Don't Look Now

Chapter 7

The surface of Daichi's desk was covered with open texts. The cold breeze in the cellar didn't seem to bother him during his deep thought. The doctor poured over a couple of thick reference books, one of which, he opened to a bookmarked page. He glanced over a page then circled a phrase, "...resulting bruises and abrasions on arms and legs may, in fact, be self-inflicted."

Daichi appeared disturbed by the thoughts running through his head. He felt bad for the young Yuuto's condition, but he felt worse that he can't seem to solve the young lad's issues right away. While being preoccupied with this, he heard Koushi's muffled voice upstairs, incomprehensible but he chose to respond. His face lit up, "Are you calling me, babe?"

No response. Koushi's footsteps were heard moving across the wooden floors upstairs, then the front door opened. "What? You didn't see enough of me at the store?" the gray-haired male asked, his voice sounded pleasant and he seemed to be joking.

Daichi got up from his seat and moved closer to the voices, now clearer to hear. A man's voice was heard, "I'm on my way to the mall downtown. Thought maybe you wanted to come with me and show me how to buy some things."

"Nah... I don't know if I'm up for that today," Koushi replied to the man, his voice seemed familiar to Daichi. The doctor smiled when he heard Koushi declined the man's invitation.

"I just thought that maybe... you would want to go out. You've been kind of down," the man said. Daichi's smile disappeared.

"That's very sweet of you, but I'm okay," the gray-haired male answered.

"Do you think I should stop by on my way back? To cheer you up? It's not a problem," the man continued to persuade Koushi, and Daichi only shook his head in disbelief. He remained in the basement while listening, choosing to respect Koushi's moment instead of barging in the conversation.

"You know, that's probably not the best idea," Koushi replied.

"Okay, fine. Understood, Suga-chan. I'm off then..." The man's voice trailed off and his footsteps were heard walking away.

"Suga-chan?" Daichi mumbled to himself. "He calls him Suga-chan? What an ass..." he walked towards the end of the basement to look out the small window. He saw an attractive male with brown hair walking towards a white Subaru. "I knew it... it's Tooru Oikawa from med school." Daichi facepalmed at the idea that the guy he went with in med school is flirting with his Koushi. "Give it up, dude..." 

Daichi turned away from the window as Tooru's car starts up and pulls away from their house.

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Ittetsu Takeda, a history teacher with messy black hair and bespectacled brown eyes, wrote a question on the board. "Okay class, can anyone guess what city was called Edo in the past?"

Everyone seemed to have an idea of the answer, but no one was confident enough to raise their hand. Takeda-sensei turned and stared at his class of eight and nine-year-old elementary school students. The children stared back at him blankly. Yuuto was sitting at the back of the room, he rested his chin on his desk and watched his classmates with big eyes.

"I'll give you a hint, it's the city you live in," Takeda-sensei kept encouraging the class with his lively demeanor.

The class answered in unison, "Tokyo!"

"Right! Tokyo is one of the oldest cities in the country. A lot of generations have lived and died in this city. Almost every place you visit has a history and a story behind it." The middle-aged sensei walked while he explained the lessons.

"Even this school and the grounds it sits on has a history behind it. Can anyone guess what this building was used for a hundred years ago, before you went here? Before I went to this school even?" Takeda-sensei looked over the class of blank faces. He's just about to answer his own question when he saw a hand go up. The teacher looked surprised to see who it is.

"Yes, Yuuto-kun?"

The boy seemed reluctant to answer at first, but he decided to speak out. "T-they used to hang people here," Yuuto's voice was low but the silence in the room made it clear to everyone.

Takeda-sensei's brows furrowed at the boy's response. "That's not correct, Yuuto-kun. Where did you learn that?"

"They would pull the people in... they cried while they kissed their families goodbye," the blonde boy continued.

"Yuuto, this was a legal courthouse. Laws were passed here. Some of the first laws of this country. This building was full of lawyers," Takeda said in a matter-of-fact manner. "Lawmakers used to work here."

"They were the ones who hanged everybody," the boy replied, his voice now a bit louder.

Takeda-sensei smiled at Yuuto while the boy's face turned cement gray. "Look, Yuuto-kun, I don't know which one of these guys told you that, but I think, they were just trying to scare you."

Kaito Nishikawa, Yuuto's "pretend friend," led the class in a wave of snickering. Yuuto glanced up and saw that all eyes are on him, his teacher still staring.

"Please don't look. I don't like people looking at me like that," Yuuto responded, his voice seemed annoyed.

"Like what, Yuuto-kun?" Takeda-sensei asked.

"Stop! Don't look now!" the boy stood and angrily banged his hand on the desk. The class was startled at him while he obviously disrespected their history teacher.

"What?" the teacher was also surprised at Yuuto, who was normally quiet and polite during class.

The boy continued to shout angrily at his sensei "You talked funny when you went to school here. You talked funny all the way to high school!"

Takeda-sensei moved closer to Yuuto, his face was a mixture of surprise and annoyance "How did you--?"

"Don't look now! Stop looking!" Yuuto covered his eyes, his tears were about to fall.

"Okay, Yuuto, please go to the principal's office... let the principal deal with this," Takeda-sensei said firmly as Yuuto's hands dropped from his eyes. The children in the room were now frozen as they look at Yuuto crying.

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That afternoon, Yuuto was seated in the school library by himself, he just spoke to the principal and was placed in detention. It's time for him to go home, but he preferred to stay in an almost empty library. He sat at a long center table near the windows. His head laid on his folded arms on the table.

Daichi visited him and peeked his head in the door -- unsure if he's in the right place. He spotted Yuuto and entered the room, the librarian didn't seem to mind, he was actually ignored, while he went straight to the eight-year-old. He silently took a seat from across Yuuto. The boy looked up, his eyes were filled with anger and loneliness.

"Hey, big guy," Daichi greeted and Yuuto stared at the young doctor for a second.

"I don't want to talk about anything," Yuuto lowered his head again. Daichi just sat and thought deeply. The two heard the sound of boys playing sports on the field, filtered through the library windows. The boy turned his head towards the sound. Daichi seemed to feel frustrated at himself because he still couldn't figure out how to help young Yuuto, and, at the same time, he felt sad for the little lad.

"Yuuto..."

The little boy only remained silent. He looked at Daichi with his sad brown eyes.

"One day, you're going to sound just like them," Daichi tried is best to assure the little Yuuto. The muffled sound of kids laughing and playing out on the field came pouring into the room again.

"Promise?" Little Yuuto whispered.

"I promise," Daichi answered. The two sat in silence and listened to the sound of children playing.