hanker sore ► nishimura riki

05 | problems

[☁️]

september 16th 2022
8:20 pm

riki didn't show up to school the next day.
he was never absent.
miki couldn't help but wonder where the boy was.

in the past she would've been glad to not see him at school.
however things were starting to look different for her and she was confused.
she was supposed to hate him.

since the basketball incident and riki's sudden confession of worrying for her,
miki felt lost.
worrying in that kind of situation was the bare minimum.
but never did she expect for him to worry about her.
for him to treat her like a normal person.

miki was walking to the small store near her house. she needed some fresh air and pepsi to clear her mind.

after leaving the store she decided to take a longer road home.
she turned to a street that took her further away from her own.
because he happened to live on that street.

passing the houses one by one she could only see a few with lights on. it was quiet.
as she walked further she could hear people arguing in the distance.

when she made it closer she could finally recognize who the voices belonged to.
it was him.
an older man was yelling at him.
miki assumed it was his father.

"you're nothing but a failure.
you're free to leave, i'm tired of seeing you only bring disappointment to this family"
with that the older man threw a bag at riki and slammed the door shut.
he was staring at the door, not moving an inch. miki could see tears rolling down his cheeks as he kept his gaze on the door.

riki didn't notice her walking closer to him.
miki was now standing a few feet away from him expecting for him to notice her.
he only kept staring ahead with tears blurring his vision.

"ehhm, is everything okay?"
of course everything was not okay.
miki felt stupid for asking the question but she tried to hide it by keeping her face straight, not showing any kind of emotion.

riki was surprised by the sudden voice.
her voice.
he quickly wiped his tears away and gathered himself.

"how long have you been there?"

he didn't want her to see him like this.
in a vulnerable state. he felt small.

"long enough"

riki cursed under his breath as he looked everywhere but in her direction.
she saw what happened.

"do you maybe want to talk about it?"

miki's question caught him off guard.
he expected her to make fun of him.
or give him a lecture explaining why he ended up in this situation.
but instead she was willing to listen to him.
to his problems.

the two had walked in complete silence for the first minutes of their walk.
neither of them knew what to say.
they were both confused by the current situation. they were walking side by side.
not arguing. just walking like two friends who didn't hate eachother.

riki decided to break the silence.
"so i assume you saw my dad kicking me out for being a failure"

miki felt bad for him.
she would've never thought that this was how his private life looked like.

"i did. i was just passing by and heard you arguing so i decided to see what was going on"

"he found out about the incident at school.
he wasn't too happy about my recent failed exams either.
some of us have it hard you know"
riki envied her. how well she handled school. he had never been good,
no matter how hard he tried.

miki regretted her earlier comment regarding his studying.
it was clearly causing problems for him.
a part of her knew he wanted to do better.

"right. please tell me you atleast have a place to stay at for the night"
she was genuine.
miki was worried about him.
something she thought she'd never feel.

"yeah, i'll just stay at sunghoon's, it's fine"

they parted ways after bidding goodbye to eachother.

their minds where at a whirl.
things were changing for them at a rapid speed. but they didn't mind it.
deep down they were both curious to see where they were headed.

═════════════════

writing this chapter was a journey.
things are starting to really take a turn for these two :')

hope you enjoyed this chapter ♡

-mira