• coffee catch up •

toya pov //

I play the track on my phone, familiar with the blinding white light it provides to take me to Sekai.

I blink away dizziness and spot Kohane inside. I haven't talked to her for a few days. I walk in and place myself next to her on a chair, greeting her.

"Hey, Kohane. Everything good?" I blink.

"Yeah, thank you Aoyagi!" She looked up from her book. I'm not entirely sure why she still calls me and Akito by our last names, but I won't argue.

"What you reading?" I ask curiously.

"A good girls guide to murder." She replies. I nod in approval and agreement. I remeber reading that for the first time. It seriously is something I'd wish to reintroduce myself to but it just won't be the same.

"Hana just broke up with me. I was.. kind of planning on doing the same though, so she technically made my life easier." I shrug, getting straight to the point.

"Wait what? What happened?" Kohane puts her coffee down after sipping it, her eyes wide.

I couldn't be bothered to say it all out loud so I handed her my phone and I saw her eyes flick left and right as she scanned over the text.

"Oh. Why did you want to break up?" She looked at me after handing my phone back.

"Because I'm having a massive crisis. Akito is stressing me out by not telling me what's wrong, and also he just looks completely different recently." I rub my forehead stressfully.

"Different how?" Kohane narrowed her eyes. KAITO sat excitedly with his hands together, opposite us. I roll my eyes at him and smile.

"You could.. say.. prettier.??" I blink.

"Wait.." She squinted.

"Does that mean what I think it does?" She blinks, look at my skeptically as she drinks more coffee. She has alarm behind her vision, but I think nothing of it.

"Uhm..." I itch the back of my head. KAITO slams his hand on the table.

"It absolutely means what you think it does. He never shuts up about how pretty Akito is. It gets so annoying I have to leave. He doesn't talk about anything else." He smirked.

"Shut up! I do talk about other things!" I demand, getting defensive.

"Ehhhh..." Kohane laughed, agreeing with him. Her laugh sounded fake.

"Cool. Update me on how it goes. If you need me, I'll be there." She smiles sweetly. I swear that I can still  see panic in her eyes. I shrug it off.

"Thank you, Kohane." I nod in appreciation.

"Did you get the english homework set?" She asks, changing the topic quickly.

"No, my class hasn't got it yet. Akito's has. He said it's annoying." I sigh.

"See? Boom. Not even ten seconds." KAITO pointed at me.

"Well- no- the-" I sigh.

"Stop denying it, gayass." He squinted at me.

"KAITO, don't say things like that." MEIKO called as she laughed, and I got given a black coffee. I thanked her as she nodded at me and went back to the kitchen.

"It's just this entire sick thing. He's really ill recently but he won't tell me what he's ill with, or maybe if he knows how it happened. And both you and An know, but of course neither are going to say. Did I seriously do something?" I ask the last question quietly.

"No, no you didn't do anything.." Kohane murmured, blinking slowly.

"I really wish I could tell you." She said evenly,

"So why not just say?! I'll act like you never mentioned it." I say.

"It's something so bad that you won't be able to pretend you didn't hear it." She shook her head, denying me.

"Fuck." I cuss under my breath as my heart rate rises, panic forming a ball of annoyance and hurt in my throat.

What could even be that bad? I don't understand. I cant understand.

"I'm sorry, Toya." She whispered. I got a message on my phone.

(A) hey toya are you free rn

(T) yeah im js at sekai with kohane right now

(A) oh that's okay then

(T) what did you need

(A) you :(

(T) what happened??

(A) i don't know

(T) im coming it's okay hang in there

"He needs me. I need to go." I blink.

"Bye, we'll catch up later." I smile at Kohane and stop playing the track, appearing back in my room.

queen kohane pov //

This is bad. This is very bad.

I turn around to KAITO. I need to explain things flat and fast.

"You know the thing Akito's ill about that we all know and he doesn't?" I blink.

"He's got hanahaki virus. And guess who for?" My breathing has picked up as I mark my page and put my book to the side.

"Oh my god." I watch as KAITO's face completely drops, panic immeditely sparking his eyes.

"I have no idea if Toya is just confused, or genuinley has feeling for Akito, but this is bad. We have two days at most. The only way to fix it is if Akito can confess to Toya, and get the same back." I breathe out, fiddling with my thumbs.

"Okay well, recently I've been talking to Toya a lot in his room. I usually have the right wording to be able to help him with his decision making." He breathes out.

"He can go and tend to Akito or whatever they need to do and I'll talk to him later. I can say as much as I can but I can't go full out and try to persuade him. He'll be suspicious. I'm assuming we don't want to tell him about the virus to pressure him?" KAITO said.

"You're like the dad of the group." I laugh.

"But yes, spot on. All of that should be good. Update me the second everything happens. I'll get An in sekai to explain." I smile. He nods in return.

"I'm gonna take a nap." He sighed, getting up as he walked off into a different room. I messaged An immeditely.

(K) an come to sekai a bunch of things just happened and changed the entire plot and we could save akito

(A) omg what im coming

(A) give me a minute

I put my phone down and finish off my drink, MEIKO smiling at me as she took my empty mug.

"Thank you." I say warmly.

As said, An appears after a minute or two, and dashes inside quickly.

"Explain." She sat opposite me.

"Toya just told me that him and Hana broke up." I explain the whole story of what just happened, and her jaw drops.

