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Yuma was wandering through the streets of Heartland City when a voice made him stop.
“Tsukumo Yuma.”
He turned around: Four was a few steps away, leaning against a wall with his arms crossed.
“You!” Yuma exclaimed. “What do you want?”
“Nothing important.” Four pushed off the wall, taking a step toward him. “I just wanted to talk to you for a bit.”
“Oh yeah? About what?” Yuma asked defensively.
Four studied him for a moment. “You know Ryoga, right?”
The question surprised Yuma. “Yeah,” he replied. “We’re friends.”
“Friends?” Four repeated, as if the idea were ridiculous. “Don’t make me laugh. Ryoga doesn’t have friends.”
“You’re wrong,” Yuma shot back. “You don’t know anything about him.”
“I know far more than you think I do,” Four replied, unfazed. “Anyway…” He took another step closer, looking him straight in the eyes. “Stay away from him.”
Yuma froze. “What?”
“You heard me.”
For the first time, Four’s expression turned dangerous.
“He’s mine.”
For a moment, Yuma was speechless. Then, a sharp sting of irritation ran through him.
“What does that mean?”
“Exactly what I said,” Four replied.
Yuma clenched his fists. He didn’t like the possessive tone with which that guy spoke about Shark.
“Shark doesn’t belong to anyone,” he said.
“Are you sure?” Four asked, catching him off guard.
“What are you talking about?” Yuma asked, frowning.
Four smirked.
“You see… I know what Ryoga was like before,” he said calmly. “Before he lost everything, before he built that armor around himself.”
Yuma stiffened.
“I’ve seen sides of him you’ll never see,” Four continued.
He seemed intent on provoking him with every word.
“You think you are his friend, but you don’t know him the way I do.”
At those words, Yuma’s stomach twisted uncomfortably.
He knew it was true. There was a part of Shark he would never know.
Even now, the other boy kept hiding aspects of himself behind a wall Yuma couldn’t break down, no matter how hard he tried.
Four, on the other hand, seemed to know him beyond that wall. And even if he didn’t want to admit it, that made him insecure.
And yet, part of him was also annoyed by those words.
After everything Four had done to him, he had no right to talk about Shark like that.
As if he belonged to him.
As if he possessed a part of him that was inaccessible to anyone else.
He’s mine.
It was ridiculous.
“No matter how much you think you know him,” he declared. “Shark isn’t that person anymore.”
Four’s smirk widened. “Oh?”
“Maybe you know who he was in the past,” Yuma continued. “But I know who he is now.”
Four looked at him for a moment. Then he burst out laughing.
“Do you really believe that?” he said, sounding amused. “How naive.”
That comment irritated Yuma even more. “What do you mean?”
Without answering, Four turned his back to him.
“Ryoga doesn’t let anyone truly in,” he said simply. “Don’t think you’re any different.”
And with that, he disappeared in a swirling red light.
Yuma stared at the spot where he had vanished, teeth clenched.
He knew that Four had only been trying to provoke him, but he couldn’t stop thinking that maybe he was right.
That he would never truly know Shark.
That he would never be as close to him as Four seemed to be.
And that thought tightened his chest in a grip that felt terribly like…
Jealousy.