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"where are you?" the girl had just stepped out of the train station, looking left and right for her best friend who'd offered to pick her up.
"ah nevermind, i see you," she said, hanging up the phone and walking towards a recognizable car with a recognizable boy inside.
she got in the passengers side and took off her small backpack as she'd only brought her phone, her charger, her wallet, and snacks that she was going to give to shotaro.
"ready?" jaemin asked, watching her buckle her seat belt. she hummed in response and flipped her hair to one side to get it out of her face.
the drive was fairly short and consisted of comfortable small talk between the two friends, and as they pulled up to shotaros house, isla prepared herself to do her best to comfort him.
"okay," jaemin said, taking his hands off of the wheel. "text me when you're ready to go." he sounded much like a dad, but he didn't mind taking her where she needed to go.
"yeah, thank you. love you."
she grabbed her bag and stepped out of his car and walked up to shotatos front door and knocked. only a few seconds later, he came to open it.
islas heart sank at the sight of his red, puffy eyes, his messy hair and oversized clothes with damp sleeves as if he'd been crying in them all day.
"shotaro—" she couldn't say anything else because he practically flung himself into her arms.
jaemin watched from his car sadly, sulking, seeing his friend this way, but drove off anyways to respect shotaros wishes.
"sorry.." he apologized, pulling away from the smaller girl, "come in."
"my parents aren't home now, but they will be later and you can meet them if you want. do you want something to eat? or drink?" he asked, leading her into the living room area.
"no, i'm okay, actually i brought you something," isla replied and took her bag off of her shoulders and unzipped it, pulling out candy bars and bags of chips.
"i don't know if you'll like these, because i don't really know what you like, but these are my favorites and i wanted to share them with you."
shotaro smiled sadly at her, taking the snacks from her hand and putting them aside. "thank you so much."
as he turned to the side for a second, isla noticed a yellowish purple bruise right on his cheek. her eyebrows pushed together in worry.
"what is this?" she asked, gently swiping her fingertips across his face, causing him to slightly wince in pain.
"uh... i-it's an accident. from practice..."
"are you lying? you can't even look me in the eye."
he remained silent and kept his eyes glued to the ground.
isla sighed, "taro... who's doing this to you?"
he looked back up and seeing the sadness in her eyes made it hard to lie a second time. "the company, they um.."
the boy ran a hand through his hair in frustration, trying to find the right words.
"they've been overworking me. i've been to the er twice in one month from fainting. and th-there's these guys... they bully me and they make fun of me. i don't know why. they hate me, and i have no clue why. i never thought anything of it because i don't want to waste energy on them, but one of them hit me.."
isla lips parted open in shock and she couldn't stop herself from letting a few tears fall. she couldn't stand hearing something so awful happen to someone she cared about so much.
"please don't cry, isla. i finally convinced sm to let me have a break, and when i'm better i'll be back there," he reassured, grabbing her hand.
"you shouldn't go back, though. this... this is just cruel. its abuse."
shotaros eyes welled up again as he shook his head. "i can't. being in such a popular company is a one in a million opportunity. i love dancing, and i can't give that up."
"there's so many other opportunities, i know you love dancing but it's not worth putting yourself through this."
the dark-haired boy wanted to deny her words, but he couldn't. he knew she was right.
after a moment neither of them said anything, and isla wrapped her arms around him and he immediately began crying again.
even though they'd only known each other for just about two months, shotaro quickly became one of islas favorite people, along with the rest of the boys she met online.
she felt him slightly tremble in her arms and the shoulder of her sweater getting wet, but she didn't care.
after another minute of holding each other, he pulled away. "i'm gonna leave the company."
isla nodded, "good. they don't deserve you. dude, you're a monster, i've never seen someone so good at dancing. and those guys who did that," she pointed to the bruise on his cheek, "they're jealous that they can't do what you do. okay?"
the boy nodded and wiped away his tears with the sleeve of his shirt.
"thank you for coming here.. i'm sorry for wasting your time."
"nope, stop right there, you'd never waste my time. i'll make you a priority whenever you need someone to talk to, and i love hanging out with you."
shotaro just looked at her and smiled admirably. he felt so lucky to have had such a caring person in his life.
the sound of the door opening and closing was heard. "shotaro?" an unfamiliar voice called through out the house, the two friends turning around in the direction it was coming from.
a tall boy with orangish hair stood there carrying grocery bags in his hands. when he spotted the two standing there in the middle of the main room, his face when into an "o" shape.
"oh. i didn't know we'd have guests." he said, slowly making his way to the kitchen area.
"sorry, um, isla this is yuta, my brother. yuta this is isla."
yuta nodded his head at the girl with a grin on his face. feeling shy in the presence of such beauty, isla couldn't do more than smile and wave as he walked away into the kitchen.
as she turned back around to face shotaro, the second he looked at her he bursted into fits of giggles.
"what? whats wrong? is my hair messy?" she asked worryingly.
"no—" he breathed, "you're blushing."
the girls eyes went wide and she immediately brought her cold hands to her face to cool down the redness flushing at her cheeks.
"why didn't you tell me you had a brother?" she asked.
"it just never came up. stop blushing, thats my brother we're talking about..."
isla hit his arm lightly. "shut it!"
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look i added a cute little thingy to seperate the authors note LMAO, this hurt to write but dont worry our taro will be okay <3
