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Not Telling
INDEXED STORIES
Noise: This post
Rental Heroes
Intro 1
Intro 2
Intro 3
Intro 4
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Hook, Line and Sinker
Intro
Chapter 1
Hey everyone, I'll be opening this new thread for any one shots I have in mind.
This one just came into my head today when I was jogging. I didn't wanna let the idea go so I've been writing for the past 4-5ish hours?
*phew* so please let me know what you think of it. (i kept changing from present to past tense. it's late at night. sorry)
Noise
Too damn loud!
These kids are driving me nuts!
Tell me why I work at a daycare again when I am not good with children at all? Oh, that’s right. My spending habits on clothes. Unfortunately, this was the only job I could land, so I had to take it if I wanted to keep up my shopping. I’ve been working here for a bit over a month now, and I really don’t know how much longer I can take it. So much for “getting used to them”. Only thing I’ve learned is that I can’t handle them at all, even when I try!
The kid cries.
I feed them.
Spit it out. They cry more.
I pick them up.
Still crying.
I try to put them to sleep.
They cry even harder.
I look at my manager.
“Comfort them, Reina.”
What have I been doing for the past 15 minutes!?!?! I can’t stand this job anymore! I get a blasting headache every single day from these kids. Whatever happened to good docile kids? Oh…they disappeared along with corporal punishment. Aha. So now I have to deal with this spoiled new generation “gently”.
When the clock strikes 5, I almost start crying of joy. Finally! I’m out of here!
The sharp pains of screaming children fade as they’re replaced by the dull murmur of the city, which is definitely an improvement. Fukuoka isn’t so bad when it comes down to the city when compared to Tokyo or Osaka. My short moment of peaceful walking is disturbed when my phone rings.
“Hello?”
“Reina! Are you still mad at me?? Can we hang out sometime?”
Oh great, not you…
This is one of the guys from my clique. They’re fine at first until they start getting clingy. This guy’s been trying to hit on me for a long time now. Not only is he annoyingly persistent, he’s whiny too! And not just whiny about me turning him down continuously, he tells me every single detail of his life that he doesn't like. Which is apparently everything. Honestly, if I went out with you, you’d be doing the exact same thing anyway.
“Look, I just got off work and I really want to just get home and rest.”
“Can I come over then??”
“No. I want some peace and quiet by myself.”
“I’ll be quiet.”
You’re never quiet.
“Look dude, no means no.”
“Ok, well the gang wants to hang out tonight at karaoke! Wanna go? I’ll be there!”
I’m almost tempted when I heard the word ‘karaoke’ but the way you made yourself sound like an attraction to me completely turned me around.
“Not today. Gotta catch the train! Bye!” *snap*
Man, first is crying babies for over half the day, then there’s a whining guy calling me. My headache and bad mood is still growing nonstop and my walk home practically turns into a march home.
Finally, home. Wait…why isn’t the door opening? The key turned already! Pulling out the key, I twist the knob and ram the door as hard as I could with my shoulder…just to tumble through the door and crash into my ground. Apparently my little brother and his friends decided to keep the door from opening and were now running away from me like roaches after you turn on the light.
“Why you!”
The second I start chasing after him, I hear my mom yelling for me to stop.
“They’re just kids. Leave them alone.”
“But you saw what they did to me!”
“Reina, calm yourself down! What is wrong with your temper young lady?”
My temper! Oh I don’t know! Maybe because the world is ganging up on me to force my brain into exploding!
Forget this. I turn around to head to my room. This time I thoroughly check for brats after locking the door.
“Finall--“
And there goes my phone again.
“Sup.”
“Hey! Let’s go on a weekend vacation to Okinawa!”
“Uhh…when do you want to go? You can’t afford it last time I checked.”
“This coming weekend! I’ll find enough money to go by then!”
I swear, every time this girl promises to go with me somewhere she always bails at the last second. I plan and plan just to have a million different excuses come flying at me the night before we were supposed to leave. Like I’m believing you again…
“Nah, I have to wor--“
“C’mon! I’ll get a job this time! Tomorrow! I’ll get one then!”
“You’re planning on getting a job all of the sudden tomorrow…to go on a weekend vacation a couple days later? You know you won’t have money yet right? Given that you even land a job that fast.”
“Yeah! It’ll work out! I’ll find a way!”
