Thank you.
I told him off that I didn’t want to live together anymore. I made an excuse that I didn’t want to. This caused him to think I was mad at him and he was willing to fix it. I rather not let him fix it...he still left the apartment and he lived somewhere else.
We were together since the 3rd year of high school. His name is Yamato, age 21 and still going through college. I’m 22 and I have gotten out of college about 2 years ago. My...name is Hidemi. I somehow still love him and there are so many things we promised together when we were dating.
“Don’t hurt yourself to just get to me,” He told me, “Promise?”
“Tell me anything when you need to!” I told him, “Promise me that.”
“Why hide your feelings from me when you think I’m going to get mad?” He told me, “I won’t, I promise you that.”
“What if we break up?” I cried. “We made so many promises together…”
“Tell me if you hate me,” He cried, “I promise you that I’ll make you happier!”
“Do you still...l-love me?” I asked weakly as I tried to touch his shoulder. “We...we can go back being friends like we promised…”
It’s probably been a week since I seen him.
Yamato has exams and he’s working hard from what he tells me through text.
...we stopped calling each other at night since I told him that he should get some sleep. He got mad since he always tries to make sure that ‘incident’ won’t happen again. Though somehow he gives up on it.
...there are times when I visit him on campus. I find him with a bunch of his friends. Sometimes not always. I find his group of friends and they always asks me what’s up and when I try to ask for Yamato...they say they don’t know or ‘I thought he was with you.’ Seems as if they’re trying to hide him away from me...but I know they’re good people…
The morning comes and I find Yamato sleeping against my door when I couldn’t even open it.
“Yamato, what are you--?!” I push through the crack between the door and the doorframe and quickly come out. “Yama--!!” I close my mouth. Fuck. I thought. Turning around, I see my neighbor from the balcony across, watering his plants that hang on the wall.
His black straight bangs hang from the left and a little bed hair from the left hangs. He pushes his thin glasses up to the arch of his nose and waves his open hand.
“Uh, good morning!” I say and wave back, trying to lift Yamato slightly.
My neighbor nods and turns around, opening his door and closing it. Damn...I wonder if he has seen Yamato out here...this is so fucking embarrassing-!!
“Hey, Yamato…!” I tried to whisper, kneeling down and slapping his face softly. “Wake up…” He reeked the smell of alcohol. Are you serious? He went drinking again...and...a hickey...that’s...new…
I get up and locked my door with the key I had out. Looking back at Yamato, I searched his pockets and looked through...I found his keychain and took away mine. Putting it back, I walked away.
I’m starting to hate him for screwing around and...such…
I wave to the police officer who runs the little post and smile at him. “You know what time is it?”
He chuckles softly and takes his hat off. His blonde hair is short and blows in the nice smooth wind. “You know what time it is, Hidemi.” He puts his hat on my head, “Your boyfriend asked for your house again. Did you see him?”
I shook my head in shame and leaned against the counter table of the window, “Yep. He’s a drunk mess…” I sighed and took the hat off and hand it to him. “So...where’s your partner?”
“Haha, he’s on a date today.” The officer smiles and takes the hat, “You should be off to work, you’re working at a company, am I right?”
I nod and leaned back, stretching and sighing. “Yeah, I’ll see ya tonight.” I put my hand up, “I’ll see you for drinks.” He smiles along and high fives my hand. Waving his hat up and yelling goodbye to me, he’s a good guy I met so far. I have known him for about a year ever since I moved here and it’s nice talking to him and getting advice.
We live in a nice neighborhood where children walk to school every morning and ride their bikes. The elderly would walk with their dogs and some of them would wave to each other with smiles. It’s nice and peaceful, it’s something that I like every day and that’s why I would rather walk home than drive.
...sometimes I wonder why Yamato still comes to this place when he said it’s boring as fuck in his words. Sometimes I wonder why he still comes to this neighborhood when he could just stay at his dorms. It’s stupid and I wish he would just listen.
“Hidemi-chan!” Jeremy pulls me in for a hug, “Why did you leave so early last night? We still had a meeting going on…” He pouts and puts space between us. I sighed and slightly turned away.
“...boyfriend kept calling me so I thought he was at my apartment…” Once again, I sighed and walked away from his hug, “Where’s Manager?”
Jeremy walks behind me fast and chuckles, “Manager is off on a date with someone~!”
“Are you freakin’ kidding me?!” I turned around and groaned loudly, “Where the fuck is this ‘oh, why did you skip work to go home?’ when HE was the ONE who skipped work for a DATE!”
Everyone in the office turns towards me.
Jeremy clears his voice and leans in with a dead silent whisper. “On a date with his mother.”
Well fuck.
Within a few minutes, I was at my little space. My little corner of the cubical. Messy with drawings, pencil cup holders with pens and mechanical pencils. A few binders of more sketches and story ideas and such more. I touch the drawing tablet and hold the tablet’s pen, moving the cursor around and putting pressure onto the tablet. A black line, dark and solid stays on the screen of the paper.
