Hikaru No Go Fan Fiction ❯ Echoing truth ❯ - two - ( Chapter 2 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Stray 
Anime/Manga: Hikaru No Go Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 08.18.2004 | Updated On: 09.09.2004 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.0K | Visits: 481 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Hikaru No Go Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 08.18.2004 | Updated On: 09.09.2004 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.0K | Visits: 481 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimer: Hikaru no Go is not mine.
Warnings: angst, mature themes, hints of homosexuality
-Two-
Akira wasn’t sure it was a good idea to let Shindo drink so much. Perhaps no one did anything to prevent it because usually he didn’t have to be reminded to keep his fingers from the bottle when he already couldn’t hold it. Usually it didn’t come to it, Shindo didn’t drink more only to get a little tipsy and giggle right about everything.
This time was different, he wasn’t very high on to begin with, and it got only worse in direct ratio with the amount of alcohol consumed.
The first oddity everyone noticed that night was that Shindo wasn’t late, in fact he was the first one who arrived. He must have been there for an hour or so, because he already had a considerable load in him, but that only made him a little more lightheaded than he usually was. Good that it wasn’t an official celebration party, only one organized and attended by go professionals of their age group, whom Shindo new from his insei time and some private friends of them who had no or only minor connection to go, like Fujisaki-san.
Akira got the invitation from Waya, who gave it to him with the usual grunt, and Naze-san who was smiling apologetically and patting her ex's back to be more polite. Of course Akira knew that it was all an act. The two of them got of much more friendly terms as the years passed, even if he couldn’t say they became friends, but there was a certain understanding and good working relationship between him and Waya that allowed them to spend a good time together out of go. But when those times came it was always for the case of Shindo Hikaru.
Shindo Hikaru who after he greeted his arriving friends sat all the time alone in a dark corner filling his table with emptied glasses of sake. Akira didn’t even know that he liked sake. He never drank it before. Shindo liked liqueurs just like he liked sweets and he was constantly teased because of that but he didn’t seem to mind it. Strangely no one else did he invite to join his little drinking campaign, and people who went to his table left short after with a frown displayed on their faces. At least that was what a worried Fujisaki-san told Akira who arrived later after tutoring in his late father's go salon (he still couldn’t call it his).
"I guess something bad happened," she said. Everyone could guess that who only threw a look on his face, Akira thought.
"Do I see two empty bottles on his table? Did he drink them alone?" he asked with a frown.
Akari just nodded. "He is totally wasted now and wouldn’t say a word to anyone. Perhaps you could talk some sense into him…"
Akira crooked a brow. Why did she think he was the proper person to control Shindo-s freaking behavior if not even his closest friends succeeded? He still wore that frown when he stepped to his table and looked down on his sitting frame.
Shindo noticed that someone was there. He slowly lifted his head but his gaze was blurry and there were red circles rimming his eyes. Akira thought he saw unshed tears in them but he wasn’t sure, it could have been caused by the thick, stinging smoke that weighed down on the private room of the bar they got for the occasion.
"What do you want?" he snorted on a raspy tone that indicated either too much alcohol and smoke or something emotional. Akira spotted a half filled ashtray before Shindo that startled him because he always thought Shindo detested smoking.
"Can I sit down?" he asked ignoring the tone he was given and his own nausea that overwhelmed him at the sight and smells around the table. He didn’t wait for answer, only sat down on the lacquered wooden bench next to his friend and rival. He had to remind himself that this extremely gawky and bad smelling pile of flesh was his friend, but he still barely could suppress the disgust and the urge to jerk away when their shoulders touched because of Shindo's instable condition. He waited but Shindo wasn’t about to pull away, maybe he didn’t even notice his aversion to the unwanted proximity or even that he was that close to him. His hand lifted to reach the bottle but he could not coordinate his movement and ended up knocking it over. There wasn’t too much to waste in it anymore though.
"K'sssso!" he cursed slurping the word. Akira hasn't heard him do that either to that moment.
"You had enough," he said calmly, gripping his shaky hand and trying to pull it down because he lifted it to call the waiter for another bottle. His skin felt hot, sweaty and sticky, and despite his condition he still had power enough to force Akira into wrestling with him for a while till he gave it up and turned to face him.
"So what do you want from me?" he asked leaning close and Akira couldn’t suppress a grimace when he got the full load of sake and tobacco-stinking breath into his face.
