(Wind Breaker) The Green Rose's Thorns

Part 34

"Alright, we're coming in-Wah!," Tsubaki barged into the dressing room and almost immediately had to duck as a small bottle went sailing straight at his head. It missed its intended mark but crashed right into another behind him, setting off a string of curses as the door was quickly slammed shut.

After a few more minutes, and a very dramatic apology, Tsubaki received a text and opened the door again. There was a table set up on one side, much like the one they had just been sitting at. On the other side was a screen, where faint shuffling could be heard as they took their seats in the more private room. All the Furin boys were gathered, along with Suzuri who looked ready to faint at the end of the table.

"So. How do you know Aoi?," Tsubaki got right to the point. He had received the okay from the person in question via text, but he still felt uneasy about diving into whatever they were about to learn.

"U-uh," Suzuri stumbled over his own tongue. He had expected something far worse when he was pulled to the secret room, at the back of the bar where the girl he had recently been trying to kidnap and sell worked. Tsubaki's phone buzzed on the table, and after a glance he sighed and tried again.

"You thought you saw someone you knew, right? What can you tell us about them, so we at least know if its the same person," Tsubaki adjusted slightly. Suzuri was still super tense, but it looked like that change of tactic worked.

"I didn't know her-uh, him? I didn't know them personally. We just...grew up in the same part of town," Suzuri's struggle with pronouns raised a few brows. Sakura was still not following along at all, but his two vice captains had at least one working theory. Or, one of them did and hoped that Nirei wasn't just as lost as their leader.

"Okay. What did they look like? Aoi isn't exactly an uncommon name," Tsubaki was eager to get this over with, shooting glances toward the screen that everyone else was trying to ignore.

"Uh. They were small? Like I said, I didn't know them directly. There were just a lotta rumors about a kid with tattoos who lived with their dad. Or, everyone assumed he was their dad. But he was pretty bad even for that area. Drugs n' stuff. There was a rose painted on his door, and he gave Aoi a tattoo to match so everyone knew where he was supposed to be," Suzuri's eyes went hollow as he shared what he knew. Nirei had pulled out his notebook to start a fresh page, copying what Suzuri said nearly word for word with lighting speed.

"Is that tattoo why you thought you saw him here?," Tsubaki was shrewd and relentless with his interrogation.

"Y-yeah," Suzuri answered meekly. He must have known more, but he seemed reluctant to share it. Even so, he gulped down his fear and pushed on.

"The Aoi back then. They did all sorts of stuff, whatever it took to get their dad's fix. That was the story anyway. I heard that whenever he got in trouble, his dad would add a tattoo. Usually he was accused of stealing drugs for himself, stuff like that."

"So, the tattoos have some sort of meaning to them?," Sakura asked but Suzuri shook his head. If there was a meaning, he didn't know it.

"Where were the tattoos? Or how many?," Nirei started asking questions now, relieving Tsubaki of that duty.

"I think there were four. The rose, and three bands on his arms," Suzuri was able to give an answer to that one pretty easily. The looks on everyone's faces were complicated once he answered, and he started to trust his earlier judgement a little more from that reaction.

"So, it's not really a thing now but a long time ago tattoos were used as punishment too," Seiryuu piped up. His tone was at least a little bit closer to the somber mood around the table as he started a bit of theorycrafting.

"I heard Aoi's dad used to be a teacher or something. So he might have known some of that," Suzuri lent a little bit of credence to whatever Seiryuu was spouting off.

"Okay. Well, usually the meaning is determined by where the bands are. On the arms would be fore stealing, so that lines up with what you said earlier," Seiryuu held a hand to his chin as he thought over what he said.

"So, what about the neck tattoo?," Nirei asked. He went to jot down that theory, but Suo's hand covered the page where he was about to write. He cocked a brow but Suo just shook his head and pushed the notebook closed.

"I'm not sure if it applies. Or if that's what the intention was, but neck tattoos were reserved for really bad crimes. Like-"

"It covers up a scar," Aoi's sudden interruption made nearly everyone jump out of their skin. The boy popped up out of nowhere at the opposite end of the table, wearing his usual faire and sitting on his knees there. He held a hand over the black band that wrapped around his neck, and he stared hard at the table with his brows pressed together and creasing in the middle. He held a mask in his other hand, bunched up into a fist in his lap.

"When the hell did you get here?," Sakura half-shouted. Several deadpan stares were aimed at him just then, each one amazed at how dense he was being.

"I've been here the whole time," Aoi's face flushed as he said what should have been obvious by that point.

"Wait. You're a girl?," Sakura and Nirei both shared the brain cell with that question, half-shrieked out in astonishing synchronization. Aoi just gave them both a tired glare, looking up at them for the first time since the mistaken identity crisis that evening.

"I am not," Aoi admitted through gritted teeth. Had he not already been in three separate emotional and mental crises he might have hit the both of them out of frustration.

"But. Y-you had-"

"I would rather not review the intricacies of women's undergarments with you, thanks," Aoi cut off Sakura's sputtering before he could say something all of them regretted. His face was flushed and hot, sweat beading up where his hair hung over his face. He had managed to get out all the pins from the twin buns but broke both hair ties and had to leave it loose.

"Suo, you've been quiet this whole time. Did you..know?," Nirei turned to his other classmate in an attempt to alter the direction of the conversation. He thought Suo must have figured it out earlier and was just enjoying watching the other two struggle with it, but Suo's face was redder than both Aoi's and Sakura's. His expression didn't change, but he was completely unresponsive after the realization fully sank in.

"Suo? Hey, Suo!," Nirei tugged at his sleeve, and Tsubaki let out a cackling howl. It startled the others, except for Seiryuu who was snickering beside his team leader. Just like that awkward tension drained from the room, and Aoi felt his shoulders relax just a little bit as his worst fears failed to come to fruition.

"Well, now we all know. But," Tsubaki's tone returned to dead serious, "This doesn't leave this room. Understood?"

The other three boys nodded their reply, feeling an icy chill down to their cores as their upperclassman uttered his order. With that, the younger highschoolers were dismissed. They didn't go back out the way they came though, instead following Aoi out the club's back door. Aoi and Suo were both dead silent as they made their way back into Furin turf. Once on the other side, Aoi shoved the coat he had borrowed into Suo's arms and made a break for it. If there were any more questions, no one was getting answers from him right now. He was at his limit, sliding down against the cold brick wall of another shop in a side alley.

"So, is that why you were so...friendly with them today?," Nirei asked Suo about his earlier behavior.

"Hm?," Suo finally responded to something, peeling his eyes away from the direction where Aoi had disappeared. Either he genuinely did not hear what Nirei asked, or he was trying hard not to incriminate himself further.

"I figured it out after that guy tried to grab him," Suo told half the truth and hoped to the gods it would be good enough to satisfy his friend's burning curiosity. Thankfully it appeared to be just enough, and the other two parted ways with him. Leaving him standing there in the dark street, head and heart filled with a raging storm of mixed feelings.