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"Hey! HEEEEYYY!!! You've been silent for a while now! HEY! Idiot, wake up!"
"..."
"Wake up!!"
"Bleurgh ー! What the heck is that for?!"
I don't know how long I've been in an internal flashback of my first meeting with the old man but I really don't want to cut it off with some sudden gut punch from this bitch of an office lady!
Ahh... I feel like puking.
"You could have at least shake me off or something, man." Seriously, that punch was painful.
"Sorry hehe."
Sorry, my ass. That legit hurts... Wait a minute... "By the way, where's Airi? Where did she go?"
I tried turning my head around and Airi was nowhere in sight... "Also, why am I lying on the ground again?" I don't remember having a narcolepsy.
"Airi knocked you out cold, dumbass. And to be honest, that was super lame. Good thing though, you didn't hit your head that hard when you fell down. That was a solid one punch though. It shocked me, to be honest." The office lady then looked down at me with pure disbelief instead of worry. "I don't know you are this weak. I mean, you're already weak by default but that's just totally lame, man."
"Yeah, yeah."
It doesn't feel like she'll help me to stand up anytime soon. She's too focused on imitating the punch Airi landed on my face (that I really don't personally remember).
"You could have at least helped me lie somewhere else... Like on a nearby bench or if lucky, maybe on your lap ー?!"
"I don't want your nosebleed to get into my clothes. That's just disgusting."
"So what? You just watched me here snoring for like hours or something?"
"Not really. I went on a closed arcade downtown to kill some time. If you only see how empty that place is... Look. I even got a lot of free tickets and tokens that I stole. Here, take it."
"Hey, stop throwing the tokens on my face. That hurts ー! Stop! Wai ー! Ouch!"
This person is just pure evil, man. She literally left an unconscious guy sleeping beside a burning convenience store as she played on an abandoned arcade somewhere.
She could have at least brought me to some place with warmth or something... No, nevermind. I think leaving my cold body on the park will just cause me pneumonia instead. It's probably better here.
I softly caressed the back of my head and removed all the tokens on me as I slowly tried to get up with both of my legs. Also, since she mentioned me getting KO'd earlier, my face indeed hurt a bit... Before she began throwing me these tokens, I mean.
"So, where is she?" I asked again, stretching my neck and body and adjusting my jaw just to make sure if my ugly mug was still intact. That was quite a good short nap, by the way.
"I don't know... We barely had interactions so we aren't that close to you know, have a casual chitchat on where we're planning to spend our asses off during the end of the world" The office lady however, answered me with lethargy.
"Then we need to find her..." I declared. "We need to find Airi ー!"
"Wait, how about 'no'? I will be real with you but I really don't give a jackshit on whatever happens to her anyway. Being buddy-buddy with a brat I barely know isn't really my thing. Besides, she's old enough to decide on whatever she want to do with her life anyways. She probably don't need your interference with her daddy issues even. Don't you understand? She hates her father and you're just an outsider. End of the story. Just let her be. It's the end of the world anyways. Whatever you do, it won't matter anymore anyways. I doubt you can even change a thing with your pathetic dumbass."
"..."
I was put into silence by her words all of a sudden.
"You..." I tried to utter a word but I couldn't even articulate a good argument about what she said because she's right and I really couldn't find a flaw on her logic.
"Anyways, uhmm..." She took a look at her watch then shifted back her eyes on me again. "If you don't mind, I will go home now. I haven't cooked and had my dinner yet so... Uh, this might be it for tonight, I guess? I don't also want to get dragged by you on their family spat so see ya."
Why did she even accompany me all this time then?... No, that's not the issue here.
"Also, I don't think you should be getting your nose sticking close to them. It's their lives, not yours. You should do something about yourself first. But yeah, good night?" With that final remarks from her, she left.
As I watch her small figure vanishing in the night, I was just there, standing frozen. Thinking about everything she said before she left, I began reassessing my thoughts.
"What now?" Only two words escaped my lips after being shut for a while now.
