Flight 109 - Destination: First Love [Chapter 17]
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The story is inspired by yeppie. As usual, comments, inputs and criticisms are highly appreciated. And if you haven't read the previous chapter you can always refer to the master post. And the next chapter will be the last one :) So please bear with me just for a lil bit.
The airplane icon marks the journey to the past that happened earlier in this fic. 30-31 August 2013.
The cloud icon marks the past. Around the year of 2006.
The town icon marks the present time.
「CHAPTER 17: A COMMON STROLL IN THE COMMON RAIN」
Matsumoto Jun should explain his sudden appearance, but words refuse to come out of his throat. He doesn't know which is worse, the heartbreaking look on Kitashiro Rei's eyes or the understanding-facade Hanazono Minako tries to pull or the guilt that is killing him inside out.
He closes his eyes for a second. Just a second. Wishing that for one moment he could be anywhere else but here. Maybe he should have join Nino's date today instead of being here. Or he could have just stayed at home, sulking. Which he did planned to do before Nino barged into his apartment and told him every bits of thing that happened last night. Rei went to him as expected. Then Nino arranged a meeting for Rei and Minako. That surely did it. He almost punched Nino for caring too much.
But all he could do was snapped at him for being such an annoying meddler and Nino just smirked, knowing Jun's guilt and that he would forgive him sooner or later anyways.
He opens his eyes again and all he sees are two pairs of eyes wating for words that refuse to come out of his mouth.
Then he sees her smiling sincerely before finally standing up. It breaks the awkward silence that fills out the small cubicle. The small cubicle that previously had too much of unrequited love.
"Hanazono-san," She says in a friendly tone. If she doesn't use such a formal honorifics, Jun will have mistaken them as high school friends. "It was nice meeting you."
Then she catches Jun's eyes, "I will now leave you two alone to straighten out things that need to be straighten out. I believe Matsumoto-san has loads of stuff to talk to you about. And so are you."
Jun cringes at his own surname. Along with the honorifics she is using.
Nino's words ring in his ears, "You are such a coward. Be a man and tell her that you don't love her anymore if that's the case!"
He answers the look Rei is giving him. Then he throws another glance to Minako. He wishes that things are that simple.
"No!" Minako's turn to stand up straight, "I should be the one who is going. There isn't anything to talk about anymore between Jun and me."
"Well, of course," The first three words that he can utter for now. And he can't help not to keep the sarcasm out of his tone.
Minako glares at him, "What's that tone supposed to mean?"
"Nothing."
"If you are unhappy about something, you should just say it to my face!" Minako narrows her eyes at him.
"Oh, like you would listen?" Jun scoffs at her. He turns at her and give her a sinister look from head to toe, "What right do you have to tell me who I should be with?"
"What?" Minako hisses incredelously, "Did I tell you to be with her? I did not! You ARE dating her! You have chosen her yourself to be with you! You have even bought and carved a ring for her!"
Rei tilts her head and remembers that ring sadly, "The ring was really for me?"
"Yes!" Both Minako and Jun turns to her for a second and answers simultaneously.
Minako turns to Jun again, "As a man, be true to your words."
"Don't tell me how to be a man. You are not a man yourself to begin with!"
"Well, I know a lot better than you about it, obviously!"
"What? Because you never ran away in the first place? You never got confused and scared? All you could do that time was leaving me with just a diary to explain everything!"
"My God, Jun! It was years ago!"
"I never got over it!"
Jun silently wishes that he did not just say that. Minako gasps at his words. Both turns to Rei again. Both silently wishes that she has turned deaf for a mere second or two.
But, Rei, of course, is not deaf and heard and witnessed everything. She just nods a couple of times and releases a deep breath.
She has heard all she needs to hear. She looks up to both of them a smile. She bows and excuses herself, making her way just between the quarelling two to exit the cubicle.
To exit everything.
"Wait!" Minako hollers to her. "Kitashiro-san, wait!"
If Rei does hear her, she pretends that she does not. She keeps her back at them, walking away without ever wanting to look back.
Minako hits Jun on his chest, "Baka!"
She throws a hit again, stronger and much louder this time around, "BAKA!"
Sobs are escaping from her throat as she keeps throwing her punches to his chest, over and over again. Jun catches her hands but she keeps hitting him. Jun pulls her closer and she finally releases her cries in his arms.
"Can't you see, Jun? Can't you see? All we can do is fight!"
Jun closes his eyes and embraces her tighter.
