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This was not how Mine wanted his evening to go. Surrounded by a bunch of Yakuza punks in an alley. He held his ground. Mine knew how fight, one maybe two at a time, but seven not so much.
“That's a nice watch you got on. Mind if I have it?” one guy pulled out a knife.
“How much ya got on ya? Any credit cards?” said another, pushing his shoulder slightly.
“He's not sayin a damn word. Fuckin rude if you ask me,” another one growled in his face.
“What's all the commotion?” came a voice from behind the men.
“Aniki! This asshole was disrespecting us!” the guy with the knife shouted.
'Seriously?' he thought to himself.
They parted as their leader made his way to the front. A young man, wearing a white coat, came forward. Mine looked him over briefly. A large puffy white coat, a cross around his neck, and leather pants, looking like some sort of boy band reject. His face though, even with the small scowl, he wasn't half bad looking. Seemed a waste really, considering everything else. Mine couldn't quite figure out how old he was though, couldn't be much younger than himself. He came within a few feet of him and stopped. From the looks of it he was sizing Mine up as well. As man looked up at his face they locked eyes. His eyes had an intensity about them, Mine could not deny that. His expression shifted ever so slightly to something Mine couldn't read. The young man blinked a few times and averted his gaze, almost as if he became flustered. He cleared his throat, tossed his head idly and looked back at him.
“Causing problems for my boys?”
“Hardly. They threatened to mug me. If anything they're causing me problems.”
“That's quite the accusation. Well from the looks of you, you seem to have more than enough money to spare,” he said titling his head to the side with a smile, “Maybe you should think about being more generous? Helping out the unfortunate, you know?”
He took a few steps closer. Mine could smell the sent of alcohol and stale cigarettes emanating from him. His stomach turned. Disgusting.
“Unfortunate? From what I see, what you're wearing is the most unfortunate thing here,” Mine said dryly.
The young mans eyes grew huge and his mouth fell open slightly. His men started to walk forward cursing Mine out for talking shit and not knowing his place. He turned his head and threw out his arm to stop them from moving past him. They all froze immediately. Mine couldn't help but feel somewhat impressed at the control he had over them. The young man slowly turned to look back at him. To Mine's surprise he was smiling, clearly amused. He crossed his arms staring Mine dead in the eyes with a sly look on his face. Was he challenging him? What an annoying person.
“Look, I'm busy. So can we please wrap this up? I have no time for your little games.”
Again it seemed Mine had caught the young man off guard. He looked absolutely amazed and went into a laughing fit. After a few seconds he glared back at Mine with a dangerous look in his eyes.
“You're something else! Talking back to me like that! You are a riot! Too bad I have to beat the shit out of you for it. But don't worry, I'll try to go easy on that pretty face of yours,” punching his fist into his palm.
Pretty face? Whatever. Mine casually pulled out a stack of money from his pocket. He was really in no mood to deal with this crap. He leafed through it quickly and threw a small portion of it in the young man's face. Mine had to admit the look of shock on the man's face as the money fluttered to the ground was rather funny. He turned and started to walk away. A few feet away he stopped.
“You said I should be more generous,” he said coldly, as he looked over his shoulder and smiled, “Consider it charity.”
He heard the entourage hooting and hollering from behind him as he continued his way out of the alley.
'Waste of my time…' he thought as he entered the busy street joining the crowd.
_____
A few days later Mine found himself in a similar situation, thankfully it was only one person this time. He thought he had it under control till the guy pulled out a knife.
“Just hand over everything you got!”
Before Mine could lift a finger, some else jumped in decking the guy in the face. The mugger slammed into the wall and went down like ton of bricks. Mine's eyes followed as the lifeless body fell to the ground. He turned to look at the person who saved him. The guy in the white jacket from the other night stood before him.
“Hey there,” he was leaning on his shoulder on the side of the wall, with a charismatic smile.
Mine looked at him with disgust, not saying a word.
“Damn. No thank you or anything?” he pouted.
“Thanks,” Mine rolled his eyes.
“Ouch! Cold,” the young man to started to approach him.
Mine immediately went into a fighting stance. He couldn't be sure what this guys intentions were.
“Whoa! Buddy!” he stopped and threw his hands up, “I'm not here to start a fight with you!”
“Then why are you here? Clearly it's either for more money or to finish what you started the other night,” Mine didn't take his eyes off of him.
