Utsukushi - Banana Fish

Chapter 6

"Jeez, a year?"

"Yeah, but I'm outta there now so it doesn't matter much to me." I said. I was sitting talking with Shorter at the Lounge. Ash was here too, but he had to leave a little bit ago to take care of some stuff.

Shorter nodded and hummed. "Well, you want a tour?"

"What?"

"I can show you around the places you haven't seen yet. I mean, unless you got something else to do." He gave a small smile, knowing well neither of us had anything to do.

I chuckled. "Yeah, why not."

"You been through Chinatown before?"

"Nah, not really."

—

As we stood in the middle of the sidewalk of one of the areas of Chinatown, Shorter scratched his head and laughed.

"What?" I asked.

"Now that I think of it, there nothing much to see 'round here. To be honest, I was kinda hungry and wanted to stop by my place to grab a bite. My family owns a restaurant over here."

"You coulda just said so." I laughed. "Where is it?"

"Down this way." We started walking.

"So who in your family runs the restaurant?"

"My big sis. It's just me and her nowadays so I help her out when I can." He said.

"Oh, that's nice," I began, but trailed off and stopped walking as we got closer to where Shorter said his restaurant was.

We were being watched. I could feel prying eyes..everywhere.

I reached my hand inside my jacket and left my hand hovering on my gun while I swiveled around, searching.

I spotted one then two then three then four...there were people everywhere staring straight at us, not even bothering to hide their stares.

Shorter put his hand on my arm that lay resting inside my jacket.

"It's alright, it's alright. Those are my guys, don't worry bout them. They're just nosy." He said the last part loudly so they could hear.

I gave a quiet huff of relief and put my hand back at my side.

"Sorry, i know you're on edge about everything, I shoulda told you about them."

"No I get it," we continued to walk. "you're their boss so of course they'd be watchful. But you're sister- how long has she been running the restaurant?" I changed the subject.

Shorter's emotions switched instantly. "Oh, Nadia? As long as I can remember. She's been taking care of the lot of us since we were kids."

"Seems like a good sister."

He smiled. "Yeah, she is." He then pointed to a store that had shopping on the first floor and residences on the second. "It's right here."

We entered the shop and a young woman with short hair looked up at us from behind the back counter.

She looked similar yet a polar opposite to Shorter.