A/N: Writen for the WritersMonth2021 challenge. Choosen key word 'amnesia'.
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"Who are you?"
Yelp!
Her shoulders slumped, dejectedly. Why, out of everything, Nozaki-kun had to forget about the more recent years of his life…? Why did he have to forget all about her...?
If they were inside one of the love stories he used to write, that would have been…!
...exactly what would've happened, actually...
She pondered on this in amazement, before his penetrant stare, scrutinizing up and down, made her raise her head quickly. "Y-yes, you see, I'm…"
"My girlfriend?"
"WHAT!"
She felt her world spin, visualizing an explosion on top of her head. "W-wha- what, what…"
She stuttered so hard she suddenly understood western cartoons with bashful piggies at the credits.
"You were holding my hand."
Chiyo Sakura was rendered speechless, mouth agape with horror. "O-oh. That was…"
"Also, I have an uncommon amount of pictures of you in my cell phone."
"That's because- wait" she turned her head in his direction, blinking "Really?"
"I know I use a lot of reference pictures" he replied, "But although I have plenty of those, you are the one that's constantly appearing, over and over… Why's that?"
"Well, I… I don't know" she lowered her gaze. "Only you can know that… Ah! I mean, I know it's impossible right now, but someday you'll remember. You'll see."
Nozaki, still in the hospital bed, nodded absent-mindedly.
"Meanwhile, you need to put all your effort into recovering, and getting healthy again!" She exclaimed, eyes shining with determination, trying to change the subject to something that didn't make her have to explain why she had been holding his hand.
But then he looked at her with a deadpan expression. "I understand if you do not want to tell me."
She winced, blurting out "That's not what-!"
She stopped abruptly before completing the sentence, and he nodded again, as if he had just gained a great understanding. "Ah, I see. So that's how it is."
"What are you talking about?!"
"I'm sure I've gained a vast amount of valuable experience from this relationship" he kept going, as if he hadn't heard her the first time, smiling lightly. "It must be very very useful! I'm sure Mamiko must have greatly improved in time... "
"So you remember your manga, and your protagonists, but you do not…"
"No, I do not remember it, but someone explained it to me and brought a volume. And I don't remember you either" he said. "But I don't need more evidence to know who you are."
She dared to look at him, with a bewildered stare, her heart loudly beating, in a restless thump thump.
She just couldn't believe her luck.
The way he was looking at her was something she had never seen before!
"Look at this."
He stretched an arm, putting his hand inside a backpack near his bed. He took out one heavy volume of his manga, and opened it from the very first page.
Chiyo held her breath.
It was Mamiko, of course. But the amazing part was that never before she had noticed such a clear connection between the manga protagonist and herself. True, Mamiko had her light blonde hair tied in one beautiful ribbon… And her features, something in them almost made her believe…
"Why else would she look like you?"
His voice made her return to reality, looking at him in shock. They looked at each other, right in the eye, and she flustered, like a cherry popsicle. But she didn't turn her gaze away.
He smiled triumphantly, eyes filled with conviction. "You have to tell me all about it."
"Ohh, errr, uh-"
"All of our relationship. Since the beginning. I'll write it down."
"Don't do that please!"
"I'm sure you are used to it", he replied without looking up from the paper and pen he had just grabbed from the backpack. "As a mangaka's girlfriend. I must ask this from you very often."
As a mangaka's girlfriend.
"As a mangaka's girlfriend…"
"My girlfriend."
She felt her soul leave her body. "My... girlfriend…"
He stared at her, and she shook her head violently. "I mean your girlfriend!"
And so it was. The simultaneously worst and best decision Chiyo Sakura took in her whole life (or one of the list, at least).
I didn't want to lie to him... But I didn't lie to him...! I'll tell him the truth. I'll definitely tell him, she said to herself, nodding with certainty.
...But not just yet...
