Disclaimer: POT doesn't and will never belong to me.

Chapter 8: roles reversed and worlds apart.

One mile and another, across the hills and river

I used to run after you, my love forever

Look back, you never

My tears unseen,

My pain within,

Where have you been?

Now I am tired, I stopped; perhaps I should give up, perhaps

You turned and gave me a brilliant smile

With a sharpest knife you put a hole into my heart

With the slightest twist you killed everything within me

I dropped into the pit of darkness

I fell into the mouth of pain

Your laughter echoed into my ears

So gentle, yet now it struck fear into my absent heart

He twisted and turned in the small and lumpy bed. His troubled mind refused him the rest and oblivious he wanted. No, not troubled, his mind was a fog of pain, and his heart was strangely void of any feeling. It would make sense if one said that his heart was numbed by pain, but no matter how he prodded, all he felt was emptiness.

Fuji Syuusuke, the name which had once made him trembled with love and tenderness, now seemed like two meaningless words. His face, once an object he had beheld and loved, was nothing more than a smiling mask. It seemed that everything about Fuji had been a lie. It seemed that his entire life was a dream. It seemed that he had never lived before. It seemed…it seemed like he was betrayed, again.

The first time he parted with Fuji, he had lived through hell. The first time he parted with Fuji, he had prayed for his return. The first time he had parted with Fuji, he had abused his body and mind.

The second time he parted with Fuji, he wished it would be forever.

Never again, would he looked at that achingly familiar face, and not remember the anguish and the pain he had gone through.

Never again, would he hear the gentle voice, and not remember the despair and the lost confidence he had to live with.

Never again, would he love, without remembering a honey-browned haired boy whose presence stole his soul and sealed his heart.

Never again, would he trust.

He was afraid, he was afraid that he would forget Fuji. Not because of any noble or pretty emotion, but because he didn't want to forget the hurt Fuji had inflicted on him; he didn't want to forget his anger. He didn't want to forget his hatred.

He smiled, the first since running out the house he had known to be haven since birth, a mirthless smile. How strange, it seemed now, as if he had been a spectator, watching his entire life standing side by side with his mortal body. Everything was so unreal.

With great love comes great anger; with great passion comes great hatred. It was true, to a certain extent. He now hated Fuji, and he didn't hated Fuji with passion, no he hated Fuji with a cool anger.

Fuji Syuusuke, the great love of my life, Fuji Syuusuke, the best friend of my life, was nothing but a fraud.

Fuji sat in Tezuka's bed. This room was now his. This house was now his. This company was now his. Yet nothing mattered. He felt nothing. He had gained a lot, but he had lost his love, his soul and the best part of his life.

He was shocked when Tezuka didn't feel the same way as he did.

He was shocked when Tezuka had run out.

He was shocked when his father couldn't find him.

He was shocked when the pain hit him.

He was shocked at how Tezuka must have felt when he had left him and never looked back.

Kuni-chan, where are you? Come back to me please. I could give up everything; I could even give up my father. I had done without him for years, I think I could carry on without him, but I know for a fact that I can't do without you.

He never knew his father, to him, father was only a myth he had heard from other children. He never knew his father, he barely knew his mother. All he could remember of his mother was a gentle voice and a pair of softest hands.

It was by chance he saw his father on television. He hadn't known that the man was his father then, but he was struck by the similarities between both of them. Their hair was the same soft brown color; their eyes were the bluest of the blue.

It was, again, by chance he got to know that Tezuka was staying in Germany, and in the same city too. It was as if Fate had joined them with an unbreakable line. At that thought, Fuji laughed brokenly. Unbreakable, it seemed like with the slightest tug of trouble, the line had broken. Unbreakable, when all it took was a stupid mistake on his part to break the line. Tezuka had break all ties with him, it seemed. Tezuka had severed this line with ease, with his own betrayal as knife.

He never thought that his white lie would hurt him; he never thought that his true identity would kill their love. If only he knew, if only he could turn back time, if only… what was the use of a doting father, when the person who really mattered was forever lost to him, what was the use of knowing his true heritage when he could never love the man he love.

What was the use? When he gained everything, he lost Tezuka. Was it worth it?

Across the city, within a squalid motel, another man was questioning himself. But he wasn't interested in getting Fuji back, he was more interested in how he was going to survive, and survive well.

He could apply for a job. With his MBA, he could easily secure a high pay job. But using the qualifications he had gotten with the help of his "father" to get a job disgusted him. No, he wanted to live on his abilities, not with the lifestyle his "father" had groomed him up to.

In the end, the matter was taken out of his hands. His mother had sent one of her managers to come and pick him up. From that day onwards, he would be working for one of his mother's friends. He didn't reject, at least the help he received was from his true mother, not a man he had called "father" and had absolutely no ties to.

Executive manager that was what he was groomed to be, and that was what he became.

Ironically, he was going to use the skills he had picked from his "father" to work for his "father's" biggest business rival.

Two people, who had loved with their hearts and souls, now stood on the opposite ends of the world, each representing different family, company and meaning. Fuji, the new found heir and Tezuka the newest bachelor and the most out-going playboy in town.

Looking at the quiet success Fuji had in the musical world and in his company, Tezuka felt nothing but a lingering shadow of past grief. No longer would he smiled when he saw Fuji, never would his heart tightened when he hears about Fuji, Fuji was nothing but his rival, nothing but the past.

When Fuji read the newspaper, he would usually see Tezuka among the glamorous. His smile, which had been rare in the past, now flashed with consistency within the elegant ballrooms and the wild bachelors' parties across the town. Every time, Fuji saw the smile which hid the true Tezuka, his heart broke a little. Every time, Fuji saw the beautiful heiresses and high-class prostitutes hanging on Tezuka's arm, his heart cried a few drops of blood. Tezuka, please stop it.

Once we were one, our hearts beat in pair

Once love was in the air, our hands clasped so tightly

Once I thought this love would last till forever

Now everything changed

You were not you anymore

I was not I anymore

Worlds apart we stood

This dream had came to the end

It should end now for our love was no longer to be

This dream had came to the last note

We should wake up and forget about it

Tomorrow we would open our eyes and see another

In the mirror of our hearts

I love you

I love you not

Thou love thee

Thou love thee not

This dream had finally come to the end

Good-bye my love.

Author's note: if you are worried that this story had come to an end, worry not, I barely begun to torture this pair of lovers. Ha! Wait till the next chapter! Ja ne!