AREA - SETAGAYA
10 YEARS AGO, Tokyo, Japan.
The school bell rang. Raikun looks at the clock and sighs to himself as he starts packing up his books, the sound of the papers rustling in the quiet space.
Everyone had already left, but Raikun stayed behind a few more minutes.
A familiar voice quickly erased the silence.
"Rai! What are you doing here?" A blonde-haired boy with a sly expression laughs, approaching Raikun.
"Oh, Ken." Raikun says quietly, "uh... nothing much, I'm just trying to find my books."
Ken looks over at him and his desk. "It didn't seem like it though?" he says as he smiles.
Raikun sighs and annoyingly speaks, "Just leave me alone, Ken... I have some work to do." Raikun gets his bag and gets up from his seat as he turns over to Ken.
Ken looks at Raikun with an uneasy expression and says, "Is there something going on? I mean, you don't have to tell me, just know-" His voice gets cut off as Raikun speaks, "I'm okay. Ken. Just don't worry."
And Raikun proceeds to leave the room.
Leaving ken behind "why does this fuckass always cut me off?" He murmurs to himself.
Raikun walks towards the school gates as he approaches his house, which was on the other side of the road.
His hands hesitate to open the door as they linger on the doorknob. Raikun hesitantly takes back his hand and sighs as he looks down.
He walks back towards the street and walks quietly, observing the area and the food stalls. The drones were surveilling the area as the news on the billboards is spread throughout the area.
The streets were filled with food stalls and bright lights.
"The noise of these drones are annoying," he murmurs to himself as his eyes look ahead.
"Right, I hate them too." A sudden soft voice appears from the back.
Raikun gets startled as he turns back. "I... Iori?" His eyes widen as he quickly looks ahead.
"Why would you sneak up on me like that?" he says quietly as he looks over at Iori.
Her long black hair was getting swept by the wind.
"For fun." Iori quietly giggles as she bumps her shoulder onto his and asks, "What's up with you? What are you doing out here THIS late?" with curiosity.
Raikun quietly speaks, "It's nothing, I just needed some fresh air, you know?" He then gets confused and looks over at her and asks, "Why are you walking around here?"
Iori smiles and says, "I needed some fresh air too." She asks, "Wanna go and get some food?" She says with gleaming eyes, looking over at the food stalls.
"Udon," she says with excitement, and Raikun looks over at her and laughs. "Okay, okay, let's get it."
She goes over to the food stall with Raikun.
Iori asks the vendor, "Two bowls of udon, please." And she folds her sleeves up to get the udon bowl. "Thank you so much," they both say together.
Raikun glances over at Iori's right hand and notices something.
"Hey, Iori, what's that on your hand?" he asks worriedly as he points out the purple blemish on her right hand.
Iori's eyes widen as she quickly rolls back her sleeve hesitantly. "It's nothing, don't worry about it," she says as she looks at the udon bowl. "Just eat it when it's hot, it looks so tasty."
Raikun looks at her. "You can tell me, I'm here for you." He looks at her, smiles softly, his eyes warm. The silence between them carried warmth and comfort.
Iori shifts her gaze over to Raikun, with sadness filling her eyes as she hesitantly clutches her skirt and gulps. "It's... it's my mom."
She says as her hands shake, "She's been pressuring me with school and-" she sniffles as the tears in her eyes linger.
Raikun quietly hugs her. "It's okay, Iori, I'm-" He stops and meets her eyes and says, "I'm here for you." He continues, "Didn't you make me promise you that I'll continue living no matter what?"
He notices her eyes. "You have to continue living too. It will get better," he says.
Iori softly wipes away her tears as her cheeks become red, and she nods. "Mhm. I will, Rai. I wanna explore much more in life, you know?" She looks up at the stars. "I really want to escape this place."
She laughs and gazes at him. "After we grow up, let's get out of here." She giggles, and Raikun looks at her, smiling. "Yeah, we should probably just study first."
Iori looks at Rai and slaps his shoulder playfully. "Let me be delusional, man," and Raikun smiles and says, "Sure."
They look over at the udon bowl and gulp it down fastly.
The stars in the night sky shined brightly in the silence, the buzzing of drones enveloping the silence.