Kousuke's face was getting closer and closer, and Yuu was on her wit's end. Forget the boy-image; she never had her first kiss! And this situation was driving her nuts!
Her heart thumped inside her chest so loud it was pulsating through her eardrums. She could feel Kousuke's breath burning her skin, and his thin lips were just a mere centimetre away! Her throat was parched, and oh God! She prayed for the heavens to rain because it felt so hot and stuffy; suddenly, she was sweating even if it was just in the middle of spring!
'S-someone, help!' her subconscious screamed.
"You..." Kousuke said in a low voice, his face moving further and towards her ear.
'W-What now?!' Yuu cried inside her head. 'Give me a break already!' However, nothing came out of her mouth. Instead, her ear felt so hot, and all she could do was clench her jaw as she shut her eyes and looked the other way.
Kousuke's hand ever so slightly tightened the grip on her hands which made Yuu whimper.
"You..." Kousuke said with his calculating voice again. Yuu recognised this, yet her mind was all over the place; she could not keep up with her racing thoughts.
Too close! She could feel his warm breath on her cheek, and it was making it hard for her to breathe!
Yuu instinctively kicked Kousuke's shin, sending the handsome boy limping backwards as he hissed in pain. Then, upon gaining enough distance, with her flushed cheeks, Yuu glared at Kousuke and pointed her index finger at him with a clearly unimpressed expression plastered on her face.
"You! I'm not done with you!"
Yuu did not wait for a smirk or some retort from Kousuke.
She had to get away from him! He was as dangerous as a lion in the wild! Too risky for her to handle! She would have to drill him later about the answer.
Yuu descended the staircase frantically with her face as red as a tomato. Meanwhile, Kousuke recovered and sat in the corridor. Leaning his back against the wall, he looked over the clear sky as the corner of his lips curled up in a small smile.
There and then, Kousuke closed his eyes and recalled their first encounter a few months ago, in the middle of winter...
It was late at night, especially for high school students to be wandering around. But for Kousuke, that had been the norm. He was wearing a long-sleeved shirt with a black hoodie, a pair of ragged jeans and a pair of worn-out sneakers with his hair unkempt and long, covering his eyes.
His lips held a cigarette in between, blowing smoke through the air as his feet took him wherever, without a particular destination in mind. Sticky fluid trickled over his eyebrow as the cold breeze stung the cut on his cheek.
It was a relatively peaceful walk until a few men approached him. Then, realising the faces, he spoke with a dead tone.
"F*ck off. Don't waste my time," he said walking past the group, not stopping his leisure walk.
'Ah! If only there was something worth it,' Kousuke laughed at the thought, thinking how ridiculous it was.
"Yo! Aren't you being rude?" a familiar sly voice came from behind. "After I let you join the family, this is how you're going to pay me back? What did you do to my boys?" Kousuke could already envision the person's sinister grin.
Not bothering to answer, Kousuke turned on his heels and looked at the guy through his hair.
"Dojo."
"'Sup, Nakano-kun," the boy in leather jacket and jeans responded with a smirk. "How could you do this? After I let you in the fam – "
Kousuke lifted a hand, stopping Dojo mid-sentence.
"Hey. Don't group me with people like you."
"Oh? Really? We used to hang out together."
Kousuke dropped the cigarette from his lips and extinguished the heat with the sole of his shoe.
"Not anymore." Kousuke chuckled, "I don't hang out with dirt like you."
After the words come out of his lips, Kousuke turned around and continued walking.
Despite his appearance, he had never hurt an innocent. That was one thing he could never tolerate. He used to hang out with Dojo's group back when they only loitered around. He would engage in small talks with the group whenever he was out for a stroll until it became his routine. Quite a few times, they would get into a fight with another gang, but that was it – a fight between idiots like him who did not have anything else better to do, he once thought.
However, as the crew became bigger, other members had tried different things, including thievery, even if it hurt someone. There was a time when a pregnant lady had her bag snatched by a boy in a bandana and ended up hit by a car after chasing the thief on a busy road. Despite thinking it was none of his business, Kousuke's body had moved on its own accord.
