The blessing of Kijuro’s irreplaceable cooking was enough to temporarily soothe the worst aches that stomped on Reoni. That, and downing five glasses of water, was enough to convince him he was all well again—except for the gang, who wouldn’t buy it. He was forced to dress in a blanket by Kip, even when he was standing.

“Blankets speed up recovery,” Kip said as he overshadowed him with his figure to tuck a blanket snugly around his neck.

But he never had to worry about walking around with a blanket tied to him, because Bul refused to let Reoni’s head leave the couch or bed pillow. Or Kijuro, who bloated his stomach with sweets—not that he was complaining.

Then, there was Eliu, who considered himself to be one of the worst consolers. His way of checking in on him was through an ‘awkward dad talking to his teenage daughter’ encounter in the living room. 

“So, uh…” Eliu started spontaneously. “Do you… remember the ride back? That’s prolly why you’re achin’ so much,” he laughed a bit too much. 

“I don’t remember anything after I sent the text.” 

There was a pause, then hesitation in his words as he said, “Damn, that was one of the wildest experiences of my life.” 

He received no response afterwards. What else was there to say?

Kip glanced up from his sketchbook with a pitiful expression at Eliu’s puppy attempt to sympathize with Reoni. He sat up from a sofa diagonal from them and stored his phone in his pocket. “What happened that made you run?”

Reoni withdrew into his blanket a bit. “They slipped something in my drink. I only found out because I’ve heard their code of speaking before,” he said. “It felt like… I met them before.”

“They weren’t people from around here,” Eliu told him. “Key thinks they’re from a gang outside of Ginza and Edogawa.” 

“Then why did they chase me? Why were there so many of them after me?” he questioned with a weakened voice, and within seconds, tears suddenly began to slide down the curves of his cheeks, as if the obscurity of it all was the last droplet to overfill the pitcher. 

Eliu’s eyes widened and his shoulders stiffened as to what to do. Nobody had the answers he was looking for. There was nothing to satisfy those tears—was he supposed to lie? “Who knows? Key’s the one who finds out that stuff.” 

Kip frowned tenderly and pushed himself off his seat and he sat against Reoni. “Hold onto this,” he said.

He tore out the sheet of paper he had been diligently adding pen marks to for the past hour, taking one last overall look, then handing it over to him. The soft strokes detailed a lamb’s delicate fur, with its little head poking out from the tulips it was sniffing. A little ribbon and bell tied loosely around its neck. The illustrious detail created the illusion of color to the scene.

“You were—” he swiped his watery eyes with his knuckle “—You were drawing this for me?”

“Your favorite animal is lamb, right?”

A grin broke out into his flushed cheeks as he nodded, tracing over the strokes with his eyes. “Thanks, Jun. Seeing the lamb smile makes me smile.” He set the paper on the armrest to embrace Kip.

“Hey, how am I supposed to compete with that?” Eliu yapped.

Reoni chuckled, pulling away and immediately picking up the art to admire it some more. “He’s just too kind to reject any idea he gets in his head.”

“I’m just better at art than words.” Kip pinched Reoni’s shoulder as he got back up. “Everyone has their own way of cheering someone up. What would you say to yourself to cheer up?” he asked.

“More like you’re better at bein’ a knucklehead,” Eliu muttered when Kip finished his sentence. Realizing he was just asked a question, he cluelessly stared at Kip. “Huh?”

Reoni giggled more, hiding behind his knees. 

The corners of Kip’s lips upturned at his reaction. “I think comedy’s your strong suit, El.”

“What was the question? I was daydreamin’!”

“Nothing, you answered it,” Kip said. “I’m gonna look for Bul.” He waved politely as he excused himself from the conversation.

“God, everyone’s so secretive around here. Can’t even ask someone to repeat themselves,” Eliu said under his breath, planting his elbows on top of his knees.

Reoni placed the paper over top of his smile, though his beady eyes would twinkle for him instead. He observed Eliu’s demeanor—always exhausted, but was the easiest to read out of the gang for his expressive tone and gestures. He was the clown of the group for his naive reaction to insults or pranks. For some, he was the biggest bully in the playground, but for the ones who knew him, his bark was just for show. 

“Seeing you smile would make me smile too, Ellie,” Reoni said.

His lips parted, lifting his head up towards Reoni. “Oh, uh, thanks.” He grabbed the nape of his neck. “I guess it's not often you see a gang leader smile.”

“Yeah, I guess not,” he agreed. It wasn't what he was referring to at all. 

Unlike his brother, Eliu hardly smiled unless he was with women, and even then he would only flaunt his smirks or snarky grins. In actuality, he was the happiest when he hung out with the gang. He never showed it except for when he stressed to make sure everyone around him was having a good time.