Kawamura smiled at the circle, in a forced manner. "I'm sorry, I really, really have to go now… I swear I'll make it up to you later."
"Hey now, Junior, you had to bail last time because of exams, we're not letting you off the hook so easily this time. Come on, Kawamura, you said you'd come!"
Sweat caked his forehead as he was pulled to the car. He took out his cell phone, "Let me just make one quick call then." He dialed frantically, "Please pick up."
After several rings, it went over to the voice-mail, "Karin-chan! It's Kawamura, this is very, very important! You have to go home to check on Wataru, it's going to take me too long to get back to him but I can't back out of this… Text me when you get this." He hung up, devastated that he wasn't able to talk his way out of this, it wasn't exactly like he could explain the situation though.
-.-.-
Wataru felt his loss of words as he heard the gentle feminine tone in the receiver, the way she said in English what he was pretty sure translated to 'Come back to bed once you're done with your call' to Kazuki. He swallowed hard. Did that mean come or go back to bed? He suddenly wished he paid more attention in Suzuki-sensei's classes.
"K… Kazuki, are you there?"
"Wataru? Do you have any idea what time it is over here?"
Wataru felt his chest tighten at the caustic tone, "Ah… uh, no, sorry I didn't realize it was late, what time is it over there?" He chocked up all of his strength to keep his voice from quivering. "Ah, I, uh… I got the package, but I'm not sure what you meant by it… I mean, you sent back the ring… and then said that…"
"It's 1 in the morning here, Wataru. That's what time it is, listen, let's not talk about this now. Don't call back here, if you can't even figure out the time differences, really…" Static began to cut in on the conversation.
"K… Kazuki? I can't hear you, I'm getting static…"
"…I'll just… …ll you… …over there… bye."
Wataru's hand trembled as the line disconnected, he looked at his phone, spotting the time stamp, not even three minutes, one of which had been spent waiting for him to even get the phone, and with the connection being as horrible as it was, calling back wouldn't even help clarify things. He turned to face Masanobu he let his head bow down in some form of defeat.
"He just told me 'I'll just tell you then, it's over, there, bye' and then he hung up." He took out the ring squeezing it in his hand, "How can he end it like that? What? Am I only good enough to be a replacement for people?!" He balled his fists tighter, even more upset now that he heard the words. No,
the written letter was surreal, and could have been a misunderstanding, but to be dumped not once but twice in under 24 hours… He sat down indignantly on the floor, his hands holding his face.
"The flight leaves at 16:00. Pack enough for three days." Masanobu reminded him, "I'll call Shohei and ask him where Yuichi's staying."
"Why?" Wataru wasn't sure if he was asking why should he bother, after all, Kazuki was known for being stubborn and if that's really what he wanted, nothing would change it, or maybe he was asking why Masanobu still wanted to do this for him, or maybe still it was both?
"Because you deserve better than that, obviously."
"You understand I just can't return your feelings, don't you?" Wataru looked at him, a bit closer to despondent.
"Maybe not yet, but what can I say? I'm an optimist, I'm sure you'll come around eventually."
Wataru slowly forced himself to his feet, his legs felt a bit rubbery, reminding him of his exercises yesterday with alcohol, "I'll write a note then. I just need twenty minutes to pack."
"Okay, we'll leave after that."
Grabbing a gym bag, Wataru made quick work shoving in several clean shirts and shorts, a pair of jeans and socks and shoes, hairbrush, toiletries, the letter and rings, all of this in under five minutes. He went into the bathroom in order to take a shower, and five minutes later came out slightly refreshed, pulling on an extra hoody before scrawling a note to Karin saying he was going on a trip for a few days, to go 'camping' with some friends.
Putting the pen down and attaching the note to the fridge, he walked to the front door, bumping into Karin as she fished her phone out of her pocketbook. "Wataru-nii! There you are… Kawamura called me frantic, last night… what's wrong?" She looked at him, his eyes puffy and red from crying. "Wataru-nii?"
"…Listen, Karin, I'm going out camping, I left a note with the details, don't try to get in touch."
"Wow, that's suspicious." She narrowed her brow, "So where are you really going?"
"…Karin, Kazuki dumped me, I'm going out camping, don't try to get in touch with me. I'll be back in under a week, I have to go though. Bye…" He left before she could stammer out what she was thinking, as twenty thoughts had hit her simultaneously.
"W… Are you sure Wataru-nii? I mean, why would he… and without provocation… it makes no sense, niisan! Don't just leave, tell me what happened!"
