お金がありません
bepsibae:
It was the first day of the month, which meant payday. Arakita always had a tactic for dividing the neighbourhood properly, so him and Kuroda were able to collect the money from the tenants and low-hand-criminals of their circles within a few hours. Clicking his tongue, he had collected most of the money needed, only two so far weren’t able to pay in time – and usually, he’d give them an ultimate limit of another week, which was impossible for most men to hold the deal, but still, he would make the offer because he had to. Yasutomo had his boss’s tasks after all and it was a rule to give a week after, of course, raising it up with interest and such, but it was a money maker. So, he finally arrived at the last apartment at the last building for the night – each and every time he read the name tag. Onoda Sakamichi. That bespectacled college girl. She had that nerdy air about herself, all goofy and clumsy – one time she stumbled against the door, when she handed him the money and it almost made him crack a smile… ALMOST. He would not let that kind of cutesy attitude let him lose his cool. She really peaked his interest one way or another – he couldn’t even explain how or why, but the way she was so hopelessly helpless made him want to grab her by the arm and tell her to pull herself the fuck together and act her age. He blamed his big-brother-complex for that entirely, but he had to be honest with himself that it was not solely that.
Once he knocked at the door, he heard her small feet walk up towards it, standing proud and tall at the door to intimidate her just as much as anyone else, he wouldn’t notice however that despite his attempts, his face would still look a lot softer around her than with the rest of the tenants. While the man received his obnoxious deadly glare, one eye opened so widely that his pupils were barely visible from all the whiteness in his eyes any longer, his mouth lifted on one edge as he was yelling profanities at these losers. With her, it was a mere glare, as if he rested his face from all the exhaustion of the night, not even wrinkling his lips in a manner that he bared his gums. If anything, quite frankly, Kuroda would probably tell him that his expression was tame compared to usually, though he would tell him to shut it up and stop lying.
The door was opened to a mere slit once again, out of a habit he reached out his hand to collect the money without much of any greeting or exchange of words. Though, apparently, the girl had something to say to him. “Hah?” He asked loudly when she started stammering, unsure if he could believe what he just heard. Narrowing his eyes a little more, he glared down at her simply because that was his resting-bitch-face by now and he had no intention to make it seem like this was something outrageous. Surely, it was outrageous —- what was he even thinking just then?! YES IT WAS OUTRAGEOUS!!! People had to pay in time and yet he caught himself thinking that it was a-okay for her?! He wanted to smack himself across the face for that just now, but instead he used his brain for a moment to make the best out of the situation.
He almost caught himself saying the usual – a week’s due with added interest of course – but Arakita bit himself on the tongue before he could seal the deal. Instead he had an idea —- something that he never thought even coming up with to anyone, and yet there he was. Pushing his hand against her door, he opened it a little wider, leaning his other arm against the frame as if he invited himself into her apartment: he never saw much of it, but now that he could glance inside, it was neat and cleaned up, books on shelves, little figurines here and there – so, he was right about her being an otaku? – but it clearly was the housing of a girl, and it felt really soft, warm and welcoming. Leaning down with his head to lose the extreme height difference between the two of them, he clicked his tongue and smirked at the small woman. “What’s that? Paying later? That’s unheard of.” Of course, the man sounded as threatening as ever, though while he walked inside, he pushed the door close behind him, his heart racing like wild: was it disgusting to have such intentions?! But then again, it was her fault for not being able to pay in time… she probably spent too much money on these silly figurines or whatever, how immature! It was her fault more so for looking adorable in these glasses and with that expression of her as if she screamed for someone to protect her. And without a doubt, that protector-instinct was woke and ready —- in a more disturbed kind of form, but nonetheless, it was here. She was lucky that it was Arakita at the door and not Kuroda… that guy… he would’ve pulled a gun into her face just for shits and giggles… meanwhile… Yasutomo had other intentions, equally as unjust, but he believed they were humane… right?!
