How To Be A Man

the plot thickens and so do I

Mondo slumped down in the cafeteria chair, his appetite gone. He wanted to pretend he didn't have the run-in with Ishimaru, but his words were ringing in his head. There's no way they were true, he knew that much for sure. He also knew for sure that any words coming from a guy like that had absolutely no power. He wasn't going to let them hurt him.

His face must have said otherwise.

"O-Owada? Are you okay?"

"Huh...? Chihiro-- y-yeah, I'm fine. Rough sleep or whatever."

Mondo crossed his bare arms, feeling almost naked without his jacket. It was probably in the laundry Kirumi left next to his bed -- thank god for Kirumi -- and Mondo just left his dorm room without it. He hated to admit it, but the jacket provided a sense of security and comfort for him. He might have looked a lot better than the day before, but he felt like a fish out of water.

Chihiro seemed to look down into her lap. Mondo watched her body wilt like a dead plant, and immediately wanted to retract his lie. Twenty voices in his head furiously protested that, but twenty others wanted the shy kid to look alive again.

Mondo gripped the metal armrests of the chairs, as if on some sort of rollercoaster ride, and took a deep breath.

"Taka. It's Taka. He said somethin' and it just...it didn't feel right, ya know?"

Chihiro's back immediately straightened up, and Mondo felt a little touch of relief.

"Really? What did Ishimaru say to make you feel that way?"

"Well..." Mondo felt his heart start to race. What was he so fucking scared of? It's no big deal. Nothing he couldn't handle.

"It was-- when he said, you know, we were talking just now, and...I mean..."

Chihiro was having a hard time watching him struggle. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"N-No, Chihiro! It's not like that, I really wanna say it! I'm just-- sometimes it's..."

Mondo took a deep breath, and squeezed his eyes shut. "Taka said that I do nothing but ride my bike and scare people. But that's not fucking true! It's just like that stupid sonnuvabitch to say something so stupid."

Chihiro paused for the longest three seconds of Mondo's life. "Owada, why does what Ishimaru said bother you so much?"

Mondo's eyes darted to Chihiro, scanning her face for a drop of judgement or scorn. He was surprised to find none.

"Well...it just...fuckin' rubs me the wrong way."

"Is that all?"

Mondo buried his face into his hands. "My gang means the fuckin' world to me. That's my goddamn talent, ya know? Yeah, we ride bikes and skip school sometimes n' shit. But we don't go outta our way to hurt people. A lotta 'em don't have families or people to take care of 'em. And I'm the leader. I gotta make sure they're good. I'm all they have."

"That's...really amazing, Owada!"

Mondo's ear twitched. "Really?"

"Yeah! I didn't know anything about that before...it's r-really nice that you're helping your friends."

He felt his body relax, and his heart slow down. There were also a few tears brewing behind his lilac eyes but he quickly blinked those away.

"You know what, Chihiro? I'm glad I talked to ya. You really helped me work that out. Thanks."

Chihiro's smile was so bright that Mondo couldn't help but feel lifted right along with her. He got up and got into a power stance.

"Aw man, I could pump some iron right now! I'm gonna hit the gym!"

"O-Owada?"

Mondo turned towards Chihiro. "Oh yeah! I gotta eat first. Can't work out on an empty stomach. Whaddaya want, Chihiro? I'll getcha anythin'."

Chihiro looked up at his strong frame, his muscles bulging out of his shirt and defining his body. Her eyes might as well have had sparkles in them.

"Whatever you're gonna eat, I wanna eat too!"

"Alright!"
___________________________________

Junko sat on the bed, crossing her legs and fixing the fat pink pigtail on the right side of her body. She refused to get down on her knees and do any of this "dirty work" that Mukuro was doing by her command. Her acrylic nails were far too perfectly coffin-shaped, her outfit too pimped and iced out, her phone too entertaining. She was simply here to delegate, supervise, sit and look pretty. Mukuro was the one digging through drawers, cabinets and the like, searching for things like embarrassing secrets. The other students were a lot easier to take care of -- not like their rooms were hard for Mukuro to search -- but some students like Koizumi and Akamatsu kept diaries and treasure boxes. Girls did things like that, but boys didn't. Mukuro had to make different inferences based on things that were covered up instead of on display, and how much a regular person would have had to dig to find certain things. She'd also have to rely on Junko's ear  and things she heard on the school's grapevine.

"This is taking longer than I thought, sis," Junko sighed, snapping a selfie.

"It would go a lot faster if you helped me," Mukuro replied, her workflow continuous.

"But I just got these nails done. If I broke them on something, I'd be so fucking pissed."

Mukuro said nothing. It sould be stupid of her to have any expectations of help. She pulled out a book from under the bed and opened it, revealing pictures of Mondo and his gang. She refused to show on her face the pang in her heart she felt at looking at the happy faces in the photos.

She skimmed through them, and found a few of Mondo's older brother.

"Oooh, so that's what his brother looks like. He's handsome," Junko said, snatching a photo from Mukuro's hand.

"There are less pictures of Daiya than there are of his gang members."

Junko shrugged. "Well maybe he's the type that hates photos. Look at these."

She pointed to the one with Daiya in the mirror after a shower. "He only looks directly at the camera for a few of them. These are mostly either candids or forced photos. Y'know, the kind you don't want to take but you have to so you can get your little brother off your back."

"So are these all he has?"

"Makes sense. He wouldn't just take some of them, considering he's living here at the school full-time. And polariods went out of style years ago."

"Says you," Mukuro huffed.

"I'm the Ultimate Fucking Fashionista. If anyone has a say on trends, it's me."

"Ultimate Supermodel."

"Whatever. Same thing."

Mukuro shook her head. "Daiya died a while back in an accident, so I guess it makes sense. But we need to make sure."

"Well, fine. Look into it all you need. Are we done here?"

"Yes. We'll get to Ishimaru's tomorrow."

"Good. Let's go."