I haven’t...really drawn in a while...haven’t I?
“Jeremy, can you check if there’s any spelling error?” I turn the monitor and changed the windows quickly. “It’s another story I made…”
“Oh, what’s the theme?” He leans down with a cup of coffee in hand. “Sugar and Cuties?”
I nod slowly, “It’s a short story...I’m just bored, to be honest…” I take his coffee, “Is it sweet?”
“Nope, black.” He takes it back, “...hmm...your english is worse than mine…”
“Hey asshole, I know.” I take the monitor back and turn it back. “I just have bad grammar, geez…” Beginning to type once again, I sighed. Again. Again. And once again. “...fucking hell…”
“Oh no, what’s happening now?” Jeremy chuckles and pulls a chair nearby, “Everyday you’re saying ‘fucking hell’...so what’s going on?” His smiles can catch a girl’s heart so easily. No wonder girls fall for him so easily. Even men.
I leaned back on my task chair and rest on the arms, “Boyfriend keeps being a lil’ bitch…”
“Hidemi, he has a name you know~” Jeremy puckers his lips and looks away, shocked by the way I treat Yamato. “You never introduced him to us. Invite him to the party next month, I’m sure we’ll all love him.” He nudges my arm and smiles.
“Fuck no,” I groan and raise my hand to my forehead, “Look, he’s always coming home drunk and you know what, today I found him against my door and I couldn’t even get out! I took my key to my apartment from his pocket, I even found a hickey on his neck!” I grip the arm of the chair. “I don’t know what to do anymore since he’s just like a fucking kid running around and he’s always trying to come to my place when he parties around this area…”
“Sleepless innkeeper?”
“I’m his girlfriend though,”
He laughs and sips black coffee, “He has a hickey, Hidemi. Isn’t that a sign he’s cheating on you?”
I shut up before Jeremy could speak more. It is a sign and he’s right. Though we promised something together….Yamato promised me.
“Promise me if you want to love someone else, you’ll break up with me...okay?” I told him as we held hands. “If you fall in love with someone, tell me and I’ll leave.”
“...okay…” He kisses my cheek, “...I will.”
Hours past and look who walked in. That fuckboy Manager (I’m kidding, he ain’t a fuckboy).
“Well…” Manager walks towards me with a sandwich in hand. “...look who decided to show up to work today.”
“Look at a man who went on a date with his mother,” I stared at him, “Can I have that sandwich?”
“Sure,” He hands it, “Now, I wanted to talk to you about something right when you left last night.”
I chew and nod, “Yes?”
Manager leans on my table and moves the monitor to face him, taking the tablet pen and moving the cursor on the screen. He goes to a new window and comes close to the keyboard; typing.
ENTER
He taps.
He looks at me.
“What do you think?” He asks, “It’s something that I wanted to give you.”
It’s...a freakin’ body pillow. I turned at him. “Do you see my face?” I wave my hand in front of my face, “Do YOU see how it looks? It’s the ‘what the fuck is this’ face, Manager.” I shoved the sandwich in his hand, “Are you trying to make fun of me?”
“No, I was told that your boyfriend is never with you.” He leans against my desk and takes a bite of the sandwich, “Thought it would nice for you.”
“I take your offer but denied.” I sighed and took the tablet pen from his hand and turned my monitor back in position. “Do you want to know what happened this time?”
“Yes, what happened this time?” He scrunches the plastic wrap in his fist, “Did he knock at your neighbor’s door again?
“No, this time he wasn’t at my apartment when I got home last night but,” I paused with a sigh once more, “But this time, he showed up at the door! Sleeping against it where I couldn’t even get out! He passed out there and...oh my god, I hope to god he didn’t make a scene when he got there…”
Manager stays quiet and stares at the wall, thinking and humming. He stops leaning against my desk and looks underneath it for the trash can. He throws away the plastic wrap and dusts his hands, looking up at me. “When’s the last time you seen him?”
“About a week ago,”
“Well Hidemi, it’s safe to say that he was trying his best to just to see you and he knows that he doesn’t see you often.”
I looked away from him, “I don’t want him to come at all. He should just stay in his area than coming two train rides to just see me.”
“He’s just showing his care and love by coming to visit you once a week.” Manager pats my head, “At least you brought him inside before you came to work, right?”
….
“You didn’t?!”
“Obviously not! He’s being such an idiot by coming over to my apartment when he’s drunk! Why can’t he be sober for once?!”
Manager groans, “Ugh….” Walking away, he turns his head and looks at me with a dramatic pose, “Hidemi, just please be nice to him. It’s a long distance relationship…”
I whisper to myself quietly and put my head down. “...Yamato doesn’t care about our relationship anymore…”
I got calls between lunch break from Yamato. Every single call.
Then from an unknown caller.
“Are you apartment 218?” The voice was shy but strong.
Comments (0)
See all