Chapter 10: The world is not a wish granting factory.
Since this is the 10th chapter, it had to be something out of the ordinary, didn't it? I would keep my tissues close by if I were you.
In another life, I would be your girl. We'll keep all of our promises—be us against the world.
In another life, I would make you stay, so I don't have to say you were the one that got away. (Katy Perry "The one that got away").
Two weeks went by smoothly. Misaki was grateful to have a change of routine and enjoyed her parents' company. They went out for sightseeing every once in a while and enjoyed their father's cooking at home. Today was their flight back to Hokkaido. Misaki's mom had filled her kitchen with healthy choice meals and vegetables. Her father had prepared lots of food and put it in the refrigerator. As for Suzuna, she had stuffed her drawers with discount coupons. Misaki sighed, her family was one whole piece of crazy cake!
It was an early Monday morning. She was supposed to get back to work today. Misaki got ready and wore a purple business suit with straight trousers. She pulled her hair up in a bun and hurried into the living room. Everyone was ready to head to the airport. Misaki came out with a cardboard box from her closet.
She opened it. She had bought some things for her family some months ago but she didn't courier it. She had decided to go to Hokkaido herself but couldn't; due to the recent turn of events. In it was a sundress for Suzuna, some hair accessories for her mother and a wrist watch for her dad. She looked at them and felt a twinge of sadness wash over her. The past two weeks had been so good, she didn't want them to go!
The journey to the airport was silent. Her dad drove while she sat in the back seat with her sister. They reached in time for the flight and the last call for the departure had been made. It was bittersweet, more on Misaki's part because she didn't know if she was ever going to see them again. She promised her Mom that she'd be home for Christmas but didn't know if she was going to be able to keep it. Somehow, broken promises reminded her of Takumi.
Hugs were exchanged. Suzuna remained stoic while her dad almost cried. How uncharacteristic, Dad! Misa sighed as they left. She kept her hand at her chest, in order to calm her fast beating heart. The last thing she wanted for to happen was breaking down in front of her family. She was supposed to be their strength, not their weakness. She waved them all off and headed straight to her office. I hate goodbyes, Misaki mumbled to herself.
Misaki reached office in time. She muttered a few greetings to her colleagues and went straight to her office. She found Miss Akira sitting inside her office, apparently, she was made to fill in till the time she was on leave.
"Good Morning" Miss Akira wished her.
"Good Morning to you too, I'm sorry to put you through so much trouble, Akira-san" Misaki bowed.
"No, No, It's all fine. I understand" She smiled.
"Hai. Thank you for your hard work Akira-san. I can take it from here" Misaki politely said.
"All right. You can take it from here" Miss Akira repeated and went to her office after handing over some documents.
The days passed away smoothly, Misaki got reacquainted to her office. Her two week vacation sure was fun but there was nothing more soothing to Misaki's nerves than an office environment and some dirty business politics.
Misaki was grateful to Miss Akira. Thanks to her, she only had little to catch up on, something she could accomplish in three to four days. She was busy with her work. It was refreshing to her.
Misaki was disturbed by a Skype call. It was her "boss". She accepted the call. Tora grinned.
"Wow I'm still not over the fact that you're back to office eh? You just couldn't wait to get back here didn't you?" Tora smirked, he was clearly happy to see her.
"Well yeah. By now you should know that I'm not the kind of person who lays in their bed all day" Misaki grinned back.
"Okay-Okay, Workaholic. By the way, need to talk with ya. Long drive in thirty minutes?" Tora said while playing with his pen.
"Do you ever work?" Misaki rolled her eyes as she pointed to him playing around with his pen.
"Only all the time" Tora sighed.
"Fine. I'll meet you in the parking lot…"
"Okay"
Misaki waved her hand playfully and ended the video call, she got back to work.
Misaki was again swamped by work and she lost track of time as she reviewed one last document. It was about some new business partner. Apparently there was some Europe based company that was going to open a branch in Japan. The company's name or details were not mentioned. Misaki thoroughly read the report. Her phone buzzed. It was a text from Tora.
Tora~ I'm waiting woman!
I totally forgot! Misaki shut down her laptop and shoved her things inside the drawer. She grabbed her things and headed downstairs.
She went down only to find a much surrounded Tora Igarashi. Sometimes she forgot that he was a frigging millionaire and the CEO of such a big company. She waved him off and he excused himself. He told his bodyguards to leave as he was going with a friend.
"Hey" Misaki said.
"Your car. Keys." Tora said exasperatedly and ran a hand through his hair. He looked pissed.
Misaki took out her keys and gave it to him. He opened the passenger's seat for her and got in. The engine roared to life and they drove off.
