Misfortune Never Comes Alone

It's been a week since the welcome party. And since then, it seems like bad luck has followed me.

A week ago, someone crashed into the back of my car and broke my taillights. Even the trunk was dented and I had to send it in for repair. Furthermore, the situation between Sendoh and I has not improved, it is still full of tension and very uncomfortable. Since we had that confrontation next to the emergency stairs, I have not spoken to him again and I have avoided him at all costs. As for Sendoh, he seemed calm and indifferent, but there were times I could feel his frustrated and irritated gaze behind me. I never cared and just concentrated on my work.

Besides, we have nothing to talk about.

"Oh my! Did the person who sold me this lunch have a chili garden? Why the hell is it so spicy? Anyone who eats this will have diarrhea. And it's so damn salty! How dare they sell this?" A loud murmur is heard from the table next to mine. Fujima, who decided to eat with me at the office today, complains about the food that gave him, with his tongue sticking out and his eyes watering.

It is lunch time. I decided to buy a box lunch in the morning and eat it during the lunch break instead of going out to eat at the nearby restaurant. Fujima sometimes accompanies me and other times he goes out to eat with Sendoh and Maki. Fujima has tried to take me to dinner after work, but I have turned down all of his invitations because he didn't want to get in the way of Maki's plans. His intention to pursue my friend is very clear, but Fujima is too distracted to notice.

Since the incident, I have seen a wry smile on Fujima's face more than once. Seeing his two best friends act tensely toward each other should worry him a lot. Still, he didn't force me to talk about it and he never really asked me what was going on. In the past, when he got me into trouble, Fujima would always ask me what was wrong with a worried expression on my face. If he thought I felt comfortable enough to talk about it, he would sit and listen willingly. Fujima being my friend is one of the best things that has ever happened to me.

"Is that really spicy? Do you want to exchange it for mine?" I ask him when I see him separating the chili peppers. Fujima looks at my box of fried rice with pork and just shakes his head.

"No, you can eat it," he says before continuing to eat the chili in front of me. Although he has a drink to drinking of ice water for each mouthful of rice, and continues to complain, soon the box of fried rice with minced pork and basil leaves runs out. I know he has been eating for a long time and I rarely hear him complain about food. Even if the taste is not good, finish everything. He never leaves leftovers.

I'm not even sure if my friend was really hungry or just didn't want to waste money.

"I'll go to the bathroom. I'll be right back," I tell Fujima as I put the last bite into my mouth. I get up and throw the lunch box in the trash.

As I'm about to enter the bathroom, I'm paralyzed when I see Sendoh standing there washing his hands. He raises his head when he notices my presence.

"Come in if you want. I'm about to leave," he speaks with a low, cold voice. He seems calm, but I can see the anger and frustration in his dark eyes as he stares at me.

I walk into the bathroom, trying not to look at his face. Just as I'm about to walk past him, Sendoh suddenly speaks to me.

"Seriously, how long are you going to keep this up?" he asks in an annoyed tone.

I look at him and can't help but ask. "Is there something to talk about?"

"You were the one who said that wanted this matter to end. If so, why do you keep ignoring me?"

"I don't normally talk to you anyway."

"I know, but you weren't ignoring me like this! If you want everything to go back to normal, then act like before!" he replies, which makes my face contract. I quickly leave the bathroom leaving him cursing from behind.

I've known him for years and I can tell that Sendoh is a very impatient person. He never really thinks about his one night stand, so he doesn't like the way I act now. But I'm not like him. Every time I see his face, I can't help but think about that incident.

I sit back down at my desk, quickly open the program I left, and continue working. I hear Fujima ask Sendoh how his lunch was, but Sendoh just responds with a silent. "Yeah."

Not only is he furious, but I am too because I still haven't gotten over this.

"Rukawa, I bought a watermelon smoothie for everyone. Take one, please." Maki approaches with a large glass of watermelon smoothie to bribe me.

After thanking him, I grabbed the straw and took a sip. It's not too sweet, but it makes you feel very refreshed. As I savor the watermelon smoothie in my mouth, my nervousness subsides a little. Turning around and seeing Maki take the opportunity to come over and chat with Fujima, I can't help but smile.

Well... Seeing as you've worked so hard to buy watermelon smoothies for everyone, I'll give you some points!

If someone were to ask me what is the most problematic and annoying thing I have encountered in my career, I would undoubtedly answer that it is people who work irresponsibly.

I sit and stare at Sakuragi as he hurriedly packs his things, as if the work day had just begun. Finished. He has just announced in front of us that his puppy is seriously ill in the veterinary hospital and that he is dying. He said he should go see him one last time and then delegated his work to Fujima.

