honou-no-izumi (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
honou_no_izumi) wrote2010-02-05 11:44 am
honou_no_izumi) wrote2010-02-05 11:44 am
Entry tags:
Tsunderella - Chapter 13
Title: Tsunderella
Chapter: 13 - Taking Flight
Characters: NEWS members, Tackey
Fandom: Johnny's Entertainment
Rating: PG15
Summary: After regaining that pair of wings thought lost, what else would you do but to just fly as far as you can?
A/N: It was amusing that this piece going to end on that same amount of chapters that Second Life was taking its hiatus on at the moment.
A/N2: It amazed myself on how I can always write angst and fluff side by side...
--------------------------
“Welcome. Or should I say, welcome back... Hide.” Keii started to say as the four of them entered the house. Tsubasa started whistling, looking around the house as Hide paused. Keii noticed the direction where his eyes had been staring as he sighed.
“Yeah. That’s where Ryo-chan had fell,” he said as Hideaki frowned at the faded blood stain on the otherwise white marble tile.
Tsubasa and Shige turned around towards them as Hide glanced elsewhere.
“Did anything here trigger your memory yet?” Keii asked as Hide walked around the house, keeping himself quiet all the time. After a while, he had gone up the stairs; followed by the three of them as Hideaki looked around him. Still showing no reaction, no hints of recognition of him having once lived in the house was seen on his looks.
He absent-mindedly walked towards one room before Keii announced it to him.
“That was Ryo’s room.”
Hide looked at him in surprise before entering the room.
He sighed. As expected, he had felt nothing from this room either. Then again, it’s not like Ryo’s room would remain the same as when he was still small. Everything inside the room had been neatly organized—he had to laugh as Keii mentioned about how he and Shige had to run around to properly put Ryo’s things in place because Ryo wasn’t such a good organizer himself. He turned to see the massive rows of padlocks on Ryo’s door as he thought painfully about what kind of life Ryo used to have.
Sighing, he walked towards Ryo’s bed before noticing the small desk beside it—as well as an old hardcover book lying on top of it. It had been a bit dusty—then again; it has been months since Ryo was hospitalized, Keii reasoned—as Hide picked it up.
He opened the book to the most recent entry that had been marked with a simple bookmark. He smiled. It turned out that the thick hardcover book was just another exercise book made to be a personal diary. The last entry had been... what it seemed to be Ryo writing out a song or a long poem.
He flipped several pages more before it as he noticed an entry where Ryo had written off the day’s events, as well as a small note... directed to him. Hide could not help but feel touched. It seemed that despite many had thought he had died or gone for good, he had always been alive... inside Ryo’s heart. Words could not express accurately of what Hideaki was feeling in his heart now. He flipped several more pages behind as the entries seemed to skip several years. Could it be that Ryo had been keeping this diary when he was really small and stopped writing on it, and only started writing his thoughts and feelings inside this book after he had gone missing?
Hideaki stopped flipping the pages as he came upon a very old drawing that had been pasted onto one of the pages. There was a drawing of a man labelled ‘otouchan’ on it, with an ‘oniichan’ standing beside the drawing... carrying a ‘Ryo-chan’, all written in hiragana. There was also a drawing of a woman with wings floating near them, holding a magic wand as flowers and birds and rainbow surrounded the four people. The people in the drawing had looked happy as well. Tears started to cloud his eyes as he hastily wiped it away.
And that was when it appeared...
xxx
He saw himself running towards a warm looking man, who had been smiling very wide. He had been holding a book, not the same one as the one he had been holding. The man spoke, as he had been holding an small excitable child in one arm.
“Ryo-chan! How many times did Otou-chan said, not to draw on otou-chan’s report book?” the man have said, not sounding any bit angry as he appeared to act as the small child continued to giggle happily. The man sighed as he put the small child down before walking towards his worktable and pulled out another book that looked similar to Ryo’s diary. The man smiled at them before carefully tearing out the page where Ryo had doodled his cute drawing on from his report book. He grabbed a tube of glue from his table and started folding the paper before pasting it on the other book he had taken out. Satisfied that he had done a great job at it, the man walked back towards the boys before giving the book to him.