"You look like shit" Misaki smirked.
"Why thanks" He replied teasingly.
"So, what did you wanna talk about?" Misaki inquired.
"I need something in my system first" Tora said as he looked out for drive by restaurants. He found one soon later.
They bought burgers and French fries. Tora also got two cans of juice. He drove far away on the outskirts of town and stopped near a cliff. The road was empty and the cliff overlooked the entire town. Misaki had shown the place to Tora once. She told him how she used to come here to cool her mind. He parked the car nearby and they sat on the trunk of the car. Misaki had taken off her sandals and enjoyed the feel of grass.
"Calmed down yet?" Misaki looked at him.
Tora magically took out a bottle of wine and opened it. She didn't remember him buying it. He drank straight from the bottle and looked at her after drinking some.
"Yup. All good" He replied.
"Are you okay?" Misaki asked. He was never this stressed.
"Are you okay?" He repeated in a worrisome tone, Misaki looked at the sky which was twinkling with stars.
"I'm okay"
"Yeah, that's good" He sighed "So, we have a new business partner coming this week."
"Um, Tora, I do have something to tell you too" Her small voice interrupted Tora's tired one and sensing the seriousness in her voice, he became silent.
"What is it?"
Misaki looked up at the sky and took a deep breath. After a small pause, she smiled "It's not much important. I want you to go first"
"Okay, well, we just scored with a big corporation, got a new business partner coming this week. So I guess I'll be busier…But I still want to accompany you to the hospital tomorrow when you get your tests done"
"Oh, I read something similar in one of the reports" Misaki ignored the last part, thinking back to the document she last reviewed.
"Yeah. It's going to be profitable on our part. It's a huge corporation which is based in UK. One of the biggest organizations in all of Europe and Britain. By the way, be ready by nine tomorrow morning, I'll pick you up."
"Oh" Misaki replied.
"Aa. There is a huge event in honor of the CEO of that Corporation. It was dad's idea. A themed Masquerade Ball dance or something. I didn't quite catch it, I don't even know if it's a man or a woman" Tora ran a hand through his hair and took out a pack of cigarettes, but didn't take out any.
"This person seems like a big deal" Misaki said as she took out a cigarette and put in between her lips.
"Yeah. Dad's been eating my head off. I had my designer plan the entire thing. I just got informed about it. Wait, since when do you smoke?" he eyed her strangely as if the sun just set in the east. Misaki laughed.
"No, well…It's a metaphor"
"Metaphor?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I read it in a book…you put the thing that can kill you right between your teeth, but don't give it the power to kill you, hence not lighting it," She took the lighter from his hands and tossed it in the bushes. "So when is the dance?"
"Nice metaphor that, it's Friday night. It's a couple's entry only and I don't have a date" Tora looked at her with a smirk.
"D-Don't look at me like that! I don't even know how to dance anyway, and who would stop you from entering in your own event?" she took out the cigarette from her lips and placed it back in the pack. "I have to tell you something Tora" She said as she stood up from the trunk of the car where she had been sitting. She got up and gave him a small smile which raised all alarms in Tora's mind. What did she have to tell him?
"Don't go all weird on me. I'm listening" he said, and sat straighter, there was just something about her smile…
"Well you do know how my tests were scheduled to be tomorrow?"
"Yes I do. That's why I had my entire day scheduled" he muttered "What about it? Are you nervous or something?"
"It's not that"
"Then what is it?"
"I got the tests pre-scheduled"
"You what? When?" Tora jumped off the trunk and stood right in front of her, he held her by the shoulders and looked at her eyes, and Misaki looked away, not meeting his gaze.
"I got them done a few days ago, the results came today"
"What?" Tora shifted back, in shock, "Why didn't you tell me? Misaki?"
To that, she didn't answer, instead, she just sat down on the grass and laid down facing the infinite sky that shone.
Tora sat down, with his hands in his head, "Forget that. What did the results say?"
He followed her line of sight and found himself staring at the stars too, he admitted, the view was great. But that didn't succeed in distracting him, his palms were already sweaty and his heart hammered in his chest.
"You know" she trailed off, talking about that day "I was very nervous going alone, but I guess it was something that I had to do alone, like always. I said to myself that it was just another day and I would come through like I always do. Alone. And I admit that it was a bit scary when they plunged so many needles in my veins, in my head, and in my heart. I had an MRI after that which requires to be as dead as a rock but I couldn't stay still, with my heart feeling like it was going to explode. After that, I had a few more scans whose names I don't even remember but they were pretty much similar, each one exposing my body to some kind of radiation to find if the organ is affected" She smiled after that, and faced him, by then Tora was lying next to her, not caring about his expensive clothes, his eyes were fixated on her and her only, but her smile again shattered him in an unexplainable way.
