Ironies of life

CHAPTER 11: The shelter.

Naoki felt he was going to explode.

He always knew Dante would do anything to bug him, but that joke was over the limit of his tolerance. If Naoki thought he had experienced pure rage before it was nothing compared to the feeling that was burning within him at that moment. To make things even worse, Dante's expression didn't change at all. He looked bored of the situation, the exact opposite of Naoki's own bursting emotions.

Naoki stood up wrathful, making the table slide back behind him.

"That's enough. You are the most awful, wicked person in the history of humanity."

He walked away from the kitchen and surprisingly found that Dante wasn't following him so instead of going to his room and locking himself there he opened the door and ran away.

...

Loin's face deserved to be framed when he saw Naoki at the other side of the door.

"What the heck...?"

Naoki stepped forward and hugged him suddenly, making one of Loin's crutches fall with a clatter to the floor.

"I'm so sorry. I feel horrible for everything, Loin."

"Hey man, you're acting weird."

If Naoki was expecting something from Loin was definitely not a "you're acting weird." A jab of disappointment nailed in his chest but he decided to ignore it. Loin was just surprised, his best friend (and almost only friend) would never reject him in a moment like this.

"You are never going to believe what my parents did to me, you are not going to believe me. This is the most horrible torture I've ever heard about."

"Naoki... I need some time to cool down and you are going to get in trouble so..." Loin shuffled out of Naoki's arms. "Go home now. I don't want things to be hard and awkward."

Naoki felt like his whole world was breaking apart. It couldn't be possible, Loin was always there for him. 'He must still be upset about earlier is all. Right?' The stitch in his chest became a gigant pressure that hinder him from breathing.

"Loin, this is real, I need to tell you this or I'll explode and die."

"I said go home, Naoki."

Loin turned his back to Naoki putting so much effort in looking confident and biting about the topic.

"Loin, Loin please I'm so sorry. If you want I won't approach you until you are ready to accept my apology but please, please don't send me home."

Loin turned again to face Naoki just to show him his tears. Being rude was not Loin's specialty and he ended up crying. 'I've to do this or Naoki will keep talking, he is going to discover the whole thing and Dante is going to crush me.'

"Naoki I'm tired of dealing with your problems. I don't want to hear about your mother being mad at me for letting you stay here so go straight home or I'll call her myself."

'I'm dead.' Was all Naoki could think as he fell to his knees. 'Even Loin can't stand me. I really screw up everything to push him to his limit. What kind of person am I? Making Loin this angry deserves a good reason.'

He glanced up at Loin and noticed his worried expression, and made a decision. 'I'm going to speak now or never.'

"Dante kissed me."

"What?" Loin didn't even took a second to process that, he asked right away.

"My parents hired him as a babysitter to make sure I don't leave the house. I was yelling at him in the kitchen and he suddenly kissed me." Naoki explained himself as fast as possible. If there was even a little opportunity of Loin listening to him, he needed to use it.