ENG - My best friend's sister ᵐᶦᵏᵉʸ ˣ ᵒᶜ

80

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Baji POV

I'm lying in bed with my cell phone in my hand. Chifuyu is lying next to me - naked, also with his cell phone in his hand and showing me his wonderful body. At some point, he breaks the silence, puts his cell phone to one side and turns towards me. He supports his head with his forearm and looks at me. The twilight through the window bathes his face in a soft, golden light.
"You're going to tell her today, aren't you?" he finally asks. I put my phone aside too and turn my head towards him.
"I need to talk to her sometime, and when better than just before I leave?" I say, sighing softly. A slight smile plays around Chifuyu's lips as he sits down on my lap with a smooth, almost playful movement. "I'm sure she'll be pissed off with you," he says softly, placing his hands on my bare chest, his touch gentle and familiar. "Then I'll have to comfort you because you'll be sad about it." His breath brushes gently over my lips as he leans in and breathes a soft kiss on my lips.
"Maybe," I reply with a grin, but as I look closer into his eyes, I notice the sad expression in them. "What will happen to us when you go to America?" I ask quietly, biting my lower lip. "I'll miss you," I add quietly.

With a sigh, I push him off my lap and stand up to pick up my clothes from the floor. "We're not together, we're just fucking, in case you forgot," I say as I pull my pants on. Behind me, I hear him getting dressed too. Then I feel him move closer and fix his gaze on me. "I know, I just thought..." he begins, then breaks off. "That we..." he adds and stops again.

Scratching my head, I look at him and move towards him to lift his chin with my fingers and force him to look at me. Finally, with a hint of vulnerability in his voice, he says, "I don't want to be just a casual fling. You mean more to me." His words hit me like a blow and I feel my heart beat faster. I know I have feelings for him, but I've never dared to express them because I wasn't sure exactly what they were. Our relationship was complicated from the start. I just didn't want to give him false hope.
I lean forward a little to whisper in his ear - softly and sensitively: "I can't make any promises, but I will think of you. I promise you that I will use this time in America to find out what I really want." My fingers brush over his cheek, and I feel him lean into my touch.
"I... I'll wait," he finally whispers, his voice barely louder than a breath. His cheeks glow. Our lips are only a few centimeters apart.
"I have to go, Chifuyu," I say quietly, breaking away from him to pull on my top. I give him a quick wave and leave him standing in the room.

[...]

"Why the hell would we meet in the middle of these damn 50-meter stairs of all places?" I hear panting beside me. I can't help but grin mischievously as I look at my best friend, who is leaning on the banister, breathing heavily. "Don't exaggerate now. You've just become unathletic," I tease her and pat her on the back. She sits down on one of the steps, leans back slightly and looks up at me.
"I'm really glad you're talking to me again. I thought I had done something wrong because you were avoiding me," Meiyo finally sighs after her breathing has normalized.

I sit down next to her on the steps and look out over Tokyo at night, which looks particularly impressive from up here. The sun has already set and the city shines in its colorful lights in the background. I rest my arm on my knee and my head in my hand. At the bottom of the stairs, I can see Mikey, who has probably brought Meiyo here and is now waiting for her.
"Do you actually remember how we met?" I ask her without responding to her previous sentence and without looking at her. Nevertheless, I can feel her confused look.
"Yes, of course," she mumbles thoughtfully. Her gaze wanders to the distant lights of the city, as if she is reminiscing about old memories. "You and Kazutora protected me from those guys back then." I turn my head to look at her, and our eyes meet for a fleeting moment. "Not just that one time. You kept getting into fights. Every time we ran into each other, you were in trouble," I confirm quietly, and I have to smile as I think of the memories.
"But all those primary school kids were always acting out with that gangster behavior," she grumbled and crossed her arms slightly.
"At some point, it became normal for Kazutora and I to rescue you from those situations, and eventually we became friends," I say, still smiling slightly. "You have an extraordinary talent for getting into situations you don't belong in," I add with a murmur and turn my gaze back to the city lit up at night.
Next to me, I hear her laugh and then sigh. "I think I still have that talent, looking at my current situation."

Then she takes my hand in hers and intertwines our fingers. "I'm really glad I met you both back then," she steers the conversation in a different direction. "Back then was the time I lost Kenny as my brother because he too joined those gangs that always picked on me. He became one of the ones who just beat others up like everyone else did. He was no longer at home, had no time for me and basically just left me alone... That's why I was even happier that I met you guys and wasn't alone anymore," she says quietly, a soft smile on her lips.
"That's why you don't like gangs," I say, more as self-affirmation than anything else. Somehow I have to bring up the point I'm trying to make.
"That's right. On the one hand, because they used to beat me up all the time when I was a kid, and I'm still confronted by some of them today, and on the other, because they took my brother away from me. Even today, you only hear bad things about them on TV. They're violent and so on. I really don't want to have anything to do with them," she explains and squeezes my hand.

And there it is, the topic I was getting at, among other things.


