Hello. I don't know if this is something that can entertain you, or even other people. I just feel like, talking to myself. Here I am. In a party. A masquerade party, to be exact. Oh, I forgot to tell you may name. Kahoko Hino, _. Yeah, right. BLANK. I'm still, a Hino. MS. HINO. You must be wondering, why I'm telling you this instead of talking and mingling with other people here in the party, but hell no. I don't even know anyone here. It's just –
"Kaho-chan!"
Yeah, here is the pest, ( I didn't mean to say that, but she made me ) that made me go to this kind of party. I don't like being surrounded with many people, especially when I didn't know them.
"Amou-san. Where have you been? You said you'll just go to the comfort room. Is that freaking room miles from here?"
"When did the ever-sweet Kahoko Hino learn how to swear? Hell yeah, in front of the famous journalist! I could publish that! Kahoko Hino, the sweet Heart of Asia, just swear in front of Amou Nami, chief editor of A.N. Magazine! What if that Ice Prodigy Len Tsukimori read that? Oh my, you two will lose the spark you had for years!"
"Spark? We never had the spark, so I don't care."
"Oh come on! You two always have that spark! And… I got fishy fishy news for you…"
"Whatever that news is, I don't care, so drop it, Amou."
"You sure you don't want to know it?"
"For the last time, no."
I started to walk away from her, because I knew that fishy news is just something about those fellow participants in the past concours, like Yunoki-senpai is getting married next month, or Tsuchiura-kun and Mizue-chan were already engaged, Shimizu and Fuyuumi are going to have their first baby, and any other stories that will make me realized… again… that I'm the only one who's alone after all these years.
"Tsukimori-kun is here, Kaho-chan." Amou whispered.
I raised an eyebrow, but somewhere inside me suddenly get anxious. "And?"
"And? I just told you that the love of your life is here and that's all you've got to say? AND?" She really emphasized the words, THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE.
"What do you expect me to do? Jump with joy? Be teary-eyed? Leave you alone running and shouting his name just to find him? Amou-san, I'm just a burden to him. He had his career to take good care of."
"But isn't that the reason why you struggle hard to earn that title? Heart of Asia? So you can reach up to him?"
I— speechless. 6 years ago, I promised myself that I would do my best, to reach him, to be in the same level as he, so… so he won't be ashamed of me. But, that was back then… when I was still a high school girl… A girl, who had her simple teenage dream, dreaming to have her own happy ending, just like those in novels… but I guess, happy endings are just stories that haven't finished yet.
"Amou-san, past is past. The past will just hold you… and drag you down."
I walked towards the exit. I'm quite familiar at the venue because one of my past concerts is held here once. I knew it had a garden… the same garden… where Le-Tsukimori bade his goodbye.
"Kahoko, you're right in terms, past is past… but it won't drag you down… sometimes, it will be the key to have a better future."
