CONNECTIONS, H. Kazutora

05

"What were you doing at Mikey's place?" Kazu asked me with a threatening look, I can tell he's really mad right now.

"He invited me to eat cake with him, Emma and their grandfather that's all.." I answered stuttering a bit as a sweat dropped from my forehead to my cheek "Oh really?" "Yeah, nothing else" We stared at each other for a while until Kazu let out a big sigh. I slightly tilt my head to the side giving him a confused look. "Fine sorry for wasting your time.. I got to
go—" "Kazu why does your mood always change every time I mention Mikey and the others?" I asked turning my gaze down to the ground not daring to look at him in the eyes. "I don't want to talk about it." He said in a low voice but I could still hear him. "You know they miss you right?" "(name)." "I can talk to them about forgiving you and maybe they'll accept you back!" "(NAME)." The way Kazu raised his voice startled me making my body jump back a little "Sorry.." I apologized as I bit my lower lip. "I'm not going back to them. Bye (name)." He walked away leaving me there in front of my house frozen and speechless.

After that incident, Kazu stopped contacting me. I tried to go visit him at his house but he was never there. Where else would he be if he isn't at home? So many questions kept popping up in my mind. It's been 2 weeks since I last talked or even seen him. I wanted to ask the others about him but i'm afraid they'll react the same way Kazu reacted when I mentioned their names.. I couldn't take it anymore I need to talk about it to someone but who... Oh I forgot about Hina and Emma. Hina is Takemichi's girlfriend, Mikey told me about a guy getting beaten up by Kiyomasa and then later introduced Takemichi to me face to face when we were skipping class. It was awkward at first but we got pretty close and Takemichi introduced me to Hina who's a really nice person.

I made up my mind and decided to call Emma since she knows who Kazu is. "Hey Emma-chan can I go to your house? I need someone to talk to." "Huh? (name)-chan? Of course you can come to my house, i'll be in my room" "Okay, thanks" I ended the call and walked to her house.

15 minutes later, I arrived in front of Emma's room. Good thing Mikey wasn't home. Lifting up my hand to knock, the door slid open hitting the wall making a loud thud revealing Emma with a worried expression "Hey Em—" Before I could even finish my sentence Emma pulled me inside shutting the door and turned around using her hand to gesture for me to sit down somewhere. I chose to sit on the floor leaning my back against Emma's bed. She did the same thing and sat next to me "So what happened (name)?" She asked me. A big sigh left my lips as I started speaking.

"I know I should've told you or the others about this earlier but you know Kazu got out of juvie right?" I looked at her, she hummed telling me to continue.

"So like i'm the only person he hangs out with after he got out of juvie, everything was normal at first but then one time when we were at the arcade I saw Mikey and Draken across the street so I tried to call out for them to hang out with us but Kazu covered my mouth and his whole mood changed from being happy to the opposite.. I don't know why he reacts that way. And now he's been missing for 2 weeks, I don't know where he could've gone to... I'm worried sick." I explained everything to Emma as tears slid down my cheeks. She didn't say anything but listened to me closely and gave me a hug allowing me to cry on her shoulder. I really appreciated it. After I was done I wiped my tears away with a tissue that Emma handed to me a while ago and got ready to leave.

"Thank you for having time for me Emma-chan, I really appreciate it i'm gonna go home now" I thanked her giving one last hug.

"Anytime, stay safe okay?"

I nodded at her with a gentle smile and walked out of her house and back to mine.

Laying flat on my bed doing literally nothing the entire time, I tilt my head upwards looking at the clock above my bedroom door. 12:34 AM. Damn how long have you been laying there?

All of a sudden my phone started ringing, I reached my hand out to the table beside my bed where my phone was kept. I took a small glance at my phone screen to check who's calling and got a little surprised when Kazu's contact name was on the screen, I pressed the pick up button without hesitation and sat up straight on top of my bed.

"Meet me at the park in 10 minutes." Was all I heard before the call ended.

Odd... Why would he want to meet up in the middle of the night? Well whatever this is your only chance to see him again after those 2 weeks of him disappearing.

Forgetting to put on a jacket, you ran out of your house wearing a pair of slippers and a small purse to keep your phone in it. It was freezing outside but you've already 5 minutes away from your apartment so there's no turning back. Finally you arrived at the park looking left and right until you spotted someone sitting down at the end of the slide. You slowly walked towards that person to make sure it's actually who you were looking for, walking closer and closer you could make out a tiger tattoo on the side of the guy's neck. Yeah that's him. That's Kazutora sitting on the slide looking all depressed and shit.

"Hey." I greeted him in a low voice.

"..."

After a few minutes of waiting for a response quietly, I broke the silence and asked "So you called me out here in the middle of the night to just say nothing?" "...." Still no response. "Come on Kazu, it's freezing out here—" My eyes widened a bit when I felt him wrapping his arms around me. Warm. He's warm. His jacket is giving me warmth.

"I'm sorry."

"Hm..?" I hummed in confusion to why he's apologizing.

"I'm sorry for disappearing for 2 weeks. Sorry.." He apologized again as he snuggled his face into my shoulder.

"Kazu you can stop apologizing.. It's okay but can you please tell me where or what you were doing in those past 2 weeks?" I asked him pushing him away gently and dragged him by the wrist letting him follow me to one of those plastic rock climbing walls for kids and sat the both of us down leaning our backs against the wall.

"So..?"

"Those past 2 weeks... I joined a gang." Kazu said looking down to his hands that were laying on the ground.

"Hm..? Is that so? What's it called.?" I asked him again but this time I was starting to get sleepy so I turned to the side and rested my body on Kazu's back.

"Valhalla." He respond in a gentle tone still looking down.

"Haven't heard a single thing about it.." I chuckled a bit before closing my eyes.

Everything went quiet again but I didn't really mind it since I finally got to see Kazu again and an explanation of why he disappeared.

....

"(name)."

"Hm..?"

"Can you promise me one thing?"

"What is it?"

"Please don't ever leave me."

"Pfft. Dumbass why would I ever leave you? No matter what happens i'll always be with you till the very end." I mumbled loud enough for Kazu to hear as I slowly drifted off asleep.

Kazutora was about to stand up but realized that you were asleep and your body was freezing cold. He took off his jacket and gently wrapped it around your body before carrying you in a bridal style back to your apartment. He turned the door knob open and was kind of disappointed that you forgot to lock the doors before leaving to meet up with him. He placed you on your bed ready to leave when he suddenly felt his shirt being pulled from the back. "No... Don't go yet.." He was a bit shocked when you said that, a small chuckle left his lips as he turned around climbing onto your bed and spent the rest of the night watching you fall asleep.

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Hey I just finsihed reading the new tokyo revengers chapter 222 and i cant stop cryinj, i cant rlaky see the scrreen rn bc my eyes are blurry but i still decided to finish this chapter so if there are some spelling mistakes then please just ignroe it