“Whatever, call me when you’re packed and ready to go at the airport then.”
Headache…building. Maybe I should go relax in a bath for once instead of a shower. Yeah, that should help. Taking my phone with me, I strip down and soak in the warm and comforting water. I could get used to this if I was less on the impatient side. Leaning my head back against the side, I relaxed my tired body and brain. Any thoughts coming into my head are instantly rejected. Relax now. Think later. Until I hear the sharp shriek of my brother followed by my mom trying to comfort him. What did he do now? Trying to ignore him, I flip open my phone to play some games on it. Nearly five minutes later and he’s still screaming! Feeling my headache build up again, I get finish my bath and head out to see what happened.
The second I walk into the living room, I see my brother sitting my the couch with his feet sticking out towards my mom, who has tweezers.
“What happened?”
“Reina! You shouldn’t leave your sunglasses just lying around! Your brother took them and stepped on them and now he has pieces of plastic stuck in his feet!”
“What! How is that my fault?! He’s the one who took them and decided to go Godzilla on my sunglasses! How do you get plastic stuck in anyway!!”
You know what? I’ve had enough of this. I’m 20 years old and I’m being blamed for something this ridiculous. Who am I? Cinderella?! Swiftly turning 180 degrees, I head back to the comfort of my room and headphones. Lying back on my bed, I turn on my ipod and hit play. The gentle sound of piano immediately soothes my ears, which is then joined a smooth voice. Ahh..that’s more like it.
What am I going to do? My job is practically killing me from the inside out, my friends are either unreliable or annoying, and I’m constantly being annoyed even at home. All this noise is really starting to wear me down. What can I do about any of it though? I need the job and nowhere else is employing, I have absolutely no idea what to do about my friends, and there’s absolutely nothing I can do about family. Is this what the rest of my life’s going to be like? Miserable like this? Because if it is, I honestly don’t want it. Of course, I’m not someone distressed enough to turn to suicide or anything, but if the rest of my existence is going to be like this, I don’t mind being hit by a bus. As long as it doesn't mess up my face…
Ugh, let me get away from here!
Closing my eyes, I let the darkness fade in.
------------------------------------
Once you find it, you may return…
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Huh? What’s that mean? Weird dream…How long have I slept?
…
It’s morning already?! I sit straight up to look at my alarm clock reading 7am. Well at least I’m not late for work.
Looks like I missed dinner though. I hope Mom isn’t mad at me for something that I didn’t do…
Stepping into my slippers, I walk out of the room expecting the smell of breakfast…but there wasn’t any. She’s not THAT mad at me is she?
“Mom??”
No answer. So here I am, looking around the kitchen, in her room, bathroom, and even searching the insides of the cabinets for my mother. Wait…she can’t be inside a cabinet. Closing the cabinet, I realize that my brother and father are also nowhere to be found. Weird.
Oh well. Maybe they went out for breakfast just to leave me behind for yesterday. After eating something quick, I get dressed to head out to work.
Something’s wrong…
I just walked out of the house to hear birds chirping and the sound of running water. No screaming kids? No people?
Wow, maybe I’ll take the rare tranquility and walk to work today. Who cares if I’m late. I’ll be in a better mood with a peaceful walk anyway.
After walking halfway to work, I started becoming really wary. Is this a dream? Or did a peaceful doomsday happen and spare me? There’s no people!
If there’s really no people around work, then something is definitely off since it’s in the busy part of town.
Ok, this is amazing! It’s so nice and peaceful! Not a single soul popped up on the way to work either!
Work? Empty.
Bakery? Empty as well.
Grocery store? Yup!
Well dang…I’ve never had a dream this realistic before but I guess I might as well take advantage of it! What to do, what to do…Aha! Cupping my hands around my mouth as an improvised speaker, I tilt my torso up and scream as loud as I can:
“REINA RULES THE WORLD!”
No responses as expected. I smirk. How about some travel then? I walk over to my boss’ black Mercedes-Benz sitting outside of the daycare. Looking inside, I spot exactly what I’m looking for: keys! Just dangling there from the ignition!
“Sweet!”
“Let’s see. I should grab some food since I don’t know where I’m heading yet. Bakery spree! Everything’s free!”