The door shut and she knew she had lost the rites to that story, well, from Wataru at least. She took out her cell phone and dialed a certain silver-smith, like hell she wasn't going to get the dirt on this!
-.-.-
Masanobu opened the trunk letting Wataru toss his bag in back, "I have to pack some things, it won't take me long either. After that, we'll head over to the airport. I still need to call Shohei, too."
"Right. I'm sure he's in a great mood right about now." Wataru let out, bitterly, surprised at himself for speaking of it aloud.
"Eh?"
Cat already out of the bag, it wasn't much use to try to fight to put it back in, "Well, from the beginning, he wanted you to seduce me away from his trophy Yuichi, so when he finds out that Kazuki dumped me, and it wasn't even because you have to 'gay it up' I'm sure he'll be thrilled! I swear, he must be so happy to get me out of his life."
"I don't think you really understand his position, Wataru. I mean, he's straight, and he tries to be tolerant, but it isn't easy for him. This sort of thing is a different world to him."
"Like that matters to me, it just proves I'm really not meant to be in that kind of world. I never should have gotten involved with perfect people like Kazuki in the first place…" He hugged his knees, trying to coax his eyes to stay dry, "I mean, look at me, I'm a complete mess and even his delivery was perfectly smooth when he dumped me. I could never compete with someone like that! If I never switched rings with him, do you know how different my life would be? I'd still think I was straight, I'd have applied to schools all over Japan, and I'd never had to have deal with this sort of stuff! But no, he ropes me into some relationship he convinced me he was so head-over-heels for… and it sounded suspicious, I mean why would anyone like that want someone like this?" His hand waved in a sweeping motion his torso as he continued his rant, "And it was all some stupid lie anyways! He just saw her in me, or maybe I'm still being too full of myself, maybe I just have some puppy-dog look to me that makes people want to pet me."
Wataru looked at Masanobu knowing full well how much he wanted to play with him too. He hated it, they never really saw him did they? Worse still, he was a supplement for a woman in each case, here they are, two of those perfect people and neither of them wanted to find a woman out of the droves who would happily be a fill-in, but had to choose him to give up his own gender and sex to be their girl… he really could have gone on thinking he was straight, maybe he really would have been, without Kazuki to awaken that sort of desire, now though, the thought of sex was permanently engrained with that tenderness of being taken, he didn't think he'd ever be the 'man' in the relationship again.
Biting his lip, he didn't want to think anymore, couldn't this just be the joke now? Couldn't Kazuki just walk out from behind the curtain and smirk, say something like, 'I knew you were crazy about me' have make-up sex and be done with it?
"Why can't normal people just choose to like me? I'm so tired of all these high-maintenance demands, all the targets on my back… can't I just be normal again?" He let out a sigh, none of this really changed things, he still knew he still loved Kazuki, even with how much this hurt, did Kazuki dump him because he isn't a girl though? Or maybe he displeased him somehow? Did he gain too much weight when he
was studying? Everyone insisted he was skinny, and made girls jealous, but he thought Kazuki liked how petite he was? Had that last growth-spurt ruined it for him? Kazuki was still taller than him, plenty, though! He ruffled his own hair angrily, he really was too stupid to figure out something like this.
"…Ne, Masanobu, why do you think he left me? Do you think he really did it just because she's a girl, or maybe because he loves her so much more… I thought you said we loved each other too much, though, so… how could he love someone else more? I really am no good." His hand wiped down his face, he felt distinct absence of the metal ring, suddenly feeling even more despairing.
Masanobu pulled up to his driveway, quickly making his way into the house before grabbing his stuff.
Wataru looked at his naked finger before thinking back to high school, the year before. Karin had told him, reminded him, of how he used to hate sharing things. Now looking at the naked flesh he knew he wasn't forced to share that… that it was truly his and his alone, that cherished feeling of something given up upon, the absence of that feeling was also his alone. His alone, while Kazuki got to experience that over and over and over again in bed with that woman, someone he had given up upon finally back, reciprocating those feelings, so all that was left for Wataru was that feeling of abandon.
-.-.-
Karin stood in front of an elaborate counter, beneath the glass several pieces of molded and carved silver and gold, and yet her attention was locked onto the flap of curtain to the back and the treasure of knowledge, a heavier package than anything else in this shop.
"I'm sorry to barge in here with such a personal matter, and to make you butt in, no less… but, you're the only person I know who would have any idea of what's going on. I would like to confront Kazuki directly, but it isn't something I can do so easily, with him in New York."