"Thank you! I'll buy you a coffee tomorrow." Sakuragi squeezes the shoulder of Fujima, who is sitting motionless because he wasn't expecting any extra work. I stare at Sakuragi with a look of disapproval and annoyance that when he turns around and sees my expression, he just smiles awkwardly and runs out of the office. The only thing I can do is look at my friend with pity.

It's not that we are closed-minded, if our colleagues were really in trouble, of course we would help them immediately, but the problem is that this is not the first time that Sakuragi has sought various things excuses to avoid work. Sometimes he says that a family member is sick. Other times he says that he has quarreled with his wife or that his puppy is sick or has died. I don't know how many times a year this has happened. I think even kindergarteners would know he was lying if they heard it.

"Why does this have to happen? Is his dog dying again? This is the third in a year. How many dogs does Sakuragi have at home?" Fujima can't help but sigh.

"I don't know... I suspect his family must have a dog farm," Mitsui comments. "If I were you, I'd let the boss beat him up. You always let him get away with it, Fujima." He clicks his tongue, clearly unhappy with Sakuragi's behavior.

"You know if I don't help him, he'll keep complaining and it will get worse." My friend shakes his head wearily.

Every time something happens to Sakuragi, it seems like Fujima is always the unlucky one. He doesn't dare let me care about him because I made it clear to him that he doesn't like doing other people's work. Also, the negative energy I emitted made him not dare come bother me, so he had to ask Fujima for help.

I've tried talking to him directly and even tried to persuade Fujima not to take him any more work, but it didn't go very well. Sakuragi knows how to play his cards and use them against us. He knows that we don't like the boss scolding us, so he trusts that the work will be finished, that's why he keeps leaving us his work.

"I'll help you." I get up from my seat and approach Fujima, who is turning on Sakuragi's computer to see his work files.

"Oh, Rukawa! You are sent from heaven."

"Send me the files."

Maybe the only thing I can do for my friend is help him at work.

When the clock strikes 5:30, our colleagues in the department begin to leave the office one by one, leaving only me, Fujima and Maki to continue completing Sakuragi's tasks. As for the programmers, like Sendoh and some others, they are still sitting in their chairs making a test program. At this moment, the phone I had put aside suddenly vibrates, and when I see the name that appears on the screen, I can't help but roll my eyes. I already paid for Sakura's tuition last week, so why is it coming again? call me?!

Mother. I reluctantly press the answer button, but the voice on the other end is not my mother's.

"Hello, are you related to Mrs. Sora?"

"Yeah."

"I'm calling from the hospital. Sora has been in a car accident and injured her leg. Please come to the hospital as soon as possible."

My whole body goes numb when I hear what happened to my mother. The nurse quickly explains to me that the injury is not that serious, but I can't help but feel anxious.

"Okay, I'll go as soon as possible." I say before hanging up. I quickly save my work and then start to

pick up my things from the desk and put them in my backpack.

"What's wrong, Rukawa?" Fujima turns to me and asks me.

"My mother was in a car accident and now she's in the hospital."

"God. Is she is ok?" Fujima asks with a worried tone.

"It's not serious. She was hit by a passing car. But, even so, I have to go take care of the medical expenses." I continue packing my things with trembling hands.

My friend frowns and asks me, "How are you going to get there? You didn't bring a car today."

"I'll take a taxi."

"Let Maki take you so you don't have to spend money."

"Don't worry, I..."

"The traffic is crazy out there. If you take a taxi, I don't know how much it will cost you. Let Maki take you! Shin, you agree, right? Go and take Rukawa."

I see Fujima excitedly tugging on Maki's sleeve. Although Maki is very confused by Fujima's actions, he immediately stands up out of politeness.

"It's… it's okay…"

"I'm fine, no..."

"I'll take him." A deep, hoarse voice speaks from behind. Sendoh turns off his computer, grabs his car keys and turns around to stare at me.

"Sendoh, don't you have work to do?" Fujima looks back and forth between Sendoh and me. He can probably feel the tension between his best friends staring at each other.

"It's over," he replies to Fujima, but he doesn't take his eyes off my face for a moment. Fujima just blinks.

"But..."

"If you let Maki take Rukawa, how are you going to get back home?"

"Using the sky train!" Fujima responds hastily.

"Let Maki stay with you. His condos are across from each other. Kaede's mother is in the hospital near my house. It's more convenient for both of us."

"But..."

"Your work is not finished yet. Let Maki dry off and help you, and I'll take Kaede to the hospital." The tall man cuts off Fujima's words with his stern voice, leaving no room for discussion. He approaches me and asks in a low voice, "Will you come with me or not?"

I look at him and think about it. I really don't want to be alone with him, but it's an emergency...