Seriously though, how come she can act casually like that while I'm losing my mind here?
Where the heck is Airi even?!
What am I going to do now?
"..."
Seriously, what am I doing here to begin with?
I don't know if the pressure of the world ending is finally getting into my head or something. My mind is into haywire right now.
But...
One thing for sure, just for once, I want to do something for the old man before I die.
What should I do?
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Running back to the complex was surprisingly peaceful. Unlike earlier, there was no one in sight. Just me, bathing in the moonlight and street lights.
"O-Old man! Old man! OLD MAAANNNN!!! Open the door! Hey!!" In front of the place where I left my unfinished dinner a few minutes or hours ago (I'm not really sure), I was constantly knocking the door as loud as I could.
"Why are you so loud late at night?" The old man finally opened the door, confused and probably annoyed.
"What brought you here anyways?" He added with his usual smile plastered on his face. This time however, instead of showing its usual cheeriness, it gave off an air of bitterness and lose if that makes sense. Maybe the fact that the world is ending is finally starting to get into him too.
But first of all, before that, I tried to take a glimpse on what's behind him and like I thought, Airi's and my dinner were still on there, waiting to be eaten.
He's really serious when he said that he'll wait for Airi to come back, huh. I wonder if he's always doing this everyday even when I'm not here for I don't know how many days or week or probably even months now...
After thinking about how depressing his life was for probably a long time now, I instinctively grabbed the clueless geezer on both of his shoulders then babbled at him.
"Old man! Listen to me! I found Airi. A-And I uh, I see her earlier at the convenience store. Old man! You should at least meet her!" I began to say some things my brain haven't even processed yet. At this point, I was just blabbering whatever first came to my mind.
In return, the old man just blankly looked at me with question marks written on his face. Few seconds passed before he spoke.
"I see..."
He didn't sound relieved though. In fact, he sounded sadder and lonelier.
"I'm glad she's still doing well..."
He didn't look like he's glad at all.
Also, I wasn't that heartless to tell him that her daughter wasn't also quite doing well in life straight to his face because it would probably just do more harm than good to him. That's why I kept those remaining unsaid lines in me this time.
Seeing him like this broke me inside.
In our remaining days on this planet, is it really alright for us to just end it all like this?
"Old man!" I tried to say something again
However this time, the old man averted his eyes and mumbled, "You don't have to do anything anymore. I'm already happy when you told me she's okay. Honestly, you've done enough. Thank you very much..."
"Old man..."
"If she really want to, she'll come back here by herself. I don't want to force her to do something she don't want to do. Besides, it's all my fault that she's like this anyway."
The geezer took my hands off him and entered his house. He then softly closed his door while mouthing the word "Thanks." for the last time.
And with that, just like earlier, I was on a dead end again.
"She probably don't need your interference with her daddy issues even. Don't you understand? She hates her father and you're just an outsider. End of the story. Just let her be. It's the end of the world anyways. Whatever you do, it won't matter anymore anyways. I doubt you can even change a thing with your pathetic dumbass."
Quite late but my friend's words finally began to sink in me.
I was probably on the wrong all this time...
Sigh, maybe a bit of a good ol' smoke will give me a clarity ー? Huh?
Where the heck were my cigarettes?
I tried to look it up in the pockets of my sweatpants and then I realized that the cup noodles I stole earlier were gone too.
This sucks, man. I literally fought my life on the convenience store just for me to lose my battle trophies afterwards.
"I'm hungry... Maybe, I left it on the park?" Ah, damn it.
Well, I have no choice but to go back there or else, I won't have a good complete dinner for tonight. Asking the old man to let me eat after that dramatic exchanges just a few moments ago would be definitely awkward so I better not.
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"Ha!"
I knew it. My stupid ass seriously forgot my stuff in here. Good thing though, all the noodles I looted from earlier were still in here. They're my world's end food after all and I'm totally fine with it.
