Chapter Two:

Boyfriend

Ryotaro walked pass Kazuki and glanced at the lady resting on the bed. He didn't know if he will give her a smile or simply nod his head to regard her. In the end, he did the latter. He was going to talk when the nurse interrupted him with a knock. "Excuse me, but visiting hour is finished."

No other choice but leave, Ryotaro gave her a sad smile and left with his other friends.

Looking as rays of sun hovered over the window and reflected on the tiled floor of her room, Nami wondered about the man who visited her yesterday. Would he visit her again? Today? The next day? And most importantly who was he? She heard her sempai called out his name. Nami squeezed the bridge of her nose and concentrate. "T-Tsuchiura?"

"Am I that Tsuchiura you were talking about?"

Nami opened her eyes widely and glanced toward the door, eyes inquisitive. "You?"

"Yes, me."

"You should have knocked first." Nami frowned. She didn't know this man, yet—well, not as of now, but she hoped he was one of her close friends. Staying in the hospital and knowing nothing about herself bothered her. Her mind seemed like a hollow shell, no memories, full of uncertainties, enveloped with the thickness of darkness. Everything looked unreal. Yes, the last time they visited her, they filled her with information about herself. Nonetheless, she wasn't sure if that really happened or it was simply a fabrication of their excitement and happiness, that instead of giving her exact and simple explanation they unintentionally giving her what she wanted—or what her mind would want to take.

She couldn't somewhat cease the sudden uncertainty inside her, no matter how she tried to convince herself they wouldn't hide anything, but inadvertently the other side of her wanted to accept the idea of doubting.

"Are you listening? I said, I knocked but no one's responding." Ryotaro snapped his two fingers in front of her, startling her slightly but effectively grabbing her attention. Nami, once more, frowned. Frustrated because she couldn't remember him but deep inside she knew he was one of those she knew. She couldn't just pinpoint what level of friendship they have. If it was just a level ahead of acquaintance, a friend, a close friend, best friend, or maybe a boyfriend. Nami's face flamed all of the sudden, reaching for her blanket to hide her face.

"Jeez. All I know you have amnesia, I didn't know you also have another mental disorder." Ryotaro chuckled, but the hint of concern still present on his voice.

"I do not!"

"I'm just kidding, Na—" he smiled. "Amou."

"Hmm..." Nami regarded him from head to toe, looking back to gaze at his eyes. "Tsuchiura, right?"

"Tsuchiura Ryotaro, ma'am."

"Ahm, can you tell about yourself. You do know that I'm..." her throat suddenly dried

"We're close."

"Close? What do you mean by close? Are we related?" Nami's eyes widened. "I'm not sure, but are you a cousin or anything? Or, Nee-san's boyfriend?" she blushed and turned around. Why did I ever think he was my boyfriend. Kami, that's so embarrassing.

"More likely yours."

"Mine?" Am I?

"No, what I'm trying to say, think of me as your boyfriend," Ryotaro said, grinning.

"Why would I think of you as my boyfriend."

"Just this moment, okay."

"That doesn't sound convincing. You're not my type." Nami blurted out. She was going to apologize from her sudden outburst when the man mumbled something. She hardly heard it but she was sure it has something to with her.

"Yeah, right. Wait till you get your memory back."

"Did you say something?"

"Nothing, I said you're right, why would I court a girl like you—ow. Hey that hurts!"

Nami glared, pinching his right arm. If he wasn't reachable, she would have kicked him. Only if she was strong enough to give him a strong kick somewhere down there she'd be happy to do so, and she wouldn't regret a thing. Her lips curved into a smile, making Ryotaro stop from taunting her. He should always stop when she already gave that smile. One would have assumed it as angelic, but he knew better and it was beyond,contradicting the description, there was nothing angelic to what she was going to do next, and imagining about it gave a sudden pain to him.

He winced and raised his both hands in complete surrender. "I'm just joking. Anyway, I'm not here to tease you, I'm just checking if you're doing fine."

"I—"

"And, the way I see you, I think you're ready to go out and kick random men. You're such a good kicker, you should play soccer." Ryotaro saw her hand twitched, fisting into a ball. He moved a safe distance and smiled.

Nami raised her brow, seemingly, the man knew every movement she would do. Her gestures gave him ideas of what pain she could inflict to him if he wouldn't stop teasing her. She furrowed her forehead, it was rather frustrating she couldn't get back on him without him knowing beforehand. Pinching him earlier was a luck, or did he let her do that? "How—"

"How did I know that?" Ryotaro laughed. "You're readable."

"That isn't a good compliment, Tsuchiura..." Nami was going to smile back but abruptly stopping when she noticed the stiffness of his shoulder, albeit his face darkened in a fraction of time. "Are you all right?"

There was a pregnant pause before Ryotaro snapped from his reverie and looked back, his golden eyes glimmering feigned enthusiasm. "I'm just surprised."

"Oh! Do I call you differently? Uhm... Ryotaro?"

