Almost Forgot - Calum Hood

XXV - Glissando

Chapter 25 – Glissando

"Ai! Get ready, we're going out today!" Airee heard Keith's muffled voice from the other side of the door after he knocked to get her attention.

"What? Why?" she groaned, definitely not liking the idea of getting out of bed.

"I've been here for three days and you're acting all depressed! You need to forget about it, whatever it is. Come on, it'll be my treat!" he replied.

"Okay, fine!" she rolled her eyes before getting out of bed and taking a shower.

"I'm ready!" She called out half an hour later as she ran down the stairs and spotted her brother on the living room couch, twirling the car keys on his index finger.

"Great! Let's go!" he stood up and went out the door, Airee following behind him.

Airee unlocked the car door and was about to climb into the car when she heard a loud gunshot from a distance. And before she knew it, her brother collapsed and hit the car as he held onto it emitting a loud thud while he coughed out blood.

"Nii-chan!"

She ran to the other side of the car and caught her brother in her arms, not missing the blood on his shirt.

"Big brother!" she called out to him, in hopes of keeping him conscious but to no avail. As soon as she saw her brother's eyes closed, she cried.

"Keith! My baby!" Her mum was beside her in no time, dialling the emergency hotline.

"Tell them to hurry!" She managed to let out in between her sobs, tears blurring her vision.

"The moment we arrived in the hospital, he wasn't breathing. The doctors did everything they could but none of them worked. The shooter was very skilled, made sure that he wouldn't survive." Hikari finished which sent shivers down Calum's spine.

"Then, what happened to the killer?" He asked.

"He's in jail. Ryuzaki, Keith's colleague in Japan helped us with everything, turns out that his dad is a detective. The killer admitted that he was hired by someone to kill my brother, he was blackmailed to the extent that he even followed him to Australia and shot him outside the house."

"And the one who hired the killer?" He asked again.

"Dead. Suicide." she answered.

And Calum didn't say anything after that even though he knew himself that he has so many questions.

"Turns out that the one who hired him to kill Nii-chan was one of their publishing company's aspiring authors. Ryuzaki said that Nii-chan refused his manuscript because it lacks some of the requirements needed for it to be published. He wanted Nii-chan to state a price just so his manga can be published but Nii-chan refused because he wanted to do his job right. This guy... he's spoiled rotten by his parents so he's clearly used to getting what he wants from his parents and for other people? Problems solved just by him slapping tons of cash on the table and it must've angered him that his usual ministrations didn't work on Nii-chan." Airee sighed before sniffling.

"That's...terrible." was all Calum could say. Let's face it, he's at loss of words. "Is... Is Keith's death the reason you moved out of Sydney?" he asked after a moment of silence.

"Yeah. It was getting really painful for us because everything in that house reminded us of him. It's like his ghost is still there, dancing within the walls." Hikari smiled sadly at Calum. "And Airee wanted to continue her studies in Japan, so we thought moving there would be for the best."

It was around four in the afternoon when the doctor finally said that Airee can go home for the day, seeing that her fever already went down. Airee's parents went with the doctor to sign her discharge papers while Calum stayed with her and packed the things that everyone brought during her stay, his clothes as well.

Airee stared at her feet which dangled from the hospital when a small yawn left her mouth.

"Tired?" Calum asked.

"Yeah. All those talk about Keith took a toll on me." she replied.

He frowned at her response. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

She didn't know if he's apologizing for her brother's death or for making her tell the story of her brother's death again. Maybe he's apologizing for both? She'll never know. But what escaped his lps after caused her eyes to widen in surprise.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you...when you needed someone. I mean, sure, your parents were there for you but I'm sure you needed a friend, too." his eyes focused on something outside the window.

"Calum..." she called out his name to get his attention, which she did. When he looked back at her, she was already in front of him. Before he could process what was happening, she was hugging him tight.

"You weren't with me back then and there's nothing we can do about it. It's in the past. What matters is that you're here now and I won't allow you to leave again." she whispered, tightening her arms around him.

As soon as she finished speaking, Calum smiled and wrapped his arms around her in return.

"I guess you're right." he whispered.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Days went by in a flash and they were back on the road again. Toru told them that the cancelled shows are moved to the week before they had to go to Australia, which meant no more one week tour break like the usual but that's alright with everyone since they had plenty of rest as well during Airee's recuperation.

"Thank you!" Airee said one more time and waved goodbye to the audience before they exited the stage.

"SOARA! SOARA! SOARA!" the crowd chanted repeatedly like mantra until the stage lights went out, indicating that the show was over.

"Great show as usual!" Taka said as soon as his hand met Airee's in a loud slap. They always do this after every show and it kinda became a tradition for them.

"I gotta go change, I'm all sweaty!" Airee made a disgusted face before running towards the green room earning loud laughs from her tourmates.

At around ten-thirty, they were all ready to go back to the hotel and were just waiting for the staff to settle everything such as their equipment and their wardrobe cases into the truck to be taken to the next destination. They were all seated in the van, drained and tired from the show they just did. Ritsu, Tomoya, Michael and Ashton were sound asleep at the very back, Luke is on the phone talking with his mum and beside him sat Adrian with his headphones on, Airee and Calum just talking and Ryota just staring out the window, Taka and Toru sat in front with the driver.

"Is everyone here?" the driver asked as he roared the car to life.

Everyone muttered a small 'yes' and the driver backed out of the parking lot and drove them all back to their hotel.

"After tomorrow, we'll be back to sleeping in the tour bus again." Airee said.

"Yeah. Guess I'll make most of sleeping on an actual bed tonight." Calum said and they both chuckled.

A moment of silence when Tomoya suddenly screamed a long "Hey!" which startled everyone in the van.

"Don't do that, Tomoya! You almost gave us a heart attack!" Ryota said, his hand on his chest; trying to calm his racing heart. The rest of them doing the same, except for the ones who were still sleeping even after Tomoya's loud shout.

Tomoya didn't reply and Ryota turned around to check only to see Tomoya is still sleeping.

"He freaking sleep talked!" Ryota commented.

"More like sleep-screamed!" Taka replied and everyone burst out laughing.

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sorry for the lack of updates, my friends.

i've been stressed because of school :( i'll be writing more chapters by next week so stay tuned :D i have a lot to show you guys in this story