For science—manual works.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

I look forward to tomorrow

but I can leave yesterday behind

how it feels so strange

to have grown and changed

Now it's not the same

Coz time slips and slides to another place

And try as we might to understand each other

It doesn't really matter where you are

it always seems so very far.

-Fruitcake (Eraserheads)

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

'He's here….

He's here….'

Who would thought that this was how everything was supposed to go? The emotions started coming back as she stared at him from her seat. Her whole body froze as her hands curled into fists. Everything was there—the fear of losing him, the anger because he left her, the anxiety of what kind of life he has right now. Was he married? Confused on why was he here, happiness of seeing him again, sadness because she knew that despite how much she hated him, how much she loathed him, she still loves him.

But Maya also remembered how horrible he made her feel when he left her. It was the worse thing that she experienced, and she hated him so much for it. There were times before when she missed him so much that she would cry a lot, lying on her bed until her head ached. There were times when she wanted to die so bad, times when she wanted to look for him…the horrible times when she missed him.

And when she realized that he wasn't really going to come back, what remained was the anger.

No, it wasn't the love.

Mitsuomi, who was looking straight at the principal office' door, did not even once glance back.

And Maya was so relieved that he did that. She didn't want to do anything about him anymore. Her hands involuntarily took the red pen and she continued checking the papers to resume her work. Mitsuomi never saw her that day.

"Takayanagi Mitsuomi?!" Dedu-sensei called. He was surprised that Mitsuomi was here.

"Dedu-san, is that you?" Mitsuomi asked when he saw his former office mate. "Wow, you've really changed a lot." It was true that Dedu-sensei changed a lot because five years ago, his hair wasn't white.

And when Maya heard Mitsuomi speak, she barely managed to finish the check mark that she wrote. His voice was so much deeper, she took a small glance at him again and saw his flawless beauty. But she was not going to fall for this again. Not after he left her, no! Not after he caused her so much pain…

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The whole floor smelled like cigar and the dim florescent light bulbs were the only thing that made the place more alive. There were indoor plants at the corner beside the chair, and a huge imitation of "The Scream" painted by Edvard Munch placed beside the elevator. The walls were painted pastel orange and the floor was made of black marble tiles; A huge window that was made of stained glass portrayed a picture of naked Adam and Eve was at the other end of the floor. There was only one room at this floor and Emi Isuzu had no idea how she got into this mess.

Slowly, the polished beautiful door that was adorned by a scary looking eagle, still made of wood, opened. A tall blonde girl went outside. She was wearing a smart suit: White high heeled shoes, stockings, navy blue pencil skirt, sky blue coat, and her beautiful blonde hair resting on her shoulders.

"May I help you, young lady?" She asked.

"Yes please. I'm Emi Isuzu…I was the one who was applying for secreta—"

"Ah, yes! I remember you." The blondie said. Then she looked at her wrist watch and said, "But I'm afraid you have to go back at three o'clock. There's this intermission with the boss."

"Ok…Maybe I'll just leave." Emi said as she stood up. Then suddenly, there was this loud shout from inside the boss' office. "Where are you?! You bastard, come here at once! You didn't show up for the meeting!"

The blondie just frowned and motioned for Emi to go away. "He's in a bad mood. You don't want to go near him." She mumbled.

Emi just nodded and headed towards the elevator. She pressed the down button when suddenly, the wooden doors from the other side of the hallway, opened. Emi looked back and saw the 'boss' himself. And he was everything that she imagined. He turned to the blondie who he called by the name, "Makiko".

"Call my private security tell them to look for Mitsuomi, ASAP. Or else, they're all going to be fired!"

Makiko quickly grabbed her phone and punched in some numbers. The boss, who we probably know as Dogen Takayanagi, turned to Emi who was at the other side of the hallway. She was waiting for the elevator, remember?

"You," he called, addressing to her. "Why are you here?!"

Emi summoned up every little bit of courage from her and answered him. "I was…I was the one who applied for secretary, sir." She mumbled.

"You?! I thought that you were supposed to be here an hour ago!"

"B-but she said that I should go…" Emi said as she pointed to the Blondie who was still talking on the phone.

"Oh…Fine, go back at three sharp." Then he walked away, back to his office.

Then the elevator' doors opened and she went in, still unaware of what was happening here.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Where have you been, huh? You were gone for a long time…" Dedu said. Mitsuomi just shrugged. Obviously, he didn't want to talk about it. "Hey," Dedu said. "Do you still remember your former student? Natsume Maya?"

And then, with the sudden mention of her, his eyes lightened up a bit. "Yeah, I remember her. What about her? How is she?"

Dedu just laughed and said, "Maybe you should ask her those questions yourself."

