Ripped Love Letters / Isagi Yoichi

IV

Isagi's on his walk home, his ears soaking up the sounds of cars passing by along with birds chirping. He hands over the street vendor around a hundred yen, getting a vanilla waffle cone ice-cream in return.

He takes a few licks of it, an accidental bite out of it too-- but saves the majority of it for the box of stray cats that live a block away from his home. He's thinking about taking one of them to his house, now that he knows Kazuya; he could offer one or two to him.

The streets are empty, it's six in the afternoon, Isagi's free to skip in his steps if he wants too. Nobody's watching, he's alone.

He's getting closer to the alleyway, and feels the corner of his eyes crinkle up with a soft smile on his face. The kittens notice him and start running to his crouched frame.

"Hey!" He cooes, lowering the hand that's holding the dairy treat to their level. "Here." He pets them, and sits down to let them gather on his lap.

He picked one up, it had grey fur and green eyes, a russian blue. It's small, maybe two months old. It's eyes are pretty, he thinks.

The ice-cream cone is finished, and the cats start leaving his sides after getting their daily dose of head pats. The russian blue stays in his lap, it wasn't budging-- so why not take it home?

So now, he had to run home, with a kitten wrapped in his jacket to protect itself from the rain. Yup, it started raining when he was a mere two minutes away from his house.

He fumbled with his keys and wiped his muddy shoes on the doormat before entering. His mom gasps, "Yoichi? You're dripping wet!" Iyo hands him a towel from the kitchen, and sees the small cat that's zipped in his damp sweater. "Is that... a cat?"

He slipped his shoes off, "Yeah..." He holds it up in one hand, "It's a cat."

---

Arata, the cat he took in, was now dry and sleeping on his bed covers. It was curled into a ball, hiding its face in it's own fur.

He absentmindedly smiled, and curled his index finger to pet it. He sat down at his desk and reached into his school bag, pulling out a purple pen. A light bulb went off in his head, the letter!

Isagi skipped towards his dirty laundry bin and took out the pants he had worn, still damp from the rain.

The letter was wet, but the corners weren't. He slowly opened it so it wouldn't tear, and started to read the pink smothered writing.

"Isagi! Hello.

I'll be honest with you, I didn't have enough time to sit down today and properly write down my feelings.

So maybe this'll seem rushed, or maybe it'll be just the right length to fit in your schedule.

I didn't see you at lunch, and I got a bit disappointed. One of my friends did tell me they saw you in the library, talking to Kazuya. I'm glad, he's a great guy. You should definitely ask him if he likes baseball, he'll talk so passionately about it."

Isagi notes this, he'll take this advice with a grain of salt.

"I hope you're doing well, well enough to stay awake during class. I had to cover for you during class yesterday, you know? I told the teacher you had accidentally taken a sleeping pill instead of a pain killer.

Well, whatever. Get some sleep, yeah?

On the topic of sleep, and stuff-- I rarely got any yesterday. This might seem bold of me to say, but I was thinking of you all night. I could not get you out of my head! It was so frustrating. Seriously, I think you're the source of my stress acne."

Isagi laughs, his cheeks holding a rosy color.

"I'll talk to you later, Isagi."