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It was quite a peaceful morning.. You could hear the birds chirping their usual morning songs as the sun made its first glimpse of appearance. You could see the wonderful crystalized dew drops hanging from the grass spikes.Ring Ring…Ring Ring…A loud alarm went off and Akari's eyes shot open. This morning wasn't as peaceful as nature would make it seem, it was definitely far from. The boy let out a deep sigh as he sat up in his bed. He definitely wasn’t having it, but he knew he didn’t have a choice but to go to school.So he did, and successfully got up from bed. It did take him a while though, he hated getting up. Having to put on other clothes while it was so cold, just finding any motivation to make any move.He’d rather sit there a whole day and stare at the wall than have to get up and do all the daily day stuff. But, once again.. he had no choice. His father would definitely get on his ass again if he skipped another day. The old man would definitely come up with some stupid conditions that he wasn’t waiting for.. which was definitely what pushed him to go anyways. I mean, who would go if there weren't any consequences?Having done all this and that’s to get ready in the morning, he quickly left. Akari had to run to get to the bus, knowing he was always late. And yup, he was, once again, late. Akari frowned as the bus drove away right in front of his eyes and cussed under his breath. “Damn.. again.” He sighed and decided to walk the way to school.Akari quickly grabbed his earphones and put them in, turning on his favorite song and walked to school. ...Falling asleep by the arcadeLiquor it jumps off your tongueYou used all your words for a quick gameBlew it all before you won... After a short while, he finally arrived at school. Way too late, of course.. but when wasn’t he late. But that’s when he saw a ginger, a bit shorter than him. And he looked quite confused. Akari was debating if he should step towards the other, and he did.“Hellooo? you’re looking confused! what’s up?” Akari asked the other and tilted his head slightly.The ginger jumped at the notice and green eyes shot up, directly stepping back a bit. “Oh,, hey? Who are you?” He looked even more confused now.Akari grinnend. “I’m Akari. And who may you be, short stack?”The shorter one directly frowned. “Rai. And now don’t call me short stack anymore, skyscraper.”Akari shot into a dramatic shock directly. “Ah! mean, chibi! Insulting a stranger upon first meeting!” He covered his chest with his hand and looked away, closing his eyes in the motion.Rai rolled his eyes at the other and crossed his arms. “Anyways.. Uhm, you go to school here, ye? Show me the way I don’t know it here.” He said, it was quite demanding.Akari did get some chills, the other one was cool. But not sick cool, actually ice cool. How did he get like this? C’mon they’re in middle school.. Yeah, Akari knew he was quite mature for his age.. but how come the other one was this much turned to stone? Well anyways, maybe he could get some life into the other.“Yeah! I go to school here. Do you at least know which class you’re in? you look 13 too! We might be in the same class. By the way.. we are late though. Might get in some trouble.” Akari shrugged.Rai cursed under his breath, he had some.. fear of getting into trouble. “2A I think? Dunno, wasn’t told much.”Akari smiled and clapped his hands excitingly. “We’re in the same class then, follow me!” Was he finally getting a friend? He was pretty lonely at school. Others thought he was too weird.. He never had any real friends at least. This was a good opportunity to make a new friend. Even Though, Rai seemed quite difficult to break though.. he knew he could do it.“Alright.” Rai said and followed Akari to their classroom. They were late as Akari had said before, but it was fine. He didn’t know where to go and Akari seemed like the usual late comer, so they didn’t get in trouble.This was Rai’s first ever school day..And he probably already made a new friend. ...I speak in cursive, I'm poignant, assertiveThere's musical chairs in my teethPoke me to battle, I'll jump on the saddleI'll smile as you fall to your feet. . . The day went on, but that was all fun and games till Rai got a phone call.Boss.Rai’s heart directly sunk and he looked around with quite wide eyes. He put his hand up and asked the teacher if he could take the call. Rai got up quickly and walked to the hallway.Akari watched Rai’s leave and was left with a confused feeling. Why did Rai look so scared? Who called him? Akari couldn’t help but be quite concerned for his forming friend.Rai took the call and cleared his throat. “Uhm.. yes, sir- what’s the problem?” Rai asked quietly, holding a hand over the microphone and his mouth so Mori could hear him, but others wouldn’t.“We forgot a client, did we not? We had a deal when we discussed school, Rai. You won’t be free from appointments. I’ll let it slide, for now~. Now, hurry up, your client is waiting~.”The line went dead and Rai stood there for a minute, silent. He had completely forgotten that he still had his duties and that he would have to quit school if he didn’t compensate it well.He walked back to the classroom and got his stuff.“I have to go, I’m sorry. My bo- Father just called and I have an important appointment to be at.” He announced it to the teacher and looked at Akari.“I’ll see you tomorrow.” He mouthed to the other, and Akari had an instant smile on his face.He finally made a friend.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Rai arrived back at the port mafia headquarters. It was an awful place for him to be at, he absolutely hated it there.
