𝙱𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙳𝚊𝚠𝚗 - 𝚃. 𝚃𝚘𝚢𝚘𝚖𝚒𝚝𝚜𝚞 𝚡 𝙾𝙲

Chapter Seventeen

"Izumiya?" A voice that she couldn't quite place where she'd heard it before had cut her off. The moment she let her hands fall back into her lap and recognized who was approaching them, her eyes widened in sheer terror and her heart froze mid-beat. 

"Izumiya, is that you?"

With all eyes on her, the brunette, who couldn't seem to catch a god damn break, swallowed back the lump that began to rise in her throat. A small, very forced smile found its way to her lips as one of the younger volunteers from a homeless shelter on the opposite side of the city approached.

"I saw that sweater and knew it must've been you," the twenty-one-year-old smiled widely, his arms crossing over his chest. "We were getting worried about you seeing as it's been a few months since you came by New Beginnings."

Izumiya's mind both raced and blanked, something she didn't realize was even possible until now. Don't they have some sort of rule about contact outside of the shelter? Why did this idiot think this was a good idea?! What do I even say?! Maybe I can play it off like I volunteer there too...

"Hah, sorry..." she rubbed the back of her neck as she forced herself to speak, her eyes boring into his as she tried to relay the silent message for him to smarten up and play along. "I-I guess I forgot to call and see if you needed me to cover any shifts."

The raven-haired man's head tilted to the side like a confused puppy. "Huh? No, I meant like, you haven't stayed with us for a while. You're okay though? Have you found somewhere permanent to live now? It's kinda weird not seeing you, you're like a veteran to us."

Toyomitsu's attention never left Izumiya, her tense posture and the continually changing expression on her face as she kept trying to stay composed only to immediately fail and start again, had him deeply concerned.

Izumiya's deepest secret had been blatantly exposed and she weighed her options in the long moment between when the man had stopped talking and she was supposed to reply. Her blood was pumping so fast it was all she could hear and she felt her chest constricting, limiting her to shallow breaths that only kept coming faster and faster, assaulting her lungs as panic set in.

Now Toyomitsu knew. Now his best friend knew, too. Izumiya had never ever planned on telling anyone she had experienced homelessness, let alone that it had been for a significant amount of time. What would he think of her now? Would he pity her? Would he look down on her and think she hadn't bothered to work hard or that she was pathetic? ...Would his feelings change?

The sensation of the blonde's hand giving her shoulder a squeeze had the opposite effect than intended and Izumiya instantly felt her eyes begin to water. Unable to be on the receiving end of a pitiful look from the man she'd fallen for, Izumiya shook off Toyomitsu's hand and jolted up from the bench before running as fast as she could and not looking back.

"Ivy, wait!" Toyomitsu called after her, and when she didn't stop, he narrowed his eyes at the stranger in front of them before booking it in the direction she'd left.

The volunteer scratched his cheek as he glanced over at Mizushima, who sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Was it something I said?"

"Of course it was something you said," he muttered. "How would you feel if someone came up to you when you were with other people and started asking why you stopped visiting a homeless shelter?"

The man grimaced - he hadn't thought of it like that. It was the first time he'd ever seen anyone from the shelter out and about, and he and the other staff had been a bit worried about Izumiya so he didn't think twice about it once he saw her. He was just glad to see she was okay. "Shit," he whispered.