Little Kazu - It doesn't Matter Part 1
This felt right, Satoshi thought, as he wrapped his arms around Kazu’s slim waist. It was something that he wanted to do a year ago. But, it was impossible because Kazu always preferred to be in his miniature size. Besides, they just knew each other so it was inappropriate of him to do so. But, now… this is the perfect moment, right? They had been reunited! A hug would be suitable to celebrate it.
He slowly let go of the pixie whose face was flushing. Gosh, his Kazu is too cute when he blushes, prompting him to close his eyes and lean forward…
“PAPP,”
Satoshi quickly opened his eyes when someone slapped him. He wanted to know who dared to interrupt the tender moment he shared with Kazu. But, there was only Kazu who was standing in front of him with a glare. Eh? This was hard to believe… Did Kazu slap him?
“Kazu, why did you…”
“Go away!” Kazu pushed him and ran towards Masaki and Jun. Both were standing in the corridor leading to the kitchen. They looked equally shocked.
“Masaki! Junny!” The pixie shouted as he ran. “Help Kazu! A pervert wants to kiss him!”
Pervert? Did Kazu mean him?
“Satoshi!” His shoulder was smacked by Sho from behind, forcing him to take his eyes from Kazu. “What are you doing?”
“I…” He didn’t know how to answer so he looked back at Kazu who was now hiding behind Jun. The pixie looked scared and confused.
“Little Kazu, what’s wrong?” Satoshi was equally confused. He didn’t understand why Kazu would be angry at him. Then, he was reminded of the time Kazu was angry because he called him Little Kazu. Could that be the reason? “Are you mad at me because I call you Little Kazu? Okay, I promise I will not call you that anymore,”
“Go away,” said Kazu. “Kazu didn’t know the Pervert!”
“Kazu, it’s me, Satoshi. Don’t you remember me?”
“No!” Kazu was still hiding behind Jun. “Junny, make the Pervert go away. Kazu is scared,”
“Kazu…” He called the scared pixie softly, silently praying that Kazu would change his mind. However, Kazu still refused to look at him. What should he do now? He had been looking forward to seeing Kazu again. But, how could Kazu treat him like this? And, to get closer to the pixie would be impossible. Judging from the look on Jun’s face, he didn’t think the man would allow it.
“If that is what you want…” He said, not bothering to hide how disappointed he was. “I will go. But, I want you to know. I miss you so much, Little Kazu,”
There was no response from Kazu. So, with a heavy step, he left the restaurant as tears started to flow.
Kazu sighed in relief when the Pervert who tried to kiss him left. The scary Sakurai followed the man so he was also grateful for that. To be honest, it was actually hard for him to chase the man away. A small part of him wanted to let the Pervert kiss him. But, why would he let him do so? It’s not right, isn’t it? He didn’t even know the man. So, why did he want to kiss the Pervert too?
“Are you okay, Kazu?” Jun asked. Both he and Masaki looked at Kazu with concern. And, it made Kazu feel bad for making them worry.
“Kazu is okay,” He lied. Truthfully, he was still confused about everything that had just happened. “Who is the Pervert?”
“He is my friend, Satoshi,” answered Masaki.
Kazu looked thoughtful. The Pervert had introduced himself as Satoshi. Since he came with Sakurai, Kazu thought it could be the same person that Jun had told him earlier. But, he felt like he had heard the name somewhere else.
“Did Kazu know him?” He asked his two friends who looked at each other in confusion.
“We have no idea, Kazu,” answered Jun. “But, he knows you,”
Kazu didn’t say anything. Indeed, it felt like he knew everyone who was related to Masaki. And, the feeling for The Pervert was stronger than he ever felt for anyone else. But, he didn’t know how to describe the feelings.
“Kazu feels sad. But, he didn’t know why,” He told Masaki and Jun.
His two friends looked at each other. And then, Jun brought him to Masaki’s office while Masaki apologized to the customers and asked another waiter to take their order. Then, he followed them to the office. Jun pushed Kazu to sit on the couch in the office while Masaki poured a glass of water for Kazu. Kazu took it but he didn’t drink. Instead, he just stared at his friend, thinking about what happened earlier. He couldn’t get the Pervert out of his mind.
“Why do you feel sad?” Asked Jun. Kazu shook his head. As he told them before, he had no idea why he would feel so.