Seriously, there were no words that could possibly describe his hatred for this place.
That’s why he was so glad that he could finally go to school.. He had never been to school in the first place. He started at middle school, at 13. He doesn’t even exactly know how school works. Yeah, you learn things.. boring. But the good thing about it is that he finally doesn’t have to stay at ‘home’ anymore.
Sadly, he did have conditions.
He had to go to every single one of his clients to please them and set a good name for the company.
They just wanted money..
Rai got out of the cab that drove him there and slammed the door shut. He never liked this, he hated when he had clients.
It was like hell on earth.
That time.. he finally thought he was being saved.
Just to continue to do the same thing here, for the exact same cause.
Rai let out a deep sigh to calm himself and walked in, just to be greeted by mori at the entrance.
“Why hello there, Rai.” Mori smiled disturbingly, shivers running up Rai’s back.
“We should quickly go, should we not? Your poor client has been waiting for quite a while, Rai.. You remember our deal, yes?”
Rai nodded. “Yes, sir. I remember. I won’t be late again.”
“Good, good..” Mori placed a hand on Rai’s back and guided the young boy to a room.
Seeing this room made him always panic.
A lot, actually.
But whenever he saw it, It was like the life was completely sucked out of him. He couldn’t function normally anymore, It was like he turned into a living doll.
It weren’t any magic tricks or abilities that made him like this..
It was fear.
He feared this place so much.
It reminded him of when he was younger, the betrayal of his parents.. Being “saved” and then the second betrayal that bought him here.
He was being used solely for money, and he couldn’t even escape it. He had tried to run away so many times, he had tried to get away.
They would pull him by his hair so he wouldn’t go anywhere, though the door was always locked shut anyways. So there was never any chance that he was able to escape anyway.. Even if he dared to try.
That’s what scared him the most.
Why did people enjoy torturing children so much? Especially when it comes to young children.. why?
He had to admit, he was quite jealous of Elise. She got to be Mori's property only.. Well, yeah. She might’ve been some manifestation of his ability.. but still, she didn’t have to do this filthy work. She got to be his precious little toy that got everything her heart wanted. He wanted that. In his head it wasn’t fair how he was being treated. Why did he have to be the one to get sold out?... You pull my by my hairSo i dont fo nowhere tell me you love me but you treat me like youre never there ...Having arrived at the room, Mori led Rai inside the space and looked at the client. “Enjoy~” Mori spoke with an evil demeanor and grinned just the same way, before closing the door and locking it tight behind him. When Rai heard the door close, he swallowed thickly and blankly at the ginormous man who was standing in front of him. “Ahww, aren’t you a cute one?” The man said with a creepy smile while toying with Rai’s hair. Why did those hyenas always have to get comfortable so quickly? “Thank you, sir..” Rai said while trying to put a cutesy smile on his face. He had learned to always look cute, or he would definitely get thrown some punchen again if he wasn’t cute enough for those rats. Child prostitution.. Truly is a horrible thing. And Rai had to endure it. Every day. .
.
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you say the cruelest wordsyou used to break my heart ‘cause im over hereworking my ass off
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.
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Rai sat on the side of the bed, having a burning feeling spiraling through his whole body.
He felt numb.
Rai had finally been left alone in that horrible room, but he had no energy nor strength to even move a muscle and attempt to get out of there. He wanted to get out of there so badly, but he just simply couldn’t.
