Nostalgia
It was winter. Haruto never liked the winter. It was cold, dreary and it snowed. Hiroshima never seemed to run out of snow in the winter time but this year as Haruto settled into his life at Tokyo University, the city seemed to take the place of Hiroshima as it snowed constantly. Shivering inside his apartment, Haruto stared out the window as snow petals littered the ground with their soft whiteness. The sakura trees outside drooped from the weight of the snow pressing deep into their branches. He decided that the snow outside wasn't so dull after all.
A slap to Haruto's cheek from a cheesy magazine woke him up from his snow staring induced stupor. Yuzuki Eba stood in front of Haruto, her hands on her hips and face scrunched up in an approximation of an angry glare. Haruto stared at her, wondering what in f*cks mind she was doing. Eba opened her mouth and immediately Haruto prepared for the onslaught of crap that was going to come out of her mouth.
"Hey Haruto are you even listening to me?" Eba retorted to Haruto.
"Oh sorry, Eba, what were you talking about?" Haruto dully replied.
"Oh wow Haruto, you don't even listen to when your girlfriend talks about your interests!"
"I said I'm sorry Jesus Eba, calm down and listen to reason?".
"Haruto, you're such a drag. Your girlfriend is mad at you and all you can say is calm down? Honestly Haruto sometimes I don't even know why I'm your girlfriend".
Haruto was pissed. How could she claim that he was a drag when all she did was read into those crappy little girl magazines and spout shit about lipstick, hair gloss and make up. Well he wasn't going to stand there and let her insult him without good reason.
"Eba. When I say this I'm totally serious and I won't take back my words. You're the one who's a drag, All you do is talk about useless shit and I'm seriously tired of hearing about it. I don't really care about the latest make up or celebrity news. When I talk about cooking or something I like, you just ignore me and it's again with the endless rabble of gossip."
Eba stared at Haruto. In the two years they had been dating, they had been in fights, squabbles and the list goes on. But she had never seen Haruto become like this. The way he said those hurtful words was so calm and collected but bored and disinterested at the same time. She was thoroughly shocked from his quiet outburst she said the only thing she could. Tears threatening to well out of her eyes she cried out:
"Haruto. I want you to go away, Get out of the apartment and go think of some way you can make it up. You really hurt me". She had expected him to protest and try to mend things up with her but instead Haruto with that same damn uninterested look on his face replied:
"Oh my god. Stop crying you've done this so many times before I could practically see the tears coming before you even started."
Eba gave him a look of outrage and began to open her mouth.
"Haruto you-" Shit. Haruto didn't want to hear any more crap.
"Okay whatever I'm going now"
With that he dashed to the door opened it and closed it just as Eba started to wail.
The wind slapped his check as he trudged out of the apartment. Since when was winter this cold? Haruto wrapped the scarf tightly around his neck, and instantly felt the warmth from the wool. He walked aimlessly down the quiet road, reflecting upon his previous actions with his girlfriend. Yuzuki Eba. HIS girlfriend. The girl Haruto chased from Hiroshima to Tokyo. The girl who was perfect in every single aspect. So why was he doing this? Lately Haruto felt that they were drifting further and further apart, and the only thing keeping the two together was the fact that he had to, otherwise his break up with Asuka would have been completely meaningless. Asuka… Haruto thought tenderly.
Haruto pushed past several people to enter the convenience store where he worked. It was filled with customers purchasing warm goods and the only reason why he was there was to seek refuge from the cold. Glancing around, Haruto noticed that the latest comic magazine was updated and smiled for the first time that day. As his hand reached for the package, he noticed another hand reaching for it as well. It was a lady's hand, with soft, slender fingers and when he looked up, Haruto's eyes met Asuka's.
"Asuka.." Haruto didn't know what to say. It had been a while since they last spoke, and it was a memory he did not want to remember.
"So is this fate or what Haruto?" Asuka had asked after they got the small talk out of the way. They went to a nearby park and sat on a bench facing a frozen lake, with their breath steaming out in the cold winter air. Haruto didn't reply. In the six months that they hadn't seen each other, Asuka had changed from the time they had dated. She had become more curvaceous in her figure as well as becoming taller. Her eyes had become darker and little tendrils of light grey mist darted around her darker eye shadow. The pale white snowy skin of her remained along with her silky smooth hair. He stared at her features taking them in after months of not seeing her. But a nasty smack to his head shook him out of his stupor.
"huh wha?" Haruto automatically murmured. Asuka stood in front him but instead of the angry glare he usually received from Eba, Asuka laughed at his dumbfounded expression and gave him another playful whack on the head.
"still a ditz I see?" Asuka could only laugh more as Haruto's face screwed up in an approximation of annoyance.
"still as violent as ever?" Haruto retorted snippily. He jerked up from his position on the bench, turned to face Asuka who was still sitting and tickled her under the ribs. She screeched shrilly in the chilly winter air and pushed Haruto away. Now It was Haruto's turn to laugh as he tickled her in the stomach. It felt so natural as though the park was their former apartment and the bench as their bed. Asuka resisting Haruto's tickles, hooked her ankle around Haruto's leg and flicked his feet from under him. Haruto not feeling the ankle was surprised and fell onto Asuka. Immediately he stopped tickling Asuka. Haruto's arms held Asuka's own arms as he pressed her shoulders to the cool pavement under the Sakura tree. Their noses almost touched as Asuka and Haruto stared at each other, neither of them breaking away. A blush as much as from the winter air as from their close proximity broke out on each other's faces. Haruto stared at Asuka's lips. They were soft and pale rose. Her lips were so tantalising close, Haruto just wanted to touch them with his finger. But he didn't. Her remembered Eba and felt a small twinge of guilt. Haruto got up and without a word helped Asuka up, without making eye contact with her. Both stared the opposite way for a few minutes in an awkward silence. After deciding that enough was enough, Haruto mentally prepared to break the silence between them. But Asuka beat him to it.
"It's cold. Do you want to go back to our old apartment?" Haruto stared at Asuka. She was stiff and up right with a funny expression on her face. A burst of nostalgia of all the things they had done there, rushed through Haruto. Suddenly wanting to come back to the room that had held so many memories for him, he nodded shakily and took Asuka's arm.