AN: This is sometime I have thought of when I was away on study trip to York. But to put everything up into a story took me really long time. This is somewhat based on my personal experience, but also not. I can let you guys guess which as it is not a secret anymore.
Disclaimer: I do not own My Forged Wedding/My Forged Wedding Party in any ways. I only own my OC (Mai).
Summary:
Sometime feeling insecure could hurt you even more than you thought. And not being able to voice it to the close one, hurts even more. What hurts most of all is when the feeling of being unwanted. Was this really something she deserved? Or just meant to be haunted by the past?
She's an adopted child
Always has the thought that she's an unwanted child
She got adopted because her current parents thought they wouldn't be able to have children, until her younger brother was born.
Kuni is always there to support her whenever she's feeling down.
While waiting at home, Mai is making Takao's favorite dishes for their dinner. After being together with Takao for 2 years, they are now not far away of getting married. Takao has proposed to Mai a few weeks ago, and they are happier than before which Mai thinks until her darkest thoughts begin to creep up to the surface once again.
"Just know this fact, Takao is only here for you because he pities you, not because of he loves you. He has never EVER loved you."
No. She knows for sure that he loves her, not because of pity. She hasn't told him about her darkest part of her past. And Kuni knows about it as he always saved and supported her before and promised not to talk about it around the other guys, unless she wants to talk about it.
*Click* "I'm home."
Hearing his voice makes her smile wide, and the thoughts from just earlier vanishes but it still lingers somewhere inside her head.
"How was your day at work, Takao?" Mai says as she greets him with a smile.
"Fine. Not much work like usual." He answers while mumbling and walks past her to the living room.
'There's something wrong. He doesn't sound that happy as usual, and he doesn't greet me with a smile either. Maybe I should ask him and help him out.' She thinks as she follows him in to the living room.
"Takao, did something happen at work? You don't sound like you usually do."
"No, nothing happened. Just a bit stressed out from work."
His voice sounds dead. His usual voice is as if being masked over by someone else's voice. 'Maybe I can serve him dinner which is ready to be eaten. And maybe I should sound happy to bring up his mood.'
"Takao, do you want to eat dinner? I made a lot of your favorite dishes. So don't sweat over what happened at work, because I know you will get through everything. Your work might have stre-"
"…stop it…" His low murmur makes Mai look over at him when she is walking into the kitchen, and is shocked by his words.
"W-what d-did you just said…?"
"I just said STOP IT!" His voice gets so loud that it surprises Mai even more than she would have been.
She wants to help him somehow, but thinks it is better to let him be alone to cool his mind off.
"T-Takao…h-how about we just are away a bit to cool off your mind? You stay here while I will be over at uncle's bar until you have come back to your senses."
As Mai starts to walk toward the hallway, until Takao's next words bring her darkest thoughts back to its surface.
"How about you just stay over his place, and never coming back to this house again." It isn't a question or a request, but words that have determined his thoughts of not wanting her here right now. Without his knowing, his words pierce through Mai's heart. Her eyes that are sparkling full of life, lose a bit of them, but she still tries her best to stay positive with the fact that he only needs his time to be alone and nothing more.
"W-well, I will be at LI for the time being. S-so…" Feeling the wetness on her eyes, she avoids looking at him.
She walks to the closet in the hallway and takes one particular bag, a slightly worn-out pink bag which seems to have been for any occasions, and dashes out through the door without looking back at Takao who stares at her.
xoxoxox
"How about you just stay over his place, and never coming back to this house again." Takao looks at Mai's face and notices her usually sparkling eyes get shadowed but some of them remain.
"W-well, I will be at LI for the time being. S-so…"
He hears her voice starts to crack a bit and that she looks away from him. Without any further words from her, he sees Mai walking over to the closet in the hallway and take out the worn-out pink bag which he has never seen before, and dashes out of their house.
In a very low voice where he can hear his own voice, he starts to doubt about himself of what he just said and why Mai's eyes got shadowed.
"Why were her eyes so dark? It was as if her eyes got consumed by something…"
Without anyone who can answers his questions, he goes to the sofa and sits down and replay what just happened in his mind while closing his eyes. He starts to feel guilty of his own action. He doesn't mean to take all of the stress out on her, but it just happened. Regretting his own actions, he starts to get out and go to LI to apologize.
xoxoxox
'I guess I only made more problems for Takao instead of helping him.'
While walking around in the park nearby without any proper destination even though she has said to Takao that she will be at LI, it is only something that comes up in a spur moment.