He never knew what he exactly felt afterwards.
Pain, numbness.
Nothing.
He hated the feeling of nothing. He hated everything. He hated everything there. But he couldn’t just leave, he would’ve left already if he could.
Only if there was a way to escape…
*
Ping*
Rai looked over to his phone and saw a text message saying:
[6:33 pm] +31 6 ###########
Hi! It's Akari. I hope you’re ok! I saw you left looking a bit panicky. Got your number! so I thought I’d check up on you~
It was Akari…
Was he going to respond? He didn't know if he had the energy for it.. He would respond later.
Or so he thought.
Rai let out a deep sigh and looked over to his phone and reached his arm out to grab it. It took some strength to do so, since his body felt incredibly heavy and numb.
[6:41 pm] Rai
hi im ok.
[6:41 pm] Akari
Omg hii! I didn’t expect you to respond! Are you sure? You actually seem a bit down :(
Damn, he responded fast. He didn’t expect an answer back so quickly that he hadn’t switched out of the chat yet. He had to respond now, Rai had a heart. He always felt bad leaving others on read.
Still, it did take him a while before he was actually responding. He simply didn’t know what to say.
Had he to be like, ‘oh yeah, acc im not ok i just got screwed over by an old man again’ or just lie again?
He couldn’t just say something like that to a stranger..
[6:43 pm] Rai
oh, it’s nothing. just some family issues, dad cheated on mom now theyre divorcing.
That’s how it would go in normal families, right?
[6:44 pm] Akari
Ohh noo! I’m so sorry
[6:44 pm] Akari
Are you sure you’re okay then? I can imagine that it’s hard.. not having your parents together anymore..
[6:45 pm] Rai
oh
[6:45 pm] Rai
im sure im ok.
[6:46 pm] Akari
Alright! To me you still seem down. Sooooo~ lets go to the arcade together tomorrow! if you have time of course!
[6:46 pm] Rai
Uhm let me check
An arcade? He has never been to one. Let alone with a friend. Besides, he might’ve had some clients tomorrow.. He couldn’t skip out on that.
Or maybe he could..
If he ran away and never came back.
[6:50 pm] Rai
i can hang out tomorrow.
[6:50 pm] Akari
Omg??! Great!! See you then!
[6:50 pm] Rai
cu.
He was going to the arcade tomorrow.. Did he need money for that? God he didn’t know. He never had a life or anything before.. This were like his first steps in the outside world.
This is why he wished he had an ability of some sorts.. Then he could at least go out on missions or something.
But he couldn’t and it had always bothered him so much.
Even so, now he was going to the arcade now with one of his newfound
friends.
And this was something that he had never expected when he set a foot outside that building.
The following day, Rai got up a bit earlier. He had to be on time, anyways. Rai quickly got dressed and walked over to the mirror and looked at his reflection.
Did he look good enough?
Ray pulled the loose strands of hair in a quick small ponytail and put his glasses on. After doing so, he looked in the mirror once again. Damn. He really had to dye his hair back to brown again.. His orange roots were starting to show.
Rai just shook it off and walked out of his room.
With his phone still laying on his bed.
There was no way that he was letting himself get tracked today. Definitely not with Akari around.
He never wanted anyone to know about his affiliation.
Especially not his work that he had to do there..
Rai packed some quick lunch for school and immediately left. He would give anything to get out of that place as soon as possible.
Rai peacefully walked to school and was just hoping that today would be an okay day..
.
.
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Why is it so hard to see? (Why?)
If I cut myself, I would bleed (kill me)
I'm just like you, you're like me
Imperfect and human, are we?
.
.
.
Having arrived at school earlier this time, Rai still decided to wait for Akari
Which was definitely a very long wait.
But eventually Akari came running after a few minutes since the bell had rang. Why was Akari always this late?
“Took you long enough.” Rai complained.
“Heyy, mornings are just difficult okay! Anyways~ did you wait for me?” Akari asked, being quite confused as to why the other would wait for him just to be late while he could be perfectly on time.
He never had anyone waiting for him before..
