the idols race for love, are you ready? | book one | utapri

chapter twenty-seven

ａｎ   ｅｍｏｔｉｏｎａｌ
ｆｉｒｓｔ   ｄａｙ   ｉｎ
ｏｋｉｎａｗａ

『 your p.o.v 』

          "___! Why weren't you answering my calls? I was so scared- I thought something bad happened to you! Where are you? Ringo and Ryuuya weren't answering their phones either. I thought you disappeared like he did-"

          "Reiji," I cut my idol off, my eyes widening some at the sheer panicked tone his voice had taken on as he rushed out every question, "we were all on a plane so we couldn't have our phones on. I'm alright, calm down."

          The brunette exhaled a shaky sigh. "You can't just disappear like that on me." He paused as he tried to gather his thoughts. "I was so scared."

          That one stung to listen to. Glancing around to my friends who were already shooting me concerned glances as we walked out from the main terminal we just landed in and over to the baggage claim area, I offered them a small smile. "Haruka, could you grab my suitcase for me while I talk to Reiji? He's not doing too hot and I want to talk to him if you're okay with grabbing my things?"

          With a kind and warm smile, Haruka nodded. "Of course. Tell Reiji we all say hi!" She chirped happily just as I began walking away from our large group of students to go stand near the huge windows overlooking the airport's runways.

          "You're not going to leave me, right ___?" Reiji asked timidly from his end of the line, another plane landing just outside.

          "Of course I won't leave you," I reassured. "You're overthinking things Reiji. I'm just on some vacation Saotome wanted us to go on. He didn't even bother telling us where we were going so I couldn't tell you or mom anything. I'm sorry for worrying you so much."

          The brunette laughed a little in disbelief. "Thank god. I thought I lost you." He said, chuckling a little more before the line went silent for a few minutes.

          "You know Rei-chan," I paused as I debated whether or not I should say this, "just because he disappeared all those years ago doesn't mean I'll be going anywhere anytime soon so don't worry so much about me, okay? I will always stay by your side and once I graduate, I'll be composing for you and for Quartet Night so you'll see me even more often then. Don't stress yourself out unless there's a reason for you to get so worked up alright? It's not good for your health to always be so concerned with others."

          Another couple of minutes passed in silence as I watched the white fluffy clouds up in the sky roll on by over the runways. "Mom told you about Aine, didn't she?" He asked softly.

          Sighing, I nodded despite him not being able to see as my gaze shifted downwards to the ground. "She did. You know how caring she is, you get it from her after all so of course she'd tell me. Mom just wants you to be happy and, we both can see you're still affected by Aine's disappearance."

          "It's just, he was there one second and the next, he was gone- I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye." Reiji said with a broken, dejected laugh, his voice cracking some. "He tried to call me while I was working and by the time I tried to call him back, Ryuuya was already rushing into my dressing room to tell me Aine had gone missing. It's all my fault. I could have helped him-"

          "Reiji, shut up. None of this is your fault and you need to understand this." I cut him off without a second of hesitation. "Whatever happened to Aine wasn't your fault, okay? You didn't do anything wrong, you couldn't have done anything differently, and you're not to be blamed for his disappearance. You're human Reiji and it's okay for you to miss your best friend, but disregarding your health in order to work hard enough to the point you won't have to think about him isn't the answer to anything which is why you ended up in the hospital.