roubai | i. wakasa

二十一

Before the week long summer break for them ends, Rini had told Takeomi beforehand that she would be going out with Wakasa for a few drinks in Shibuya. Of course he lets her go, but fifteen minutes into being left alone with Senju and especially Haruchiyo, Takeomi realized that maybe he shouldn't have let her go on that date.

"When is Ninee coming home?" Haruchiyo whines for the nth time, stomping his feet down on the ground. "Can we go to where Ninee is?" He asks, looking up at Takeomi.

"No." Takeomi responded

"Please!" Suddenly it was Senju's turn to beg, clasping her little hands together. "I want to go where Ninee is too!"

"Yeah! Why can't you let us go see her?!" Haruchiyo asks, eyebrows furrowing at his older brother.

"Because it's not kid friendly!" Takeomi reasons, already feeling the headache coming. "She'll be home later."

"Why later? We want now!"

"Please!"

Takeomi feels like he was slowly being ripped away from his sanity. He didn't know how to deal with children at just the age of eighteen. And all the while both Senju and Haruchiyo are begging him to take them to where Rini is, his phone chimes as a text message came in for him.

To: Takeomi
From: Rini

i'm sad, please pick me up pm 9:53

Raising his right brow, he quickly sends her a text back.

To: Rini
From: Takeomi

Waka's with you. He'll take you home. pm 9:54

"Is that Ninee?" Haruchiyo asks, standing on his tiptoes to take a look at his phone. "Can you call her?"

"You demand a lot, Haru." Takeomi says, closing his phone.

"I just want to be where Ninee is too!" Haruchiyo cries, his lower lip quivering while tears begin to brim his eyes. As both he and Senju stared at Haruchiyo about to bust into crying, his phone chimed once more.

To: Takeomi
From: Rini

were both sad, please pick us up pm 10:02

Raising his head up before heaving out a breath, Takeomi had no choice but to get up from the couch.

"Let's go." He tells the two, Haruchiyo ultimately stopping from crying. "Were going where Ninee is."

. . . . . . . . . . ♡

Upon arriving at the front of a bar in Shibuya, to see Benkei and Shinichiro also there too surprised him.

"I didn't know you two would be here too." Takeomi begins to say, hands shoved inside the pockets of his pants as Senju and Haruchiyo walk in front of him. "I'm guessing that Waka sent you two a text."

"A song lyric to be exact" Shinichiro responded, showing to him their sent messages to one another from minutes ago. "Getting wasted a night before school resumes? That's not likely of the two of them."

"I think getting drunk is now their bonding time." Benkei pitches in, blinking his eyes.

Emerging out of the bar's doors were Wakasa and Rini, arms wrapped around each other's shoulders while swaying side to side.

"Were not sad anymore!" Rini drunkenly beams, giggling afterwards.

"Why is Ninee like that?" Senju asks while looking up at Takeomi.

Now, with that question, he didn't know what to say. He isn't just gonna say that they drank alcohol so casually, he's talking to barely ten year olds. He needed to water down his words for them to understand.

"Love is like a storm!" Rini shouted as the seven of them walk down the quiet neighborhood that leads up to the Akashi household. "Both friends and lovers get swept up by it!" She shouted again, jumping a little on her spot before continuing to walk while swaying.

"What do you think she's singing?" Benkei asks, leaning a bit at Shinichiro as he whispers before chuckling at how the two drunk teenagers walking in the middle of the road looked.

Snickering, Shinichiro shrugs. "No idea."

"Love is not for everyone!" Rini shouted, using her index finger to point at non nonsensical places among the neighborhood they are walking in.

"Damn relationships!" Wakasa shouted next, throwing his hand up in the air.

"Yeah!" Rini agrees, throwing her free hand up in the air as she copies him. "Damn all relationships and couples!"

"Let's send them to hell!"

"Go to hell!" Rini hunches her back and squints her eyes, pointing at nothing before wobbly straightening her back. "Let's go to hell too, Waka!"

"Damn right!" He shouted. "Let's get going now!"

"What do you think they're talking about?" Benkei asks as he leaned in to ask Shinichiro and Takeomi - his sober friends. "They're telling couples to go to hell and then suddenly they're going there too?" He asks before letting out sounds of chuckling.

"Her voice is damaging my eardrums." Takeomi responded. A cigarette stick already resting between his lips.

Shinichiro laughs under his breath, he too already had a cigarette stick resting in the corner of his lips. Taking out with his fingers to let the grayish white smoke out past his lips. "They're quite amusing to me." He tells them, "They're like a comedic duo right now."

"Just look at those two." Takeomi said. Watching him and her walk mindlessly and wobbly in the middle of the road. He wasn't even surprised when they turned around to face the three of them.

"Shin chan!"

"Omi nii!"

The two drunk teenagers happily greeted them while jumping a little as they wave their free hands to them. The boy with black pompadour lets out a cackle and the boy with a muscular frame laughed out. The only one not laughing was the girl's older brother.

"Oi, you're going to wake everyone up!" He tells them, tossing his stick down on the ground before stepping on it. "Hurry up and get inside the house before our neighbors come out and see what the commotion is!"

After barking at them, Takeomi then felt a hand tugging on the lower hem of his shirt, turning around, both Senju and Haruchiyo were looking up at him.

"What did Ninee and Waka nii do?" Senju innocently asks. "Why do they keep shouting like that?"

"Because" Takeomi says, finally watering their questions. "Ninee and Waka drank apple juice. And apple juice actually makes people really active. But you should only drink apple juice at day, not by night or else you'll end up like these two!" He says, pointing at Rini and Wakasa.

As Senju's eyes widen upon sinking in that information, Haruchiyo jumped a bit on his spot, a wide grin painting his lips.

"I want to drink that apple juice too!" He proudly declares. "Where can we get that?"

Takeomi could only sigh, suddenly losing the energy to light up his stick. "Let's all just go home and call it a night. I'm tired already."