Tsukasa slumbered down to the ground; his arms were holding his head, as it seemed to be barely holding.

"Why the hell did she have to go there" he thought "she must have remembered him again. That stupid boy."

Tsukasa remembered as it were yesterday. He convinced Turkish to skip class – it was his fault. They were riding the bus, when suddenly horrible screams rung through the air, and he felt falling in every direction. It lasted for few seconds but it seemed like a lifetime. He found Turkish soon covered in blood. He saw a hospital right across the street and without even thinking he picked her up and carried her there. He was so scared. He though she was going to die. He remembered few hours later finding out that she has lost her voice, and the last thing he had heard from her was a horrible scream. It was ringing in his head then, and sometimes the horrible sound comes back. If that wasn't bad enough, Tsukushi's mom died the next day. Tsukasa remembered being so scared seeing Tsukushi, he just stood in the corner getting yelled by his sister. He tried to apologize but he couldn't mutter a word, and whenever he would turn around she would be gone. Then one day she found her with that boy. He followed her, and every day until he was released, they would spend their days together. Tsukasa sometimes was just so jelous he wish he could have died in that stupid accident.

Few months after the accident he found his phone number, and feeling so jelous he hid it from Tsukushi. Tsukushi looked for it frantically, but Tsukasa kept it in his book, hidden. Tsukasa sometimes wanted to give her that stupid piece of paper, just to call him and then…

"Then…" he thought "… she would have realized that he's just a piece of crap."

He knew that every year, she would go to the stupid hospital again, and when she would come back, she would be so cheerful. Her happiness made him mad, since it were the memories of the boy that made Tsukushi smile.

Tsukasa slowly stood up, and walked over to the book case. He took out a book, opened it to a page, and a little paper fell out. Without looking at it, he ripped it up into little pieces.

"No, more" Tsukasa said "Tsukushi only belongs to me."

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Rui woke up feeling something warm against his arms; he looked down and saw Umi laying there. It didn't surprise him that much she would stay over quite often and spend the night, but in the morning he wouldn't remember last night. And he hated constant Umi's whining in the morning, so he tried to get out of bed and escape the house before she woke. He slowly lowered her hand and walked over to the bathroom. One thought bothered him all last night and was still stuck inside his mind. Her hand. Her finger. The ring. Thoughts and images kept dropping into his mind, as water droplets hit his body. He didn't understand why it bothered him so much, and he would probably never see her ever again, so why even bother thinking about that strange woman. But she didn't have the ring before, did she just get engaged? Once again his mind was filled with questions that made no sense to him. Why should he care if that weird woman was getting married? Was she already married? Did he just not notice it before? His thoughts were interrupted by Umi's voice calling him. He didn't know why but her voice annoyed him, overall she just annoyed him. He didn't understand why he was with her. Maybe she was just there so long in his life that she just became an annoying important part of it that he can't separate himself from no matter what. She called his name again. Rui just wanted to scream "shut up ". He didn't want to see her, hear her or do anything with her at all – yet he was going to marry her?

"What the hell am I thinking" Rui thought "it's just an off day. I have to go to work and clear out my head."

Umi sat down on the bed and started thinking. Rui was almost always cold to her no matter what, they've been together for so long it just seemed natural that he would love her right, he doesn't need to say "I love you" or anything like that – that wouldn't be Rui at all – not her Rui at least. She was used to his cold words, cold hands, and cold touch. Even last night when they made love, Rui wasn't more affectionate than he usually was. She just convinced herself it was his way of showing affection, and that should be enough for her because she loved him, and he loved her – and words meant nothing.

But sometimes like right now she wanted a different Rui, who would call her beautiful names, who would be more affectionate, tell her that he loves her, hug her and kiss her and say how he doesn't want to go to work. Yet she knew that this was impossible. Her dreams were shattered once again, as Rui walked out with his suit on and said "I'm going to work."

There wasn't another word said, no good morning, no goodbye, no I love you. He didn't even look at her.

As he walked out the doors, Umi just started crying – she was lost, confused, mad, and happy. She was getting married, right! Yet she felt so helpless in front of Rui, she couldn't do anything to make him smile. Umi just cried silently as a child, punished for something she didn't do.

Sitting in his office in Tokyo Rui looked through the window and could only see building and building towering over each other, rising and rising, as to compete, which one could raise further without falling down. They were like humans rising more and more but when they exceed their limits they crash with a thud, and only ruins remain. They tumble down taking everyone around with them, dragging other building down to carry their weight.

