𝐿𝑜𝓃𝓁𝑒𝓎 𝒯𝑜𝑔𝒽𝑒𝓉𝑒𝓇

Chapter 7

When I woke up the next morning Dazai was gone and there was only a note left on my desk saying that he had to head out early. I was pretty sure he was lying. Otherwise, Dazai wouldn't have bothered to write it down.

As I was about to toss the note into the trash, I noticed that there was another sentence written on the backside. Why did he have to write it on the backside when there was plenty of space left on the front? It was just a coincidence that I read it, but I felt like he predicted that I would notice it.

"Meet at the train station at 9pm."

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I couldn't stop thinking about that weird request as I went through my day. My first thought was that that sick mf was going to throw himself in front of a train but then the more I started to think about it the less I wanted to accept it. I ended up making the weirdest theories until I realized that I wasn't able to see through his intentions.

-----

Compared to the last days tonight didn't seem to be as cold. Still, there was a fresh breeze blowing into my face that made me shiver and clench my hands around my waist.

I took the next subway to the train station. Even though it was evening the subway was pretty crowded, probably because it was Friday. I didn't get a seat so I had to stand up, getting squeezed between people and suitcases.

It was so noisy. The subway was sliding over the rails with a rather unpleasant squeaking. Everyone around me was talking excitedly. Many people took off work to go on vacation or visit their relatives over the winter holidays.

I found myself starring at the display screen on the ceiling to avoid eye contact and eventually everyone's voices faded, and my vision went blurry. I was spacing out again, not sure for how long.

Someone bumped into me and made me jump in surprise. "Oh, my apologizes!" a middle-aged woman said as she pulled her son aside that accidently ran into me while playing on his game pod.

I quickly checked the location and noticed that we were already at the train station. God, I would have almost missed to get off the subway in time!

As I came closer to the train station, I noticed him standing there, dressed in a long black coat, one of his hands stuck into his pocket while the other was holding a cigarette. He was gazing up into the sky and it's darkness mirrored in his eyes. 

"Dazai"

All that I said was his name. It sounded so quiet, almost like a whisper. Still, he seemed to have noticed.

"I predicted you wouldn't ignore my request even though I wasn't fully sure of it. I'm glad" Dazai said. He didn't look at me since his eyes remained focused on the sky "The stars are beautiful tonight, aren't they?"

I looked up to see a few tiny lights glowing up in the darkness. The sky was so clear, no clouds to be seen. It truly was beautiful in a way. "But you didn't call me here to stare at the sky for hours, right?" I asked.

Dazai chuckled "No, you'll see."

A few minutes later a train came rushing into the station right in front of us. I noticed myself gripping for Dazai's sleeve just to make sure he wouldn't get any ideas. Dazai instantly knew what I was doing and couldn't help but laugh at my weird gesture.

We got onto the train and sat down next to each other. Dazai insisted to sit at the window so he could look outside. It made me slightly uncomfortable to sit on the side of the passage so I moved so close to him that our shoulders touched.

"We gotta switch halfway" I mumbled. Dazai just chuckled and didn't give me an answer so I figured that meant as much as "no". I sighed. Hopefully we wouldn't drive for too long. The bluish bright ceiling lights were hurting my eyes, so I closed them shut until eventually I felt my body become heavier and I fell asleep leaning on Dazai's shoulder.

After a while I was shaken awake aggressively and quickly sat up. "Are we there?" I asked. "No, but you keep drooling on my coat and I'm bored" Dazai explained. I turned bright red from embarrassment and faced the other way. 

Since none of us knew what to talk about Dazai decided to share his earphones with me and we just sat there for the next hour listening to music in silence. As I gazed over I could see his face reflect in the dark window and soon noticed that he had closed his eyes while resting his face against the cold pane. Still, I was convinced that Dazai hadn't fallen asleep.