The boy – the thief – headed Kousuke's direction, thinking he was an acquaintance. However, Kousuke extended a leg and tripped the boy, sending the bag flying further ahead and out of the boy's grasp. Kousuke then restrained the boy as his eyes looked at the blood oozing out of the woman's head, the woman still conscious. He later learned the woman had lost her baby. That same day he confronted Dojo when they were in front of a convenience store, their usual loitering area.
"I'm sure you've heard of it already," Kousuke started.
"Ah! That," Dojo shrugged his shoulder. "It was an accident," he said nonchalantly.
"Accident? She wouldn't have had the accident if you didn't dare the kid to steal the bag."
Dojo laughed, "Why are you blaming me? I wasn't the one to stole the bag! But, hey…" Dojo's voice turned sinister and darker, "…wasn't it fun?"
Kousuke's eyes narrowed in response.
"You've really gone low," Kousuke said.
Not waiting for any response, Kousuke turned his back from the group and walked away.
"I'm not done talking," Dojo's smile vanished and was replaced with a serious expression.
Stopping his footsteps, Kousuke took a cigarette from his pockets and lit it up with a lighter. Blowing a puff of smoke in the air, Kousuke responded without even bothering to look back.
"So? You were never my boss, to begin with."
From then on, he had become an enemy to the group.
Moreover, the fact that he was one of the best fighters there made him a target of jealousy, rivalry and plain bullying. However, no matter how many times they tried, no one could defeat him – gaining him his own title, the Mad Dog.
Kousuke's brief recollection of the past was cut short by Dojo's laughter.
"Dirt? Me?" Dojo laughed hysterically, "You call me dirt? Me? Ha! Just what do you call yourself?" Dojo eyed Kousuke's hooded back from head to toe.
The boys around him all snickered. Kousuke stopped his steps as a fresh gush of sticky fluid ran down his cheek. He knew what was coming. Dojo had always provoked him the same way all the time since he left the group.
"Yo…" Dojo continued as he stepped closer, and with his taunting voice and a sinister grin on his face said, "you call me a dirt when your mother's a slu –"
In a blink of an eye, Dojo's lips busted open as Kousuke's fist landed on his mouth, cutting his words. Then, with another swing of his arm, Kousuke landed another blow, sending him on the cold pavement groaning in pain. Again, and again and again, until Dojo was only half-conscious.
"I told you to f*ck off, but you didn't listen," Kousuke said through gritted teeth.
With a murderous gaze, Kousuke looked up at the two boys standing in shock at the sight before them. Their leader was all but unconscious! Both backed away slowly, knowing full well they never stood a chance. As if he was a wild beast, the boys' steps were full of caution, eyes trained on the predator, before turning around and bolting away.
He stood up with blood trickling from his hand and kept on walking the endless road. Another warm fluid ran down his face. That was when he realised the bleeding from his forehead had not stopped.
"Tsk." He could see warm amber light from a distance - a street lamp. He was nearing the end of the deserted alley - a few more steps, and he would be back home.
'Home.'
Yet, his steps felt heavier after each one, and his eyelids felt as heavy as iron.
Cursing his luck, his knees buckled on the cold ground. Then, something fell on his cheek. Looking up at the dark sky illuminated by nothing but the cold moon staring at him, he realised it was the first snow of the year.
"Ah, I'm so tired," he whispered, his voice small and more dejected than usual. He was so exhausted… so exhausted he could lay there and never get up.
Slowly succumbing to darkness, he closed his eyes.
Just before his body fell, something caught him – something warm and… tiny? Despite wanting to succumb to the warmth, he pushed himself up, still on his knees.
"B-B-Blood…" the person stammered.
Focusing on his eyes, he realised it was a person, a girl at that!
Kousuke chuckled, finding the situation laughable.
They were on the cold ground, under a streetlamp in a desolated street in the middle of the night.
