Say I Love You chapter 9.2 part 2
Part two of Say I Love You chapter 9.2
A handful of sad memories came back to me as the entire song played out its soulful message. And before I knew it, I had already made it past the lounge area and was now in front of one of the eight elevators of the building. All eight elevators were currently in transit so I had to wait. Plus, the area was quite empty except for me.
I stood and leaned against the wall near an elevator entrance. I began searching for some Arashi songs on my portable player. I found the playlist a few seconds later and began listening to them. The first track that played was “Kaze no Mukō e.” I took out my phone to check for the time. There was still a good 45 minutes left before the photo-interview. But it was just my luck that all eight elevators left without me. I stowed the phone back into my jacket’s pocket. The song was on its final chorus when somebody bumped into me. I was hardly affected by the collision since I was the one he ran into after all. But the person who bumped into me was already staggering backwards and about to fall. I quickly took hold of his right arm and helped this person regain his footing.
Only it wasn’t a he.
It was a she. And she had immediately apologized and even bowed profusedly.
She looked vaguely familiar underneath her striped getup. When she was able to regain her footing, it was then that I realized who she was.
“Umika?” I spoke. She was evidently shocked and tried to fix herself up for a better view at me.
She was wearing glasses and a very fashionable cap. How kawaii of her.
My grip on her arm had relaxed a bit and I soon let go of it. I also quickly apologized for standing here while waiting for a lift. I didn’t really expect people to come flooding in at this hour since it was still quite early in the day.
I apologized for my part too but I couldn’t quite meet her gaze. When I took a look at her, she averted hers from mine. I was a rather awkward meeting even though we were once intimately close.
Then she thanked me. But she was not quite subtle at how uneasy she looked by just having to talk to me. It was just like back in Horikoshi: We were quite civil to each other and that was that. But I have to admit that I still could not move on from our ‘doomed’ relationship. If I was going to move on from it, I might as well pick up where we left off back in our senior year.
This was my chance to make things right between us.
But the familiar ‘ding’ sound of an arriving elevator prevented me from taking action. We instinctively took a step backward from each other at the same time and pretended not to know each other. Thankfully, no one was inside the elevator and no one came into the lobby at that moment. It would’ve been bad for both of us if we were caught together. Rumor-sustained tabloids tend to make things blow out of proportion. I think we even both sighed in relief. I even caught her sneaking a glance at me again. Even after all we’ve been through, I still found her quite adorable whenever she did that. She was wearing some sort of maritime-inspired clothing. I was surprised to see that a black bolero jacket worn over a navy-white striped shirt made her look mature. The white slackettes she wore accented her hips just right. A pair of black thigh-high socks and navy-colored Chelsea boots rounded her spring ensemble. Umika became even more fashionable since last I met her. I could hardly coordinate my own clothing. My mom or Yama-chan would usually help me out but ever since I hit high school, I would usually copy Ohno-kun’s and Aiba-kun’s fashion sense whenever they had the “Mannequin 5” segment in Himitsu no Arashi-chan. Standing in front of this new-improved Kawashima Umika made me feel underdressed.
I thought she’d take the lift but for some reason she hesitated. I too was quite hesitant on what I was planning to do in the next few seconds. It was at that very moment that an old lady in an elegant kimono came into our view. She was heading for the lift whose doors were about to close. Without thinking, we quickly came to her aid: Umika held the doors open while I helped the obaa-san into the elevator. We even rode the elevator with the old lady all the way down to a basement level. Her chauffeur would be waiting for her there. The elevator ride was uneventful save for the old lady who kept on glancing between the two of us as if recognizing that we were a couple or something.
Well, we were a couple. Past tense noted.
We soon sent her on her way but not before commenting on how Umika and I made quite a cute couple together. We were, of course, taken aback by it. Both Umika and I even tried to explain to her that it wasn’t like that - at least not anymore - but the old lady had already closed her window as her car headed for the exit ramp. We merely waved back and smiled. After we lost sight of the exiting car, she quickly excused herself telling me that she was late for an appointment. She left in a hurry.
Late? Well, she’s not the only one who’s late too!
She was quite flustered about something and it sure wasn’t about being late. So I quickly caught up with her and just barely made it to the elevator. I had barely managed to slip my hand between the doors and stopped them from closing shut. She became even more flustered when I joined her inside the lift.
“Hey, hold up! I’m also quite late too. Do you mind if I hitch?” I told her casually.
Her reply was almost a stutter, “Uh-uhm. S-s-sure! What floor?”
I guess if I was going to clear things out between us, I might as well start with small talk. But just then my phone rang and I had to answer it. I glanced at the caller ID and saw that it was Ryutaro calling.
I answered it and found out from him that I was the only one missing upstairs. All of JUMP was already assembled except for me and they had already begun the session by answering questionnaires and getting interviewed by the magazine staff. I told him that I was on my way up and that it’ll just probably take five minutes. It was then that I realized that the elevator hadn’t moved yet. Umika had been looking at me in a weird way. It was then that I decided to ask her if there was something on my face but she beat me to it.