“Masaki, Junny… Kazu has something he wants to ask,” He said shyly. Before this, he had no intention of asking this. But, seeing the Pervert had prompted him to do so. There must be a reason why he ended up in front of Masaki’s restaurant, right?
“What is it, Kazu?” the two of them asked in unison.
“Before Kazu comes here, did Junny or Masaki ever see him?”
“I don’t think so,” answered Jun. Masaki also nodded his head.
“This is weird,” He began. “Since Kazu first met Masaki and Junny, he feels like he already knows them. Same goes with Sakurai and some of the other workers. As for the Pervert…”
He didn’t continue. Once again, as he thought of the Pervert and how disappointed the man was when Kazu chased him away, he felt sad.
“You feel the same way?” asked Jun, continuing what he left. But, Kazu chose not to answer.
“Kazu has enough rest. He will get back to work,” He tried to stand up but Jun didn’t let him. He gently pulled Kazu to sit again.
“Rest, Kazu. You need it,” said Jun. He looked at Masaki then continued. “It’s okay for Kazu to take a break for a while, right?”
“Sure,” Masaki agreed. Even though they are friends, Jun shouldn’t decide without consulting Masaki. He was the boss, after all. “Matsujun is right, Kazu. You should rest. Do you want to go home? It’s not busy right now. So, maybe Matsujun can send you…”
“No,” Kazu rejected the idea. “Kazu is okay. He needs to work. If not, he will think about the Pervert,”
Both Masaki and Jun exchanged a look. They seemed to be communicating in silence, most probably about how to persuade Kazu to take a rest. But, after a while, Masaki finally sighed.
“If that’s what you want, I will let you work,” Masaki said. “But, under one condition,”
“What is it?”
“When you are ready, let’s talk with Satoshi,”
Satoshi went back to the office. It was empty because the others went out for lunch. He knew Sho was behind him but as his friend didn’t say anything, Satoshi decided to do the same. His mind was too distracted right now to talk to anyone. Doing his job might help to keep him preoccupied.
Sho seemed to understand him. He didn’t force him to talk or anything. Instead, he went to the pantry, leaving Satoshi alone in the bullpen area. Ten minutes later, he appeared again with two cups of ramen.
“Here…” Sho put one of them on his table. “You should eat,”
“Thank you,” Satoshi smiled at his friend. Frankly, he had lost his appetite to eat. But, it was rude to reject. “You shouldn’t follow me, though. You could just stay and eat with Aiba-chan,”
“Maybe….” Sho just shrugged him off.
Satoshi stared at his friend, expecting him to say anything about Kazu. But, Sho stayed silent. His full attention was on the ramen as if it was the most delicious food in the world. And, even though he didn’t want to tell Sho about Kazu, it irked him that Sho had no interest to know about what happened.
“Aren’t you going to ask me about Kazu?” He finally snapped. Maybe, he did want to talk about this with someone. But, Sho only responded with a smile. He seemed amused.
“So, this strategy works,” drawled Sho. He still had a weird smile on him and it’s kinda creepy to see.
“What strategy?”
“Well, if I ask you about it, maybe you will not answer me,” explained Sho. “So, I decided to wait,”
Satoshi glared at his friend, feeling stupid for falling into the trap. He should know better.
“So, who is he, actually? Should I be worried about him?” Asked Sho and Ohno immediately shook his head. Kazu is harmless. He is the sweetest creature Satoshi had ever known.
“You have nothing to worry about. Little Kazu is nice,”
Sho looked at him sceptically. “Can I trust you on that? You like him so maybe your feeling clouded your judgment. Who is he? How do you know him? If you know him, why didn’t he know you?”
Satoshi took a deep breath. In less than a minute, Sho had been asking him a lot of questions. And, how should he answer those questions? Should he tell the truth? He wasn’t good at lying. So, if he made up some story, Sho would immediately know. So, how should he talk about this without talking about Kazu’s true identity as a pixie?
“I’m still waiting,”
“Little Kazu is a pixie,” Satoshi blurted out when Sho interrupted his train of thoughts. Damn! What did he say? Now, Sho would think he is crazy.
