Chapter 3: The Unwanted Reacquaintance

1st Saturday, Evening

For a moment, everyone simply remained paused. Nobody seemed to know what to say. I sure as hell don't know what to say.

Thank the gods above for Totsuka. "Wow everyone! I didn't expect to see you guys today." He flashes his signature sunny smile, guaranteed to lighten the mood. Totsuka tries to say more, but Yuigahama is the one to interrupt him.

"Totsuka, I'm glad to see you again, but I don't think lightly glossing this over is a good idea." She looks around the room. "There's a lot of things that have been left unsaid for too long over the years. I, for one, fully plan on asking the only one here who was present on the night of that attack what happened. Sorry, everyone. If you all want to have the gokon, go on without us." Yuigahama looks at me, with an unusually fierce look in her eyes. Well… I suppose it's unusual if one was to expect the same Yuigahama from years ago.

Every once in a while, I wondered what had happened to her. If she had ever changed. I assumed that she had long since gotten over her infatuation with me, but I guess what was really important to me was if she was still the same Yuigahama who would always smile and break the tension in our club, who would always be kind and cheerful. Because that Yuigahama was too good for either of her clubmates.

Totsuka looks at me. He's heard the story already, but I can tell he's considering staying as moral support, because that's just who Totsuka is. I don't need him to, however. "Totsuka. You and Zaimokuza go have fun."

"But, Hikigaya…" He looks concerned. Totsuka was one of the few there for me when I was headed down a much darker path. He's seen me at my worse, and my worse generally involved the two girls in my life with two Y.'s for initials. But I'm much better now. There's nothing for him to worry about.

"I'll be fine Totsuka." I glance at Zaimokuza, who thankfully picks up my cue. He grabs Totsuka's arm and begins dragging him towards the strangers in the group.

"Alright! Let's go have some fun!" Zaimokuza pumps his free hand in the air. He enters one of the rooms with them.

Yuigahama looks at Kawasaki, Ebina, and Tobe. "Let's go. There's a place we can grab a bite next door. Hikigaya, don't even think about running away." She gave me a knowing look that made me feel a bit guilty. I only nod meekly, deciding that to run from this encounter would be more trouble than it's worth.

The five of us leave the karaoke bar with absolutely no small talk. Ordinarily I am perfectly alright with silence, but this is the kind of silence that is both tense and uncomfortable, but alas. It seems I can't do much to break the silence.

We enter some chicken restaurant next to the karaoke bar and sit down at a table. A waitress takes orders from those of us willing to eat - my appetite is dead so I decline to order. The moment the waitress leaves, Yuigahama says, "Alright Hikigaya. What happened?"

Briefly, I think about it - and the memories start to flood back. The others watch me intently as I start. "There isn't much to tell." More like, I don't plan on telling you much.

"As you know, I was dating Yukinoshita at the time." Varying looks of pity were sent my way, much to my chagrin. I'm over it, I swear. "We were enjoying a night out, and had just finished, walking to my car. That's when everything went haywire. That blonde fool rushed out suddenly. He threw himself at us, and the next thing I know he's bleeding all over me while Yukinoshita is screaming and everyone around us is running away from the man who shot at Yukinoshita and I. As far as I know, he's still out there somewhere, since the cops said they never found him."

"… That's all that happened?" Yuigahama is looking at me with an intense emotion that I can't describe.

"Well that's the gist of it," I say, confused. What more does she want? That's what happened. It isn't particularly amazing, and there some more details I could divulge, but basically, Hayama Hayato ate a bullet for me. That's the only thing that really matters, isn't it?

"No other significant events happened? At all?" Yuigahama starts looking anxious and begins to sound a tad bit desperate. What's her problem? I was expecting her to be upset over how I basically cut her out of my life with no explanation, but this is a little odd.

"No. Date, walk, bang. That's what happened." Tobe sniggers at my word choice. I resist the urge to roll my eyes and continue looking at Yuigahama.

"… I see." She looks disappointed for some odd reason.

