An Unheard Voice - Chapter 36: Chapter 36

"Akito, you have to get up." Ena shakes me, but I stay silent. It's literally the weekend, leave me alone.
"Come on, I want to take you with me today. Mom is going to make you, anyway. An and the others are joining us.. you can stay home tomorrow. Please?" She asks, pulling the blanket off of me. Just let me decompose in my bed at this point.
"Plus, we.. need to get to the bottom of this-"
"Wake your ass up!" My mom comes bursting through the door, scaring both me and Ena. What the hell?!
"I made pancakes."
°•°•°
Stress eating.
"Alright, get out. Have a good day and be safe." My dad grabs me by the shirt, throwing me outside. Why are they like this..?
"Akito! Ena, you got him outside!" An jumps on me, trying to choke me to death. Um...
"Good job! Only one of you can be a shut-in." Akiyama smacks me in the back, laughing. I'm going to punch their face!
"Shut up!" Ena hisses, trying to strangle them.
Wait, why is he..?
"You brought Kamishiro?" I frown, staring at him. He waves, smiling. This is going to be even more of a nightmare now.
"Yeah, uh.. I'm with him! If you kick him out, we get kicked out together! So no kicking!" Mizuki protests and wraps their arm around his neck, having him crouch. I forgot they've been friends since middle school. I always saw them with An before she even spoke to me. Or even spoke in general!
"I wasn't thinking about it." I sigh, pulling away from An. Maybe I was going to.. physically.
"Just don't explode anything while I'm seen with you guys. Where are we going?"
"Follow us, we're leaving as a group." An sighs, grabbing my hand and dragging me. I'm surprised Kohane isn't with us. She's treating me like I'm a child that's going to wander off.
We walk for a little bit, but the directions we're going in are too familiar. I don't like where this is going.. no, where are we going. It's too early for this-- holy shit, I almost hit my face into that pole. And now we're here. At Toya's house.
"Come on, let's see if anyone's home." Akiyama hums, knocking on the door. It's only a few seconds before we hear a thud and then footsteps.
"Oww.. Sorry, I-- Akito?!" Mrs. Aoyagi spots me immediately and squeals, hugging me so tightly my feet almost come off of the floor. Wait, isn't she cold..?
"Oh my gosh, I haven't seen some of you in a while! Please, come in!" She smiles widely, although we don't get an option since she drags us all my the arms.
"Make yourselves at home!"
Ena whistles, taking a picture. I'm going to make her delete that later. This isn't even the first time she's been here, the hell? The cats come out of the room, and walk up to me. Just by the looks of it, Smudge is still not happy with me.
... I'm going to refer to the cats as 'it'. And name both of them.
I can't even look at Spot right now. His name is so stupid, and-- stop looking at me like that and rubbing your head against my pants! Damn you!
"Huh? An, you're here alone? Kohane isn't with you?" Mrs. Aoyagi asks, putting cups of tea down. How did she already get those ready..? An looks away, awkwardly laughing.
"Haha, uh.. w-we might have had a little 'lovers quarrel', or something. It was my fault, though." She answers, but her voice is shaking. Crap, is she going to cry?
"No way, he did too-" Akiyama points at Kamishiro, and he smacks his hand over their mouth.
"Really? With Tsukasa? What happened?" Mrs. Aoyagi gasps, staring at him intensely. She did say she was practically their mother too...
"I-It was just.. someone." He shrugs, walking to the kitchen. They usually never fight.. how did that even happen?
"And you, An?"
"Uh.. I'd rather not talk about it." She looks away, nervous.
"Alright. What brought you all here today?" Mrs. Aoyagi asks, picking up her coffee. I don't really like that.. but she made it for me, it'll be rude to refuse it.
"Well... Are we allowed to ask anything regarding.."
".. Toya?" She finishes Ena's sentence for her. Just hearing his name makes me want to bawl my fucking eyes out.
".. Yes."
"Of course! I'm sure you have a lot of questions." She sighs, running her fingers through her hair and glances at me.
"Do you want to go ahead and start?"
I nod, staring at the ground.
"Well, I'll need the story first."
I explain to her everything that happened, but every time I repeat to her what Toya had said, she looks a little more confused each time.
"And he just left, like- like I didn't matter to him anymore! What a load of crap, I never thought that would be the last time I'd see him!"
"Thank you, Akito. But what did he mean by.. you both saw it coming?"
"I know! Were we really that bad together..? I just.. can't believe he'd say that."
"Do you think he was covering something up?" Akiyama says, stuffing the cookies into their mouth.
"Maybe, but.. what if he wasn't lying? I mean I was literally obsessed with him, so it would only make sense if he was creeped out and wanted to leave--"
"Shinonome-kun, do you want more sugar for your coffee? You don't seem to be drinking it." Kamishiro asks out of the blue, standing in the kitchen and we all stare at him. Excuse me?
"Uh.. sure, but coffee isn't my thing. My bad for not saying that earlier." I frown, staring at it. He hums, bringing me a jar that's labeled 'sugar'.
We all watch as he puts a spoonful, since he really did that out of nowhere. Does he not care..? Also, wouldn't that be too sweet? Well maybe not for me, but too sweet for..
Toya.
"Alright, give it a try. It'll taste much better, after all, you are a sweet tooth." He winks and hands me the cup. I glare at Ena, who nervously looks away. I sigh and take it.
