Okay. Yep. I have no idea what I am doing. And yes, I start all my fics with that line. Because I never have any idea about what I'm doing. And, uh, I'm not sure about this one. It's a common plot, but I love the plot and the whole thing just came to me this morning. Like I had the whole first chapter downloaded in my head. After this I have no idea what's going to happen. and this might seem a lot OOC, especially with Akashi and Furihata, not to mention it's Akafuri. I'm sorry if this turns out horrible. But thank you for giving it a try.
Truly Madly Deeply
Chapter One: The Forgotten
We weren't exactly childhood friends. No, we were far from something like that.
He was the son of the unbelievably rich neighbor. Even as a kid, he was used to people obeying him, bowing down to him. Whenever he looked at someone, his scarlet eyes seemed to pierce through the soul. At the age of thirteen, he was always perfectly well mannered, perfectly prim, perfectly dressed and perfectly, well, perfect. Heck, I never saw a speck of dust in his shoes, let alone mud.
My Mom said it was because of his family. Even now I remember her saying, "Be gentle with him, Kouki. He lost his mother at a very young age and Akashi-san is never really around. That's why he's always so stiff. That poor boy probably doesn't have anyone to take care of him properly."
On the other hand, I was the daughter of the somewhat rich neighbor. I didn't inherit any of my mother's beauty or my father's amazing brilliance in business and his confidence. No, I didn't have any of those. I was just an ordinary girl with even more ordinary looks. I had ordinary grades. I liked wearing ordinary clothes and my ordinary shoes were always muddy because of my jumping in puddles.
So I guess it wasn't exactly a surprise that I stayed far, far away from him. Like as far as humanly possible. The only times we came face to face were in festivals or in occasions when our family had dinner with theirs. Even then, I never dared to glance at him. My parents always tried to coax me to talk to him and every time I was like, no way! Did you even see that kid? He's the scariest person I'd had the misfortune of meeting!
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It all changed one Tuesday.
We went to the same middle school. Actually, I don't remember ever being separated from him. We went to the same elementary school, same middle school, same high school, heck, even the same college. And when the time came, we worked in the same company.
That particular day, I was in the field, sitting under the shades of a tree. It was lunch time and I was drawing.
One thing I wasn't ordinary in was art. I know it sounds like bragging, but I had good hands. You could even say I had talent. At thirteen, my dream was to major in art and become a great artist like Van Gogh or Picasso. I was naive, I was a kid.
I don't remember what I was drawing that day. But I remember when I felt someone standing behind me and my shock when I saw Akashi Seijuro.
He simply kept staring at my drawing. His eyes were cold and judgemental. I think a whole minute had passed like that; me staring at him and waiting for him to speak, him staring at my drawing and, well, staring.
Even when he was not looking at me, I felt like he was piercing my soul.
Then finally, he said, "It's a nice drawing. Are you in the art club?"
My answer came out more like a question. "Um, no?"
"You should be. It's a nice drawing."
I don't know what possessed him that day, or what possessed me. I just remember thinking, 'what the fuck?'
We spent the next ten minutes conversing about art and school and family. It was the normal 'yes, and how is your mother, please give her my regards'. At some point, I think we even talked about my horrible grades in Physics.
All in all, it was a pretty normal conversation. Something that two middle school students would do. Something that I didn't know he was capable of having.
I spent the rest of the day thinking about him.
The next week, we had a family dinner with them. But when we were all sitting down and food was served, I was back in my old self. Furiously tapping my foot, rubbing my fingers, keeping my head down and avoiding any and every kind of eye contact. Yep, it was the same ol' Kouki.
Then, after dinner, Akashi Seijuro stood up and offered me to go in a stroll with him in the garden.
For the first few minutes, I was totally freaked out. All my life I was terrified of Akashi Seijuro. Not to mention how grateful I was because he never took notice of me. And now suddenly he was talking to me. We were having normal civil conversations.
It became clear when he mentioned his own interest in art. He just wanted someone to share his opinions with. And I could relate to that. There weren't many thirteen year olds who liked reading about art in their spare times.
It wasn't long before we were in a full fledged conversation and we came to know each other's preferences. He was a fan of Kano Masanobu and his Japanese style of suiboku.
Over the years, I found out many other things about him. We didn't have much in common. He was an avid reader while I liked spending my time playing video games. He was good in Physics while Biology was my preferred subject. He liked slow music while I liked rock. I also learned to distinguish his different attitude towards people. I learned how he became too calm when he was angry, how he rubbed his thumb over the pointing finger when he was worried or nervous, how his eyes twinkled when he was happy, and how he could always perfectly school his face in an emotionless, cold mask.
After that night, we started to talk more. The next week, we spent every evening together in the library. Two weeks later, we were constantly over each other's house to study. A month later, we became good friends. Two months later, we were spending all our times together. Throughout middle school, we were practically attached to the hips. We even studied for our high school entrance exam together because we were determined to go into the same school.
I thought we had each other completely figured out. He always knew when I was feeling down because of the snarky comments about my not-so-extraordinary-looks from other girls or when I was worried shitless because of my failing grades. I always knew when he was sad and missing his mother or when he was feeling too pressured because of all the expectations as an Akashi.
I simply felt lost when he couldn't remember me anymore.
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It was our first year in high school and almost the end of basketball season.
Even in high school, we were always attached together. The most awkward question we used to face was if we were dating and the weirdest one was why, like others, I wasn't terrified of him. To answer the first one, I always smiled and said we weren't and we were only friends but great friends.
To answer the second question...well, I guess I still don't know the answer to that. Once I was terrified of him and then I wasn't anymore. It was as simple as that.