“Here... Hi-chan. Take your little brother to the living room. Now you guys can have this new book to be creative on,” the man said again as he heard himself cheered...
xxx
Hide collapsed onto the bed before he started to really cry his heart out, holding the book close to his body. Tsubasa, Keii and Shige had rushed towards him worriedly before he told them that it was okay. It was only him, finally remembering one piece of an important memory.
A piece of a memory belonging to him and Ryo, as well as memory of the two of them with their father… when he was still very much alive.
The three of them finally let out a sigh of relief... at Hide finally recollecting something about his past.
The four of them went back downstairs as Hide finally started to recall more memories of his childhood, actually recognizing the house that he used to live in. It was strange. An hour ago he had walked in here, not recognizing any small details of his house. But now, it was like he had just taken a time machine ride back into his own past—almost every single familiar parts in the house would trigger some sort of a fond memory in his mind. He walked outside towards the side lawn of the house as he arrived to a small patch of flowerbeds near the kitchen. There were some empty patches of soil all over the flowerbeds but at least it appeared that the surviving flowers had been thriving…
Keii shrugged as he approached Hide from the side.
“I must have been blind all these time. I should have seen the connection to moment I have seen that first Carnation flower you left behind for Ryo,” he said as Hide glanced towards him. True enough, almost every single flower that was still growing on the flowerbed had been Carnations; in every possible colour there was! Keii sighed.
“Ryo had always taken his time to care for it. Even when sometimes during her more moody days, my mum would come here and destroy some of the flowers—Ryo would still patiently spend his time here to take care of the flowers.”
Hide smiled.
“It had always been her favourite,” Keii glanced towards him. “The flowers. It had been the favourite flower of my late mother. I used to remember seeing my father tended to it, even after my mother had died. He also used to talk in length about how different colours of the Carnation flowers could give a different kind of meaning when presented towards someone else…”
It was strange. Suddenly old memories started to flow into his mind as if he had never forgotten about them before. It was a queer feeling. Such mysterious things, memories are…
Hide glanced back towards Keii as the younger man bowed towards him suddenly. Shige and Tsubasa looked at him, puzzled as well as Keii suddenly started apologizing.
“Hide… I’m sorry. On behalf of my mother, I really am sorry! For what she did to you, to Ryo as well. I am also unsure about this, but if mum really had anything to do with you getting into that accident and losing your memories… I hope you would forgive her for what she did!”
Shige stared at his brother in alarm. “Keii, what were you saying? That mum would—I know she had done many cruel things to Ryo… but this? I can’t imagine she would go so far—“
Keii straightened himself up before turning towards his younger brother.
“That’s why I said I wasn’t sure. But I’ve been thinking about this for so long. What if Ryo hadn’t just tried to escape from mum that day because he had found the lost will? What if… he had suspected that mum might have something to do with Hide’s disappearance. What if she did have something to do with it?"
That time, he had found Hide’s wallet with Ryo after all—Ryo must have found it around the same time as when he had found that will...
“Keii-nii! Did you forget that mum had tried to kill Ryo that day? Don’t you think he wouldn’t try to escape her to save his life?”
“But Shige… why else could mum react so drastically when Ryo had overheard her talk with Inagaki-san? There must be a reason—“
Tsubasa hastily stopped the two from bickering as he told them to calm down.
“Stop it. That thing was over already. First thing first, Hide had been acting strange—“
Both brothers turned around towards Hide as the older lad had been clutching his head painfully. Keii started to come at him to ask what was wrong as Hideaki collapsed on the ground. The three of them cried out as they hastily carried Hide back inside the house.
xxx
It had been a clear, sunny day. A great day that seemed to promise some good tidings to those who had wished for them. He had been hopeful. That time what he had taken the entrance examination, he had not encountered much difficulty in answering all of the questions. He had been almost confident that he would pass. What great news he would bring home later for Ryo? Ryo must have been restless by now, waiting for him to bring in the great news...