"Yes, that's fine. Thank you," I replied in a low voice. This time he has offered to help, so I don't want to rudely reject his kindness. At least I can save the taxi money. Plus, we're going to be working together for a long time in the company, so maybe I should take this opportunity to try to fix our relationship.

Relationship.

"No problem," Sendoh answers before leaving first. I grab my backpack and look at Fujima.

"Sorry, I can't stay to help you."

"Hey, it's okay, I'll finish soon. Hurry up and go see your mother." He comforts me, patting me gently on my shoulder.

"See you tomorrow."

"See you! Take care of yourself!" Fujima's voice comes from behind as I leave. When I push the door to leave, I see Sendoh in front of the elevator pressing the button so that the doors do not close.

"Enter."

I enter and stand in the corner of the elevator. When the elevator doors close, the atmosphere between us seems even more tense than before.

Basically, since we entered the elevator, neither of us spoke. Not even when Sendoh took me to the hospital. Although I like silence, silence like that only makes the atmosphere more disturbing, almost suffocating. The traffic is very heavy after work, and the car is stuck in the middle of the road, so...

"Thanks for bringing me." After an hour and a half, I am the first to break the silence. When the car stops in front of the hospital, I unbuckle my seat belt.

"Do you want me to wait for you?"

"No. I can go back alone." Without looking back, I open the door and get out of the car. I rush to the patient information desk. The nurse gives me my mother's room number and tells me to go there. I thank her and set off quickly.

"You're late."

That's the first thing I hear came out from my mother's mouth as soon as I enter his room. Said mom is lying in bed with an annoyed expression on her face.

"What happened? How did you get hit by a car?" I pretend that I don't care what she just said and I limit myself to asking what happened.

"I came to see my friends here. I was about to cross the street when the car hit me. The doctor said I had sprained my ankle joint and had bruises on my buttocks. That driver must be blind. How did he not see me cross the street?!" she grumbles, she gets upset.

My eyes stray from my mother's face and see a cast around her ankle. Everything else looks normal, which relieves me a little.

"Anyway, why are you so late? It's almost half past eight at night. Hasn't the nurse been calling you for a long time?" Mom narrows her eyes angrily and looks at me.

"It was because of the traffic."

"Seeing that you weren't answering the phone after calling for so long, I thought you wanted to wait for me to die!" Hearing my mother's sarcasm, I take a deep breath and endure it.

"Have you called home yet?"

"I already called. Sakura was going camping in Osaka and your father is in China to attend a seminar. That's why I asked you to come." I can't help but clench my teeth when she refers to her new husband as my father.

Dad my ass.

"Did the doctor tell you to stay in the hospital for one night?"

"Oh! I won't stay in the hospital! Hurry up and pay my medical bills while you're here. I want to go home. Oh, and also remember to give me the taxi money! I'll come back on my own later." Mom kicks me out of the room. After that, I see that she picks up the phone and starts playing.

After taking a deep breath, I go out and ask the nurse about the expenses. After paying all the medical bills, I help my mother into a wheelchair and push her to the hospital entrance, where I plan to wait for a taxi. At the exit of the hospital there are chairs for patients and their families to sit. I'm about to go there to wait when I see Sendoh sitting, which takes me by surprise. He hasn't come home yet?

"Who is that?" Mom asks. Sendoh, upon noticing our presence, gets up and approaches us.

"My friend from work. My car needs to be repaired, so he brought me here."

"Are you sure? Isn't he your boyfriend? Is this person rich?" Mom says so loudly that those close to her can't help but look at her. I stand there, clenching my fists after hearing her words.

Mom has always been like that. Sarcastic and hurtful. Everything to make fun of me and my sexuality. When there are a lot of people, she always says those things out loud, just to embarrass me. That's one of the reasons I hate going home. I don't want to hear those hurtful words from the person who gave birth to me.

"Hello, aunt," Sendoh greets. Looking at him, although his face was expressionless, he knew that he had heard those words like the others.

"Hello." Mom waves back before looking at Sendoh from head to toe. "Are you Kaede's boyfriend?"

"I'm Kaede's friend," Sendoh answers in a soft voice.

Mom forces a smile, and the expression on her face tells me clearly that she doesn't believe what Sendoh is saying. Then he directs his gaze to me, who is standing behind the chair, and orders me to call a taxi.

"Quick, call a taxi!" I'm about to leave when Sendoh speaks.

"Stay here. I'll call one for you." Before I can say no, he leaves. Shortly after, a taxi parks at the entrance of the hospital.

"Quickly! Give me money for the taxi!" she demands as I help her get into the car. Pursing her lips, she opened my wallet and took out 300 yen. She quickly snatched them out of my hand before closing the car door.

