Because It's You

1.7 || Unconditional

"W-who are you?" A timid voice was heard from the direction of the gymnasium door. The man easily recognized the familiar voice.

Tara Scifa was holding onto the door frame, clearly nervous and scared. However, despite her vigilant and nervous gaze on him, she also showed concern towards Gil. It restored a tiny bit of faith in humanity to the man.

"What do you want to do with your girl friends?" The man gestured with his chin towards the huddling girls.

Tara took in all of the scenes before her and stayed silent for a few seconds.

"Gil needs treatment," Tara swiftly threw her blonde cousin's state to the wind, "I will get a few of my bodyguards to clean this mess up."

She might look innocent, but her upbringing in a deformed family had contributed to her astuteness. There was no simple person in the Scifa family. Abe Scifa was a rotten worm, but Tara Scifa seemed to be decent. At least, the man wanted to believe her.

"Gil cannot return home tonight," the man added. Tara nodded, dialling a number on her phone, "Understood. We can use an empty house owned by my father. My chauffeur will pick us up soon."

After covering Gil's nakedness with one of the other boys' jacket and pants, the man turned his back on Gil and knelt. He slightly turned his neck, "Can you move a bit? I don't want to carry you in a princess carry." He paused and smirked, as if what he just said was immensely amusing, then mumbled as he knitted his brows in grimace,

"My stomach is still hurting. Damn those kids. How could they kick a helpless cute being... ."

Gil frowned as he wordlessly listened to the stranger's rambling. He gritted his teeth to withstand the aching pain from his whole body and docilely secured himself against the older man's back. There was only one thing he was still worried about as he tried to fight the fatigue kicking in.

"M-My dog... . JamJam... Jamon... ." He began to fidget in panic as his head weakly turned around, trying to find the dog. Last he saw, the Shiba Inu was laying by the far wall after being kicked around. 

The older man visibly stiffened.

"He's fine," the man that was carrying him on his back grunted. It was a short set of words, but for some reason, Gil absolutely trusted him.

No matter how smart or collected Gil was, he was just an eighteen-year-old teenager. The day had been incredibly long and upsetting no doubt, but he immediately relaxed as soon as he knew he was safe. Soon, Gil fell asleep on the older man's back. But before he completely lost consciousness, he heard the man grumble under his breath. There was a trace of ire and helplessness in the man's low voice,

"The name is James, you know... ."

*** *** ***

"Four broken ribs, multiple lacerations, stitched cuts on forehead," James gritted his teeth in anger as he stood by the end of the bed, looking at the still sleeping Gil.

Gil had been bandaged like a dumpling, after Tara Scifa managed to haul some paramedics to this safe-house. Everyone that attended to Gil and cleaned up the brawl at the gymnasium had been sworn to secrecy. If they were to renege, the Scifa family would most probably make their lives a living hell.

Although Tara Scifa was merely a daughter from Second Master Scifa, she had ruthlessness in her blood. From the short talk with her prior to arriving at the house, apparently her father was not a simple man either. He just did not like conflicts.

Ironically, absolute power was needed to absolve conflicts, without worrying about any after-effects.

Tara had barraged him with questions about his identity, but he kept a tight lip. The young girl was not too impressed. However, seeing that he was the one who had rescued Gil, she finally relented. Despite that, the man was sure that she would expend the Scifa's resources to find out about his background.