If only his father was still alive… he wished he could show him how well he had done for himself now.
He could barely hear the sound of the approaching car behind him. That’s why he had remained cycling close to the edge of the road to avoid the approaching traffic. The road was not too narrow for him to do that after all, there were still enough room for him to cycle along the road and allowing the passing motorists to pass by without a hitch.
That was why he could barely comprehend it when he felt the back of his bike being rammed and him losing control of his bike, before another hit from the car behind him threw his body off towards the side road. Hide felt something hit his head, painfully before he fell on the rough soil. He lifted his head in a daze, as he felt strangely lightheaded—his sight seemed blurry.
He could barely make out a shadow of a car stopping as two person walked out of the car. For some reason, they were more concerned about his things that had been scattered all around the place; compared to him being injured and bleeding to death. He could barely understand it when one of them had turned his body over and started searching his pockets for some kind of valuable. He felt his wallet forcefully being taken out from his possession as he felt himself being kicked from behind. He ignored that as he still struggled to take back what was his from the person—a man, perhaps… judging from the brute force he had been treated with—as he managed to grab onto something.
He had been kicked again as he heard something tore off. He tried to look up towards his assailant as he watched the other person threw his things into the nearby ditch? River? He could not understand what he was seeing as the one who had attacked him gave something—his wallet?—towards the other person. Both of them were talking but he could not catch what they were saying.
He barely caught hearing the other person telling the brute person about getting his payment and to ‘clear out the trash’. Hideaki could barely connect the pieces of information as the brute started walking back towards him again…
Hide gasped aloud as he sat up from the sofa, facing the three people who had been looking very worried over him.
“Shuu—I mean, Hide… are you all right?” Tsubasa started to ask as Keii looked at him troubled.
“Hide… I’m sorry if what I said earlier made you feel uncomfortable—“
Hideaki stared at him in confusion before recalling the earlier incident. He shook his head as he told him not to worry.
“It’s not your fault—“, he said before adding, “—and regardless of what stepmother have done to me and Ryo, you and Shige were not at fault about it. Please don’t push yourself hard about it.”
Keii snickered. “How can you say that? If I had been more competent, I could have been able to protect Ryo much better than what I did…”
“Nonsense!”
Keii stared at him, startled as Hideaki smiled.
“You have protected Ryo… and Shige, just fine. Just like I would have done for the three of you…”
Keii couldn’t help smiling as he thanked him for the kind words…
xxx
Ryo looked up towards the four of them as he smiled. He had been transferred to another room now, considering that his condition had been improving greatly. Tegoshi turned towards them as well as he chirped his greetings at them. Shige jeered at them.
“Oi, Tesshi. Why aren’t you at home studying for exam or something?” he said as Tegoshi stuck his tongue at him.
“I’ll study later, I’m good like that. Besides… I missed Ryo-tan so much today so what’s wrong with coming here to play with Ryo-tan?”
Ryo grinned. For some reason, Ryo had been looking so shiny today, thought Hide as he smiled. Could it be because of yesterday’s good news?
“Ignore him, Tegonyan. He’s just… jeabos. Jea—eh?”
Ryo suddenly started crossing his eyes, puzzled over his strange pronunciation as everyone stared at him with amusement. Hide chuckled as his brother looked as if his mouth had just malfunctioned. It must have been that, right? There was no way he would be making such silly mistake in speech that made him seemed to sound like a kindergarden kid and not a eighteen-year-old—oh yes, he’s eighteen now. His birthday just happened to be the day after he had fell down the stairs, just that people had not bother bringing that topic up.
Ryo suddenly got himself glomped by Tegoshi who started exclaiming how cute he was, to which he just stared at his old friend for making such strange comment.
“Not cute! What you…?” he started saying as Tegoshi continued to squeal. The rest of them continued to laugh as Keii walked up towards him.
