🄿🄸🄲🅃🅄🅁🄴🅂🅀🅄🄴 𝙏𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙔𝙤𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙤𝙧𝙞 𝙁𝙁

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Since the store was empty and there was no sign of anyone, I decided to eat something while I was there. Plus, I had hardly eaten and it's been a long day. I scoured the shelves for something good to eat and decided on just Onigiri. I'm really hungry... I decided to grab two, just in case.

I ate slowly and stayed at the store for a few more hours, until it was dark. As expected, no one came. Not a single soul except for me. I walked slowly back home, not worried about any crazy person that might want to kill me and throw my body into a river never to be seen again. No, I wasn't worried at all. In fact, it gave me peace. There's no one to worry about and being alone is anything but a burden. (Woah I just had Deja Vu) From now on, I'm not helping any poor lost soul that falls onto my doorstep. It really just doesn't work out well.

I walked through my front door and inhaled the familiar scent of the wooden interior. The digital clock on top of the microwave read 9:57pm. Just then, the exhaustion hit me. I dragged myself to bed and fell asleep immediately.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up shivering and realized that my blanket had fallen off the bed. I groaned and sat up as my choices were to either get the blanket and not be able to fall back asleep or get up and start my day. As I leaned forward to bring myself to stand, I felt a hand brush my lower back. I gasped and closed my eyes, waiting for it to go away. Instead, it only moved closer and grabbed my waist. Please no. Was yesterday just a dream or was this a hallucination?

I laid back down and turned to face where the hand was coming from. I felt relieved when I saw Yoshinori laying there, smiling. Perhaps it was just a dream after all.

"Good morning, love." His voice seemed to echo but I figured that it was just me being sleepy.

I yawned before greeting him back, but when I turned back, he was gone. I sighed in defeat and turned over onto my back. It wasn't a dream after all. But, I promised myself that I would continue with my life so I will.

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February

It hasn't even been a month but I've completely moved on. Except for the hallucinations. I keep seeing Yoshinori around my house or in the store. When I wake up and go to bed I can feel his presence. When I go to the kitchen he's standing at the stove making breakfast. When I'm at work I see him walk through the door.

He's everywhere.

I know that he's not actually there but my heart aches and I want to approach him. Maybe say hi. Tell him that deep down, I miss him. But he's from the city and I'm from the middle of nowhere. Our paths never should have crossed in the first place.

As I came home from another boring day at work, I saw a figure crippled against my front door. I walked faster and squinted my eyes to see it was a person.

"Hey," I yelled. "Are you okay?"

The figure wriggled and as I got closer, I saw it was a man. I placed my hand on his shoulder and shook it slightly. He turned to face me and I almost fell over. It was Yoshinori but he didn't look like himself. His hair was a mess and his face was puffy and red but sunken in at the same time. I almost burst into tears seeing him like this. He was close to tears too. But there was a spark of light in his eyes.

"What happened to you, love?" I asked, helping him to his feet.

"I missed you so much..." He said with a hoarse voice.

"Don't talk now, you need to eat." I made him sit on the couch while I tried to find something to make. I made chicken noodle soup since that's what I would always eat when I didn't feel well.

"Yoshinori..." I started, taking a seat next to him. "If I had known you were like this I would have come back to you in an instant." Brushing his hair out of his face I continued, "if I had known you were going to be like this, I would have stopped you from ever leaving."

I don't know when but as I was sitting there next to him, watching him eat, I could feel my eyes slowly close. The last thing I remember was Yoshinori's soft gaze and me hoping that all of this wasn't just another hallucination.

-End of Chapter 17-

(Reading_rabbit123) Next update will (hopefully) be uploaded next week on Saturday AEDT