“Yeah? But you shud come earlier next time. Because i've waited a while.”
“Yeah, yeah~ I understood as much. But why did you wait for me?”
“Well, you’re nice to me. Saw you alone yesterday, so thought i’d wait.” Rai simply shrugged.
“Ahwww, Chibi does feel things! How sweet~” Akari said in a teasing manner and chuckled.
“Shut up, Asshole. I can also stop waiting for you next time. And of course i have feelings, I’m not heartless.” Rai slightly rolled his eyes at the others statement and let out a snicker.
“Anyways, lets go to class.”
“Yeah!”
Akari and Rai walked to class together and were late, as usual. Rai made a great impression yesterday, too. So they probably expected him to be late anyways.
Not like we wouldn’t be late most of the time anyways.
.
.
.
Show and tell
I'm on display for all you fuckers to see
Show and tell
Harsh words if you don't get a pic with me
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The day didn’t go that smoothly. He had noticed that he and Akari were different than the others.. But he had never expected bullying like this.
That was, till he couldn’t find Akari at their lunch break.
Rai directly started to feel worried for the other. He walked though every hallway and looked through every bathroom till he finally found Akari surrounded by a group of
some older guys.
“What the hell is going on here?” Rai hissed, looking at all the guys.
“Ahwww, Akari, your boyfriend is coming to save you!” One of the guys said.
“Seriously, what the fuck? You guys are so sad.” Rai said, frowning.
That was, until some guy decided to launch some punches at Rai.. Seeing that, Akari directly shut his eyes tight.
He didn’t have to see that.
But to their surprise,
The shortstack could fight.
Rai dodged the punch that flew towards him and directly swung one at the other's head.
It was quite hard, too.
“Quit messing with my friend. Or do any of you want to get knocked down, too?” Rai warned them and the others backed away.
“Chill dude it was just a joke-” one of the boys tried to explain to Rai, which was obviously just a joke.
“Yeah, right. And your parents love you. Now, just go and leave Akari alone.” Rai hissed and the boys fled from the scene.
“Are you alright?” Rai asked Akari, with a concerned manner.
“Yeah! I’m fine.. i’m used to it.. Are you okay? I didn’t know you could fight!!” Akari confessed in awe.
“Yeah yeah.. I can fight. Anyways, did they ever hit you? did they hurt you just now?” Rai asked.
“Uhmm, nope! nooo.” An obvious lie.
“You are going to report this right now. It’s not happening again.” Rai said and held out a hand for Akari to hold on to so he could get up.
Akari quickly grabbed Rai’s hand, and jumped up easily.
“Fine, fine.. just because you tell me to do so, scary man!” Akari joked and nudged Rai.
“Thank you, Rai.. you called me a friend.” Akari smiled.
“Eh? Aren’t we?” Rai tilted his head.
“No no! Not like that! I just never knew someone who wanted to be my friend.. It’s a first! That's all!” Akari smiled again.
That guy could smile a lot, Rai thought..
“I could say the same. I’ve never been to school before yesterday, to be truly honest.. Never had anyone to talk to besides my uhm.. Younger sister Elise,, oh and sibling Kyusaku.” He shrugged.
“Ooh! You have siblings, cool!” Akari said with stars in his eyes. “I used to have a brother!”
“Used to? Did he die?” Rai asked curiously.
“Eh, to me he did. He left the family after my mom died.. It’s just me and my dad now.” Akari shrugged, trying to remain his smile.
“I’m sorry to hear that. I also don’t have a mother anymore.” Rai confessed.
“Ohnoo, I’m so sorry.. Did she die, too?” Akari asked out of sympathy.
“Eh, she just left me.” Rai shrugged.
Akari thought for a bit and noticed that his stories didn’t quite add up. His parents were divorcing.. but he had lost his mom already because she left him? And for a divorce.. you don’t suddenly get called out of class so randomly.
Besides, he could fight well in battle..
Could he be?
Nahh Rai could never! He has too much heart for it.
“I’m really sorry to hear that! But I get how you feel.. I hope you get over it.” Akari smiled, once again.
“Yeah, you too..”
“Let’s head back to class.”
.
.
