You and I [Completed!]

Back To The Start

The hallway was marbled. When he walked, his footsteps fell loud and clear. Arata held the suit jacket in his hand. The smell of ash and perfume still clung to him. He stood before the door of room 302, tangled in thoughts. By now they were a cacophony and he could barely decipher one thing from another.

He knocked on the door.

It opened in a minute. Oddly, it was the first time he noticed how the woman looked. Pretty, fine featured, dark curly hair. She gave him the same coquettish smile she'd been flashing all evening, and motioned him inside. He expected himself to hesitate but didn't. Soon he was in and the door was closed.

As he stood in the air freshener doused room, looking lost, she tilted her head. "Looks like one night stands aren't that common for you."

"Not since I got married,"he said.

She laughed. "Same. Sit down, let's have a drink first."

He set his jacket down on the back of a chair. He looked down at his hands, at the silver band on his left one. When she returned with the drinks, he asked, "Your name?"

"Doesn't matter,"she smiled over the rim. "Out of this room, I don't know you."

"Convenient,"he replied.

She sat on the edge of the bed and crossed her legs again. Long and sheathed in stockings. She reached under her skirt to pull them down. His gaze moved away to some other part of the room. Once, he'd seen Hanami pulling down her blouse to remove a crease. Nothing showed, yet it seemed too intimate a moment to witness. She always presented herself with a certain degree of modesty. He liked that about her.

"What are you thinking of?"The woman asked, setting away the neatly folded stockings.

"My wife,"left his lips. It was unintentional. She raised her brows but perhaps, thinking of it as mere teasing, decided to play along.

"Does she look like me?"

He shook his head. She stood and tugged at the tie hanging around his neck.

"Less pretty?"

He gave her a lenient smile. The tie came undone. "A different kind of pretty, you could say."

"What does that mean?"

"I mean...She has these deep eyes which look like you've just poured ink in them. They smile a lot. And she has apple cheeks when she gets angry or shy. She is scared of dogs and in love with books. And she has soft lips... That's the kind of pretty she is." And then, to his own surprise, he added, "I miss her."

"If you're missing her, I can make you forget, you know. Isn't that what you came for?"

"She's too precious to forget."

The shift of softness of his voice made her glance up. Arata met her gaze, smiled and picked up his jacket. "Pardon me,"he said."I need to make a call."

"Thanks for ruining my evening,"she replied and slammed the door shut behind him.

It was one in the morning when he finally gathered the courage to call her. He sat in a chair in his room, one hand tapping restlessly on the knee. The phone kept ringing, and ringing, until he felt inclined to give up and found the whole idea stupid.

That's when she answered. "Are you okay?" Her voice cracked with sleep and worry. "What's the matter?"

He looked out the window. "How are you?"

"What?"

"How are you doing?"

She went silent for a moment, as if processing whether to answer him or not. "Have you had too many drinks, Arata...?"

"I'm not drunk. I wanted to talk."

"...Talk?"

"Mhm."

"About?"

He didn't know. "How is your school going?"

"It's all good... How is Hokkaido?"

"I brought your blue scarf."

He heard a smile in her "Oh?"

"You thought I'd forget, huh."

"Well, you do tend to forget things. Like not plugging in an iron before using it, forgetting to eat and sleep while you work."

He peered up at the ceiling, a small smile on lips. "It's not fun to drink coffee without you."

"Well... We can have some together when you come back home."

Home. The word led him to the times of laughter and conversation and the cozy feeling of companionship. He closed his eyes.

"Hanami, I miss you."

He heard her gulp. "Let's go back, let's be friends again, like you wanted, Arata. It doesn't have to be more. I don't want anything more..."

He nodded, but not without a slight stirring inside him. More meant a leap into the unknown. Where he would be walking blindly with a possibility of hurting himself and those around him. Yet, he found his heart willing to jump. His head intervened.

"Alright,"he said. "Let's go back."

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