runaway

21.03

Shinjou was sitting on the sofa after a long day of work. As the chairman's secretary, plenty of work needed to be done to organize the international tournament that would have taken place the year after. For his part, Shinjou was very excited. This could have been a good opportunity to meet his son and wife again after a long time. They were always in his thoughts and he would have loved seeing them. Asuto was almost 15 years old now, a full-grown teenager. On the other hand, Yuriko was still the beautiful young woman that he married a long time ago. Nothing changed in his mind, they were still his family, his true family. In Russia, he never felt at home. His friendship with Valentin Girikanan, the previous CEO of the Orion corporation, gave him a purpose in life, but now? Bernard, his son, was far from being his worthy successor. After his father's death, he became cold and heartless, leaving behind the old ideals that shaped the organization at the beginning. His change kinda surprised Shinjou. When he first met him, he was a young and talented man who seemed almost perfect: Bernard was generous and kind to everyone. Moreover, they had a strong bond. Shinjou believed that they were good friends. During the last seven years, their relationship has worsened. They never talked, except for business matters, and Bernard seemed to ignore his existence most of the time. This caused Shinjou great unhappiness. The atmosphere at the office was tense and heavy, for this reason Orion's secretary always tried to complete his duties as soon as possible, so that he would not have to bear on the situation for too long. Thanks to his hard work, he got home before dinner and could relax a bit to relieve the stress. He took his smartphone to look for possible messages. In that moment, an unknown number appeared on the screen, a Japanese number. Shinjou felt a deep sense of uneasiness. What if it was his wife? Even though he missed her, he did not have the courage to face her. He was aware of his past actions: he abandoned his family for many years, he was a coward and an awful husband. Besides, he did not want to hurt them anymore. He stared intensely at the phone, completely frozen, waiting for that scary number to disappear. Eventually, the call ended and was followed a second one.

"That's not possible."

Driiin. Driiin. Driiin.

The sound of his ringtone was haunting him. He could not take it anymore, therefore he finally answered.
- "Hello?" - whispered Shinjou, trying to disguise his true voice tone.
- "Hello? It's Yone. Am I speaking to Mister Shinjou?"- said the woman at the phone.
Silence.
- "Y-yes, that's me. How did you get my phone number? –
- "I'm deeply sorry to communicate you that Yuriko left us. Please, accept my sincere condolences. She asked me to call you if something happened to her, so I fulfilled her last wish..." –
The phone slipped through Shinjou's fingers and met the ground with a dull noise. The room around him seemed to fade while a sense of detachment possessed him. The emptiness he felt was quickly replaced with disbelief and then anger. It was all his fault. He left her when she needed him the most. His selfishness brought him to this. She died because of him, he thought. What about his son? Now he was truly alone, thanks to him. He condemned his family to a life of suffering, just because he wanted to become a famous soccer player. Deep in his heart, he believed that he deserved an existence of pain and regret for his choices, but he could not accept that also Yuriko and Asuto had to pay the price. They were innocent. In that moment, he wished that the gods had taken him instead of his wife. No one would have missed him, all the people he once cared for were now dead. Also, his son probably forgot about him too, what was the point of living? He was purposeless and alone. The rage that was in his chest slowly disappeared, leaving him filled with sorrow. He walked to his bedroom in tears, while the old Yone was still trying to talk to him, without any response. Subsequently, he entered the room and buried his face in the pillow, trying to suffocate his sadness and find some relief. Deep down, he desired to die that night and join his loved one, so that he could end his suffering once and forever. He cried until he ran out of tears and he finally passed out from tiredness.