He was just a boy searching for a reason to go through the darkest night. And she was a girl trying to light up other people's lives. Yet, in each other, they found a home to watch the sunrise in the morning sky.
[bungo stray dogs ── dazai osamu]
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THEY WALKED SIDE BY SIDE on the dark streets. In the sky, the stars were beginning to make room for the first timid rays of sunlight; the smell of salt, so common in a port city like Yokohama, was in the air, giving a warm and familiar feeling.
It had been a while since the noise of their shoes walking rhythmically on cement, mixed with the sound of the wind cutting through the air and hitting their clothes, were the only things that could be heard.
Discretely, (Y/N) gazed at the boy. He looked so ethereal, walking carelessly with his bangs covering his eyes and hands resting in the pockets of his long black coat. She could almost believe that nothing extraordinary had happened that night. As if they were just two kids who had escaped their parents to live an adventure in the middle of the evening lights, yearning for a teenage dream.
But, for the good or the bad, she could not hold that fantasy. She needed answers, more specifically, answers from the brunet walking by her side.
It intrigued her how he could shift so easily between the enigmatic and stoic boy from earlier to the one who helped her a few hours later, or to the careless and childlike personality at her side now. There were so many versions of him and none of them made sense.
Why would a man like him help with her vendetta, gaining nothing in exchange?
(Y/N) wanted to know. The need to understand him was taking a large place in her heart and his behavior towards her was not helping to let him go.
"Dazai," she whispered. "Why did you come after me?" her eyes kept focused on the streetlamps in front of them, not letting her curious stare reach him.
A little smile twinkled on the boy's face. He lifted his head, looking up at the sky that was still in that dark blue tone.
"I guess I was curious about what you were going to do."
That moment between the day and the night felt like the most sincere and unguarded that both of them would share. Like a magical place, out of time and space that only they were meant to know, sharing the unspoken thoughts that had been consuming them for so long.
"You think I'm silly for getting into this, don't you?" she glanced at him, slowing down her steps.
"You intrigued me," he gazed back at her, adjusting his walk to keep their balance. "You knew that going in there could bring problems to you. You could have been killed or discovered. And, yet, you went."
It wasn't a question, but (Y/N) felt the need to defend her decision anyway.
"Well, I felt that it was the right thing to do. No woman..." she inhaled deeply, choosing her next words carefully, "No human being should be treated like merchandise. I wouldn't be myself if I submitted to fear in a situation like that."
"Your sense of justice is really something," his expression was so pure at that moment; no sarcasm or second intentions, only curiosity.
