Broken Fragments
Chapter 41: Time's Magic
"Why don't you just become a singer again?"
"Huh?!" Hiroto suddenly sat up, causing Yuuhi to slip out from his arms and also sit up.
"Are you crazy? I'm not doing that again."
Yuuhi and Hiroto were lying down under the star-filled, September night sky, appreciating the warmth from the passing summer before fall began to creep out. The leaves haven't fallen, still in the process of turning colors. The wind was calm, causing the trees to calmly sway, and the temperature was moderate.
Three weeks had passed since Yuuhi was hospitalized on her 'birthday.' Hiroto had released to the press that Yuuhi was going to be in a semi-hiatus to pull her health back together. During the first whole week of Yuuhi's short break, she and Hiroto spent more time together.
Earlier in the afternoon, Yuuhi and Hiroto enjoyed a simple picnic at a park outside the big city. Since there were barely any people in the area, Yuuhi and Hiroto didn't have to disguise themselves. Night had fallen and they still spend their time together, basking under the light of the moon and stars.
"Don't you miss the times you sang on the stage? Don't you miss the thrill of it?" Yuuhi laid back down, reaching her hand out to the sky as if to grab a star.
"I do," Hiroto said, pausing.
"But you're my priority now," he continued, lying down on his side as he turned Yuuhi's face towards him.
Yuuhi's face blushed, but it didn't faze her from continuing to try and convince Hiroto. She snuggled next to him, her head on his chest and his arms around her.
"If you can become a singer or actor again, then we can date in public, don't you think?" Yuuhi looked up with a flirty smile on her face.
"I have a lot fans, you know. A lot of girls will attack you if we date freely," Hiroto replied, looking down as he played with strands of Yuuhi's auburn hair.
"Then, I'd quit being an idol. I can just hide at home most of the time," Yuuhi giggled.
"You don't have to. I'll just have to get stronger to protect you even more, right?" he tightly hugged her, getting a whiff of her rose-smelled hair as he placed his chin on her head.
"Then, is that a 'yes' to the return of Hiroto?" Yuuhi looked up again as she tightened her embrace on Hiroto.
"Hey, don't make it sound like a movie title," Hiroto stuck his tongue out, lightly flicking Yuuhi's forehead.
The two of them laughed, enjoying each other's company. After a few more minutes, the two decided to leave and head home to avoid catching a cold.
"Goodnight, Hiroto," Yuuhi smiled after she pecked Hiroto's cheek for the first time before entering her house.
Shocked, Hiroto didn't move and his eyes were wide in a bit of surprise. After Yuuhi imprinted her kiss on Hiroto's cheek while she was on her toes, her feet laid flat on the ground again as she turned around to enter her apartment room. Hiroto watched her unlock the door and turn the knob.
Before Yuuhi could walk in after pulling the door open, Hiroto grabbed her free hand and pulled her to his chest.
"Can't…can't you just…spend the night with me?" Hiroto nervously asked, his cheeks warm in embarrassment.
The night was quiet, and the atmosphere between them was awkward. Hiroto's heart was pounding, but Yuuhi's body seemed to shake in tenseness.
"Okay," Yuuhi subtly nodded when Hiroto was just about to let go.
Yuuhi closed her door and they made their way back to Hiroto's car. Silence stayed in the car between the couple on their way to Hiroto's house. Yuuhi kept her gaze out the window, and Hiroto kept the same speed.
When they arrived, Hiroto placed his car keys on the counter, and Yuuhi placed the picnic basket on his dinner table.
"You can take a shower, if you want. I'll lend you my clothes since I didn't give you time to get clothes," Hiroto said as he took out a pitcher of water from the refrigerator.
"Alright. Just lay them by the door," Yuuhi replied, placing her purse on his couch.
After Yuuhi closed Hiroto's room's door, Hiroto let out a huge sigh of relief.
"Why did I do that?" Hiroto thought, reflecting on what he had just done.
"Well, whatever," Hiroto sat down on his couch and turned on the TV.
A few minutes later, Hiroto noticed that the faint noise of water hitting the ground was gone and realized that he forgot to pick out a shirt that Yuuhi could wear. Rushing, Hiroto opened his room's door to find Yuuhi already wearing one of his polo shirts. She hasn't buttoned the shirt, so her underwear, stomach, and cleavage were exposed.
