Chapter 19
"Then, I'm going to say."
Kahoko blinked back the tears clouding her vision. What did she just do? This can't be happening. He shouldn't be acquiescing to her selfish request how much she wanted it to be that way. There was a strange painful tug inside her heart she couldn't ignore, it was noticeably throbbing with guilt and she knew even though if she got what she wanted she wouldn't stay happy that long to cherish every moment with the person who was a complete reminder of her greediness.
Kahoko heaved a cleansing breath before she pushed him away. She staggered for a moment but she was able to distance a meter away. Her amber eyes darkened with desperation and feigned enthusiasm she knew he would notice but continued anyway. "You can't. I'm sorry, Len-san, but you must go. I'll be okay."
Specs of uncertainty swirled over Len's golden eyes, he attempted to approach her once more, however, Kahoko lifted her hand, "Don't." she whispered and shook her head. "Please, I won't forgive myself if you don't go." She exhaled a long sigh before she started walking away, not giving Len a glance.
~NeKo Meow~
Three days. He'll be leaving in three days and she still didn't want to talk to him, much worse, as what Manami said, Kahoko was trying all her best to avoid him. The terrace was unusually quiet and devoid of presence. Most of the time, the girl would bother him whenever he practices playing the violin. It had been their routine since the start, and her usual interference had grown into him and became part of his unchanging morning sequence. He would play and just in a few minutes he would hear her voice or footsteps, effectively interrupting his train of thoughts. It bothered him before, but as time went by, the itch of irritation was replaced with a keen feeling of familiarity. Her presence comforted him the same way he had felt when he was a kid. It assured him, soothed him, and took away the feeling of loneliness and removed the hidden fear inside of him, simply, he never felt alone whenever she was around.
Where is she? He gave out an exasperating sigh, staring at the empty corridor. He never felt this incomplete before, seemingly, it felt like it was eating the air inside his lungs, the house, which undeniably tenfold bigger than the average home, looked too small and suffocating him. The air turned suddenly heavy to inhale and there was this wave of worry crawling through his throat. He needed to breathe and think a lot of thinking before he packed all his things and regretted his action a moment too late to fix.
"We should go get Minami-san some of this, he'll like it."
Len stopped walking and looked at the two familiar girls walking in front of him. The girl with a short black hair noticed him first before she nudged her companion. They paused, and offered Len a friendly smile. Len sighed in relief. They remember me. He thought, making it a lot easier for him to ask some little question regarding the girl of his problem. It seemed like the universe didn't forsaken him after all.
"I need to talk to you."
Anyway, it won't hurt asking some little personal question, will it? He hoped not.
~NeKo Meow~
Kahoko what are you thinking? Kahoko mentally screamed, pulling quite a number of her crimson hair until her scalp hurt. As if, it would provide her reasonable answer and explanation to what she had done last night. She was under pressure and depression, she made an excuse. She couldn't think properly and make out a sound reply to what he was asking her. Of course, by instinct, she would answer what her heart wanted, but her brain told her exactly the opposite. Brain is more reasonable than heart. She rebelled, pouting over the indecisiveness of her mind.
However, she had decided, Len and reasonable decision didn't seem to cooperate in her mind. The thought left her confuse even more than the first time she considered the idea. Anything related to the guy would always give her something to ponder yet she couldn't solve right away. She needed an immense length of time, and three days wasn't at all in the immense category...according to her book. She then concluded, perhaps, avoiding him would lessen her thoughts about him, and by that, less to worry, too.
"Nami, what brings you here?" Kahoko overhead, making chills to run down through her spine. She stopped walking as she unintentionally tried to stare a hole on the door. She found it lucky that going out for a walk save her from a headache, a big headache in a form of a human girl in an odd outfit, screechy voice and a limited vocabulary ranging from Len to my Len.
"At least going out isn't a bad idea."
"Hino..."
Kahoko sighed. "I speak two seconds early." Kahoko shook her head and decided to ignore the voice behind her. She didn't need to turn around to know who it was as she was well aware of the guy who could exude warmth from a cold tone without giving effort. She kept shooting daggered glance over the door, perhaps it would feel irritated and swallow her whole. That would save her from another awkward encounter.
"Kahoko, I know you can hear me." Len stepped closer, avoiding the motorcycle parked in front of her. He gave it a second long glance before his eyes widened in realization.
"Niisan, I know he's here."
That voice. He slapped his forehead. The last thing he needed right now was interruption. He looked back at the motorcycle again and inspected it. Damn, not right now. He hissed, grabbing Kahoko's hand and pulling her at the same time.
"H-Hey."
"Quiet."
"I think I heard Kahoko..." the voice behind the door said.
Len's heart thumped faster. He gave another thorough glance at the motorcycle before he rode on it. He examined the side and saw the key still placed in the ignition. Like always. He mumbled with an uncharacteristic amused smile curving his lips. He grabbed the helmet, put it with his free hand and tugged Kahoko closer with his other hand. "Wear this." He shoved another helmet, the pink one, at her direction.
"W-what..." Stricken, Kahoko couldn't utter any more comprehensible word. Her lips parted out of surprised, and seemingly her eyes looked through Len, much to the blue head's irritation.
Len snatched the helmet and placed it on her head. "Hurry!"
"Huh?"
"I heard Len."
"Get on."
Like a little puppy, Kahoko followed what he said and sat behind him, wrapping her arms around his torso.
"Le—" the door opened, revealing an annoyed looking Ryotaro. He was about to shout when a flash of brown tumbled behind him and knocked him on the floor, stepping on his back without giving a glance of pity.
