Chapter 5

Kouji POV

I wasn't sure how life could return to normal after that day at Akira's house where we disposed of a dead body.

Yet two weeks later, I'm at school and...nothing.

Nothing changed, life just when on as normal. I expected something to happen. For the police, detectives, bored private investigators, the JSDF, anyone to just burst into my house one day and tell me my life was over, and I was going to jail for a long time.

And yet I was standing in front of the school's vending machine at lunch debating which sandwich and drink to choose. I got a melon bread, strawberry bread and a mozzarella bread for door, and two iced coffees to drink. Only the melon bread was for me, the rest was for Akira in what I hoped was a good enough peace offering.

I didn't meet up or interact with him since that incident. Everything that happened was just so sudden and I needed to process it. After I was fine, I just didn't know how to just go meet up with Akira and Eri. A few times while I was calming down from this whole situation, I left the area when he was around. Eri definitely knew something was up, and confronted me about it, and when I explained that it was awkward to just go say 'hi' like everything was normal again, she told me I was being an idiot.

"I don't know what happened between you two, but Akira-chan isn't the type of person to sweat the small stuff. At least around those close to him. I mean, if he did, he wouldn't have hanged out with us for so long. Why do you think he never bothers with anyone he meets for the first time, beyond the bare minimum of interacting with them?"

I guess, she had a point, but...I was stalling.

I took the food items from the vending machine, put them in a plastic bag and headed up to the roof, after doing a perimeter sweep to make sure I wasn't being followed. I stopped at the last stairs before the roof door and sighed.

"God dammit, Akira. You got me so used to that military bullshit, I did it without even thinking." Akira was paranoid on security and I think he infected me and Eri with it. I chuckled at how even without seeing him he was affecting me.

I took the key to the roof (which I will not ask Akira how he got and made copies of), and entered before closing the door and locking it behind me.

The roof was an empty spacious place with nothing but a fence at the edges. I looked back at the concert shed the door was a part off, and went to the back to climb the ladder to the, well, roof of it.

"Hey, Kouji."

Before I even made it over the roof, I heard Akira's distracted greeting. As I went over the ladder, I saw Akira where I expected him to be. Leaning again a small pillar hooking up to a private satellite dish he made, which typing on his laptop.

"Dude...how do you keep doing that?" I asked as I sat down next to him taking only my sandwich and leaving the bag for him to rampage through. He only took one of the ice coffee cans while keeping his focus on the laptop that was showing lines and lines of code, while a separate window had some research page on...brains or something.

I have a proximity alert that goes off whenever some mobile phone or the like come close while I'm working alone. Then it analyse it to see the owner, and I already have your number so it's fine. Also I know what your footsteps sound like." He said nonchalantly while scrolling through the research page and highlighting some parts of it.

"Akira...you're really fucking scary sometimes you know." I sighed and bit into my meal.

"Is that why you avoided me for half a month?" Akira's tone didn't change. He talked as though mentioning the weather.

I choked on my food and beat my chest a few times so it would go down. Akira handed me his coffee can and I downed it to push the food down. I took a giant gasp when I breathe again, looking Akira forcing myself to meet his gaze, as he looked at me without turning his head.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't trying too--"

"Kouji, breathe." He said with a small smile, and I did so. He actually looked a bit more relaxed now that I focus on it. It...really made him charming. In a way I was glad he didn't show this new attitude in public, only when he was alone with me or Eri. "I'm...actually relieved to see you're still okay with hanging out with me. I figured our friendship was over after that day, was surprised with you avoiding me."

"That's not it!" I cried out. "I just..." As I took in Akira's peaceful smile, I forgot what I wanted to say. I could lean in now and kiss him.

I turned away. God dammit it what the hell, Akira not scowling, and looking condescending and or sarcastic was too alluring.

"'You were just' what...?"

I took a deep breath and formalized the words I wanted to say in my head, before I said them. As annoying as Akira's "Lessons's on Avoiding Stupid Misunderstandings" were, it was pretty helpful now.

"I didn't know how to face you. I freaked out for a bit and by the time I calmed down, I felt like an asshole when I pushed you aside. I mean, you must have been going through a lot, since you finally got that guy, and I...I wasn't there. I wasn't being a good friend, so I didn't think I could just...come say 'hi' like nothing happened." I said holding the back of my neck, while forcing myself to face Akira. He didn't look angry.

