3:12 am | Dazai Osamu

01. beware of the strangers

Why do some serious things always happen when the time passes midnight? It feels like all feelings, arguments, secrets and lies are just lurking in the shadows during the daytime because they're just waiting to come out at nigh. The world is just wearing a pretty mask of perfection during the daytime. That is why night is sometimes considered as an ugly time of the day simply because night is honest.

I remember, that it was exactly 3:12 am, when I met her, my beautiful disaster, that was inevitable. I was restless that night as if sleep knew that if it came, I wouldn't be able to meet her. I was wandering around the city, being a little bit drunk after drinking a bottle of beer before going out, what had already became a ritual for me during my fights with insomnia. Yes, I was only 16 back then, but age mattered nothing in the mafia, especially since my mentor was Mori himself. If I was told to kill, I did it, if I was given some strange liquid and he told me to drink it, I did it too. He needed me to grow as faster as possible and I couldn't do anything against him.

I remember, that I didn't know where to go so my feet brought to the small park, that was barely even visited by people even at daytime because of its location. Mafia members often visited this part of the city. There were a lot of...places with bad reputation that should have been controlled or else, they could cause us some problems.

That was why I was so surprised to see a girl around my age in this place, sitting on one of the benches and just simply staring at some random spot in front of her.

She had messy (h/c) hair, slightly puffy (e/c) eyes, that were still glistening with tears, pink lips with some bruises on it, what I assumed was because of the bad habit of biting them. She was dressed in a black shirt with a denim overall dress on top of it and a pair of black converse. Despite the cool air, she wasn't wearing a jacket for some reason and I didn't notice any clothes next to her.

I'm not sure why, but she was intriguing me and that was what brought me closer to her.

I approached her and said:

"Can I sit next to you?"

She flinched suddenly, as if she was in a deep slumber and I woke her up abruptly, and lifted her eyes on me, looking closely at every single feature of my face, trying to find any kind of familiarity in it.

"Yes." She finally said in a husky, but pleasant voice

I sat down, starting to feel the alcoholic dizziness slowly leaving me, what was rather disappointing. Anxiety only touched me when I was sober.

"Why are you here?" I asked "You seem to be the same age as me so why aren't you in bed, resting before the school day?"

"I can't sleep." She replied shortly

"Depression, drunk parents or you ran away from home?" I questioned

The girl raised her eyebrow, looking at me as if I was crazy, what made me raise an eyebrow too because I wasn't used to getting such a look from someone else. I barely talked to people outside of the underground world of criminals, where people always treated me with fear and respected, so this girl was something new to me.

"Why are you asking this?" She asked "You don't even know me."

"I'm bored~" I explained "I have insomnia again so I was just looking for someone, who could entertain me tonight~ And you seem to be quite interesting~"

"You're weird." She frowned "When I was going here, I thought that I would only meet some drunk men, perverts or criminals, yet a weird mummy-like guy is unexpected."

"You seem to have a sharp tongue." I chuckled slightly "I've never been called a mummy before."

"Really?" She asked "Usually people tease you a lot for such things like bandages all over your body at school."

"I study at home." I lied

"Lucky."

She turned her head away from me again as if she lost her interest to me, making me blink a couple of times. She was indeed entertaining. Usually all girls were trying to get my attention, especially in the bars for some reason, yet she was bored with me.

I was just about to say something again to start a new conversation, when suddenly she spoke herself.

"I'm here because my mom's new boyfriend is moaning too loudly and the walls in our apartment are thin." She said "I would rather spend the whole night outside, than come back to that place."

"So she's here because of the broken family." I noted in my head

"I thought, you won't answer that question." I confessed

"I'm just bored." She copied me "And I won't even see you again so who cares if I tell you this? You're just a stranger."

"And how about spending some time till dawn with this stranger?" I asked "We can just wander around the city and let some things out. As you said, we won't even see each other again."

She seemed to think for a couple of seconds about my suggestion, before nodding.

"Agreed." She answered "But I need to know your name."

"Dazai Osamu~" I smirked "Yours~?"

"(Y/N) (L/N). Nice to meet you, Dazai."

~~~

Don't forget to vote or comment :3

Please tell me what you think about this story! It's the first chapter and I would just like to know if you like it or not and if I should continue it!^^ I hope, that you like it so far though XD