NejiTen month day 17

August 17/2021

Prompts: Soul mate / Yearning

Alternate Universe

.

.

.

Day 17. Soul mate

.

She stopped in her tracks and tried to remember the directions she had been given, "you go out the door, right to the bottom, down the stairs, then left to the fire extinguisher, turn left again a few steps to the caution sign, then right and it's the fourth door." She took a deep breath, she wasn't sure she had turned at the extinguisher it was as there were two just a few feet apart. Now after what was supposed to be the last turn, she was facing a hallway full of doors. Doors side and side and she didn't know exactly how to count them to know which one was the fourth.

She walked slowly, seeing that one of the lights was on, so she advanced there. She looked out and smiled when she realized that this was the place she was looking for. She went inside without noticing that her foot moved an object on the floor that was blocking the door. What was it she had been looking for? Oh yes! The pointer for the teacher.

She saw a thousand ledges and shelves, with no idea where to start looking. Maybe it hadn't been a very good idea to offer herself to be the one to look for the pointer when she wasn't even at her school. But the first thing was that she liked to help, and the second thing was that she was falling asleep in that speech that they had had to attend in that institute. That's why she had been given the precise directions to get to that storeroom. She approached one of the shelves and had taken in her hands something that she didn't know what it was when she heard a door slam that made her scream.

"What? No!" it was a boy's voice, and only then she realized she wasn't alone, "You!" he pointed at her.

"Who, me?"

"Why did you remove the object I placed to prevent the door from closing?" he showed her in his hands something that looked like a heavy paperweight.

"I didn't remove anything," she defended herself.

"It didn't move by itself," he moved it in the air, "and it was there for a reason."

"Well, I don't know what happened, but it wasn't me," she replied, crossing her arms, "besides, what's the problem?"

"The door can't be opened from the inside, we all know it, and that's why we always put something to avoid being locked in."

"I didn't know that."

"Evidently, you don't even study here," now he pointed to her skirt and the shield on her coat. "Why did they send you?"

"I volunteered," she advanced towards the door, moving the knob and noticing that it didn't move. "Why the fuck do you have a door that can't be opened from the inside? Haven't other students been locked in?"

"Yes, that's why we put something to prevent it."

"And why doesn't someone fix the door? That would be more efficient."

"Sure," he said in an ironic tone, "you tell it to the directives of the institute, maybe you have better luck than the whole student body," she only tried again to move the doorknob, surely it had some trick or something to loosen it. When she felt her desperation growing at the prospect of being locked in, she started banging on the door loudly while shouting

"HELLO! IS ANYONE OUT THERE? LOCKED IN STUDENTS," the young man next to her covered his ears and saw her wrong, but decided to ignore him, "SOMEBODY! GET US OUT OF HERE!"

"It's useless, no one passes by here and even less today when they are all in the auditorium and the east halls because of your high school visit."

"What does that mean? Are we going to die here?"

"Don't be dramatic," he calmly went to wherever he was before, "it's just a matter of waiting for the cleaning staff or security to make their rounds when they close the school."

"What?"

"It's unlikely that anyone will come before then."

"I'm not going to stay here locked up for four hours!" Besides there was the issue that she had gone for something that the teacher needed, surely when they noticed that she didn't come back they would send someone else. "I know!" she said smiling, "I'll call my friend and she can tell someone to come and rescue us."

"Do you have any signal?" it was a sarcastic tone that she ignored, taking out of the pocket of her skirt the cell phone and cursing out loud, "as I said, it's a matter of waiting."

"What if I want to go to the bathroom?"

"Are you two years old and you can't hold it?" she pouted angrily, "there's one at the back."

"Thank you."

Although she really didn't feel like it, she had only asked out of curiosity. The boy continued where he was and she looked around, not knowing what to do. In the end she opted to sit on the floor and check what games she had on her phone that didn't require connection and wouldn't drain the battery in ten minutes. It was useless, almost everything she had required data, so she looked for some of her digital books, she could advance the reading she had pending for next week's literature essay.

