Tangent | Soukoku; AU [✔]

36 ➳ reflection // d.o

at the end of the day, i never received any reply from xyren. whatever the reason was, i didn't pry on it any longer. the tournament has ended for today and more surge of people have come by to where i am right now. funny enough too, i met my old coach, mori.

he approached me with his usual chesire grin, his fingertips touching against each other, and greeting me with a smug tone in his voice. "fancy meeting you here, dazai. i heard you were watching earlier."

i mirrored his smug aura back at him, swatting my hand like there was some fly. "ah, yes! i was just there to see if my old teammates were holding off without me~"

"they are, they are," mori laughed off the comment i gave. "you could even say that nothing changed other than the fact that you're gone."

i was right; the last thing i saw before leaving the stadium was the faces of the bot lane - seems like a dispute came up during the game. at least, that's how i understood this man's words anyway.

i didn't want the air to drift further to the direction of awkwardness, but before i could refute anything else, ex-coach mori had beaten me to it.

"any chance you'll be playing again, perhaps for another team?"

he has asked me this question before i turned away from them; weeks had passed since. back then, i never really answered the question, but now i think i'm confident with this one.

"nah, i don't think i will."

mori smirked before he was the one to turn his back on me this time, waving his hand farewell and walking away - nothing else, nothing more.

i went back to the edge of the pavement where i was sitting down. words that came out of mori's mouth have been playing in my head like a broken record. nothing changed within the team despite my disappearance huh? could it be that the raven-haired woman was just another reflection of my own, just in a different person?

it is no joke that fate had brought me and xyren together - to meet the former shadow of the team, and replace the gaping hole of port mafia. somewhere within this sea of stars, our had connected. i wonder if the artist would also meet the same demise as i did.

now that i think about it, looking at her reminds me a lot of my younger self. it really is like staring at a mirror. maybe my past self has reincarnated as a woman; that would be fun.

speaking of xyren, as i was overthinking the words mori has spoken, my phone finally beeped again after a whole long day that it was quiet. it was exactly who i was thinking of.

'sorry, i had things to take care of.'

albeit the message was like... five to six hours ago, her replying to me again speak volumes. unless i'm assuming things way more than i should.

my thumbs fiddled for a bit on the virtual keyboard before finally composing a reply. 'no worries! i hope you're alright!'

i heard another beep not far from here, but it wasn't from my phone. it made a sound at the exact same time i sent my reply to xyren. everything was made clear to me when a familiar, monotonous voice rang behind me.

"why not try to look behind you?"