The police officer stays with her the whole way back to the housing district and to her house. He stops at the door when she goes inside.
“Is one of your parents home right now?”
Yuki shakes her head.
“No. My father is at work, and my mother is overseas with her job.”
The officer nods.
“If you wish, I can stay here until your father arrives. It would be better to inform him of this incident.”
Yuki bites her lower lip.
“That’s okay. I’ll let him know when he comes home. I’ll be fine.”
The officer nods.
“All right. Call us if you ever need our help again.”
He bows and then leaves her house. Yuki closes the door and sighs.
“That didn’t turn out too well.”
“You’re damn right it didn’t.”
She turns around in surprise and sees Jen frowning at her with his arms crossed in front of his chest.
“What were you thinking pulling that stunt?”
He pushes off the wall he was leaning on and stalks towards her.
“You think the police can protect you from anything? Gorun would slaughter them all with his club in no time flat.”
He stands less than a foot away from her and leans in, glaring at her from the top of his sunglasses.
“I’m here to protect you, not obey you. I was trying to be nice and get you to where you wanted to go, but then you try and turn me over to the cops for no damn reason.”
She cringes and leans back into the wooden door, trying to get away from his gaze. Her eyes turn downward, and she feels the door shake as Jen’s hands slam on either side of her body.
“Do I have your attention?”
She looks back at him, seeing the fire in his eyes burning brighter.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but stop it. I’m no pervert, so making it seem that way won’t be beneficial for you.”
Yuki closes her eyes and begins to cry, slowly sliding down the door. Jen turns around, walks a few paces, and throws his hands in the air.
“What do you want of me?! Huh?!”
He gets no reply, just more tears and sobs from her. He sighs and walks back to her, kneeling down in front of her.
“You can stop crying now.”
Yuki just continues to cry and doesn’t respond to him. He reaches out and lays a hand on her shoulder. She shies away from him. Getting slightly annoyed, he moves closer and wraps his arms around her. His voice lowers and takes a more gentle tone.
“You can stop, really. I despise what you did, but I’m still bound to my word to protect you.”
Yuki opens her eyes after a little bit and looks at him with her now red eyes.
“Why can’t you just leave me alone, like everyone else does?”
Jen touches her forehead with his, gazing into her eyes.
“Because, it’s something I must do.”
Yuki touches the star ball.
“For this? Is this the only reason you’re still here?”
Jen nods slightly.
“Pretty much, yeah.”
She blinks her eyes.
“ ‘Pretty much’? Then what’s the other reason?”
He moves his hands to the inside of her knees and her back. Effortlessly, he picks her up in his arms and pulls her to him.
“The rest is because I know you need me, almost as much as I need you to return mine.”
He starts walking towards the stairs.
“How do I need you?”
He looks at her.
“It should be obvious.”
They start to go up the stairs, and Jen remains silent. Yuki ponders his words, trying to figure how just what he was getting at. Arriving upstairs, he takes her to her room and opens the door. He walks to her desk and sets her down on the chair. Then he goes to the window and opens it, letting a light breeze enter the room.
Yuki watches him, confused and unsure of what Jen does.
Everything seems rooted in getting back his star ball. But, he mentioned that it wasn’t all of it. And that I should know what the rest of it should be.
Jen sits on the window sill, letting the breeze play with the tail of his trench coat. From her angle, it seemed that his emotionless mask had a hole in it around his eyes, where a hint of loneliness was visible.
She blinks, and it seemed that the crack never was there.
Was I just imagining that?
She bites her lip in thought and continues watching him. The breeze bends his bangs back when it blows, and lets the hair fall back into place as the breeze dies down. Mesmerized, she finds herself unable to look away.
Her eyes widen as Jen turns his head and catches her staring at him.
“Yes?”
She looks away to her desk, focusing on the paper and books on it.
“It’s nothing.”
Jen shrugs lightly and looks back out at the scenery.
“I remember when there used to be a great deal of trees here. This area was then occupied by merchants and the like, cutting away the trees to use for limber for their shops and vehicles. It seems so hollow now, devoid of all life. Few people are even here during the day, mostly just house wives and those too old to work.”
Yuki looks back at him when he started to speak of the past. She felt like she could almost see the mask he wore cracking, showing the loneliness and pain behind it.
“ ‘Progress’, they say. Just which kind of progress are they discussing? The progression to a better life, or the progression towards the extinction of life on this world? When will they realize that not everything new is good? Sometimes, it’s best to let things be as they were and not trifle with nature.”
“Right now, you seem as old as you said you were, though at other times you sure don’t.”
Jen looks back at her, his head leaning towards the right enough to let his right eye be seen above the sunglasses.
“True. I’ve just been keeping pace with you.”
Yuki feels anger rising within her.
“Oh, so I’m immature?”
Jen pushes off the window sill and falls into the room, rolling on the ground until he gets on his feet. He stands up and nods.
“Compared to me, yes.”
Yuki gets up and walks to him.
“Is that why you’re always so mean to me?”
He shakes his head.
“I’m not always mean, just when I want to spark a reaction from you.”
With that, he leaves the room, not saying where he was going. She stands there and watches him leave, still unable to comprehend him.
On top of the roof, Jen rests with his arms on his stomach. His sunglasses block the sunlight that occasionally peeks out from the moderate cloud cover.
“I wonder how long it’ll be. Shouldn’t be too much down the road.” He closes his eyes and takes a short nap.
