Deep Blue Sea

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜʀᴇᴇ

Trigger warning: slight mentions of bullying

The ocean of people flooded the streets of Tokyo, everyone squeezed past each other in order to get to their destination. Since you don't want to drown in the piles of humans, you stepped towards the alleys to avoid them.

This is your first break in six months. Instead of feeling relaxed, suddenly having this much time on your hands only make you more restless. You tried so hard to relax that trying to relax became stressful. There's nothing that you could do besides wandering into shops then exiting. Sometimes you just felt a buzz from you but no one actually called or message you. You laughed to yourself, finding it ironic that having no one to order you around is more stressful than working 24/7.

Eventually, you strolled into an alley, hoping to find peace there. It was dark, shielding anything that enters from the sunlight.

You sighed in exhaustion, leaning onto the wall. Before you can go on your phone, a noise made you perk up. A strong gut feeling urged you to go check it out, you felt bad for secretly hoping that there's a cursed spirit or someone to save. But if you're lucky, there might be a stray cat for you to fangirl over.

So you crept around the corner, making sure you won't alert anything or anyone. Then you froze at the sight. A few people are cornering a helpless boy, the boy was on the floor, seemingly beaten up.

"You never learn," one of them spit at him, "we told you to not let us see you ever again."

He then kicked the boy in the stomach, causing him to let out heart-wrenching cries. The rest of them giggled as they watched, taking pictures while cheering for the abuser.

This scene is all too familiar to you. As if cold water suddenly engulfing your form, pulling you into the depths of darkness.

"Your father must've hated you," you heard those spiteful voices from your past, "if not, why would he leave you?"

When you were just a normal school kid, your classmates didn't treat you kindly.

"Why don't you jump out of the window?" they giggled, "you might be able to fix your face if you're lucky."

Despite the hurtful thing they did, you never fought back, fighting is a bad thing after all. However, you were lucky to have the Fushiguro siblings, Megumi and Tsumiki as friends. He lived right next to you. It started out as his father paying your mother to take care of them, your mother refused the money but take care of them anyway. Slowly, a bond formed between the three of you as you see each other often.

You would hang out with them whenever you have the time, sometimes even crawling into their house from the window. Sometimes you would drag him around when playing, he would give you a disapproving look, but he would never pull back when you held his hand. His sister Tsumiki would often join the two of you, laughing at his displeased look when you called him Megumi-chan.

Even though he is younger than you, he is much fiercer than any children could be, even the higher grades students are afraid of him.

"You're so stupid," he always tells you that with a straight face after scaring off your bullies, "why don't you just punch them?"

His dark orbs would look up at you as you grinned and replied, "my mom said fighting is a bad thing," you would then chirp, "let's go get some ice cream with your sister after school, Megumi-chan!"

"Don't call me that," a small pout would then form on his usual poker face.

Even though your classmates treated you harshly, you were happy most of the time. Until one day, they crossed the line.