"I want you to stop drinking and tell me what got into you." The commanding tone in his voice and the solemnity of his eyes must have had the proper effect on Shindo because he seemed to sober up a little. He turned his face away and looked down to the hand still tightly clutching his own.
"You wouldn’t want to know," he said barely audible because of the loud music that echoed from the walls and throbbed in their ears. Akira made a small sigh, partly because of his small victory given that Shindo didn’t persist on drinking anymore and was willing to pay him attention; and partly because of the words he heard.
"I *want* to know. If I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t have asked for you to tell."
Shindo nodded slowly but his mouth was tightly squeezed. Then he snorted in disdain and forced a sarcastic smile on his lips that didn’t fit him at all. "You could say, I got dumped. Not a big tragedy, happens with people all the time."
Akira frowned and the question: "by whom?" was already on his lips. Then he remembered that there was this "small" secret he wasn’t supposed to know about and his stomach unsettled suddenly. So he closed his mouth cautiously, slightly unnerved, and decided to think of another question. "I'm sorry," he said in the meantime.
"Yeah, you sure are," Shindo muttered under his nose and Akira choose not to comment on this one. He didn’t want to start a yelling competition like the ones they used to have on daily basis when they were younger. Shindo was in a bad shape at the moment, so he couldn’t be held fully responsible for his words. It's best to ignore his insults, he thought.
He wanted to say something to continue the conversation the other needed right now, but he didn’t have to because Shindo was in a talkative mood. "You know, in truth I was the one who broke up. I am tired of partners who only like me because of money and think they can exploit me for their own purpose just because I like them. And it is the more disgusting if they don’t even try to be faithful. They think I must be blind, or that I don’t care. Anyway… why do I keep ending up in that kind of relationships? Why do I seem to attract only that kind of people? Why can I not have someone who isn’t after my wealth or simply someone who likes me for what I am?"
Some months earlier Akira would have asked him why he does not try a relationship with Fujisaki-san who obviously was head over heals into him but now he choose to stay silent and spare himself an awkward situation.
Obviously Shindo was waiting for some kind of answer and when he hasn’t got any, he couldn’t leave the topic.
"Do you have someone?" he asked suddenly. Akira looked at him startled. He didn’t recover fast, but when he finally opened his mouth to answer Shindo was already answering his own question. "You don’t, do you?"
He shook his head.
"Don’t you feel alone sometimes?"
He thought that over and the conclusion was somehow startling and sad even for himself.
"I do," he confessed silently.
"And? What do you do to get away from loneliness?" The question was calm and pleading for an answer that could solve his problems.
"I play go," Akira said sincerely. '…with you.' he added in thoughts. He was startled to hear a cynical, mocking laugh from his side that was so foreign form Shindo that he didn’t even recognize at first that it came from his friend's mouth. "And you are content with that. I envy you…" The laugh died down in a sudden hiccup that sounded disturbingly like a sob.
Someone stepped next to the table and stood there shielding the dim lights. Akira looked up and saw Isumi standing by his side. He was smiling carefree and there was Fujisaki-san standing behind him.
"Come on, you two! It's no fun to sit in a corner the whole time! You should dance or sing karaoke! Come on!" he was just a tad tipsy but he meant it good. He grabbed Akira's arm and pulled him up then did the same with Shindo who was a bit uneasy on his feet, so he had to grab him after he lost balance and nearly tipped over. Akira guessed it was the moment Isumi-san realized that pulling Shindo up and insisting on for him to dance wasn’t a really good idea to begin with.
He was still leaning heavily on his older friend, as he willed his head to stop spinning and his eyes cleared slowly. But he was still drunk and it showed in his next words.
"You want t' dance with me?" he asked Isumi. The other pro smiled just a little perplexed and tried to get Shindo up of him.
"No, I meant you should dance with Akari-chan, or some other girl…"
Shindo swayed a little now standing on his own but his balance held this time. He looked up at his friend and said with the seriousness of a drunken: "Girl…? But I want to dance with you, Isumi-san!"
Akira saw the said pro blush and his smile got a little nervous. Then suddenly Akari stepped between the two facing her childhood friend and turned to Isumi over her shoulder muttering the word 'Drunk' so Shindo couldn’t hear it. Isumi nodded and backed up.
