A/N: Here's chapter 2 for A promise of forever
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Thank you!
I've always loved you, and made you happy
and nothing else, could come between;
but now you've left me,
to love another one.
you have shattered all of my dreams.
you are my sunshine.
my only shunshine.
you made me happy...once.
"We are promoting you to our branch which is in England. We are assured that with a genius such as yourself, the company will be in good hands."
Misaki's smile vanished, this was so not her moment.
"En-England?" she muttered.
"Why yes! Aren't you excited?! Your tickets and everything are ready, we are only waiting for your consent."
There was silence on the other side of the table.
"What if I refuse?" She looked at him ruefully.
"But why would you leave such a great opportunity? It's good for your career", the joy in his voice disappeared.
"I-I'm not..." she was at a loss of words.
"Miss Ayuzawa, I would like you to reconsider the offer. England is a good country. And for your reply, if you refuse", there was a moment of silence but he spoke again, "I'm afraid you will have to either resign or move to our other divisions, as we already have someone for your position Miss Ayuzawa. I hope you understand that someone of your talent is not worthy of such a small position that you have right now. We only want what's best for the growth for our employees" he looked at her with a gentle smile, "You can join the other divisions too you know, Misaki", he smiled again, "You don't wanna waste your talent kiddo, I've worked with you for a long time now. I suggest you consider this offer, you have one week to reconsider."
Misaki looked at him gratefully, he treated her like a daughter regardless of their status as boss and employee.
She smiled weakly at him.
What was she going to do?
God, this really wasn't her day. She had one week to make up her mind. She didn't want to change her division, she loved her work! And she didn't want to move to England either because of some reason.
Her boss gave her a reassuring smile once again, "Now now, we should get back to work instead of getting lost in thoughts. You have a lot of time, and besides," he gave her a small grin, "If you really don't wanna go, I'll try to talk my higher-ups out of it" He lifted his hand up and gave her a thumbs up.
Misaki only smiled and excused herself out of his office. The only four words that echoed in her brain were,
"What am I gonna do?"
The rest of the day was a blur. She was too distracted to work, and too distracted to chat with her friend in the office-Haruhi, her boss' secretary. They had been friends since she had joined, being from the same university, and often had lunch together.
At last, she drowned herself in her work, everything else was a haze. She was buried in paperwork.
The last time she had glanced down at her wrist watch was after lunch, she looked at it again only to find out it was 7pm. She decided to stop for today and resume tomorrow. She got up and took her bag to leave.
She checked her phone while getting out of the office, a few calls from mom and Sakura. Sakura had been on tours with Kuuga ever since they got together and was now his tour manager. As for Shizuko, she had studied to become a professor and taught in Shinjuku University. She had maintained contact with everyone over Skype calls and texts. Everyone was so busy with their lives; she barely had the time herself.
The last she heard from Satsuki-san, Maid latte was upgraded to a high end restaurant. Aoi had become a fashion designer and didn't cross-dress anymore, although she did see a familiar looking face wearing a Victorian style dress on the cover of a magazine and she immediately she knew who it was. She had grinned and told Satsuki she would visit soon whenever she got the chance to visit the town. Her old house had been rented. All this was a month ago, she vowed to herself to call everyone up on the weekend.
Putting her thoughts aside, Misaki crossed the road. Life had to go on and she had to buy groceries which mainly consisted of fruits and instant food. She walked towards the supermarket.
The Izu supermarket was not crowded today. Since it was almost 8pm, there weren't many people in the supermarket, usually the place was so filled, one could only dream to set foot inside and come back in one piece.
Misaki thanked gods, after such an eventful day, she could only hope nothing would go bad now. She quickly grabbed a cart and started rummaging through isles. She bought everything she needed, although she was not much at home she made sure everything was stuffed. She didn't want to end up not finding some item at home and then going at midnight to buy it.
Misaki shrugged away from her thoughts as she almost-Almost barged into a mountain of canned tomatoes, as she backed off, she walked into the glass door and hit her head, thinking that it was the door. She rubbed her head embarrassedly and went to the cashier.
She packed everything in a brown paper and lifted it up, only to have everything come out of it. It couldn't hold the weight of the groceries. She sighed and picked everything up, requesting for double bags to make sure they didn't tear up again. She groaned and walked out after paying for the bill.
This was so not her day.
Misaki was snatched out of her reverie as she heard her phone ring in the other room.
She got up immediately and took a towel, after almost tripping due to her soapy feet and slippery tiles, she managed to get her phone in time. She didn't recognize the number but decided to pick it up anyway. Her parade from the bathroom would be useless if she didn't.
"Hello?" she muttered nonchalantly.
"Kaichou", the other voice said.
Arrogant bastard, Misaki thought, "I'm not the kaichou anymore idiot! Stop living in the past!" this certain person sure was getting on her nerves.
Misaki was awarded with an arrogant chuckle. Great, she scowled.
