Judgement from the Heart

The sound of her phone vibrating next to her head caused Emi’s eyes to flutter open. With her left hand she propped herself up at her desk. Judging by the books and notebooks still lying open on her cluttered desk, Emi realized she had fallen asleep while studying. She scrunched her nose, feeling slightly pathetic, and groggily picked up her phone. As she brought it to her ear, she clumsily pressed the ‘talk’ button and murmured an incomprehensible “hello?”

“Hey Emi,” a familiar voice said with a slight chuckle. “You just woke up didn’t you?”

Emi yawned and pushed herself up out of her chair. “Mm, you don’t miss a thing, do you Light? But yes, I did just wake up. What time is it?”

“Almost two o’clock. You didn’t forget did you?”

Emi pulled at her face in annoyance, feeling idiotic for having slept so late. “No, I didn’t forget about our…uh…date, I guess. I just stayed up too late studying and fell asleep while doing so. You’re on your way then?”

A week had passed since Emi and Light had met. They had hung out after classes everyday that week, something which Emi thought she would never do in her life. She thought her school experience would be restricted to a schedule of go to school and immediately return home after. But, ever since Light had asked her over that first day, she had begun to see him as a friend. Her first friend for that matter. And, even though she didn’t realize it, the relationship was probably a little more than that.

Just by his tone, Emi could tell Light was highly amused as he replied, “I’m a block away.”

Emi smiled, even though she knew she needed to change clothes and at least put her hair up. “Lovely. Well, I have to get ready so mom or dad will let you in.”

“Okay, see you in a few.”

The two ended the call, and Emi proceeded to change into a black t-shirt, a red jacket, and a pair of jeans with a hole in the right knee. As she was slipping into a pair of shoes, the doorbell rang, and she heard her mother greet Light at the door.

“Emi! Light’s here!”

“Be there in a sec!” Emi moved quickly to her mirror and frowned at her reflection. Unless straightened or put up, her hair stuck out in an annoying way that couldn’t be fixed by a brush alone. If the problem wasn’t so obnoxious, she’d probably just leave it alone.

After quickly pulling her hair into a loose ponytail and fixing her makeup, she ran down the stairs and found Light leaning against the wall beside the front door. He smiled at her as she hopped down the last step. “Ready?”

Emi nodded in response, then shouted to her parents. “I’ll be home later!” After receiving an affirmative from her parents, Emi and Light exited the house.

As the two walked down the sidewalk, Emi dug her hands into her jacket pockets and stole a few glances at Light. He was dressed in more casual clothes than she was used to, consisting of a black shirt with a white jacket, jeans, and a regular pair of tennis shoes.

Light smiled to himself, noticing her occasional peeks. “Is something wrong, Emi?”

Emi blinked and shook her head. “No, it’s just, um…I’ve never seen you wear jeans before because I‘m used to seeing to in the school uniform or more sophisticated clothing. It’s different.”

“Good different?” he asked with a slight smile.

Emi bit her lip, having no idea how to reply without sounding stupid. Or what she thought would sound stupid. So, she just decided on a nod and averted her eyes to her feet.

Light chuckled, causing Emi to raise an eyebrow at him. “You just need to relax, Emi.”

Heat rose to her cheeks. “ I know. I’m just not sure how…at least, not when I’m put into social situations.” She reached up and twirled a strand of her unruly bangs nervously.

“Just try not to think about it. I mean you seem to do fine when you talk to me most of the time. So, just do whatever it is you do when you talk to me.” Light stopped at the entrance to a park. “Want to go in there?”

Emi continued to twirl her hair and nodded. Light shook his head, fighting his urge to laugh, and wrapped his hand around her wrist, gently pulling it from her bangs. Without another word, he headed into the park

Quickly, Emi caught up to Light and walked beside him again, feeling ashamed of herself. “I’m sorry I’m so…awkward.”

“Hmm?” Light looked down at Emi. “You’re not awkward, you just haven’t had much experience talking to people.”

“Yeah. I guess.” Emi replaced her hands in her pockets and smiled to herself. “Maybe being home schooled wasn’t the greatest decision on my parents’ part.” She looked around and saw a lone swing set and headed toward it.

Light followed her and sat in the swing next to hers. “Maybe not. What made them decide to home school you anyway?”

Emi smiled as she gazed at the overcast sky, using her feet to push off the ground to move the swing. “I basically secluded myself in the back corner of the classroom and refused to move or say a word because I hated being around all those people. This went on for a week until my parents made the decision to home school me. It’s actually kind of funny when I think back to it.”

