Ice glimmered briefly beneath the headlights, gone too quickly to be sure. Okay, this is getting absolutely out of control.
“See, fast is funny. Quiet roads only make it feel faster. Aren’t you supposed to be the smartest in science from our batch and you don’t even know that from physics?”
“What the hell are you even talking about? Slow down!” Sae snapped, but his voice was uneven and tight.
“Just saying! Did you know people don’t really pay attention when they’re walking? Meanwhile, inside, cars give you time to think. Some people like that. Some people… don’t. I do. And I’m guessing that you don’t.”
Sae glanced at the houses on the roadside and shook his head hopelessly. This is getting fucked up quick. And royally.
“But thing is, some cars remember. Some cars remember everything,” Bunny said, as if talking to himself now. “Where it’s been, who’s sat in it. You can tell with the smell of the insides if you knew what to look for. The perfume of mistresses. Maybe even carbon monoxide residues. It’s an acquired taste.”
He smiled, small and private, eyes drifting not to Sae but to the dashboard, the vibrating wheel, the low purr of the engine. He looked at it like he loved it, held the wheel like it’s a woman, and looked at the car like it’s reverent.
“Okay. Just- listen to me and stop right now.” Sae's heart immediately hammered in his ribs at the sight, one hand sliding in his jacket pocket to palm his phone open and hoping at least one of his moron friends is online. As he watches the speedometer climb past 60 km/h, he blindly presses the Send button—hoping it is, in fact, the Send button—then locks his eyes on the dashboard.
60.
65.
70.
“Okay.” Sae’s heart skipped. “Stop talking and slow down! Seriously!”
The blond’s eyes never left the road. The speedometer flicked past 70 km/h, numbers blurring in the dim dashboard light.
“Bunny, I swear to G—!”
The needle climbed to 75. The world outside the windows dissolved into streaks of gray and white, snow and streetlight bleeding together. Sae couldn’t see far enough ahead to breathe.
That was it.
He lunged for the wheel.
“Hey!” Bunny knocked his arm away with a sharp elbow, never loosening his grip. Then he glanced at Sae, clicking his tongue, like he’s the disappointment. “What a killjoy. You’d be a terrible F1 driver.”
What the actual deranged-
“YOU’RE INSANE. STOP THE FUCKING CAR!” Sae lunged for the wheel again. Bunny slammed an elbow into his forearm, knocking him off balance. There, the wheel jerked sideways, the car fishtailing as the tires screamed just long enough to drop Sae’s stomach into his throat.
That’s when headlights caught a strange glint ahead.
Sae recognised the place as the road leading to a short rusting metal bridge leading out of their private subdivision to the hunting woods beyond. There is a long forest river a thousand-metre drop below, but it was the asphalt approaching it that was covered in a black sheet of ice.
Ice.
Black ice.
“Oh shit, stop, stop, stop!”
Sae’s fingers jerked at the wheel, trying to slow them down, trying to take control, but Bunny’s grip on the wheel was like iron, hands steady, the car accelerating further.
“What are you even doing?!” Bunny yelled, tugging, twisting, nearly hitting the dashboard with his elbow.
“Stop! That’s black ice- ARE YOU BLIND?! Stop!”
“Uh, calm down?” Bunny blinked, head tilting, eyes wide like Sae had just ruined the world. “What the hell, Sae. Really? What- I thought you want to die too.”
There, Sae paused, genuinely confused, like his panic made zero sense to him.
“What the actual fuck did you say?”
Bunny looked at him like he’s weird, and Sae watched themselves approach the slippery road in complete dread-
“I don’t know. Don’t you want to die like your brother?”
…
..
.
Something inside Sae snapped.
“My brother’s not dead,” he said, voice low, trembling with the tiniest thread of restraint. The words came out heavy, like he was forcing himself to keep them together.
“Wait. Really?” Bunny said slowly, innocently, voice deceptively soft. “Well… in my opinion, he might as well be. You know, when he fell in the forest, cracked his little head open on the river rocks in your backyard.”