'But what if he doesn't need me anymore? Does that mean…no one actually needs me? No one cares about me? Nobody want me?'
At this moment, Mai has walked near the train station and decides to go to Narita Airport. She looks into her worn-out bag to confirm if she has her passport, credit card and her daily necessities with her which she actually does. Because her will of staying nearby Takao, the gang, or even people who have helped her like her family and even uncle Kuni, the closest people, begins to vanish every seconds that goes on as she is walking inside the train station. The train that leads to the airport has arrived, with the last thought, she steps inside the train.
'I can't stay here anymore, since no one wants me, no one cares about me. Uncle, I'm sorry that I will leave without saying a proper goodbye. But thank you for all of your supports, uncle Kuni.'
After finally the airport, she tries to figure out where to go, at least somewhere far away from Japan. To her conclusion, she decides to go to Netherland but her flight doesn't fly in about 3 hours. The gate hasn't shown yet, so she decides to go to a nearby café to wait until they announce the gate for her flight.
xoxoxox
After Takao thinks through of what just happened, he really regrets his actions toward Mai. He knows taking his anger from work on Mai is a wrong move, and it will only hurt her. But he doesn't know that this actually hurt Mai even further than she has so far.
After he has calmed down and reflected his action, he decides to go to LI and apologize to Mai for what he actually had done. But what he doesn't have in mind is she running away from him and is currently on her way to the airport.
When he arrives at the LI, he sees his usual gang sitting at the usual spot without Mai. He presumes that she is on the 2nd floor and walks toward the stairs while notifying to Kuni.
"Kuni, Mai is on the 2nd floor, right? I apologize for what happened."
"What are you talking about? Mai hasn't arrived here since a few days ago." Kuni says as he looks surprised at Takao, and Takao mirrors the same look at Kuni while the gang looks confuse at both of them. After a few seconds of silence, Kuni asks Takao as a protective older brother. "Takao, did something happen between you two? And I want it in full details as possible."
Takao gives Kuni and the gang of what happened until Kuni asks him one question which will determine Mai's thought and they have to take action faster.
"Takao, did Mai take a bag that you haven't seen before?"
"Yes, she took a bit worn-out pink bag. I have seen it sometimes when I open the closet, but have never given it a proper look at it. Is it something wrong with it?"
"Yes, it is, Takao. That's the bag I gave to her as a present to be used as a travel bag as she and her family usually travels a lot. But then she also uses that bag to run away."
"What? Run away? Why?" The guys are in surprise to hear that fact, because Mai is always happy and never shows them any kind of weakness.
"She is in fact an adopted child, as her parents thought they won't be able to have a child until her younger brother was born. So the thought that is always in her mind since she was small, is that she is an unwanted child being abounded with no cares. But her parents do love her and care for her, but she still thought of being an unwanted child. And Takao, I hope you have said something that might have triggered her to think she is being unwanted again."
Takao thinks through, and indeed, he did say that she better not come back to his, not their house again. Regretting his actions even more, he is desperate to get her back and wants to settle her mind that she has him, he wants to support her and not hurt her mentally or physically.
"Kuni, is there a way we know where she is right now? Her phone might not be on if she's running away, right?"
"True. Good thing that I actually put a tracking device somewhere in that bag, because in the past she has already run away twice. The first time was somewhere nearby park, and since then I gave her the bag, I tracked her every time she runs away. She doesn't know how I managed to find her the second time as she actually ran away to a different town and was staying over at her friend's house."
The more details Kuni gave to the gang about Mai's past, which he has to apologize to her later as he promised her not to tell any of them about it, but this is needed at a time like this. After finally Kuni finishes tracking where Mai is, his eyes widen at where she is.
"Kuni, what is it? Did you lose her tracking?" Yamato feels uneasy when he saw Kuni widen his eyes.
"I thought she might try to run away to a different prefecture, but…I guess we should start move NOW!"
The guys flinch at Kuni's shout but start to move out of the bar and to the parking lot behind the building.
"Kuni, where is she? Why do we have to move so fast?" Takao senses that something is not ordinary on how Kuni acts. He wants the information too. But the way Kuni acts all flustered and protective, as if he will never meet Mai again. "Kuni, don't tell me that she's at the airport."
Kuni takes one look at Takao and then at the guys, and nods. The gang widens their eyes and is speechless. But they now know for sure that they have to work fast to stop her from stepping into the plane.
They split into two cars, where the car with Kuni, Takao, Yamato and Haruka look through terminal 1, while the rest, Ren, Yuta, Saeki, Akito and Kyoichi look through terminal 2. This was the easiest plan they can come up when it was about who arrives first to the airport. And if they spotted Mai, they were to call the rest of her location to try and stop her.