"I am serious, Jun! I don't want this again! I don't want you anymore! I don't want to have you just to lose you again! Don't you get it? Don't you see how much torture it is? I don't want you anymore! Being with you is too scary, Jun! I can't take it.. I can't bare it!"
Jun buries himself in her hair. "I know," he whispers, "I know."
She shakes her head and pulls herself out of his embrace, "No, you don't! Go after her! I don't want to have you again like this! Please! Tell her.. Tell her.. I still meant every word I wrote in that letter for you. My wish has not changed. One day we could meet again as friends and laugh off everything and... Not like this, Jun.. Not like this.."
Jun caresses her hair. He lifts her chin with two fingers and smiles softly to her.
"We could never be friends, Minako.. We could never be just friends."
Minako scoffs, "I'll prove you wrong, then."
Jun raises an eyebrow, "Really?"
Minako nods a couple of times, wiping her tears with the back of her hands, "Really."
Jun helps her wipes her tears, pushing away strands of hair covering her face and tucking them behind her ears lovingly, "Okay. I'll take you on, then."
Minako finally meets his soft chocolate eyes, expecting sadness or hate behind them. But all she can see is just all the love in the world.
He pulls her up to stand on both feet again. He then plants a soft kiss on her forehead as he turns to go.
"Jun!" Minako calls out when he was just about to exit the cubicle, "Do you remember?"
"What is it?"
"This is the place where it all started. We planned that awful plan on Sho-san in this cubicle with Nino. Now this is where everything ends.."
Jun lets out a laugh, but he shakes his head, "You are wrong on both parts. It all started at that CD store with janken over a Bjork album. And no. It will not end at this. I'll prove it to you."
Minako scoffs, "I'll take you on, then."
Jun nods at her one last time before he finally turns to go.
Bittersweet smiles are plastered on both lovers' faces as one of them is walking away from the other, like the way it is supposed to be.
Like the way it has always happened throughout these years between them.
Except, it is the first time that the man, instead of the woman, being the one who is walking away.
---
He has always loved the rain. When he was still a boy, he used to love the rain even though his sister will call out to him from the porch, begging him to come in or their mother will blame his sister if he catches a cold when she gets home. But Jun always ignores her. He is able to experience freedom in the rain, his pestering sister's words are drowned by the sound of the falling water from the sky to his ears.
Going against the rules has always has its own charms to Jun since he was a boy. When they told him that playing in the rain is not good for his health, the thought of it becomes attractive to him. He has always been a rebel and letting the rain pour onto him has once served that side of him.
When he grew up, he slowly but sure starts to leave that rebel side of him. At least, lately. But that doesn't mean he forgets his love to drown himself in the rain. For one thing, it still gives him freedom, though not in the same manner as it used to be. Being an idol has taken a lot out of him, not that he isn't thankful for what he has achieved, but it also has taken the small pleasures of his life. Like taking a stroll around town unnoticed, without someone secretly taking a picture of him to sell tabloids or become the It fan on the the world wide web. Like going to the bookstore without having to hide his face when he passes by his own faces gracing the magazine covers. Or like enjoying the sushi train without having to have avoiding everyone's gaze who secretly wonders how much money he makes that he attends to such common place.
He can never have compromises for the bookstore and sushi train, but he sure gets some on the strolling around town when the rain is falling hard like today. He doesn't even have to hide his face under the non-existent umbrella or the fedora he doesn't bring along this time. He can just soak himself in the rain. He can just walk home like any other common guy. Unnoticed without even trying.
He can worry about the cold he'll be having later. For now, he can just enjoy the rain to not just hide his too defined face, but also his tears and his broken heart. He puts in both hands inside his jeans pockets and walk straight ahead with his chin hold up high, whatever may be waiting for him in the future.
It is quite a long way home and by the time he arrives at his apartment porch, the rain hasn't stopped pouring.
Another drama awaits him as a girl in a white coat, also without her umbrella, turns around as she hears his footsteps above the rain puddles.
It is Kitashiro Rei.
Jun smiles as he sees her face, as if he has been expecting her to be waiting for him. She smiles back.
"Why didn't you go inside?" Jun asks as he approaches her.
Rei just shrugs.
"You'll catch a cold," Jun sweeps some of his wet hair off his own wet face.
Rei just shakes her head.
"Taking a stroll?" She asks.
Jun nods.
"Mind if I join you?" She asks again.
Jun gives her a warm smile that she returns, "Why not?"
