40 Mama-san and the Stray Cat

Huff. Huff.

"Shit." Rei cursed until his breath, breath shaking before biting his lower lip.

He starts catching for breath, stumbling a little as he didn't know how long has he been running. From the moment he walked out of the apartment, he had this strange feeling that he was being followed. Is it his imagination? Maybe. He doesn't know. But what he does know is that he wants to get away from everyone. Even from Haruo.

From the loud buzzing noise in the street, his surroundings became deafening quiet that you can only hear droplets of water dripping aside from his breathing. He stopped walking only to look around to observe and find himself in a dark alley between a building whose walls chipped and a fence. He guessed that he was in a side alley of a building. 'Perfect.' He thought, the person following him might not be able to catch him there.

He immediately shivered as the cold wind touches his neck, instinctively hugging himself and missing the warmth of their apartment. He already miss the place but he didn't want to go back after saying those words and all the things he heard from that bastard. He turned his head back to the direction where he came from, sighing. And thought, 'Now, what should I tell them?'

Rei walked out of their shared apartment, slamming the door behind him. He stood for a moment with his back still facing the door, his feet feeling heavy. He clutches his shirt, right in front of his chest and starts breathing heavily.

"Fuck this." He cursed to himself, leaning his head back as his eyes starts to get blurry from the tears threatening to fall.

He wants to leave. He wants to run away as far as possible. He wants to forget everything but he can't move. He is scared to move. It is like his body is preventing him from taking a step further since he doesn't know when he would come back or if he would ever come back. After all—His no ending thoughts were cut off by a female voice echoing in the hall.

"Oh! Rei!"

He immediately looked in the direction of the voice and saw Shiori who perks up, waving at the red-haired Omega as she strode towards him while still dragging Kyou with her. Rei shifted his gaze at the tall-black haired Alpha behind her who he found already staring at him.

'Shit. Why does it have to be now?' He mentally cursed, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand before hiding behind his bangs. He fixed the duffle bag on his shoulders before walking, slowly picking up his pace and walking in faster strides as he grab onto the straps of his bag.

"Thank goodness I saw you! I forgot something in your apartment, have you—" The blonde-haired woman blinked in shock when she felt a sudden gust of wind as Rei walked past her. "H-Hey! Rei?"

He leaned back against the metal fence as he sighed, letting his eyes close and feel the cold breeze that was hitting his face. Now, where can he stay for a while? He still has his part-time job but he didn't know can he afford to rent an apartment. Especially, considering how late it is. He starts patting each of his pockets for his wallet and his eyes widened when he felt nothing.

"What the hell?" Rei muttered to himself, raising a brow. "Did I leave it?"

He keeps on putting all of his pockets until he suddenly stopped. 'Fuuuuck.' He mentally cursed, realizing the fact that he may have forgotten his wallet in the apartment. 'No, no, no. Please no.' He repeatedly thought, trying to turn all of his pockets inside out before stopping when a single piece of paper money fall on the floor.

"Wha—?!" He loudly gasped, leaning down to pick up the money and letting his bag drop on the dirty ground. He spreads the money with both of his hands, lifting it and looking at it closely as he wishes for the best.

"1000 yen...1" He sighed loudly, groaning as he sat with his feet on the ground and grabbed a fistful of his hair before muttering to himself. "Ugh. Should I go back for now?"

No. He shouldn't. He can already ready imagine Haruo's smug look if he returns there. He will be like 'Oh? You lasted for an hour. That's a new record.' like he normally would when he returned before. That's why he shouldn't return this time. 'That fucking cheater.' A loud slam of a door closing has woken him up from his thoughts. He looked at the person who walked out of the building in front of him, revealing a long pink-haired guy.

Rei just can't help but stare at him, raising a brow as he looked at him up and down while the said guy placed a cigarette on his lips and lit it with a lighter. The guy seems oddly familiar to him. He slowly stood up, placing his bag back on his shoulder and hitting the metal fence causing the guy looked to look in his direction.

"What is he doing—" He gasped, blinking as he saw a glimpse of the guy's face.

From the guy's perspective, he can hardly tell who or what is in that alley so he assumed that it was another stray cat who got lost or just rummaging through their trash again.

He inhaled from his cigar, sighing the smoke before muttering to himself, "I told them to feed the cats."

He then slowly walked closer towards Rei to properly look at what he was assuming was a cat, mentally cursing as he thought, 'Damn these cats. They will accidentally turn the trash bin over' He stopped in his tracks as he saw someone's silhouette moving.

"The hell..." He muttered, squinted his eyes a little. "Oh. A human."

As the man slowly walked toward him, Rei feel himself smirking when he heard the guy shout at him. "Oi, shitty kid. Quit loitering around here! You're disturbing my business."

"Is that how you act towards an old friend?" Rei scoffed, shaking his head as he walked toward the guy. "You still haven't changed, Mama-san~2"

"Who—!"

He was cut off by the sound of the door of the building opening again, revealing a shoulder-length blue-haired male with a flashlight in his hand. He turned the flashlight on and faced it towards the dark alley, stopping when he saw the back of the pink-haired male and not noticing the Omega.

He ran towards the pink-haired male whom Rei called 'Mama-san' with a scowl on his face. "Mama-san! I was looking everywhere for you! That fucking bastard is—" He tilted his face to look at the taller man's face, racing a brow at him. "Huh? What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Rei also smiled at the very familiar blue-haired male, "Oh? I see that you're still working here. Long time no see, Aoi~"

"Who—!" The blue-haired named Aoi immediately turned his head around to look at the red-haired, jaw-dropping when he saw who it was. "R-R-Rei?!"