Whatever, it's not like it's that bad--
Right after I take a sip, I immediately hold back the urge to spit it out, and run to the sink.
"Woah, what did you do to Li'l bro?!" Mizuki shouts, standing up.
"Was that salt?!" I cough, dumping it out. This is so disgusting...
".. No thank you." Mrs. Aoyagi stares at Kamishiro, declining his offer.
"That's right, Shinonome-kun!" Kamishiro claps, smiling.
"But isn't that the sugar container..?" Ena picks it up, examining it.
"You don't know how much people rely on their eyes for the truth. You thought it was sugar because it was labeled and I said it was, right?"
"Obviously, the fuck?!"
"I simply just switched the labels." Kamishiro says, opening the cabinet and putting the other jar down.
What is he onto?
"Why did you mix up two things that could easily be mistaken for the other..?" Ena says. I knew something bad would happen...
"Of course, it wasn't out of spite. I only find it interesting how you would never suspect a thing unless you heard otherwise."
"What?" An asks, everyone staring in silence.
"This is leading up to Aoyagi. After everything you've told me and knowing him, do you think he meant what he said?"
"No!" Mrs. Aoyagi stands up, sobbing already. Is this what Toya would talk about..?
"You mentioned he wouldn't even look at you, correct? If he did, I think.. you could have done something, Shinonome-kun."
He's.. right. Fuck...
"Wow, and here I thought you just wanted to end Li'l bro's suffering." Mizuki rests their arm on Kamishiro's shoulder, causing him to laugh.
Wait a minute, Kamishiro can make sense..?
"So if he wasn't being honest, then why did he leave..?" I grit my teeth, and walk back to everyone. I still have a bad taste in my mouth, damn it.
"That's something only he can answer for now." Ena sighs, crossing her arms.
"Mrs. Aoyagi, do you at least know where he could be?" Kamishiro asks, fixing the labels.
"He left a few days ago for his flight, meaning he went with his father to temporarily stay with his brothers. The nerve of him, just leaving me alone." She pouts, grumbling.
He's with that son of a bitch..? Damn it, who knows what he's been saying to Toya! Or what he's doing to him now...
"Toya has siblings?!" An shrieks, and she nods.
"Two older brothers, they're both successful classical artists! He hasn't told you?"
"He never says anything unless we ask." I scoff. We look at Ena's phone as she searches them up. He didn't even tell me..?
"Wait, where do they even live? I assume not in this area because of how they're famous..?" Mizuki says.
"America."
"America?!" We all repeat, gasping.
"It's going to be almost impossible to get him back to his senses now!" Mizuki cries, hugging Ena tightly. Not to mention that he won't answer my texts... I haven't even been able to concentrate in class.
"I'm sorry I wasn't as helpful as you all hoped." Mrs. Aoyagi sighs as we leave.
"We got a lot of useful information, don't apologize! I'll definitely be coming soon to visit!" An hugs her before walking away.
"Well.. after what you heard, are you okay?" Ena asks, genuinely worried for me. I could have.. made a change. At least a small one.
"Yeah. I'll survive. If you guys are going to go somewhere else, be my guest, but I'm heading home." I say, walking ahead of them without looking back. This shouldn't hurt as much as it does right now.
"Shinonome-kun." Kamishiro says, and I turn around.
"When I said you could have done something, that doesn't mean you still can't."
".. Yeah. See you later."
Obviously. Why do you even need to tell me that? This isn't how I'll let it end.
°•°•°
The next day, An dragged me outside again. I wasn't planning on staying in bed all day, what the hell's up with them..?
"Where do you want to go?"
I mean, it gets on my nerves a bit, but she did have a fight with Kohane, so she probably feels bad. I guess I don't have a choice but to be there for her.
"Well, I told Haruka I was going to hang out with her today. Are you okay with that?" She answers, walking with her hands in her pockets. Her ex-girlfriend..?
I get that they're still friends, but she gets really uncomfortable whenever they're talking. I wonder what really happened.
"Sure."
I never really got to meet her, so maybe we can become friends. We enter the mall, and they spot each other almost instantly.
"An!" She smiles, standing up and running up to us.
"Haruka..!" She awkwardly laughs. They're just standing there like it's their first time meeting. Even Toya wasn't like this.
"How have you been? It's been months since I could make time for you like this.. huh?" She sighs, and looks at me.
"Akito? Hello!"
"Yo."
"We're fine. What did you want to do today?" An asks, raising her hand to fix her glasses, but Haruka's smile fades a bit, and she backs away.
An takes her hand back, looking away. The atmosphere is so tense. How can they hang out like this?
"I had a lot of plans, but I guess I have to stick with the ones that work with three people..." Haruka explains, scrolling through her phone.
"I-I didn't know if it was okay to bring him along." An apologizes, avoiding eye contact. Then why did you?!
"It's fine. I'm sure you'll feel more comfortable that way..." Haruka replies, but in a mumble. I heard it, but I don't think An did...
We walked around the place for a while, but didn't really do anything besides go into stores for no reason.
Every time An would start laughing when forcing me to try on a dumb hat, they made eye contact and she immediately went back to being quiet.
Something's definitely up.
"Do you guys want to do karaoke? An likes that." I suggest. I'm getting so bored. An shakes her head, giving me a death stare but stops when Haruka turns.
"Of course!" She smiles, leading us out right away. Judging by her enthusiasm, she was also going to die if we stayed here.
"You bitch..." An hisses, glaring at me. You're welcome?!