It wasn't long before she began to yawn, remembering precisely that she had volunteered for the task because she was falling asleep. What if she slept while someone came to rescue them? It didn't seem like a good idea, she didn't know anything about the young man she was trapped with, and from his attitude so far, she doubted he would be kind enough to wake her up in case someone opened the door. She yawned again, stretching her arms out and then resting them on her head for a moment. There she had an idea, the clasps in her hair!

"What are you doing?" she didn't know where exactly it came from, only that again he was at her side as she tried to concentrate on her new mission, "I think you've been watching too much television, that doesn't work."

"Have you tried it?" she asked with her gaze fixed on the lock as she moved her clasps from side to side trying to get something through

"No, but it's obviously fake."

"I've opened doors in my house with a knife. Do you have a knife?"

"Of course not, why would I have a knife?"

"Then shut up, at least I'm trying to do something, not like you."

"I did something, I had an object preventing the door from closing," she rolled her eyes, trying for a while longer before snorting in frustration, "I told you so."

She went back to where she was sitting before, trying to think of something else. Her parents had once hidden her favorite candy for her in the huge room next to the kitchen that was the cupboard, it took her no more than five minutes to successfully pick the lock that kept her from getting in. Although that time what she had done was to stick a knife through the crack in the door, a small space between the frame and the lock that facilitated her goal. Which that hated place didn't have.

"What are you doing here if all the students are at the event?"

"The professor excused me because I'm working on my degree project, I need some materials from here."

"Are you a senior?"

"I think that's implicit in the words 'degree project'."

"With that humor you must be one of the most popular students," she mumbled.

"What?"

"I said my name is Tenten," she waved her hand as a greeting from where she was sitting

"Neji Hyūga."

"Well, Neji. Nice to meet you, your high school sucks."

"Thank you, likewise."

.

She had stood up and walked from side to side, trying not to fall asleep, she had searched among the shelves for something interesting or that would capture her attention to entertain her, but it was useless. She laughed when she saw the pointer, taking it to leave it somewhere else in case they were released, which she doubted more and more. With each passing minute she was beginning to believe Neji's words more and more about having to wait for the guard or the cleaning people to come by.

She went to the restroom and after making sure her skirt was neatly arranged, she returned to where she was. Had no one really noticed her absence? Didn't the teacher need the damn pointer anymore? It wasn't worth wasting herself on that, for the moment she just had to concentrate on keeping calm. She wasn't claustrophobic but it was definitely a somewhat stressful situation. After another half hour or so she gave up, she'd rather unload her phone than stay bored. Although she would probably be twice as bored once it was turned off.

She was something like an amateur amateur fortune teller and so she had downloaded an application that allowed her to practice a little, curiously it didn't require connection but it consumed quite a lot of battery. She closed her eyes for a moment concentrating, trying to release her energy and prepare herself, thinking about the questions she wanted to ask. First and foremost, was she going to get out of there soon?

The card that appeared was the inverted Hierophant which made her laugh, she was in a place with no way to get out or have an open mind. Yes, it definitely was.

Why was she stuck there? It was a rhetorical question, not really that she expected the cards to give her a specific answer or anything, yet she inadvertently pressed to uncover a new card and now let out a laugh. Her answer had been the inverted Wheel of Fortune.

"Of course it's unexpected circumstances!" she said as if the card would hear her, and forgetting that she wasn't alone.

"Excuse me?"

"What? Oh! I'm sorry," she laughed again, "I was talking on my phone."

"And does it answer you?" she tilted her head to the side without understanding, "talking to objects is not normal, but it is usually acceptable. Now, if the object answers you, you need a mental hospital."

"I'm not crazy, and what answers me is the application," she pointed to the screen, "I'm in a tarot application, I ask it things and the cards give me the answer."

