I had no idea picking up garbage for community service was still a thing. Well, how was I supposed to? You'd always watch it on TV shows or movies and it just seemed a little unrealistic. I mean, picking up trash with a mini pitchfork and garbage bag? How was that kind of punishment supposed to shape criminals into better people?

Then again, considering this kind of physical activity was equivalent to a nightmare for lazy people like me, it suddenly made a lot of sense.

"Clean up all the trash you find from the field. Easy enough, right?" said the officer escorting Ryu and I.

I knew that I shouldn't even have tried to open my mouth—which was proven to spout sarcastic remarks without hesitation—but it ended up moving anyways.

"Actually," I said, turning to face him, "are we cleaning up this field tomorrow too?"

"Depends on how much you get done today."

"And how much is this 'depending'?"

"You have a month of this, miss," he said curtly. "I suggest you get started unless you want to extend the punishment."

"But—" I began, trying to testify that I was innocent and didn't deserve this for the umpteenth time, when a sudden grab to the collar shut me up. I fought back a yelp as I got tugged further into the field and away from the officer.

"You should really learn to watch your mouth," Ryu hissed. "Sweet-talking doesn't work with the police. And they don't care if you say you're innocent or not. You'll get us into more trouble so shut up."

I pushed Ryu away, puffing my cheeks. "This is all your fault."

"You told me that," he said. "A lot, actually."

"Good. You should feel guilty."

I stabbed the pitchfork into the ground and missing the crumpled juice box by an inch.

Darn it. I broke my oath of not talking to him. All day in the infirmary today I managed to glare at him from underneath one of the beds while Dad treated students.

Now that Ryu was officially working with me in the infirmary, I was frustrated. I mean, I thought working alone was hell enough but I had to deal with him too?

Today wasn't as crazy as other days but it was still hectic enough. Fortunately I didn't have to do any work besides hand Dad band-aids and the such, though, that kind of peace wouldn't last long. I had to prepare to live at least six hours a day working with the guy in that toxic environment...

"How was I supposed to know the officers were around?"

My mouth dropped incredulously at Ryu's words. Was he serious? "How the heck did you not know you were punching people?"

"I didn't feel anything."

"That's not normal!" I seethed.

Ryu stared at me blankly. Shaking his head, he swerved and began picking up garbage with ease. "It's in the past now," he disclosed. "Start picking up trash."

I scoffed, "If it's trash you want picked up, how about I start with you—"

"What did you say?"

"Nothing!" I squealed, dashing away and towards a spot filled with more garbage.

Once I was a safe distance away, I rotated only to find Ryu glaring daggers into me. I was tempted to stick my tongue out in return, but quickly abandoned the idea when a chill ran up my spine. He'd kill me for sure. No need to rush to my death so soon...

When I felt the piercing gaze from the officer watching us from a distance away, I grudgingly resumed to pick up trash. I managed to collect a good amount (a full bag's worth), but it seemed like whenever I thought I was done, there was more trash further ahead. I blamed it on the incessant amount of wind that was blowing them away. But, all in all, it made me cranky knowing people littered this much; it was actually disgusting how much plastic I picked up. How was the earth not on its death bed yet?

By the time an hour rolled around, all the walking back and forth and bending had me exhausted. Exhaling a loud breath, I peered backwards to see just how much Ryu had done. Knowing him, he probably gave up and was getting a scolding from the officer.

Albeit being assured of that, the sight I saw had me gawking.

Please tell me I was hallucinating when I saw Ryu carrying a popsicle in his hands, talking casually with the police officer with FOUR FREAK'N BAGS FULL OF GARBAGE ALL AROUND HIM?

I waited a few seconds with my jaw touching the ground, eyes wider than saucers, heart hammering like a drill in my chest — just waiting for this hallucination to fade. And I wasn't even surprised when it didn't. When did life ever give me even that simple relief? Never, that's when.

Life just loved making me suffer.

I couldn't halt my feet from charging like a bull in his direction. Both males stopped their cheerful conversation when I finally arrived, breathing heavily, glowering like a madwoman. I clenched the knot of the garbage bag I had filled even tighter, shaking due to the immense amount of anger welling up inside of me.

"What—"

I cut off the police officer with the simple wave of my hand. I turned to face the devil of this all who was peacefully licking away at the chocolate popsicle he held.

"You seem a little mad, Kikuchi," Ryu noted calmly, briefly running his fingers through his hair.

"Why shouldn't I be mad?" I hissed, losing my mind. "Why the heck — no, when and how the heck did you get this all done?"

"The garbage?" Ryu asked, peeking down at the bags. "I got it from the field, obviously. Where else are we cleaning?"

"Are you kidding me?!"

At my shrill yell, Ryu held up his hands in defence. "If you want to fill four bags too, you might as well start picking stuff up."

"I already started," I growled, holding up my (fairly light) bag in my hands. I carefully rose it up and down, eyebrows furrowing together. That's weird. It was almost as if it—

"—spilled," Ryu finished my thought, holding out his index finger at my bag.

My eyes nearly bulged from their sockets when I confirmed his words. Gaping, I trailed the long line of trash leading from when I was before all the way here. All of it had spilled.

