Those days - txtzy

part 3: 七

Things happened very quickly after that. Yuna disappeared from school, her desk empty and her locker cleared out. All her artwork was shelved away in thick folders since the events and competitions were all over. They left no trace of her.

The art teacher was sympathetic when all she saw was Kai with his half-done piece of work, but encouraged him with a pat on the shoulder that he should continue nevertheless.

Kai managed to catch a few glimpses of Ryujin, who looked more untidy than usual, her normally neat hair a little frizzy and her eyebags so heavy it looked like she hadn't slept in days. But he didn't dare to approach her, especially since she was flanked by her three best friends who stayed around her protectively.

After all, she looked like she was on the brink of a breakdown.

And Kai couldn't blame her.

-

But Ryujin stopped him one day after school, looking weary and limp as if she had been physically involved in a tussle, most likely one that included Yuna.

Ryujin tried to regain her composure, and managed out, "I thought you should know, since, well, you have made a significant impact on Yuna. Oh gosh, this is so hard..." The girl took a long shaky breath before the words just tumbled out.

"Yuna is leaving for America tomorrow. With her...mother." It seemed that it wasn't just Yuna who struggled with calling that woman her mother.

"I wish we could have done more, I mean, I thought these kinds of things only happen in movies, but apparently with enough contact, anything is possible," Ryujin sighed. Already defeated.

-

The walk home was terrible, to say the least. All that ran through his mind was how Yuna was probably going somewhere she didn't want to with someone she hated with all her might. The small pinpricks of headlights against the distant horizon momentarily distracted him, making him squint lightly. The driver must be a terrible one, occasionally swerving and braking at odd moments.

Kai was about to brush it off before-

Yuna.

She was there, in that car. A woman, who he guessed was her mother, was talking to her, her mouth gnashing, fast and sharp, angry and annoyed, occasionally taking a swig out of a long green bottle. And Yuna looked so unlike herself, worried and meek and terrified. Looking absolutely miserable.

So Kai did the last thing anyone should ever do, if in that situation. He threw himself onto the road before the car, spreading his arms out, praying desperately that that would make her inhumane mother just stop.

He clenched his eyes and he realised how stupid this was only when he felt the mild impact of the hot car against his abdomen. The pain, while not too bad, was still terrifically agonizing, and Kai would have thought to himself how what he had just done was the dumbest thing possible if it wasn't so painful. He didn't even remember falling to the ground, nor did he hear the slamming of a car door.

The last thing he saw was Yuna's panic-stricken expression as her lips formed shapes without any sound, and then everything went dark.