Home away (sakuatsu)

Part 8

"Tsumu!" I jumped at the loud voice belonging to a mid-60 year old lady whose hair sat neatly above her head as she ran towards me while I locked the front door. "Mom!" I exclaimed in response and ran to her, hugging her after dropping my duffel bag on the ground. "How've you been? Why didn't you tell me you were going to come back? I could have picked you up!" She rambled on as I stood there silently listen to her, when suddenly the door knob rattled and in came my twin brother that I hadn't seen for the past year or so since he was busy with the rapid increase in the popularity of his new restaurants.

"Hey mom— Tsumu?" He greeted her before stopping dead in his tracks, staring at me in disbelief. "Hey Samu. Missed me?" I joked as I playfully slap him on his back before slinging my arm around his shoulders. "Yea... kinda..." he smiled as he turned to look at me. I now it was my turn to be surprised. I hadn't expected him to admit it and was just expecting him to say something like "why would I miss your annoying ass?" or something along those lines. I just shook it off and told them I was going to unpack my things before taking a shower.

Skip to Saturday (aka the gathering)

"TSUMU! HURRY UP. WERE GONNA BE LATE." Samu shouted from the living room and I hopped down the stairs, 1 hand pulling up my socks, 1 hand grabbing the railing so I didn't fall flat on the ground, my cap in clamped between my teeth and my hover sack swung over one shoulder. He sighed as he started wearing his shoes and going outside while waiting for me to join him.

Thankfully, we made it on time. well, barely but still. We all sat down at the tables as Kio thanked us for coming. He had booked the whole Ramen place for us and so we could be as loud as we wanted to be without disturbing other customers. "So. It's been 6 years since we all last met as a class. A lot of things have happened and I want y'all to re-introduced yourselves. So name, job, 1 interesting thing that happened to you. Starting with Kitra then we'll go down the tables." He explained before sitting down. We all slowly introduced ourselves and laughed together at some of the incidents that we shared.

1 person in particular demanded all my attention that I willingly gave, "Sakusa Kiyoomi. I'm now a lawyer working at my dad's law firm in Tokyo. There have been times were I had to work on 2 cases at a time and someone thought I was writing notes since I was on a call and writing an email."

Omi Omi.

I smiled when he introduced himself as all the pass feelings I had before when we were in high school and during childhood came rushing back with 10 times the intensity as my eyes racked over his tall figure.

"Tsumu. It's your turn." Samu nudged me as I snapped out of my daze. I nodded at him before standing up and introducing myself. "Hey, im Atsumu. Or Tsumu as most of you called me. I'm now a singer and songwriter and—" I was cut off by some of our classmates (mostly the girls) started squealing. I nervously scratching the back of my neck as they started telling others about me songs. I never really announced it or brought it up to people since i felt embarrassed that most people my age were all successful with stable jobs such as being a doctor, lawyer, physiologist so and so forth while I just wrote and sung songs for a living. "Tsumu! Sing something!" One of my old friends shouted from 2 tables down and I sighed. I knew that I wouldn't win against them since it was a whole class against me. I nodded and Samu started playing the instrumental soundtrack from one of my songs while winking at me, earning a sharp glare from me before clearing my throat.

(Insert stay next to me sound track 😩✨)

By the end of the song, I was beet red as they all clapped. I sat down, face still flushed from embarrassment as I still wasn't comfortable singing in such a setting. It just felt... awkward ya know?

The night went on and I started to talk to Omi more and we eventually exchanged numbers at the end of the gathering saying that we should hang out more. We then parted out ways and all went home from the ramen place after thanking the owners and chefs for the delicious food.

And that's how it all started.