"Kouji, that was normal. I would have been worried if you weren't disturbed by what happened back then. I was just...worried that you didn't want to see me anymore because you thought I was a monster or something." Akira looked away, and I was taken aback, as that's the first time I saw him not putting up a tough front.

"Akira," I put my head on his shoulder, he looked back at me curiously. "You are the scariest fucking person I've ever met, but you're not a monster. And even if you are, I don't care. You're still my friend. Also, and that's the really important bit, that bastard deserved it, so who cares if he's dead. Fuck'em."

"Heh," Akira's more familiar smirk returned. "Thanks, Kouji. Not the last one, but I appreciate the rest."

I grinned back, and both of us leaned back to have lunch. Akira split the strawberry sandwich with me, and with the clicking pop sound, he opened up his ice coffee can and began to down it. I blinked at that one a few times. Wait. Was he only now opening the first can?

No, he already opened one, right?

Okay, one was in Akira's hand, and the second...I look down to see it in my own hand. That was the first one, what Akira had now was second can.

Blood rushed to my face, and it suddenly started feeling hot.

I mean, it's an indirect kiss, but...no, no. That's no such thing between guy friends. Nope, none at all.

Seriously why am I getting worked up over something this small? I'm not a virgin anymore, dammit!

"So!" Okay, time to talk about something. Anything. "How have, um, what have you been up...Is that the dead guy's phone?" I asked as only now I noticed it connected to the laptop with a cable.

"Yeah. I needed Haroto's phone to send emails and messages to his boss at work, so I can set up his 'leaving the country' plan, and...discovered something." Akira explained.

"I thought you would have finished that by now." Given how good Akira was at computer programs from studying it for so long, and how he got Eri to learn and then teach him on top, I expected him to be done in a day or two since the fat guy died.

"I did but well...it's the stuff I found out on his second phone that's the issue." He frown, now looking frustrated and...it might just be my imagination, but I've know Akira for a long time, and I think...it looked like he was scared for a second there. Like he found something that made the hair at the back of his head stand on ends.

"Whadda find?"

"..." He pouty scowl deepened as he scratched his head. "I found out how he got to my aunt, but...I need to dig into this a bit more to be sure. I really hope I'm wrong and that this is a case of an idiot finding some experimental device by luck." Akira sighed in annoyance. "But knowing how shitty this world is, it's definitely not that simple." Oh, there is that old Akira pessimism. "I'm gonna need to buy some contacts, a visor and noise cancelling headphones, to even begin to investigate this safely."

"You need some help?" Wonder what he meant by 'experimental device'? Sounds sci-fi.

Akira smiled. "Yeah, it would be nice to have someone watch my back, in case I bite off more than I can chew." He took a look at his laptop screen one last time with a contemplative frown, then closed it. "I'm not getting anywhere at the moment. I'm doing things too slow, because I'm worried that I might screw something up. Let's leave it for later."

I raised an eyebrow. Wow, something that made Akira back off and be cautious? That's new.

"What about you? What have you been up to till now?" He at me slyly. "Did you finally ask..." He stopped and grimaced. Yeah, I couldn't think about confessing to Eri at all these past two weeks. "You were planning to tell her on her birthday, right?"

Eri's birthday was on April 22nd. That was three days ago. Her family usually take her on a trip to celebrate. When she came back, Akira and I gave her presents but we did so at different times, and didn't meet up afterwards to hang out like we usually did. It's part of why she hunted me down to get what happened from me. Or at least she confronted me, after she tracked down Akira and supposedly shook him for details first.

"Yeah..." I said lamely and looked away.

We sat in silence, until the lunch bell rang. We cleaned up and got ready to head back to class.

"Hey," Akira spoke up. "Look..." He looked away while scratching the back of his head. "I feel this is partially my fault. This was just suppose to be a normal school year for us, and it went completely off the rails because of me."

"Dude, that's stupid. There is no way that's your fault."

"Look, I wanna do you a solid so just go with it, okay?"

"Alright," I didn't bother arguing. Might as well go with what he planned willingly. "What did you have in mind?"

"It's four days until Golden Week, okay? So, that also work as a perfect day to tell her in. Romantic with symbolism and all like you planned." He said in a disregardful tone. I flipped him off and he replied the same. We both smiled. "So, from today until then, come to my house after school. I'll help you practice."

"...Practice what?" His words didn't register for a long while.

"Confessing, obviously. What else would I mean?" Akira looked at me like I was an idiot.

"...Huh?" Suddenly, the air felt hot again.