Hearing The Heartbeat (Sequel to 'Broken Perfection')

Wasted Everything

Days passed and Taketo had returned from his trip. Honestly, he knew something was wrong with Katsumi. She's been throwing up every morning and she's been eating twice as much as she usually does.

He's already considered taking her to the doctor but that's a bit ridiculous, seeing as that he could just ask her what was wrong since she was a doctor herself.

Today he was going to ask.

The friends were eating breakfast, Katsumi eating twice as much as her usual meals from before he left. This was routine now, Kat would awaken everyday, feeling sick and running off to the bathroom, where Taketo would follow her and hold her hair up so that she could let out everything.

"Katsumi..." he muttered, swallowing his food.

"Hm?" she looked up, still chewing the eggs she was eating. "Something wrong?"

"Tell me. What's wrong?" she visibly froze at the mention. "What do you mean?" she broke eye contact and began eating again. 

"You know what I mean, Kat," he urged, "You've been eating twice as much and you've been throwing up too much that it's not healthy. You haven't been drinking coffee, nor eating sweets or junk food. That's not... you."

She shakes her head and bites her lip, "Nothing's wrong... It's just a change I feel like I needed."

"Throwing up every morning is a choice you made?" he asked with sarcasm, looking at her with worried eyes.

She sighs but then Taketo noticed a ripple in her water, through the clear glass the water was in. He noticed she was crying again. He stood up from his seat and walked over to her seat.

He wrapped her in a hug, causing her to tip her glass, spilling water on the wooden table. Taketo could feel her tears drip onto his arm, but he could care less right now. "Tell me, I'm here for you..."

"Taketo... I'm pregnant... And it wasn't planned, I..." Her voice cracked and faded, sentence unfinished. He was truly shocked to hear the news and he had no idea what to do.

"W-Who's the father...?" "I... Don't know for sure, but I'm guessing it's..." "It's who...?" "H-Homare..."

And suddenly, Taketo felt rage growing within him. He knew that Midorikawa had taken her home from the club, saying that he would take care of her.

How dare he take advantage of his friend?

Pissed, he stood up after making sure Katsumi was calm. He breathed, trying to calm his shaking body. He was definitely speaking to Homare tonight... But this won't end well at all.

~*****~

"MIDORIKAWA!!!" The moment he opened the door, Homare was immediately tackled to the ground by a very pissed Taketo. The entire gang stood behind him, only Katsumi missing. Yui was at school, so she wasn't here to witness anything.

"What the hell, Kanzaki?!" Homare growled, trying to get him off. The rest of the group only watched on, glaring at Homare the whole time.

"Hey! Get him off of me!" "Alright, Taketo, calm down..." Yasuto pulled off his older brother from Homare, who stood up, breathing heavily.

"What the hell?!" "Don't you dare start with me! What the-" "Calm down..." Yasuto stopped him, but then Chii and Naka stepped up.

"What did you do with Katsumi?!" Naka screamed, looking at him with tear filled eyes, much like Chii, who was a bit more composed. "What the heck do you mean?!"

"You know what you did... You... Y-You..." Chii began to lose her breath, beginning to cry. Yasuto handed Taketo off to Nagisa and Kanji, who held him back. Yasuto held his fiancee, trying to calm her down.

"Why did you take advantage of her, Homare?" Nagisa spoke to the doctor, still holding back Taketo, who was slowly calming down. 

He froze, questioning how the heck they knew about what happened. Did Katsumi tell them...?

"I... I was drunk..." he muttered, but they all laughed bitterly. "Drunk?" Taketo chuckled with bitterness and sarcasm, venom dripping from his voice. "What do you mean you were drunk? You were the most sober out of us, you had only two glasses of beer and a shot of vodka. What the fuck do you mean?!"

"..." Homare had nothing to say, he knew they were right and he knew that he could have stopped it from the very beginning.

"I thought so... You got her..." Taketo couldn't bring himself to say the words. BUt Homare knew exactly what he wanted to say.

Pregnant...? Did I get her pregnant...?

"Listen..." Suddenly, Katsuki appeared. Apparently, he hadn't noticed that her older brother was here. Oh shit...

"I'm not going to say or do anything more than this." he said, "I expect you to support this child. I want you to send me money so that I can hand it to Taketo, who will be living with Katsumi from now on. We won't be contacting you about this anymore than about the support, understood?"

Homare nodded, but Katsuki wasn't done. "I've bought a house in a different location for Taketo, Katsumi and the child to live in and I don't want you snooping around to find them, got it?"

Having no say in this since it was all his fault, Homare nodded. "I apologize... I-I'll be sending you the money every month, I promise."

~*****~

They left with no other words and after that, Homare never heard from his friends again, not even from Nagisa nor Kanji.

He did hear, however, that Kanji and Naka were engaged now since it was on the news that the popular Kanji Okumiya had proposed. Nagisa got a girlfriend from what the news had said.

He hadn't heard from Katsuki, but he still did send the money like promised. He hadn't heard from Chii nor Yasuto, or Naka nor Taketo.

All that he could do from that point was reminisce about their past, looking at past awards they won together or different pictures. He barely spoke to Yui anymore, only talking when he had to remind her of something. 

The last time he saw Katsumi was the day after the gang had interrogated him and such. In the conference room during a meeting, they had announced that she was leaving Meijo and resigning to another hospital.

She had moved out and now her office was empty and vacant. In her office she had accidentally left a photo of the entire gang, which Homare took and was now sitting in a frame on his desk. 

He knew he messed up. 

He knew he wouldn't get a second chance.

He knew he wasted everything that he loved, knew and needed.