An After-Show Disaster | Ruikasa

2. Feelings For a Friend?

[I've decided to use he/they pronouns for Rui from here on out, I hope you don't mind the change.]

The first thing Rui could recall when he awoke was him strolling along with the group, chatting happily.

And the last thing?
The last thing that had happened to him took some time to remember, but upon recalling it, they'd immediately wished they hadn't.

Pain. Terrible pain. It was so bad that when he pulled out the memory of the sensation, it made them suddenly aware of the dull aching still present in the place he'd been injured.

Wait, where..where was he?

He opened his eyes to a dimly lit room, the plain white curtains to a small window to his right were closed, letting only a few beams of sunlight into the bland looking room.

And though his vision was too fuzzy and unadjusted to actually make out half the room, the familiar sound of a monitor beeping told him exactly where he was.

After realizing this, Rui found that the fact they were in the hospital should've been obvious from the start.
He'd been shot.

But...Where were his friends?

Were they okay?
He couldn't remember.
Had they been hurt too?
He couldn't remember.

He could hear the monitor's beeping speed up as he started to panic, but as quickly as he made an attempt to sit up, he fell back down, hissing in pain.

Sitting up was a bad idea.

Rui found himself erupting into a short coughing fit, before they calmed down and caught their breath.
He had to know where they were.

Was Nene okay?

Tsukasa?

Emu?

..Did he even have his phone in the room to check..?

He wasn't sure of any of those things. What he was, however, sure of, was that he probably wouldn't know for a while.

———

Tsukasa sat in the back of class 1-A, fiddling with his pencil.
He hadn't come to school the day after the incident, he had been able to convince his parents he had been feeling unwell.

Unfortunately, Tsukasa couldn't keep up the act forever, and after a few days he found himself having to go back to school, knowing he'd have to face everyone. Knowing he'd have to make it through the ever so slowly-passing day while faking a smile.

The last thing he'd needed was for people to ask if he was ok.
It'd already been hard enough for him to have to lie to his sister directly to her face, telling her that he was fine.
He wasn't fine.

But thankfully, nobody had asked yet.

Truthfully, though, he was terrified for Rui. He had no idea what condition he was in at the moment.
For all he knew, they might have been doing terribly.
Tsukasa hadn't gained the courage to visit him yet.

And, albeit with guilt, thinking about the fact that it could've been Tsukasa in that place still struck a fear in him that lingered, leaving him on edge.

What if someone was after the rest of them?

Well..logically, Tsukasa knew that whoever had done it probably wouldn't be back anytime soon. After all, the police had certainly been informed of what had happened, and were investigating who could've done it.

Plus, Tsukasa was sure that the next time they performed, which certainly wouldn't be for a while, especially without their stage director; the stage would be heavily monitored by officers. In fact, he could remember Nene mentioning something about that in the troupe's group chat, however he'd forgotten the details.