“It’s because we love you so much, Ryo-chan.”
Ryo smiled.
“I love you too. Keii-nii…”
Keii stared at his younger stepbrother in surprise. Even after all of this, despite how he had failed to take care of him… to protect him. Despite what his mother had done to him…!
Keii turned his head to his side as Hideaki placed a hand on his shoulder, giving him a reassuring smile. It seemed that even Ryo did not consider him to be a bad brother, despite his failure to protect his younger siblings. He glanced back towards Ryo as Tegoshi stepped away, before he sat on the bedside and embraced Ryo.
Ryo grinned as he glanced towards Shige.
“Don’t get jeabos. Everyone loves me…” he said as Hide snorted. Shige’s face contorted into a maniacal grin as he lunged towards the two of them—
“It’s JEALOUS, idiot! Not jeabos. Say it properly!” he exclaimed before tackling them.
“Iyaaaa—! Bad Shige… gerrof! Big heaby… Shige bear!” cried Ryo as Hideaki burst into an unstoppable laughter…
xxx
Yamapi dumped his books on the table as the six of them gathered at that corner of the library, for they were preparing for their university entrance examination that was coming up soon. He glanced up towards Tegoshi and Shige as soon as he took up seat beside Jin.
“Eh? What you saying?”
Shige shrugged at him.
“It’s been decided. They would be going overseas soon, to get Ryo into a much better facility to help him recover faster. At least, that’s what Hideaki-niisan had decided yesterday.”
“How long will they be there?” Ohkura suddenly asked as Shige shrugged.
“Who knows… until Ryo got better? Hide-nii also mentioned that he’d try to resume his studies there. Perhaps also for Ryo… he still had a lot to catch up to after all. It’s going to be a while… I guess.”
Jin shrugged, as he grabbed one of the reference books on the table. “Well, at least that means that we shouldn’t be lagging in our studies then… huh? Even Ryo was working hard—“
Pi nodded his head as he noticed Massu still concentrated on reading his English textbook—despite it was upside down right now—before glancing towards Shige.
“Where would they be heading to?” he asked as Tegoshi shrugged.
“America.”
Chapter: 13 - Taking Flight
Characters: NEWS members, Tackey
Fandom: Johnny's Entertainment
Rating: PG15
Summary: After regaining that pair of wings thought lost, what else would you do but to just fly as far as you can?
A/N: It was amusing that this piece going to end on that same amount of chapters that Second Life was taking its hiatus on at the moment.
A/N2: It amazed myself on how I can always write angst and fluff side by side...
--------------------------
“Welcome. Or should I say, welcome back... Hide.” Keii started to say as the four of them entered the house. Tsubasa started whistling, looking around the house as Hide paused. Keii noticed the direction where his eyes had been staring as he sighed.
“Yeah. That’s where Ryo-chan had fell,” he said as Hideaki frowned at the faded blood stain on the otherwise white marble tile.
Tsubasa and Shige turned around towards them as Hide glanced elsewhere.
“Did anything here trigger your memory yet?” Keii asked as Hide walked around the house, keeping himself quiet all the time. After a while, he had gone up the stairs; followed by the three of them as Hideaki looked around him. Still showing no reaction, no hints of recognition of him having once lived in the house was seen on his looks.
He absent-mindedly walked towards one room before Keii announced it to him.
“That was Ryo’s room.”
Hide looked at him in surprise before entering the room.
He sighed. As expected, he had felt nothing from this room either. Then again, it’s not like Ryo’s room would remain the same as when he was still small. Everything inside the room had been neatly organized—he had to laugh as Keii mentioned about how he and Shige had to run around to properly put Ryo’s things in place because Ryo wasn’t such a good organizer himself. He turned to see the massive rows of padlocks on Ryo’s door as he thought painfully about what kind of life Ryo used to have.
Sighing, he walked towards Ryo’s bed before noticing the small desk beside it—as well as an old hardcover book lying on top of it. It had been a bit dusty—then again; it has been months since Ryo was hospitalized, Keii reasoned—as Hide picked it up.