"What do you mean? Is she here?"

"Yeah. She became a substitute teacher in Physics."

"Wow…" he mumbled. "Where is she?"

And in that conversation, starting when Maya heard her name being mentioned by Dedu, she already knew that there was going to be trouble. Mitsuomi would go towards her, she knew that he's going to talk to her…probably explain everything that happened five years ago. But of course, she didn't want to hear Mitsuomi's excuses. It could be a lie and all she could do was to stand up from her desk and crawl back to a place where he wouldn't see her. Maya took her handbag and scurried into the washroom before anyone saw her.

Inside the washroom…

The cubicle's door slammed shut when Maya went inside. She hanged her bag by the door and sat on the toilet's seat cover. "shit," she mumbled, again and again.

'How could he?! I shouldn't see him right now, damn it!' she thought.

Her pulse thumped like mad; the blood was racing as fast as it could in her.

'Has he planned this? What the hell is he doing in here?! What if he knows that I work here? What if he really planned to see me today? This is dangerous. I could kill him for this. Imagine that! Leaving me without saying good bye and showing up after five years, what does he think do I feel? Is he expecting me to forgive him?'

…

The anger she felt did not subside, nor the warm feeling in her chest.

After a few minutes of thinking, she realized how childish it was of her to hide from him. Didn't she promise to herself that she'd get over him?

Now when she thought that she got over; after many years, he returned. And here she is, telling herself that there was still a little bit of affection left for him. It was hard to decide if she should face him now or not. And if she did talk to him, what will happen? If he starts talking about what happened to them in the past, would anger take over? Would the two of them make a scene? A bad one?

So Maya stood up from the toilet seat, took her bag, and unlocked the cubicle's door. She sighed and pretended to wash her hands on the sink as she thought of what to do next.

And the decision was done once the faucet automatically turned off. She was going out there to face him...and she would be clever enough to not start a fight...she would try to do this the way grownups do. She wasn't a teenager anymore.

Maya took the hairbrush in her bag and combed her hair, re-touched her makeup, and sprayed a bit of perfume. She did this so that once Mitsuomi sees her, he'd regret that he left her…it was all about revenge, she guessed.

But she was about to go home anyway and she never had the heart to fight back. She didn't like revenge but maybe she should try it just for the day. Maybe he'll see how stupid he was to let go of someone like her. After looking at the mirror, she decided to take off the tan coat since it was a bit humid. It didn't fail to show a bit of her cleavage but she still looked elegant in it.

Then here it came, she'd go out there and probably say hi…or maybe she should just pretend that she didn't see him and just walk out the door.

The knob twisted and she came out. The hand bag in her arm and the tan coat in her other hand. Her eyes looked for him, from left to right but she didn't see him anywhere so she went back to her desk where she last saw him and stuffed some of the unchecked papers in her bag so she could check those at home.

Mr. Dedu approached her and gave her an envelope from the Biology teacher. She was supposed to make some kind of article or whatever that was to be posted at the faculty bulletin board.

"Where were you awhile ago, Maya-chan? Your former Physics teacher was here." Dedu said.

"You mean Mitsuomi-sensei? He was here?" she asked as if she didn't know.

"Mitsuomi-kun was here because he wanted to apply as Physics teacher but I'm not sure if the principal allowed him because we still have teachers in Physics…like you." Maya nodded but she didn't say anything so he continued on talking, "When I told him that you work here, he said that he was glad and he asked me to say hi. You just missed him."

"Too bad…but I was really busy awhile ago. I may not have noticed him. I'm about to go home, Dedu-san. Please excuse me." she said as she stuffed the other papers in her drawer.

"You might meet him on your way downstairs, Maya-chan. Hurry up, he may still be there." She nodded and went away but Maya had no intentions of seeing the man she loathed the most.

o-o-o-o-o-o

Maya reached for a mug from the cupboard and filled it up with hot water. She took a teaspoon of coffee and poured a bit of milk.

"Make me one too." Shin said when he smelled the coffee from the kitchen's interior.

"Umu…" Maya mumbled as she took another mug from the cupboard. "Cream? Sugar?"

"Just plain coffee"

Maya nodded and filled Shin's cup with hot water and took some more coffee then she handed it to Shin who sat on the counter, waiting for his drink. He got off when she gave it to him and left.

"Brother" Maya called out.

Shin returned to the kitchen and looked at her sister. Maya leaned on the counter and mumbled, "Can we talk?"

"Sure…what's this about now?" he asked

"Mitsuomi…" she mumbled. He sharply looked at her and placed his mug on the counter, just beside her.

"What about him?"

"What happened to him? Where—"

"Haven't we talked about this already? It's been five years, Maya-chan. Just get over him and find someone else to love…He wanted to go away after that incident." was his answer.