"But then there's one scan I remember really well, they said my entire body will be tested and the affected part will glow black since they had used some kind of red colored radiation on me" she chuckled again "Guess what happened?"
"What?"
"My heart just lit up like the Christmas lights" she laughed, hot tears falling down relentlessly.
"What do you mean? I don't get it" he sat up and looked at her, his eyes were widened like anything, causing Misaki to laugh as tears fell down.
"They found a tumor just next to my heart…" she placed her fingers on top of her chest right where here heart was "Right here, it's right here Tora" her tears fell down but she made no attempts of wiping them, neither did Tora, since he was on the verge of tears too.
"I'm so sorry, Misa" said Tora, quite speechlessly as he pulled her into his chest and gave her a tight hug as her cries became louder.
"I'm sorry too" she said as she cried in his chest, gripping his shirt tightly, Tora buried his face in the crook of her neck where a tear dropped and disappeared in her hair.
Isn't god cruel in his own way? Thought Tora, as he sat next to Misa, who had stopped crying now. His heart just got shattered, and now he didn't know what to think.
"What stage are you at?" he asked, unsure of his own voice.
"They don't know it yet, since it's a rare kind of condition" she spoke, a little better know, but her voice still came out throaty due to the excessive crying.
"You're going to fine" he said as he pulled her into a hug again and kissed her hair "You're going to be just fine. I'm sure there are a lot of options…" he said, as if reassuring himself.
"I'm sorry Tora" she said in a small voice, she didn't know what she was apologizing for.
"Why didn't you tell me before?" he said in a small voice of his own.
"Because" she spoke as she shifted herself away from him, she was never a firm believer of exposing her emotions to anyone else…especially after everything she'd gone through.
"Because?"
"Because I'm a time bomb, Tora. I can't have anyone associated with me, I can't hurt people. One day" she cleared her throat once again and shoved her tears and emotions away, "One day I'm going to die" she sighed after saying the wretched word "And I can't have more people hurting because of me. It's my responsibility to make sure that the least number of people get affected"
Tora gaped with her which his jaw hanging open, "Is that why you haven't told anyone, including your parents?"
"I can't destroy so many lives Tora" she said, looking away, "I'm sorry but it's my final decision"
"I do respect your decisions, Misaki…but you have to tell them someday" he spoke "But why do you have to be so negative? I'm sure the doctors will have some or the other options available. You can't lose".
"I am not losing to Cancer, Tora!" She said, in a desperate tone, she trailed off—holding her head between her hands for a moment and then looking up at him again. "I…I am not giving up on myself. I just have to take preventive measures from the start thinking about the worst case scenario. I just don't know right now…I'm just…I'm lost right now. I need to gather my thoughts together" she said, almost talking to herself, pacing back and forth.
Tora sighed, looking far away, "Then gather your thoughts and fight. Because ever since I've known you, I've only known the fighter in you, and I know you will get through this"
"I know" she smiled looking at him, but somehow, she didn't believe him…"Enough about this, what about the dance, who will you take as your date?"
Tora gave her a lazy smile "Do you even have to ask?"
"Well I can't dance!" She wailed, in hopes of lighting up the atmosphere.
"It's compulsory for every employee to attend. Besides, media's gonna be there. Would you like to see me embarrassed?" He played the guilt card.
"You can take any girl you want. Who wouldn't want you?" Misaki spat.
Tora looked at her seriously. He paused for a moment and then put the wine bottle away. Out of the blue, he took Misaki's hand and said, "You"
Misaki was as a loss of words. It was awkward. As if on cue, her stomach made its presence known and Tora couldn't help but laugh.
They ate the take outs in silence. It was already dark now. The sky was lit up by stars and Misaki looked up in awe again. It was so beautiful.
"Oy, Misaki"
"Yeah?"
"Do you wanna see Takumi again?" Tora asked her. His face was serious. Misaki couldn't help but feel that his face hid a thousand shades of heartache.
Misaki decided to not lie and said truthfully, "Honestly, I don't know… Sometimes I feel like wanting to see him. But then, I don't think I have the strength of seeing him in someone else's arms. As long as he's happy, somewhere, it doesn't matter. So, truthfully, I don't know" Misaki looked up at the stars, she raised her legs to her chest and hugged them.
"Aa…" Tora only muttered as he looked up at the sky. They stayed like this for a long time.
Misaki looked at the empty wine bottle. Tora, being drunk, was in no condition to drive. Misaki made him sit in the back seat and drove him off. She glanced one last time at his almost sleeping form and turned the car on. She headed to Tora's house.
"Ne, Misaki" Tora slurred in his half-asleep state.
