PIED PIPER | dazai osamu

3: unknowingly, the heart yearns.

A few days later, you're back in your seat in the café, sitting next to Dazai, while Kunikida incessantly kicked his side. Behind you are the two siblings and Atsushi. His clothes looked nice on him. You wonder who has picked it out for him. Twiddling the fancy pen in your hand, unaware of the ink splattering from how you hadn't tightened it properly, you continue to scribble across the score without heeding to the stare of the woman behind the counter. You think she doesn't like you, but it's because of the man sitting next to you that she's not happy. Something to do with insurance and tabs.

You had heard of how Atsushi had passed the test. You had congratulated him, saying that it must have been scary for him, especially when "the two siblings there are terrific actors...well. One actor and one actress."

He asks if you and Dazai had done the test. To which the silver-haired boy received a stare from Dazai and a questioning look on your face. You looked at him as though he was crazy, but then Atsushi realized that you were looking at him crazy because you were questioning whether or not you were crazy for not remembering.

"You know what, Atsushi," You put the pen down. You'd grown to like this boy. Something about him made something familiar bloom in your chest. That feeling was both dangerous and helpful. "Coming to think of it, I can't seem to remember."

His two-toned eyes narrow. "What...what do you mean you don't remember? Were they less eventful than...you know...?"

You shrug. You're not willing to answer that question and have a seizure at such an early time of day. You take another sip of your drink and look back at your score. "That would mean asking us what our previous jobs were before we were here."

Atsushi looked concerned now. "Wait, you don't remember where you worked before here?" He puts a finger to his chin.

"I do remember some parts before it. Other than that...take a guess," Your voice almost seems sarcastic, but there's a heavy bitterness that the male flinches at. Like something in that part of your memory was striking enough to be forgotten, but still stuck around like a thorn to a finger. You suck your teeth, cap the pen, and then turn back around.

"It's a game that we do play," Dazai cuts in. He straddles the chair while Kunikida crossed his legs. "Take a guess. The rookie tries to guess the former jobs of their senior colleague. Call it...training as private investigators."

Atsushi decides to start with the two before him. "Hm...Were Tanizaki and Naomi...students?"

Tanizaki looked pleasantly surprised. "Oh, you got it! Amazing!" He flicks his gaze over to you. "But then again...the more interesting question is...what did Dazai and (last name) work as before?"

Atsushi turns his gaze back to the two of you again. Now, Dazai's feeling the palm of your hand, smiling at you while you tried to pull away. Dazai, I need this hand to work. He stared, intensely, hoping that maybe a sneer in Dazai's impeccable expression would betray it, only to be met with the stone-still surface of his gaze. Nothing. There was absolutely nothing on your, or his, face that gave it away—he had thought that you were perhaps a composer, a musician, but there was no way they would consider your former jobs as a secret if the answer was that obvious. Surely then, he concluded, that you were with Dazai from the very beginning, and by revealing Dazai's possible career, yours would be exposed as well.

"It's useless, brat," Kunikida sighed. "Their former jobs are one of the seven great mysteries of the Armed Detective Agency."