The One Who Never Told | P5

37

It was that same afternoon and Suzuki was laying on his bed. He could barely comprehend what happened. His eyes fluttered shut, just before his phone starting to buzz beside him.

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@ ANN: Is that gold medal real? When did it get inside his palace...?

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That was right. Suzuki had gathered with the gang after school ended and they discussed some. Apparently, Akira had gotten an olympic medal from the palace. It was Kamoshida's treasure. It seemed like the old bastard was trying to cling onto his past and former glory.

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@ AKIRA: Kamoshida has the real one.

@ RYUJI: What...? You're telling me Kamoshida's still got the medal?

@ ANN: Who cares? What matters is that we change his heart.

@ ANN: And anyway, if we had taken the real thing, that'd be stealing!

@ ANN: I don't think he'll proud of that medal anymore regardless

@ RYUJI: You let go of stuff pretty easy, huh? Wanna forget about my debt?

@ ANN: That's different. Five hundred yen is a lot of money for a middle schooler, you know.

@ ANN: Do you even still have that dolphin anyway?

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Suzuki gave a soft chuckle as he read the logs. Messages seemed to be coming in left and right as everyone chatted. He remembered that day though, it was back in middle school, and the three of them were on a class field trip to an aquarium.

Ryuji had spent all his money on a souvenir, so Suzuki and Ann had to chip in and give him some money for the train ride back.

Those were much simpler days.

Suzuki had been so focused on his text messages, he didn't hear the approaching footsteps until it was too late for him. His bedroom door flew open, and his father was standing there, looking down at him as if he was nothing but a bug.

"I've been lookin' for you." He hissed as he stomped his way towards Suzuki who quickly shot up into a sitting position. "...You thought you could hide from me." He gave a sick chuckle as he snatched his arm before yanking him off the bed.

Suzuki was sure his shoulder was about to dislocate as his body jerked forward.

"Hmph, you still haven't made enough money for this week." Suzuki's body ran cold as he was dragged out of the room. He already knew what horrors were awaiting him.

Night came and went in a blink of an eye.

"And now to our next topic...."

Suzuki woke up the next morning to the soft buzz of the female newscasters voice. His body arched as he tried to sit up. He could see the dark, purple bruises that colored his pale skin. His body was littered with wounds: rope burn, whipping, cuts and bruises.

He had almost forgotten how this felt. He felt a sense of dread wash over him. Suzuki had been so happy recently that he had almost forgotten about the pain he suffered at home.

His gaze snapped to the TV as a picture of Kamoshida flashed up.

"Just recently, a high school coach admitted to his school that he had been perpetually abusing students. Given his prior Olympic achievements, this has caused quite a stir."

Suzuki remembered the day before. Although his life was like this, he and the others had managed to save some other kids from waking up like this. Dirtied and defiled.

He felt a pang of hatred. Who was going to save him?

There he was, sitting alone in a dirty hotel room, unable to leave; dirty, used and tossed to the side. He had the battle scars to show it, but who was going to help him? Who was going to save him? As he thought, nobody.

It took Suzuki a moment to realize what he was feeling. It was a wave of different emotions: hate, jealousy, envy, sadness. His lips curved down into a frown.

He was pathetic.

That morning was a rough one for him. He stayed there, and thought for a long time. It wasn't  until his phone vibrated next to him did he wake up from his feeling of depression. He answered without looking.

"Oh... Hello, it's me." He recognized the voice of Ann.

Suzuki put the phone up to his head. "Hey, Ann... What's up?" His voice sounded dead, much more dead that he was expecting, but Ann's didn't sound much better.

"I saw the news. You know, about Kamoshida." Suzuki gave a soft sigh as Suzuki nodded his head, despite that she couldn't see him.

He sat up and leaned his back on the headboard of the hotel bed. He was so lost in his own thoughts, he didn't even bother to leave. It seemed he'd have to use his 'paycheck' to pay for the bill.

He pushed those thoughts to the side. "It's getting a lot of coverage..." She said softly.

"Yeah..." Suzuki was the next one to let out a soft sigh. "How do you feel? I mean, I didn't watch the whole news story, but it looks like a lot of people are concerned about reform of the education system..."

Ann was silent. "I don't know how I feel, really... The reaction's been bigger than what I was expecting... I guess I'm just... surprised." She admitted after a moment.

"I don't think we did anything wrong though." She added.

Suzuki agreed. "If we didn't take Kamoshida's treasure, he would have never confessed. Those students would have continued to suffer in silence.... I, I think we did something amazing..." The corners of his lips twitched up into a small smile, and so did Ann's.

"That's pretty amazing, huh? I didn't think we'd actually be able to do it!" She sounded so much more energetic now that she had gotten that off her mind.

Suzuki chuckled. "You should've had some faith in the plan." He commented as she continued.

"This calls for a celebration!" She cheered. "Let's meet in front of Shibuya Station at noon tomorrow. Don't be late!"

Suzuki switched the phone to his other ear as he continued to listen to the girl. "Did you invite Ryuji and Akira, too?" He questioned.

"Mhmm!" Ann hummed in response to his question. "You should be really excited about the place I chose, by the way. I'm sure everyone's gonna love it!" She added. Suzuki could tell that she was pretty much bouncing off the ways with how excited she was. He could tell that she was dying to bring them all there.

"Well, see you guys tomorrow!"

Like a storm, Ann had came and went without batting an eye. Somehow, though, Suzuki was looking forward to hanging out with the rest though. He gathered his stuff and soon left the hotel.

He didn't know where he was gonna go, but he was excited for the sun to rise already.