He opened the book to the most recent entry that had been marked with a simple bookmark. He smiled. It turned out that the thick hardcover book was just another exercise book made to be a personal diary. The last entry had been... what it seemed to be Ryo writing out a song or a long poem.
He flipped several pages more before it as he noticed an entry where Ryo had written off the day’s events, as well as a small note... directed to him. Hide could not help but feel touched. It seemed that despite many had thought he had died or gone for good, he had always been alive... inside Ryo’s heart. Words could not express accurately of what Hideaki was feeling in his heart now. He flipped several more pages behind as the entries seemed to skip several years. Could it be that Ryo had been keeping this diary when he was really small and stopped writing on it, and only started writing his thoughts and feelings inside this book after he had gone missing?
Hideaki stopped flipping the pages as he came upon a very old drawing that had been pasted onto one of the pages. There was a drawing of a man labelled ‘otouchan’ on it, with an ‘oniichan’ standing beside the drawing... carrying a ‘Ryo-chan’, all written in hiragana. There was also a drawing of a woman with wings floating near them, holding a magic wand as flowers and birds and rainbow surrounded the four people. The people in the drawing had looked happy as well. Tears started to cloud his eyes as he hastily wiped it away.
And that was when it appeared...
xxx
He saw himself running towards a warm looking man, who had been smiling very wide. He had been holding a book, not the same one as the one he had been holding. The man spoke, as he had been holding an small excitable child in one arm.
“Ryo-chan! How many times did Otou-chan said, not to draw on otou-chan’s report book?” the man have said, not sounding any bit angry as he appeared to act as the small child continued to giggle happily. The man sighed as he put the small child down before walking towards his worktable and pulled out another book that looked similar to Ryo’s diary. The man smiled at them before carefully tearing out the page where Ryo had doodled his cute drawing on from his report book. He grabbed a tube of glue from his table and started folding the paper before pasting it on the other book he had taken out. Satisfied that he had done a great job at it, the man walked back towards the boys before giving the book to him.
“Here... Hi-chan. Take your little brother to the living room. Now you guys can have this new book to be creative on,” the man said again as he heard himself cheered...
xxx
Hide collapsed onto the bed before he started to really cry his heart out, holding the book close to his body. Tsubasa, Keii and Shige had rushed towards him worriedly before he told them that it was okay. It was only him, finally remembering one piece of an important memory.
A piece of a memory belonging to him and Ryo, as well as memory of the two of them with their father… when he was still very much alive.
The three of them finally let out a sigh of relief... at Hide finally recollecting something about his past.
The four of them went back downstairs as Hide finally started to recall more memories of his childhood, actually recognizing the house that he used to live in. It was strange. An hour ago he had walked in here, not recognizing any small details of his house. But now, it was like he had just taken a time machine ride back into his own past—almost every single familiar parts in the house would trigger some sort of a fond memory in his mind. He walked outside towards the side lawn of the house as he arrived to a small patch of flowerbeds near the kitchen. There were some empty patches of soil all over the flowerbeds but at least it appeared that the surviving flowers had been thriving…
Keii shrugged as he approached Hide from the side.
“I must have been blind all these time. I should have seen the connection to moment I have seen that first Carnation flower you left behind for Ryo,” he said as Hide glanced towards him. True enough, almost every single flower that was still growing on the flowerbed had been Carnations; in every possible colour there was! Keii sighed.
“Ryo had always taken his time to care for it. Even when sometimes during her more moody days, my mum would come here and destroy some of the flowers—Ryo would still patiently spend his time here to take care of the flowers.”
Hide smiled.
“It had always been her favourite,” Keii glanced towards him. “The flowers. It had been the favourite flower of my late mother. I used to remember seeing my father tended to it, even after my mother had died. He also used to talk in length about how different colours of the Carnation flowers could give a different kind of meaning when presented towards someone else…”
It was strange. Suddenly old memories started to flow into his mind as if he had never forgotten about them before. It was a queer feeling. Such mysterious things, memories are…
Hide glanced back towards Keii as the younger man bowed towards him suddenly. Shige and Tsubasa looked at him, puzzled as well as Keii suddenly started apologizing.
