always | gojou satoru [rewriting]

chapter 6 - familiar name

You finally arrived at your mom's house after a 30 minute drive from your apartment. Your head was filled with questions. You somehow had this feeling that she was hiding something from you.

You rang the doorbell a few times before the door creaked open, revealing your mom, who looked like she didn't sleep for days. "Mom, are you okay?" you were concerned but she pulled you inside and instantly locked the door.

"Y/n, I missed you so much!" she hugged you tightly. You felt slightly bad as you haven't visited her for a month due to busy with work. But, you never missed calling her almost everyday. "Just stay with me for tonight, okay?"

"Why not?" you patted her back gently before breaking the hug. "Have you been eating well? Did you sleep well?"

"No. I didn't sleep for 4 days now. I just can't close my eyes." she said weakly. You grabbed her arm and let her sit on the sofa at the living room. "I just.. I don't know anymore."

"What are you saying? Tell me what happened." you looked at her. "Who is this person who threatens to kill you? Why? Did you do something?"

"It's hard to explain." she buried her face on her hands, her voice began to crack. "I've been hiding a lot of things from you and it haunts me now." you could see her palms were wet due to her tears. "I'm so sorry, Y/n."

"Tell me." you said while caressing her back to calm her down. You were a bit hurt when she mentioned that she hid a lot of things from you.

"I used to borrow money from someone." she stuttered, bringing her head up to face you. "I paid her back slowly but that bitch doubled the amount and forced me to pay but I couldn't afford to pay that amount. She was mad and said that she would come to collect her money or she'll kill me."

You lifted an eyebrow, "Doubled the amount? What on earth?"

"I-I don't know." was all she said before crying again. Somehow, it didn't make sense. Why would the person doubled the amount for no reason?

"Who is this person?" you questioned.

"A friend."

You just nodded in reply even though you still had doubts. You decided not to pressure her to tell you everything. Maybe she needed some time.

After successfully calming her down, you were about to head to the kitchen to grab something to eat when your phone rang, and when you looked at the caller ID, your heart stopped for a moment, "Suguru?" you picked up.

(Hey, Y/n. You okay? You didn't reply to my text)

"Oh, sorry about that. I was a bit busy." you replied, without realizing you were clutching your chest because of his voice, "What is it, Suguru?"

(I see. Um, anyways, are you free next Saturday? I have 2 free tickets to an art exhibition but I have no one to go with. Are you interested?)

"Next Saturday? Uh, sure! I would love to." you stammered, leaning against the wall and still clutching your chest.

(Great! I'll pick you up then?)

"Sure, why not?"

(Alright! Thanks, Y/n. Bye!)

"Bye." you said with smile before hanging up. As soon as you ended the call, you started to walk in circles at the kitchen while chanting ㅡ Holy shit, did he just asked me out?

"What's wrong with you?"

Instantly stopped, you faced your mom who was looking at you weirdly. "Oh, mom. Just act like you saw nothing." you simply said.

"Is that your boyfriend?" she asked and you swore you could see a smirk on her lips.

"No, he's not. Just a friend, I guess?" you replied. Well, you too, had no idea. Just like Nobara said, you were confused with your own feelings.

Later that night, both you and your mom had dinner together after a long time. You talked about a lot of things including Suguru.

"It all changed after the party. He started to text me and somehow I started to like him again. What should I do?" you whined, asking your mom for opinion. "I don't really like him, just a little bit but not that much but you get what I mean, right?"

"Don't rush things, okay? I understand what you meant but you don't know him really well yet." she said, which was actually true. "Speaking about this guy, I suddenly remembered Satoru for no reason."

That familiar name.

"Don't tell me you forgot?" she asked again since you didn't respond to her, "I still wonder why he stopped sending you letters and packages."

You were speechless. You haven't heard that name for so long. Few months after both of you were separated, he did send packages with letters saying that he stayed in Canada but somehow he stopped doing it and you didn't know why.

Memories of you and him started to appear in your head little by little. A smile appeared on your lips, "I hope he's living a good life now and still remembers me."