You're All I Need - Nishimura Riki

Chapter 16 : The Protective Brother

When school is over, Ni-ki offers to walk me home and I agree to it because it'll allow me to spend some alone time with him before I go out with Sunoo this afternoon.

As we walk, Ni-ki holds my hand and swings our arms slightly.

"Sorry we can't hang out this afternoon. I promised Sunoo and I don't want to dump him completely since we're dating now..." I say to him.

"It's okay, I know how important you and Sunoo are to each other and I trust you both. But if he does make you uncomfortable or anything, just tell me and I'll come get you," he says and looks down at me.

"I will. But he won't do anything like that. He's... very sweet. And I talked to him about us already. He supports us," I say, looking up at Ni-ki.

We continue walking down the street in silence and when we reach my house, he walks me all the way up to the front door.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Hana," Ni-ki says and leans down until he is just centimeters from my face.

"I'll see you tomorrow," I say and he kisses me. This kiss was a few seconds longer than our first two kisses, but it holds just as much feeling, if not more.

When we pull away from our kiss, Ni-ki holds my hand one last time while he says bye with a small smile on his face.

"Bye..." he says and walks away, our hands slipping away from each other.

I watch as he walks back to the sidewalk and he smiles at me and waves one more time before beginning his trip back to his house.

I turn around and go inside, closing the door behind me.

Like usual, Jay is standing there by the window next to the door.

"Uh, I thought nothing was going on between you two," he says and raises an eyebrow at me. I realize that he saw everything Ni-ki and I just did.

"What are you talking about, Jay?" I try to play it cool and look like we didn't just kiss right outside of the front door. Just in case Jay didn't see what happened and just wanted to get something out of me.

"You know what I'm talking about. What you and that boy Ni-ki just did," Jay says and crosses his arms. I don't say anything. "You better tell me or I'm telling Mom. She won't be happy with it, especially because she's already stressed due to Dad leaving."

I still don't say anything so Jay sighs and starts walking to the kitchen. I follow him, not really caring if he tells Mom, since she already knows.

"Mom, I have something very important to tell you," Jay says when we walk into the kitchen. She turns around and looks at Jay, then me. I roll my eyes and she looks confused.

"Yes, Jay?" She asks.

"Hana, here, has a boyfriend," Jay says, arrogantly.

"Ok," my mom replies and goes back to what she was doing.

"What do you mean, 'ok'? She-" he says and my mom cuts him off.

"I know she does," she says, confusing Jay once again.

"Wh- you know?" Jay is practically yelling at this point. "I thought she couldn't date until she's an adult!"

"First of all, that was your father's rule, and second, I think Ni-ki's a nice boy and I like that Hana's dating him," she says. Jay's mouth is wide open, still beyond shocked by what he just found out.

Jay sighs and decides it'll be better to just not argue with my mom. He walks out of the kitchen and goes up to his room.

I go up to my room and change my clothes into a white shirt with blue jeans and a reddish flannel over the white shirt. As I'm heading down to tell my mom I'm going out with Sunoo, I hear a sound coming from Jay's bedroom. As I get farther down the hallway, it becomes clearer and I realize what the sound is. Crying.

I knock on the door and open it slightly.

"Oh, Hana, hey," Jay says and wipes his eyes and looks at me.

"Are you okay, Jay?" I ask him and sit next to him on his bed.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just... got some dust in my eye, that's all," he says and wipes his eye again. "Actually, I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for how I acted. I'm happy if you're happy. I just want to protect you from getting your heart broken for as long as I can. You know, I am your older brother," he says.

"I know... you are always there to protect me, Jay. And I love that you do that. Please don't stop just because I'm dating Ni-ki..." I say.

"I won't. I never will, Hana," Jay says and hugs me. "Are you going somewhere?" He asks, looking down at my clothes.

"Yeah, I was going out with Sunoo," I tell him.

"Oh, ok. Have fun then. But not too much fun," he says and his overprotective look reappears.

"Okay, Jay. I'm going now. Bye," I say and walk out of the room, hearing him say bye back to me.

I walk downstairs and go straight to my mom who's on the couch watching TV and ask her if I can go.

"I'll be back in time for dinner this time. I promise. Last time, we just got.... carried away and didn't realize what time it was," I tell her.

"Ok. But I better see you home at least 10 minutes before we eat, or you aren't going out after school anymore. Got it?" She asks and I nod. She lets me go and I meet Sunoo at the cafe like he told me to.

(A/N : Sorry for taking so long to update! I've been stuck on how to write the next part of this book, so it's taking longer than usual. I hope the wait was worth it! And I'm wondering how you felt about seeing Jay's soft side. He doesn't show it that often, but I hope it allowed you all to see how much he actually cares for Hana! Anyway, thank you for reading and remember to vote if you enjoyed and I'll see you in the next one! Have a nice day/night! <3 )