I'll never forget being with you at the end of summer.
With our dreams of the future and big hopes.
I believe that 10 years later in August, we'll meet again.
Such great memories...
Kotobuki
"Tsumugi!" My husband calls, walking into the dark room I was playing piano in, and flipping the light switch. Yes, I am married. Kinda strange, huh? Wouldn't expect that.
"Yes, Kento." I wipe the tears from my eyes and turn to him.
"Are you alright?"
Damn, I wish he couldn't read me so easily.
"Yeah, I was just remembering some things that... I'm not exactly proud of." I tell him. He sits down next to me on the piano bench and puts his arm around me.
"Hey Mugi, can I tell you a secret?" He asks me.
I grin slightly,
"Sure."
"I love you," he whispers in my ear, causing me to giggle.
"I love you too."
"Good, now you have to tell me a secret!" He exclaims.
"Like what?" I ask, turning to him, and looking at him curiously.
He rubs my back whilst staring off into space, a silly smirk plastered on his face.
"I dunno, something weird about your past... I know you don't want to talk about it, but you sometimes have a distant look in your eyes. I want to know the reason for it. I don't want to feel like the protagonist of a Gary Paulsen novel."
I laugh at his last sentence dryly.
"Well, when I was in high school... I had a tiny, teeny, itty-bitty crush on my friend Ritsu, and I'm still kinda hung up on it..."
"What's so weird about that?" He asks, looking at me sincerely.
"Well..." I have taken up the habit of beating around the bush, it seems.
"What? Was he hotter than me?"
"Ritsu is... a girl..." I pat my knees awkwardly and bite my cheek.
"I still don't see why that is weird," he replies seriously.
"You don't?"
"Not really. I mean, I like girls, you like girls. It's like we are bros or something. Wanna talk about who we slept with last night? I'll start. You,"
he jokes and I push him off the bench playfully.
"You're such a dork."
And to think, it is 10 years later...
Akiyama
Walking down the dark intersection between First St. and Amistad Dr., I see a figure crouched down, leaning against a wall, smoking a cigarette. I immediately think of my old friend Ritsu, who had started smoking in our third year of college. I surreptitiously slink my way toward the figure. I watch as they reach into their front shirt pocket to pull out their box of stogies, and as they did so, the sleeve of their flannel shirt rode up and I could see a hospital band around their wrist. They rattle the carton of cigs and pull out what seems to be the last one. They put it in their mouth and light it with a Zippo. In the brief light from the lighter, I can see their facial features well enough to realize that this is, in fact, a woman. Probably around my age. I wonder why she was in the hospital? And I wonder why she is crouching alone on the corner smoking a cigarette... As I wonder this, she runs her fingers through he hair that is about 5 cm above her shoulders. As she does this, I notice something. This woman with short amber hair, wearing torn up jeans cuffed at the ankles and a red plaid flannel shirt, is Ritsu Tainaka. Without thinking, I walk up to her and stand right in front of her.
She looks up at me.
"Where've you been?" I ask.
I have finally found my prince. I have found my prince 10 years later.