So, I wrote something. This story revolves around the 'farewell', separation of two souls bound together by either love or hate, although not as grim as its tittle. At least I think so. No promise. *sigh*
I'll try to keep the casualties at minimum.
There aren't many people that could force Hikigaya Hachiman to leave his warm bed in Sunday morning, and naturally, Yukinoshita Haruno isn't in that list. In fact, even if people in that list forced him, he would probably try with all his might to avoid meeting with the scion of Yukinoshita family.
Of course, there are ways around this, and Yukinoshita Haruno is nothing if not intelligent, sly, and manipulative.
A harsh ringtone broke through the solemn morning in the Hikigaya household. Hachiman lazily grabbed his phone to look at the insolent mortals who had interrupted his ritual to suppress the ancient deity locked under his bed.
To say he was surprised was the understatement of the century.
The screen spelled a name he thought he would never see in his screen, one of not many people that he wouldn't mind dragging him even to the depth of hell itself and back. The screen showed a series of numbers that belonged to none other than the divine avatara descended to the Earth, Totsuka Saika himself.
"Ah, hello, Hachiman."
"Yes, your wish is my command, Totsuka."
"Uh, pardon?"
"Don't mind it. Can I help you with anything?"
"Yeah, actually I need you to meet me at the train station..."
"I'll be there right away." Hachiman didn't let him finish his sentence, which proves to be his own undoing.
"I thought you needed me." Hachiman stood dejectedly in front of a pair of human he never thought could be together in the same place.
Namely, the divine Totsuka Saika and the demonic mastermind Yukinoshita Haruno.
"I'm sorry, Hachiman, b-but Yukinoshita-san asked me..." his voice was almost inaudible as Totsuka Saika tried to avoid Hachiman's disappointed glare.
"She intimidated you." Hachiman corrected.
"I prefer persuaded." Haruno chimed in with her cheerful tone. "As lethargic as always, Hikigaya-kun. I'm afraid I need your help with..." She gestured to two suitcase lying around her feet.
Beautiful legs. Hikigaya thought. Not as beautiful as- who is that girl with a name like a motorcycle brand again?- but beautiful nonetheless.
"Earth to Hikigaya-kun, are you there?" Haruno waved her hand in front of his eyes. "I'll let you to touch them later, but we need to catch a train."
"Seriously?!"
He was too excited to notice the mischievous grin adorning Haruno's face.
When Haruno said 'touch', Hachiman was not thinking about the suitcase weighing several ton that he currently nursing in their journey to Tokyo.
"Where are we going anyway?" He carefully breached the blissful silence.
"The airport. I'm leaving Japan." She answered somewhat wistfully, her words caught Hachiman's attention.
"To where? For how long?" She chuckled at his enthusiastic question.
"You sound awfully happy that I'll be away."
"Can't deny that." He dropped his sight to the suitcase between his legs. "Sorry."
"No, no. That kind of Hikigaya-kun is cute."
The silence continued for several minutes.
"I'm going to take a flight to Los Angeles, then hop on another to San Francisco."
"You could've said America." Hachiman muttered. If Haruno heard him, she was ignoring it.
"How long would you stay there?"
"I don't know. Three, maybe four years? Post graduate study could often unpredictable."
The train apathetically zoomed through ever-changing landscape, blue green and silver blurred through the window.
"Why don't you bring Yukinoshita- your sister, I mean, to accompany you?" Hachiman raised his head to meet Haruno's amethyst eyes, who turned her face to the window "I'm sure she'll be as happy as I am."
"I don't know about that. I'm essentially running away from the responsibility of a Yukinoshita. Besides..." Their eyes met "It's more romantic if a man escorted me, right?"
Hachiman involuntarily blushed.
"I wouldn't know." This time, he was the one who averted his gaze towards the window.
"How boring..."
"...We still have a full hour before designated departure time..." Hachiman sighed. Well, at least I'm freed from that demonic suitcase. What's in it anyway? Cannonballs? Handcuffs?
"What, don't you want to spend some time with this beautiful Onee-san?"
"I'm more into Imouto type, thank you very much."