Grabbing everything that appealed to me, a small part of my mind was expecting the police to pop up and arrest me, but it never happened. Placing the food into the car, I head over to the shops to grab some outfits and other necessities I wanted.
Now…
How to drive…
I stand by the driver’s door with my hands on my hips and stare at the car like it’s going to drive itself. When it became apparent it wouldn’t, I opened te door and sat in the driver’s seat.
“Well I’ve seen Dad do this part…”
The engine purred to life.
“Awesome…now…hmmm…which one is the gas and which is the brake.”
Shifting the gear into drive, I step onto one of the pedals lightly, getting lurched forward.
“Whoa! Good thing there’s no cars in front of me.”
After doing a few sloppy donuts and getting the hang of driving, I start driving towards the highway. I’ll just follow the signs and go wherever I feel like!
--------------------------
Dang my boss has such a nice car! After figuring out that the Benz was a convertible, I let down the top and put on my newly bought/taken sunglasses. The wind ruffles my hair as I speed down the empty highway, and I hear the sounds of nature all around me as the highway takes me into a tunnel of trees. Japan sure if beautiful like this. Nice and peaceful. This dream must be to make up for all the stress I’ve been under recently.
Oh! A sign!
“Yamaguchi…60km.”
“Looks like I’m going north then!” was what I was thinking an hour ago.
Where the heck am I now?? I don’t know what major cities are in Yamaguchi! Which way do I go?
Ube? 16km…Guess I’ll go there and pick up a map or something! Seems like a big enough city to have a good amount of signs leading to it.
-------------------------
“Ok. Map: gets! Now to see where I want to head off to. Osaka? Tokyo? Shopping? Onsen? So many choices! Well I guess I’ll be doing some shopping in Ube first. Let’s see what they have here.”
After shopping for a couple hours, it was well into the afternoon already. I wonder if I should stay the night at a hotel or keep driving to another place before night? Probably stay here. Even though there’s no people, it’s still kinda scary being alone at night. This dream sure is awfully long to go from morning to night already! Usually they’re all weird and jump from place to place.
I stop the car outside of a hotel and hop out over the door instead of opening it. Taking my food and clothes as well, I headed towards the entrance when I heard…the sound of crying?
Ok, it’s almost sunset. This is scary now…I should probably run away. But then it’ll be the ghost’s trap and they'll attack me form the other side!
Wait a minute…why did I decide it’s a ghost? Nothing to be scared of Reina! This is all just a dream anyways!...except it all feels so real.
I slowly follow the sound towards what appeared to be a mall next to the hotel. Seems like it’s coming from the store over there. I peek in from the outside and see a girl with black hair over her face crying. Creepy! The grudge?! The witch from that zombie game my friends play?!
Turning around to get away from what was rapidly approaching a nightmare, I miss a step and fall against the door I was peeking from.
“Uh oh…”
Turning around slowly, I see it looking up at me. I was just about to sprint towards the car when it reached its hands up and brushed its hair out of the way to reveal a pretty girl who looked to be around my age.
For about a minute, we just stared at each other in shock. Isn’t this a dream?! I thought there’s not supposed to be any people here! And…who is she?
“Who are you? And why are you crying?” I ask as I take a step towards her.
She stood up and rubbed her tears from her eyes before answering.
“My name is Michishige Sayumi. I couldn’t find any sign of human life since this morning! Until now that is. I’m…scared what happened to my family and friends.”
“This morning! That’s what happened to me too! I thought this was a really realistic dream of mine! I’m so confused now…”
“I thought it was a dream too…until I couldn’t seem to wake up. And I’m all alone.”
“Well…I don’t know what’s happening either but at least you’re not alone now. My name is Tanaka Reina. Let’s stick together until we get to the bottom of this ok?”
“Ok…what are we going to do now?”
“Uhh…well I’ve just been traveling around while doing whatever I wanted. No actual plans or anything…”
“Where are you going?”
“Anywhere. I just wanted to take the time to travel and explore. Get away from all the stress and noise of normal life you know? But for now I’m going to stay at this hotel for the night. I don’t trust myself driving at night much.”
“I see…can I um..stay with you? I really don’t like being alone like this. It’s really eerie.”
“Sure, I don’t see why not. We’ll have each other to keep company so at least we won’t be as bored.”
