Tangerine ~ Bullet Train

12 - "What are the odds?"

Yuina absolutely didn't know how to proceed from now on, so she started to focus on what she did know. There was a dead body of a stranger in the wagon she had to reside in. It was the son of a man that was a huge deal in the underworld, a man that would scare Tangerine.

Tangerine. The stranger to which she had felt connected with from the moment she saw him, appeared to be a killer. He was doing a dangerous job on this train. He and his brother brought the son here, along with a case containing the ten million dollar that belonged to the White Death, which was now missing. And his son was dead.

What a mess she was brought in... by him, that stranger she felt connected with. What did it say about her that she felt so strongly appealed to him, not only before knowing, but after learning what he did for a living as well? Because that's not who he was. It's not what would define him as a person. The fact that he stood up for her when she needed it, suggested that she could sit with him so she wouldn't be harassed again, that he had really listened to her and even remembered what she had said is what would define him as a person. The fact that he wanted to protect her from knowing this all and from getting hurt did.

But who was she? She couldn't cope with the fact that all he had done didn't threw her off, though she knew she should be. Well, that wasn't entirely true; it did threw her off, but not enough to want to avoid him. Still, she couldn't help but question herself for wanting to help these two men who had done terrible things, and probably would continue to do them still.

All she could do when the train stopped was to get out and look at the passengers getting off. She ran her eyes through the small crowd and saw no one holding a little briefcase. She did see Lemon standing a few wagons further on though. He stood by the door, ready to get inside when the doors would close again, thoroughly searching for the culprit as well. That's when he saw her doing the same. He looked at her with narrowed eyes and a questioning look on his face, but there wasn't time to do more. The warning sound of the doors closing could be heard all over the platform, so they got in again. The doors had just closed when Yuina would lean against them and sigh.

'Yuina?' Akira said whilst sighing with relief. 'We just saw you standing outside when the train stood still. What were you doing?!' Yuina could detect a small worried tone in her voice. Surely she wouldn't be worried about her, would she? Yuina looked at the girl she hung out with for years but never could call a friend and wasn't really sure what to say. Them kind of using her wouldn't be a valid reason to not inform them of the danger that was in this train, but she didn't know how to start. 'I just wanted some air,' she decided to say. Akira seemed to think about how to react. 'Well, maybe now is not the time to be seeking attention,' she said annoyed.

'Excuse me?' Yuina blurted out. 'We know you're going through something, blah blah, with your dad and all, but we really don't have to babysit you, do we?' Yuina didn't understand why she was being kind of hostile all of a sudden. No, she wasn't being this way all of a sudden, she had always been this way. None of them ever wanted her around, long before Yuina was acting withdrawn when high school would end. They never tried to get to know her. 'I don't know what you mean,' she replied, to which Akira sighed. 'Sure,' she said, 'act dumb all you want, but let me tell you that we're fed up with you for a long time now. Why do we always have to drag you along?! Just because you don't have any friends.'

Yuina felt like there was no time for this, them being in danger and all. 'I have to tell you something,' she tried saying. 'It's very important.'

'No, this is very important, so you just listen. We're done dragging you along so you seem to have some friends. The truth is nobody likes you and we're only doing this so our parents can have a successful career. We have to act like we like having you around and we're done with it. We're done being your babysitters and you making it difficult for us. If you had gone off the train and your mother would learn of it...' She shook her head. 'We're done with you being a burden to us, so just listen carefully. I'll stop looking after you.'