Rebellion

Safety

Satoko sat with her arms crossed, looking at the very nervous looking Shiro. He looked up at her, and when he saw her annoyed face, he looked back down. She was sometimes scary to look at. She stood up, raised her hand. He immediately flinched, but she just put it on his head. It felt as if though she was patting him.

 As he was sitting, he had to look up at her to see what her facial expression was. He got shocked when he saw her face trying to look annoyed, but the tears gave her away. One fell on his cheek, and seeing her crying face so up close made him feel very sad. 

"S-Satoko..." He could only muster out.

She just hugged him, and oddly tightly too. It felt so weird, yet oddly right. Like he was supposed to comfort her. But the problem was he didn't really even know why she was crying. He didn't even know how he was supposed to comfort her. He just let her sit on his lap as she hugged him and cried.

"I'm sorry... I wasn't even angry at you..." She sobbed. 

He got confused. She wasn't?

"Then why?" He questioned, not knowing why she avoided him then.

"I just wanted you away from me, I don't want to get hurt. I was too stubborn to apologize. Please don't hurt me." She said all of this too fast for her own good.

She lost her breath in between those words, which made her gasp for air. He didn't know what to do, he just kept hugging her.

"It's okay, I won't hurt you." He tried to calm her down.

It only made her worse.

"You already did... I didn't even want you to apologize... I feel bad you spent so much money on me." She continued talking. 

This felt so weird to him. Like she was opening up all of a sudden. He felt glad she was. But it felt horrible seeing her like this. It made him wonder why she was so scared of people. 

"Why are you so scared of people hurting you?" He asked her, which made her panic.

"Everyone hurts me, my mom, my dad, my friends... Everyone. I let that man touch me however he wanted, just to let Ayase alone, it still hurt her. I hurt others, they hurt me, I don't want that." She kept talking and not breathing properly.

She started hiccuping. But Shiro didn't quite know what that sentence meant, but boy, did it make him fucking pissed. So fucking pissed that he wanted to come and break Hiroji's nose. No, not just that, even more. He didn't know what he did to Ayase and Naoki then, but it sure wasn't better than that then. 

Her crying slowly became sobs, sobs became sniffles, and that soon became deep breathing. He always knew tears tire a person. She fell asleep, too tired to do anything. He carried her in her room, this time not sleeping in her bed. He just went into her parent's room to sleep, just in case she felt used or anything of the sort. 

He made her lunch, just like usual. He liked doing things for her. He felt useful and he wanted Satoko to feel welcomed. He wanted to let her know he cared.

"I told you a lot of stuff..." Satoko started, not knowing how else to do it. 

"I promise, that won't go anywhere." He immediately said, not wanting her to get the wrong idea.

"Yeah, that's good. I'm more worried of you using it against me." Satoko answered honestly as she sat down near him, eating her lunch.

"Satoko, not everyone is as bad as you think. Nor am I." Shiro tried to assure her. 

"... I hope you aren't." was her only response.

"Do you think I would make you lunch otherwise?" he asked her, a bit jokingly

She smiled. This reminded her of Naoki. Although the huge difference was that Shiro could actually cook. Maybe... 

"Yeah, I doubt you're so bad. You're probably just kinky in bed." She grinned at him.

Shiro blushed at the random topic change she just put. How the hell was he supposed to respond to that? 

"I-I would never spank a girl!" He immediately redeemed himself.

"I'm just kidding, Whitey." She grinned even wider.

"I knew that..." He mumbled his signature catchphrase.

He spent a few more hours in her house, before leaving off. He needed to explain why he didn't pay his rent and hopefully he wouldn't be kicked out from the apartment. Although, buying a girl a piano isn't really justified. Maybe they would have a kinder heart for romantic reasons. 

As he walked home, he didn't notice the pair of two speaking near the library. 

"I can't find his files. I tried everywhere." Benjiro explained. 

"There must be something you overlooked." Ayase tried in desperation. 

"I'm sorry, dear. I just can't find anything." Benjiro knew where it would be, but he hoped she wouldn't try doing that. 

"It's okay, Seto-Kun... I'll go over the books again, maybe I missed something." She continued being stubborn. 

Benjiro smiled. It was cute how she was so stubborn to help him. They reread those books at least twenty times already and the result was always the same. But still she tried. Her will to help people was really something he admired, and would dare to even call beautiful. 

"You have to go now, dear. I don't want you getting into trouble." He told her softly. 

"Ah, you're right." She looked like she just realized it.

She got surprised when she got a hug from him. She blushed and looked at him when he went away.

"Stay safe, Ayase." He smiled as he waved at her. 

She clumsily waved back, not knowing if he would be weirded out if she called him by his name too. She ran back home, the same way as always. Overly happy and enthusiastic. But this time she was more nervous. She knew where the information could be and she knew Benjiro didn't mention it on purpose. 

Her dad had all of their gang member's files in his room. The only place his identity would be hidden is in that room. She gulped as she ran in the house. She looked at her dad's room for a moment. She knew this wasn't a smart idea, but she still ran inside. She was so glad he wasn't at home now. 

There was a drawer, which she figured would be the place where he had the documents. Ayase rummaged through them, looking through files old and new. She finally saw something. It was his. She hurried and picked up the document, recognizing Teruo's face anywhere. She went through the file quickly. She got shocked. She couldn't believe any of this could actually be true.

"Stooping around, huh?" A male voice was heard.

Ayase gulped. She knew exactly who that was.