They walk side by side in the midst of the falling rain. Other pedestrians run pass them to escape the rain, but both Jun and Rei embraces the cold and the rain with each of their hands in their pockets.
After about a half of a kilometer, Rei finally speaks up, "We never did this."
"Taking a stroll, you mean?"
"Yeah."
"We were careful."
Rei scoffs, "Too careful."
Jun nods a couple of times, staring at the water escaping to the drain, "I'm sorry."
"You don't need to be sorry for something that you don't do, or don't feel," Rei looks up to the sky for her face to embrace the rain faster. "But it's nice, isn't it? At a glance, taking a stroll like this, we seem like a common guy and a common girl taking a common stroll together like a common couple."
Jun lets out a little laugh, "We did take a stroll before, remember? On our first date."
"Oh, yes, that's right. How could I forget?"
"People tend to forget good things that happened to them. The bad things clouded over their thoughts," Jun shrugs nonchalantly.
"Yeah," Rei nods a couple of times, "That definitely happens all the time. It happens to me."
Jun glances at her for a couple of seconds before finally looking back straigth ahead, "Recently, it is the other way around for me."
"How so?"
"I don't know. Like when I met Minako at LAX airport the other day, I don't remember the bad days. I only remember the good ones. Or when I saw you again yesterday, I can't remember the bad days we had, even though we also do have those," Jun tilts his head, obviously is considering what he is saying himself. "The funny thing is both those fond memories from the two of you just made me confused with myself. It resulted with me hurting the both of you. And made both of you remember the bad memories. Very complicated."
Rei laughs heartily, "That's because you're a baka."
"I guess I am," Jun joins her laugh.
They take a turn on a corner and Rei takes a deep breath, "You know, I wanted to ask.."
"Ask away."
"Judging by only the good memories you have from both me and Minako, why can't you choose between us?" Rei asks casually, as if she's just asking whether Jun prefers coffee or tea.
But the question makes both of them stop walking, and without them realizing, they've arrived in front of a familiar building that is Rei's manager's.
Jun dares himself to look up and meet her eyes, "I never said that I can't choose."
Rei swallows and nods repeatedly again.
"I'm sorry," His voice cracks, "You know that I do love you, too."
"No," Rei shakes her head, "Don't say that."
"But it's true."
"Not because I don't believe it, no. But if you say it again, I won't be able to let you go, Jun," Rei finally catches on with his eyes to make him understand. "And I don't want to be the cruel fate who chooses for you. I want you to be able to choose for yourself."
Jun takes one hand out of his jeans pocket to gives Rei's head a soft pat, "You know very well that I never had that luxury, Rei-chan. Even for us, back then, fate chooses our way."
"Then this is your chance."
Jun shakes his head, "I did choose. But she didn't choose me."
"Then you just succumb to fate?" She asks in disbelief.
Jun shrugs, "If it was meant to be, it was meant to be."
"Bullshit," she hisses.
"But I believe we were meant to be. So I believe that fate will succumb to me. One day," Jun finally looks up to the sky and smile. It is the most beautiful smile Rei ever saw since the first time she ever knew him.
Rei closes her eyes and a soft whisper escapes her lips, "I love you."
Jun looks back at her and pulls her into his embrace. She obliges and drowns herself in his scent, in his chest and she finally weeps along with the falling rain.
Jun holds her tighter and strokes her wet hair, holding in his apologies inside because he knows that it will just break her heart more.
When the tears stop falling and they part their ways with a smile and a soft kiss on her forehead, the rain finally stops pouring as well.
What's left in the corner of the empty wet street is Matsumoto Jun, all by himself.
Staring at the cloudy sky with nothing left.
And the sun starts to peek, blinding his eyes.
Jun takes a deep breath and starts to walk again. He stops by at a convenience store to buy a baseball cap or a fedora hat, anything that's available, knowing that the street will be full of people on his way home. He only takes a minute to choose between the standard common design that's available, it will look uncommon the moment he puts it on anyways. He knows that.
The clerk seems to recognize him as he fishes his pockets for some change to pay. Jun avoids the female clerk's gaze as he always do and put on his new cheap hat as soon as it becomes his.
He then hides his defined face under and walks his way home, fast.
He only looks up once when he catches someone takes a picture of him when he buys some warm drinks from the vending machine. He doesn't glare. He just appears indifferent and quickly exit the scene and all the attention. It is his common practice whenever something like this happens.
