I didn't expect to see you here
Narita Airport: 10:23 AM
Hikigaya Hachiman has seen plenty of things in his still youthful existence, he has experienced pain, he has experienced white lies and superficiality. He deemed it intrinsic of his still youthful being, after all there's a reason why the Elder folk associates youth with being naive and unsuspecting of the beating that life will inevitably tip you with. Hachiman has long decided to train his reflexes for when the beatings come, in a sort of way he's been wronged so bad, that at this point he's as good as Yabuki Joe no less…errr on second thought,it's best if he's not associated with an ending as tragic as that one.
But this young fellow Hikigaya has seen good things as well. Despite his permanent grogginess and his competitive cynicism that could win him an Olympic gold medal should the IOC make cynical discussion an event, he once experienced a genuine feeling. A long gone genuine feeling that could actually be the direct responsible for his exacerbated misery.
Ah that beautiful ice. He sometimes reminisced. A chilly sensation that paradoxically made him feel as warm as Fuji-san itself back in the Edo period. That ice came from a woman he yearned for, he would remember copious amounts of emotions he discovered back in his days in Sobu high, amounts that couldn't be measured in metric or Imperial systems.
It was just so authentic, never before nor ever again had he encountered someone with whom he could talk about anything, it would literally take one of the two to mention a simple thing like the temperature of the water to trigger a back and forth duel of preparation and quick time reaction that would extend themselves for as long as they had to or when the first (usually Hachiman) decided to throw the towel.
And all of it was gone now, she would call it a divergence of interests between the two, a divergence that wasn't convenient for either of them to try to make parallel again, for it would only suppose a free heartache that was best avoided.
Those were her words if he recalled correctly. Words that tore his heart apart like a torture machine used during the holy inquisition, but he wouldn't delude himself, he just knew he wasn't the only one that felt it, she obviously didn't want to part ways with the one that carries eyes of deceased fish.
But it couldn't be helped anymore, his favorite person in his life went to Osaka. They witnessed the seasons come and go, and they desired for the other to remain at their side, but again, life will give you a generous tip of kick in the balls, no matter how good your service was.
And he couldn't nor he would want to curse her name because she left him and his heart in Chiba, after all he left too, but that girl. Yukinoshita Yukino. She was something incomparable.
He didn't see it but her decision to save herself and fly solo broke her heart. Albeit she couldn't say her pursue of an ambitious career and revolutionary role as Vice-president of Yukinoshita.Co and administrative hold on the Kansai region company operations, she cried tears of diamond to this day, for she was oh so well aware that there wouldn't be a second Hikigaya Hachiman, not in her life, not on this corner of the world.
Despite this pain and emotional toll, they moved on, or at the very least they tried, if they went through with destroying the indestructible bond they had, they should carry on with the losses and the pain, there was nothing left to do. So Hikigaya Hachiman and Yukinoshita Yukino moved forward. They are now 27 and 26 years old respectively.
Hachiman left his beloved homeland of Chiba and his albeit convenient, unrealistic aspiration of becoming a stay-at-home husband and was now located in the city of Chiyoda. Well, not right now, as he was now in the Tokio airport of Narita about to depart for Mexico City.
He held a gig at Hakusensha editorial. since he figured he could redirect his literary and lexical prowess to make some money for himself.
He was surprised that the editorial actually agreed to hand him some budget and expenses for a "research and purposes of historical accuracy voyage". You see, his winner idea of a novel was that of a Japanese soldier during the Kamakura shogunate (obviously he picked that timeframe because the name of his cat during his teenage years. but also because it matches the years in which the Mexican city of Tenochtitlán was founded) is somehow transported to the mesoamerican metropolis. You see, Hachiman in his free time watched a documentary on ancient Mexico, and realized that this ancient civilization was relatively unknown to the Japanese reader and started making a type of storyboard to present to his floor supervisors in the hopes it would get approved.
Hachiman grew up with his salaryman parents being treated as slaves, so with the experience of his adult figures only getting to see their children once or twice per day, he absolutely didn't expect the company would say yes with sending him across the pacific with expenses for stay and food, and with a coworker, no less. He wasn't familiar with him but all they had to do was hit some museums and libraries, hire an interpreter and toss in some náhuatl words on the outline, after that they could enjoy a two week holiday in a cheap country, and as Hachiman always said during his days in the social paramo that was Sobu high "things taste and feel better when you didn't have to work for them". So of course he wanted in.
"Na, Hikigaya-kun" he was adressed by his senior.
"¿What is it Teshima-Senpai?"
"¿Aren't you hungry? Care to grab a bite?"
"¿Are you shitting me? Teshima-senpai, I told you to grab a bento box at the station, airport food is a rip-off, I would very much so like to have a full budget before even leaving Japan."
