Across The Years (CITRUS)

Thirty One - Who's The Villain?

This is Chapter Thirty One. Once again, my apologies.
No One's POV

In the week since Mei had arrived, things had swiftly gone from bad to worse. Yuzu did her best to make Mei feel welcome. She even made meals just like Thomas the cook did, back in the past. But Mei remained quiet and withdrawn. Things between them quickly fizzled out.

Each night Yuzu went to sleep on the couch, trying to think of how to help Mei, how to help them. But nothing seemed to work.

A devastating setback happened on the second day back. Yuzu had to go to her school to register for classes for the upcoming term. She told Mei she was going to her school and would return in about 2-3 hours. Mei said she was fine and Yuzu left.

Feeling a bit brave and a little curious to see what the town looked like, she decided to take a short walk. She put on one of the conservative dresses Yuzu had gotten her and went out. She quickly found the inn her father used to own, but other than that building, everything was different. Even the inn looked larger and different. In the old days, the inn was home. Especially when her mother would greet people at the door.

Now it was just another strange-looking pub.

Even more heartbreaking is when she walked around the pub, hoping to see her house, it was gone. Just a car park as Yuzu called it. In fact, there was no sign it was ever there, nor the woods that once sat behind it. It was all just odd-looking houses and other buildings. The world she had once known had been simply erased.

Heartbroken to see her house gone, she simply moved on. A short while later she realized she was lost. In her own hometown and she had no idea where she was. It was a very unnerving experience and after some wandering around she managed to find her way back. But she was very upset and burst into tears as soon as she got home.

Yuzu who arrived shortly after Mei got home found her upset and tried to console her. Mei said she simply wanted to be alone and shut herself into the bedroom.

Things only seemed to get worse and soon they were more like strangers living together than lovers. (A/N: Said that we're not lovers, We're just strangers...nope? Ok.) They didn't even speak much to each other and tension seemed to fill the air.

Yuzu kept trying to help ease Mei into the modern age but soon found herself very depressed as her efforts all seemed to fail.

Days passed and Mei spent most of her time either reading books from the 1800s or reviewing her old diary entries in the bedroom. She refused to read any of the ones she didn't remember writing.

She did eventually use a bit of technology as Yuzu bought some classical music CDs and showed Mei how to play them. She missed music and sometimes would listen to them. But she was too scared and homesick to do much else.

With each passing day, Yuzu only grew more depressed. She would spend hours watching tv or would sit on the roof looking at what few stars she could see and getting drunk.

The thing about being nostalgic for the old days, that people tend to forget the bad times. Mei herself soon fell victim to that. She would read the early entries where Amamiya was still charming and handsome, how he would shower her with attention. Slowly she began to wonder if he really was that bad.

Two weeks passed and Yuzu was about to reenter school for her second year at college. Things with Mei were distant and increasingly tense as Yuzu noticed she spent more and more time reading her diaries. Yuzu of course never stopped taking care of Mei, doing all the washing and fixing all the meals.

Yuzu dared not to ask Mei for help, but at the same time, started to resent that Mei never offered to help. They did eat together, but more and more those meals were eaten in silence.