Walking closer and closer to her, he didn’t care to take off his shoes like any normal guest while walking past the genkan, moving and moving until he had her trapped against the next wall, ramming his hand against it to trap her nice and cosy like that. “Can’t exactly do that.” The man blatantly lied into her face as he tended his head to the side. “Boss won’t let me. But maybe you’re lucky nonetheless… I can think of a way to make you pay in advance. Can you think of one way, too, Onoda-chaaaaan?” Disgusting, he was disgusting, he felt as if this was someone else talking through him, but at the same time, it excited him to think that he was able to use such power over that girl and put her right where he wanted her to be.
considering that all of her past experiences with the man were completely short -- a transaction at most, she never had to deal with more than a glare or two from the man. she could guess that he was surely a scary guy ( scarier if he wanted to be even ), but she never had him be rude openly to her, so her impression of him was not entirely negative. his status was enough to convince most that he was most definitely a horrible person, but she was too naïve to believe in those kinds of rumors. the yakuza was a scary thought, but she still had her hopes that it was just something he had to do for work; some kind of difficult position that he had to be put in. onoda didn’t believe that she could possibly make any kind of character judgement on him without knowing him past a simple formality. however -- she also never foresaw their relationship going any further, since she was easily startled & his personality seemed anything but gentle. she was guilty of keeping her distance with the man, only opening the door as much as needed to hand the money to him.
each time that she opened the door for the man, she always had to look up at him in order to meet his gaze. not only was he very tall for a japanese man, she was also just very small. looking up at arakita, she immediately felt anxiety wash over her. it was so hard to request something so ridiculous when she was staring right into his glaring expression. her words only got more nervous as she caught sight of his face, her voice only getting softer as she cowered back behind the door. even if his expression were less menacing towards her, she could not tell -- at his least intimidating, she was still terrified to assert herself. making a request to someone that already looked pissed off before hearing her peace was nerve - wrecking to say the least. she was utterly terrified at the thought of angering him with something so juvenile. if she had just worked more and budgeted better, this would not be the case. it made her really regret foolishly losing track of her funds.
jumping at the volume of his voice, she was already regretting speaking up -- maybe she should have just found someone to borrow money off of, it sounded much more appealing than trying to negotiate with a yakuza member. she couldn’t quite place the expression on his face, since he was already angry - looking before. it was difficult to tell whether he was angrier or just caught off guard at her causing trouble for the first time. onoda was always so good at paying her dues, it must have surprised him to hear her making excuses for once. she was ready for him to snap at her, and yet he still seemed semi - composed about it all. his expression looked to be confused, but she wasn’t so sure why that was. certainly other people had to ask for the same special circumstance & yet it felt as if he was not understanding what she was asking for at all.
when he shoved his hand into the door, forcing it open, she could feel herself go faint for a moment. just what she was expecting, she wasn’t sure -- he could have definitely had the intent to hurt her, but she doubted that he would have gone through the trouble to welcome himself into her home beforehand. noticing the way that he closed the door behind him, she tried to peek around him to see if it was really closed. her heart was beating out of her chest and everything inside of her switched to a flight instinct. though, before she could possibly escape him, he was already far too close for her to have any means to do so. it wasn’t like she had anywhere in her apartment that was worth trying to make a run for anyways -- all of the doors were so fragile that she doubted they would protect her from him either way. “ご、ごめんなさい、ごめんなさい、ごめんなさい。” the smaller instinctively began to repeat, shrinking against the wall behind her with her hands clutched protectively against her chest. tears already began to prick at her eyes, despite the fact that he had yet to do anything too awful to her yet. she was terrified of the closeness, but it wasn’t the most violent thing that he would have in store for someone. she should have felt relieved to know that he was not immediately grabbing at her wrists or worse. their height difference barely got any less noticeable, since as he would lean in, she would cower further against the wall. her knees threatened to give out, shaking uncontrollably.
as he spoke, she clearly didn’t pick up on the nasty meaning behind his words, instead she just assumed that she would be receiving some kind of brutal punishment from him. “i’ll find a way, i’m so sorry. i-i . . . i don’t k-know how, but i’ll get the money for you.” teeth chattering faintly as she spoke, onoda didn’t know what she would do to find the money, but at the moment she wasn’t thinking logically enough to think her promise through well enough. “just, p-please don’t hurt me, i didn’t mean it, i didn’t.”
