Title: Timeline
Author: Pathetic Rainbow
Pairing: Kahoko Hino/Len Tsukimori
Fandom: La Corda D'Oro
Rating: K+ to T
Summary: Would one thousand four hundred and sixty days of separation be enough to rile you up?
Disclaimer: The characters belong to whoever they belong to, not me. I claim none, I merely borrow them and dress them up in frilly smocks.
Dedication: To adriane-chan, who has entertained me with her fics and PMs. I like teasing her about her maturity, so yeah. And also to my dad, who has recently turned four decades old. He lets me hog the laptop just so I could write my neverending rants--stories.
Notes: I don't know what brought me to write this. God, I should really be updating my other fics. But I can't visualize myself writing the next chapters just yet. Aah, I feel so bad. This story is confusing, but I hope you can somehow comprehend. Some parts may cause you to go all squint-eyed, which is why I'm warning you about it now. Gah, I'm a fail when it comes to proofreading my own works, so please point out the errors (especially the numbers) in your review- if ever you review, that is.
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It was one thousand four hundred and sixty-one days since he left to study abroad. And during those days, she knew, she accomplished more than she had intended.
One time, she attempted to make suicide because she felt hopeless and desperate. Among all the seventy-two calls she tried to make, he only answered to six. Among all the ninety-four text messages she sent, he only replied to eight. Among all the thirty-five mails she sent, he didn't reply to not even a single one.
She tried dating the three other concour participants, who have admitted to taking a liking into her, just so she could get over Tsukimori.
Tsukimori left the day after Christmas, so the next year, her first fling (with Ryotaro) lasted from the first of February to the fourteenth of the same month. On Valentine's Day, she confessed to him that she only used him to get over the blue-haired violinist she kept on fussing about. He simply thanked her for giving him at least a chance.
She started her second fling (with Azuma) the next month, which lasted two weeks longer than her former fling. He took her to seven different parts of Japan in hopes to make her have the same spark in her eyes as she did before Tsukimori left. When they arrived back at Yokohama, he told her that the only thing that could possibly make her happy is their separation because of her attachment to the violin prodigy.
Her last fling (with Kazuki) was a year and two months after her fling with Azuma, but only lasted for one week. He brought her to different carnivals, which repeatedly conversely reminded her of when she dragged along Tsukimori to one. She told him that with what they were doing, it was impossible for it to last. After the Ferris Wheel ride, she gave him one last hug and walked away.
After two months, she dedicated herself solely to the violin, just like Tsukimori did. Her logic to that was if she did that, she would attain a similar kind of greatness Tsukimori did. She borrowed fifteen of the most difficult scores from Misa Hamai and mastered them all in a span of three months with perseverance. It was difficult for her to cope, she knew that she wasn't anywhere near that level—but she did it. She started going out less often and somehow isolated herself from the world, indulging herself in the world of music. Her friend, Kaji Aoi, who has liked her since they were seventeen, shook some real and sensible logic into her brainwashed mind, which resulted into tears and confessions about her still scrambled feelings for Len Tsukimori.
The next day, she accepted Nami Amou's invitation to a shopping spree with Mio, Nao, and Fuyuumi. They shopped for seven hours in the local plaza—and almost every day after that; they followed the same routine of going there after school, which made Kahoko forget all about her violin and Len Tsukimori.
Seven months passed by, and the girls surprised their formerly desolated friend with cake, tea, and a letter—a letter from Tsukimori.
Not knowing how to react, Kahoko swiftly took the letter from her friend's hands. She glanced at the letter, regret and sorrow finding a way to reflect in her eyes—her thoughts, not brighter than her expression. Her friends' gleeful faces turned into confused ones. Why, they thought, was their friend not happy? It was a letter from Tsukimori, the one she liked! But Kahoko thoughts were jumbled, as well. Indeed, why wasn't she happy? She looked up at her friends, who were smilingly encouraging her to read it. She looked back down at the letter, which was now shaking under her trembling hands. She raised it up to her eye level and tore it apart, earning her thunderstruck looks from the three other girls with her. After that, she announced that she was over the guy, and that she would never want to hear from him again.
A few months after that event, she received eleven calls, fourteen text messages, and six mails—all from him. Why did he have to make a sign that he still existed after she had assured herself that he was dead to her? She rejected all of those, of course—just like how he rejected most of hers. It would only be fair that he would get the same feeling of abnegation she had felt, or at least she thinks.
