DECEMBER 24.

TUESDAY.

[1:24 PM]

"I'll repeat your order. One tuna sandwich. One omurice. And two iced lemon tea," the waitress smiled and bowed her head.

Himeko murmured a small "thanks" which I doubt that the waitress heard. I stared at her calm face and wondered if I, myself, looked calm on her point of view. She cleared her throat when my stare had almost – probably – bore a hole on her face.

"Ah…"

It was always awkward between the both of us.

"So, uh, I guess the best starter for our conversation would be by asking how you have been?" She was always on point.

"I – I – I, uh, I'm doing f-fine. You?" I wanted to tell her that I have missed her but I didn't have the guts to do so. My hand reached for the glass of water that was served earlier and I casually – or, tried to do it that way – sipped from it. The liquid helped me get rid of the dryness on my throat.

"I guess, I am too." She gave me a soft smile. "Fine, that is."

I nodded not really sure of what to ask or what to say. Our table became silent and the silence turned into bits of awkward glancing to each other. The noise from the other tables made it so that we became aware of the growing dead air.

"So – "

"Uh – "

"Go ahead," she gestured with her hand.

I looked at her white-almost-pearl-looking hand and resisted the urge to reach for it. "No, no. It would be rude of me. You go first." I smiled.

Her lips formed an o-shape before it quirked into a smile. "Are you studying in university? Or…" Her voice trailed off not really finishing the question.

"Ah, well, I'm actually studying child welfare* in a junior college in town. How about you? University, I'm guessing."

Himeko nodded, "Medicine."

I unintentionally gasped a little.

"Not my style?" She giggled.

I shook my head but before I could explain myself the waitress already came to our table with the foods we ordered. She carefully placed our orders on the table, the glass wares making small sounds. I was probably hungry or was just nervous about being with Himeko but I heard my stomach grumble at the sight of foods. I glanced at Himeko and hoped that she didn't hear me but I guess she didn't because she was busy asking the waitress for "… additional mayonnaise" and something I didn't get a grasped of.

"Hungry?" She turned to me after the waitress went off to get her additional requests.

I hesitated for a bit. "A little?"

"Me too!" She chimed before gesturing that we should start eating.

It could be because the time we spent away from each other was too long. Or that I wasn't beside her when she slowly became a fine lady. But I had a feeling that the Himeko in front of me who was happily taking small bites of her tuna sandwich wasn't the same Himeko who cried her heart out for me when I got hit on the head back in high school. The Himeko back then was the type of person who never showed her emotions and didn't want people being too close to her. She rarely ever smiled. But now, she was happily talking to me, she even helped someone on the streets earlier. And she was full of smiles.

"Is something the matter?" Her eyes blinked for a few times before they stared at me with a questioning look.

"No… it's just that you looked happy."

She let out a sigh and smiled, "Cus I am."

"Because of med school?"

"Oh! You're mocking me, Taichi, aren't you?"

I vigorously shook my head no. "Of course not!"

She giggled a little then proceeded on eating-to-her-heart's-content the tuna sandwich.

"Anyway, I didn't know you wanted to take medicine back then. That was why I gasped little because it was such a revelation!" I wanted to keep talking to her. To be able to start knowing her all over again from the start.

Himeko put down the sandwich down on the plate and wiped her lips off some crumbs. Her hand reached for the glass of lemon tea while her eyes studied my expression. She was probably making sure that I wasn't making fun of her.

"I wanted to study human psychology for me to know about what humans are thinking and feeling. I wanted to learn about how emotions could rattle a human being's life and how these emotions could drive some people to corners they didn't know exist," her eyes have this serious-almost-wanting-to-prove-something look and I, who was at the other end of the table, could just listen to her.

This is Himeko now.

She continued, "But then I realized that it's not fair wanting to know the minds and hearts of people because they would just get even more afraid of others. Bloodvine made me that way. Afraid of other people and how they could play with my life just by merely knowing how I think or feel. I became afraid of letting people know me."

"Hime – "

"No, but that's now part of the past. Anyway, the reason that I'm practicing medicine and wanting to become a surgeon is so I could save them. Those people who got driven into a corner and tried escaping through death but heaven forbid them from dying yet. I want to save them because I was them."

And time must have started moving slowly because every movement Himeko made seemed to be in slow-motion. How she carefully reached for my hands that were resting on the tables; how she placed our palms facing each other; and how she slowly put them in mid-air.

"I was one of them, Taichi."

And as I heard her say those words I became aware of a scar on her left wrist.

I felt like my stomach was being turned upside-down. "Inaba…"

She smiled. "Finally. I'm not really used to you calling me by my first name."

She entwined our fingers.

"I know that it was an issue for me back then. You know, you calling me Inaba and you calling Iori … 'Iori'. Like how you never call me by my first name? But now it doesn't even matter anymore. I mean, that was just probably part of your charm. Taichi?"

I turned my eyes away from the scar on her wrist and looked at her eyes instead. "I'm sorry!" That was the only phrase I could muster.

She shook her head. "No, don't be. Like what I told you in the letter… I should have been more understanding."

My hands squeezed hers a bit, reassuring her that I was also one at fault for what happened to us back then.

"And now that I think about it, I was a bit childish back then. I mean, it was a petty reason and then I just suddenly barged out of your lives without any hesitation." She laughed a bit. "But that's part of the past now. I'm just glad that I've met you again so that I could tell you these things."

Call me selfish or bastard or anything but I wanted to ask her if we could start over again or if she would be willing to let me into her heart again. But before I could do so her phone started ringing. I was hesitant at first to let her hands go but I still did.

Himeko took out her phone from her handbag and answered the call. "Yes?"

I stared at her beautiful eyes.

"I told you not to call me Himeko, didn't I?"

She looked at me and our eyes stared at each other.

"Agarashi-san, please."

My forehead furrowed a little upon hearing the name of the caller.

"I'm having lunch… Yes… Tuna Sand – … With Taichi."

Himeko sighed.

"Yes, Taichi from highschool."

I reached for my own drink and sipped on it not really taking my eyes off Himeko.

"Yes, I have it with me. And I'm wearing it."

I put the glass back on the table which made a small thud.

"I put it on as a pendant… I won't really be able to study well with it on my finger, would I?"

Himeko closed her eyes maybe out of frustration.

"Jun!"

I coughed.

"I'm ending the call. Let's talk later."

She slowly took the phone away from her ear and ended the call. She put the phone - screen first - on the table and took out her purse from her bag. "I'm really sorry about this, Taichi. I need to go now. Someone's being an ass about this lunch and I can't afford him throwing some tantrums."

"Agarashi Jun?"

Himeko called the waitress and asked for our bill. "Yes," she took one last sip on her lemon tea.

"Why does he have a say to whether whom you'll have lunch with?" I was getting mad for a reason called jealousy.

The waitress arrived and was going to give the bill to Himeko when I asked her to give it to me instead. Himeko protested but I said that I was the one who invited her so I should pay for the bill. I pulled some bills out of my wallet and gave it to the waitress.

"So, why?" I repeated the question.

We have already gotten up from our seats and Himeko still wasn't answering my question. I saw her checked her phone before we left the restaurant and saw Agarashi Jun as her homescreen.

"Himeko?"

She turned to me and bowed causing her necklace to fell out from inside her shirt and to rest itself on her chest. My breathing almost stopped upon seeing the piece hanging on her neck.

"Taichi?"

She followed where my eyes were looking and saw that I was staring at a circular piece of accessory hanging on her neck. She touched it and that made me looked at her face, she was staring at it with such fascination I have never seen before.

"I'm getting married June next year," she beamed while she looked at me straight in the eyes. "To Jun."