"Come on Hikaru! You need some fresh air!" she said and let him lean on her for support. Akira grabbed Shindo's other arm and pulled it over his shoulder when he nearly topped over the both of them. "I'll help you get him out of here," he said to Akari. She nodded giving him a smile that somehow succeeded to look thankful and apologetic at the same time.
Unfortunately they had to go through the dance floor to reach the exit and if it wouldn’t have been enough to try and escort a man barely standing on his feet over twenty meters, the situation was worsened by lots of people enthusiastically bouncing all over the place. They bumped into Waya who was dancing with Naze. The rhythm has changed into a slower, snuggling song and the showing and pushing ceased with it. Shindo choose that moment to tumble over his own foot and grabbed Waya's arm to hang on. He helped them to straighten him up and as reward he got a very persistent Shindo latched onto his neck.
"Waya! You are my friend, aren’t you?" Shindo slurred into his ear but his voice was loud enough for other people who were standing close to them to hear and draw their attention.
Waya decided to take it easy on him though he was troubled by his condition. "Yeah! Sure I am!" he said.
"Does that mean you like me?" Shindo asked then refusing to let him go, fully ignoring the urging of Fujisaki-san and Akira.
"Why… of course I do! Everyone here does…" Waya said trying to free himself from the strong grip of his friend. Shindo wouldn’t let him go, but hearing his answer he pulled back looking intently into his friends eyes and then finally pulling a smile.
"Oh! I am glad," he said and from that moment on the situation escalated. Before anyone could do anything he leaned close to the confused man and kissed him full on the lips, his hands on Waya's cheeks firmly holding him in position. Akira along with Fujisaki-san tried to peel him down from the other who was momentarily paralyzed from shock but after Shindo tried to push his tongue past his desperately gritted teeth he started to deliver a violent fight to get rid of him.
Akira felt his heart skip a beat and his head started to spin. The thoughts in it were chaotic to phrase it mildly. He felt like it was him who embarrassed himself before all the people and not Shindo. His mind tried franticly to come up with something to save the situation, and he said the first words that came into his thoughts, though in the moment he said them he realized how lame they sounded.
"Shindo! Stop it! It's Waya and not Ayumi-chan!" he yelled desperately.
The volume of his own words startled him but he got the desired effect because Shindo gave him a confused glare and let himself drag out by him and Fujisaki-san.
After the sounds of the music died down with the heavy iron door of the club closed behind their backs and the chilly night air etched into their smoke-suffered lunges Shindo suddenly got vigorous but it only lasted till he dragged himself to a nearby tree and doubled over supporting his arm on the bark.
Akira and the girl haven't followed him. They stood before the door next to the other silently observing from the distant their friend's vomiting. It was an awkward silence stretching between them punctuated by the quietness of the winter night punctuated with the low hum of passing cars and the occasional retching sounds. The snowflakes were slowly falling from above; their surface reflected the colorful neon lights. Some minutes past Akari rasped her voice.
"Who is this Ayumi-chan?" she asked, her voice sounded weary.
Akira blinked and looked at her. Her eyes were closed and she just looked so tired. He felt her tiredness take over him, and he knew it wasn’t of physical origin. She opened her eyes and turned her head to him after some time when he couldn’t give her an answer that would sound plausible enough. Akira looked away and felt a strange feeling of guilt wrench his throat. He swallowed hard but still didn’t say anything.
Akari looked up at the black-haired pro towering over her but she couldn’t make out a single wince of muscle on his face that would have betrayed his emotions. He looked hard into the direction where Hikaru busied himself with the urges of his body to get rid of the alcohol.
"There is no such person: this Ayumi-chan," she told him. Akira lifted his face and glared at her steadily not to let her catch on that he lied. Strangely her eyes held an understanding glimmer and became sympathetic as she let some of her sadness out softening her expression.
"You know it, don’t you?" she continued on and turned her head to look at her friend. "You tried to protect him, so you have to know. Unless there really is something that even I don’t know about him…" she let her lips quirk into a little, rueful smile.
Hearing her words it dawned on Akira. Of course she would be aware of *that*. After trying so hard for years to win Shindo's heart she must have come upon the real reason why she never succeeded.
The gagging sounds have stopped since a while and Shindo was about to straighten up.