Meiyo POV


"Meiyo," he begins, squeezing my hand tightly, which we are still holding. "You know I've always done my best to protect you from things like that and guys like that. I also never mentioned anything that might hurt your feelings," he continues. I feel a lump in my throat and I have a feeling that something I don't want to hear is about to happen.
"I know," I whisper, my voice barely more than a breath. "And I'm infinitely grateful to you for that."
"Meiyo," he says my name again, and once more I have to swallow hard. I know him well enough by now to know that when he says my name in full, it's something serious, and that makes me feel uncomfortable at the moment.
"Do you know your brother's in a gang?" he finally asks. I add my other hand and nervously start to play with Keikei's fingers. I shake my head and answer quietly, "No." In fact, I don't know for sure, but I always suspected it was him. I have always been able to banish this thought from my mind.
"Do you know that I'm one of them?" he continues. Again, I just shake my head and mumble quietly: "No."
"And what about Mikey? Do you really know who you're with?" He continues to probe, and once again I realize that I know absolutely nothing. Tears slowly start to well up in my eyes, tears of despair. "No," I admit with difficulty. I become painfully aware of the reality - I simply don't know anything.
"We don't just belong to any gang," he continues, looking down at our intertwined hands as I still nervously play with them. His hand between both of mine. "Mikey is the leader of one and your brother is his vice. I'm also one of them, just like Kazutora," he finishes his sentence. I pull my legs close to my body and raise my head slightly. My gaze automatically wanders to the bottom of the stairs, where Mikey is still waiting for me. I had always suspected it might be like this, but the confirmation still hits me like a slap in the face.

"And Kazutora isn't abroad, Meiyo," my best friend continues next to me. "He's in juvenile prison for murder, even if it was an accident. But he was still convicted." That's the sentence that releases the tears I've been trying to suppress. I don't know how to react to it, whether an appropriate response is even possible. Reality feels so surreal at this moment.
"When Mikey told me with a big grin on his face that you're his girlfriend now, I was furious. He's one of my best friends and so are you. I was desperate because I didn't know how to help you, how to keep you away from him - my best friend," he confesses further. As I cry silently to myself and listen, it is impossible for me to say anything back. The reality that my suspicions are true paralyzes my mind. And then the thing with Kazutora, that for years I thought he was abroad but instead he's in juvie - it's all too much.
"Meiyo, that's why I'm asking you..." he begins again, squeezing my hand tightly as he rests his head on my shoulder. Although I'm not looking directly at him, I can see his sad eyes out of the corner of my eye. "Leave Mikey. He won't do you any good, he'll hurt you and..." he falters, his voice dropping to a low whisper. "I won't be able to be there to protect you for the next year." My best friend's words cut deep into my heart, and the tears flow unstoppably.

Startled, I lift my head and look at him. "What? Why?" I ask in a cracked voice, my eyes wide with surprise and confusion. A tired smile plays on his lips as he looks at me after he lifts his head again. "I'm going to America for next year, a year abroad," he explains.
"You can't do that! I mean..." I start, then break off and bite my trembling lower lip. My heart seems to be racing in my chest and I can feel the lump in my throat getting bigger. "When?" I finally ask, my voice softer, as if I'm afraid of the answer. "The plane leaves next weekend." His answer hits me like a slap in the face. A week? That's all we have left.
I swallow the lump in my throat and just clutch at his neck, as if I'm clinging to it to keep him from leaving. "Why didn't you say anything! Why did you avoid me instead of spending your last time with me?" I sob into his shoulder, my tears soaking his top. My fingers claw desperately into the fabric.
"I know, and I'm sorry. I didn't know how to hold back my anger at your relationship, and I didn't want you to feel like..." he interrupts himself and sighs deeply, hugging me tighter. "I don't know what I was thinking exactly," he finally confesses. "I was just angry."

Tears stream freely down my cheeks as I process my best friend's words. A wave of emotions floods through me: fear, confusion, anger and, above all, sadness. It feels like my life has been turned upside down and I don't know how to deal with it. My eyes wander to Mikey, who is still standing at the bottom of the stairs waiting for me. He's looking at me with that carefree, familiar grin that I know so well. But now I can no longer simply dismiss it as innocence. There's obviously a dark world behind that smile that I had no idea about when even my best friend warns me about it.

Neither of us says anything for a while. "Meiyo, I'm really worried about you," my best friend says softly. His eyes are filled with concern and compassion. "You're so important to me, and I don't want you to get dragged into this dangerous world." I can feel the truth in his words. He wants to protect me, just like he always has.
"What do you want me to do?" I finally whisper, my voice brittle and full of desperation. He pulls me closer to him and hugs me comfortingly. "You need to make sure you're safe, Meiyo. I know Mikey well, but his world is dangerous. You deserve someone who will protect you and not put you in danger. Please end your relationship with him, he won't do you any good and he will hurt you."

At these words, I claw even more into my best friend's top. "Why?" I ask, sniffling, without lifting my eyes. "I can't explain it to you, I'm just asking you to trust me."
"I'll think about it," I finally whisper.

[...]

We continue to sit on the stairs for an eternity, the darkness enveloping us and our soft voices mingling with the distant sounds of the city at night.
Time seems to stand still as I say goodbye to Keikei with a heavy heart. It feels as if a piece of my heart is going with him, and I wish I never had to let him go. But he promises me that we will meet again the next day and in the remaining days he has left in Tokyo.

Finally, he gets up and climbs the stairs to go home, while I walk down the stairs where Mikey is still waiting for me. The look on his face is worried as he notices my tears and he comes right up to me.
"Mikey," I whisper as I stand in front of him. He immediately takes my face in his hands. "Why are you crying? Do I have to hurt him?" he asks worriedly as his eyes pierce me. I shake my head and put my hands on his chest to push him slightly away from me so I can look into his eyes.
"Mikey, why...," I start again. "Why is everyone telling me to stay away from you? That you won't do me any good? That you'll hurt me?" I ask, my voice shaky. Under my hands, I can feel him immediately tense up at my question. He removes his hands from my face and lets them hang beside his body.

He hesitates for a moment before answering, his voice barely more than a whisper: "I don't... I don't want to tell you that, Mei," and averts his eyes.

"Why?" I ask, and he replies quietly, "Because then you might not love me anymore."

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