“Hide… I’m sorry. On behalf of my mother, I really am sorry! For what she did to you, to Ryo as well. I am also unsure about this, but if mum really had anything to do with you getting into that accident and losing your memories… I hope you would forgive her for what she did!”
Shige stared at his brother in alarm. “Keii, what were you saying? That mum would—I know she had done many cruel things to Ryo… but this? I can’t imagine she would go so far—“
Keii straightened himself up before turning towards his younger brother.
“That’s why I said I wasn’t sure. But I’ve been thinking about this for so long. What if Ryo hadn’t just tried to escape from mum that day because he had found the lost will? What if… he had suspected that mum might have something to do with Hide’s disappearance. What if she did have something to do with it?"
That time, he had found Hide’s wallet with Ryo after all—Ryo must have found it around the same time as when he had found that will...
“Keii-nii! Did you forget that mum had tried to kill Ryo that day? Don’t you think he wouldn’t try to escape her to save his life?”
“But Shige… why else could mum react so drastically when Ryo had overheard her talk with Inagaki-san? There must be a reason—“
Tsubasa hastily stopped the two from bickering as he told them to calm down.
“Stop it. That thing was over already. First thing first, Hide had been acting strange—“
Both brothers turned around towards Hide as the older lad had been clutching his head painfully. Keii started to come at him to ask what was wrong as Hideaki collapsed on the ground. The three of them cried out as they hastily carried Hide back inside the house.
xxx
It had been a clear, sunny day. A great day that seemed to promise some good tidings to those who had wished for them. He had been hopeful. That time what he had taken the entrance examination, he had not encountered much difficulty in answering all of the questions. He had been almost confident that he would pass. What great news he would bring home later for Ryo? Ryo must have been restless by now, waiting for him to bring in the great news...
If only his father was still alive… he wished he could show him how well he had done for himself now.
He could barely hear the sound of the approaching car behind him. That’s why he had remained cycling close to the edge of the road to avoid the approaching traffic. The road was not too narrow for him to do that after all, there were still enough room for him to cycle along the road and allowing the passing motorists to pass by without a hitch.
That was why he could barely comprehend it when he felt the back of his bike being rammed and him losing control of his bike, before another hit from the car behind him threw his body off towards the side road. Hide felt something hit his head, painfully before he fell on the rough soil. He lifted his head in a daze, as he felt strangely lightheaded—his sight seemed blurry.
He could barely make out a shadow of a car stopping as two person walked out of the car. For some reason, they were more concerned about his things that had been scattered all around the place; compared to him being injured and bleeding to death. He could barely understand it when one of them had turned his body over and started searching his pockets for some kind of valuable. He felt his wallet forcefully being taken out from his possession as he felt himself being kicked from behind. He ignored that as he still struggled to take back what was his from the person—a man, perhaps… judging from the brute force he had been treated with—as he managed to grab onto something.
He had been kicked again as he heard something tore off. He tried to look up towards his assailant as he watched the other person threw his things into the nearby ditch? River? He could not understand what he was seeing as the one who had attacked him gave something—his wallet?—towards the other person. Both of them were talking but he could not catch what they were saying.
He barely caught hearing the other person telling the brute person about getting his payment and to ‘clear out the trash’. Hideaki could barely connect the pieces of information as the brute started walking back towards him again…
Hide gasped aloud as he sat up from the sofa, facing the three people who had been looking very worried over him.
“Shuu—I mean, Hide… are you all right?” Tsubasa started to ask as Keii looked at him troubled.
“Hide… I’m sorry if what I said earlier made you feel uncomfortable—“
Hideaki stared at him in confusion before recalling the earlier incident. He shook his head as he told him not to worry.