"I understand, unfortunately, I don't know anything about this development either. I'll call him in a few hours when they should be awake."
"Could you tell me about the woman he's with?" Karin had started cautiously.
"She's 8 years older than him, she is his first love; however, I find it hard to believe that Kazuki would be so fickle to abandon the love he has now just because she has the potential to get better. They didn't break up because of that reason, well, not solely that reason."
"I can't believe someone like Kazuki would truly cheat on Wataru-nii, either, it makes me think there is a misunderstanding, but, with how upset he looked, I just can't think it's something so simple."
Fixing her brown hair, Kazuki's cousin smiled, "You know, to tell the truth, I'm much fonder of Wataru with my Yuichi. I think his personality suits him better than hers, though I'm certain Shohei would disagree." She watched the clock, it read 17:00, in another few hours she would be able to call and check on this situation. "Karin-chan, we close at 7 PM, tonight, come back then and I'll call him."
"Thank you so much!"
She smiled, "Don't mention it."
-.-.-
Shohei's eyebrow rose, that was the second call he'd received about Yuichi within the past two hours, he picked up the phone, whatever Yuichi was up to, he planned to find out. He glanced at the time, "Hmm, it's 5 AM in New York, he should wake up early, anyways." He picked up the phone and dialed.
Yuichi flung his arm searching for the phone in petty annoyance, really, was he condemned to getting under three hours of sleep at a time? He looked at the phone, "What the hell do you want Shohei! It's…"
"--Five in the morning, and time for good academics to wake up to study, anyways. You've become even more popular in the circuits today; first Asaka then that busy-body Touko, honestly."
"What did they want?" Yuichi wiped his face, slipping on his house-shoes before moving into the kitchen, might as well make breakfast not anyways.
"Asaka wanted to know where you were staying, Touko wanted to know if I heard why you left Wataru. Congrats! You finally realized I was right…"
"Why I WHAT?!" Yuichi squashed his voice a moment later, "When the hell did I do that?!"
"Eh? I thought that with you in New York with your 'ex' lover playing nurse, myself, was when you left him. Apparently, Touko wasn't the only one curious about it, his kid sister was asking about it."
Yuichi's eyebrow twitched. "I don't have time to deal with you and your pranks, Shohei, I'm hanging up."
"Don't bother trying to call Wataru, Asaka told me he was with him." He smirked, knowing perfectly well why.
Yuichi glared through the phone before hanging up anyways, dialing the brunette immediately. "…" As the phone rang, he chanted, "Come on, pick up the phone…"
It turned over to voice mail, "Hey! Wataru, I need to talk to you, give me a call back when you get this message…" Yuichi started until he heard the dreaded message.
"…'s voicemail box is full… Have a good day." The disconnecting click made his heart wince. He wasn't about to call Shohei, and Touko wouldn't have any answers, that only left one other person to try. He dialed Masanobu.
"Masanobu! Answer your damn phone! I know you get better coverage than that…" Yuichi hissed as he was diverted straight to voice mail. He hung up before trying to remember the call Wataru had made that morning to him. He had said something about getting the package but not understanding what it meant, it was plain as day what it meant! It should have been idiot-proof, after all, the Kazuki Yuichi was the author to the letter. Then what else was mentioned, he remembered telling him it was late…
"Don't call back here, if you can't even figure out the time differences…"
He had said that, didn't he? But that didn't mean let's break up! Really, how could that get confused…? He remembered, suddenly, what Wataru had asked, it hadn't hit him when he had been awakened from his sleep! Wataru's tone, Wataru's voice had wavered when he asked about it… By that point, Wataru already thought he had dumped him and he told him not to call back…
His eyes went wide, suddenly the idea that Wataru was all alone with Masanobu made him very angry.
He heard his phone ring and quickly picked up, "Hello? Masanobu? Is Wataru with you?!"
"We're landing at the Newark airport at 1 this afternoon, you should probably pick us up unless you want us to show up at the door."
"Us? Is Wataru with you?"
"Yeah. He is. We're in San Francisco right now, while the plane's refueling I decided to check my calls. He's getting something for his hangover. I really can't believe you, a dear-John letter? I thought you were better than that!"
"A what?" Kazuki looked at the phone incredulously, "When did I ever…"
"Anyways, I have to go, we're bordering again. Remember, 1 PM Newark, we'll be at gate C7." Masanobu hung up leaving Yuichi gaping, looking remarkably similar to a goldfish.
TBC.
