All You Need Is Love (MewGulf AU)

🌞Chapter 7🌻

PRESENT
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"Gulf."

Gulf looked up at the oddly familiar voice. It belonged to a man wearing sunglasses. His bangs gelled up away from his face, and a white double-breasted two piece suit with a dark red open-necked shirt beneath it. It was Mew. Something in him had almost been expecting this, so his emotions were in check.

Casually pulling off his glasses, Mew revealed his face, smiling almost cruelly. He walked calmly up to Gulf, whose surprise showed. Mew's get-up contrasted starkly with the office district they were in and attracted a lot of stares.

"You surprised me yesterday man. I never thought I'd run into you in a place like that."

He was speaking pleasantly, as if he'd forgotten that Gulf run away from him yesterday.

"I was surprised too. But what are you doing here?"

Gulf was trying hard to sound calm, but the voice that came out from his mouth sounded like it belonged to someone else.

"I really wanted to talk to you, so I asked the girls at your table about you guys. They said that Kashima guy works here. And you said he was your boss, right? So I fugured if I waited here, I'd run into you."

But what did Mew want to talk about so badly? Gulf's curiosity got the better of him.

"I see. So why did you want to talk to me?"

"Unfortunately, some stupid job thing's come up, so I can't stay and chat. Too bad. But do you want to get together some time and celebrate running into each other?"

"Yeah, sure. It'll be like a reunion."

Gulf hadn't the slightest intention of agreeing, and he hated himself for getting caught up in the string of social niceties.

"Are you free on weekends?"

"I am this weekend. I always have to stay late to finish up on Fridays, so any time after nine is fine."

"That's perfect. My brain won't start if I go out too early. Know what I mean? Anyway, here's my card." Mew took a card out of the breast pocket of his jacket.

"Uh, thanks. Let me find mine." Gulf's fingers trembled pitifully as they closed on the card case in his inside pocket.

"Hey, your address isn't written here," Mew protested as he examined the card.

"Well, it's got my company's address on it."

"Then tell me your cellphone number. You've got one, right?"

"Yeah. It's 090---" He started giving his phone number, feeling pressured by Mew's pushy voice.

"Hold on. I'm going to write it down," Mew said with surly eyes. He wrote the number Gulf gave him on the back of his card with a pen. "There we go. You remember where the bar is?"

"Yeah."

"In the building next to it there's a bar called Number Five. It's one of the places I run. It'll be quiet around there, and no one will bother us. I'll see you there around nine."

Pinching the card between his fingers, Mew clapped his hand against Gulf's chest. In the same moment, Mew's nostalgic scent assaulted Gulf's nose. His body  trembled at it's familiarity, almost exactly the same as before.

As he watched Mew disappear into the throng of people, he felt time, which had ground to a halt around him, flip back into motion.

He let out a deep sigh. He hadn't reacted excessively, had he? Had he managed to act as if nothing was wrong?

As long as Mew didn't talk about the past, he couldn't do it either. Gulf had to fix a smile on his face and pretend to be nothing more than a classmate from high school.

He probably should have declined the invitation. Considering his life untill now, he knew he should have. But seeing this long-lost face, there was no way he could have turned it down.

TBC