| Fan Fiction |
by Ifah_chan
*~*~* The Present day *~*~*
"Maki!!! And again, you're late!!" Aya crossed her arms. I could see her annoying face. Well, I had always been late like this and she was always the one who waited for me this long.
I ran towards Aya. I panted while looking at her. "Gomen, Aya… My bus was caught up in the traffic jam."
"Again?" Aya asked curiously. "This is the third time you've said the same thing."
I grinned innocently. "But… This is the truth. My bus has always caught in the traffic jam, so it can't be helped…"
She sighed. "That's enough. Come on, let's go… We're late now."
"Aya!!! Gomen!!!" I hugged her from behind. I pleaded her to forgive me. I just wanted to see her smiling face. But then, at last, she smiled at me. She would always forgive me. I knew I had always kind of mean to her in some ways but then she would always be the one who forgave and accepting me.
After we graduated in high school, we went to same university together. Well, it wasn’t like we would stick together all the time. It was just that we were happened to share the same passion and same hobby. I loved art and so she was. My hobby was watching movies and so she was too.
"Aya… Is this the one?" I asked her.
She nodded. "Yeah, I think so… Well, the pamphlet shows it here…"
I and Aya had been always loved painting exhibition. We would always be the one excited and delighted when it came to arts. Paintings were our favorite. I had always loved paintings. It was started when I was just 6 years old, when my father brought me to the painting exhibition. My father said that every painting had it own story.
There was a painting, called Memories by Youth, which my father adored it very much. It had a story of the young man who clearly lost his memories and slowly tried to find that missing pieces he had within his life. It had a nice and wonderful touch of emotions on how he eager to search that missing pieces of life, especially his memories he had with his lover. It had been over 10 years that I had seen that painting.
"Maki…"
I startled. "Aya… What's wrong?"
"You've been laid off, you know… What are you thinking about?" Aya asked me.
"Laid off...? I didn’t think of anything. Just amaze around…." I smiled innocently.
We walked around the exhibition. The paintings were superb and had an intelligent delicate touch. I was almost startled at every painting I had seen. It brought a memory I had with my father back then. The atmosphere was almost had the same feeling back then. It was calm and relax.
As I was walking around, suddenly I was surprised by the existence of the painting that I had been longing to meet again. My jaw dropped as soon as I passed by it. The painting which brought back the feeling I had back then. It was memorable feeling.
'Memories by Youth'… My most wanted and favorite painting I had been waiting for these 10 years since that day. It had appeared again in front of me.
"It's beautiful, isn’t it? It's a wonderful masterpiece, I can say…" Someone said suddenly from behind me.
I nodded happily. I turned to my back to respond. Suddenly, my eyes widened and my jaw dropped. It was…
"To…Tomo-kun…" I was so surprised that I dropped my pamphlet. I could see his surprising face. It was unexpected for me to meet him here. It has been almost 4 years we hadn’t seen each other. It was an awkward meeting.
Actually, it was me who was avoiding him. I left him on our graduation day. I bid him goodbye and never wanted to see him again, ever. I ran away from everything, and I ran away from him. It was coincidently that my father wanted to move into another place which was near to his work place. Ever since then, I had never an encounter nor bumped on him. I was totally shut myself from him. I changed my number and cut all the contact with him. I was intentionally did that.
I wasn’t being able to face him like that again. I wanted to be strong. I didn’t want to be a weak no more. Because I knew, if I ever faced him, and met him again, I would be much weaker than I was now. And I hated that feeling. And here again, fate had brought me and him to meet again. And… I didn’t like that.
"Maki…" He smiled. "It has been a long time…"
I pressed my lips and turned away. Then, I looked up at him again, and smiled. "Yes… How are you, Tomo-kun?"
"I'm fine… And how about you, Maki? How are you now?" he asked me.
My lips trembled. I took a deep breath. "Hait… I'm fine. I'm doing great right now…"
He smiled. I smiled. But then, we didn’t talk afterwards. He looked at me while sighing. "Maki… Where have you been all this while?" he asked me suddenly.
I was startled. I couldn’t answer him right away. I felt that I was trying to arrange a better explanation to him. I clutched my bag tightly. It took me awhile to answer him actually. Then, I looked up at him again. "Well, after the graduation day, I had moved away. My parents wanted to move because it was near to my father's working place…"
"Then, why didn’t you tell me back then?" He asked.
