Game Over

STAGE TWENTY-EIGHT >> +3 Emotional Damage

This is a work of fiction. All of the names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents in this story are all products of the author's imagination used in fictitious manner. Any resemblance to an actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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"Yuki!"

Disgust rose in the pits of his stomach as he make his way out of the building where Akihiro caught him. The man grabbed his forearm to halt his flight but hesitated as he turned around with tears welling into his eyes.

"Talk to me," Akihiro's tone was pleading, something he never done before. For a while, Yuki thought he saw the Wanderer through his eyes. "Please, I want to know—"

"If I tell you, would you believe me?"

There was something about the way Yuki glared back at him that seeped through his bones, and a certain gloom clouded Akihiro's mien that even the air was sucked dry. However, to Yuki, this silence was enough.

"I knew it," his tone was passive but the emotion behind was indifferent. He pulled back his forearm but the man wouldn't let him.

"Would you please listen?" Akihiro's answer came frantically. "How do you propose I should react when I have no idea what's happening?"

Yuki's face contorted, "I think you and your brother should stay away from me."

But Akihiro didn't let go even after hearing those venomous words. Even when a blue sedan stopped by on the side, Hikaru with Aoi and Masami emerged from the vehicle their eyes darting back and forth to the pair.

"You know I can't do that," Akihiro's uttered, voice as low as a whisper. "I can't stay away from you."

Although his lashes were already wet with tears, Yuki still managed to hold on to it. He averted his gaze, looking at the arm holding him and at the man who wouldn't let go.

"Let me go," he spoke with finality.

Slowly, Akihiro let go of his forearm but not before having the last say, "For now. The next time I catch you, I'll keep you by my side."

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Trust can't be negotiated.

He learned this phrase six years ago and even now that phrase followed him like a curse. Yuki thought that being back in Akihiro's life as someone else would erase whatever anger he held on to, but he was mistaken. His conversation with Riko Yoshihara has proven that to him, and knowing the truth made it a whole lot worst.

They say victims always had it worst. Even those criminals on death row were still lucky, they get to do whatever they desire and get away with it. While those victims were forever remembered as someone who could've done better but lost it.

When he was bullied, he didn't think of it this way. All he wanted was to get away from the bad memories and disappear. Until his friends, Masami, Hikaru, and Aoi convinced him otherwise. It was Hikaru who altered his image, removing any trace of that skinny nerdy boy until neither one of his bullies could recognize him. And he changed not only his physical appearance but also his whole personality.

He became a different person as though he shed his old skin and created a new one. Even his attitude changed, the way he approached people and conversed with them. Instead of getting back, sarcasm became his game and he was so good at it that no one dares talk to him.

Basically, he stopped giving a shit.

And instead of building bridges, he built walls around him. Tall and high impenetrable walls that even his own friends and family sometimes found difficult to cross. Or so he thought until Akihiro came back to his life...