She resumed her so-called normal routine with her friends for a few more months, earning her more from Tsukimori. But she, without any regret, declined everything he sent her. It wasn't fair, she thought, he's making me suffer because he knows that he's my weakness. But Kahoko found her suffering to be her source of courage to reject him—if it wasn't masochism, she didn't know what it was.
Two weeks followed and she got even more calls, messages, and mails from him—and the day was the one thousand four hundred forty-first day since his leave. How could she easily forgive him for making her heart yearn for more than a thousand days? It would have been a whole lot easier if Tsukimori didn't make Kahoko fall for him—Kaho's opinion on that matter has changed, though, since she told everyone else that she was successful in shunning Tsukimori out of her life.
But her conscience kept on nagging her heart—it was as if it was trying to tell her to give him a chance. But a certain course of events made her get a different kind of attitude adjustment. No, she wasn't going to give in easily. After all she's gone through? There's no way she'd do that. Instead, she deleted all the messages without looking at them and shredded all the mails. Hell no, she thought, doing this is much more fun.
Four days later, all of her friends visited her—Nami, Mio, Nao, Fuyuumi, Manami, Megumi, Keiichi, Ryotaro, Azuma, Kazuki, Kiriya, and Aoi. They all dragged her to the new tea shop near the station. The now twenty year old Kahoko was a bit at a loss at her friends actions. Approximately two weeks before Christmas, they were having a different kind of reunion. Suspicions about her friends' intentions weren't arising in Kahoko's usual gullible mind, though; she thought that they were just missing one another since they were all attending different colleges. But nonetheless, it led her to asking about it. They'd reason what she had thought, and then quickly changed the topic.
They were all leaving on the week of Christmas, they added, and they didn't want Kahoko to feel lonely. Kahoko simply shrugged it off and replied that she wasn't going to be lonely at all, that she'd be spending her Christmas celebrating with her family, too. Her friends nodded understandingly and left after they paid for themselves.
Two weeks after that, she was all alone in her dormitory room. It was the day before Christmas, and she found herself in the exact predicament her friends warned her about—loneliness. But a side of her didn't want her friends to be bothered by knowing that she wasn't enjoying anyone's company. So she stayed mum about it. And speaking of staying mum, she intended to go home to her family this night—since she hasn't contacted them ever since she transferred to live in a dormitory near her school.
It was midnight, and it marked the beginning of Christmas. Text messages surged into her inbox like there was no tomorrow. Greetings started to look banal in the small screen of her phone. Yet, the message of all these didn't seem to nail through her stubborn head. Merry Christmas, it all said, but was she actually having a merry one? Still debating in her mind, she quietly sneaked away from her celebrating family and slipped into her old bed.
Eight hours later, she woke up and found every member of the family (including their dog) still asleep. She decided to take a stroll around to clear her mind of every known aggravation she had… or at least, her greatest enigma, Len Tsukimori. Tomorrow would mark his one thousand four hundred sixty-first day of absence—four years. He would be gone for four whole years.
Instead of going back home, she decided to go back to her dormitory. She found more solace in her solitude than in her family who knew nothing about what happened to her. She was lucky she brought along everything except her packed clothes during her walk.
As she walked to her destination, the guy she tried to forget cursed her vision, making him look as if he was everywhere to her. He would be there across the street and when a car would pass, he'd suddenly disappear. She'd glance at the window of some stores and she'd find him inside, opening the door and browsing through the small aisles, she'd find no one. Kahoko was clearly appalled at the sight of him; and she hated much more the fact that her imagination was playing with her.
As the winter wind blew stronger in the streets, she tightened her grip on her thick fur coat, her only source of warmth in the cold and harsh reality she accepted long ago. She didn't miss him. She didn't. She never did. She was convinced enough that she didn't.
But why did it seem like he was standing in front of her right now?
"I'm back."
Two words. After one thousand four hundred and sixty days of separation, and all he says are those two words? This was-- madness! Two words. Two words! She deserved more than that-- more than a mere I'm back. She started to fume with anger, she raised her hand to slap him, but was interrupted with another hand, a warm hand that was Tsukimori's.
"I love you."
He loves her. He loves her. Was it love that drove him to leave her? Was it love that made her feel so inconsolable? No! That wasn't love! What kind of demented logic was that? Love? What kind of feeling was that!
She was once again debating in her mind. She walked to find peace from her problems, not to face them herself! But her mind was too busy thinking that she didn't notice her body moving...
He was kissing her.
And she was kissing him back.
Kami-sama, she prayed inside, I think I've lost it.
The next day, it was one thousand four hundred and sixty-first day since he left to study abroad. And during those days, she knew, she only fell in love with him more.
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