"I will drive him home," Akira said lifting his head. She looked at him intently; he stayed there unmoving where she couldn’t suppress her quivering from the chill. His dark, shiny hair tied together at his nape gathered some of the snowflakes, just like the colored lenses of his square-rimmed glasses.
"Do you know where he lives?" Akari asked.
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Warnings: angst, mature themes, hints of homosexuality
-Two-
Akira wasn’t sure it was a good idea to let Shindo drink so much. Perhaps no one did anything to prevent it because usually he didn’t have to be reminded to keep his fingers from the bottle when he already couldn’t hold it. Usually it didn’t come to it, Shindo didn’t drink more only to get a little tipsy and giggle right about everything.
This time was different, he wasn’t very high on to begin with, and it got only worse in direct ratio with the amount of alcohol consumed.
The first oddity everyone noticed that night was that Shindo wasn’t late, in fact he was the first one who arrived. He must have been there for an hour or so, because he already had a considerable load in him, but that only made him a little more lightheaded than he usually was. Good that it wasn’t an official celebration party, only one organized and attended by go professionals of their age group, whom Shindo new from his insei time and some private friends of them who had no or only minor connection to go, like Fujisaki-san.
Akira got the invitation from Waya, who gave it to him with the usual grunt, and Naze-san who was smiling apologetically and patting her ex's back to be more polite. Of course Akira knew that it was all an act. The two of them got of much more friendly terms as the years passed, even if he couldn’t say they became friends, but there was a certain understanding and good working relationship between him and Waya that allowed them to spend a good time together out of go. But when those times came it was always for the case of Shindo Hikaru.
Shindo Hikaru who after he greeted his arriving friends sat all the time alone in a dark corner filling his table with emptied glasses of sake. Akira didn’t even know that he liked sake. He never drank it before. Shindo liked liqueurs just like he liked sweets and he was constantly teased because of that but he didn’t seem to mind it. Strangely no one else did he invite to join his little drinking campaign, and people who went to his table left short after with a frown displayed on their faces. At least that was what a worried Fujisaki-san told Akira who arrived later after tutoring in his late father's go salon (he still couldn’t call it his).
"I guess something bad happened," she said. Everyone could guess that who only threw a look on his face, Akira thought.
"Do I see two empty bottles on his table? Did he drink them alone?" he asked with a frown.
Akari just nodded. "He is totally wasted now and wouldn’t say a word to anyone. Perhaps you could talk some sense into him…"
Akira crooked a brow. Why did she think he was the proper person to control Shindo-s freaking behavior if not even his closest friends succeeded? He still wore that frown when he stepped to his table and looked down on his sitting frame.
Shindo noticed that someone was there. He slowly lifted his head but his gaze was blurry and there were red circles rimming his eyes. Akira thought he saw unshed tears in them but he wasn’t sure, it could have been caused by the thick, stinging smoke that weighed down on the private room of the bar they got for the occasion.
"What do you want?" he snorted on a raspy tone that indicated either too much alcohol and smoke or something emotional. Akira spotted a half filled ashtray before Shindo that startled him because he always thought Shindo detested smoking.
"Can I sit down?" he asked ignoring the tone he was given and his own nausea that overwhelmed him at the sight and smells around the table. He didn’t wait for answer, only sat down on the lacquered wooden bench next to his friend and rival. He had to remind himself that this extremely gawky and bad smelling pile of flesh was his friend, but he still barely could suppress the disgust and the urge to jerk away when their shoulders touched because of Shindo's instable condition. He waited but Shindo wasn’t about to pull away, maybe he didn’t even notice his aversion to the unwanted proximity or even that he was that close to him. His hand lifted to reach the bottle but he could not coordinate his movement and ended up knocking it over. There wasn’t too much to waste in it anymore though.
"K'sssso!" he cursed slurping the word. Akira hasn't heard him do that either to that moment.
"You had enough," he said calmly, gripping his shaky hand and trying to pull it down because he lifted it to call the waiter for another bottle. His skin felt hot, sweaty and sticky, and despite his condition he still had power enough to force Akira into wrestling with him for a while till he gave it up and turned to face him.
"So what do you want from me?" he asked leaning close and Akira couldn’t suppress a grimace when he got the full load of sake and tobacco-stinking breath into his face.
"I want you to stop drinking and tell me what got into you." The commanding tone in his voice and the solemnity of his eyes must have had the proper effect on Shindo because he seemed to sober up a little. He turned his face away and looked down to the hand still tightly clutching his own.