“What floor?” Her question sent me back to reality.
I told her that I needed to be on the 20th floor. I was planning to confront her about our breakup but my nerves failed me. So I just casually slipped back my headphones on and continued listening to another Arashi track.
I was already leaning against the wall opposite the doors. I had also began tapping absentmindedly on my laps. At the corner of my eye I tried to see why Umika froze at learning that I was going all the way up to the 20th floor. It didn’t take me long to find out: she inputted ‘20’ and then ‘19’ into the elevator’s control panel. I suddenly stopped tapping. Umika had her back to me so I couldn’t see her reaction when she I first told her about my destination. And now, upon seeing that she was getting off just one floor beneath my destination, another bout of awkwardness descended upon the two of us. Like all the silences that we had exchanged in the last few months since our breakup, it was uncomfortable. The coincidence was even more uncomfortable.
And I hated it. It made me feel powerless again. Like I wasn’t in total control over all my words and actions. It made me feel that I didn’t do everything in our short-lived relationship.
It was then that she slowly moved away from the panel and leaned against the wall nearest to it. She had closed her eyes and seemed to think hard on something. I was even having a hard time trying to do small talk with her. I resumed my tapping when she opened her eyes again, blankly staring straight ahead. She was just plainly ignoring me. I had to do something.
So I set aside my headphones and started the ball rolling.
“It’s been a long time, ne?”
She replied without even looking at me, “Uhm - how long has it been? Almost two months?”
Although her eyes were partially hidden underneath that pair of glasses, her expression somewhat reminded me of a photo taken of her when she was six years old. It had that blank aura in it. The kind you’d find quite adorable. I took note of the fact that she didn’t include the months after our breakup. Well, at least she was being civil to me but I couldn’t help but think that there was something else there.
“More or less… So how have you been?”
I had barely spoken the last words when the earthquake happened. We were being jostled within the elevator. The lights were already waxing and waning. And amid all that chaos, she still found the time to lock eyes with me. She saw that I was afraid. I saw that she was afraid too. We held onto the railings for dear life. And the lights went out.
From what I last saw, we were already on the 15th floor. It would be a long drop if the elevator system we were in got damaged during the quake. The tremors increased and the lights had suddenly gone out. I remember Umika letting out a scream. But having known her for close to five years now, it was probably more like a yelp.
Don’t ask. I had a hard time believing my ears myself.
Apparently, she was on the floor so I went over to her to calm her down. I was scared but not as scared as Umika must be feeling right now. When her hands found me, she suddenly hugged me fiercely. I hugged her back in return. We were both trembling. She buried her face into my chest trying to be brave at the moment. My left hand gently held her head trying to calm me down. I missed this. I missed having Umika in my arms. She was still wearing the same perfume that she bought at my choice.
The quake lasted less than a minute.
“It’s alright. I’m here.” I told her as soon as I found my voice.
“H-h-hai!” was her stammered reply. We were on the floor and still had our arms around each other.
I didn’t mind the closeness. Even more strangely so, she didn’t mind it too.
The emergency lights soon came back a few minutes later. However, power to the elevator systems was still offline. It was probably due to some engineering precaution.
“Daijōbu desu ka?” I asked, my voice a whisper. Reality must have returned to her because she quickly detached myself from me and stood up. She went back to being her distant self before the quake.
“Ah! Uhm-mm - you?” She was already quickly fixing herself especially her glasses. She had her back to me again.
“I’m okay, I guess.” I replied but remained on the floor. I took out my phone to check if there was a signal. There was no signal. No surprise there. I let a sigh escape me and told her the bad news.
“But I think we’re stuck here for the time being.” I took stock of our surroundings trying to find something that could shorten our stay together. She obviously didn’t want to talk to me. I guess it had to hurt that bad.
Her reply was nothing short of a panic. “Wait! Did you just say ‘we’re stuck here’?”
“Yeah, I think so,” was my calm reply, my eyes staring off into the ceiling.
“Uso!” She then quickly went over to the elevator’s control panel and started pressing buttons here and there in the hopes that it would help our current situation. Obviously, no one would be answering us since the building’s staff and maintenance crew would be busy assessing any damage and would have to restore power floor by floor after thoroughly investigating them.
I had to calm her down.
“Umika, I think everything out there is still chaotic from the quake. And besides, we’ve only got partial electricity back on.” I stood up and leaned on the wall behind me still hoping that a phone signal would show some signs of life in it.
She sighed. There was nothing to do but wait for a rescue or things to go back to normal. She also leaned back on the wall nearest to her. When I told her that we had zero phone signals too, she actually slumped down in realization that we would be stuck together for quite a while.
Same old Umika. I chuckled and smiled to myself. I was grateful that she didn’t notice me smiling or she might have taken it the wrong way.
I might as well use this time to talk things over with her.
Hopefully, this time, I wouldn’t have to make her cry again. I wouldn’t mind crying this time around.
AN: This is part one of the chapter 9.2. This is a Chinen’s POV. Thanks for reading. Hope you like it. Comments and critics are love.