I stood still and watched the taxi leave the hospital.

"Let's go. I'll take you home," Sendoh says.

Thick hands grab my wrists and pull me toward the parking lot. I languidly follow in his footsteps. When I think about how it was the first time I saw my mother in almost half a year, I can't help but sigh. Every time I see my family, I feel unhappy and my emotions are even heavier than before.

"How is your mother?" The deep voice tries to talk to me, for the first time since we were alone.

"Her ankle is a little sprained, but it's not serious."

"That's good."

The silence that follows suffocates the atmosphere in the car again. I stare dazedly at the flashing red traffic light ahead through the car window, and I ask in a low voice...

"Did you hear that?" I look at Sendoh, who looks away from the road in front of him and turns to look at me.

"What?"

"What my mother said."

"...Yes."

"I'm sorry, my mother always does that," I say bitterly.

As for my family matters, both Fujima and Sendoh only know that the reason I refuse to go home is because of my adoptive father. And that my conflict with my mother was that she didn't like me because I liked boys. But now he probably thinks that the conflict is so serious to the point that my mother can embarrass me and insult me like that in front of other people.

"Why are you apologize? You didn't do anything wrong," he asks.

"Why?"

"Your mother wouldn't have said that if I hadn't approached you."

Honestly, it had nothing to do with whether Sendoh approached me or not. If Mom wanted to embarrass me, even if she sat me down quietly and no one came near me, she would do it any way she thought of.

"And I'm sorry about that night," he says in a sincere voice. The topic that I don't want to talk about again comes to light, making me tense up a little. I'm about to cut him off but I see how his eyes are full of guilt and regret.

"I was drunk that night and I really didn't want to do any of that to you!" If he had been sober, he never would have done it! It makes me feel bad to see what happened between us.

"..."

"I know you didn't want to talk about it again, but it's affecting me. I know you don't like me that much, but I've always considered you a friend, Kaede. Seeing that you ignore my existence only makes me feel even more guilty." I can't help but take a deep breath after listen to it.

I admit that I felt very uncomfortable. I didn't want to get close to him or see his face. But, on the other hand, I knew that the culprit was not Sendoh. I was the one who continued drinking uncontrollably that in the end I ended up so drunk that I couldn't get up and I let it happen.

"You're not the only one to blame. I should be to blame too because... I didn't stop you."

As I thought about what happened that night, my voice became hoarse. I take a deep breath and apologize. "I'm sorry."

"..."

"I never thought of blaming only you. I just don't want to talk about that night. Honestly, I still don't want to see your face." Sendoh's face becomes so serious that I look away.

"But I meant it when I said I forgave you. You don't have to worry about it," I add.

At that moment, the light turns green and Sendoh takes his eyes off my face, and refocuses on the path ahead. I told him the location of my apartment recently, and neither of us said a word for the rest of the trip.

The car parks at the intersection in front of my apartment, and as I unbuckle my seat belt, I quietly thank him. Just as I'm about to open the door and get out of the car, Sendoh grabs my arm and his eyes flutter.

"I'm really, really sorry," he repeats. I look down without saying a word, and finally nod.

"Well, thanks for bringing me back," I respond softly before releasing my arms from his grip and leaving.

When I return to my room, I head straight to the sofa. Exhausted.

I know that my relationship with Sendoh can't go back to the way it was 100 percent after what happened, but I'm getting tired and I don't want to sit and think about a past that can't be fixed. It's not the first time in my life that something goes wrong.

I've been with people who managed to break my heart. Although it hurt a lot every time, I was always able to pull myself together and move forward. At least Sendoh is completely innocent, unlike other people who don't care about anything, even if they break my heart.

I sigh again and slowly close my eyes. The prolonged accumulation of fatigue causes me to fall asleep slowly and unconsciously. When I wake up, it's already 10 at night. I get up and take a shower before lying in bed to sleep only to wake up hours later to go to work.

The next morning, I'm playing on my phone waiting for the elevator when I feel a presence next to me. As soon as the faint smell of mint reaches the minaris, I immediately recognize who it was. I turn to look at him and meet his eyes. The slight awkwardness between us makes me sigh.

"What are you looking at?" I ask.

"Can't I look at my coworker?" he asks back as we enter the elevator.

"Have you come to bother me again first thing in the morning?"

For now, it's just Sendoh and I in the elevator. Sendoh doesn't answer me and I shrug my shoulders. As I watch him change the floor number, the uncomfortable atmosphere between us seems to dissipate little by little. It seems like I can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

I've been so tired the last few days, and now I just want to let go and move on.

As for that night, it was just a mistake in my life...that's all.

Will be continued.