"Just what do you want? Don't you know it's absurd to call at such an ungodly hour?" Misaki pinched her temple.
"What? Can't an old friend call? We even went to college together, didn't we?" came his smart reply, his voice coated with mischief.
"I can't seem to recall the part when we became friends, while yes we did go to the same uni, our majors were different!"
"Anyways, Miss Ayuzawa, I called you so as to arrange a meeting with you. Just business", his voice went from mischief to serious.
"Just business?" Misaki raised an eyebrow.
"Just Business."
"Great, when do you want to meet up?"
"How does lunch tomorrow sound? I'll meet you at a restaurant of your choice?"
"Sure", she said.
"Alright, text me. I'll be there."
With that, the phone call ended. Misaki was still holding her purse from which she had fetched her iPhone from and keeping her towel in place, not that there was anyone to see her even if she walked around naked, Misaki was shy about her body.
As she struggled to keep her towel in place and her phone and her purse, her phone fell down and in an attempt to save it from breaking, her purse fell too. Everything spilled out of it. Pens, wallet, Business cards, credit cards, a lipstick, some tissues here and there, and her flip phone.
She almost did not notice her flip phone came out rolling from the purse as she was busy picking up her things and shoving them back into the god darn purse. She almost didn't notice her flip phone.
"Ayuzawa"
"What baka Usui?! Shouldn't you be sleeping right now? What time is it anyway?"
"Misaki", came the smooth velvety voice.
Misaki froze in her spot as she heard the recording being played on her old phone. The things that were stuffed in her arms fell down as she stood there.
"We need to talk, Misaki", He said, in a more stern tone, which made her insides churn.
It still sent a shiver down her spine.
"WH-What happened Usui?! Stop scaring me like that! What do you want to talk about?" Misaki heard her former self say.
Her past self.
Her 17 year old self.
"Let's break up. I'm sorry.", and with those words, the phone call ended.
Misaki stood there, dumbfounded. It was like time froze. It was like she was brought back in time six years ago. She just stood there, processing the words again, as if she hadn't listened them before.
After what felt like ages, Misaki moved. She went towards her phone, and picked it up. She stared at her phone
And threw it at the wall.
The phone collided against the wall, and fell down.
It was funny how a non-living object was able to cause her so much pain. She didn't know how many times the same scenario had repeated itself. Something or the other would happen-be it pressing some wrong buttons or opening the recordings herself. She would listen to this particular recording, throw her phone, cry, and then keep the phone back.
She could never make herself delete the recordings-the memories, or just throw the source of the problem altogether-her phone. No matter how heartbreaking it was to listen to, she could never get rid of it. Even if she deleted it, it would not help matters. Every conversation she ever had with Usui was embedded onto her mind. It would only take the one thing of Usui she was left with away.
She remembered that after Usui had left for England, she had made a habit of recording their phone calls so that she would listen to his voice when she missed him too much. At that point in her life, she was finally happy. Nothing was perfect, but he made it flawless. She had missed him so much when he went to England. That moment, Misaki had decided to not cry over his absence and be his weakness. Misaki had decided to become his strength. They would maintain contact over email and phone calls, and Misaki would listen to those recordings in moments of loneliness.
She didn't want to burden him. He was already in a sticky situation considering his relationship with the Walker family, she didn't want him to worry for her. Everything had been fine that time, even if he was away, he was still with her. He had made a promise of forever to her. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that Usui would cut all ties with her.
It had been six years since she had last heard from him, but every time she would hear this recording, this 30 second phone call, it would all come back. She noted how his voice sounded cold and distant that day, how he broke up with her without any fuss.
Misaki called him, every day. She would cry and cry and cry, and call him, text him. She would send him so many messages, but never did a reply come. It had taken her months to even realize that he really had left her for good. For once, she had even decided to go to England and ask him what the fuck was he thinking. She wanted to confront him directly.
It was also a possibility that The Walker family had persuaded him to cut all ties with her by playing some dirty trick on him. But she decided against it the day she was shown a photograph of Usui and some other girl on the cover of a magazine, courtesy of Aoi-Chan. The caption had said, "The Prince has finally returned to his Darling", Needless to say, she knew that Usui had found someone else. She vowed to never cross paths with him again.
His memories still haunted her. She had wished to lock his memories away from her heart for good. At the remembrance of the simplest touch, or a passionate kiss, or the presence that was Takumi Usui, her scars would become fresh, her body would start to shiver, her body would freeze, and hot tears would flow.
She had tried to move on, she did, but it was easier said than done. Every time she would try to move on, something would remind her. She could not forget him.
Misaki sat down on the floor with her back against the wall. Tears flowed out from her eyes and they were welcomed.
After a long time, Ayuzawa Misaki cried.
please tell me what you guys thought ;)...What are your thoughts? and where is Takumi?! D; and whats wrong with Misaki?