7 Stages of Grief

3rd stage of Grief: Anger & Bargaining

“D-did..” I started out, the events currently unfolding in front of me still unable to be processed by my brain. “..Did you just say, Kaneki K-ken?” He weakly nods for confirmation.

I stood there dumbfounded, then I remembered the time where Kaneki told me a story about his childhood friend. How he consistently bugged him even though as a kid, he wasn’t the most talkative and most outgoing out there. But eventually, little by little, they were able to build a bond stronger than he had anyone. Although I hate to admit it, but possibly stronger than ours.

“You’re that orange-haired person that he keeps telling me about.” He chuckles at my statement. “He could’ve at least introduced me more properly than that to his lover.” He mutters to himself.

He turns around and gives me a warm smile, “It’s nice to finally meet you, Hanako-chan.” He offers his hand for a handshake with mine, which I happily accepted. “It’s nice to meet you too, Kaneki has told me a lot of stories about you and your friendship.” Our hands part as his mouth made a ‘tch’ sound. “He better not be talking bad about me.” His hands grumpily folds on his chest as he huffed a puff of air from his nose.

I only smiled at his action, “Well..he does, sometimes.” I admitted, mainly just to tease him. “I knew it! That bastard doesn’t show up for months but has the time to talk bad about me behind my back?! He is Unbelievable!” He throws his arms up in the air in disbelief, I could only laugh at the grumpy show that he was making.

But his statement made me wonder about something. “Wait, so you’re telling me you guys never met each other after his disappearance?” He nods, although his grumpy expression was still evident on his face. “Then..how’d you know about me?” I asked. He immediately dropped his grumpy expression and replaces it with his cheeky smile.

“Ahaha..well..” He trails off, his hand scratching his face in a troubled manner.

“You see..I might have been searching for him a little too much that despite the fact that I’ve found him months after he disappeared, instead of taking him back..I kind of maybe..” His cheeks flush in embarrassment. “Maybe..started stalking him..instead..” He releases an awkward laugh as his eyes roam around the area and avoided my questioning eyes.

But when our eyes finally met, he immediately drops his upper body and bows in a 90 degree manner as his hands are tightly clasped together in front of him. “Gomenasai!” He shouted and refused to lift himself up even though I’ve told him that It was alright. “It’s alright, Hide-kun. I’m sure you only meant good.” I placed my hands on his shoulders and forced him to lift himself up from his current position, which he denied a few times.

“But I don’t get something.” I said as he stopped wriggling himself off the grip of my hands and finally gave up, leading me to lifting him up. “What?” “I was sure that Kaneki would have been able to smell your presence if you ever did really stalk us before.” His eyes widen, “Really?” I nod my head in response.

His face flushes red “Oh god! That’s even more embarrassing..” I watch him as he slowly sink in to the feeling of embarrassment and flush as red as a tomato. “Gaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!” He shouts and covers his face with his hands. “That bastard, I’m sure he planned it all along to pretend he didn’t know just so he can make fun of me later on!” He ruffles his hair and continues to shout profanities towards Kaneki. I laughed as he continued to make a scene with his outrageous behavior.

But I halted, once I realized something.

“Well, he isn’t here anymore to watch his plan happen..” I whispered, giving out a sad smile after. He stops on what he was doing and looks at me in sympathy, “I’m sorry..” I shook my head, silently telling him that I was okay. Although, I was quite surprised he knew about his death even when I’m pretty sure that they haven’t reported it on the news yet.