All the best (kenhina)

Chapter two

"Please pick up. Please pick up," I whisper into the receiver of the pay phone, bracing against the sharp chill of the night, watching the glow of Christmas lights still hanging in shop windows, even though it's New Year's Eve.

Just an hour, that's all it'd taken for my life to crumble around me. And now I'm here, walking around downtown without any shoes, calling collect to a brother I haven't seen, let alone spoken to, in a decade.

"Hello?" Kai's voice sounds tired, but it isn't even that late yet. At least, I don't think it is; I don't have a watch. And my phone is sitting at home on my nightstand, charging because the battery is total crap.

"Kai, it's me."

"Who is this?"

"It's me," I whisper. Of course. He wouldn't know my voice, not anymore. Hell, he probably wouldn't even recognize me.

"It's kenma."

There's a slip, or noise, or something on his end. "Kenma? What are you----"

I cut him off. "Can you come get me?"

"What? Why? What's going on?"

"Kai." I look around. The sidewalk is totally empty, probably thanks to the sinking temperatures. Everyone else is inside, somewhere nice and warm. And here I am slowly losing the feeling in my toes, trying me absolute hardest not to shiver from the sharp gusts of wind.

"Kenma, are you sill there? Where are you?"

"Outside the cat cafe." I tuck my hands under me armpits, balancing the phone between me cheek and shoulder. There's some more rustling on his end, and the sound of someone else talking.

"What in the actual hell are you doing there? It's like thirty degrees outside."

"Mom and dad kicked me out."

The line goes silent, and for a second, I think the call dropped without warning, oh god, I don't know if calling this way will work a second time.

"What?" His voice almost seems emotionless, the way it'd get when he was truly, needlessly enraged. Usually with dad about something that didn't call for it. "Why would they do that?"

"Can you please just come pick me up?" I try to breathe on my hands. "I can . . . I can explain everything later."

"Yeah, of course, just wait for me. Okay?"

"I'm going to the sushi house down the street." I can see the bright blue sign from here, just a block over, I give Kai the address, listening closely to whatever is going on in the background.

"Okay, I'll be there as soon as I can."

Kai lives in South Korea,an hour drive at least, maybe forty five minutes If he speeds. So I'll be waiting for a while.

At least on one inside the sushi house seems to care that I'm no longer abiding by the "no shoes" part of their two most basic rules. The cashier behind the counter doesn't even look up as I weave my way into the farthest corner of the restaurant.

My legs ache, and I've already tron a hole on one of my socks. I wrestle the filthy, soaked things things off my feet, and start rubbing at the numbed skin. I hope I can at least get some of the feeling back. None of my toes are blue, so I'm taking that as a good sign.

At first, I don't even notice I'm crying. Maybe it's because me face already feels raw from the wind outside, or because crying is something I'd been doing for nearly two hours straight before I made the phone call. My vision goes blurry as I start to cry again, staring at my naked feet. I try my best to wipe the years away but the skin under my eyes stings so badly.