It was a match against Shutoku High.
I don't remember exactly what happened. Something about the ball hitting him too hard and him somehow ending up hitting the benches. But I do remember the blood and the people and the medics and me trying to get down from the bleachers and to him.
He was unconscious for four hours.
During the third hour, Midorima Shintarou, the shooter of Shutoku High, came to visit.
I was sitting in the waiting room. No one except family was allowed to see him.
"You're that girl." He simply stated when he saw me.
I was worried sick about my best friend, I was having a migraine and I didn't think I could stand without throwing up. Seeing a green haired guy with a teddy bear in his hand didn't exactly help the mood.
"What girl?" I deadpanned.
"The one in the bleachers. You were screaming."
I tried to remember. "No, I wasn't."
"You were really loud." He said. "I think you were screaming his name."
I huffed. "What are you doing here?"
"This is my father's hospital." I kept staring at him. He sighed."I wanted to check if he was okay."
"Oh." Well, maybe he was feeling guilty. "He isn't conscious yet."
This time, he let out a small 'oh'.
"What's the bear for?" I asked.
"It's my lucky item for the day."
"...okay."
"You know", he said, "they won't allow anyone other than family right now."
I nodded. "Yeah. I'll just wait until they do."
Maybe he wanted to suggest that I should go home and get some rest because, well, I knew for a fact that I looked utterly horrible. But he didn't.
Before leaving, he said, "I'm sorry about your boyfriend."
"He's not my boyfriend." I automatically denied.
"Oh." He looked surprised."okay."
Then he left.
And I spent the longest four hours of my life worrying about my best friend.
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"I'm sorry, who are you?"
That was the first thing he said when he saw me.
"Seijuro," his father said worriedly, "don't you remember Kouki?"
"Kouki?" He was surprised. "You mean our neighbor's daughter? But she looks so..."
He didn't need to finish that sentence. And I didn't need to hear the rest of it.
I excused myself and found my way to the bathroom.
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Seijuro had lost the last four years of his memory. That meant he was once again stuck in the first year of middle school. He had forgotten everything that had happened during these four years.
He had forgotten everything about me.
He was in the hospital for a week. Other than his amnesia, there weren't anything else wrong.
Except everything seemed wrong.
I only visited him when he was asleep. I always left him a bouquet of flowers. For five days straight I only saw him sleeping. Even by my standards, it was creepy as heck. I mean, watching him only when he was asleep? What was he, Sleeping Beauty?
But that didn't stop me from visiting.
On my sixth day, when I was leaving the room, he spoke.
"What are you doing?"
I didn't know he was awake. So, yeah. He scared the hell out of me.
When I looked at him, he was sitting on the bed with his lips pressed in a thin line and his face perfectly schooled from all emotions.
"I didn't know you were awake." I said. "Sorry for intruding."
"Everyday you come and leave flowers, why?"
I averted my eyes from him and looked down at my shoes. It had been a long time since I had felt his piercing gaze at me. "It's to wish you the best and a good recovery."
"I think I'm recovering just fine without the flowers."
"Okay." I simply nodded. "I'll take them back then."
He stopped me. "No, wait." He didn't speak for a while and when I looked up he was staring at his lap.
I knew what was coming.
"Listen, I know, or more like I've heard, we were good friends. But..." He looked up, "I just found out I've lost four years of my memory and I'm in high school and it's just...overwhelming and..."
"It's okay." I decided to rid him from the pain. "I understand."
"You do?"
"Yes, you want me to get out from your life and give you some peace of mind because you can't go all buddy-buddy with a total stranger."
Seijuro actually had the decency to look uncomfortable. "I wouldn't put it like that..."
"But it's the same, isn't it?" I said. "Don't worry. I kind of saw this coming."
"I'm sorry." He sounded sincere. "I just need some time to adjust..."
...I also knew when he was simply lying. It had taken me some time, but I'd managed to figure it out. I knew he definitely wanted me the heck out of his life...
"It's okay." I reassured. "You have all the time you want."
That was the last time I visited him.
...he wanted me the heck out of his life...didn't mean he was going to get it though...
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For the two years of high school, I studied like crazy. I worked hard. My favorite video games gathered dust. My sketch book wasn't touched in ages. I got in my preferred college with blood and sweat, literally.
On the first day of college, Akashi gave a speech in the opening ceremony. He had the highest mark in the entrance exam.
He was going to do a major in business. I decided to go with my dream and major in Art.
I was careful to avoid him and made sure we never crossed paths.
My college years were filled with caution and hard work.
When we graduated, Akashi joined his father's company and I started to look for my way in. It didn't take long. In a week, I was sitting in front of Akashi Seijuro in an interview board.
"You." He simply stated.
"I know what you're thinking." I played innocent. "I just need the job."
"Are you kidding me? Why do you even want this position? I thought you majored in Art."
"I want to start small. And I want to prove myself to my father." He kept staring at me. "We had a fight. He wants me to marry but I don't want that right now and I need to show him that I can take care of myself." He didn't even blink. "Believe me, this has nothing to do with you. Your father suggested the position to me and I said I'd give it a try. I know you feel like I'm stalking you but I don't think I need to remind you that I didn't even look at you once for all these years. If I don't get a chance here, I'll simply start looking for other jobs. I won't keep pestering you about it."
He sighed. "You have the qualities we require and recommendations, even if you're not exactly from this field..."
Huh! I didn't know I could lie this well. Or maybe I didn't . Maybe he saw right through me. And maybe he was possessed, that was why he gave me the job.
Either way, the next day, I joined as Akashi Seijuro's personal assistant.
...if he isn't going to let me in...I am going to make my own way in...