"H-Hey! Are you okay?" the girl asked, with a worried expression on her panicking face. "W-We should call an ambulance!"
With trembling hand, she fished the phone out of her pocket as the other hand never left Kousuke's shoulder. The phone fell off the girl's trembling hand and landed on the ground. "S-sorry," muttered the girl, "J-just got to turn it on. H-hang in there." The girl then turned on her phone, and the phone started beeping one after the other.
"We should get you to the doctor," the girl whispered, her voice trembling.
Just as the girl managed to type the emergency digits on her phone, Kousuke grabbed her wrist and whispered, "stop."
"Enough. I'm fine. Go mind your own business," Kousuke pushed the girl away, smearing her thick black jacket with his blood.
"You're fine? You were wobbling like a bamboo tree when I saw you from that shop ahead!"
"That's none of your business," he stood up and wobbled on his leg but managed to walk a couple of meters ahead.
"P-Police! We need to call the police! Whoever did this to you should still be close by!" the girl exclaimed, her voice shaky.
"Drop it! I don't need the police involved, and I don't have the luxury of going to a hospital! Now get lost!" Kousuke glared at the girl. The girl looked startled at first, but what surprised him was the relieved expression she soon returned.
He stood there, dumbstruck at the girl's expression. Snow fell all around them, and for a few seconds, he could only stare at the unusual response.
A pair of glary light then came from a distance, followed by a revving engine.
The girl removed her thick jacket, leaving her in a sweatshirt and trousers, and took a few steps closer to the wounded boy. Kousuke, surprised by her actions, remained in the same spot he was standing.
The air was chilly; the snow was falling. Despite that, the girl continued to make her way towards him.
Stopping just three steps away from the boy, the girl said, "At least take this."
The girl swung the jacket over Kousuke's shoulder, giving him the warmest sensation he had ever felt as far as he could remember. He looked at the green eyes right in front of him through his dishevelled hair and felt the most vulnerable he had ever been. She just stood there, looking at his bloody appearance, with the sincerest eyes he had ever seen. '…What the hell is this?' A lump formed at the back of his throat – he couldn't say a word – he did not know what to say.
"I'm relieved to see you have plenty of energy left," the girl said with that relieved smile.
The car shorty pulled over beside them and came out a young man wearing a suit from the driver's seat.
The girl turned around and made her way towards the car. She looked over her shoulder to the boy and waved her phone with an awkward grin on her face before hollering, "Too bad, they found me!"
Kousuke's eyes widened in realisation.
The man in a suit opened the passenger's seat door as he greeted, "Osaka-san", bowing his head as he said so, and then shut the door after the short-haired girl entered the car. The man then scanned Kousuke's appearance before hopping in the driver's seat and driving away, leaving the wounded boy behind.
Meanwhile, the girl in the car, Yuzuki Osaka, couldn't help but stare at the falling snow while thinking to herself.
'I'd probably be too scared to approach you if you weren't crying in the middle of the road.'
"Yuzuki-chan, you just said that out loud," the young man, Izumi, said.
"Oh..."
"Are you worried about the boy?"
Yuzuki nodded her head.
Bringing down the window, Yuzuki brought her hand out and caught some snowflakes with her bloody hand. A strange sensation tugged inside her chest as she recalled the boy's appearance earlier - silent tears ran down his face as he was falling, and Yuzuki couldn't help but look back. Then, she saw the boy whose face was covered in blood and eyes hidden behind dishevelled long hair clutch her jacket around him.
Something inside her snapped. Without thinking, she poked her head out on the empty street and screamed at the top of her lungs in the dead of night, "You have to return my jacket! I'll come back, and you have to return it to me yourself! It's my favourite one!"
Upon hearing the girl, the warmth of the jacket cocooning him doubled up, it burnt the back of his eyes. The sensation was overwhelming – almost suffocating, the back of his throat tightened.
Despite his efforts in holding it back, tears blurred his vision as he turned into an alley to make his way home.
'Don't give up.'
The message reached him sound and clear.