𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖞 𝕵𝖚𝖘𝖙 𝖜𝖔𝖓'𝖙 𝕯𝖎𝖊 || Draken x Reader

XXXIX: 𝔖𝔦𝔩𝔢𝔫𝔱 𝔩𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔯𝔰

Ren.

The boy you had encountered at a local— and partly run-down— convenience store.

The boy you had encountered in the middle of the night in the Shinjuku apartment back then when you weren't aware of it being Aki's settlement.

The boy you had messed and fought with out of the blue because of the pleasure of seeking thrill through imitating the reckless impulsive habits of your friend, Baji.

Ren.

He was standing in front of you. Well, to be exact, Draken was in between the two of you, acting like a big boulder. As soon as you had gasped out his name— even you were surprised that you had remembered him still after all these years— Ren's eyes widened in familiarity. During this moment in time, you thought that he wasn't as irrelevant as you thought he was. You should've felt annoyance or vexation, but shock clouded your senses that you dropped every sour memory you had of him. In fact, you felt guilty that you had framed him with such a small thing at the convenience store. It was a bitch move. To be fair, scamming someone was obviously, naturally, usually, generally labeled as a bitch move.

"I— I," you stuttered badly. "Hi," was all you could squeak out.

The boy's eyes were still as wide as saucers. In a small voice, he replied, "Hey?"

The two of you just stared at one another for a hot minute before you were eventually interrupted by Maho who was standing beside you. "Who's that?" She asked.

You merely shrugged, "Ren."

Her eyebrow raised quizzically, "Who?"

"It's a long story, but I met him in this convenience store four years ago, I think? Anyway, it was kind of awkward."

Maho could only mouth a quiet "oh." Ren, on the other hand, was still looking at you. He cleared his throat and called out, "Umm, what's your name again?"

You were surprised that he didn't remember when his name was still carved onto the depths of your brain but nonetheless, you replied, "Y/N."

He smiled, "you look familiar."

This time, you shuddered. The faint realization that he might've not known you and was only surprised that you had called out his name slowly made your stomach churn. God, you embarrassed yourself yet again. You turned away for a while. Ren was at the front of the line fixing his groceries to be carried. Draken was patiently waiting behind him as his hand gripped a small shopping cart. Maho was beside the pushing cart you were holding a while ago. Hyperaware. That was what you were right now. You were hyperaware of your surroundings, madly scanning everything around you and what they were doing. God, how could you embarrass yourself like that?

Since you had your back turned against them, you did not notice Ren approaching you. Because of this, you had also failed to see how Draken eyed Ren carefully, almost dubiously. He walked past Draken and Maho and tapped your shoulder lightly. You flinched, of course, but it was only a matter of seconds before you calmed your nerves down and turned to look at him once more.

"I'm sorry, do I know you, Y/N?" He asked bluntly. You found it odd how his tone lacked suspicion and wariness, almost as if he already trusted whatever you were going to say.

You inhaled a deep breath while trying to recall all your previous transgressions against this boy aside from beating him up in the middle of the night. To be fair, he started the dispute first. "We met at a local convenience store before. I was with my friends: one with long black hair and the other short blond."