He is used to it.
Without the pouring rain, he is a common guy no more.
A national idol, nonetheless, with or without a broken heart.
Continue to Chapter 18
The airplane icon marks the journey to the past that happened earlier in this fic. 30-31 August 2013.
The cloud icon marks the past. Around the year of 2006.
The town icon marks the present time.
「CHAPTER 17: A COMMON STROLL IN THE COMMON RAIN」
Matsumoto Jun should explain his sudden appearance, but words refuse to come out of his throat. He doesn't know which is worse, the heartbreaking look on Kitashiro Rei's eyes or the understanding-facade Hanazono Minako tries to pull or the guilt that is killing him inside out.
He closes his eyes for a second. Just a second. Wishing that for one moment he could be anywhere else but here. Maybe he should have join Nino's date today instead of being here. Or he could have just stayed at home, sulking. Which he did planned to do before Nino barged into his apartment and told him every bits of thing that happened last night. Rei went to him as expected. Then Nino arranged a meeting for Rei and Minako. That surely did it. He almost punched Nino for caring too much.
But all he could do was snapped at him for being such an annoying meddler and Nino just smirked, knowing Jun's guilt and that he would forgive him sooner or later anyways.
He opens his eyes again and all he sees are two pairs of eyes wating for words that refuse to come out of his mouth.
Then he sees her smiling sincerely before finally standing up. It breaks the awkward silence that fills out the small cubicle. The small cubicle that previously had too much of unrequited love.
"Hanazono-san," She says in a friendly tone. If she doesn't use such a formal honorifics, Jun will have mistaken them as high school friends. "It was nice meeting you."
Then she catches Jun's eyes, "I will now leave you two alone to straighten out things that need to be straighten out. I believe Matsumoto-san has loads of stuff to talk to you about. And so are you."
Jun cringes at his own surname. Along with the honorifics she is using.
Nino's words ring in his ears, "You are such a coward. Be a man and tell her that you don't love her anymore if that's the case!"
He answers the look Rei is giving him. Then he throws another glance to Minako. He wishes that things are that simple.
"No!" Minako's turn to stand up straight, "I should be the one who is going. There isn't anything to talk about anymore between Jun and me."
"Well, of course," The first three words that he can utter for now. And he can't help not to keep the sarcasm out of his tone.
Minako glares at him, "What's that tone supposed to mean?"
"Nothing."
"If you are unhappy about something, you should just say it to my face!" Minako narrows her eyes at him.
"Oh, like you would listen?" Jun scoffs at her. He turns at her and give her a sinister look from head to toe, "What right do you have to tell me who I should be with?"
"What?" Minako hisses incredelously, "Did I tell you to be with her? I did not! You ARE dating her! You have chosen her yourself to be with you! You have even bought and carved a ring for her!"
Rei tilts her head and remembers that ring sadly, "The ring was really for me?"
"Yes!" Both Minako and Jun turns to her for a second and answers simultaneously.
Minako turns to Jun again, "As a man, be true to your words."
"Don't tell me how to be a man. You are not a man yourself to begin with!"
"Well, I know a lot better than you about it, obviously!"
"What? Because you never ran away in the first place? You never got confused and scared? All you could do that time was leaving me with just a diary to explain everything!"
"My God, Jun! It was years ago!"
"I never got over it!"
Jun silently wishes that he did not just say that. Minako gasps at his words. Both turns to Rei again. Both silently wishes that she has turned deaf for a mere second or two.
But, Rei, of course, is not deaf and heard and witnessed everything. She just nods a couple of times and releases a deep breath.
She has heard all she needs to hear. She looks up to both of them a smile. She bows and excuses herself, making her way just between the quarelling two to exit the cubicle.
To exit everything.
"Wait!" Minako hollers to her. "Kitashiro-san, wait!"
If Rei does hear her, she pretends that she does not. She keeps her back at them, walking away without ever wanting to look back.
Minako hits Jun on his chest, "Baka!"
She throws a hit again, stronger and much louder this time around, "BAKA!"
Sobs are escaping from her throat as she keeps throwing her punches to his chest, over and over again. Jun catches her hands but she keeps hitting him. Jun pulls her closer and she finally releases her cries in his arms.
"Can't you see, Jun? Can't you see? All we can do is fight!"
Jun closes his eyes and embraces her tighter.
"I am serious, Jun! I don't want this again! I don't want you anymore! I don't want to have you just to lose you again! Don't you get it? Don't you see how much torture it is? I don't want you anymore! Being with you is too scary, Jun! I can't take it.. I can't bare it!"