Since my mission here is already done, I will go home now, overthink and process everything that just happened tonight and have a good night sleep, probably ー!
"Go the fuck away! You're disgusting! Kyaaahhh!!!"
That pricky annoying loud voice...
"Airi-chan~! Let me fuck you pleasy please GAHAHAHAHA!"
"NOOOOO!!!"
Airi's being assaulted somewhere nearby! I can totally hear them from here...
It's weird though. If I will get a coin for everytime I got to encounter Airi in the least expected yet very convenient moment by pure coincidence, I will probably get two coins. It's not that much but it's just weird that it happened twice. In the same night too, nonetheless.
"You creep! Get the fuck away from me! Go the fuck away! KYAAAHHHH!!!"
Ah, right! I need to save her?
"AIRI!!! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!" I shouted from the bottom of my lungs.
I tried to run around to look for them but they seem to be nowhere here. Like seriously, where are they?
"A-Ah... You... Don't go here, idiot! Leave! This doesn't concern you! GO AWAY! I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP!"
Airi... She heard me. Like I thought, she's probably nearby... And voice was annoying as always.
Thanks to her talkative mouth that I finally figured out where were they.
I began to run towards the direction of her voice. The more I head towards them, the louder their voices get which means my instincts were right.
Similarly to what I heard a few moments ago, Airi was continuously screaming and a guy, who I guessed was a rapist or something, was still continuing his creepy dialogues.
Apparently, as I hear it, there's a lot of them, not just that creepy-ass guy. I think there is probably three or four of them?
"What a pain, seriously." I sighed exasperatedly as I run closer to them.
Well, thinking about it rationally, wanting to pop your cherry is something a typical guy will dream before he die so I really can't blame them if the scary thought of dying a virgin in three days is finally getting into their heads.
"Airi! Where are you?!" I'm probably getting closer to them now. "Airi! AI ー!"
I tripped.
My face hit the ground so hard I felt like my face was bleeding and flattened.
In my fall, I crushed my precious noodles below that it made me want to cry.
"You... You came." Airi muttered, sounding confused while I was still laying flat on the ground.
"What? Did the fucking already happened? Sorry, Airi. I arrived so late to save you..." My voice sounded muffled because like I said, I was technically kissing the ground as of the moment.
"Asshole! You... WHY DID YOU EVEN CAME FOR, IDIOT!!!"
"So the fucking still haven't happened yet, huh..."
"What the fuck are you saying?! A-Anyways, if you will just gonna save me then do it properly!"
For once, she finally asked for someone's help, kinda. All this time, she was screaming and yelling and stuff but she never mentioned anything about asking for help. This one was the first.
Hearing that, I tried to slowly get up on the coolest way possible. "You guys are quite strong, aren't y'all?" I remarked while forming a fighting pose.
"They haven't attacked you yet, idiot." Airi retorted sarcastically like she usually does.
I tried to get a good look on her face, which was full of scars and slap marks by the way, and saw that she's relieved even for a bit. Talk about being a tsundere even before death.
Her clothes were torn apart and her legs were shaking that even a light kick could probably lose her balance. She looks like shit.
Beside her where two thuggish boys that were holding both of her arms.
But... My eyes were focused on them though. A familiar tall long-haired blonde guy who's trying to choke Airi for a while now caught my attention instead.
"You..." I hissed angrily over the guy. "I've been itching to bury my fists in your ugly nasty mug for years now."
"Oh?" The blonde squinted his eyes at me as if he's mocking me. "Who are you again? HAHAHA!"
He laughed and then his chummies followed suite.
"Ah, right... You're the homeless dude who killed Airi's mother right? Of course, I will never forget you." His voice went from an irritating one to being deadly and cold.
After hearing that, Airi then looked at me with confusion and a hint of anger on her eyes.
I suddenly felt a shiver in my spine but I didn't let it give me the cold feet.
Airi was shocked by that sudden revelation but I wouldn't blame her for that though because it's true.
If only I just put an end to this two years ago...