Just My Type [Daichi Sawamura x OC]

Chapter 16: Atonement

"Jun, please, we need to talk. I-I need to explain everything, please call me back."

"Jun, please pick up the phone. I know I screwed things up, but it's not what you think."

"Come on, pick up the phone. Or call me back, something. I need to talk to you."

Daichi let the line run for a few seconds longer before sighing and ending the call. He must have left a dozen messages and texts, all of them unanswered. They were going on a week without talking now and he could feel the desperation creeping in.

"Still nothing?" Suga cautiously poked his head around the corner. Of their roommates, Suga seemed the most affected by the situation. He wanted to believe it was because he and Daichi were such close friends that he hated to see his friend so upset, but Suga also knew his own guilt played a role too. Jun had cut off contact with him as well. He couldn't blame her of course, but that didn't stop him from missing her.

"Maybe she just needs a little time, ya know? She'll come around eventually."

Daichi let out a heavy sigh, pinching at the bridge of his nose. He couldn't be mad at Suga, it wasn't his fault this all happened. "We both know that won't be the case, man." Daichi mumbled, his voice edged with defeat.

"I saw her walking to the bookstore this afternoon." Kenma's nonchalant tone sounded just as bored as usual. But the way he gripped too tightly to his Switch belied his interest. "It's Sunday, so she'd be there working all afternoon."

Kenma's eyes flashed to Daichi's for the briefest of seconds, but he got the gist. Glancing over his shoulder at Suga, he found the same expression mirrored on his face too. Hope mixed with a smidgen of sympathy that Daichi found reassuring rather than annoying.

"Can't hurt to try again, I guess." Daichi rose slowly from the couch, groaning from the pain of sitting too long. "Maybe Tadaari will let me in the store this time."

"Maybe play nice this time and you won't have to worry about that." The sarcasm in Suga's response made the corner's of Daichi's mouth twitch into a smile. Suga breathed a sigh of relief at it. "Good luck Dai, go get her."

***

"She's not here."

Daichi wasn't surprised by Tadaari's response to him walking into the Hobbit Hole. The shop owner had watched him walk across the street towards the store, pausing at the front window long enough to build up his courage. And certainly long enough for Tadaari to quietly warn his working employee.

"We both know you're lying old man, but I won't push it." The walk to the Hobbit Hole had given him time to think of a plan, of somehow convincing Tadaari to help him corner Jun so he could talk to her. And yet the closer he got to the bookstore, the more he realized how stupid a plan that would be. It would only scare her off quicker. He had to come up with something else. "Actually, I'm here to see you."

Tadaari raised an eyebrow inquisitively, but didn't stop his work counting receipts. "And why, dear boy, would that be?"

"Because I'm an idiot."

Tadaari snorted a laugh, pressing the stapler down with a little more force than necessary. "Aye, that's true. But I can't fix that."

"Yeah, I don't think anyone can." Stool legs scraped against the floor as Daichi pulled it closer to the counter and dropped himself heavily onto it. "But I do need your help. You're the only one she'll actually listen to."

Tadaari paused halfway through his stack of receipts from the previous month and finally took a closer look at the boy. Dark circles were etched under his eyes with a permanence that he himself was familiar with. The boy's normally well dressed (albeit grungy) clothes hung loosely on sagging shoulders. And Tadaari didn't miss the hastily bandaged hand that was clinging to his counter with tense force. A knot tightened in his chest; Daichi was clearly more distraught than he had originally thought. And yet something still blazed in the kid's eyes that Tadaari hadn't expected to see. A fierce determination they bordered on stubbornness.