"You wouldn’t want to know," he said barely audible because of the loud music that echoed from the walls and throbbed in their ears. Akira made a small sigh, partly because of his small victory given that Shindo didn’t persist on drinking anymore and was willing to pay him attention; and partly because of the words he heard.
"I *want* to know. If I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t have asked for you to tell."
Shindo nodded slowly but his mouth was tightly squeezed. Then he snorted in disdain and forced a sarcastic smile on his lips that didn’t fit him at all. "You could say, I got dumped. Not a big tragedy, happens with people all the time."
Akira frowned and the question: "by whom?" was already on his lips. Then he remembered that there was this "small" secret he wasn’t supposed to know about and his stomach unsettled suddenly. So he closed his mouth cautiously, slightly unnerved, and decided to think of another question. "I'm sorry," he said in the meantime.
"Yeah, you sure are," Shindo muttered under his nose and Akira choose not to comment on this one. He didn’t want to start a yelling competition like the ones they used to have on daily basis when they were younger. Shindo was in a bad shape at the moment, so he couldn’t be held fully responsible for his words. It's best to ignore his insults, he thought.
He wanted to say something to continue the conversation the other needed right now, but he didn’t have to because Shindo was in a talkative mood. "You know, in truth I was the one who broke up. I am tired of partners who only like me because of money and think they can exploit me for their own purpose just because I like them. And it is the more disgusting if they don’t even try to be faithful. They think I must be blind, or that I don’t care. Anyway… why do I keep ending up in that kind of relationships? Why do I seem to attract only that kind of people? Why can I not have someone who isn’t after my wealth or simply someone who likes me for what I am?"
Some months earlier Akira would have asked him why he does not try a relationship with Fujisaki-san who obviously was head over heals into him but now he choose to stay silent and spare himself an awkward situation.
Obviously Shindo was waiting for some kind of answer and when he hasn’t got any, he couldn’t leave the topic.
"Do you have someone?" he asked suddenly. Akira looked at him startled. He didn’t recover fast, but when he finally opened his mouth to answer Shindo was already answering his own question. "You don’t, do you?"
He shook his head.
"Don’t you feel alone sometimes?"
He thought that over and the conclusion was somehow startling and sad even for himself.
"I do," he confessed silently.
"And? What do you do to get away from loneliness?" The question was calm and pleading for an answer that could solve his problems.
"I play go," Akira said sincerely. '…with you.' he added in thoughts. He was startled to hear a cynical, mocking laugh from his side that was so foreign form Shindo that he didn’t even recognize at first that it came from his friend's mouth. "And you are content with that. I envy you…" The laugh died down in a sudden hiccup that sounded disturbingly like a sob.
Someone stepped next to the table and stood there shielding the dim lights. Akira looked up and saw Isumi standing by his side. He was smiling carefree and there was Fujisaki-san standing behind him.
"Come on, you two! It's no fun to sit in a corner the whole time! You should dance or sing karaoke! Come on!" he was just a tad tipsy but he meant it good. He grabbed Akira's arm and pulled him up then did the same with Shindo who was a bit uneasy on his feet, so he had to grab him after he lost balance and nearly tipped over. Akira guessed it was the moment Isumi-san realized that pulling Shindo up and insisting on for him to dance wasn’t a really good idea to begin with.
He was still leaning heavily on his older friend, as he willed his head to stop spinning and his eyes cleared slowly. But he was still drunk and it showed in his next words.
"You want t' dance with me?" he asked Isumi. The other pro smiled just a little perplexed and tried to get Shindo up of him.
"No, I meant you should dance with Akari-chan, or some other girl…"
Shindo swayed a little now standing on his own but his balance held this time. He looked up at his friend and said with the seriousness of a drunken: "Girl…? But I want to dance with you, Isumi-san!"
Akira saw the said pro blush and his smile got a little nervous. Then suddenly Akari stepped between the two facing her childhood friend and turned to Isumi over her shoulder muttering the word 'Drunk' so Shindo couldn’t hear it. Isumi nodded and backed up.
"Come on Hikaru! You need some fresh air!" she said and let him lean on her for support. Akira grabbed Shindo's other arm and pulled it over his shoulder when he nearly topped over the both of them. "I'll help you get him out of here," he said to Akari. She nodded giving him a smile that somehow succeeded to look thankful and apologetic at the same time.