“A pixie?” said Sho. That’s weird. He didn’t sound sarcastic. He sounded genuinely surprised by the revelation. “Kazu… that man who has no memory whatsoever… is a pixie? Is that why you call him Little Kazu? Is he the pixie you told me about? So, the pixie is real?”
Okay, this was unexpected. What did Sho mean by that? When did Satoshi ever tell him about Kazu?
“I told you about a pixie?” Asked Satoshi for confirmation.
“Yes…”
“When?”
“A week before you went to Osaka,” answered Sho. Satoshi tried to remember what happened two weeks ago. If he was not mistaken, both of them went out for drinking and because he drank too much, Sho had to send him home. Oh my… he was horrified. Why couldn't he remember anything?
"What did I tell you?"
"Well…" Sho began. "You told me to stop trying to be a matchmaker because you already love someone,"
Satoshi's eyes widened. He couldn't bring himself to look at Sho because this was humiliating. And, it's only the beginning…
"I urged you to tell me about that person. And you told me it's a pixie. I thought you were bluffing,"
"Is that all?"
The smile on Sho's face suggested that he had more to say.
"The conversation stopped there. You refused to say anything no matter how much I pushed you to talk,"
Despite what Sho had said, Satoshi didn’t feel relaxed at all. The story didn’t end there, he knew it. That’s why Sho had a weird smile on his face. But, the other man seemed to be taking his time to talk about it. Obviously, this was done to torture him.
“Then…” He prompted the man to continue.
“We went home,” Answered Sho. “Then, when we were about a block away from your house, you showed me the place where you met the pixie you’re in love with,”
“What?”
Sho smirked at him before he continued. As Satoshi listened to his friend, he realized it wasn’t a lie. As Sho had claimed, Satoshi had indeed told him about Kazu. It began when Satoshi saw a shooting star and then wished to meet the love of his life. To grant the wish, Kazu appeared before him. And Sho continued the story, describing everything that Satoshi had experienced with Kazu a year ago in detail. Every single thing was included.
Right after Sho finished reciting the story about Satoshi and Kazu, Masaki called him. So, his friend left him alone. That was a relief, actually. He didn’t know how to face Sho. It was too embarrassing.
“Masaki said Kazu is still shaken because of what happened earlier,” Sho came back after about five minutes. “You shouldn’t come to the restaurant yet. Wait until Kazu is ready,”
“Okay…” Satoshi agreed, hoping Kazu would be fine soon. He missed the pixie. And, they have a lot to talk about.
“You know… when I first listened to that story, I thought you just made it up,” said Sho. "But, now, if Kazu is a pixie as you claim…"
"I'm not lying. Kazu is a pixie,"
"Geez," Sho seemed annoyed because Satoshi cut him off. But, Satoshi didn't care about that. He was offended because Sho thought he was lying. "Fine. He is a pixie. But, maybe, he is not a pixie anymore. That's why he cannot remember anything,"
"What do you mean?"
"Hmm… this is just my hypothesis," Sho began to explain. "From what I know about mythical creatures such as an elf, pixie, fairy… they shouldn't let a human know about their existence. But pixie Kazu had shown his pixie form to you… he even told you about his real identity… So, now, he was being punished for what he did,"
"Punished?" Satoshi repeated the words. "So, they erased his memory?"
"Yes," confirmed Sho. "Most likely, he was banished from the pixie land. So, now, he is fully human,"
"Are you sure he is not a pixie anymore?"
"Affirmative," answered Sho. "I mean, I live with him. If he is still a pixie with no memory of his past life… I'm sure he will accidentally cause some magic mishap. But, nothing happened,"
Okay. That made sense.
"But, why did they remove his memory?” asked Satoshi, in which Sho responded by rolling his eyes.
“How should I know? I’m not a pixie,” answered Sho. Satoshi fought the urge to do the same to Sho. His friend explained the whole situation about Kazu as if he is an expert about the pixie community. But, when Satoshi asked him a question, he suddenly scolded Satoshi.
“So, what should I do now?” asked Satoshi.
“Stay away from Kazu until he is ready to see you,”
“That’s not what I mean,” Satoshi let out a sigh. “Okay, let me rephrase the question. What should I do to make him remember me?”
Sho tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Hmm… does it matter? Instead of finding a way to make him remember you, how about creating new memories with him?”
Satoshi stayed silent, thinking about what Sho suggested to him. Should he do that?
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