Across The Years (CITRUS)

Twenty One - The Moment Part 1

Before this chapter starts, I just wanna say...😏😏😏

No One's POV

For the rest of the evening, Amamiya poured on his normal charm. On one level she was happy that all was as it should be; her at a ball with a very handsome man, who would soon be her husband. The other ladies were giving her looks of envy.

But Yuzu was gone and Mei had no idea how upset Yuzu was.

Mei felt torn, torn between tremendous pressure to conform to social norms, family obligations, and a growing attraction to Yuzu.

By the end of the night, Mei managed to push those worries about Yuzu out of her mind, as Amamiya kept pouring on the charm and the compliments. The weight of those societal pressures didn't seem as bad when Amamiya flashed his smile.

Of course, once Amamiya said his farewell at the end of the evening, Mei started to worry again. As if released from some spell, thoughts of Yuzu quickly returned.

Lying in bed alone Mei soon fell into a deep sorrow for how she treated Yuzu. What surprised Mei most, was the depth and intensity of the feelings of regret and sorrow that came upon her. For the first time since her mother died, Mei would cry herself to sleep.

The following day was Sunday and Mei first caught a glimpse of Yuzu at breakfast. The actress came out holding a tray of eggs. What struck Mei was her emotionless expression. The young Latina immediately found it disconcerting.

"Good Morning Yuzu. How are you this morning?" Mei said, desperately trying to get some reaction out of Yuzu.

"Fine, thank you, Miss Mei." Yuzu replied in a monotone voice.

As Mei's spirits quickly dropped, her father interjected.

"Yuzu, your performance last night was splendid. Sir Miles was quite impressed."

Yuzu paused from her serving duties and again replied in a polite but monotone voice. "Thank you, sir, It was my pleasure."

Yuzu then quickly finished and vanished into the kitchen without so much as looking at Mei. The rest of breakfast was the same. Yuzu was there, but she showed almost no emotion and did her work quietly and diligently. It saddened Mei greatly.

"Yuzu's furious at me, I knew it." Mei thought as she ate her breakfast.

"Is something wrong Mei? You seem sad this morning."

Realizing she had door a poor job of hiding her emotions, Mei quickly lied. "I was just thinking of Mother. She will not be able to see me married. It saddens me greatly."

Mr. Aihara nodded his head. "I miss her as well. Your sorrow is quite understandable. We're going to church after breakfast; you should remember to say a prayer for her.'

"I will Father."

In church a little while later, Mei did pray. But she prayed for some way to make this all right, as she really had no idea how. At this point, she wasn't even sure what she wanted half the time.

After church, Mei hardly felt better. She felt even worse as the day went on. All day, Yuzu played the part of the quiet, emotionless, hardworking servant. Mei also suspected that Yuzu was actually avoiding her.

Yuzu was avoiding her. Last night's incident left her confused, frustrated, guilt-ridden, aroused, hurt, but mostly angry. In fact, at one point when she got home, she found herself tempted to just go home and let Mei rot in that grave.

Realizing she may do or say something wrong, not to mention she was angry at Mei, Yuzu retreated inside her character. She would be the quiet, hardworking servant and nothing else. She wasn't going to be rude to Mei, in fact, Mei found Yuzu to be quite polite and very formal that day. That was when she actually spoke, which wasn't very much.