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Buy and sell (buy and sell me, baby)
Like I'm a product to society
Art don't sell
Unless you fucked every authority
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Class had ended, everyone went home. But of course, Rai and Akari had other plans together.
They had planned to go to the arcade together after school.
It did make Rai a bit nervous. He knew full well that he had a client this afternoon, and he would be in great shit if mori found him.
But he left his phone at home.. And how he knew it, there weren’t any tracking devices on him..
So he couldn’t possibly be tracked right?
“The weather is nice outside!” Akari suddenly spoke and Rai looked at the other.
“Eh?” Rai tilted his head in confusion.
“Thatsss a good convo starter, right?” Akari chuckled.
“But why the weather? It could be anything, and you choose the weather?” Rai really wasn’t any good at starting or keeping convos going.
“Are you autistic?” Akari asked out of curiosity.
“Yeah, why?”
“Oh.” Akari stopped in his tracks and had to suppress his laughter. “Yeah I can tell.”
Rai stopped walking too and a small smile grew on his face. “Yeah, yeah.. well whatever.”
Akari gasped at seeing the other actually smile and dramatically covered his mouth with his hand. “Oh my god. Did I see that right?! Did.. Did the emotionless Rai just.. Smile?!” He grinned.
Rai directly looked away and shook his head. “No he didn’t.”
“Oh yes he did~”
“Oh by the way, Rai! Like my drip?” Akari stepped with one foot forward and pointed at his shoe to show Rai the shoes he was so proud of.
They were Hello Kitty shoes.
“Eh?” Rai raised his eyebrow. Why did Akari like those shoes so much? They were just plain white platform shoes with a cat wearing a pink bowtie. What’s so special about that? If it were Rai, he would’ve found them rather childish.. Who even was that random cat? “They make you taller?”
Akari just stared plainly at Rai and his mouth dropped, before he bursted out laughing. “You don’t know Hello Kitty?!’
“Hello who?” Well, Rai indeed didn’t know who Hello Kitty is. “I get why those people called you a homo..”
“Damn! And here I thought I made a friend.” Akari dramatically held a hand over his chest but couldn’t stop laughing. “But you poor boy! What kinds of trauma do you have to not know Hello Kitty? How was your childhood?”
“It was sunshine and rainbows. That’s why I’m always so incredibly happy.” Rai snickered.
“And you call me a homo? Rainbows are pretty gay, dude.” Akari slightly smirked.
“What I was implying.” He shrugged.
“Oh.” Akari blinked, finally having calmed down from his laughter. “Cool dude. Is that why you defended me today~? Omg. Rai is gay
and
has a crush on me!”
“What? I never said that?” Rai’s face slightly flushed. “You’re just making that up right now.”
“Chibi is flustered~!” Akari joked.
“Am not!” Rai hissed and looked away. “Let’s just keep walking.” He crossed his arms and continued walking to the arcade.
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.
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You beg and cry for morehe had 'em on the floor
There are strangers takin' pictures of me when I ask, "No more"
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.After a short walk, the two boys had finally arrived at the arcade. Rai was directly amazed by the sight of the cornershop. He had never seen such a place before, only read of them in some books he used to read to pass some time. But it looked even better than the books described. Akari looked over at Rai and it looked like the others' eyes were lighting up a little. This caused Akari to grow a small smile. “You like what ya seeing?” Rai snapped out of it and looked over at Akari. “Eh? Yeah i’ve never been to an arcade before actually.” “What?! Really?!” Akari gasped. “Oh i’ve really gotta show you everything then! this is gonna be fun!” Akari was definitely getting pumped up now. Showing Rai around the arcade would be so much fun. They started to walk around and Akari pointed out a ton of fun games that they could play. Some of them to play alone, some of them multiplayer. He had a lot of fun explaining everything, the Arcade was a nice place to let off some steam. Akari came there often, anyways. So he knew his way around. After a bit of watching and explaining, the two of them decided to play a multiplayer fighting game. Rai was definitely losing. But you could say, the shortstack had some gamers rage. “God