Light chuckled. “Well, that’s one way of getting what you want. At least you aren’t doing that anymore.”

“I’m a little too old for that. People probably already think I’m weird anyway. That would just confirm their theories and that‘s no fun now is it?,” stated Emi, still staring at the clouds and swinging slightly.

“You are a little weird, I will admit,” Light told her jokingly.

“I’ll take that as a compliment, thank you.” Emi finally averted her eyes back to Light, who was shaking his head with a smile. She feigned a pout. “I should-”

A scream from somewhere in the desolate park cut Emi’s sentence off. She and Light exchanged confused, worried looks and moved toward the source of the sound. They found it in a more heavily treed area of the park; a man was hanging on to a young woman’s wrist while she fought to get away from him.

“C’mon, gorgeous. Just one kiss,” the man coaxed pulling her closer.

The woman retaliated and pushed herself at arm’s length again, screeching, “Please! Somebody help!”

Emi balled her hands into fists and looked up at Light. “We have to do something.”

Light shook his head slowly and pulled out his phone. “All we can do is call the police. He could be armed.” He finished dialing and looked up to see Emi heading straight for the man. He almost opened his mouth to call her back, but he knew she wouldn’t and it would just give away the fact that he was calling for help, and if he was armed, he’d just kill all three of them.

Emi stopped a few feet from the scene. “Hey! She obviously finds you repulsive so why don’t you let her go?”

Both the man and the woman stared at her. The woman’s attacker shoved her hard to the ground. She whimpered and began crawling away. Emi was happy the man was now too distracted by her to notice his victim escaping.

“You’ve got a lot of guts saying something like that to me, little lady.” The man smirked at her, taking a few steps toward her.

Light hung up his phone once finished giving the police the relevant info and watched the man advance. He stayed hidden though, just in case the attacker decided to try anything, in which case he would jump in. He just wished Emi wouldn’t have jumped in like that. There was no telling what he would do.

Emi didn’t even flinch as the man came closer to her. She just crossed her arms and glared at him. “Yeah, I do. But I also find people that have to force others into ‘relationships,’ if that’s what you really think it is, are disgusting.”

Light’s eyes widened and headed toward the two as the attacker pulled out a knife grabbed Emi, and placed the blade to her neck, cutting her choker from it. Upon spotting Light, the man yelled, “Come any closer and I’ll kill her!”

Not wanting to put Emi in anymore danger, Light halted. He glared at the man and helplessly made fists with his hands.

With a manic chuckle, the man mocked Light. “That’s right, pretty boy. Wouldn’t want this beauty getting hurt now, would we?”

Light just continued to leer hoping Emi had some idea to stall him until someone showed up. He would never forgive himself if he let something happen while he was standing right there.

Emi flashed a small, reassuring smile to Light, which confused him. Just as the man was about to say something, Emi jammed her elbow hard into his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He dropped the knife and fell to his knees, holding his stomach. She snatched up the knife skillfully and moved away from the attacker, who was now moaning in pain.

As Emi joined him, Light let out a pent up breath he was unaware of holding. “You really are crazy, Emi.”

She nodded. “Now we need to figure out what to do with him until the cops get here. I’m assuming you called them?”

“Yeah.” Looking down at the man, Light added, “I don’t think he’ll mess with you again.”

“Probably not. I do have his weapon after all, but that‘s assuming he doesn‘t have another one.” Emi smiled triumphantly up at Light. “Oh, and sorry if I worried you. I just couldn’t stand idly by and watch him have his way with an innocent woman. It’s horrible…and desperate on his part.”

The man snarled at her and cursed under his breath, still holding his stomach. Crunching footsteps behind Light and Emi caused them to turn and face the source. A middle-aged man along with another man probably in his twenties approached them. “Is everyone okay, Light?”

Emi couldn’t help but notice the familiarity between the two, but said nothing. Light smiled a little and replied, “Yeah, I think we’re okay, Dad. He was only armed with a knife, which was taken care of.”

So Light’s dad is a cop…I guess it doesn’t really surprise me much. He did say he wanted to do the same thing.

Emi held the knife out to Light’s father, who sealed it in a zip-lock baggie. “Thank you. Matsuda, take care of him while I get the details from these two.”

The younger man nodded and proceeded to bind the assailant’s wrists with hand cuffs. Emi watched as he did so, vaguely hearing a word Light told his dad. As the man stood up, he directed his glare toward Emi who countered with an innocent smile. “Why you little-” He lunged forward toward Emi, but Matsuda managed to hold him back.

Light’s dad sighed. “Obviously, we need to get him back to the station before he tries anything else.” He then turned to Emi. “Sorry we couldn’t be formally introduced.” With a nod to his partner, the two escorted the criminal away and disappeared.

