Chapter Text
Ryohei Arisu blinked awake to a damp, musty smell. His head pounded, groggy like he’d been drugged, though he couldn’t remember how. Last he recalled, he was supposed to be grinding out levels on Fortnite. Instead, his wrists burned, chafed raw against the rope binding him to a chair.
The light was dim, swaying from a single bulb overhead. Shadows warped across the basement walls.
And then—there he was.
Sunato Banda.
Arisu’s heart dropped to his stomach.
Banda stood just beyond the light, his smirk wide, teeth flashing like a predator’s in the half-dark. “You’re awake,” he purred. “Good. I’ve been waiting.”
Arisu’s throat went dry. “What the hell… why am I here?”
“Because we belong together,” Banda said simply, stepping closer. His eyes glittered with something feverish, something that twisted what might once have been love into obsession. “You and me, Arisu. We dated in high school, remember? You were mine. Then you broke it off. Said I was… insane.”
Arisu struggled against the binds, panic clawing up his chest. “Because you were! You scared me!”
Banda crouched beside him, fingers brushing lightly against Arisu’s cheek. “I scared you because I cared too much. But now… now we can start again. Forever. Nobody else gets you. Only me.”
It was a love confession sharpened into a knife.
But somewhere between Banda’s words, Arisu felt the ropes give slightly. His constant shifting, his desperate pulling… it was working.
The second Banda turned to fetch something from the shadows, Arisu yanked free. He didn’t think, didn’t look back. Just bolted. His legs stumbled at first, but adrenaline shoved him forward, up the creaking stairs, through the unlocked door, and into the freezing night.
Behind him, Banda’s scream tore through the air. It was a sound of disappointment, rage, heartbreak all tangled together.
“ARISU! DON’T LEAVE ME!”
Arisu didn’t stop. He couldn’t.
His lungs burned as he ran into the darkened streets, his body trembling with terror. But even as he fled, even as he tasted freedom, one truth gnawed at him:
Banda would be back.