"KAITO says he will cover talking to Toya about it." Itching the back of my head, I sigh, looking at the table as I pick up a coaster and pick at the edges.

"Oh my god. He might be okay." She breathed out.

"An, I hate to say this, but don't get your hopes up. Two days is very fast, and if not handled correctly, could spread meaning Toya and Akito could take the toll at school." I say evenly. I'm basically saying people are going to call them whores.

"Oh, yeah. I didn't think of that. Shit." She whispered.

"We don't even have confirmation that Toya likes him. We are working with awkward shuffles and avoiding questions." I sigh.

Looking outside the window, a few thoughts and ideas are popping up in my head, but disappearing and fading away moments later, classed as ones that wouldn't work.

"This is bad this is bad." An whispered, look up at me. She has teary eyes. I know that Akito is her best friend, so it must be hard on her. I open my arms and get off my chair as she does too and I hug her.

"It's going to be okay, right?" She asked shakily.

"An, I wouldn't be able to confidently say yes." I kiss her cheek comfortingly. She blinks at me, before looking at the floor sadly and hugging me again, resting her chin on my shoulder.

toya pov //

I knock on his door, Ena answering. Mizuki was on the sofa.

"Hey. Everything okay?" She blinked.

"Akito said he needed me for something, if that's okay." I mumble.

"Oh, sure." She smiled and let me in as I nodded and said hello to Mizuki who shouted a greeting at me.

I go upstairs, and knock on Akito's door as I gently open it.

I hear sniffing and quiet sobs, occasional gasping for breath. I panic and walk in quickly, closing the door gently behind me.

"Akito? What happened?" I sit down by his side.

"I've got two days left, Toya. Maybe less. I'm so sorry." He mumbled under his breath, his voice croaky.

"Huh? What did you say?" I put my hand on his shoulder. There's blood dripping into his hands, a sickly red staining his palms.

Drips led to where he was on the floor.

"A-Akito what- what happened?" He looked up at me, blood running from his nose and mouth. Alarms ring around my head as I run into his bathroom to get tissues.

It's worse in here.

There's an entire puddle on his tiles, of just blood. I blink, tears forming my eyes and rolling down my cheeks from confusion and worry.

I run back to him and sit next to him, wiping the blood away. He had a coughing fit and more blood came up, settling onto his rug.

"Akito this- this is really really bad and- w-wh-" I look at his arms. His blazer and school jumper are dumped in the corner of his room. Just now I notice details all around me.

The blade on the floor, bloody tissues and bandages in his bin. I look back at his skin, the monstrous self-inflicted gashes fresh.

"Oh my god." I'm going to actually be sick. I cover my mouth, swallowing it down. I need to- I need to take control of the entire thing.

"Akito look at me." I say. He gently lifts his face, holding his hand under his nose, his breathing heavy and hard- as if he couldn't get enough air inside of his lungs.

"You're going to explain to me what the fuck is happening after I clean you up. You will tell me." I say sternly, before I go into his bathroom. There's no time to get Ena. I can handle it.

I'll talk to her after about it. I get bandages out his draw and sit next to him, holding his bloody hand as I wrap the material around his cuts.

He isn't crying anymore, just blinking slowly, looking at me blankly.

Akito looks so detached, like he isn't in the room with me, but somewhere else; floating away.

After fixing his arms I give him my own oversized jumper I had on which he wore keenly. He pulled the sleeves over his hands and closed his eyes, sinking into the warm cotton.

I cleaned his face one more time.

I went into his bathroom and got a cloth and tissues, wiping up the mess on his tiles. I don't know if this is from his wrists or mouth. It's not normal to have to ask yourself that question.

Once finished, I go back in. Akito wraps his arms around me which startles me, but I recover after a second and hold him back.

"Don't go." He rasped.

"I will eventually have to go, but I'll stay for now." I stroke his hair.

"I don't want you to ever leave." He whispered, holding the back of my shirt.

"Please, please don't leave me. It might be the last time." He cried. My heart dropped. Is he going to- w-wh-

"Akito, that's- what?" I pull away, looking into his bloodshot eyes.

"Are you.. planning on- ending your life?" I don't know how else to word it. He laughed.

"No no, don't be dumb. It's not that. I'm alive and I'll stay alive. Just to see you, just to see you talk and smile." He muttered quietly.

"H-huh?" I blink.

"You're the light of my life." He rasped and hugged me again. I rested my eyes, looking to the right as I felt him lower his chin to my shoulder.

Do I take it as a platonic comment? Or do I take that as a confession? I ignore it completely, absolutely sure that he said it only because he's completely out of it right now.

I sit down on the bed and cradle him up to my chest, rubbing his back as my other hand threaded through his hair. After a little while, I discovered him asleep.

I set him down gently, pulling the covers over him.

I lean forward and kiss his forehead. I look down at his lips for a second, before closing my teary eyes and rubbing them.

What is happening? What am I not being told?

I swallow, trembling. He can keep my jumper.

I'm so scared that he's genuinley planning to die or something. Because, if questioned, you'll obviously deny it, right? But he looked completely sure and genuine when he said no.

I-

I dont know what to do, at all.

I have no fucking idea what I'm supposed to do.

//////////

2222 words NO WAY

QUEEN KOHANE I LOVE KOHANE SO MUCH LITTLE PROBLEM SOLVER HONEST KOHANE RELIGION WHEN KOHANE MENTION ANHANE MENTION ANHANE

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