"But you never told me the whole story, brother. You never answered my questions!"

Shin sighed and said, "Sometimes, its better that you don't know."

"What do you mean about that? Are you hiding something from me?"

"Maya-chan, just get over him, ok? He's not the one for you. There are other guys out there. You shouldn't be looking at just one."

"Brother, I don't love him anymore. I'm just intrigued—what happened to him?"

"Listen, back then I…I screwed up a lot." He said. "And I regret of sending him away. He's my friend. I shouldn't have done that stupid act."

"So you asked him to leave?" Maya asked, looking a bit hurt.

"Sort of…" he admitted."But I didn't expect him to obey! I guessed he wanted to keep our friendship so he just went away…He…he wasn't really serious about you."

Maya's grip on her mug tightened. This was the first time Shin shared this to her. So Mitsuomi was just playing with her all along. He never really cared. She didn't ask another question from Shin because she was afraid to know how gullible she was back in high school. She had to admit that she was hurt when she learned that Mitsuomi wasn't serious about their relationship—but she knew that this wasn't the right time to get hurt because that troublesome romance happened five years ago.

She should have moved on already. This should be the time when she already forgot; where frankly, she hasn't.

"Oh…" was the only sound she managed to mumble.

"Didn't I tell you? You wouldn't want to know the rest of the story, Maya-chan. It's too complicated. You wouldn't want to talk about it, trust me." Shin said. "And besides, he had to leave anyway. His father needed him to run the family business."

"What's his business?"

"Why are we talking about him anyway? Don't tell me that you're still interested to that guy."

"He showed up awhile ago." She said. "At the faculty room…he went there to get his job as a teacher back. We almost saw each other…"

"He went there? I thought he was just here for—I mean, how come you didn't see each other?"

"What are you talking about? You mean you know that he's here?" she asked, almost spilling the coffee on her mug.

"Yeah but he didn't mention that he was going to get his job back."

"But I thought that you were mad at him…"

"He's my friend, we used to hang out all the time…I'm sorry Maya-chan, but I didn't want to tell you about it because I was afraid that you'd get hurt. It's better if you just forget him."

"But brother I—"

"Enough of this. We should be happy of what we have right now…Past is past, Maya-chan. There are so many men in the world. Forget about him." Then he walked away. Maya just sighed and finished her coffee then went up to her room.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

MAYA…

Brother could be right about what he said. Past is past…and the both of us, me and Mitsuomi, already moved on.

If he showed up here after a long time to get his job back then he must be really serious in teaching. He didn't go back here because of me…true, I got this job because of him but I didn't get this job because I wanted to remember him!

It's been five years since we broke up and here I am, still wondering what happened to him.

It's like I had all the time in the world after he left me and yet, I never got someone to replace him. It isn't that I still love him, no. Love just felt too painful for me after my first affair and then I didn't think that I could find another man to break my heart again.

But now…now that he's back…and the possibility of me seeing him is greater…would I feel the same way I felt before? But I learned my lesson—Mitsuomi couldn't be trusted. I loved him back then…and now, it just feels so strange to be thinking of him again after a long time.

These strange thoughts about him kept bothering me even before I got to finish checking the quiz papers I brought home from work. I never even got the chance to touch it.

How could my brother keep these kind of secrets to me? I have to admit that it still left a pang of pain that Mitsuomi just left without saying goodbye, not even calling to see how I was…I felt like we just died in each other's thoughts as time passed. But that wasn't a good reason for my brother to not tell me what he knew about my ex-bf!

This was outrageous…preposterous!

I sighed…knowing that no matter how much I think about the past, it isn't going to change what's happening right now. And besides, I moved on…right?

I just sat on my study as I stared on the clock—10:15 PM…I knew I had to finish my work and check the student's quiz papers but I was already too lazy for it. My feet carried my heavy body downstairs where brother and his wife were watching TV. I decided to join them until it was already late and both of them went to sleep. I felt hungry so I went to the kitchen to get a bag of chips and when I returned to the living room, the telephone rang. I was so sure that this was Aya.

"Hello? Natsume Residence, Maya Natsume speaking—" I said. But I was wrong, this wasn't Aya.

"It's Mitsuomi." He mumbled, "I just—"

Maya hanged up. It rang again so she just pulled the dial tone cord and went upstairs to sleep.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

AN: I need your reviews for further motivation. Haha. It's been lonely when no one reviewed since my part 2 began. Wahh… so take this opportunity to flame or make me a review. See that "Review this story/chapter" button? CLICK it and tell me what you think about my story. Remember, the review button is your friend.

I hope you enjoyed what I had for you. Thank you for reading. :D