"Do you believe in that nonsense?"

"That's so..."

"So cancer? I've heard it before," he told her reluctantly, "and no, I don't believe in horoscopes either."

"I was going to say so inconsiderate, didn't anyone teach you to be polite or... I don't know, decency?"

"Just to tell the truth? It's called being honest."

"Anyway, you go on about your business, and I'll go on about mine," she returned her attention to the phone, trying to think of a new question. But now she felt sulky and not in the right mode to follow what she was doing.

"Do you really believe in that?"

"Why, so you can keep making fun of me?"

"It seems a bit silly to me that people leave their fate to something as random as cards or believe that because they are born on a specific day their luck is different."

"So you're a Mr.-I-make-my-own-fate."

"No, I didn't say that."

"Then what did you say?"

"I said that it is absurd to put all your decisions and your fate on a random answer given by an inanimate object or by reading something written by the social communication intern at the newspaper."

"But then do you or don't you believe in fate?"

"Of course, we all have a defined fate."

"That doesn't make sense, you don't believe that cards tell your fate, but you don't believe that it can be changed either."

"Our fate is traced and every decision we make will bring us closer to it, it doesn't change just because some cards say so."

"So your fate was to be stuck here today?"

"No..."

"Then why did you put the object to prevent the door from closing? There was no way you could have known I was coming, if your fate had already said you were going to be locked in here for a couple of hours you could have closed the door from the start and saved me being stuck here with you."

"What?"

"That," she wasn't entirely sure what she had said either, "you can't believe and not believe in fate at the same time."

"Isn't that what you believe when you ask the cards? Don't you follow it because they tell you to?"

"I think we all define it as we live, the cards give a glimpse of what might happen but they aren't an exact science."

"It's a phone app that has been programmed by a computer scientist to give certain cards randomly on each toss, probably aligned to your phone's search algorithm to give 'answers' based on what you yourself have previously supplied."

"Works offline."

"That doesn't change much, it could have been nurtured when you did have a signal. Or it could simply be programmed with all the variables that can be presented taking into account the number of cards and you think it is answering a question because you are looking to adapt the result to your daily life."

"No, it doesn't."

"Denying it won't change things, neither will it change the fate that has already been mapped out, nor the fact that we can do nothing to alter it."

"We aren't thoughtless beings, we have free will and each person reacts in unexpected ways to different situations. You can't predict what will happen."

"Neither can your cards," Neji was about to say something else when he heard from outside that they were moving the knob.

"Look! One more proof, you failed to believe that we would be here until the day was over. Humans are unpredictable, hence fate is changed."

"No, it was still among the possibilities that someone would need something from this storeroom. We are in a place..." she had been getting closer and stretched to silence him as their lips met.

"Come on, tell me you knew I was going to do that, genius."

The door opened and she grabbed the pointer before striding out of there, mumbling a thanks to her savior without seeing him as she felt the colors build up in her face. Why had she done that? In her childish instinct to prove him wrong, and win the argument she looked for what was the most unforeseen thing she could do, and that was the answer.

.

Many times during her adult life she happened to think about that day, about that encounter with that boy and what would become of his life. Or well, what would become of that man because he was a year ahead of her, and now at her age they were definitely not teenagers anymore.

She remembered that kiss, or attempt at, that although it hadn't been her first one, somehow it seemed that way to her. That time when she returned to her friend, she told her that she had been locked up but not exactly what had happened, thinking if maybe she should look for him or talk to him. Because she wouldn't deny that she had found him attractive, even if his attitude was somewhat unbearable. But that afternoon she had gone to eat sushi with her parents, and the next day she woke up with food poisoning that had her on medical leave for the next few days they were at the other high school.

And after that she chickened out, letting the days go by without going to look for him, and when the school year ended she knew she had lost any chance or anything like that. Neji was in his senior year and had graduated, so she knew nothing of his whereabouts.