“It’s not your fault—“, he said before adding, “—and regardless of what stepmother have done to me and Ryo, you and Shige were not at fault about it. Please don’t push yourself hard about it.”
Keii snickered. “How can you say that? If I had been more competent, I could have been able to protect Ryo much better than what I did…”
“Nonsense!”
Keii stared at him, startled as Hideaki smiled.
“You have protected Ryo… and Shige, just fine. Just like I would have done for the three of you…”
Keii couldn’t help smiling as he thanked him for the kind words…
xxx
Ryo looked up towards the four of them as he smiled. He had been transferred to another room now, considering that his condition had been improving greatly. Tegoshi turned towards them as well as he chirped his greetings at them. Shige jeered at them.
“Oi, Tesshi. Why aren’t you at home studying for exam or something?” he said as Tegoshi stuck his tongue at him.
“I’ll study later, I’m good like that. Besides… I missed Ryo-tan so much today so what’s wrong with coming here to play with Ryo-tan?”
Ryo grinned. For some reason, Ryo had been looking so shiny today, thought Hide as he smiled. Could it be because of yesterday’s good news?
“Ignore him, Tegonyan. He’s just… jeabos. Jea—eh?”
Ryo suddenly started crossing his eyes, puzzled over his strange pronunciation as everyone stared at him with amusement. Hide chuckled as his brother looked as if his mouth had just malfunctioned. It must have been that, right? There was no way he would be making such silly mistake in speech that made him seemed to sound like a kindergarden kid and not a eighteen-year-old—oh yes, he’s eighteen now. His birthday just happened to be the day after he had fell down the stairs, just that people had not bother bringing that topic up.
Ryo suddenly got himself glomped by Tegoshi who started exclaiming how cute he was, to which he just stared at his old friend for making such strange comment.
“Not cute! What you…?” he started saying as Tegoshi continued to squeal. The rest of them continued to laugh as Keii walked up towards him.
“It’s because we love you so much, Ryo-chan.”
Ryo smiled.
“I love you too. Keii-nii…”
Keii stared at his younger stepbrother in surprise. Even after all of this, despite how he had failed to take care of him… to protect him. Despite what his mother had done to him…!
Keii turned his head to his side as Hideaki placed a hand on his shoulder, giving him a reassuring smile. It seemed that even Ryo did not consider him to be a bad brother, despite his failure to protect his younger siblings. He glanced back towards Ryo as Tegoshi stepped away, before he sat on the bedside and embraced Ryo.
Ryo grinned as he glanced towards Shige.
“Don’t get jeabos. Everyone loves me…” he said as Hide snorted. Shige’s face contorted into a maniacal grin as he lunged towards the two of them—
“It’s JEALOUS, idiot! Not jeabos. Say it properly!” he exclaimed before tackling them.
“Iyaaaa—! Bad Shige… gerrof! Big heaby… Shige bear!” cried Ryo as Hideaki burst into an unstoppable laughter…
xxx
Yamapi dumped his books on the table as the six of them gathered at that corner of the library, for they were preparing for their university entrance examination that was coming up soon. He glanced up towards Tegoshi and Shige as soon as he took up seat beside Jin.
“Eh? What you saying?”
Shige shrugged at him.
“It’s been decided. They would be going overseas soon, to get Ryo into a much better facility to help him recover faster. At least, that’s what Hideaki-niisan had decided yesterday.”
“How long will they be there?” Ohkura suddenly asked as Shige shrugged.
“Who knows… until Ryo got better? Hide-nii also mentioned that he’d try to resume his studies there. Perhaps also for Ryo… he still had a lot to catch up to after all. It’s going to be a while… I guess.”
Jin shrugged, as he grabbed one of the reference books on the table. “Well, at least that means that we shouldn’t be lagging in our studies then… huh? Even Ryo was working hard—“
Pi nodded his head as he noticed Massu still concentrated on reading his English textbook—despite it was upside down right now—before glancing towards Shige.
“Where would they be heading to?” he asked as Tegoshi shrugged.
“America.”