My Crown [IDOLiSH7]

21: The end of Kujou Riku

"Iori"

Tenn and Gaku left the room for the two to have their moment of reunion. Iori took a chair and sat in front of Riku so he could see his boyfriend's face fully. As expected, Riku's eyes were blank, like a doll's.

"Kujou-san, how have you been?" Iori had not heard anything from Tenn. He wanted to hear it from Riku himself.

"Fine," Riku answered like a robot.

Iori frowned. He was not satisfied with a generic, thoughtless answer. "Have you got nothing else to say?"

"I don't understand." Riku answered, tilting his head in a way Iori usually found cute. This time, however, the younger boy was hurt.

"Riku," Iori grabbed Riku's shoulders. "Did you forget all the moments we shared? All the things I've taught you?"

"I didn't forget," Riku replied while looking straight into Iori's eyes. "But I can't feel, Iori. I could ask you how you have been. How you are now. How your injury is. None of the answers matters to me. I can't be happy for you. I can't cry or feel sorry for you. I can apologise a thousand times for not visiting you if that's what you want, but you know deep down, I'm nothing."

"Don't be ridiculous!!" Iori squeezed Riku's shoulder and bit his bottom lip. The young boy had hardly ever lost his composure, yet this was the second time Riku got to see him this way, or rather, made him feel this way. His eyes reflected pain, anger, sadness, and lastly, loneliness. "Do you realise how much I've cried, how scared I am every time I see you as a marionette on TV?!?. He tugged at Riku's shirt. "I've been so afraid of losing you, losing the pure and genuine Riku who asked me out! You can't say it's all over!"

The redhead suddenly felt a dangerously high surge of anger that he pulled Iori's head up by grabbing the boy's hair. "OWOWOWOWOW!" Iori cried out. "Riku, ow stop!"

Riku shoved Iori to the side, making the boy fall to the floor. Iori winced. He could normally fight Riku's force if it weren't for his condition. He was holding his head, trying to keep focus despite feeling a wave of dizziness hit him.

Riku stood up, crouched and grabbed Iori by the collar. "Iori doesn't understand! When I cried, they hurt me. When I got sick, they blamed me, threatened me, told me that I'm useless! Iori is terrible. I don't want these torturous feelings. I don't want- cough cough cough!"

The solo idol clutched his chest with his hand. He collapsed with his head on Iori's thigh. "Riku!" Iori's vision was sometimes blurry, sometimes clear. He struggled to find Riku's inhaler, so he shouted as loud as he could. "HELP Nanase-san! Yaotome-san!"

Good thing they weren't too far away. Tenn rushed in and helped Riku with his attack while Gaku helped the young centre get up and lie down on the double bed. Soon, Tenn and Gaku placed the exhausted Riku next to Iori. "Let them rest." Tenn tugged on Gaku's arm and together, they left. Gaku hesitated.

"Things got physical... Is it really okay to leave them like that?" Gaku asked as soon as they got out of the room.

"We'll be nearby. It's their problem to solve. We, especially you big dummy, can't help." Tenn answered, and of course, they had their couple quarrel once again.

~~

"*sob sob*" Riku let his tears roll down. He couldn't keep anything suppressed anymore. He put one of his arms on his forehead and cried.

"Hmph." Iori looked at the slow spinning ceiling. "Telling me you can't feel and here you are weeping like a baby," he sighed.

Riku attempted to wipe his tears and turned his body to face Iori. "Everything hurts."