Umbrella.

Chapter was originally posted : 02/10/2023 on AO3 by 0Creativity0 (me).

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Gon's week was boring, repetitive. He had a few encounters with neighbors, turned out to be great people. He tried to spend some time with them, engage in a friendship. He'd realized working at night was exhausting, and that he was going to have to hold on tight and trust himself if he wanted to make it.

Other than that, not much had happened, except that he had started getting along with a few kids at school. It was a bunch of friends who were already in the school the year prior. The ones Gon had spoken the most with were named Zushi and Ikalgo. They'd stay together in class and sometimes eat together, but since they were so close, Gon always felt as if out of place. Any other friends he had made would part with him as soon as a breaks came. Therefore, most of his lunches, he'd spent them hidden behind the school cafeteria with Retz and some of her friends. It was uncomfortable for Gon to always hang around people older than him, only because they were never in class with him and he couldn't understand their inside jokes, related to their own classes. He'd also started hating on a person, silencing but not forgetting his despiteful thoughts to her: Pitou was Gon's classmate, and she had, everyday since Tuesday, without mercy, made fun of Gon. It wasn't anything big, not a huge deal. There was nothing Gon could do either, because the only thought of confronting her made him sick. She just whispered about him whenever he was nearby, looked at him sideways, and made comments about stuff like his handwriting, or the way he spoke "too fast", just enough to make Gon extremely uncomfortable, not enough for others to think anything of it.

He wanted to tell someone but he didn't , not having anyone to speak about it with: if he told Neon, she'd freak out; his parents would call the school; Retz would ruin Pitou's life; and he didn't trust his new friends enough to tell them about that all and know they would understand. Thus, it stayed a secret.

Today was Friday, Gon had four hours of sleep. Getting up in the morning, not eating again, not too eager to go but quite frankly still excited to see his new friends again and learn some more about subjects he'd recently discovered. Gon realized that he probably hadn't been happy at the thought of going to school ever since kindergarten. He cherished the feeling, grabbed his backpack and his keys to leave. However, before he could step out, a little pixel of color in his peripheral vision caught his attention. On his marble brown kitchen counter and to his left sat a piece of paper. Unexpected.

It was a pink sticky note, warning him to take an umbrella with him, and to expect rain. He wondered shortly if he was the one to put it there, but the handwriting didn't seem his. At the same time, his door and windows were closed all night. Nobody could've entered without breaking through something. Hearing his phone ring, signaling it was time to go, Gon shrugged off his worries and carelessly grabbed an umbrella. He felt as if it was a stupid idea, judging by how sunny it was this early in the day, but he decided to trust his instincts.

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Sitting on the stairs of the closed restaurant in front of the exterior façade of their school, protected from the rain by his umbrella, Retz and Gon chatted about random things. After further thinking of it, Gon assumed the note on his counter was left by himself the night prior, either half asleep or literally sleepwalking.

Slowly but surely, Retz was winning a place in Gon's life like Neon had, and he found himself wondering why he always got along with girls better.

" - Oh! She started, quickly swallowing the candy in her mouth. Did you hear about the accident?

- What accident? Gon asked, expecting some more of the stupid gossiping that Retz loved to share with him.

- Monday, first day of school, a bunch of kids never arrived, right?

- Yeah? Gon remembered his class being emptier than he'd expected.

- Turns out a bus full of student took fire and then exploded on it's way to come. "

There was a second of silence. Gon stared at Retz, expecting her to laugh, but her face was dead serious.

" - God... He commented. Are they okay?

- Ugh... The driver died, that's for sure. She said. A few of the kids survived but none of them is out of the hospital yet.

- Where did you get that information, tho? Gon asked. He was sceptical of Retz's sources, oftentimes unsure.

- A friend of mine works in the school council and he told me they've been thinking of preparing something as a homage for the kids. She claimed. I also know some people that knew students in the bus.

- I hope they'll be okay. Imagine how traumatic that must've been. Gon stared at his hand for a second. What bus was it? He asked.

- I don't exactly remember... Pretty sure it was the 78th. "

Again, Retz was greet with silence from Gon. This time he stared at her, horrified.

" - What? She asked.

- That's my bus. It's the bus I take everyday.

- Oh... So it's a lie? You were in the bus? She asked, a sense of relief could be read on her face.

- No... I missed it that morning. The relief on Retz's face was washed away. "

The rest of the conversation had been about how lucky Gon was and how glad they were that he decided to go with his Uber and not the bus even once it arrived. Gon realized that he'd been so focused on his weird driver, he hadn't even looked out of the window to try to figure out why there was so much traffic jam.

" - Maybe it wasn't even your bus. Retz dismissed. Remember? I'm not one thousand percent sure it was the 78. Her words were meant to make Gon feel safer, but she didn't really mean them in the way that she was pretty sure it had been that bus in specific.

- Yeah. Gon responded. And there's no reason for us to be speaking about that anyways. Let's just change the subject to something happier! "

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The night had been rough. It was his first night of correct sleep in a week and his body had started getting used to work at night. His shift started early in the morning, shortly after he'd finally succeeded to fall asleep.

He discovered during that day of work with Neon how many people exactly had passed in the bus incident, as it was finally divulged in the news to which Gon had access thanks to his friend. He also discovered, from his own experience, that survivors guilt was an actual issue; and that even tho he wasn't in the bus when the accident took place.

That weekend, Gon was paid for the first time. He was finally able to get himself a mattress (but not yet a bed). He was aiming to buy that next month, keep the rest of his money to pay his allowances.

It had been a month since he left Whale Island. A lot of things had changed in his life, and his parents seemed to start slowly accepting he wasn't planning on coming back anytime soon. They were also much more comfortable speaking with him than they were right after he moved out, not scared to say anything wrong and for Gon to react excessively.

The thought of almost getting in that bus, the Monday morning before, kept Gon up later than he'd expected Saturday night, but the exhaustion from his week caught up quickly enough for him to sleep a whole eight hours before his last shift of the week. As expected, the clientele of the cafe had started becoming more adequate, and the neighbors Gon had met in the corridors or in the old elevator of his apartment, he now recognized them as his clients.

As he prepared himself for yet another day spent preparing coffees and milkshakes, and cold drinks, and teas and whatnot, Gon's eye caught onto a new pixel of color. Turning around to face his window, the window he had closed just now, Gon found a new note.