Ashita no Kioku

I froze.

Megumi clicked the TV off.

I was vaguely aware that my hands where now empty or that hot soup was dripping on my knee.

I moved back my back slowly coming to rest on the couch.

My hand fell beside me, the chopsticks made it land in an awkward position, just then

Megumi’s cell phone went off.

“Moshi moshi?” she spoke in into it, I couldn’t register her answers to the questions she was being asked. She hung up.

“Come on.” Was all she said before we cleaned up our spilled ramen, and walked out of the house.

-Later-

“How is he?” I asked Sakurai-kun, he looked at me and sighed, his eyes were red.

“He’s uh not doing very well, he’s not completely there right now, he called Fai-kun Sie because she said something similar to what Chaos-chan would have said, right now he’s convinced your friend is his girlfriend.” I turned and looked sure enough Ninomiya-kun had his arm wrapped protectively around Megumi.

“I’m not Jessie.” Megumi said quietly.

“What? Are you okay? Do you feel sick?” Ninomiya-kun said worried but it was his forehead that was slowly being coated with sweat, his skin that was going pale, and his eyes that were going heavy no matter how open he attempted to get them. Ninomiya-kun fell asleep slowly after.

-3 weeks 2 days 7 hours 17 min and 24 sec later-

“I can’t believe they are releasing a new single.” Megumi grumbled. I just shrugged and nod, the boys had stop calling us about a week ago.

“Smile again, I’m smiling again. Smile Again, I’m smiling again.

So so, there’s nothing good. A live passion of a person….” I screamed, Megumi squealed and giggled, there on the screen.

The foreign girl danced alongside her band mates, her voice mixing with theirs, smiles on their faces. Her bruises were still healing, she still had the rings in, but she was there dancing, being, living.

“You’ve been released.” The interviewer said happily, the foreign girl shook her head.

“I escaped.” There was a slight sadness in the way she said it.

“How?”

“Humans do drastic things when they want to survive, ne? Humans are frightening, human nature is cruel.” Was all she said before Sakurai diverted the subject.

Suddenly she slumped over, her eyes opened and she breathed deeply.

“Daijoubu?” the interviewer asked.

“Hai, just tired.” She smiled, but it was a short lived smile.

“That’s why they told you this was a bad idea, you should have listened to them.”

“Iie, I won’t quit, I refuse to ‘rest’.”

“Why?”

“Because, we’re Arashi, each one of us is Arashi, ne?”

“Ne.” Ninomiya-kun said with a smile. She sat up again, Sakurai-kun wrapped an arm around her shoulders and helped her to sit up straight.

“Most people would never come back to this business, and if they do they take baby steps but you, you practically ran, why did you do that?”

“Because this is what keeps me alive, my life has never been easy, it will never be easy, I get asked for a foreign workers permit or if I’m a tourist more often than an autograph and that’s fine, I don’t care, this is my life. Being here singing and dancing is my life, sure this could happen again, and I may not be as lucky, sure worse things could happen to me, but I don’t care as long as I have my friends nothing can touch me.” She smiled broadly as she looked at the crowd and then at the camera, “I really do like all of you.”

-Later-

Megumi sighed as she looked at her phone again.

“What?” I asked.

“He hasn’t talked to me at all since she came back…”

“I guess, he realized that you weren’t his girlfriend, I thought you didn’t like that?” I asked, she glared at me.

“But I got to have him, he kissed me, held me murmured sweet things into my ear, he said he loved me.” She said with each word her voice began to crack.

“He thought you were the foreigner girl.” I whispered, if she heard me she made no indication, and so we kept walking.

“Megumi?!” we stopped, it was the foreigner girl’s voice.

“I’m sorry.” It was Ninomiya-kun. The foreigner girl appeared, her girls were a bit rumbled, and I could almost see were Ninomiya-kun’s hands had just been, tracing patterns and rememorizing skin.

“Why her?” she asked, they were unaware of us.

“I don’t know I went crazy when you were gone, because it was my fault, and in my delusion she was you, but it means nothing, I swear I love you.” Ninomiya-kun took a step towards her, she froze head down, softly he stroked her cheek, and brushed back her hair then he guided her face towards his, their lips meeting again.

At that moment, Matsumoto-kun was making his way towards them, but he had frozen, I knew the hurt on his face was reflected on Megumi’s.

“Megumi…let’s go.” I said quietly, hoping that we could get away before they noticed us, but it was too late they were already facing us, I bowed respectfully, and then forced Megumi to do the same. When I looked back up, the foreigner girl’s were smoldering almost as if she could see my thoughts as they bounced around my head, but there was something dark about her gaze.

Even though chills were running down my back and my brain was screaming at my body to move that was danger in her stare, my heart was speeding up, and suddenly I wanted nothing more but for her to jump on me.

Ninomiya-kun’s expression was pained, almost as if he was wavering but his hand was tightening around the foreigner girl’s waist, almost as if trying to tell her that they needed to leave. She glanced at him, something that resembled pain flew by her eyes but then it was replaced by the same stare she was giving us.

“I can’t deal with this right now…” The foreigner girl said quietly, before she removed herself from Ninomiya-kun’s arms and began to walk away, she looked up and saw Matsumoto-kun.

“Ah! Juni-kun! Want to go hang out?” she asked bouncing towards him, he gave a small nod, I could see the glee in his eyes, but then he stopped the foreigner girl.

“Let’s wait for Nino.” He said with a smile, and I blinked.

I wonder, could I do that for Ohno-kun?

Could I help fix any problems that arise in his relationships, even though I know that I’m the one who will always and forever truly love him?

I looked back and Ninomiya-kun, he was bowing.

“I’m sorry! I really am!” he said before he stood tall again and turned his heel, that’s when Megumi took a step forward.

“I love you!” Megumi screamed. My eyes widened and it seemed all of Tokyo had stopped, suddenly the world was standing on its head, and everything was wrong, I looked at the foreigner girl as she fell back a bit, her expression somewhere between shocked and hurt, it was as if someone had just soccer punched her in the stomach.

Ninomiya had stopped walking, and I didn’t have to see his expression to know it was mirroring the foreigner girl’s. I turned to look to Megumi, there were tears falling down her face, making her seem years younger. I stepped closer to her, but she moved away. Almost as if she knew that Ninomiya-kun was going to turn around and proclaim his love to her, like they do in all the dramas.

One problem, this isn’t a drama, and Ninomiya-kun had started to run, away from Megumi and toward his girlfriend and best friend.

He kissed her, then he grabbed her hand, and almost as an afterthought he grabbed Matsumoto-kun’s hand, as if to say, ‘There is no room for you here, Wakahisa Megumi.’