Paper Bags

Paper Bags 18

The warning from János did little to reduce the already excessive anxiety running through Haru's body. Despite the name Sparkles in itself wasn't an intimidating name, the fact that they were warned about their business trade was enough to make him question just why he thought finding this family was a good idea.

And then he looked at the people walking past him and sighed lowly. None of them wore Paper Bags on their heads and that freedom was enough of a reminder to why they had to do this. Someone out there had created a mass worldwide propaganda over breathing air outside of their shelters and the people needed to know the truth!

Besides, wasn't this entire thing his idea?

Haru had discovered it, so he should be the one to see this truth come to light.

Outside of János' store, the group came together, twin frowns on Rain and Jason meanwhile Fatima hummed under her breath, eyebrows furrowed. He resisted the urge to rock on his heels, opening his mouth to speak something when Adam beat him to it.

"Well, the old man will take a bit to forge the docs, but once we have them, we can find the Sparkles," the bad boy wannabe said, shrugging.

"Okay, but what do we do until then?" Haru asked, crossing his hands against his chest. "Is there anywhere we can stay?"

Adam nodded. Jabbing a thumb over his shoulders, he said, "If you lot are fine with it, we can room in the old man's house."

"No," Rain said, her tone sharp. "I'm not gonna stay in a house with a man like that."

Fair enough. Even Haru wasn't sure he'd be comfortable with that idea. Something about János was intimidating and while he had no clue half of the things Adam had said to that man, it was best if they weren't sharing a space after this encounter. Especially that glowing eye — it couldn't be normal for a human to have such a look on their faces.

"Well," Jason said, "maybe we can find shelter somewhere?"

"Where exactly?" Fatima said. "We don't exactly have money on us. And the last place we stayed, Adam managed to get us rooms for free."

"I have money." Jason patted the back of his pants before he pulled out his wallet, a brown leather one that had seen better days. The edges were getting worn and some parts of it were peeling off. Haru blinked once and then twice. He recognised that particular, ugly thing. "So, if we want, we can room somewhere nice."

"Great, our resident rich boy will sponsor us tonight," Adam said, clapping his hands together once. "I know just the place we can go."

His best friend merely narrowed his gaze at Adam before rolling his eyes. "Be my guest, I have more than enough to last us for a long time."

Adam's shoulders tensed briefly before a smirk settled on his face. "Don't come crying when I use up all your money." Before Haru could once again voice out his opinion, the gang moved, leaving him a step or two behind.

Huffing a breath, he jogged to catch up to Jason, touching his arm to get his attention. When those eyes landed on him, eyebrows raised, Haru pointed to the wallet in his hands. "That's a present. From me. When we were fifteen."

Jason quirked the corner of his lips upwards. "Yeah," he said, shaking the wallet a tad. "I know. I've kept it with me until now."

Haru wasn't really sure how to reply to that, so he didn't. Instead, he turned his gaze away and continued walking by his best friend's side in silence. His heart tightened his chest knowing that Jason had cherished the things he had gifted to him. After all, that wallet took him a few weeks of part time work to be able to afford it — a little thing he saw while walking back home in their shelter and thought it would fit his best friend quite well.