Later, Ren and Kai walked out of the police station.
When the cops arrived, Ren immediately got off the guy he was fighting. The cops found them in the middle of a fight with a bunch of thugs, and they don't know who exactly had called or who started it. If Ren and Kai had continued beating them up, things probably would've gone a lot worse, but thankfully The cops didn't act or judge the situation on the spot.
The cops took all of them back to the police station. Ren thought they would be stuck there for hours until night, but it only took about an hour. Apparently, it helped that the four thugs already had records for fights and misdemeanors, and that Ren and Kai had just arrived on Star Island. Because of that, they were cleared almost immediately.
The rest of the hour was just procedures that had to be done.
And then they were out.
Ren and Kai stood next to each other in silence.
…Well, this is awkward, Ren thought.
What are you even supposed to do in a situation like this? I just helped the guy even though we're not friends. What are we supposed to do now? Be buddies because we fought together this isn't an anime.
Other than general information that everyone knew about Kai, the closest thing Ren knew personally was his ability. During the fight, when he glanced in Kai's direction, he saw his opponent rolling on the ground, screaming while his clothes were on fire. So Kai must have a fire-based power. That was it.
Considering that story logic doesn't really work in real life and they were basically strangers, they might as well just go their separate ways.
"Goodbye," Ren said, and started walking away.
A few seconds later, Kai started walking too.
…In the same direction.
"Oh. We're going the same way," Ren thought. "Okay."
They walked left.
Then right.
Then turned again.
They were still walking together.
…Okay? What's happening?
Kai suddenly stopped and turned around, irritation clear on his face.
"First you follow me to the gym, and now you're following me again. What the hell do you want, dude?"
Ren frowned, annoyed. "I just want to go home. We're probably just going the same direction."
"Let's just keep walking."
And that's exactly what they did.
They kept walking in silence. This time, it was even more awkward than before.
Eventually, they arrived at their destination.
And surprise, surprise—it was Ren's apartment building.
And judging by the fact that Kai was still walking in the same direction as him…
They lived in the same apartment building.
So they entered the apartment building still without a word and walked toward the elevator.
It would have been perfectly fine if Ren kept walking in silence, but he decided to be polite.
"Well… I guess this is goodbye. For real," Ren said awkwardly.
Both of them reached for two different elevators buttons at the same time—
only for the screen next to the elevator to light up.
Unavailable.
Ren slowly turned his head and looked at Kai.
Kai glanced at the screen next to his side.
Unavailable.
"…God FUCKING DAMMIT both of them thought.
Without saying anything else, they turned and started walking toward the stairs.
They climbed in complete, unbearable silence.
Ren silently begged, please let him get off on this floor.
Kai, just as silently, seemed to be hoping for the exact same thing.
They kept walking up.
And up.
And up.
Please enter a floor.
Please enter an apartment.
But neither of them stopped.
Eventually, they reached the floor.
The same floor.
They kept walking.
Please enter an apartment.
Any apartment.
They didn't.
They stopped.
Right in front of two doors.
Side by side.
They lived right next to each other.
Without a word, both of them immediately unlocked their doors, stepped inside, and shut them.
Hard BANK
A couple of days had passed since then, and Ren had been living a pretty normal life.
He called the students whose numbers he had, and they hung out together. They played games, ate together, and even spent time in his apartment. He also spent time in theirs. At this point, he thought he could officially call them friends.
He didn't make any contact with Kai, which was fine with him.
Things were pretty quiet—but something also felt off.
Not long after the incident, Ren started feeling strange, like somebody was watching him, like something bad was going to happen. Normally, he would have just brushed it off as anxiety. After all, he had been living alone for a couple of days now.
But that explanation Quickly became off.
Some of the students whose numbers he had suddenly started ghosting him for no reason. Some never replied to his first message at all. Some replied once, then immediately stopped responding. At first, it didn't seem alarming. That kind of thing was normal, and he did actually make some real friends from those numbers.
But it became strange when he met those same people at school.
Whenever they saw him, they either looked away, pretended he wasn't there, or left the room if they could. The problem was that Ren hadn't approached them. He hadn't talked to them. He hadn't even acknowledged them. They just reacted like that the moment he entered.
It was really weird.
And that wasn't all.
He was pretty sure he caught some people staring at him. Whenever he looked back, they immediately looked away. It was strange, but at the same time, they could have just been glancing in his direction, not at him specifically. He couldn't really prove anything.
Could this be because of the thugs?
No, it couldn't be. Ren shook his head. They were just some random muscleheads. What could they actually do?
Later, he met up with a couple of his friends, and they decided to go to the library. Not because they wanted to study or anything, but because they heard the library had manga. Not a small collection with a few volumes—an actual section.
Ren immediately wanted to go. His other friends, Jackson and Mori, agreed, clearly excited.
"Hey guys, this place is big," Mori said as they entered. "How about we split up and ask around?"
Ren and Jackson had no problem with that and agreed. Mori smiled and walked off in her own direction. Jackson went another way, and Ren headed off on his own as well.
Where is it? Where is it? This place is so big…
Ren looked all over the library, asking people for directions. Even though he got multiple answers, the place was so large that he got confused easily. Then, from across the hall, he saw it.
There it was.
"Yes, that's it," Ren muttered, and started fast-walking toward it.
He was focused on the section, his concentration completely locked in—until it was broken by a sudden grunt and the creaking of wood.
When he looked to the side, he saw it.
A giant library shelf, packed full of books, was tipping over toward him.
Ren froze for a split second, completely stunned. Thankfully, he was close to the edge of the shelf, and he quickly jumped to the side.
His heart immediately started beating wildly.
"I—I almost died…" Ren muttered.
Damn, he dodged
Even though he was panicking, he somehow managed to hear quiet, whispered words. When he looked up toward where the shelf had fallen from, he saw a guy.
The moment the guy realized Ren had spotted him, he ran.
Ren started to panic—not because someone had almost killed him, but because he recognized that guy.
He was one of the people Ren had suspected of watching him.