"Hm?" Misaki muttered as she waited for the signal to go green.
"You're… going to the dance, with me… right?"
"Mhm…Looks like I've got no other choice" Misaki smiled. Satisfied with her answer, Tora fell asleep.
Tora looked peaceful but Misaki knew he was tensed. He was behaving strange these days. She shoved her thoughts in a deep corner as she reached his drive way. His butler was standing in the porch. As Misaki's car came to a stop, butlers hurried to her car and opened the doors. It felt as if they had been expecting her to drive him home.
They carefully took Tora out and one of the butlers bowed to her, "Thank you for bringing Master home safely. Have a good night madam" Misaki smiled and headed home.
The rest of the night passed peacefully. Misaki took a bath and worked on her laptop. She had some catching up to do. And who was this CEO person anyway? He/she was being fussed over a lot!
Misaki sighed. She needed to buy a dress for the ball dance thing. Misaki pinched the bridge of her nose. This is going to be annoying, I hope I don't end up embarrassing Tora in front of so many people, she thought.
Around eleven pm, Misaki's phone buzzed. She excused herself from her laptop on which she'd been working to distract herself and picked up her iPhone. It was Sakura.
"Sakura" Misaki said happily.
"Misaki-Chan! How are you?" Sakura said in her cherry voice. She sounded very happy.
"I'm very well. How about you?" Misaki replied. She had indeed missed her cheeky friend.
"Oh I'm all good! I just got back from Kuuga-kun's tour. I'm going to be in Tokyo Thursday evening, my flight is the next morning. Let's catch up ne, It's been a long time" Sakura said. Over the course of time, Kuuga's band had become really popular in Asia and abroad. He was mostly on tour and Sakura, being his manager, went everywhere he did.
"Alright. How does 6pm sound? I can come over to the hotel where you'll be staying." Misaki said, after looking at her routine tomorrow.
"Sounds good! I'm so excited to meet Misaki-Chan after a long time!" Sakura squeaked.
Misaki couldn't help but smile at her cuteness, "Me too!"
"See you! Good night" Sakura said.
"Good Night"
On Thursday, Misaki had gone to Hotel Sapphire as she promised. Sakura nearly jumped over Misaki upon seeing her and Misaki had almost tripped. She smiled and patted Sakura's head.
"Misaki-Chan! You've gotten thin" Sakura muttered disapprovingly.
Misaki looked at herself in the nearby mirror in Sakura's hotel room. Was she really thinner than before?
"Yea, I got the flu last week" Misaki lied.
"You should take care Misaki. Anyway, tell me everything! Do you have a boyfriend?! Let's go on double dates someday!" Sakura squeaked, a pink aura surrounded her. Misaki smiled awkwardly. Ever since after Takumi, Sakura was always fussing about how she was single and even Shizuko was in a relationship. Misaki told her about her routine and left the unexplainable and sad parts. She told her she had a ball dance to attend and didn't have a dress.
"Whaa—! You don't have a dress and the dance is tomorrow!? What are we doing here then! Let's go already! We don't have time to waste!" Sakura freaked out when she found out that Misaki didn't have a dress. She quickly grabbed a small purse and dragged Misaki along.
Misaki face palmed. She was in it for the long haul. She told Sakura that she had a few discount coupons courtesy of Suzuna which they could use.
Sakura was in full shopping mode, "Let's get them already! Your little sister is so brainy!" Sakura hollered and Misaki could only nod and follow like a robot.
They went to Misaki's apartment and grabbed the frigging coupons while Misaki quickly changed into jeans and a long sleeved top. Winter was just around the corner but the temperature was only a little below moderate.
Dresses everywhere!
Misaki looked around in fascination.
She was sure she had never seen so many dresses stacked in one single place. Her normal shopping consisted of office clothes and comfortable clothing. She looked at Sakura who was furiously rummaging through large isles of dresses. And to think this is only their party wear collection, Misaki took a deep breath and went to Sakura. Let's get this done.
The color code for the dance was supposed to be black and white. Misaki pinched the bridge of her nose. She was never made to change so many clothes at once. They had already gone to three boutiques but Sakura wasn't satisfied. For Misaki, all dresses were as good as any, but according to Sakura, she hadn't found the "perfect" match for Misaki yet.
Misaki sighed for the nth time as she put on another dress. She went out and looked at her friend as she prayed that it was enough to satisfy Sakura.
"Perfect" Sakura clapped her hands and Misaki finally felt free.
Okay, Sorry guys. Don't hate me now…The reality is always different than a fairytale. But! (There's always a 'but'!) The next chapter will be fun! Promise (:
But I won't update till we reach 100 reviews :)