"S-s-s-sorry!" Hiroto exclaimed, shutting the door closed as he got out.
He leaned on the door and slowly sat down, embarrassed. Hiroto could feel his cheeks warming up, and his heartbeat pounding faster.
"Why am I so embarrassed? I've almost already seen her naked before," Hiroto remembered the time when he came over to her house after she was taken advantage of by Cloudy.
He clenched his fist, still not ready to forgive Cloudy.
"You can come in now," Yuuhi soft voice said from the other side of the door.
Hiroto's heart began to bang in his chest again as he slowly got up to open the door and enter his room. Finally, he gathered all his courage to act normal and manly. When he stepped into his room and closed the door, Hiroto found the room dark with only the bedside lamp on, and Yuuhi sitting down on the side of his bed, looking at Kirari's portrait on his nightstand with a melancholic face. Before Hiroto could make an excuse, a tear slipped from Yuuhi's blue eyes.
"I know you'll never love me as much as you loved her," Yuuhi said as the tear rolled down her cheek.
"But—"
"Stop," Hiroto interrupted as he embraced Yuuhi, her head pressed on his chest.
"You're the one I love, now. The past no longer matters," he continued, slowly laying Yuuhi's body down on his bed as he towered over her.
Hiroto kissed Yuuhi in the lips, his eyes closed but hers slightly open while tears of jealousy, discontent, and sadness continued to drip down. His lips made their way down to her neck, showering them with warm kisses. Hiroto undid the first two buttons of his shirt that Yuuhi wore, revealing the top part of her chest. His lips ran through Yuuhi's smooth skin and petite collar bones, his desires firing up.
Hiroto didn't notice, however, that Yuuhi was in pain. She didn't want to resist Hiroto, but she wasn't ready, even though she had already slept with a man before. Her fists clenched when Hiroto began kissing the top part of her chest, and tears continued to come out, for she could see Kirari's picture in the corner of her eyes.
Hiroto looked up before he could return to kissing Yuuhi's lips, only to find her crying in silence.
"I'm sorry," Hiroto said, placing his head on Yuuhi's chest and his arms underneath her back.
"Let's just go to sleep," Hiroto got up and slept on the right side of the bed.
Yuuhi also got up and placed herself next to him. She turned the lamp off since it was on her side of the bed. They both slept on their sides, their backs turned against each other's. The king-sized bed gave them enough room to have plenty of inches of space between them since they slept on the opposite sides of the bed. Though it was only a few inches, Yuuhi felt as if the distant between them was the size of the universe.
As the night grew deeper, with only the moon's light shining through the windows in Hiroto's room, Yuuhi was alone with her thoughts, unable to sleep. She and Hiroto had turned to their backs, making the space between them smaller, though the mental distance in Yuuhi's head was still the same.
Just as Yuuhi began to fall asleep, Hiroto turned to his side, moved his body closer to Yuuhi, and placed his arms around her and his face near hers.
"Kirari," he sleep-talked, cuddling next to Yuuhi even more.
Yuuhi's eyes grew wide to hear the name of another woman slip out from her lover's lips. To make it worse, it was Yuuhi's twin sister, Hiroto's past love. She then understood the reason as to why Cloudy was deeply angered that night because she realized that she had said Hiroto's name without her knowing.
Jealousy raged in Yuuhi, along with thoughts of Kirari and Hiroto in the room she was in.
"My sister had been in this room," Yuuhi reminded herself.
"She had been in Hiroto's arms, just how I am right now," she continued to think, lowering her self-esteem and belief in Hiroto.
Yuuhi turned to her side to face the portrait of Kirari on the nightstand next to her.
"I'm so pathetic," Yuuhi degraded herself.
"I'm just a substitute."
Time passed by like the autumn season and winter was already in the air. Yuuhi returned from her semi-hiatus after a month of resting and deepening her bond and relationship with Hiroto. Though Yuuhi seemed happy, she would plunge into her thoughts at night, giving her little time to sleep. After she returned to her job, however, Yuuhi began to think less deep into her relationship with Hiroto.
"Okay! We're ready," the audio engineer informed the black-haired idol in the sound booth.
Music filled the room and the headphones that the idol was wearing. When his cue came on, he perfectly hit the notes and sang the new song with grace.
"I'm really surprised you were able to convince him," Chairman Muranishi chatted as he sipped the coffee that was offered to him by one of the staff from the music studio.