"It was a sudden decision. I didn’t even tell all of my friends that I'm going to move."
"But you told Aya, didn’t you?" He asked me again. And again, I was startled. He had this serious kind of looks on his face. It was obviously that he was quite upset and at the same time, he was quite agitated by it.
Slowly, I nodded. "Y-Yes, I did…"
"So, Aya was lying to me back then. Saying that, she didn’t even know about it; didn’t know where you are because she said she couldn’t contact you…"
I pressed my lips hard. I felt that my heart was crushed. The pain that I was longed to throw away, had coming back to feel again. And it was hurt a lot. It was… His eyes were full of sadness and disappointment. His face was changing, and there was no smile on his face right now. It had been a long time since I had seen his sad expression. It was wrecked-hearted to see him like that. I admitted that I was wrong to leave him like that, without telling him my whereabouts. But, it was for the best. I wanted to be my own self back. I missed myself. The more I met him, the more I changed. And I didn’t want that to happen.
"Maki, back then, why did you leave me without telling me where can I find you?"
"I did that intentionally…"
He was surprised. "What?"
"I don’t want to see you anymore… Because if I did, I wouldn’t be me. I have changed into another person since I met you… And I don’t like that…" I explained without looking at him.
"You're lying to me, aren’t you?"
"No, I didn’t… I hate that changing. It wasn’t me back then. To have meeting you, I think it was a mistake of me to have that fate. You have burdened me with your sadness." I took a deep breath and turned to him. "Tomo-kun, to me, it was just past memories that I wanted to forget and bury it deep inside my mind."
He took a seat at the chair nearby and looked away. I could see his shocking face when I said those things to him. He must have been shocked and surprised. Everything I said to him was just to keep him away from me. It wasn’t that I wanted to get back at him, but it was just that I was afraid that I couldn’t trust him anymore.
"Then, who am I to you back then?" He looked up at me. "Then, was it all the bluff when you did all those things to me?"
"It wasn’t a bluff but it was more to the side of comforting… I guess…" I said simply.
"Is that so?" he sighed. He then stood up and walked towards me. He took my hand and placed it on his hand. And his other hand, slid inside his pocket. He then took out something from his pocket and placed it on my palm. I was surprised. It was a dolphin key-chain that I gave it to him as a present back then. "Well, I guess I should give this back to you then… If that's what you've think of me, then I don’t deserve this present from you. I think you should give to someone you really love, who is willing to love you back. Back then you had said that, didn’t you?"
I couldn’t say anything. We both were looking at each other. Immediately, he turned away his eyes away from mine and rather looked down. He then squeezed my hand tightly with his hands and held on to it. It felt that as if he didn’t want to let go of it, reluctant to let go. I closed my eyes and held up my tears from falling. Up until now, I had chosen this path to end it with him. I couldn’t back out now. I had to hold it until the end. I had started this mess and I should end it well. I just had to…
"Well then, Maki…" he looked up and smiled. "Goodbye…." He squeezed my hand again and slowly he let go of it. And then, he slowly walked away from me. After he no more in sight, suddenly my legs became weak and I flopped down to the floor. I felt that my heart was heavy. So heavy, that I couldn’t carry it. It was painful… I couldn’t bear anymore. My tears were hold up for too long and now, I couldn’t take it anymore. Slowly, my tears were striking down to my cheek and slowly I cried… I cried my heart out.
"Tomo-kun, I'm sorry…. I'm really am sorry…."
After that incident, I was back to normal. I had ended it all at once. I didn’t know whether I did the right thing or not but it was for the best. I should give it a chance to my new self. I was now the true Horikita Maki, the cheerful and bubbly Horikita Maki. And I should treasure that now… It had been six months since that day. I was more delighted and happier now with my new kind of life. I was no longer living with my parents but I was now living with my Aya. Well actually, my parents were quite reluctant to agree with my decision but then, they gave it anyway. I wanted to be independent, to work hard and be successful person in life.
The most interesting thing happened was that I finally got a wonderful boyfriend. He was sweet and protective at the same time. Right now, I was happy to be with him. He had always cared about me and all. I just felt appreciated when I was with him. He had always made me smiled and laughed. His name was Ohno Satoshi. He was my senior in the university. We met when our university had this arts seminar during our summer holiday break. He and I were made into a team together. So, most of the time we got to spend together to gather the information. He was funny and lovely guy. I just felt that I was being myself when I was with him. I enjoyed just being with him. He was the adorable man I had ever met.
