Call Out My Name • Dazai Osamu ✔

｢28/31｣

28. 'I know we're looking up at the same starry sky.'

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"Is everyone dressed, and ready?" Kunikida checks the attendance.

"I can't believe this."

"Alright, off we go!" Kenji announces, and he leads us, holding Kyouka's hand while Atsushi held her other hand.

"I can't fathom this."

Two days passed by, and we no longer had troubles related to the Mafia.

'Yet'. That's what Dazai had told me.

Anyhow, we had received word that there would be a bombing at a ball held this evening. The reporter requested us to diffuse the bomb, even if it meant all of the members having to attend the ball.

After all, it is worth to save the lives of so many people who would be attending the ball.

The problem was that we didn't know where the bomb was.

"We've gone through the plan enough times, so I know it well," Tanizaki adds, "But why I have to dress in a tux for this goes beyond my fathoming level."

"We're going to a BALL." Naomi says. She looks elegant, dressed in a black laced dress all the way up to her ankles, Tanizaki standing beside her wearing a tux that matched her dress.

"This itches." Ranpo moans like a little kid, and Akiko kicks Ranpo again, this time with the heel of her shoes. Ranpo points to his orange vest, and she helps him adjust the buttons. While she does this, Ranpo decides to undo the blue ribbon tied around her ice blue knee-length cocktail dress.

"Edogawa, quit it."

"Yosano, you look even dumber when you wear stuff like that. Your uniform was bad enough as it is."

Dazai puts his hands around my neck, steering me away from Akiko and Ranpo who began wrestling each other.

"You look pretty, Kira-chan." He comments. He looks pleased as he glances at the lavender dress I was wearing. When he notices the navy blue shoes that I am wearing, his smile deepens. I was wearing matching colors with him, and he looks very, very pleased.

"You don't look half bad." I comment, and he takes my hand.

"Let's diffuse that bomb so that we can have at least one dance at the ball, eh?"

"Lets."

 ---

"Kyouka-chan, you can't go to the kitchen to get more tofu!" Atsushi wails, when Dazai and I pass by the two on the ground floor.

"Team Kunikida-kun has no luck so far as well. I hear the bomb goes out in less than half an hour." Tanizaki informs us.

Dazai and I exchange glances before we proceed to the next floor.

As we search every nook and cranny of each room we enter, I fret about asking him something that had been bothering me for a while now.

"Dazai, you were in the Mafia before, right?"

Dazai drops the futon he had been lifting, and it lands with a slam. I wonder if I said something insensitive. Akutagawa did say that he had left while on a mission. He clearly wasn't happy about the Mafia, in that case...