"Hikigaya." Ebina speaks up this time. A very serious look is on her face. "I'm curious about something else. Why did-"

At that moment, we heard an explosion outside. Everyone in the restaurant seemed to freeze for a split second – and all hell broke loose. People started screaming and running. Chairs go flying, glass breaks, people are pouring out of the restaurants and into their cars as quickly as they can. For a moment, it seems like we're trapped by a mass of terrified people – but then Kawasaki comes through for us.

"Move!" She forces aside everyone in her path. Kawasaki looks back at us, and we follow her. Leaving the restaurant, I run towards that damn karaoke bar. "Where are you going?" Kawasaki yells after me. Sorry, Kawasaki. No time to answer.

Damn, it's not looking good. Smoke comes pouring out of the front windows of the karaoke bar. The explosion came from this building. My heart sinks. Totsuka and Zaimokuza are or were in there. I run inside. I head towards the general area I saw Zaimokuza and Totsuka walk towards. My heart starts to race, but I can't tell if it's from lack of exercise or fear.

Analyzing the building's interior, it seems that the explosion went off on the opposite wing of the one I saw them enter. I feel a slight amount of hope as I head in their direction. I see a few doors, and begin banging on them. "Are you in there?"

"Hachiman!" I hear Zaimokuza's voice down the wing. I run towards it, and find him moving out of the men's bathroom with an unconscious Totsuka in his arms. Zaimokuza is limping, a massive shard of wood in his left leg.

"This place could collapse, we need to go!" I hold Totsuka and let Zaimokuza lean on me. I look down at him – blood on his face, we have to get help, now. We move as fast as we can, dodging sparks and keeping our heads low to avoid the smoke. We make it out – covered in ash, smelling like smoke, and hacking our lungs out, but at least we're alive. When the three of us make it out, the group of people who went with Totsuka and Zaimokuza originally are the first to greet us.

"Holy crap, I can't believe you all just did that!" Phones come out, and pictures are snapped. For a brief moment, a group of strangers is giving us praise, and we're not sure what to say.

"You're heroes!" Zaimokuza grins at that – and then promptly collapses. How long was he bleeding in there? Thankfully the emergency personnel are here by now. Paramedics rush over to us and check us over. Totsuka and Zaimokuza are placed on stretchers, while I reassure them that I'm unharmed.

I decided to let the professionals do their jobs, and walk over to a nearby bench, sitting down. I'm suddenly very, very tired. Likely the adrenaline fading away. Kawasaki is the first person to approach me.

"Hikigaya. Are you alright?" I nod quietly. "You're such a moron. You could've been killed." Heh, it seems she's still blunt. "Did you drive here?" I nod again. "Alright, let's go." She pulls me off of the bench, and the two of us walk to where I parked my car, just out of the lot that the karaoke bar and chicken shop were in. A group of policemen had already set up some sort of perimeter, and were talking to my… acquaintances, as well as other people who were around or present at the explosion.

To my great surprise, Miura is there, dressed in some sort of uniform, with a detective's badge pinned to the front.

"Hikio. Good to see you're still alive. Thanks for getting him, Kawasaki." Miura gives me a serious look. "Hikio, I'd like to get an account of what happened – could you write down on this paper your account? I need to get to the other witnesses." Too dazed to say much, I only nod.

"Alright, thanks. Hikio, I'll contact you if the police department needs anything, but for now, I'll say my goodbye. See you around."

"Bye…" I weakly say. Miura's a detective? That's pretty impressive. Becoming a detective is hard work, you have to become a police officer and pass a special exam, alongside other requirements I'm sure that I don't know anything about. To do so by the age of twenty-five or six would require astronomical skill, discipline, and dedication.

I wonder if she was motivated by what happened to her boyfriend all those years ago – scratch that, there's probably a one-hundred percent chance that Hayato's murder is what set her down that path. She didn't seem very hard-working in that way when I knew her then, nor did I ever hear any mention about law-enforcement dreams.

I take my time writing my account, although admittedly there isn't much for me to write, as I was in the wrong (or right?) building at the time. Speaking of which – was that explosion an accident, or some sort of terrorist attack? I don't even know that much! I write several times that I know little about what happened, and just to be safe write what I did inside the building after entering it. I doubt law enforcement cares much about me helping a lonely otaku or a prince of tennis, but I'm not going to withhold anything that they might be able to use. I hand the paper to an officer.

