Forgive me; we're having short chapters again. ;-;

Anyway, who saw this coming? (Since like, the second moment.) Those who would know would remember how I might resolve it all. :P Btw, it's not over yet.

Warning and Disclaimer: I don't own Kuma-chan or Usa-chan, but I do own what sucks here. D: So forgive me and this weird story; it's almost done anyway.


Moment Sixteen-

Hitori

Being lonely and being alone are two different things.


One is a lonely number. So is being one person against the world.

Something strange came in the mail yesterday. Some great lump with no return address or sender name.

But somehow, I know who sent it. Because he sent something else before that-

His designs, some commentary saying how bad his designs are, and I'm sorry scribbled on top of a white stationary with a small star labeled Hikaru.

At least I know he's still alive, still out there somewhere.

I've grown a habit of bringing Usa-chan everywhere with me, like a constant reminder of him, of Hikaru. Employees are now used to seeing me alone, they know something happened between us, but I don't say a single word, they never asked me anything anyway. I just do my work, regulate the finances, and the entire company's as stable as I want it-

But then again, it's nothing now.

It's almost the holidays, and slowly all the papers I've accumulated over half a year are slowly diminishing. Maybe it's because I don't have to draw a lot of designs- Hikaru sends a lot of them in- and I have time to actually dedicate to the financial and business stocks.

But now. There's no one here.

No one to keep me company. No one to worry about. No one to help me. No one to force me to sleep by midnight.

Being alone and being lonely are two different things.

I've known that my entire life-

I was always alone. But when he came, I finally noticed that I was lonely all along.

He had filled that gap, and he left an even bigger on in his wake.

His presence was bittersweet. When everything seemed to go wrong, everything was actually going right.

Hikaru destroyed my life.

And yet, at the same time, he also restored it.

I rub at my eyes, as another secretary comes in and takes some papers out. I lean against my chair, sighing, my eyes closed- my heart twisting as I think back, about how he's doing right now, what he's doing right now, and the promise he never made to me but said that we would travel.

He promised to make me smile.

He didn't promise. But it felt like that. It still feels like that.

My eyes wander to the small pile of papers, and I notice that I haven't unwrapped that strange lump yet.

I take it in my hands and I inspect it, there are traces of ice cream smears on it and a vanilla scent wafting out. I almost want to laugh, imagining that he was wrapping this while eating ice cream. I carefully peel off the tape on the wrapping paper, as the package unravels itself, and I just stare at it for a second-

It's a bear; a freakin' bear.

Hikaru gave me a bear.

There's a note attached to it too- Kuma-chan wants to be with Usa-chan, Kao-kun.

And this time I smile, I just smile easily-

But Hikaru's not here to see it.

I drop my smile just as quickly and place the stuffed bear next to the stuffed rabbit on my desk, as they both peer at me with their artificial button eyes.

I lower my eyes as I shuffle for more work to do. There's only several folders left, and I pull one randomly from the stack-

Hitachiin Yuzuha's Will

I look at it blankly, my mind reeling.

… Did I ever read it?

I blink as I pull the stiff official looking papers from the envelope. I scan it quietly, trying to see if I read this before, and something catches my eye-

both heirs to the Hitachiin company shall be Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin, under the conditions that they have worked together for at least two months. It goes under the custody of a capable Hitachiin until both heirs are able to co-head the company…

And I ram my head into the table repeatedly- repeatedly- repeatedly-

"Hitachiin-san?"

-and again and again and again.

"Go… go find Hikaru," I breath out when I feel like I had considerable punishment, "Now."

She blinks at me and scuttles out of the door quickly, as I run a hand through my hair, looking through the papers again, going even more in depth-

None of this would have to happen if we found out about this long ago-

None of this would have to happen if we just knew what they had cut out long ago-

And it's my fault.

I feel like a total idiot.

Tiredly, I look at the name of the lawyer in charge of this case- Fujioka. I pressed in numbers into my cell phone, before raising it to my ear-

"Fujioka Law, may I help you?"

"Yeah, this is Hitachiin Kaoru," I say into the phone, before standing up quickly, "I just want to know if the will that you had done several months ago still applies now."

I hang up with her just ten minutes later, and I groan, collapsing onto the table, my fists clenching tightly. Just wait until he comes back into the office, and I can see him again, and he won't be so annoying since he doesn't have to put on an act anymore-

"Et-Etto," the secretary peeks into the door, and I almost shoot up from my seat. She shuffles into the office a little more, her nervous black eyes darting everywhere, "I had to shift through piles of contact numbers to find his workplace…"

I space a little- I didn't even know where he worked.

"And… he flatly refused," she ends, and she darts out of the room, to my disbelieving gaze.

He… doesn't want me back? That's…

I shake my head, before taking a deep breath, falling onto my chair.

Hikaru… I frown slightly, and I don't know why he doesn't want to bother me anymore.

If it's about work, I'm fine. If it's about me, then I'm fine. If it's about anything else, then I'm fine, but why can't he see that?!

I let out a long sigh, before trying to formulate something to convince Hikaru that he isn't being a hindrance to me.

Because he's not.

And I'm determined- for the first time, I'm determined to do something that I want to do-

I want Hikaru back now.

I don't want to be lonely anymore.

I don't want to be one person.