Disclaimer: I don't own Chihayafuru.

Chapter 1 - Call


Taichi was a lousy friend.

He didn't visit. He rarely called. Sometimes he would send letters or write emails. He would make excuses that he had been busy; busy with a new project, busy with work, busy with life.

The truth was...he just didn't try hard enough.

But even when months - then years - passed since he had left Japan, he could always expect to receive birthday cards and New Year's wishes. They arrived in his mailbox every year without fail, and he would leave the letters unopened for days just to one day wake up and tear them open without any hesitation.

It hurt to read the letters. Their voices resounded in his mind and hers was always the loudest. He still laughed at their jokes and a smile would not leave his face for hours after, often prompting his girlfriend or co-workers to ask, "What's on your mind, Taichi?"

He would shrug but inevitably recall the poem by Taira no Kanemori.

"My fond, secret love".


He wrote back. He always did.

The birthday cards he liked to write at work during lunch breaks. He would sit next to a window and describe the view from the top floor of his office building.

New Year's wishes he wrote in his apartment. He would sit outside on the balcony and talk about the weather.

The cards were always sent out on time and on those few occasions he could pretend that everything was all right.


He hadn't talked with any of them in years.

But when one winter evening he answered the phone to hear his name repeated over and over and over again in a broken voice, he knew right away who it was.

By the end of the call he had already resolved to go back.

By the end of that day he had already bought a plane ticket.

By the end of the week he had turned in his resignation letter. Within the following seven days, two suitcases were neatly packed and set next to the door, the rest of his things were either given away or thrown out. His current girlfriend broke up with him, he said farewell to his friends and acquaintances. He closed his bank accounts and, lastly, returned the keys to his apartment - the place he had called home for the past seven years.

On the day he left, it snowed heavily. He worried that his flight might get cancelled.

The traffic was terrible but he still got to the airport on time.

Only at 40,000 feet above the ground and halfway across the continent did he realize he never looked back. Not even once.

He was surprised not to feel anything.


AN: Tadah! My newest story.

Even though I'm a big TaichixChihaya supporter (huge!), this is actually going to be a ChihayaxArata story in a flashfic format. There is a slight underlying plot but more emphasis will be put on character interaction and single instances in the lives of the Chihayafuru crowd. I started this story because of trouble writing Arata in my other fic "The way things are." Frankly, this didn't help at all, and now I have two stories to worry about. Haha. But I love Chihayafuru to bits so I don't mind.

The chapters will be kept quiet short. And yep, still working on my grammar. By the way, "The way things are" is my priority fic.

And pst, pst. If you haven't, go read "The Hundred and First" by Yuugiri.

Poem 40

Though I would hide it,

In my face it still appears–

My fond, secret love.

And now he questions me:

"Is something bothering you?"

Taira no Kanemori