Yuigahama walks over to me. "Hikigaya! What were you thinking, running in there? You could've died!" Whatever anger she had earlier was apparently replaced with concern.

"I just had to make sure Totsuka and Zaimokuza weren't in trouble."

Yuigahama sighed, rubbing her forehead. "What am I going to do with you? Look, Hikigaya, earlier, I was kind of already in a bad mood and seeing you just made me remember unpleasant times. I'm sorry for being… interrogative."

Well, at least she isn't mad at me.

"I'm still mad at you, though."

Scratch that. As usual, I'm confused.

"You both just vanished off the radar, y'know? I didn't have any answers, but I had so many questions for such a long time. So much for friends forever…" She looks contemplative for a moment, before smiling.

"We're going to keep in touch from now on, got it?" She hands me a slip of paper with presumably her phone number on it. "I've got to say, though… Seeing you rush in that building, it made me think of when you saved Sable from becoming a pancake back then." What's with that crude wording? Sable a pancake? What a gross mental image!

"Sheesh, I really gotta stop doing dumb things like that. Makes people like you think I'm sticky sweet or something." In all seriousness, I didn't even think much about rushing in. I blame it on Totsuka, he makes me irrational. I'm certainly not the selfless action hero type.

Yuigahama scoffs. "Don't worry, I'd never believe that about you." Well sheesh, I didn't want much praise, but that sounds like a low key insult! "You're too… Hikki for that." Oi, that's just a flat out insult!

"Oi! Apologize to my ancestors! My name doesn't deserve that twisting!" Yuigahama smirked. She then starts to laugh. "Hey, what's funny?" Yuigahama just laughs more.

"I think… I think we had a conversation like this a long time ago." Her laughter dies down to a few giggles. Ugh. It's hard to join in on the feel-good moment when you're laughing at me, Yuigahama. "Anyway, Hikigaya. We'll have to meet up again. There's a lot of catching up to do."

"Alright, Yuigahama. I'll… try."
"I guess that's the best I'll get from you, heh."

She leaves, and I think we're on good terms now? Ebina and Tobe seem to have left (not together, in case you're getting the wrong idea). Kawasaki is talking to Miura. I get a phone call, all of a sudden, from Yoshida.

"What's up?" I answer.

"Oh good, you're alive. Fyi, that karaoke bar is all over the news right now, people are saying it was some sort of terror attack, and your sister's been texting you."

"How do you know that?"

"She keeps texting me, sheesh. Call her or something. She's worried."

Curses! In all of the calamity, I forgot to reassure my sister of my safety! Don't worry, Komachi! Your onii-chan is safe!

I look at my phone to see quite a few text messages. Skimming through them, I come to the conclusion that my family is quite worried. I mean, I don't even remember the last time my dad's even tried to message me, so they must be quite concerned. I call Komachi.

"Yo."

"Oh great! You're okay! That's good."

"Yeah."

"By the way, you're going viral right now."

"Okay. Wait, what?"

"I'm not kidding. A bunch of people are lauding you as the savior of the prince of tennis. It's what you get for having a celebrity friend, I guess."

"I'll talk to you later, Komachi." I hang up, and go to my phone. In the short time period that I've been out of the burning building, the picture those strangers from the gokon has gotten a lot of hits on various social media.

I'm now a minor celebrity. Great.

1st Monday

It's been a day since that disastrous gokon. The explosion came from a gas leak – whether someone had intentionally done it, or it was a seriously bad accident, nobody knows. A couple of people did lose their lives, unfortunately – but most people got away with no problem. I visited Zaimokuza and Totsuka in the hospital yesterday, and it looks like while Totsuka is getting out relatively unscathed (he had a mild concussion from tripping due to the explosion), Zaimokuza was going to be recovering for quite some time. Luckily for him, his work's insurance covered almost anything, and he only had some minor copays.

I didn't do much else yesterday. I may be a one-shot wonder on the Internet, but it's not something that's affected me at all yet.