Jun buries himself in her hair. "I know," he whispers, "I know."
She shakes her head and pulls herself out of his embrace, "No, you don't! Go after her! I don't want to have you again like this! Please! Tell her.. Tell her.. I still meant every word I wrote in that letter for you. My wish has not changed. One day we could meet again as friends and laugh off everything and... Not like this, Jun.. Not like this.."
Jun caresses her hair. He lifts her chin with two fingers and smiles softly to her.
"We could never be friends, Minako.. We could never be just friends."
Minako scoffs, "I'll prove you wrong, then."
Jun raises an eyebrow, "Really?"
Minako nods a couple of times, wiping her tears with the back of her hands, "Really."
Jun helps her wipes her tears, pushing away strands of hair covering her face and tucking them behind her ears lovingly, "Okay. I'll take you on, then."
Minako finally meets his soft chocolate eyes, expecting sadness or hate behind them. But all she can see is just all the love in the world.
He pulls her up to stand on both feet again. He then plants a soft kiss on her forehead as he turns to go.
"Jun!" Minako calls out when he was just about to exit the cubicle, "Do you remember?"
"What is it?"
"This is the place where it all started. We planned that awful plan on Sho-san in this cubicle with Nino. Now this is where everything ends.."
Jun lets out a laugh, but he shakes his head, "You are wrong on both parts. It all started at that CD store with janken over a Bjork album. And no. It will not end at this. I'll prove it to you."
Minako scoffs, "I'll take you on, then."
Jun nods at her one last time before he finally turns to go.
Bittersweet smiles are plastered on both lovers' faces as one of them is walking away from the other, like the way it is supposed to be.
Like the way it has always happened throughout these years between them.
Except, it is the first time that the man, instead of the woman, being the one who is walking away.
---
He has always loved the rain. When he was still a boy, he used to love the rain even though his sister will call out to him from the porch, begging him to come in or their mother will blame his sister if he catches a cold when she gets home. But Jun always ignores her. He is able to experience freedom in the rain, his pestering sister's words are drowned by the sound of the falling water from the sky to his ears.
Going against the rules has always has its own charms to Jun since he was a boy. When they told him that playing in the rain is not good for his health, the thought of it becomes attractive to him. He has always been a rebel and letting the rain pour onto him has once served that side of him.
When he grew up, he slowly but sure starts to leave that rebel side of him. At least, lately. But that doesn't mean he forgets his love to drown himself in the rain. For one thing, it still gives him freedom, though not in the same manner as it used to be. Being an idol has taken a lot out of him, not that he isn't thankful for what he has achieved, but it also has taken the small pleasures of his life. Like taking a stroll around town unnoticed, without someone secretly taking a picture of him to sell tabloids or become the It fan on the the world wide web. Like going to the bookstore without having to hide his face when he passes by his own faces gracing the magazine covers. Or like enjoying the sushi train without having to have avoiding everyone's gaze who secretly wonders how much money he makes that he attends to such common place.
He can never have compromises for the bookstore and sushi train, but he sure gets some on the strolling around town when the rain is falling hard like today. He doesn't even have to hide his face under the non-existent umbrella or the fedora he doesn't bring along this time. He can just soak himself in the rain. He can just walk home like any other common guy. Unnoticed without even trying.
He can worry about the cold he'll be having later. For now, he can just enjoy the rain to not just hide his too defined face, but also his tears and his broken heart. He puts in both hands inside his jeans pockets and walk straight ahead with his chin hold up high, whatever may be waiting for him in the future.
It is quite a long way home and by the time he arrives at his apartment porch, the rain hasn't stopped pouring.
Another drama awaits him as a girl in a white coat, also without her umbrella, turns around as she hears his footsteps above the rain puddles.
It is Kitashiro Rei.
Jun smiles as he sees her face, as if he has been expecting her to be waiting for him. She smiles back.
"Why didn't you go inside?" Jun asks as he approaches her.
Rei just shrugs.
"You'll catch a cold," Jun sweeps some of his wet hair off his own wet face.
Rei just shakes her head.
"Taking a stroll?" She asks.
Jun nods.
"Mind if I join you?" She asks again.
Jun gives her a warm smile that she returns, "Why not?"
They walk side by side in the midst of the falling rain. Other pedestrians run pass them to escape the rain, but both Jun and Rei embraces the cold and the rain with each of their hands in their pockets.
