Fear of Falling (Izaya Orihara)

Chapter 23: Unhelpful Advice

"Kida! Over here!" I waved my hand back and forth to catch the blonde's attention. Kida gave me a large grin and walked over to where I was seated in the cafe.

He sat down in front of me, grinning excitedly.

I frowned at him. "What's got you so excited?"

Kida chuckled. "You ask me to meet you here, just us two. It's like a date." He said.

I rolled my eyes. "You know this isn't a date."

"You said we'd go out together when we first met." Kida pouted. When we'd first met, I'd accepted jokingly just to see what he'd do. Of course neither of us were actually interested.

"Well then this counts as your date." I said.

"Wow, just like that huh?" Kida shook his head as though he was disappointed. "Anyways, I'm really curious. What advice does a grown woman want to ask a high schooler?"

"It's about a guy. Well, two guys..."

"Whaaat? You need dating advice?" Kida asked in shock. I couldn't tell if he was joking or not. "You're like 20 and you're asking romantic advice from me, a high school kid. I mean yeah, I'm popular with the ladies, but do you really want advice from me of all people?" Kida said. "And don't you write romance novels?"

"Don't even start with me." I blushed in embarrassment. "And for the record, it's not really dating advice. I just want to ask you advice on some stuff that happened yesterday... Guys just happen to be involved."

I wanted advice on my current situation, but there was a number of people I couldn't talk to. Izaya was out of the question, Shizuo seemed to be avoiding me, and Mikado and Anri were both shy and would have gotten embarrassed talking about this with me. My only option left was Kida. But I wasn't about to tell him how few friends I had.

"Ok ok. 'Guy advice.'" Kida laughed. "What's your problem?"

Where do I even begin... I started off by telling Kida a rough summary of everything that happened yesterday.

"Sooo." Kida began. "What you're saying is that you have bad taste in men."

"Wow, thanks." I said, sarcasm leaking from my tone.

"Sorry." Kida laughed. "But it seems true. I mean, the guy you went on a date with sounds like a prick, honestly. How did you even end up liking him in the first place? What kind of jerk goes on a date with a girl and threatens her afterwards?"

I snorted. Maybe coming to Kida for advice was a bad idea.

"Don't do that, I told you I'm not the best person to ask for advice." Kida said. "The other guy is easier for me to get a read on. It seems like he likes you and he's jealous that you went out with someone else. The issue is that he's too shy to tell you. I think he was offering to go out with you, but you got confused and he got embarrassed. So now he's avoiding you instead of talking to you."

Really? Shizuo's jealous? I'm doubtful of that. He's probably just upset because it was Izaya I went out with. I'm sure he just wants to take me out to eat somewhere and distract me or something. But if he really does like me that way, then I suppose . . . "That sounds like Shizuo." I sighed.

There was a short silence. Then I realized I'd accidentally name-dropped. Great. I mentally kicked myself.

Kida, who finally absorbed what I'd said, jumped up from his chair, slamming his hands down on the table. "WHAT?!" He yelled.

"Kidaa! I almost spilled my hot chocolate!" I pouted, grabbing a napkin and quickly wiping up a few drops that spilled on the table.

"Sorry." Kida apologized to me and the surrounding customers before sitting back down. Then he leaned closer to me as if he was going to tell me something secretive. "But did you mean Shizuo as in Shizuo Heiwajima?"