Most Mondays, I work. Actually, most weekdays, I work. I try not to be bored or not doing anything, because that's usually how I fall into depressing monologues and trains of thought.

Today's an exception, however. Because today is 3 days before the anniversary of Hayama Hayato's death. I used one of my sick days to get a day off.

I never understood his motives. I never understood why he had any sort of interest in me. Why he was so obsessed with the status quo, when it was so clear that he didn't gain anything from it. Why he dated Yumiko when it seemed he didn't even feel anything for her, or if he really did feel anything for her. Whether or not he had loved Yukinoshita. Whether or not he really resented me, for dating her, or for other reasons.

And above all else, why was he willing to take a bullet for me? I hated that man. To this day, something about him, I still loathe. Hayama said himself that he hated me too, on numerous occasions – but was he being serious? Why would he contradict himself if he wasn't?

He took those secrets, as well as all of his other secrets, to the grave with him. Both Yukinoshita and Hayama are mysteries to me, and will likely stay that way for a long time.

I can't say I liked who he was. That I respected him, or anything like that.

But I can't forget the act he sealed his life with, so I go to pay my respects every year. Perhaps I'll never understand him, but at least I can make sure he's not forgotten.

Hmm? Why go three days before?

Simple. His parents visit their son on the proper anniversary every year, and they sure as hell don't want to see me. The first anniversary was a painfully awkward encounter that I never want to repeat. I go three days before to ensure I don't run into them, or any preparations they may be making.

I drive to the cemetery. It's an hour drive away from the apartment, which is a good amount of gas money, but for this day, it's not a big deal. I enter the cemetery, and walk to the correct row, having memorized his burial site long ago. I stand in front of the tombstone that reads, "Beloved Son – Hayama Hayato."

It's customary to bring flowers and other things for these tombstones. I would do it too, but his parents aren't very fond of me leaving "crap" on his burial marker. They're bitter and understandably upset, and so I don't object. Besides, I doubt Hayama cared much for rituals. My way of honoring his death is a lot less complicated.

"Heh, Hikitani… We should've gone out drinking together." Hayato coughs, blood leaving his mouth. At this point, I don't care about the blood ruining my shirt.

"I hate drinking. I thought you said you did too." People around us are screaming, the hitman is running, people are screaming for help. And still, time feels like it's frozen.

"I know. I do, haa… But I think you would be funny drunk." Hayama coughs one more time, and then closes his eyes forever.

I open the bottle of sake, and pour half of it onto the space in front of me. I down the rest, feeling the burning sensation. We're sharing that drink we never had in his life. I'm not a fan of drinking – can't seem to hold my alcohol very well. But I think it's alright for me to do this. I know his corpse isn't capable of enjoying it, but hey. I'm not particularly religious, and this is all I know.

I sit down in front of the space I poured the sake at. The sky is pretty today, and the sound of the birds only makes me relax more. Still, taking a nap at a graveyard has got to be bad luck or something, so I content myself with simply sitting. I usually leave within a few hours. I find it kind of soothing to meditate here.

I hear some people in the distance. It's a large cemetery, it makes sense that some people might show up nearby. I close my eyes again, looking up and basking in the sun. Still, while it's unlikely I know any of these people, I'd rather not get accused of being some kind of deviant, so I guess I should leave soon. I stand up, opening my eyes – and find myself staring into familiar purple eyes.

I hold back a swear word. I cannot deal with this woman right now.

"Oh? Hikigaya? What are you doing here?"

"… that's none of your business, Haruno." She's not alone. I see two other, familiar faces. Hayama Hayato's parents are with her.

What the hell? It's almost like someone's actively manipulating my life at this point.

A/N:

Hey guys! I think I'll update the summary – I had intended to take this kind of direction with the story from the beginning, but I wanted to surprise people with it. I'm sure I'll find some mistakes to correct, so tomorrow I'll update the summary as well as doing some routine grammar and wording fixes.

So, I plan on making sure the story gets more intense from now on! I hope you all stick with me as this story unfolds.

Special shout outs to you guys who are leaving me helpful and encouraging reviews! (And even not so encouraging reviews, haha) I promise to keep trying to improve and meet your expectations.