2 years had passed since then. A solid, lonely, cold pair of years since kotoko and her father had moved out of the Irie's residence.
As soon as noaki realized his true feelings, he ran all the way to aihara, the restaurant, in which he assumed he'd find kotoko.
She was nowhere to be found.
Her father, who he managed to talk to had no answers for him.
All naoki saw was emptiness in his eyes, even the father himself knew nothing of his own daughters disappearance.
All he knew was that she called him, asking him permission to leave, to 'take some time off'
He could hear how broken she was on the phone and decided to finally let his butterfly, his lovely, cheerful daughter, fly away to a place that can mend her broken heart.
Naoki went home that day, soaked , not from the rain water that covered him head to toe.
But from the regret, the agony, the lifeless fire inside.
The next day, he rushes to the one person that he thought would have answers to his question
Ikezawa.
"What happened? Where is she?"
Kinnosuke looked into his eyes, he was raged with anger, looking straight at him with a disgusted face
"She's gone"
"What does that mean?" naoki was controlling his emotions to the best of his abilities.
Attempting to keep his cool. But his voice was betraying him
"Where is she!?" his tone grew louder, more aggressive than before. He HAD to find her
"I know you proposed to her, and that she was supposed to give you her answer yesterday, i looked for her everywhere, waited for her all night, even asked her father, now spit it out baka, i need to tell her something"
Naoki was losing his patience, he had no time for kinnosuke's nonsense and stupidity,
"And what are you going to tell her you jerk?" he grabbed naoki by the collar.
His eyes flamed with anger, his fists shaking uncontrollably.
"That you don't love her!? That she's never good enough?! Or your finally going to admit that your not human enough to admit to your own true feelings?! That she's not worth the truth!? And that she never will be!? Is that what you were going to tell her!?"
Naoki didn't fight against his violence, in fact, he wished kinnosuke punched him in the face.
He wanted to wake up from this horrible nightmare. He wanted to wake up to his bed and find kotoko downstairs cooking with his mother.
"I have no idea where she went. She didn't accept my proposal, but she did accept the reality"
"What reality"
"That she will never be happy here" kinnosuke finally lets go of his collar.
"She's gone, she left tokyo"
Naoki's eyes lit open as he exhaled deeply
Slowly scanning the area, his bed and a desk in front , filled with medical books he later found in the mail in which kotoko had ordered for him years ago, before his father fell ill.
The collection was worth alot, she probably used up all her savings that time to buy it for him, but sadly, she wasn't even home to wrap them up nicely for him, he just found it a few days after her disappearance.
The books were carefully displayed on his desk, inserted inside one of the pages hid their graduation photo.
It illustrated naoki smiling at her, and kotoko pulling away with a surprised expression.
The photo would always manage to make him smile at rough times.
Another one of those dreams….
The dream was more than just a vision while asleep, it was a memory of the events that occurred 2 years ago. 2 painful, colorless, years ago.
Ever since then, he had never been the same, and as the time passes by, the hole in his heart continued to increase, but his love for her never faded.
His room was neat and the air was cold.
Naoki continued with his daily routine, getting ready for work, checking his emails and packing his things, right when he was ready to head downstairs, he had heard a hard thump along with his mother's desperate loud scream.
Now this was no ordinary scream, naoki knew his mother all too well, he knew when she was exaggerating or planning some things, but this scream set an alarm in his head that put him 2 years back, it was the same reaction she had when-
He gasps
Papa!
Practically flying down the stairs, he rushed to the scene of his mother trembling with tears on her eyes. Yuki frantically crying while on the phone with a dispatcher (based on his observation) and his father lying on the floor.
Deja vu
Indeed this has happened before, but was now haunting them again.
"Onii-chan! Help me ! i don't know what to do" his mother cried
The ever so genius naoki, with a high IQ level of 200 stood there .
Nothing could ever prepare him for this second visit. Even his intelligence and adrenaline were of no use to him, knees were weak, and his throat was dry.
His mind no longer processed anything. He was completely dumbfounded, scared for his own father's life slipping away , last time he got lucky…. Who knows what's going to be the outcome now.
Several minutes arrived and he finally hears the paramedic vehicle.
The ambulance was finally here, the trio of medical staff hurry inside the house
And just like that, a familiar figure appeared in front of him, like a ghost from the past.
It was if he was struck by lightning, she looked very different from the last time he saw her, but no matter how she looked, he is 150% sure of it that she was the same girl that had been missing since 2 years ago.
Why? Because his hearted beated rapidly, like it never did for anyone. Only her.
Of all the places, the situations that he would finally stumble upon her, it was right now. Right when his family was facing a crisis.
Kotoko's hair was tucked away in french braid, she wore the paramedic uniform with so much pride and grace. He couldnt help but be taken aback by her sudden presence.
"Kotoko?!" noriko gasped
Kotoko paused, realizing the house and the situation she was in.
But after a second she managed to snap out of it, her adrenaline kicked in
"Maa'm" she stated, sounding very professional, as if she did this everyday.
"I need you to calm down and tell us what happened, my partners here, alongside with me, will do everything we can to the best of our abilities to help your husband, so I'm going to need you to calm down and take a few steps back so we can help him okay?"
Noriko nodded
As they assessed the situation, performed immediate medical care, and making sure that he was alright.
naoki comforted his mother and his little brother as the seconds turned into minutes,
He needed to be strong.
He absolutely cannot show any signs of weakness, now that his family relied on him to be the strongest.
Naoki finally spots his father conscious, and the team moves quickly to get him into the vehicle.
There was still some more work left to be done. Tests needed to be ran , and questions need to be answered. But relief washed over his muscles as kotoko informed him that his father's condition was stable.
Everything was still a shock.
Kotoko? Aihara kotoko from class F? A paramedic? No, she's most likely a starting intern, still….This all doesn't make any sense.
As he sits in the ambulance, she sits adjacent from him. Carefully monitoring his father's blood pressure, ignoring his intense stare.
Successfully pretending not to recognize him
he begins to slowly realize that this was reality. That she really was there in the vehicle with him
She seemed different, maybe it was the uniform, maybe it was her aura.
Whatever it was, he knew what was on his agenda the moment his father gets better.
As she finally lifts her head, he locks eyes with her.
"I finally found you"
AN:
I couldn't sleep last night and decided to jot one of my idea's down.
Now i know majority of this is way out of character but that explains why it's a one shot.
Thank you for reading!