“Well, that was interesting,” Light pointed out as Emi knelt down to pick up her choker.

She held the choker between her thumb and middle finger by one end and frowned. “So much for that accessory.” With a sigh, Emi pocketed the item.

Light made his way over to her and held a hand out to help her up. After taking it, he pulled Emi to her feet. The two walked away from the crime scene in silence, neither knowing exactly what to say.

Deciding to break the silence that was steadily becoming awkward, Emi murmured, “So, now what?”

“Whatever you want,” he replied.

Emi blinked up at him, having no idea what she wanted to do. Light returned her stare, then frowned. “You’re neck is bleeding.”

Before she could reach her hand up to remedy the problem, Light used the sleeve of his jacket and wiped the blood from the scratch. Emi felt the beginnings of a blush as he did so.

“Thanks,” she muttered, quickly turning her head away from him, in order to conceal the blush.

Light smiled slightly to himself, finding her shyness amusing. “You’re welcome.”

Once the degrading pink tint in her cheeks had retreated, Emi returned her gaze to the front again. A thought suddenly occurred to her and she grabbed Light’s arm, examining the wrist of the jacket. She then moved it up to his face. “You realize this is going to stain. I mean, red blood on a white jacket is like hell for the jacket.”

With a smile and a shrug, Light replied, “It’s no big deal, really.”

“You say that now,” began Emi, releasing his wrist, “but if I end up murdered, that blood stain will look pretty suspicious.”

“Good point. But you being murdered seems very unlikely. You’d make a daring escape before that could happen.” Light stopped, causing Emi to almost trip because of the abruptness. He tilted his head back, staring up at the sky. “I should probably get you home. It looks like it’s going to start pouring at any second.”

“Well, aren’t you just the perfect gentlemen.” She dropped into a mock curtsey with an amused grin. “Your parents have taught you well.”

Light began walking again and turned onto Emi’s street. “Thanks. I try.”

Feeling way too giddy considering her unsocial attitude, Emi hastily caught up to Light, an added bounce in her step. Even though she was slightly confused about this new burst of energy and happiness, she ignored the want to dissect her thoughts and saved figuring out what caused it for later.

Light raised an eyebrow, noticing the spring in her step. “Are you okay?”

With a shrug, she answered, “Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I honestly don’t know.” Light paused, wondering if going on would insult her. Hoping it wouldn’t, he added, “You just suddenly seem more energetic and happy, which is out of character for you.”

Emi wiped a raindrop from her cheek that had fallen from the dark sky. “Maybe I’m just happy?” The intended statement ended up becoming a question, considering Emi didn’t know the reason either.

The two stopped in front of Emi’s house, the rain progressing from a few drops every now and then to a constant sprinkle. “I suppose I should let you go. Wouldn’t want you walking home in a torrential downpour and catching a cold.”

Light laughed. “Yeah. But since when do you care about my well being?”

With a huff, Emi flipped around and crossed her arms. “I’m not a completely cold person. Just because I don’t always show that I care, doesn’t mean I don’t.”

“So, in other words, you do care.”

She turned back to Light and nodded. “I guess I do. You are the only person besides my parents who has shown an interest in me.”

Light’s lips curled into a smile as the rain began to pick up again. “Good. But, I better get going. Mom won’t leave me alone if I come in soaked. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He turned to walk away, but Emi stopped him. “Wait.” Light looked back, his expression inquisitive. “Aren’t we supposed to hug or something?”

Light returned to his place in front of Emi with a chuckle. “If you want to. But you don’t have to ask; just do it.”

Emi scrunched her nose. “Fine.” She wrapped her arms around him in an embrace, which Light gladly returned.

The two remained in the hug, a small space between them as if they felt awkward to be hugging. This was probably the case for Emi, but Light was more used to it, considering his far superior social experience.

Pulling her closer, Light closed the gap between them. Emi smiled gently, liking being hugged by someone other than her parents. She placed her head on his chest, sighing happily.

The sound of a throat being cleared from Emi’s front porch. Emi and Light separated and looked toward the porch where Emi’s dad was standing with his arms crossed. Emi scowled and hollered, “It was just a hug, Dad!”

Her father just shook his head and went inside. Emi glared after him, embarrassed and slightly annoyed that he interrupted the moment for something as little as her hugging someone.

“I think that’s my cue to get going.” Emi snapped out of her evil stare to look back at Light. “I’ll see you later, okay?”

Emi nodded and waved. Once he was out of sight, she sauntered up to the porch and entered her own home again.