"No, not at all. Tsuchiura is fine. You always call me like that." he waved his hand, and placed it at the back of his head, afterward. "Tsuchiura."

"Okay. You scared me, there. I thought you're having heart attack or something."

"No worries, I'm perfectly fit." Ryotaro looked at his wrist watch. "It seems like I bothered you enough. I better go now."

"But... you haven't told me about yourself yet." Nami pursed her lips. She couldn't explain why, but she didn't want for that moment to end. Although, he would always annoy her—tease her—she found his company rather pleasing. She felt that one of the biggest chuck of her memory was there, in the form of a man she hardly knew. The man who, until now, was mysteriously giving her heart unsettled palpitations. In that moment, she noticed she should worry about herself having heart attack than the man who seemed too fit, heart illness would be embarrassed.

She looked around, trying to lengthen the remaining time with him. She found the notebook her sister gave her last night. Her sister said she could find things there that can help her remember. It was mostly about unfinished articles about people she didn't know. Over the night she wondered if it was really she who wrote those, but the penmanship was undeniably hers. Nami shook her head. Now, wasn't the time to contemplate about it, she has to do something and fast. She then, again remembered her sister telling her about her new phone. That's it! Her phone broke after having a taste of tires crashing over it, all her contacts were there.

"Uhm... Tsuchiura, can I have your number? My phone is broken and all of my contacts were there. My sister is going to bring my new phone later tonight, so I'm thinking if you can give me your number now, thus I can save it later."

Ryotaro gazed at her and smiled. "Sure."

"Can you get that notebook from the desk."

Ryotaro grabbed the notebook and wrote his number at the back page. He glanced at the pen and almost drawled out an amused laugh; instead, and also to avoid frightening the lady, he smiled. "Here."

"Thank you." Nami held the notebook over her lap and smiled back.

"Nice pen."

"Hm?" Nami stared at her pen. "Thank you, I guess." Curious, she examined her pen and scrunched her nose. There was nothing too grand about it, it was just an ordinary pen. Although, the cover was green in color, probably that was why he said nice. Nami concluded, nevertheless, still unconvinced. Something at the back of her head was telling her there was something more than the coincidental color. "I'm thinking what's nice about this, but it's just an ordinary pen. Nothing more."

Hordes of people gathered about, pushing, pulling and some tackling one another to get the product they've been meaning to get after waiting for quite a while now for its sale. Unfortunately, to others who would simply buy their usual groceries, the stall was small to accommodate all of the raging desperate customers, affecting other stalls and pulling uninterested customers in the swarm of chaos whether they like it or not. One of them was a green haired man, fighting, desperately, to free himself from the attacks. When he was able to step on more less crowded area, he inhaled deeply, seemingly not able to breathe from the ocean of people earlier.

"Oh god! Ryou, are you okay?" Nami hurriedly ran to his direction, patting his back.

"I got it."

"You mean?" Nami's eyes glittered with excitement.

"Here." he handed her the ballpen. "You owe me big time."

"Eh? Why green?"

"Huh? You didn't tell me you want a particular color."

"I told you I want the yellow one."

Ryotaro sighed, as if mustering enough strength to enter the batter field yet again. "All right." He lifted a foot to walk when small arms encircled his left arm.

Nami pouted. "No, it's okay. I don't mind it. Besides, it reminds me of you. Maybe that's the reason you choose it." she sighed.

Ryotaro laughed. "You figured." he grinned and patted her head like as if she was a kindergarten.

Nami squirmed from his hold, slightly flushed, and frowned. "Don't raise your hopes up. It's just a pen. Nothing more. It also reminds me of Hihara-sempai's hair, you know." she chuckled.

"I made it sure I get the darker shade of green."

"Think what you want to think." Nami rolled her eyes. "Let's go."

Ryotaro smiled from the memory, gazing gently at the woman who suddenly looked so innocent. "I'll be going now." He leaned and patted her head. "Get well soon, 'kay?"

Nami lifted her head to look back. "Okay..." she hesitated for a while but then decided she should ask. "Uhm... Tsuchiura, really, who are you?"

He halted, not turning his head back, however. "A friend, Amou." He continued walking until he was able to close the door behind him.

"You didn't tell her." Nami's sister, who just got back from her work, said.

Ryotaro shook his head, feigning a smile. "I want her to know it on her own."

"I wonder how both sadist can get along well." Umi sighed, shaking her head. "Kids these days. Anyway, are you going to visit tomorrow?"

"I don't think I can. We have soccer practice."

"Too sad." Umi giggled.

"Yeah..."

A friend...It sounded so foreign even to his ears.

Authoress' Note:

Thank you for reading! O_O

And there, the history behind Nami's secret green pen. XD

I think I'll be using some of the things in the page. (our facebook fanpage)

To be honest, I'm scared (because most of you are anonymous, I dunno how I'll contact you) O_O I hope everyone will continue reading this.

By the by, you can suggest a word for 'D' for Chapter 4

Chapter 3: Closed Door