After we set our things down in the executive hotel room, we headed back down for dinner at a restaurant. Something struck us once we sat down though: there’s no chefs.
“Well, how about we go back into the kitchen and cook something up ourselves?”
After getting a nod of approval from Sayumi, we headed back to find all sorts of quality ingredients. Top grade beef, chicken, vegetables, fruit, you name it.
“Ooh! I want yakiniku! That’ll be easy! What about you, Sayumi?”
“I think I will too. I don’t trust my own cooking to much to actually eat anything harder to make.” She confessed with a giggle.
We proceeded to getting thin slices of beef, tongue, hormon, everything we wanted to eat! And then chopped up a simple salad to even out our meal a bit.
“This is soooooo good!” I practically crooned from the delicious juices coming out of the piece of kalbi. What an amazing day! My mood is about a thousand times better than yesterday.
“So is there anything you want to do or any place you want to go to? I learned to drive this morning.” I smirked.
“Not really. I don’t even know what we’re supposed to do. Try to get out of here? I don’t even know where ‘here’ is since this doesn’t seem like a dream anymore. I’m up for following you around. I just want some good company.” She looked down a little as she spoke.
How cute!
“Well, how about we head to Osaka then? Then to a hot spring? Gero hotspring in Gifu is close to Osaka and it’s one of the top three in Japan! What do you think?”
She smiled.
“Sounds fun to me!”
Once we got back to the hotel room, we noticed a slight problem. While the room was absolutely huge, there was only one bed. One gigantic bed.
“Well, it’s definitely big enough to fit us. It could probably fit six to seven people. Plus we’re both girls anyway! Nothing to be worried about!”
“Yeah, it’s ok with me. You want to bathe first?”
“Oh, ok. I shower so I’m a lot faster. I’ll be out shortly!”
“Ok, take your time.”
Grabbing my towel and a change of clothes, I headed into the huge bathroom that was tiled with black marble. This is seriously glamorous! And it’s not a dream!
Then what is it?
I thought as I stood under the strong spray of the shower faucet.
An altered reality? A parallel universe? Then how did the two of us get here?
All my questions only led to more questions that were even more confusing. Looks like there’s no use wasting my brain cells over it. I should just enjoy it while I can. No screaming babies, no annoying friends and family. Just the peace of natural Japan and a cute girl to accompany me. Paradise!
“Sayumi, I’m done.” I say as I walk out of the bathroom with a fluffy white towel ruffling my hair.
“Ok. Oh, you can call me Sayu if you like.” She smiled at me before heading into the steamy bathroom.
I sprawl onto the bed before pulling out the map of Japan that I got.
“Let’s see…so right now we’re here. And Osaka is up here. Gifu is there. Ok, it might take all day of tomorrow to get to Osaka but at least I don’t have to obey the speed limit! Great! There’s plenty of cities to visit up there too! This is gonna be fun for sure!”
When Sayu came out of the bathroom, we chatted with each other for a little bit before going to bed on each respective side of the bed.
----------------------------
“So where are we heading now?” Sayu yells over the wind as we drive along the highway.
Oddly enough, I don’t find her yelling to be noisy or repulsive like other people’s. In fact, I find her presence as a whole pretty comforting.
“Osaka. We’re gonna have so much fun there!”
“Yeah…” her voice trailed off.
“Hey, don’t worry! I might not know what’s going on either but at least we have each other. We have everything we need as a necessity and more! As long as we stay by each other’s side, everything’s gonna be fine!”
I grabbed her hand and gently held it to reassure her.
“You’re right. Thanks for taking me with you Reina.”
“You’re welcome, cutie.” Oops. Did I say that out loud? I glance over at her to see a light blush on her face and a smile tugging at her lips.
---------------------------------
“Well here we are! Osaka! It only took about six hours! And it normally takes almost nine!”
“Wow, how much were we speeding?”
“Aw it’s ok. It’s not like there’s other cars or police to worry about. Now let’s go do something!”
She laughed at my excitement. “Sure, anything in mind?”
“Karaoke!”
Her eyes grew wide. “You’re on!”
We both rushed into the closest karaoke shop around and grabbed some snacks before heading into the room. From her enthusiasm, I would’ve thought the girl’d be a good singer. Well, her voice is cute, but she sure misses a lot of notes.
“You’re pretty horrible Sayu!” She smacked my arm from her spot next to me.
