Breaking Point || on hold

Chapter Four

The next morning, I woke up at 4 am. I tried and tried to go back to sleep since I was tired but my eyelids were stubborn and would not stay closed.
So that is how I am now sitting on the rooftop, on this annoying late spring morning. Slowly, over the hours, I see some people starting to wake up, or get ready for work. Others, going out for a morning jog. And then soon, there are students heading to school.
I've never been to public school but I know it starts early. I have been homeschooled my entire life, never once stepping foot into a public school but to be completely honest, I wish I did go to public school.
From what the guys have told me, yeah it's a pain in the ass. With unfair teachers and stupid drama, but it also seems like fun. Like you meet people of your same interest and such and it just seems less lonely and more fun than homeschool.
But there's no point in dwelling on the fact, since I'm basically finished with school already. Just a few more things to do and then I am legally finished with school and can move on with my life. Although to be completely honest, I don't know what I want to do in the future. I guess I'll just figure it out as I go.
"Naomi? What are you doing up here so early?" Tatara asks, while rubbing away the sleep from his eyes.
"I could ask you the same thing" I counter before looking ahead again, noticing more and more people waking up and leaving for the day.
"I couldn't really sleep" he answers
"Welcome to my life" I mutter earning a small frown from him.
"What do you mean Naomi? Are you always awake this early?"
"Sometimes. It takes me hours to be able to sleep and then I only am able to sleep for a few hours before I wake up, tired or not. It sucks" I finally tell him, of course not saying anything about exploring the city in the middle of the night.
"Hm. Maybe we can get you some medicine? I'll talk to Izumo and Mikoto-san about it later. Anyways, what are you going to do today?" He ask as he joins me on the floor.
"Probably go out now that I'm ungrounded" yes, after almost 3 weeks I was finally liberated from house arrest, "Maybe find something to do around here. I don't know. What do you usually do Tatara?" I ask. I'm always gone so I never really know what he does throughout the day, if he just takes care of people or if he goes shopping or works the bar or anything.
"Well everyday is pretty much the same. I stay and take care of everyone here a lot and joke around but if Izumo needs me to run an errand then I go do it. Or if I feel Anna needs something, I go out with her"
"So basically you do things for everyone else. Why not yourself?" I ask.
"Eh, I don't really know. I guess it's not my thing. Not everyone is selfish like you Naomi-chan. Leaving everyone everyday for hours!" Tatara says in a joking matter.
"I am not selfish" I scoff at him before pretending to be hurt. This goes on for a while until Tatara has to go down and start for the day.