"If you want a break too, start reorganizing your mess," the police officer chimed in.

At his unnecessary comment, I nearly jumped the man. It was by willpower alone that I kept my cool. I didn't want to get into more trouble wih the cops. "Don't tell me you bought him that?" I asked in disbelief, throwing the bag to the ground.

"I finished filling four bags and he offered it to me," Ryu replied in his stead, as if that answer was sufficient enough.

"That's impossible," I snapped, grounding my teeth. My arms shot in the air exasperatedly. "I thought we were being punished! What police officer offers the person they're sentencing popsicles?"

"A damn good one," Ryu answered. He proceeded to fist-pump the officer, stringing more incredulity inside of me.

"Then where's mine?" I asked, eyebrows raised.

The officer didn't even flinch. "There isn't a need to continue this conversation further. Please resume your duties."

"But—"

"I'll be over there," he interjected, pointing back towards the roadside where his car was parked.

"But—"

"No more discussion, Miss Kikuchi," he said firmly, eyes smoldering, "If you don't cooperate, the consequences will double."

He was trying to dodge the question! I don't know when I had done it, but I was lunging at the man, nails outstretched. "How about I show you consequences—"

Something splattered over my face. I was blinded for a second and I stumbled backwards. The stickiness of it was oddly cold; it was definitely ice cream.

"Please excuse her behaviour." I tried to trace the polite voice to a face. "She's always like this."

I wiped away the ice cream from my eyes just in time to catch the officer shaking his head at me.

"I see a lot of people like that serving hours. Continue working, please." With a curt wave, he made his way towards his vehicle.

Gaping, I picked up the popsicle stick that had fallen to my chest. I stared at it in disbelief, my gaze darting towards Ryu who stood there watching. "You freakin' threw your popsicle at me. And it had ice cream in it!"

"You were trying to attack the officer," was Ryu's defence.

I exhaled loudly, fuming as I dropped to the ground. As much as I didn't want to admit it, I was glad he stopped me. But ice cream? Did he really need to throw his at me? Now it was all over my face and it felt gross. "So you can stop me from attacking them but you couldn't stop yourself?" I shot angrily.

"It was an accident."

"Okay, whatever."

Ryu glared at me from above. "Everything that comes out of your mouth is annoying."

"Good," I scoffed. "At least I don't suck up to police officers just to get a popsicle." My gaze fell upon the right garbage bags next to us. I snorted, "Ha, I bet you didn't even fill those garbage bags up with actual trash. Since you're such a delinquent maybe you stuffed it with dead bodies or something." There was no way he filled up that many in such a short amount of time; it was impossible. Well, maybe 'dead bodies' was a little extreme but whatever. It wasn't like I regret saying it.

"You keep bitchin' at me for no reason," Ryu grumbled, folding his arms. "What do you want from me?"

I almost laughed out loud at the question. "What do I want?" I repeated, chuckling. "Maybe an apology? It's your fault I'm living my life like this."

Ryu was silent. I rolled my eyes in response. Well, I said that but I didn't exactly mean it. What was it that I wanted? To live my life like any normal high school student—that's it. Not being surrounding in a school filled with delinquents, not getting involved with the police and crazy people who had me scared out of my wits; normal parents, friends, problems — but I realize I was asking for too much. Since my life was like this, there was no way to revert it back into what was considered "normal." Maybe if I just focused on the plus side of my life I'd be able to be more chipper. I was way too moody for my own good...

With a groan, I clambered to my feet. "I guess I'll pick up my garbage that, of course, had to spill. You just continue stuffing your bags with those dead bodies, Iwasaki. Maybe you can ask that cop to buy you another popsicle too to celebrate for committing murder. Then you can blame that as being an accident too." Without a care if my words offended him or not, I picked up a new garbage bag and stabbed the pieces of garbage that weren't being blown away by the wind, before scooping them into it.

The sounds of crumpling and fluttering of papers filled the air. Puzzled, I craned my neck backwards to see what was going on. My mouth slightly fell as a result of what I saw.

"Wh-what..."

Picking up the last bag of trash he had, Ryu ripped it, spilling all the contents. Enormous amounts of bottles, wrappers, cans—my mind was swirling following the plastic bags and papers fluttering away in the wind. I counted one, two—three empty garbage bags by Ryu's feet. And whilst all my gawking, Ryu met my gaze. His grey eyes were narrowed, lips downturned sourly. He threw the last empty trash bag to the ground before stomping up to me.

I backed away subconciously, and stared up at him in surprise. He was anything but happy as he snatched a handful of garbage bags resting on the ground near my pile of garbage.

"There...aren't any dead bodies," he murmured under his breath, and in such a sad tone I never would've expected to hear from someone like him. Then he spun around so quick, marching back to where he was and re-picking all of the garbage he had spilled.

Speechless, I couldn't react. My trembling fingers eventually dropped my new bag of garbage as I watched Ryu stab and throw trash away with swift speed. His back was turned to me, but I knew I didn't want to see his face.

Although I told myself I wouldn't regret saying those things, in that moment, my gut twisted with so much guilt I felt sick.