"Ohno-senpai… I'm sorry!" I ran towards him.
He sighed. "Maki-chan… You sure love being late, aren’t you?"
I pouted. "I told you I'm sorry… It's not like I love being late or something…"
He smiled and patted my head. "Okay-Okay… I know you don’t mean to do that, aren’t you?" I nodded. And again, he smiled. "Okay, let's go!" He took my hand and held it.
Every Sunday we would hang out together. He would bring me to the place where I had never seen it before. He loved exploring the town, he said that to me. And I just loved when he showed me all kind of places.
"Ohno-senpai, where are we going this time?" I asked.
"For today, we're not going anywhere…"
"Eh? Then, why do we going out?" I asked him again.
"Doesn’t mean we didn’t go anywhere, we can't meet… I just want spend my time with you, that's all. I can't bear to see my lovely Maki to just stay at home, doing nothing…" He pinched my nose.
I flinched away his hand. "That's hurt…!" I chuckled. "Really? You miss me that much?"
"Of coz I am… I miss you every time…" He smiled. I chuckled and then I cuddled his arm. He then stroked my head lovingly. "Ahh… We're here…" He suddenly pushed the button and dragged me to the stairs.
"Why are you suddenly do that? You've startled me…Where are we?" I asked again.
He grinned. "It's a secret…"
I looked at him and pouted. But then, he pulled me closer to him and dragged me along. The place was quite unfamiliar to me. But the place got warmness feelings. The children were playing happily around and the people enjoyed the scenery. The cherry blossom trees were everywhere around us. The warm expressions were clearly shown on their faces. The quiet atmosphere had brought me to peaceful of mind.
"This place is favorite place… When I wanted to relax, I will come here…" Ohno-senpai suddenly spoke.
"Hmm… Really?"
He nodded. "Not just that, I even gets good inspiration here. The people here are friendly and kind. I don’t know why but it has a nice feeling. I just wanted to show my girl what kind of place I love to go…"
"And that girlfriend loves this place too…" I smiled. He snorted. We walked around the place with our hands were hand in hand. We talked and rested at the bench. We laughed and joking around with each other. And I was thankful to meet someone like him. Even though we had just met, but I felt that we had been together for so long. I just loved being with him. I loved this happiness that I had with him. And I wanted to be like this.
"Maki-chan… Let's go! I'm hungry…"
"Me too… But, where do we want to eat anywhere?" I asked.
He grinned. "Hehe… Don’t you worry about that. I just know the right place for that…
"Hmm…?"
"Well, my cousin works there too… We can get a discount at there…" He smiled. It was 10 minutes walk from the park.
Even though it was spring time, I could the cold breeze outside. Ohno-senpai who noticed my freezing body, took off his jacket and covered me. He then hugged me all the way to that place. "We're here now…" He then took off the jacket and brought me to the seat.
I took the menu on the table. "Wah!! The food seems great and delicious.."
"Is it? I told you, the food here are delicious… trust me!" He laughed. I looked at him and smiled. "Order anything you want… I'll go and call my cousin…"
As I was flipped over the menu, suddenly Ohno-senpai arrived. I looked up at him "Ohno-senpai… I…" My mouth stopped and my eyes widened.
"Maki-chan… What's with that look?" He smiled. "Well... This is my cousin,Yamashita Tomohisa…" He introduced me to him.
My jaws dropped. I met him again. Why? Why was I had to meet him again? When I had wanted to end it all and it had came back to me again. And again, I had fated to meet him here as Ohno-senpai's cousin. I had never expected that this kind of fate would play around like this. I looked at him and had this kind of shocking expression. But he turned away to avoid any eye contact with me. He felt uneasy and struggled to get away from this. But Ohno-senpai insisted to introduce us.
"Tomo, what's wrong with you?" Ohno-senpai asked him.
He smiled and shook his head. "Nothing… It's just I have load of thing to think…"
"Don’t think too much! Don’t worry, I will pay everything. I don’t want to have a discount from you… Well, Tomo… This is my lovely girlfriend, Maki Horikita…"
I bit my lips and looked away. But, Tomo-kun calmly took out his hand to me. "Nice to meet, Horikita-san…" I was surprised. I then turned to him and looked up. Slowly, I handed out my hand to him and shook him.
"Nice to meet you too, Yamashita-san…."
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Happy Reading, guys!!!