4c. Regret
Alicia Blade
318 words
"You're going to regret this."
Mamoru stubbornly shook his head, not even wanting to hear the words Motoki was most fond of saying. "You're wrong."
Motoki clucked his tongue. "I know a lot more about relationships than you do, and I know that you're going to regret not telling her. Someday you're going to be old and lonely and you're going to remember that beautiful girl that made life worth living and you're going to hate yourself for never telling her so."
"Do you even realize what you're asking? For me, of all people, to tell her, of all people, that I… I…"
"That you…?"
"See! I can't even say it to you!" he hissed, slumping back with folded arms. "I can't tell her. And trust me, even if I could, it would be a huge mistake. She would laugh at me and then she would avoid me and I would never see her again. And that is something that I would always regret."
Motoki shook his head. "Old and lonely, Mamoru. Old and lonely."
Scowling, Mamoru drained his coffee and crawled out of the arcade booth. "I'm already old and lonely."
On his way to the glass doors he saw her—face red and eyes ablaze as she fought her way to the final level of Sailor V. His heart sped. His palms sweated. "Hey, Odango, fail any tests today?"
Her shriek from afar alighted on his ears like a sweet melody. Her stifled curse, her hands pounding on the controls, her wail: "Mamoru-baka, you made me lose!" sent him proud and chuckling to the busy sidewalk.
But Motoki was right. Just a little bit right. Even all the joy of seeing her, hearing her, teasing her, could not come close to the fantasies he harbored of caressing her, kissing her, growing old with her.
And buried deep in his echoing laughter was a whisper of regret.