After the car which Kuni sits arrived at the airport, as they were the first to arrive, sprinted inside the airport and looked at the bulletin to see which flight will soon depart. While Takao was glancing through the name of cities, Kuni asked him a question.
"Takao, have you and Mai ever talked about travelling oversea?"
"Yes, we have. We talked about many places, and then talked about a few places that we could travel for our honeymoon."
"So you see any name of the destination on the board?"
"Yes, at least 3 of them: Amsterdam, London and Paris. But for some reason, my gut says that Mai is currently waiting for the Amsterdam flight."
"Then I will go over to the information desk and ask Mai to come over here as if there are some problems for her travelling that she needs to fill out some papers. When she comes here, Takao, you try your best to convince her while we will be close around both of you. If she tries to run, then she will be stopped by us. Yamato and Haruka, call the others to go over to this terminal. It will be easier when there are many of us to stop her."
After getting directions of what to do from Kuni, Yamato and Haruka start to call the others while Takao stands there, thinking of what to say and waiting for Mai to arrive.
xoxoxox
While sitting by the gate to wait for her flight and staring blankly at people passing by her, an announcement makes her think it is time to boarder the plane but it isn't.
"Miss Ueda Mai, please come to the information desk at the main lobby. Miss Ueda Mai, please come to the information desk at the main lobby."
'Did something happen? I hope it got nothing to do with my ticket or anything like that.'
What she doesn't know is Takao and the guys will be hiding until she arrives. When she arrives at the information desk and asks the person behind the desk, she hears someone calls for her behind her. She turns around to see Takao stands behind her. Her eyes widen in shock and take a few steps behind and away from him.
'Why? Why is he here? He doesn't need me anymore, so why is here?'
The fear that has subsided a bit comes back when she sees him. She starts to look around to make an escape, but only to be seen that the gang is somewhere around Takao and her. Consumed by fear, she feels that Takao starts to take small steps closer to her, but that only makes her those small steps away from him.
When Takao is only a few steps away from her, she dashes away from him as if some dark forces are hunting after her.
"Mai!"
'Please! Don't come near me! I don't deserve this kind of fate. No one cares for me!'
While she is running away from Takao and toward an exit in sight, when he is chasing and screaming after her, she starts to see the other guys trying to stop her. The moment she sees them, she doesn't think any further that Takao is chasing after her and just wants to get away from them.
She ducks when the guys try to surround her. When she knows that she is in a clear area and having no one behind. Or that is what she thought. She feels an arm wrap around her waist, she then struggle to get loose from the grip but it only get tighter the more she struggles.
"Mai! Please! I'm really sorry! I didn't mean a word that I said to you. I didn't mean to make you feel unneeded nor do I want you away from me. I really need you, Mai, so please! Just…listen to me…"
When she hears how broken Takao's voice is, she stops to struggle and decides to stay silent to listen what Takao has to say. Even when she is afraid what he might say, she listens to him until the end.
xoxoxox
"Mai, I know this won't be much to be forgiven, but Kuni told me about your childhood. I'm really sorry when I said that I didn't need you. I really need you. You're the one who have brought the light in my life. I care for you. I care about you. I know it is wrong of me to take all of the stress on you when all you did was to lessen the stress I had from work. All I want is for your forgiveness and that you will come back to me."
To be honest, Takao is scared. He is scared that Mai will not forgive him. He is scared that she will walk away from him. He knows Kuni and the rest are standing somewhere near them and might listen to them. But all he cares about right now is the reaction and answer from Mai.
He feels that she wanted to keep a tiny distance between them so she could look up and into his eyes. He thinks that it is the end for both of them. But the words that leave from Mai's lips aren't the one he thinks he would hear.
"I-I forgive you, Takao. J-just…please don't say that I'm unneeded anymore."
Her eyes are teary and the tears are about to run down her cheeks. The spurge of happiness within him rises that he couldn't help but hug her. He can feel the tears from Mai soak his shirt by his shoulder. He also feels like crying but endure it until later when they have gotten home.
While hugging Mai tightly within his arms, he whispers by her ear.
"Mai, let's get home. To our home."
Just a tiny message from me to you: There might be times where you feel being unwanted and/or unnecessary in your life, but you're not. There are people around you who are willing to help you, support you, and love you unconditionally. If you ever feel troubled, ask for either advice and/or help. Among your close ones. They will help you however they can within their ability. And I'm also willing to help you, even if I'm just a stranger to you.