Tranquility blanketed the neighboring area near Yanagi residence. Despite being the last day of the week, there was not even the slightest movement in sight. The sun's cheerful glare, along with the gentle wind did little to bring the area to life. If that area had been a human, it would be a sleeping beauty, peacefully drown in her slumber.
Short living tranquility it was proven to be, as the lonely asphalt finally found its first vehicle for the day. A white moving van rode by and halted right in front of Yanagi's house. The unnatural sound coming from the vehicle alerted the members inside the home of their arrival. As soon as a man stepped of the truck, the front door of the house was swung open in welcoming embrace.
"Good morning. You are Mrs. Yanagi, correct?" The man clad in uniform read out the paper he was holding on his hand as confirmation.
"Good morning to you, sir. We have been waiting for you." Mrs. Yanagi gestured with her hands inside her home. "Please come inside."
The man raised the paper he was holding, which immediately stopped the mechanical roaring. Two more men in similar uniform descended from the vehicle and rushed towards their leader.
"Let us not waste any time here." Mrs. Yanagi reminded gently. She stepped back into her home, urging the others to follow. "I will need you to carry all the cupboards first, followed by..."
Meanwhile, two boys had been watching the events unfolding before their eyes from the greenest section in the house, the garden. The taller between them had a racket in possession with a frown adorning his lips, while the other boy was stupefied in solemnity.
"Really Renji," Began the boy with the racket. "You are going to move to Kanagawa yet you never say a word, not even to your dear Akuto-niisan."
The gentle wind that blew by afterwards might be so strong that it froze Yanagi. He was not moving a single inch from his place. With his eyes seemingly closed, he could be easily mistaken for a corpse.
The older one sighed at the lack of response. He stared ahead, and saw two uniformed man loading a wooden cupboard onto the van. The two ran back, and emerged several seconds later carrying another cupboard- a metal one this time. A third man with the same uniform was standing by the side, constantly writing on a sheet of paper.
"At this rate the whole process will end in 5 hours." Akuto's accidental murmur won Yanagi's attention. His head jerked towards him, a gesture of surprise. He couldn't help but chuckled.
Oddly enough, Yanagi ignored him. He averted his sight from Akuto and turned them instead towards the labors.
"Five...hours." He repeated to himself as if it was a reminder.
"Hm? Do you-" Akuto stopped midway. The suspended sentence aroused Yanagi's curiosity. After seconds passed by, he tilted his head towards Akuto, silently demanding the continuation of the sentence.
Akuto smiled in victory. "Finally you began to show some emotion." He bent to ruffle Yanagi's bob hair, much to the younger's displeasure. "I came here to play tennis with you, you know. Since you refused to play, the least you can do is to entertain me."
"It is not my fault." Yanagi went into his self-defense mode. "I have calculated 95% possibility of your visit. Even so, mother insisted in keeping my racket packed neatly-"
"-And you refused to play elsewhere-"
"-a wise choice, considering the possibility of mother's wrath."
Yanagi's statement swiftly ended their conversation. Akuto removed his hand from Yanagi's head slowly. He straightened his posture and slung his racket behind his neck. Again, he sighed. It was followed with a sharp glare towards the young lad.
"You seem to be avoiding tennis, Renji..."
Yanagi's head twitched.
"I am not, Akuto-niisan. Assuming that is incredulous-"
"-incredulous, you say?" In a swift motion, Akuto moved in front of Yanagi and tilted his chin up so that they were staring into each other's eyes. "Yanagi Renji, you do not actually believe that you can sweet talk me out of the truth, don't you? I know you are smarter that that."
The air was silent except for sporadic thumping of heavy furnitures against the base of the truck. Yanagi was adamant in keeping his mouth closed, Akuto observed. His face gave nothing but dead solemnity, his everyday mask. A sigh escaped his lips.
"Yanagi Renji, you are losing your personality." This statement brought Yanagi back to life. "You are supposed to respect your seniors."
Perplexed anger flashed across Yanagi's features, as fleeting as a shooting star. "I do not see how I may offend by not saying a word."
"Not engaging a guest is."
Like a magic spell, suddenly he saw a completely new Yanagi before him, bowing from his waist. "Ah! I apologize for that. Mother always told me to engage every guest but..."
Akuto inertly stared at his junior. It was intense, like a master eyeing at lowly servants. For the third time, he let a sigh escaped his lips.
"Yanagi, let us stop this charade. The news about your relocation is still fresh since two hours ago, yet I have not managed to coax even a single information out of you, like where are you going, why, and how. I thought staying here would soon break your shell, but it seems that you are sufficiently accompanied by your thoughts that it makes you mute. If disappearing from this town silently is what you desire, then so shall it be. Farewell."
Yanagi did not raise his posture as Akuto walked away from him. Had Akuto glanced back just once, he would have noticed that the bowing was considerably lower.
After some time had passed, Yanagi gathered back all his courage to lift his face. All he could see was all the three workers lifting a marble dining table together. No other human was in sight, not even his mother.
Quietly, he reached to the pocket on his pants and pulled out a photo of two boys pridefully boasting their victorious trophy and medals. Then, he glanced at his house, one that was all to familiar for him throughout his ten years. One that brought him a snippet of memory when he first played tennis. He turned his head to the road where Akuto had taken as he departed, the road that they would always take as a mentor and student.