"I just suggested it, Chairman Muranishi. I didn't think Hiroto would actually come back to the entertainment business," Yuuhi replied, her arms crossed in front of her chest.
Hiroto came back to the music industry after Yuuhi announced her new line of makeup brand in the beginning of October, just a week after Yuuhi returned from her short hiatus. He had already made a few appearances on TV shows along with Yuuhi, raising speculations amongst the people about the two's relationship.
"How are you handling it? Your secret relationship?" the Chairman asked with no hint of worry.
The Chairman believed it impossible at first that Yuuhi would be able to open up Hiroto's heart, but seeing that Yuuhi had the ability to convince Hiroto to become a singer once again, the Chairman put more faith in Yuuhi. Chairman Muranishi wasn't worried of how Yuuhi was going to handle the pressure and stress of keeping her and Hiroto's relationship because he knows that Yuuhi is strong, and after all, she had already kept her identity as a Kirari's twin for a long time.
"Is that really a question?" Yuuhi kindly smiled, resting the Chairman even more assured.
Suddenly, Yuuhi's phone vibrated when she received a text message from her new manager, Subaru.
"Yuuhi, don't forget the conference this afternoon at 5. It's at the MEC conference room. It's really important so don't be late," the message said.
Though Hiroto disapproved of it at first, he allowed Subaru to become Yuuhi's new manager. Every now and then, Hiroto would get jealous whenever Subaru was with Yuuhi, because after all, Subaru was Yuuhi's first love and Yuuhi was Subaru's. Yuuhi rested Hiroto assure, however, when Yuuhi mentioned Subaru's new interest, Akane Minami, the former idol that used to be rivals with Kirari and was now a top model in Japan and other several countries.
"Alright. Can Hiroto come, too?" replied Yuuhi, typing fast.
"No, I don't think so. I heard from Chairman Muranishi that Hiroto also has a conference to go to at 5," Subaru immediately replied.
Yuuhi scrolled down further to find an attached image of Subaru and Akane, sharing a huge muffler as they drank hot cocoa in the park with huge smiles on their faces. Akane wore fake glasses and a bonnet to conceal her identity from the public, and Subaru just wore his reading glasses. Since Yuuhi had only met Akane once for a magazine photo shoot, Yuuhi never thought that Akane was the type of girl to have a girly smile, especially since Yuuhi had only seen the model with a fierce look for her pictures.
"I know it might seem rude, but if you need anything, just text me. I'm on a rare date with Akane since it's a free day for her, so I really want to pay attention to her. She's the first girl I've fallen in love with ever since I fell in love with you. I'm really glad I have your full support, Yuuhi. You will always be my first love, but we all have to move on from things that don't work out. Don't you think so, too?" the photo attachment included a message on the bottom.
Yuuhi smiled at the thought that Subaru had moved on. Nevertheless, it was the right thing to do since she and Subaru could never be together. A pain lingered in Yuuhi's head, though she had no idea what it was for, but she was sure that it wasn't because she was jealous of Subaru and Akane.
"I'm glad for you and Minami-san, Subaru-nii. I will see you later," Yuuhi replied, adding a smiley face at the end of message.
Hiroto came out of the sound booth and rushed to give Yuuhi a hug right after she put away her phone. He embraced her tightly, even lifting her off the ground.
"I missed you so much!" Hiroto exclaimed after kissing Yuuhi.
"Jeez, Hiroto. You have me all for yourself at home, don't you?" Yuuhi teased, interlocking her fingers with Hiroto's.
Yuuhi and Hiroto began to live together in Hiroto's condo ever since that night they slept together. After she came back from her short break and he returned to becoming a singer, they had to enter the condo at different times and different entrances, however. Since the condo wasn't in the vicinity where a lot of people lived, nobody really knew who lived there, some people even thinking that the people that lived in it were overseas. Their coming in separately was just for security purposes since they never know who's watching and following them.
Hiroto and Yuuhi walked to Hiroto's car after they gave their thanks to the staff that Hiroto worked with. Chairman Muranishi, Hiroto's manager, also informed the two that they didn't have anything to do until 5.
"How was I?" Hiroto asked, turning on the engines.
"You sang amazingly, Hiroto," Yuuhi smiled as she buckled her seatbelt.