Unfortunately they had to go through the dance floor to reach the exit and if it wouldn’t have been enough to try and escort a man barely standing on his feet over twenty meters, the situation was worsened by lots of people enthusiastically bouncing all over the place. They bumped into Waya who was dancing with Naze. The rhythm has changed into a slower, snuggling song and the showing and pushing ceased with it. Shindo choose that moment to tumble over his own foot and grabbed Waya's arm to hang on. He helped them to straighten him up and as reward he got a very persistent Shindo latched onto his neck.
"Waya! You are my friend, aren’t you?" Shindo slurred into his ear but his voice was loud enough for other people who were standing close to them to hear and draw their attention.
Waya decided to take it easy on him though he was troubled by his condition. "Yeah! Sure I am!" he said.
"Does that mean you like me?" Shindo asked then refusing to let him go, fully ignoring the urging of Fujisaki-san and Akira.
"Why… of course I do! Everyone here does…" Waya said trying to free himself from the strong grip of his friend. Shindo wouldn’t let him go, but hearing his answer he pulled back looking intently into his friends eyes and then finally pulling a smile.
"Oh! I am glad," he said and from that moment on the situation escalated. Before anyone could do anything he leaned close to the confused man and kissed him full on the lips, his hands on Waya's cheeks firmly holding him in position. Akira along with Fujisaki-san tried to peel him down from the other who was momentarily paralyzed from shock but after Shindo tried to push his tongue past his desperately gritted teeth he started to deliver a violent fight to get rid of him.
Akira felt his heart skip a beat and his head started to spin. The thoughts in it were chaotic to phrase it mildly. He felt like it was him who embarrassed himself before all the people and not Shindo. His mind tried franticly to come up with something to save the situation, and he said the first words that came into his thoughts, though in the moment he said them he realized how lame they sounded.
"Shindo! Stop it! It's Waya and not Ayumi-chan!" he yelled desperately.
The volume of his own words startled him but he got the desired effect because Shindo gave him a confused glare and let himself drag out by him and Fujisaki-san.
After the sounds of the music died down with the heavy iron door of the club closed behind their backs and the chilly night air etched into their smoke-suffered lunges Shindo suddenly got vigorous but it only lasted till he dragged himself to a nearby tree and doubled over supporting his arm on the bark.
Akira and the girl haven't followed him. They stood before the door next to the other silently observing from the distant their friend's vomiting. It was an awkward silence stretching between them punctuated by the quietness of the winter night punctuated with the low hum of passing cars and the occasional retching sounds. The snowflakes were slowly falling from above; their surface reflected the colorful neon lights. Some minutes past Akari rasped her voice.
"Who is this Ayumi-chan?" she asked, her voice sounded weary.
Akira blinked and looked at her. Her eyes were closed and she just looked so tired. He felt her tiredness take over him, and he knew it wasn’t of physical origin. She opened her eyes and turned her head to him after some time when he couldn’t give her an answer that would sound plausible enough. Akira looked away and felt a strange feeling of guilt wrench his throat. He swallowed hard but still didn’t say anything.
Akari looked up at the black-haired pro towering over her but she couldn’t make out a single wince of muscle on his face that would have betrayed his emotions. He looked hard into the direction where Hikaru busied himself with the urges of his body to get rid of the alcohol.
"There is no such person: this Ayumi-chan," she told him. Akira lifted his face and glared at her steadily not to let her catch on that he lied. Strangely her eyes held an understanding glimmer and became sympathetic as she let some of her sadness out softening her expression.
"You know it, don’t you?" she continued on and turned her head to look at her friend. "You tried to protect him, so you have to know. Unless there really is something that even I don’t know about him…" she let her lips quirk into a little, rueful smile.
Hearing her words it dawned on Akira. Of course she would be aware of *that*. After trying so hard for years to win Shindo's heart she must have come upon the real reason why she never succeeded.
The gagging sounds have stopped since a while and Shindo was about to straighten up.
"I will drive him home," Akira said lifting his head. She looked at him intently; he stayed there unmoving where she couldn’t suppress her quivering from the chill. His dark, shiny hair tied together at his nape gathered some of the snowflakes, just like the colored lenses of his square-rimmed glasses.
"Do you know where he lives?" Akari asked.
-------------------