Behind his closed lids, a drop of water rolled down his cheeks. His arms latched at the sides of his head for balance.
"Farewell..." He whispered.
Back then, Yanagi was a student and a tennis player at the same time. Not just an ordinary tennis player, but a doubles player. His partner had been his soul mate, one that with cooperation would turn invulnerable. They covered for each other's weakness. This relationship had won them victories and fame as child prodigies. It won them bond, one that was invisible against all odds. However, their story was of Romeo and Juliet. One encounter of a fleeting moment, and an eternal separation.
Yanagi was also a student under a special mentor ship, especially in tennis. A mishap had brought the two souls into meeting one another, and their obsession over data bound them. Another spectacled person in his life shaping him as a tennis player. He mentored Yanagi 'data tennis'. He was the soul behind his victories, behind his fame. And Yanagi used to believe that it was a blessing.
Two souls complimented his school life, and a house sheltered the people dearest to him. It was that green field they called garden when Yanagi was taught tennis by his father. His happiest memories was contained inside that structure. His favorite moment, dinner time, was held at the dining room. A simple room with only a dining table set and a lamp above head, yet Yanagi would always enjoy their meal time together as a family.
"Renji my dear, are you not hungry? Are you okay? Are you not feeling well?"
Yanagi's train of thoughts was immediately broken at his grandmother's queries. She was seated next to him, eyeing him with a face full of worry that was further emphasized by her wrinkles. Shakily she brought up a hand to his forehead and hers at the same time.
"Well, you don't seem to be having a fever... Maybe that long trip from Midorigawa to here made you tired. Poor child..."
With a seemingly content face, Yanagi smiled and gently pulled her hand away from his forehead. "I apologize for making you worry, grandmother. Perhaps I am slightly tired from the long trip. I shall continue eating my dinner now."
Yanagi did what he said as he took his bowl of rice and started eating at a speed higher than his usual. His mother had cooked him his favorite dishes, yet everything tasted bland in his tongue. Quite a worrying fact, considering how he actually liked bland food. Maybe his tongue was numb? Yanagi questioned himself as he took a soy sauce and uncharacteristically pour it onto his steamed fish. He took it into his mouth. The saltiness was there, yet it felt muffled. He tried eating the vegetables,and it tasted no differently.
Soon he found himself full, with rice still filling half of his bowl. He glanced to his right. His grandmother was smiling at him, encouraging him to eat more. He looked around, and he saw everyone chatting happily as they enjoyed their food in that foreign room. His parents were happily discussing about how their moving plan were a success and something related to their business. His little sister was happily persuading her grandfather to take her around this enormous new home.
Yanagi swallowed his saliva. Maintaining the same expression, he proceed to continue his task as he scooped another rice into his mouth.
"Good night." Yanagi said to everyone as his mother turned the lights off. Everyone went into their respective bedroom. He entered his room sluggishly, feeling unusually full in his stomach. His head was slightly spinning. He found the light above his head too bright.
Slowly, he made his way to his king-sized bed and lied himself on top of it. The cushy mattress comfortably supporting him felt alien. This had to be the first time he slept in his own room, he noticed. In his previous house, he shared one bedroom with his sister. That bedroom also didn't have its own inner bathroom, Yanagi noted.
He broke his chain of thought as another spell of dizziness washed though him. It felt as if something was creeping up his throat. His stomach felt full, yet empty at the same time. Everything seemed too bright, and darkness was his only comfort. Yanagi closed his eyes and tried to sleep away the discomfort.
The position he was laying in gradually became painful, and he twisted his body to the other side. All of the sudden, as if a knot was broken, he felt something was creeping up his throat at high speed. He took a deep breath and used all his strength to suppress it. Unfortunately, his tongue accidentally picked up the acidic taste behind his throat.
And that was his last straw.
Without second thought, Yanagi clamped his mouth shut and dashed like lightning towards the bathroom. His free hand ghosted one of the switches on the wall and he immediately ran towards the toilet bowl. All the items for dinner was returned back in their half-processed form, splashing into the water. He emptied all the contents in his stomach.
Panting and gasping for breath, he reached for the flush button before he allowed himself to slump onto the floor. This is unusual, Yanagi thought. He had never vomited any food before, not even the worst vegetable juice he had ever drunk in his life.
It was only then did he realize that he was laying in the darkness. The switch that he had pressed had been the wrong one. A proof of how foreign this house was, Yanagi concluded. He tried to regain his strength, all while hoping that no one would notice his grotesque act recently.
Minutes passed by and Yanagi had enough energy to clean up and made his way back to his bed. He did not pay any attention to the light, or the arrangement of the bed. He simply lied there, and allowed himself to be drown in fatigue to slumber.
Homesick.
The word appeared out of nowhere inside his head. He was sure that word meant of an occasion whereby one long for something that he had parted from for a long duration of time, especially house.
Yanagi smiled. He could imagine himself being diagnosed by a doctor in an extremely white room.
"I believe you may have stomach flu." The doctor concluded.
No, it is homesickness.
And there is no cure for it,not anymore...
It is the idea of being homesick, taken literally as 'home' 'sick'. I can't really say much besides how much I miss writing. Do you miss me? :D
Hope you enjoy this little piece!