"Len!" Nami screamed the same time when Len sped up in a blur.
"Jeez, my baby!" another brown haired creature emerged from the door, scratching his head, irritation on his face. "That's the fifth time he stole my baby!" he growled, pertaining to his motorcycle as his baby.
~NeKo Meow~
Len exhaled the lump of worry in his throat. He squinted his eyes and broke another traffic, feeling his speed getting slower he accelerated, passing another red light with a whoosh. Len loved it fast. He sped up as long as there was still room for speeding up, if time travelling was true, he would have got themselves in a time hole with his speed he still find slow.
He learned to ride the motorcycle out of desperation. It was purely desperation. He didn't even thought of riding one in his entire life, however in one occasion when he already did every option available: hiding, running, and avoiding, and all of it failed he was left without any more option but to ride a seeming innocent motorcycle Nami's older cousin called as his baby. He remembered wincing and muttering 'ridiculous' for giving a non-living thing a name. He had a violin but he never thought of giving it endearment. That was plain immature, he considered. Luckily, and seemingly, despite his lack of ability in other sports, Len knew how to balance; he'd been biking when he was a kid. In his attempt to get away, and perhaps the rush of adrenalin in his body, he was able to cope up with the motorcycle and brushed pass in a blur.
After realizing that in some occasion he would be able to use it again, Len would always sneaked out and rode the same motorcycle whenever Nami and her cousin, Junnosuke, would visit them. There were five times when he got caught, but that wasn't even half of the time he stole it for practice. However, after the fifth time, Junnosuke decided to stay away from the Hasegawa, for the sake of his baby, leaving Len of no choice but to cope with Nami's aggressive attempt to get his attention.
It was a surprised even for Len that he could still maneuver the hurtling motorcycle in a steep curve without getting themselves killed in the process, on the other hand, he mostly feared that the girl behind him would faint and broke every bone in her body, hence he tried to slow down, in which, in Kahoko's hazy point of view, still an act of over-speeding.
When he noticed her arms slowly slipping away he halted without preamble, Kahoko's face harshly pressed over his back. He expelled an amused sigh, hearing a hiss and groan from his companion.
"Are you trying to kill us both?" she roared, distancing from the motorcycle with wobbly knees. She leaned on the fence and frowned at him.
Len looked at her as if he already knew what she was going to say. He shrugged his shoulder and examined the great expanse of the ocean before them. They had reached the high way. He realized, breathing in the waft of fresh air that hit his senses.
"Don't ignore me—"
"We're here already anyway." Len straightened up and relaxed his back. "I'm not expecting this to happen without a plan, but I guess this would do."
Kahoko tilted her head and looked at him, confusion clearly written on her face. What was he saying? Did he drop his brain somewhere out in the road?
"Let's get going, it's getting late."
Kahoko was going to open her mouth to protest but closed it again when she noticed the inky sky spread above. There were at least three stars winking over them. "Where are we going?" she asked instead.
Len didn't answer her, instead, he put his helmet back. "If you don't get on I'm going to leave you here."
Given two option, Kahoko weighed both. If she didn't ride on the motorcycle she most probably be staying in the middle of the road until dark, and she wasn't sure if there would be any more cars passing at that time, but if she chose what he was offering, there would be a possibility of sudden death.
She chose the latter. At least they will die together. She shakily rode behind him, wrapping her arms around his torso tighter than earlier.
Len hissed but didn't complain anymore as he started the engine and sped up so fast the jet would be embarrassed.
Unless he survived and you'll die alone. It was two seconds late when Kahoko realized it, she buried her face on his back and whined...and cursed the man in front of her.
~NeKo Meow~
"So, tell me why are we staying here?" Kahoko croaked.
"Because it's already late to travel." Len said as if it was normal to randomly travel and stop over a scary hostel in the middle of nowhere.
"Tell me why did you get only one room?"
"I forgot my wallet back in the house. I suppose one is enough for both of us."
"Why didn't we just go back home? The others might be worried already."
"I called them earlier when I was downstairs. I told you, I have to do something."
"You could have just dropped me home first."
"Whatever I'm going to do has something to do with you."
Kahoko bit her lower lips. She was losing the battle and the man before her looked like he didn't need to think about what he was going to say. And what is with this he has to do something that concerns her? She'd asked him more than twice while they were travelling but he would always act as if he didn't hear. Perhaps this time he would...Kahoko balled her hands at her sides, mustering her strength to ask him again. "What is it?"
"Get to sleep we're leaving early tomorrow." He turned his back.
"Why don't you just tell me?"
"It's not the right time..."
Kahoko was about to protest again when Len turned around, looking at her straight to the eye. "Tomorrow, I promise..."
Authoress' Corner:
And there you go. I hope I didn't bore you too much. Anyway, next update will be the end. It is supposed to be in this chapter but I decided to cut it because it will be so long I might bore you more. Don't worry I already decided to finish this this month. NOVEMBER. Thank you for reading.
Post script: I'm done with the ending, as in, done done, I only need to do is upload it. BUT... but I have a certain date for it.
And because I'll dedicate the ending for a certain someone, I'll just put it here.
I'd like to thank my personal flamer for pushing me to improve my grammar. I know I'm not yet good but I improved, right? If you're thinking I'm being plastic[two faced] right now, no, I'm not. I'd be honest with you, you irritated me before, who wouldn't. But I don't want to look at the negative side when I can look at the positive instead. I sincerely am thanking you for pushing me to improve.
And to all those who keep on reading this even though it took three / two years to finish, thank you so much for sticking with me. /bows