Silence | Book 1

4-3: Anger

I didn't mean for this... why Triss? It's my fault... I ran... I did this.

Hibiki wrenched himself away from the two overzealous officers keen on returning him. Straight towards Kazuo, who hadn't noticed him yet as he was on the phone, delegating several things at once from the sound of it. When Hibiki ran up however, an elated smile spread across Kazuo's face, and he quickly ended his phone call with a few words.

「He's here, I'll call you back.」He turned to face Hibiki, checking him out from head to toe then giving an audible sigh. 「Yukimura-sama, I'm so relieved. Are you unharmed? That Polish boy didn't hurt you?」

That Polish boy... the very tone made him seethe with anger, and he gritted his teeth as he realised why it had been Tristan – what they all thought him to be. A loud, aggressive huff of air left his nose, and he wildly gestured at Kazuo.

'He didn't do anything! You've arrested my best friend!'

「W-what?」Kazuo stuttered, as if he'd seen his gestures wrong. 「He didn't make you come here?」

Hibiki crossed both his arms in front of his chest and then made a gesture as if throwing it all away, shouting the word 'no' in the loudest silence he could muster. With two fingers on each hand he pointed at his own chest, trembling with rage and guilt alike.

'I did. I ran!'

The realisation that it was all his fault suddenly washed over him, and he felt his anger drown in hopelessness as the image of Tristan alone in a prison cell invaded his mind – and it was his doing. I... I ruined everything...

With shaking hands he pulled his hair out of his face, his glasses foggy with tears as all the adrenaline left his body.

「You were missing all day! You didn't answer the phone, the only message we got was 'I'm safe, I will be back tonight'. We found your car abandoned in a parking lot, we found your phone getting sold at a pawn shop. What were we supposed to do? For all we knew you could be on a sea container to Romania!」

Hibiki swallowed audibly, as Kazuo went on his tirade against him, more out of character than he had ever seen him – perhaps out of place as his PA, but he knew it wasn't undeserved. He knew he'd fucked up. He raised and lowered his hands several times, trying to start an excuse, some defense.

「Your parents have been worried sick. Your mother has been inconsolable, your father left in the middle of a contract deal in Brazil. They,- you... talk to your mother, at least talk to her...」

With a quiet nod, Hibiki agreed, as Kazuo unlocked his phone and made a call.

「They found him, it's not what you think. He ran.」「 ~~! 」 「Yeah, I know. I'll let him explain.」

Kazuo pressed a button, and then pushed the volume on his phone up, as he held the screen in front of Hibiki. Before he could even see what was going on on the screen, his mother's voice screeched through the vacant parking garage – even on a simple phone speaker.

「HIBIKI!」

Knowing what was about to come, he just stared at her, fully aware that he both deserved it, and couldn't escape from it. She was a mess, to put it softly, as one of her own personal assistants handed her a folded handkerchief still wiping her tears from her mascara-stained face.

「How could you do this to us?」The softness and pain in her question was a sudden change, but if he had a choice he preferred to get yelled at. He shook his head to say he hadn't meant it, but he knew that didn't even matter anymore.「We gave everything to keep you safe. You have everything you could want, we even let you race those dangerous motorcycles because you wanted it. So I don't understand Hiki-chan? Why would you run away from us? Didn't we do enough for you?」