"Yeah, yeah I get it Hikigaya-kun. I'll grab something cheap ¿so where we going?"
"Suit yourself, I'm not hungry" Hachiman responded somewhat annoyed.
"Heh, you're no fun Hikigaya-kun-" his senior's tone didn't sound at all like that sly little fox his words made him remember, but still, having a 29 year old dude saying the same thing Isshiki Iroha said to him during highschool made him recoil and cringe.
"-anyways, here's some part of the money so you can fetch yourself a drink or something, we're not boarding in another hour" his senior told him before putting a 5,000 yen note in his hand. If he was to buy a drink Hachiman knew what he wanted. Unfortunately after 15 minutes of wandering through every vending machine and convenience shop of the terminal he found no trace of the yellow can or bottle of sweetness and joy, grumbling he thought to himself:
Hmmm, maybe I can somehow reference MAX coffee as the drink of Gods in the novel instead of that Xoc-¿Xoco? Xocolatl I think it was, agh ancient hot chocolate. What I mean is that not even the ancient Mexica Gods and their puny drink can compare to the superiority of MAX hehe He realized that the store clerk heard him mumble something about Gods and coffee and was looking at him like he was mentally retarded, so he grunted a little embarrassed and bailed. After another tour around the international flights terminal he settled for a regular coffee shop.
The rich smell of tea brewing hit him in the face as he entered the place. Back some years ago he couldn't even think of tea without falling into chronical depression for around 20 minutes, but now he just sighed at the memory of the Ice cold beauty with red ribbons serving tea in the service club. He ordered a moka coffee to fill in the sugarless void caused by the absence of his precious Max, and pulled out a book he bought some days ago.
The Popol Vuh is neither from the same civilization nor timeframe that he wanted to write about, but if the legendary novelist Mishima Yukio praised the greatness of this book and the ancient peoples of Mexico and Guatemala it was worth giving it a read. When it was down to 25 minutes before boarding he got a text from his senior coworker to get his ass up from wherever he was and to head to their gate.
Sender: Hikigaya 8man
Oi, I'm heading there in a minute Teshima-senpai, leave me alone.
Some more time passed before Hachiman realized another 14 minutes were gobbled up by reading and enjoying some Max substitute.
"Ah fuck" he said while bolting out of the coffee shop.
After running like an idiot towards his gate in which Teshima would be waiting for him he passed near a gate with arriving passengers that he had to avoid when he overheard a soothing voice he only heard when he daydreamed in the office.
"Nee-san, in several occasions I informed you of this, there were no flights available between Melbourne and Osaka. I'm not in Kansai, I'm currently at Narita…"
By instinct after hearing this cherished voice and hearing the mention of that city Hachiman turned his head around to the direction of the voice and almost had a heart attack.
"¿Hi…kigaya-kun?
his heart rate betrayed him with this unexpected calling of his name that almost brought him to his knees, but only his heart was actually aware of what was happening. After another minute or so of a gazing standoff between two dumbfounded people Hachiman decided to open his mouth.
"Yukino"
He stopped himself from calling her by her family name, after all this time thinking about her, he couldn't just go back to that time in the service club in which they were both assholes to each other, Yukino meant the world to him.
Then something amazing happened between the duo, it was as if their connection never ended at all, almost telepathically could they tell what the other was thinking, since it was mutual.
I am alone, and I have no words for this.
"¿Where are you heading to? Hikigaya-un"
"Mexico City, I'm about to leave" Hachiman said regretfully
The distance between us scares me.
"Ara. ¿Mexico? And here I thought you would never leave your house if it wasn't to the bookstore in order to purchase those erotic books of yours ¿and now you're leaving Japan?"
"Hoh. I thought we left clear that I can manage expectations and surpass them."
It hurts me that you're gone.
"That would imply someone placed expectations upon your person Hikigaya-kun, I thought your reasoning and Modus Operandi was to not have expectations and not care about those that expect things."
"Hehe, that is still true." Hachiman said with a bittersweet tone.
I need your gaze.
They kept quiet for a few moments after bringing back their classic banter of their old days. They could only meet each other's stare, as a spiritual dichotomy that these two ex club mates, Sobu alumni and former lovers that they presented.
The fugu eyes stared at the blue eyes, a met gaze so genuine that resembled a koi fish dancing in a crystal pond reflecting the ever blue sky.
Both know why and who contributes the fish part of course.
I wouldn't want to say Goodbye
I forever carry our story together
Forgetting you is something I simply cannot do
I didn't expect it to end
I didn't want it to end
I don't want it to end
"I didn't expect to see you here."
"I didn't expect to see you here."
They said at the same time.