“Yeah, yeah. Not everyone’s as good as you, Ms. Could-be-a-singer!”
We continued singing until our stomachs growled, begging for some real nourishment. Heading out, we decided to go for western food this time, despite the fact that neither of us knew how to prepare it. What came out was pasta with sauce and a ton on meat on top. Seemed like this was the most we could do with our culinary skills. With dessert however, it was as much ice cream, cake, and parfait as we could handle.
Feeling like we could explode from all the food in our stomachs, we decided to take a walk around the city. Despite there not being any people except for us, it seemed the city knew what to do. When night fell, all the city lights turned on and lit up the streets. After walking for a good while, we spotted a bike shop. I hopped on and waited for Sayu to get on another one but she stood there smiling at me shyly.
“I never learned how to ride a bike.”
“Ehh? Well…I guess you can hop onto the back of this one if you don’t mind.”
She popped herself up to sit sideways on the back seat and wrapped her arms around my waist.
“Ready?”
“Yup.”
We biked down the side of the river, a beautiful sight at night with the lights from the city reflecting off its surface. It was one of the most enjoyable times of my life, with the wind gently brushing by and Sayu’s warm arms wrapped around me. I sure am getting attached to this girl.
We were both exhausted when we walked into the presidential suite of an even nicer hotel than the last one. That night, I woke up in the middle of the night to find Sayu hugging me from behind in her sleep. She was mumbling something so I put one of my hands on her’s, successfully comforting her a bit as her grip slackened and she stopped mumbling.
The next morning we woke up with our arms and legs all tangled up in a human mess. Both blushing, I excused myself to take a shower before we headed out again. Man, whatever happened to my tough yankii character…
I guess there’s no point in having that character since it’s only the two of us in this world. There’s no point putting up a front at all. I can be myself and not really worry about how people see me. Plus, it’s kinda hard to be a yankii when you’ve been in absolute peace for the past two days.
Today we decided to head to the aquarium, getting to feed the fish. The sharks and whales looked pretty scary with no trainers around so we decided to just toss big buckets of food in from the side. For some reason, Sayu kept looking at the sunfish. Something about how stupid they look, or something like that.
We spent the entire afternoon laughing and enjoying ourselves before heading to the biggest mall for some shopping. I still can’t get over how awesome it is to get whatever clothes you want without having to pay for any of it! If it was always like this, I wouldn’t have to take my stupid job!
After satisfactorily filling our arms with shopping bags, we dropped them off in the hotel and made our way back out to explore the city.
“Uhh…Reina, where are we?”
“…looks like the red light district of Osaka.”
“And what are we doing here?”
I shrugged. “Entertainment?” which earned me another smack on the arm.
“I do wonder how it looks inside these places though.”
“Seriously?!”
“Yeah, c’mon. No one to get embarrassed in front of except me!” I dragged her by the wrist into one of the places that looked the nicest. Inside was dark and lit up with multicolored lights, with the majority of them on the poles and stages of the place. There were also private rooms apparently.
“Yeah, I’m definitely not touching anything in here.”
“Ewww.”
“Although…” I turned to Sayu and wiggled my eyebrows at her before grabbing her wrists. Putting myself close enough to kiss her, I gave her a peck on the nose before backing off and laughing at her flustered blush.
“C’mon, let’s get outta here already.”
I started my escape ahead of her, knowing that her brain was still processing everything that just happened. The second I made it out of the place, I felt Sayu jump onto my back and forced me to piggyback her out of the red light district before she would get off.
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The morning of the next day, we took a bike ride around the more historical parts of Osaka, a beautiful sight with all the greenery and old buildings around. Riding through such traditional looking places with no other people around felt like we were people of the future traveling back in time on our time machine bicycle. Trying our hands at traditional Japanese food (and failing), we relaxed by a big fish pond with bright red koi swimming under our feet that were dangling over the edge. The only sound was the sound of water flowing and the bamboo spout on the other side with the occasional sound of water being splashed up by the fish.
“Maybe you should consider living in the country if you dislike all the noise so much, Reina?”
“What! Are you trying to call me a country bumpkin?!”
“No! It’s just that you seem so much more peaceful and nice than the way you describe yourself in normal circumstances.”
