𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑫𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒕'𝒔 𝑻𝒖𝒕𝒐𝒓 | Kazutora Hanemiya x Reader

Chapter 14

"I seriously fucked up," Kazutora sighed as he covered his head with a pillow.

"What do you mean?" Chifuyu asked. He, Kazutora, and Baji were hanging out in Baji's room. Chifuyu brought Peke J over, and he and Baji were playing with the mischievous cat while Kazutora sulked on the bed.

"Y/N is never going to talk to me ever again," he mumbled.

"What the hell did you do?" Baji asked as he teased Peke J with a feather wand.

"I'm just stupid..." Kazutora laid the pillow to his side. "Remember that day on the beach? I dropped her off at her house and after she went in, her mom saw me and told me to stay away from her."

"And you actually stayed away?" asked Chifuyu. "Yeah, you are stupid."

"Yeah, it's not like you to listen to parents anyway—OW!" Baji exclaimed as the black cat bit his thumb. "Stupid cat... Anyway, so what are you going to do now?"

"What can I even do? I'm so confused."

"Well, what do you want to do, Kazutora-kun?" Chifuyu asked.

"Obviously I want to keep hanging out with Y/N," he answered.

"Then do that," Baji said. "There, problem solved."

"Ugh..." Kazutora groaned, but he knew his friends were right. He would apologize to Y/N—he'd grovel at her feet if it came to it. Forget what her mom said. He just wants everything to go back to normal.

Peke J hopped on Kazutora's stomach, demanding cuddles from the delinquent. "Okay, Peke J, I'll talk to Y/N. Thank you for all your help!"

"Wow," Chifuyu said as he rolled his eyes.

+ + +

"Hey, Y/N," Erina said, "Want to grab something to eat at the school store with me?"

It was the Monday after the school festival and the second years were having their lunch break. Y/N was as miserable as ever. Things did not cool down with her mom over the weekend. Both had been giving each other the silent treatment and the two-person home was always tense. Despite all that, Y/N didn't feel sorry at all. She just couldn't understand why her mother couldn't see things from her point of view. She was also tired from her restless sleep and dreams of her dad.

"Oh, sorry Erina," Y/N replied, "I need to run a quick errand for Fujimoto-sensei." With that, Y/N went out the door and headed to the preparation room. She took a seat at the desk and rested her head on her folded arms. She didn't really have to do any errands—she just wanted to take a quick power nap to sustain her for the rest of the day.

Kazutora's footsteps were so light that Y/N didn't hear him until he was already seated next to her.

"Y/N," he said softly, "I want to talk to you."

"What is it?" She asked without lifting her head to face him.

"When I decided to avoid you, I thought I would be doing you a favor. I can't pretend I don't have the reputation I have. From the start of you tutoring me, I was worried that how people would view you would be different since we spent so much time together. And what your mom said fully convinced me of that. I thought that avoiding you would affect me more than it would affect you. I thought you wouldn't care about not talking to me anymore—and that it would actually be better for you. But I was wrong. If I'm being completely honest, it makes me kind of happy that you're so mad at me. But I don't want you to be mad at me anymore. I'm really sorry for what I did and I shouldn't have let what your mom said get to me."

Y/N turned her head in his direction and was surprised to see that he had plopped his head down on the table, too, and was now making direct eye contact with her. They stared at each other for what felt like an hour, then she turned her head back to face down to the table.

"I accept your apology, but I'm still really angry," she said. "Not just at you, but also at my mom. I'm really tired and can't think right now."

"Okay," Kazutora murmured. "I'll let you go back to sleep." He got up from his chair and glanced one last time at Y/N. "If you need to talk and get stuff out of your chest or whatever, I'm right here."

Y/N tried to sleep, but she couldn't stop blinking away tears. She was so occupied with her problems with her mom that she only realized now how much she missed Kazutora. She wanted to confide in him what she had been going through at home—he would probably understand where she was coming from the most. Her sadness about Kazutora quickly turned to anger at her mom. Why did she have to say those things to him? Y/N unknit her brows and closed her eyes. Knowing she had such limited time to get rest, she emptied her mind and drifted off to sleep.

+ + +

It was 8 p.m. at Roppongi Hills, and Mizuki L/N, Y/N's mother, was navigating her way through a winding alley. She was meeting with a new client, but she had gotten utterly lost.

"Why did this place have to be so far from the parking area?" she sighed to herself. She tried searching for the address on her phone but to no avail, so she had to rely on nonsensical directions she received via email. "Why couldn't he meet me in the office? We should really reconsider this house call bullshit," Mizuki thought. But based on the email she received, this would potentially be an easy case with a huge payout—she would be stupid to not accommodate her client.

Her thoughts were disturbed by the sound of footsteps behind her. Her heart raced as she turned around to look at the man following her.

"Remember me?" He quietly asked.

He was wearing a dark jacket with the hood pulled over his head. The streetlights barely illuminated his face, but even then, she could see that he was unkempt and had dark circles around his eyes. He did look vaguely familiar, but she struggled to place him. All she knew at that moment was that she was scared.

His mouth twisted into a grotesque grin. "I'll give you a hint. I'm the man you fucked over with that stupid divorce agreement."

Suddenly her memories came flooding back. Mizuki was his ex-wife's attorney, and she was able to win her a hefty alimony payout and full custody of her kids. But it wasn't like it was hard—this man had a record of domestic abuse against both his wife and children. She knew this man was dangerous, and she realized he had probably lured her out here to confront her.

He brandished a small, sharp knife from his pocket. She didn't let him get another word out when turned around and ran. She screamed for help but the man was fast, and she suddenly felt a sharp pain behind her shoulder. She fell to the ground and saw blood dripping around her. She faced the assailant and tried to shield herself with her arms as the man raised the knife.

Suddenly, headlights flooded their surroundings and the roar of an engine rang through their ears. "Hey!" a voice screamed, "What do you think you're doing?"

Running towards the man was the boy with yellow highlights that Mizuki had seen once before.