Neji Hyūga, she had never forgotten that name. It was funny because she had forgotten many bad relationships she'd had, but not that fleeting encounter with someone who had been unconsidered. The way she thought about it every now and then it seemed like it would have been that first love that you don't get over or think it will be forever.

She was about to leave the office, waiting for the clock to show that the day was over. She had already finished her pending tasks for that day so she opened the tarot app, at her thirty-five she was still an amateur in the matter, and it still entertained her to do it. She closed her eyes for a moment as she thought of a question to ask, opening them she touched the screen, starting to laugh as she saw that the card that appeared was the Lovers.

The last time she had seen that card it was upside down, bringing with it shortly after the breakup of her four-year relationship. She had been single for almost a year, unsure if she wanted a new relationship, but she found it curious that the card was right-side up, which meant that someone was likely to enter her life. She cast a new card, this time getting the Star, also right-side up.

Rejuvenation and a new love, she wanted to laugh because that wasn't exactly what she had asked. Since she had time, she threw one last card. While it was best to be able to do a full reading and evaluate what the cards showed regarding her past, present and future, sometimes she would make short shrift like that. Her laughter was inevitable when the new card was the Ace of Wands, possibly she should open others, but at that moment one of her coworkers peeked in the door and asked her if she wanted a ride.

"Sure," she accepted without hesitation, grabbing her purse and putting the phone away.

Her car had broken down, and would be in the repair shop until the weekend. On the way she kept thinking over and over about the three cards, and what could be not only an obvious but imminent meaning. She would still be alert, it didn't mean that the first man she came across or who asked her out would be the one who had been predicted, nor did it mean that she would accept proposals from any stranger.

"This wasn't on the GPS," only then she returned her attention to the route, a street had been closed for construction, "I'll have to go around this."

"Don't worry, I'll get off here."

"No, how do you think that," denied her companion, "it won't take long."

"It's just a couple of blocks on foot, it's fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, thank you very much for the ride," she loosened the seat belt and opened the door, "see you tomorrow."

She adjusted her coat slightly, it was getting a cold wind that was sneaking under her clothes, and for a second she regretted getting out of the car, but instead of thinking about that she preferred to start walking, she would warm up with the movement. She was wrong, next to her building there was a coffee shop and she shivered her way in. She walked to the cashier to order a latte to help her heat up.

She received the carton glass and stood with her hands around it to enjoy how warm it felt, a couple of seconds later she finally went to the station with the sugar, cream, and cinnamon. She was mixing everything when she heard the door open and for some reason her eyes went there, freezing and this time it wasn't because of the cold, but because of what she was seeing. Or who she was seeing, because those clear eyes were unmistakable and despite all the years that had passed, she recognized him at once. Was it him that the cards had referred to?

"Neji," she muttered to herself and as if she had shouted it he turned his gaze towards her. Squinting for a second, he didn't recognize her, and that made her feel stupid. She still remembered that day with perfect clarity and he didn't. She looked down and reached for the drink cap so she could leave.

"Wait, Tenten!" she had already left the cafeteria when she heard the shout that made her stop. He had gone after her, and for a moment they were both silent. "I don't know if you remember me, although I don't think you were locked up with some other idiot."

"Neji Hyūga," she answered, "and you'd be surprised at the answer to the second thing," she smiled sideways, waiting for him to say something else. But there was only silence.

"I never knew your last name," he finally spoke, "I looked for you the next day, and the whole week, but you didn't come back." her eyes widened like plates. "I didn't have your last name to look for you"

"Ama, Tenten Ama."

"I'd buy you a coffee, but..." he pointed to the glass she was holding and she smiled, "I'm going to buy one for me, shall we drink it together?"

"I would love to."

.

.

.

This applies to soul mate? not sure, but I liked it.

See you tomorrow!

.

All corrections and comments are always well received, they help me improve a lot.

Hope you like it.

.

Att: Sally K