i was screaming your name through the radio. | skk

Chapter 7: Three Cheers For Four Years

January 25th, Seven Years Since the Release of Corruption

There's a weird energy in the office that Dazai doesn't understand. He's having a severely unpleasant day, but that's his own personal suffering. Nobody else is being required to promote a song that they'd rather never hear again.

Dazai notices it right when he walks into the main office from the recording studio. He and Atsushi are taking a break after doing a couple hours of vocals. They're getting close to finishing Atsushi's debut album. The ADA had done a rush job to put out Beast Beneath the Moonlight after signing Atsushi in that mess with PMR and The Guild, but making a full album is taking them much longer.

Dazai watches his coworkers talk to each other in hushed voices while looking at their phones. It's very out of the ordinary. Hushed voices had no place in this office usually.

He turns to Atsushi, who is also scrolling through his phone with an alarmed expression.

"Something wrong?" asks Dazai, raising an eyebrow. His own phone is still on silent, and he'd like to keep it that way.

"Um," says Atsushi, stammering. "Nakahara released a surprise solo album."

Well, that's...unexpected. Dazai actually doesn't want to unpack all the emotions that he feels about that at this moment. But while that might be a cause of concern for Dazai himself, that didn't explain why everyone else is behaving so erratically. "Why would that affect the ADA?"

Atsushi looks even more nervous, going slightly pale. "Um, well, one of the songs is kind of about you, Dazai."

Dazai blinks at him in response. But before he can say anything he hears the song that's playing in the background. He's only heard it once before, but he recognizes it instantly.

"Everything you touch, you destroy. Arahabaki, Arahabaki, Arahabaki," sings Chuuya's voice over the radio, the song as hauntingly beautiful now as it had been seven years ago. The only difference is that Chuuya's voice is even richer now with age and experience.

Dazai is walking towards the door before he even realizes it. "I have to go," he somehow speaks over the giant lump in his throat. He ignores Atsushi's protests as he rushes out of the office.

February, Nearly Two Years and One Month Since the Release of Corruption

Chuuya hadn't exactly been looking forward to his first executive meeting. In fact, he'd been dreading it. Being stuck in a room with Dazai, Kouyou, Mori, and Ace (who Chuuya has only met a few times yet he's somehow earned a spot in the top five most annoying people Chuuya knows, which is a fucking feat with the people Chuuya interacts with) had sounded like his own personal hell.

He had never imagined that his first meeting would be via a video conference at 5:30PM his time discussing what to do about the abrupt resignation of a fellow executive.

It's been a week since Dazai had fucked off to parts unknown and left a heaping pile of shit in his wake. It's been four days since Chuuya had been giving the news. He's spent those days flip-flopping between thinking I can't believe he fucking did this and of course he fucking did this.

During the day he's been fine, work keeps him too busy to waste time thinking about it. It's at night that he's weaker. He sits on the balcony of his humongous rented house in Marseilles, staring out at the Mediterranean Sea instead of sleeping.

Chuuya watches the waves and tries to figure out how things had gone from the way they were a year ago to now. He keeps running through everything over and over again, as if he can pinpoint the exact moment the most important person in his life had decided he wasn't even worth an explanation, a goodbye, anything. He tries to understand how Dazai had gone from whispering I don't want you to go over six months apart to leaving indefinitely without caring at all.