"Humans are so pathetic" Rui thought to himself. "Am I even more pathetic than they are?"

He questioned himself this morning it seemed like everything in his life is swaying and about to crash like the tall building around him. Each day a new story is added, each day the uncertainty grows. Rui thought about the girl again, the one from years ago, the memories of him still made him smile and for those moments when he thought of her, his building would shrink and strengthen.

"But am I not getting married?" Rui asked himself "will she show up for Christmas to the hospital. She was at the hospital the other day, too. But I guess we weren't supposed to meet then. Does this mean that she still remembers our promise? Or was she there for some other reason? If I could have been there earlier, would anything have changed?"

And then his thoughts went back to the mysterious mute girl. What was her name? He couldn't remember. She didn't even matter at all. She was just a passing stranger, another stranger that disappears with time, and with time even if you see that person again you won't even be able to recognize them.

Rui thought about Umi. Since he met her in London, he found her usually annoying but he spent so much time with her that it was weird without her in his life. With them also there was another friends of his Akira Mimasaka, he was a doctor somewhere in Japan, he couldn't exactly remember. He didn't see him for few years now. For others while they were together in London, that they would never drift apart but now they didn't even speak for quite a while. Rui knew that Umi still emailed Akira sometimes but Rui didn't care, Akira didn't play a part of his life and couldn't. He felt like he had no time to bother with emails.

Akira, Rui and Umi went to the same private school, and they were pushed into meeting each other as they were the only Japanese students there. Akira and Umi were already friends, and Rui just joined in. Umi started to like Rui instantly, but Rui couldn't remember any warm feelings towards her, at first she made him laugh and her smile would cheer him up, but with time her constant pestering, her constant whines and complaints got just annoying. He didn't know why he even went out with her. She asked him, he said yes. He thought the only reason why he was still with her is because there was no other girl or woman that he really was interested in at all. Everything that they ever did was initiated by Umi, or at least majority of it. Akira liked Umi, like Rui never liked her but Umi was too concentrated on Rui to ever notice. Akira tried to win over Umi in various ways and Rui never minded. But Akira failed as Umi didn't seem to notice Akira's affections at all, she was only concerned with Rui. Akira never hated Rui or even disliked him, they were best of friends and so was Umi, and if Rui did make Umi happy he started to accept it. But they all parted in different ways. Akira always regretted losing touch with Rui, he partly blamed himself unlike his friend he felt there was an importance to keep every friend forever.

A knock. The secretary came in:

"Sir, here are the tickets for your trip in Atami in few weeks."

But Rui didn't even turn around.

"Atami" he thought "I guess I should tell her."

"I guess our noodles are really bad" Tsukasa said trying not to offend Tsukushi.

We should try selling something else.

"Like what?"

Well, I don't know. Why don't you think of something?

"Why can't you do it?"

You can help too you know!

"I think we should better just pack and go home, there's no point in sitting here anymore. Maybe Tsubaki will have an idea."

They packed up the van, and went home, where Tsubaki was thinking too of what she could do more for Tsukushi. She heard from a neighbor that there was a great doctor in Atami that can do miracles. If only she wouldn't have lost her job, and if only somehow Tsukushi and Tsukasa's sale business would pick up, she wouldn't worry about losing so much money.

Umi heard her phone letting out the tune she was always used to. It was Rui. She picked it up.

"Hello" her voice was a little bit shake, she didn't know what to expect. Would Rui apologize? No, he never did. Would Rui yell at her? No, he never did.

"I'm leaving to Atami in two weeks. I'll be gone for about three months to regulate the management there. You can visit me sometimes. That's all."

"What?" Umi slowly murmured. But it was too late, he hung up already. She was used to it; he never said I love you, or even a simple goodbye. But she thought it might change, since they are getting married. She was used to him leaving all the time, and sometimes without even telling. She would call him to invite him to dinner, and he would say he's halfway around the world.

"At least he gave a notice" Umi said to herself "that's better I guess. And at least it's the same country, so I can visit him often."

Sorry I've been really busy with exams and work, also my PC is broken and they still can't fix it I don't have it since February

Thank you so much for reviews, now it's summer so I'll try to write more often.

Please review if you can, your reviews give me inspiration to write.