The Encounter

LAST CHAPTER

He needed the right timing after he gathered all the facts. However, there was one thing he craved to unfold. Looking at Himari's present pictures and a clip from a newspaper that reported of his disgrace fifteen years ago, his guts leaped for anticipation. He couldn't get hold of himself. How could this circumstance intertwined their paths that way? Why did he have to get through with an accident in order to fill in a missing piece of his life? How should he tell her all of these when she saw him as a villain? She would understand later, he convinced himself and called Erina.

"What?!" He was just as devastated as ever. How would he show up before her? He wondered if she felt the same for him. He guessed he needed to be in-control to ensure the worthiness of the risk.

By nature, he was independent and established. Satisfactory in command of his decisions. He knew how to sail his ship and was never short-sighted except for circumstances he had no hold of. Employing someone to investigate his case was a meticulous and an extensive process and would have been easier if Himari had showed up earlier. However, none of it mattered now. All he had to do was to carry on what he had intended to.

~0~

It was unusual for her manager to request for a personal errand on a Sunday. Well, she had to oblige as a gratitude to Erina's competent and humble management. Who would have thought she would be in the household of the beautiful woman she was completely jealous of?

Erina's residence was a simple and open-planned area too spacious for a family of three. She winced at the idea that Erina and Shintaro would build a family together and bear a child. The house was a concept of combined modern and traditional Japanese house where glazed wood was mainly used for the framework and state-of-the-art furniture was put for the interior. The living room was placed on a double-height size so one could see who and where did what. A single sakura tree at the center of the room made the space exquisite. Her attention was drawn to a gallery wall where young Shintaro was introduced publicly as a successor to his father. She read the captions and was surprised to see his mother was the owner of the business she had been working at. How small the world was! The absurdity of her daydreaming about somebody like him was all the more apparent.

Another one was an image of him and Erina being paired on a ceremony. Were they arranged for matrimony when they were young? She chuckled at the idea. Right, why not? It's not impossible. That was how wealthy families did. How could she be surprised when for generations, affluent Asian families chose who was marrying to whom.

In order not to add salt to her wound, Himari curiously looked over the glass door that opened to the courtyard. The garden at the back of the house was even more enchanting with a traditional Japanese landscape of maple and evergreen oaks alongside with flowering cherries and camellias that went well with November breeze.

"Mrs. Koh gave you my wristwatch and you were in Lor Bachok fifteen years ago. Just who are you, Himari Ito?" A deep, masculine voice made her jerk only to look at someone she decided not to see anymore. She decided to call it quits even at work in Kyoto. She asked her manager if she could be transferred in Nagoya but here she was - again.

"How come -? Right, this house is also yours, I'm sorry. I should better be going." She fluidly walked out on him but Shintaro gently gripped her.

"This was you, right?" He showed her an old clip of a Singaporean newspaper. She was amazed. She did not realize there were photographers during the accident then. But what would it do now? "Himari..." the desperation in his voice stopped her. She was furious, jealous, hurting, and caring all at the same time. Just how overwhelming was that. But she did not have time to wallow on them now and turned to him instead.

"So what if it was me? What good will it give you? Do you need your wristwatch? Here, take it." The tears in her eyes were brimming and showing them to him was a sign of weakness. It was too late when he pinned her on the gallery wall. Sensing her frailty and femininity, Shintaro softened and let her sob on his chest.

"I'm sorry if I let you cry like this but I just can't let you go like that. For years, I've been looking for you, Himari. I miss you all my life."

She struggled from his hold in disbelief. "Are you kidding me?! You already have Erina.san."

He laughed so hard she felt the whole place roared.

"Erina?" He laughed again, wiping her tears with his palm. "Oh, my Himari."

"What's so funny?" She began to feel irritated.

"You're jealous with her?"

"No, I'm not." She lied in a defensive tone.

"No, you shouldn't be jealous with my sister!"

She felt conned. "Erina-san is your sister?! How --?"

She could not just fit the pieces together because of their sweetness or she was just too blind to see their resemblance.

"Erina is my older sister who is obsessed of taking care of me for she can't have her own but we laughed about it now. Her husband, the late Shinjiro Aoki, died of a plane crash on his way back to London. They used to live there."

They were now both at the courtyard, invigorating their senses with fresh air from the plants and trees. "She looks like your age, though."

"Was it a compliment for me?"

She quizzically looked at him - at his eyes, his face - and turned back again at the lovely view before them. "It was me in the newspaper. In case you're wondering why I don't have that scar on my face, it's because I got bullied for it when I first came back to Japan, so I had it removed and survived high school. I got it when my parents got into a car accident."

"Your parents got into a car accident." They said almost simultaneously.

"H-how did you know about that?" How much did he know about her? She curiously gaped at him.

"Mrs. Koh, your adoptive parent. Himari, what did you see in that Henry?" She was bewildered by this change of topic. "I am jealous of him he's not even worthy of you."

Now, she was laughing by this straightforward manner. "If he wasn't worthy of me, does that make you one?"

He was all serious laying his hands on her shoulders as he turned her to him. "You shouldn't have been too quick to assume but YES. Marry me."

"W-what?!"

"When you marry me, Henry won't be able to touch you."

"What if I don't?"

"Nah, that's impossible."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I've loved you since our encounter. Marry me. Now."

"Must you guys always demand from me like that?"

"Who are these guys?" He was ridiculously skeptical.

"It's all right, my dear." It was Erina standing on the terrace watching them. It was then Himari realized that Erina was the same woman from she and Shintaro's encounter at TYH. From her view up the terrace, Erina looked like the Japanese model, Misaki Ito. "Marry him so I won't be obsessed anymore."

"Are you sure of your decision, Mr. Yamamoto?" She turned to him.

"Yes.

Six months later...

After a solemn kekkonshiki at one of the Shinto temples in Kyoto, Shintaro and Himari made use of Erina's courtyard for the hiroen. It was rather an intimate celebration under the warm summer skies where maple trees displayed its burgundy leaves among other trees and plants vividly that bloomed as if they too were in-love. The event was attended only by their immediate family and few friends.

"Aishiteimasu, Himari-san."

"I love you, too, Shintaro Yamamoto."

Their eyes said it all like a vow to get through their past, present, and future.