damnit why wont those stupid controls work!” Rai slapped the metal of the control panel. “You’re just not good at it, Chibi~!” Akari giggled and stuck his tongue out. “You might be good at fighting in real life, but gaming is a bit different!” “Like hell! This shit isn’t fair! Those damn controls wont work!” Rai hissed and face planted his head on the game station. That was, until he suddenly heard a familiar voice call out his name. “Raaaaiii!! I missed you!” Rai’s head shot up and fear directly struck his eyes. It was Kyusaku. “Woahh a kid with split dye hair! Cool!” Akari stared at the little.. boy? Girl? “Ooooh hii! Are you Rai’s friend?! I’m Q!” They smiled widely. “Q is-” Rai wanted to ask something, but Kyusaku directly interrupted him. “We’re here to get you!!” Shit. How could he be caught? There was no way that Mori could’ve found him. Rai’s heart started to pound. Fear started to fill his nervous system.He was seriously done for. What if he couldn’t go to school anymore because of this? What if he had to leave Akari behind just because he ignored his duties? God he should’ve known better than to run off and think he could escape this quickly. Akari quickly caught on to Rai’s fear and started to become quite concerned. “Rai, is everything okay..? You look scared-” Akari asked worriedly. That was, till a taller figure appeared. The man had shoulder length black hair. Wearing a white lab coat and had a small beard that looked like he just shaved it. Behind him was a girl with even longer blonde hair and a red dress.Was this Rai’s family that he had been told about? The taller figure cleared his throat and Rai was just looking at the floor.
“Rai.” Mori spoke, chills running up Rai’s spine.
“ S-sir- I’m sorry I’m really sorry.” Rai apologized, still facing the ground.
Mori grabbed the childs face and made Rai look at him. After doing so, a loud smack could be heard across the arcade.
Akari’s eyes widened at the sight of his friend being slapped across the face and directly pulled Rai behind him and looked at the man. “What the hell?! Why would you slap him?!” Akari almost yelled at the man.
“This is none of your business. Now, give me Rai. We have to go.” Mori stared intensely at the kid in front of him.
“No! you’ll just hurt him more!” Akari hissed.
“He is mine. My property, I can do whatever I want with him.~ Now, give him back! pretty please?” Mori smiled.
Akari shook his head and stared angry at Mori. No way that he’d let that man take Rai away from him. He knew that it was most likely his dad but that still didn’t convince Akari to let them go.
Mori just let out a deep sigh and slightly pouted. “Then we’ll just have to do it the hard way.” Mori shrugged and forcefully shoved Akari out of the way and grabbed Rai’s arm to pull the child towards him.
Rai flinched at the motion and looked up at Mori. “Don’t.” He frowned. “Don’t touch me”
“Oh~? Talking back to me I see? How daring!” Mori chuckled and squeezed Rai’s arm even tighter. “They are waiting for you, Rai.”
“I don’t want to go. I’m not going! I don’t want to be used as an object anymore- please Mori I don’t want to anymore..!!” Rai practically almost begged Mori.
“Rai, you’re going. You can't change your purpose in life, you know~.” Mori smirked.
He did, until Rai’s eyes had started glowing. “
Please
, Mori!
I don't want to anymore
!”
A bright light appeared and it seemed to be coming from Rai. It seemed like thunder had come to strike. Electric particles zapped all the game stations lining up in the arcade. All the power went out.
After all the light had died down, Rai fell to his knees and soon fully collapsed on the ground. He seemed to be fully gone for a hot minute. Akari’s eyes widened at the sight of his best friend fainting after that happened and directly kneeled down beside him.
“Rai?! Rai! Are you okay?!” Akari looked at him worriedly, trying to shake him awake.
Mori kneeled down beside Rai too and picked the boy up. “Well, we’ll be going.” And with that, Mori walked out of the arcade, carrying Rai.
Kyusaku looked at Akari and smiled. “Don’t worry, he be okie!! I think he just found out about his ability!” And with that, Q ran after Mori.
Akari sat there dumbfounded. What in the world just happened..? His friend just started glowing and then fainted? And his father was there too but- started hitting him? What an awful family. Now he knew why Rai got so scared of that call, or why Rai seemed so grown up..
He felt so bad for his friend.