The two drove to the ramen shop that Hiroto used to go to. Since there was a bigger and more popular ramen shop nearby, only a few people go to Hiroto's favorite ramen shop, and those people were mostly old folks that had known Hiroto from before he left to travel the world after Kirari's death.
"Good afternoon, Oba-san," Hiroto greeted the old lady, Mariko, who was wiping the shop's counter.
"Oh, Hiro-kun! It's been awhile!" the old lady greeted, getting off the stool she was standing on to reach the counter.
Hiroto crouched down to give the old lady a warm hug that they both haven't given to each other in a while.
"Good afternoon, Oba-san," Yuuhi also greeted, bowing courteously.
"Oh, my! What a pretty young lady! I'm Marika Hashimoto, the owner of this ramen shop. It's nice to meet you," the old lady greeted Yuuhi.
"My name's Yuuhi Tsubasa. I'm Hiroto-san's girlfriend. Thank you so much for taking care of him," introduced Yuuhi.
The old lady led them to their table and took their orders with a cheerful smile on her face. Her short stature made her look cute, despite her frailness and wrinkles. Ever since Hiroto came back, the old widow's smile returned and her liveliness also gradually came back. She would still go to the hospital and fall sick at times, yes, but her health was better than when Hiroto was gone.
Mariko walked back to the kitchen behind the counter to cook their food by herself. On her way, she hid a pained expression that Hiroto didn't catch.
"This place feels so warm…like a home," Yuuhi smiled, looking around the shop.
"I'm glad it's back," Hiroto also looked around, glad that the money he sent to old Mariko became of use.
When Hiroto came back from his travelling around the world, he found the old lady out in the streets and escorted her home. There, she told him about how the shop had to close because she no longer had money, and more modern ramen shops had been built to cover up her old shop. However, after Hiroto started to earn more money from being Yuuhi's manager, he sent some money to the old lady for her to start her business again and fix the shop. With his excess money, he also paid for her debts and hospital dues.
"I used to come here a lot before and even after Kirari passed away. She only came here a couple of times, but Oba-san loved her," Hiroto talked about the past, lost in his memories.
Old Mariko checked up on the couple as she cooked their ramen. Just as she had thought, something was amiss. She continued to cook the ordered food, hoping that the feelings she had wouldn't transfer to the taste of the meals.
"Here you go," the old lady gently placed the tray on Hiroto and Yuuhi's table.
"Thank you so much, Oba-san," Hiroto and Yuuhi said in synchrony.
The couple enjoyed their warm and delicious ramen on a cold December day, their gazes only at each other. Something lingered on the back of Yuuhi's head, but she wanted to keep ignoring it, for she knew that she wasn't strong enough to handle it. She was already aware of it, but she didn't want to keep thinking about it, especially when she was together with Hiroto.
After they finished eating, the two conversed more about their jobs and how they miss each other from time to time while they're working. They already knew the consequences of Hiroto's comeback, but Yuuhi was glad to see Hiroto doing what he loved to do.
An hour had passed since they finished eating, and the two decided that it was time for them to meet up with their managers for the meetings they're supposed to go to. They paid their gratitude to old Mariko before they left.
"It was really delicious, Oba-san," Yuuhi praised the old lady's cooking skills.
"I'm glad you enjoyed my cooking, Yuu-chan. Please do come back some time again," invited the old lady.
"Then, we'll be taking our leave, Oba-san. We'll see you later," Hiroto hugged the old lady.
Yuuhi already went out, not even noticing that the old lady stopped Hiroto in his tracks by grabbing his sleeve.
"Hiro-kun," the old lady called with a worried and gloomy expression on her face.
"You're only going to hurt her if you don't let go," she advised, Yuuhi in her mind.
"She'd already forgotten about her first heartbreak, but she's still stuck in the past because you are, too," old Mariko continued.
Hiroto was a little confused on what the old lady was talking about, but a thought crept up in his head, which he refused to acknowledge.
"She's stuck in your past, Hiro-kun," old Mariko lightly pressed on Hiroto's chest with her index finger.
"Time had already done its magic. Now, it's your turn. It might be too late before you know it, and it's not only her that will get hurt, but you will, too."
Hiroto put on a worried face, turning back to see Yuuhi smiling from outside the ramen shop.
"Thank you, Oba-san," Hiroto hugged the old lady once again before he finally made his way out.