“It's neither, I assure you,” the young man smiled as he carefully walked towards him.
What the hell was he getting at? There was a groan from the mugger on the ground. They both turned to look at him.
“Looks like he coming around,” the young man walked over to him.
He bent down and rifled through the guys pockets pulling out his wallet. Mine watched as he pulled out a bunch of cash and carelessly threw the wallet over his shoulder. He counted it out and looked up at Mine.
“Want to grab drinks?” he held the money up.
Mine stared at him, speechless.
_____
‘I can't believe I actually agreed to this,’ Mine thought, somewhat annoyed with himself.
Thankfully the bar wasn't in some hot spot club or anything. He would have left immediately if that was the case. The young man started to pull off his coat. Mine looked him up and down out of the corner of his eye. The tight black t-shirt left little to the imagination. He quickly averted his eyes as he realized what he was thinking. The young man hung his coat on the back of stool, ordered two beers, and sat down next to Mine. He lit a cigarette and turned to Mine with a smile.
“So I never got your name yet.”
“Between threatening to assault me from our first meeting and saving me from a mugging during our second, you never asked yet,” Mine looked away from him, taking a drink.
“Damn you're frigid. Fine, whats your name then?”
“Yoshitaka Mine. And yours?”
“Daigo.”
“No last name?”
“I have to keep some anonymity. If I told you, where would the mystery be?” he winked.
Mine wanted to bury his face in his hands. 'Oh my god. He is so damn annoying.'
“So what do you do for a living? Obviously you make a shit ton of money doing whatever it is.”
“I run my own business.”
“Ah nice. Got it from your father?”
“No. I worked my way up from the bottom. Made something from nothing.”
“Wow! That's really amazing!” Daigo seemed genuinely impressed.
He paused and took a sip from his beer.
“That must be really nice. To be your own person. No stress and pressure to fill the shoes of the person before you,” he continued somewhat sadly.
Mine glanced over. Daigo had dropped his bad boy act just enough to let a little bit of himself shine through. It took Mine by complete surprise. It seemed Daigo had quite a bit of baggage of his own.
“So anyway, you said you run a business? How old are you? You look quite young,” Daigo changed the subject quickly.
“I'm thirty.”
“No shit?! Me too!” Daigo said excitedly.
Mine almost spit out his drink. Thirty?! He's thirty?! He really thought Daigo was younger than him, judging by how he dressed and acted. This new information had him reeling.
“Well you definitely have it together better me. But I mean I got out of jail not too long ago, after five years, so I lost a bit of time I guess,” he shrugged nonchalantly.
“You went to jail? For what?” Mine asked, slightly concerned.
“Would you believe me if I told you I was set up?”
Mine stared at him with doubt.
“Didn't think so,” Daigo laughed.
Daigo's phone buzzed and he pulled it out to check it.
“Shit it's getting late. I was hoping we could talk some more, but I have to meet a friend in the morning.”
“I understand,” Mine felt relieved that this was finally over.
They finished their drinks and left the bar. Outside, Daigo lit a cigarette and looked over to Mine.
“So as you can see I can be well behaved citizen. Has your opinion changed on me?”
“No, I still detest you,” Mine said with a bored expression.
“Eh, you'll change your mind eventually,” he shrugged, “Oh, but just so you know I'll be away for a few days. So don't get yourself into trouble during that time. I won't be around to save you.”
“I think I'll manage.”
Daigo thought for a second.
“After I get back, we should hang out again.”
“Not happening,” Mine said bluntly.
“Wow! You are harsh! But playing 'hard to get' only makes me more determined,” Daigo flicked his unfinished cigarette into a puddle, “So I'll see you around. And when we do run into each other again, I'll sweep you off your feet.”
Daigo leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.
“Thanks for the date!” he winked and took off into the crowd
“This was not a date!” Mine called after him.
____
Later that night as Mine got ready to shower he noticed something in his pants pocket. He reached in and found a small stack of neatly folded bills that he knew wasn't in there earlier. Counting it out he realized it was the same amount he threw in Daigo's face the other night. He stared down at the money in his hands.
“He...He gave it back? When did he...”
Mine then remembered when Daigo kissed him on the cheek before he ran off.
'He must have slipped it into my pocket. But why?'
“When we do run into each other again, I'll sweep you off your feet.” echoed in his mind. Mine looked up startled, his heart fluttered.