After about a half of a kilometer, Rei finally speaks up, "We never did this."
"Taking a stroll, you mean?"
"Yeah."
"We were careful."
Rei scoffs, "Too careful."
Jun nods a couple of times, staring at the water escaping to the drain, "I'm sorry."
"You don't need to be sorry for something that you don't do, or don't feel," Rei looks up to the sky for her face to embrace the rain faster. "But it's nice, isn't it? At a glance, taking a stroll like this, we seem like a common guy and a common girl taking a common stroll together like a common couple."
Jun lets out a little laugh, "We did take a stroll before, remember? On our first date."
"Oh, yes, that's right. How could I forget?"
"People tend to forget good things that happened to them. The bad things clouded over their thoughts," Jun shrugs nonchalantly.
"Yeah," Rei nods a couple of times, "That definitely happens all the time. It happens to me."
Jun glances at her for a couple of seconds before finally looking back straigth ahead, "Recently, it is the other way around for me."
"How so?"
"I don't know. Like when I met Minako at LAX airport the other day, I don't remember the bad days. I only remember the good ones. Or when I saw you again yesterday, I can't remember the bad days we had, even though we also do have those," Jun tilts his head, obviously is considering what he is saying himself. "The funny thing is both those fond memories from the two of you just made me confused with myself. It resulted with me hurting the both of you. And made both of you remember the bad memories. Very complicated."
Rei laughs heartily, "That's because you're a baka."
"I guess I am," Jun joins her laugh.
They take a turn on a corner and Rei takes a deep breath, "You know, I wanted to ask.."
"Ask away."
"Judging by only the good memories you have from both me and Minako, why can't you choose between us?" Rei asks casually, as if she's just asking whether Jun prefers coffee or tea.
But the question makes both of them stop walking, and without them realizing, they've arrived in front of a familiar building that is Rei's manager's.
Jun dares himself to look up and meet her eyes, "I never said that I can't choose."
Rei swallows and nods repeatedly again.
"I'm sorry," His voice cracks, "You know that I do love you, too."
"No," Rei shakes her head, "Don't say that."
"But it's true."
"Not because I don't believe it, no. But if you say it again, I won't be able to let you go, Jun," Rei finally catches on with his eyes to make him understand. "And I don't want to be the cruel fate who chooses for you. I want you to be able to choose for yourself."
Jun takes one hand out of his jeans pocket to gives Rei's head a soft pat, "You know very well that I never had that luxury, Rei-chan. Even for us, back then, fate chooses our way."
"Then this is your chance."
Jun shakes his head, "I did choose. But she didn't choose me."
"Then you just succumb to fate?" She asks in disbelief.
Jun shrugs, "If it was meant to be, it was meant to be."
"Bullshit," she hisses.
"But I believe we were meant to be. So I believe that fate will succumb to me. One day," Jun finally looks up to the sky and smile. It is the most beautiful smile Rei ever saw since the first time she ever knew him.
Rei closes her eyes and a soft whisper escapes her lips, "I love you."
Jun looks back at her and pulls her into his embrace. She obliges and drowns herself in his scent, in his chest and she finally weeps along with the falling rain.
Jun holds her tighter and strokes her wet hair, holding in his apologies inside because he knows that it will just break her heart more.
When the tears stop falling and they part their ways with a smile and a soft kiss on her forehead, the rain finally stops pouring as well.
What's left in the corner of the empty wet street is Matsumoto Jun, all by himself.
Staring at the cloudy sky with nothing left.
And the sun starts to peek, blinding his eyes.
Jun takes a deep breath and starts to walk again. He stops by at a convenience store to buy a baseball cap or a fedora hat, anything that's available, knowing that the street will be full of people on his way home. He only takes a minute to choose between the standard common design that's available, it will look uncommon the moment he puts it on anyways. He knows that.
The clerk seems to recognize him as he fishes his pockets for some change to pay. Jun avoids the female clerk's gaze as he always do and put on his new cheap hat as soon as it becomes his.
He then hides his defined face under and walks his way home, fast.
He only looks up once when he catches someone takes a picture of him when he buys some warm drinks from the vending machine. He doesn't glare. He just appears indifferent and quickly exit the scene and all the attention. It is his common practice whenever something like this happens.
He is used to it.
Without the pouring rain, he is a common guy no more.
A national idol, nonetheless, with or without a broken heart.
Continue to Chapter 18