"Hey, Hikigaya-kun." Haruno latched her arm into Hachiman's "Would you mind if I call you Hachiman?"
"I would, but I'm sure you'll ignore it." Haruno pouted.
"I won't do anything you don't want, you know?"
"My past involvement with you proved otherwise." Haruno chuckled, her body pressing into Hachiman's.
His heart rate increased.
"Hachiman." His heart jumped.
"What is it?"
"I'm thinking about leaving Japan forever."
"What? Why?"
"You sound less happy to hear that compared to the first time I told you I'm leaving Japan."
"Well, there's the matter of your sister and family business that you're supposed to inherit..."
"I wonder how Yukino-chan actually thinks about me." Haruno's voice turned into a painful one. "Do you think she hates me?"
"I-I don't know. Hell if I know."
"What about you, Hachiman?"
"What about me?"
"Do you hate me?" Hachiman observed the elder woman's face. She is certainly beautiful, masking a cold heart with warm smile and cheerful voice, but he had never heard her speaking with her false cheerfulness down.
"I...yes, I hate you."
Haruno clenched her fingers around Hachiman's arm.
"That hurts." She muttered. "It's almost as if I could still be wounded by mere words." Had she not pressed her body (and by extension, her chest) to Hachiman's arm, he wouldn't have heard her.
That's nonsense. No one could be immune to heartbreak, not even a Yukinoshita. One might mask it, hide it, laugh it, try to forget it, drown it in empty routines, but the wound would still be there, bleeding, spreading pain. A physical wound might be healed, but a scar in a heart would make a rift that would never heal.
Naturally, he didn't say anything.
"You know how many I've considered committing suicide?" She casually asked, as if asking a close friend about a nearby cafe special discount. "Thirty seven, with seventeen attempts to realize it."
She never had anyone. Always alone, with only her mask as company. I wonder...
"How... I want to ask how could you stayed alive for this long, but..."
"I tried. I tried to end everything. But my life, rather, the image of 'Yukinoshita Haruno' is too precious to be buried with my corpse." She suddenly let go of Hachiman's arm.
"You see why I didn't ask Yukino-chan to escort me?" A drop of tears hanging in the edge of her eyes. "She shouldn't see me like this; weak and fragile like a glass sculpture. For her I must be a perfect villain, an enemy she admires as much as she wishes to conquer." She wiped the edge of her eyes with her sleeve.
"For her, for my family, for you. There was never Yukinoshita Haruno the human, the girl, only Yukinoshita Haruno the perfect mastermind, both a puppet and a puppeteer."
It's suffocating. I've hated her from the first time we met, why should I stop now? Why this hatred suddenly evaporated just because she showed me that deep inside, she is still human? Let her leave, for her own sake. For Yukinoshita's sake. Free the two of them.
Against all logic and reason deep within his mind, Hachiman wrapped his arm around Haruno's shoulder.
"I..." He took a deep breath. "I'm here. I'll wait for you. So don't give up."
For the first time in her life, Yukinoshita Haruno cried on someone's arm.
"No kiss for me?"
They were still holding each other's hand fifteen minutes before departure.
"W-what are you talking about?"
"Well, it's kind of the tradition, right? A man kissed his woman before they got separated for god-knows how long..."
"Don't push your luck, Haruno. I still hate you. And you're not my woman."
"Even after all those words about waiting for me? I thought we share something between us..."
"Maybe you should return here alive first, and then we could talk."
"It's a deal, then."
For the first time, the two of them smiled towards each other.
"I hate you." Hachiman plainly said to the person on the other side of the phone, the midnight after he escorted Haruno to the airport.
The voice on his phone laughed.
"I'm sorry, time zone difference and everything."
"You could just send me a text."
"Eeh, but I miss your voice already..."
"I'm hanging up."
"Wait!" Click.
Hachiman crashed his face to his pillow, hiding his grin and blushing face.
Well, I kept my promise, no Oregairu characters were harmed in the making of this fanfiction...
That's a 8manxHaruno fanfiction for a change! Do you like it?
Critics and Reviews are always appreciated. riyangendut out.