N/N: Would like to thank CW and Chroma for reviewing this fic. Thank you for reading!

OVER…OR NOT?

Chapter 6

The Waiting Ordeal

Makino sipped her orange juice while Domyouji drank his cold beer; both seated at two different tables, in two different locations but they were still able to see each other and yet they were really very far apart.

"Do we really have to meet like this?"

That was her first phone message to him. Ironically, she could see him reading her message from where she was seated. but much to her disappointment, he just had the phone tucked back into his jacket's pocket before asking for the bill and left the table.

Domyouji never looked back.

Makino knew the reason.

There were eyes lurking around them and Domyouji couldn't afford to make another impulsive mistake that might cost him another three more years. To be able to see Makino in New York was already a bonus for him.

Makino understood his intention and yet her heart was still bleeding with utter disappointment.

That was their one and only meeting.

- - - - -

"Did you see him?" Rui asked as he tilted his head up, trying to catch some hint from Makino's listless expression. She just stood quietly behind Hanazawa Rui, with both her arms folded in front of her chest. Nothing caught.

"Yes…and no." Makino finally replied after a short silence and it was then Rui spotted a photograph lying on the floor beside him. "What's this?"

Rui was fast to pick up the photo before Makino could stop him and realized that it was one of the old photos which Domyouji and Makino had taken before he left for New York.

The photo showed the two of them walking hand in hand on the beach when they revisited the island, with a setting sun in the background. Makino's hair was long and free in the sea breeze, while Domyouji laughing and tall and handsome beside her.

"If I am not wrong, this is the photo taken by Shigeru and she even called it one of the best shots ever since the day she joined the school's Photographic Society." Rui commented with a smile.

"Rui…" Makino muttered and settled on an empty space beside Rui. "Give me back." She managed to snatch the photo back and secured it back into her pocket. "If you were the one, perhaps things wouldn't be that complicated ne?"

Makino let out a deep sigh before resting her head on Rui's shoulder, closing her eyes as she enjoyed the momentarily peacefulness.

"Why can't I be the one then?" Rui remarked as he gently patted her cheek with his palm.

"Because…" Makino paused and opened her eyes so that they can meet up with Rui's, "it is complicated."

Makino did not cry but she knew something was beginning to be over.

- - - -

Makino continued keeping her misery locked inside until one day she surprised herself by not being able to remember when they had last met. It was the same kind of surprise that she felt one night as she was getting into bed and almost falling asleep, when she suddenly realized that she had not thought about Domyouji at all for the whole day. Somehow it hurt her to realize that without even trying, she had the whole day managed not to think of Domyouji at all.

On Domyouji's twenty-first birthday, Makino sent him a card.

"Give me a short phone call once you received this card and I will wait for you, whether it might be another three or even six years."

Immediately after dropping the envelope into the public postbox, Makino regretted it, and then tried to tell herself she had no reason to regret anything.

Didn't he already tell her to give him another three years?

Makino was in fact testing waters, and testing herself as much as, perhaps even more than, Domyouji.

- - - - -

One the weekend that she knew Domyouji would receive the card, Makino fidgeted and hung around her telephone the whole day, half-expecting him to call, but he did not. She bit her lip and did not know what to feel.

During the next few days, she continued with the wait, praying hard to see his mobile number flashing across her phone screen even if he had to hang up on her before she says moshi-moshi.

But still, there was none.

Makino locked herself in her bedroom and wept angrily for an hour. Then she stopped crying, washed up, put on her shoes and went out jogging. All alone in the night and the quiet street, she alternately ran then jogged, then ran again until she was so exhausted she had to stop, She stopped and rested and breathed deeply to stop the tears from coming.

She began the long walk home because she felt too drained to jog back.

Despite this, she did feel better. Makino had more or less come to terms that the silence between Domyouji and her was no longer golden if he couldn't even grant her one simple request just to ease her mind.

Their relationship was over.

She waited for enough time to pass for her to put Domyouji out of her mind forever.

To be continued…