Sae felt his blood freeze. A flash of pure, red-hot rage ripped through him, sharp and instantaneous, and before he could even think, his fist shot across the small gap between them, connecting squarely with Bunny’s face.
“…!”
At that moment, the car jerked violently. Tires shrieked as they lost purchase, the world snapping sideways as the ice took them. The wheel spun violently beneath Sae’s hands, the car sliding, rotating, weightless and wrong. Bunny’s head snapped back into the window, his hands flying to his face, blood already slick between his fingers.
“Fuck!” Sae yelled. His heart slammed against his ribs. He hauled the wheel hard, overcorrected, tried again. His legs kicked uselessly for the pedals—brake, anything—his foot slipping, missing, stomping air. The car just slid and spun.
“You!” Bunny lurched back toward him, hands bloody as they clawed for the wheel too, fingers slipping, grabbing, fighting Sae’s grip as if they could wrestle control out of physics itself.
They couldn’t. Snow and rock blurred into a white-gray smear. The road vanished. A tree loomed out of nowhere, filling the windshield.
Impact came all at once, alongside the breaking of glass.
Sae was thrown back against the seat as the airbag deployed, the impact punching the air from his lungs and pinning him in place. The cushion pressed into his face, hot and suffocating, before sagging and collapsing inward.
For a second, he couldn’t move.
When he finally lifted his head, the world outside the windshield was nothing but white snow.
White snow and a large sharp tree branch that penetrated and obliterated the windshield in pieces.
His eyes immediately flew to Bunny. The boy was slumped over the wheel, half of his body nearly up on the dashboard, face on the cracked windshield glass. His airbag did deploy, but the red surrounding them made Sae’s blood run cold regardless.
“Hey,” Sae said, too quietly.
His hands shook as he reached out, grabbing Bunny by the shoulder, pulling him back toward the seat. Red traced the windshield right where his face had been, and Sae flinched as those red eyes opened, looked at him right in the soul, and moved on his own.
“Ugh…”
The smell of snow and iron filled their nose. He made it back to his seat, slumping down as Sae watched in horror. The tree branch, as it turns out, missed skewering Bunny’s skull by mere inches.
“Wow…” Blood bloomed brighter across Bunny’s face, slick and vivid against the white of the airbag and the silver of his hair. He lifted a trembling hand, touching his cheek, his nose—then turned slightly.
That’s when Sae saw the embedded glass shards all over the right side of his face and even on his arms and neck.
His stomach twisted. He could almost feel the sting and heat of it, the pulsing, the shock of impact vibrating in his chest, making it impossible to breathe. Then, seeing his fingers come back bloody, Bunny looks…right at Sae.
And began laughing.
“You crashed my car.”
Bunny leaned back against the headrest, one eye already swelling shut. Blood slid down his cheek in slow, deliberate lines. He touched his face again, watching the blood smear, and his lips pulled into a crooked, almost fond grin.
“You crashed my dad’s car.”
Sae stared at him, chest hammering, fingers trembling on the wheel, knuckles white.
“You’re fucked up.” His own voice came out cracked, raw. His hands shakily patted around for the door, finding it, and using all his remaining strength to get his seatbelt off and push the door open.
He collapsed—fell—on a pile of snow outside and immediately began stepping back. They missed the cliff by only a few degrees of turn. Just a few degrees straighter and they would’ve gone over, straight into the frozen rapids below.
Sae shook right where he stood, breath tearing in and out of him, staring at the wreck.
Then, he turned around and began walking. He didn’t look back. He kept walking. His mind refused to replay it; he couldn’t, and he wouldn’t.
His phone buzzed in his pocket.
Sae fished it out, thumbs moving before he even fully registered the screen.
Sae: gwko nw
Sae: [Shared a location]
Aiku: what?
Aiku: btw should i color my hair green or nah?
He stared at it for a long moment, breath fogging in the cold, and didn’t answer.