Lovers in Tokyo

4 years later...

"Anna! Come quick! You’re on the news again!” The small brunette turned her head in annoyance.

“Huh. Who would have thought some shitty book will get so much attention” She leaned her head on one hand while the other held the remote. Her flat mate, Rosie, seemed offended by her friend’s words.

“Shitty? It’s brilliant! The best you came up with! The story is so romantic! Who would have thought that one day with some stranger would turn up to become a love story! It’s beautiful” Anna watched her friend quietly. She never told anyone where she got that idea from. She wrote it down and in no time, it became a box office success in Europe and Asia.

“You know, I wrote other books too. Why don’t you praise them like that?” She mumbled. Rosie scoffed and jumped on the couch, next to Anna.

“Because they don´t have the same feelings in them. You wrote about death and about depression. This is about pure love! From where did you even get this idea? Lovers in Tokyo” Anna chuckled and pulled her feet close to her chest.

“I was there” Rosie´s eyes widened. “I met him four years ago, right before entering my last year of college. It was just one day and one man. But he changed my world. I chose to change others’ worlds too by writing about it” Rosie nodded.

“What about the ending?” Anna started to laugh loudly. It was so bitter and Rosie noticed her smile dropping a little.

“There’s no ending. I created one, yes. The man I met wasn´t one that would stay in one place. He was someone who simply went after the wind” After she gave her explanation, she left. Rosie watched her roommate with a tinge of melancholy.

Anna walked to her desk and opened the second drawer. She grabbed a torn picture and stared at it. It was an article from the newspaper. It sent bitter sweet feelings through her heart.

A few hours later Anna found herself stuck with her friends into a noisy pub. Rosie was the one who gathered everyone at the table. She wanted to announce the big news to everyone. The brunette wasn´t too happy with the location but she did enjoy the time with her mates.

“So” She started but the noise was covering her voice. She rolled her eyes and grunted. “I said ,SO!’” She yelled. The whole room got silent and every pair of eyes turned to her. The scowl she previously had transformed magically into a sweet smile. “I have some big news regarding our brilliant friend, Anna!”

“Are you getting married?” One of the boys asked the culprit.

Anna gulped down her drink, already fed up with the surreal attention she was getting. That didn´t stop the stares.

“Idiots. It’s about the book. It reached the American box office too! Aren´t you happy?” Everyone groaned. “That means we get paid more” The whole table started to cheer. While Rosie went back to her seat, Anna glared at her.

“Who’s more caught up into this story? The writer or the reader?” The blonde smiled sweetly and patter her friend’s thigh.

“If you ever meet him again, call me” She whispered before entering a fiery conversation with a friend. Anna rolled her eyes. She couldn´t agree with her. It wasn´t meant to be therefore, they were not going to met again.

On the path back home, the blonde was so drunk that she couldn´t walk at least one meter without tripping over her own feet. The older woman couldn´t say she was fed up with her friend’s behaviour because she already got used to her personality.. London was famous for the rainy weather and that night didn´t make an exception. The fortunate fact was that the two girls were really close to the apartment.

Inside the elevator, Rosie started to talk nonsense while Anna was furiously pushing the 6th floor’s button. She held a calm facade but inside, she was sure she would have killed the younger woman and makes it look like a suicide. She was a good sadistic writer. She could even use one of her many stories to cover the crime. Even she was surprised when, after 3 years since the incident, she wrote it down like it happened yesterday. She sighed and rubbed her forehead. The consummation of alcohol started to take a tool on her head too.

“Lover in Tokyo, huh?” Even worse was when Rosie decided to make her feel miserable. After a funny hiccup and a few slurred words that she couldn´t understand, she grabbed the blonde’s hand and walked out of the elevator. She had a few problems with the keys but in the end, she entered the apartment.

After Rosie was tucked in her bed safely, Anna walked into the kitchen. She changed into a loose shirt and long pyjama pants. While she was making tea she turned on the TV. While waiting for the water to heat up, she heard another show where her book was praised.

“It’s not like I wrote it now. It’s been out for a year now” She mumbled while changing the channel. It was indeed a mystery how no one had ever heard about her in a year. Then, one day, thousands of reporters appeared at her door.

She grabbed her favourite cup and poured the tea inside. The steam rising from the hotness of the water got Anna into a melancholic state. She sighed heavily and walked towards the TV. She sat on the couch and cuddled into the softness of it, the cup held tightly in her hands. The program was boring, nothing seemed to get old but nothing new appeared. It was like a vicious cycle. Everything on the television was bullshit and she knew that. It was all too fake and covered: old stories, rearranged so they would look new. It was overwhelming.

In that moment I realized what he meant. I was getting miserable, bored of everything. I did go with the flow and ended up back in England. I majored in management and business but I became a writer. I really didn’t know what reason I needed to be happy What was happiness? I started to ask myself. I wanted to get the easy way out but that path was definitely not in Europe