“Oh, well I really like the city. So I would rather live there, it’s just all the people I have contact with that bother me the most. Cities in general aren’t a problem with me.”
“I see. Well, you can move to Ube! I can replace your old friends and you can find a new job! And live with me and my family! Then all your problems would be solved.”
What’s with this girl? Making me blush at the suggestion of living together. Sheesh.
“Sounds great to me. I’m really glad you’re the one I’m with during this whole thing. If it was someone annoying, I’d ditch them and drive away.”
We continued chatting amongst ourselves until early afternoon, when we hopped into the car and headed towards the hotspring in Gifu.
------------------------------
“What’s it called again?”
“Gero Onsen. You know, like Michishi-Gero Gero!” She puffed out her cheeks at me.
“It’s one of the top 3 onsens in Japan. And we’ll get it all to ourselves!”
It’s the middle of October, making the weather perfect to travel in. Perfect for the onsen too. It’s not hot like in the summer, and it’s not freezing cold like winter. Given, jumping into the onsen in winter is nice, but coming out of it is horribly cold! The weather now is perfect for it. Warm and breezy during the day and a bit chilly at night.
When we got there, it was around 5 in the evening, so we had ourselves a safe dinner of yakiniku again, both of us preferring not to experiment with our own cooking this time.
When the sun had set, we headed to the outdoor onsen.
“No wonder it’s in the top three! This is huge!” I held out my arms for emphasis, forgetting that I was in my birthday suit until Sayu giggled at me. Immediately crossing my arms over my chest, I hurried into the water to join her, blushing furiously.
“You’re so cute, Reina.”
“Ha ha, funny funny. I forgot ok? Anyway, this place is nice! And not a single old lady to disturb the view.”
“And what view would that be?” Sayu scooted right right to me so that our sides were touching. She rest her hand on my knee and slowly slid it up my thigh. Is she trying to kill me?! I feel like my head’s going burst with all the blood rushing up!
Stupid me. I couldn’t help but trail my eyes up her arm, passing by her breasts until I stopped at her warm gaze towards me. Oh boy, I just might be seriously falling for her.
Placing my hand on top of her’s. I lean toward her until our lips meet in a soft and gentle kiss. After pulling apart, I notice the blush on her face and can’t help but give her a kiss on the cheeks as well. Again, we kissed, this time deeper, with our tongues exploring each other’s mouth. I let go of her hand and traveled it up the inside of her thigh, pleased to hear her moan and shudder at my touch. Soon, she was straddling me, and our hands were running all over each other. I sucked at her nape as she arched her back and shuddered with ecstasy. Holding her tightly afterwards, we made our way back to the room and continued making love under the light of the pale Autumn moon.
As I lay there next to her, I think about the past couple days. This is everything I could have ever wanted. She’s everything I could wish for. I don’t care about going back to the ‘real world’. I’m completely happy staying with her forever, just the two of us. Because I’ve finally found happiness, peace, and most importantly, the meaning in my life. She gives me something to yearn for, to live for.
This is my utopia.
----------------------------
“How is she?”
“She seems to be doing better now that she’s starting to come back into consciousness.”
“Reina? Can you hear me?”
My eyes fluttered open. It’s cold here. Ow, my head hurts.
“Mom? Where am I?”
“You’re in the hospital, dear. Who knew someone could be put into a short term coma from too much stress.”
“Coma? For how long?”
“A week.”
“What?! Where’s Sayu?”
“Who?”
At that moment, the door opened and my brother led my friends into the room.
And all the noise starts back up again.
Oh no, oh no. What’s happening? Why am I back here? Where is she?
“When am I ready for release?”
“Soon. We just checked you before you woke up and you’re doing fine. We just need you or your mother to sign these papers.”
I waited obediently for my mom to leave to take care of the paperwork before claiming that I had to go to the bathroom. Spotting my purse on the bedside table, I grab it and practically run out of the room and into the bathroom to change as fast as I could. Running out of the hospital, I was almost sent to the floor by my idiot friend who keeps hitting on me. He was talking to my mom.
“Where are you going, Reina?”
I fled as fast as I could out of there, shouting an answer without even looking back.
“Yamaguchi!!!”
I finally found a reason for me to live. Someone who can shut out the noise and turn it into beautiful sound waves, just as long as she’s around.
There’s no way I’ll go without you from now on.