After my morning with Tatara, I go shower and do my usual routine, today getting dressed into black shorts, a gray tee and a army green jacket. I pull on my all black vans and head out once again, with my messenger bag.
Today I decide to change things up and go eat at a diner instead of just grabbing coffee and going. So I sit at a table all by myself, near the window with a cup of coffee in front of me.
"Hey what can I get you to eat?" A waitress with dark brown shoulder length straight hair and neat bangs asks.
"Uh can I have a strawberry crepe?" I ask not really knowing what to order.
"Sure thing kid. Hey, shouldn't you be in school?" She asks as she writes my order down on a piece of paper.
"I'm homeschooled"
"Ah alright. Ok I'll be back with your food" she walks away from my table and to the kitchen. I go back to looking outside the window, looking at all the people passing by in a hurry. I wonder where they work at, or what they do. Do they enjoy their life? I don't think I would enjoy living the same routine everyday.
"One strawberry crepe. Hey do you mind if I sit with you? I'm on my break now" she asks as she sets my plate in front of me.
"Go ahead" I nod to the seat in front of me. She grabs her own plate of food from a counter nearby and sits in front of me, both of us looking outside once more before turning back in front of each other.
"Thanks for letting a me sit with you. My name is Mari Shibata. What's yours?" She ask as she cuts a piece of her omelette
"Naomi Suoh" I say after taking a bite from my crepe.
"Pretty name. So tell me about yourself Naomi Suoh"
"Ok" I begin, putting my fork down nervously. "Uh I'm 18 years old, my favorite color is purple. I have an older brother and I'm homeschooled and thankfully, almost finished. And you Mari?"
"Well Naomi, I'm 23 years old, my favorite color is green, I have 4 brothers and I am still in university: I got held back a year when I was younger" and so begins our long conversation about trying to get to know each other. In between learning new things about each other, she gets up and waits tables every once in a while since there aren't many customers.
In the end, I spend two hours at the diner just talking with Mari and drinking cups of coffee.
"Well it's time for me to go. I'll see you around Mari, nice talking to you" I say before waving goodbye and heading out.
Feeling energized from all the coffee I drank at the diner, I go to the train station and take a random train. Today I want to see where the universe takes me. So I get on a train and listen to music while I'm on the train.
Once the train finally stops, I get out and see Where I'm at. Turns out, I'm near the school on the island. I've never been on the actual island though so maybe this can be a fun experience.
I choose to walk across the bridge that connects the island to the rest of the city and enjoy the view of the sparkling blue water.
After a pretty long walk, I finally make it onto the island. I pull up the hood of my jacket and walk around. Little robots are cleaning the floors while students talk and walk around. I clearly stand out since I'm not wearing their uniform so I go towards the trees and lurk away from anyone's view.
Unfortunately my mini adventure is interrupted when my phone rings. I quickly answer it, hoping nobody heard my phone ring.
"Yeah?" I answer the phone
"Hey Naomi we need you to get home quickly. We'll explain when you get here just hurry" Izumo states quickly before hanging up. Guess that's it for today.
I hurriedly but quietly make my way back to the train station and take a train back home.
I walk the quick ten minutes from the train station to HOMRA and enter.
"Finally, where have you been? Anyways that's not the point, I need your help. Some of our guys got hurt and I need your help with bandaging them up. The others that aren't hurt went to go after the guys who did this to us" Izumo explains as he hands me bandages and antiseptic wipes with medical tape, cotton balls, tweezers and some creams to help for deep cuts and such. I grab all the things he hands me before looking around the room for my first 'patient'
Fushimi is the first one in my sight who looks badly injured with cuts and bruises all over him. He's bleeding from his head and his mouth but his overall expression on his face is annoyed.
"Hey" I greet as I set everything down on the table he's sitting on.
"I don't need your help, I'm fine" he says bitterly while looking away.
"No you look like shit. You need help" I say as I grab a cotton ball and rubbing alcohol and begin cleaning up the cuts on his head that are bleeding
"You're one to talk" he mutters. Neither of us have spoken about the incident that happened almost a month ago, which was fine with me. But hearing him mention it again, reminds me that he did still remember it, including the scars on my arms.
"Ow" he winces slightly as the alcohol and cut make contact.
"Sorry" I mutter as I continue to clean up the cuts on his face and put on bandages on where it was most needed.
"How did this happen?" I ask as I roll up his sleeve and begin on the gashes on his arm.
"We were just out and then some stupid street gang begins jumping us. It wasn't a problem at first but then more and more of them came and we couldn't just burn everything down since houses were nearby" I nod at his story while wrapping up his arm.
"They are the same guys that jumped you" he adds.
My hands freeze for a moment before I cut the bandage and move on to his next arm.
"I'm sorry" i mumble as I look over the bruises that pop out against his ivory skin tone.
"Tch, just hurry and don't go doing stupid things on your own" he says resting his head on his other bandaged arm and looking away bored. I do as I'm told and clean what I have to before moving on to Eric while Izumo does Yata and Tatara gets ice for everyone who needs it.
I learned how to bandage everyone and basically be an almost nurse when I was 10 years old. HOMRA wasn't a thing but my brother still got into lots of stupid fights and even though he won, he still got hurt. So I was there to bandage him, as well as help Tatara and Izumo whenever they got hurt as well. I learned on my own and as HOMRA came to be, I continued practicing bandaging people up while teaching Tatara and Izumo how to as well.
When I finally lean back from finishing on Eric, everyone else is already done. I get up and throw away all the trash before washing my hands.
"Hey Naomi, thanks for helping out. Anyways, Tatara told me today that you're having trouble sleeping. Whenever you're up for it, we can go and get you medicine from either a drug store or a doctor: which ever you prefer" Izumo offers as he leans slightly onto the bar counter top.
"Yeah either one sounds good. Just tell me you're free to go" I respond while getting myself a cup of water to drink.
The front door bell chimes as it opens and in walks a couple of bloody HOMRA members wearing victorious grins. I take a gulp of water before going over to them and once again, playing nurse while they tell us all about how they beat the street gang.

"You know I have yet to forget what I saw on your arms and you still haven't told me anything about it" Fushimi interrupts my thoughts as he comes out into the cool night with me. I look up to him from my seat on the curb before looking back down at my hands that hang between my knees.
"Yeah" I mutter
"If you don't tell me soon, I'll tell your brother so might as well tell me now before I get them involved" he threatens as he takes a seat next to me.
I take a shaky deep breath before looking up and meeting his cold cobalt eyes that have always intrigued me.
"Why do you even care" I ask trying to avoid answering his question.
"Tch, I don't care I'm just asking" he rolls his eyes and looks away.
"Whatever. Long story short, I felt like absolute shit and the only way i felt ok was from cutting myself. Happy?" I say sarcastically before going back to looking down at the paved road.
"That's stupid. If you just felt like shit then do something besides pitying yourself and cutting yourself" he muttered
"It's more than that but I guess you're right. Whatever, what's done is done. I don't do it anymore. You can leave now" I look away wait for him to leave. But to my surprise he just stays put and looks up at the sky. We stay in silence before he finally decided to stand up.
"You really shouldn't hurt yourself or think badly of yourself at all. You know, you're not that bad. You're one of the only bearable ones around here" he mutters before turning away and saying a 'good night' before heading to what I presume to be his home. Huh, never thought I'd get that kind of advice from him of all people.