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Suo-san! Where are you at? We missed you in class today.
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Hey, it’s been a couple of days since you’ve been gone. I checked the usual spots, might’ve even done some light stalking, but you were nowhere to be found. Did you go visit your master? Why didn’t you say anything? Anyway, hurry back soon! The gang misses you.
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Hey, you haven’t replied at all. Are you okay? Did you get in trouble? I knew that mouth of yours was going to bite you back in the bum lol.
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Did I do something wrong?
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“Hey, man. Ya’ doing okay?”
Nirei blinked, immediately snapping out of his senses. He swept his gaze across the booth, eyes landing in each of his friends’ faces.
Taiga Tsugeura was halfway through his extra-protein omurice (whatever that means), and Mitsuki Kiryu was nursing a strawberry-banana milkshake. Still, the look in their eyes screamed worry.
It must’ve shown. How…empty he felt.
Kind of like how he was still trying to make sense of a phantom limb—like his entire right arm had been amputated. Or maybe like an organ trafficking situation when he woke up one day with a scar across his abdomen and missing a kidney.
It was a violating kind of absence.
Still, Nirei let out a breathy, pitched laugh that came out a lot shakier than he intended. Even Tsugeura had to raise a brow at that one.
“Yeah. All good. Just uhm, worried about exams and all. It’s been tough keeping up with the uhh, patrols and stuff. Gotta stay on top of our grades!” He exclaimed in an attempt to be reassuring, forcing his energetic vigor, but it came out nervous like a deflated balloon instead.
He clears his throat.
“It’s just…been a lot colder than I remember.”
Kiryuu lets out a thoughtful hum, but the split second glance he shared with Tsuge said everything he didn’t at that moment.
“Well, we are mid-semester. Autumn is only starting to creep in, I suspect the leaves will be painting the streets red soon enough.” He tried to say, gauging the air with his tongue.
“...Yeah. Soon enough,” Nirei mumbled quietly under his breath.
His eyes fell to the blank screen of his phone. After the fourth day, he had opted to leave it face down so he could keep his mind off it—but the ringtone volume was set loud enough that he could snatch it up as soon as he got a text.
It got frustrating at some point, Nirei was jumping up at every ping. He opted to just change Hayato Suo’s ringtone altogether. That way, he knows it’ll be from him directly.
Still, it’s been a fortnight; two whole weeks of just...absolutely nothing.
“Am I too weak?” Nirei found himself asking aloud.
Kiryu froze. Tsuge frowned.
“Say that clown shit again and I’ll smack your head over the table.”
A tuft of black and white slid into the booth across Nirei. Haruka Sakura looked downright pissed off, moreso than Nirei could really say for himself.
“...Sorry,” He started, letting out an empty laugh, “I just couldn’t think of another reason why he might’ve—”
“I said shut it.”
Nirei jumped, a sudden plunge of freezing cold water washing over his teeth as a similar chill ran up his spine. He waited reflexively for a familiar voice to lighten the mood when he couldn’t.
None came.
“I uh…okay,” He replied quietly, his shoulders turning inward.
“Sakura-chan, that was mean!” Kiryu’s familiar drawl drifted in. The soft, disapproving frown showing on his brows.
“That wasn’t very nice—”
“No, no. It’s okay. It’s…yeah, it’s fine. That was my bad,” Nirei immediately cut in, old instincts picking up. Ones that had been dormant for a while.
This time, Tsuge finally piped in, giving Sakura a big pat on the back.
“Chin up, my guy! I’m sure it’s just a family thing. The mountains don’t really get the best signal. I won’t be surprised if he was somewhere deep in the countryside with his teacher dude, ya know what I mean?” Tsuge laughed, easing the tension easily.
Sakura simply let out a non-committal growl and dug into his omurice. He wasn’t taking it so well either. Since Suo disappeared he'd been...dysregulated, for the lack of better term. He and Nirei share that kind of solidarity. They’re especially protective of their friends and are even more sensitive to abrupt absences.
But while Sakura tends to explode, Nirei on the other hand, implodes.
He glanced at his phone again, the buzzing mocking him every now and then, knowing it wasn’t the one he set for a certain brunet. Its position still downturn, reminding him of the silence.
“What do you think, Nirei-chan?”
His head snapped up again, “I–wha?”
Kiryu stared at him for a moment before repeating himself, “The exam on Calculus. Have y’all gotten the formulas down?”
Nirei breathed a sigh of relief, grateful for the shift.
“Yeah, Suo and I planned to go over it in the wee—” He stopped abruptly.
And just like that, reality came crashing down.
Nirei visibly froze in his seat, the knot in his throat tightening unbearably and his joints locking to position.
You’ve been abandoned.
A nervous laugh came out. Forced. Visceral. Unsettling.
“Right. I may need to uh…figure that out in uhm…cram school,” he muttered very quietly.
Stiffly, he got up, packing his things with an oddly automatic and robotic movement.
“Speaking of, I’ll need to sign up for one real soon,” Nirei mumbled, missing the worried eyes on him, “Gonna have to get used to having a new routine. I guess.”
Like a whirlwind, he was out the door in forty-five seconds flat. Quick. Efficient. Running away.
The moment he stepped out of Cafe Pothos, Nirei felt his knees buckle for a second. The world outside suddenly felt too wide. Too open. Too scary. He felt too exposed.
Finally, he opened his phone again, light brightening up the screen. He opens Suo’s inbox, all of his texts not even left on Delivered. Then he began typing another message.
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Are you really leaving me behind?