Stars Fell on Tokyo | ✓

14 | i'm sorry

       OUT OF BREATH, Louanne panted as she reached the house and before she could knock, the front door had flown open. She was met with a panicked yet angry Sobo Chō standing with her arms crossed.

       "Louanne! Where have you been?! Naoki and I have been looking for you all damn night!" Sobo Chō cried.

       "I'm so sorry, Sobo! I really am! I just lost track of time and I was with Kohei and—"

        "Don't you know how worried sick we were? You have almost sent us to our graves, Louanne!" Sobo Chō shouted then turned to Kohei. "And Kohei, your mother has been worried too!"

       "Sobo, it's not his fault!" Louanne interjected.

       "Young lady, you two should've known better than to stay out past midnight or better yet when the street lights come on. Someone could've snatched you two and of course, we wouldn't know about it! Do you two have any idea how scared I was if anything happened to you, Lou?"

       Louanne didn't answer except she looked at the ground, ashamed of her actions. Hoping to take the blame would save Kohei the trouble from her grandparent but not from his mother. However, Kohei tried to open his mouth in hopes that he could take the fall since it was his idea in the first place but Louanne stops him from saying anything.

       "That's a question that you need to answer, Louanne. You're still a new face in Japan and how would we explain to Jiro if we lost his daughter after she's been out with some boy?"

       "Kohei has nothing to do with this! I coerced him into showing me around the city and I just forgot about the time! Please, grandma, this isn't his fault! I—"

       Sobo Chō pinched the bridge of her nose as she let out an irritated sigh.

       "Just get in here, okay? We'll talk about this later and Kohei?" the elderly woman looked at the teenage boy.

       "Y-yes ma'am?" he stuttered.

       "Just go to your mother. I'm sure she must be tired from looking for you," she said, shooing him away as she walked back into the house.

       Her heart had sunk into her stomach and she wanted to cough it back up. She was too consumed by the guilt to even think of what to say. Louanne turned to Kohei, sucking in her bottom lip.

       "I'm so sorry, Kohei," A single tear rolled down her cheek.

       Kohei pulled her into a hug and used the pad of his thumb to wipe away the tear. "Hey, what are you apologizing for? You didn't have to take the blame for me,"

       "I know I just—"

       "Lou, it was my idea from the start and I was the one to lose track of the time. You didn't have to do that,"

       Louanne sniffled. "I just felt like I had to otherwise this would mean that we can't see each other anymore,"

       "And who told you that?" Kohei asked.

       "I don't know. I guess through her body language and tone," Louanne laughed lightly.

       "I don't think so. We're right across from each other and I don't want you to go through any kind of depressing episode over me, okay?" He kissed her forehead. "We don't know what's going to happen for us. This doesn't mean that our summer is over."

       Louanne almost smiled at his words. "Wow, I never thought that I hear wise words from you,"

       "Well, I'm just confident and getting over my stuttering thanks to a special someone," said Kohei as he rubbed his thumb against her cheek.

       She hugged him for what felt like it was going to be the last time feeling his touch. The scent of his clothes... even if that sounded creepy. And what his face would look like before she was sentenced to prison.

***

       Louanne was curled up in a fetal position on the bed as she looked over the scrapbook of polaroids filled with memories. Sobo Chō hasn't spoken to her yet about her punishment and Kohei had already gone off to the noodle shop for work. She wanted to bawl her eyes even if he didn't want her to cry over him. The dam holding back her tears begin to crack until it had been flooding over. She wasn't just crying because of Kohei and the guilt. She was starting to miss Hawaii and her father's past. There was no way that she could forget the horror in Pearl Harbor. She just wanted to cry until her pillow is soaked with her salty tears.

       "I'm sorry," Louanne muttered as she brought her knees closer to her chest.

       When the door slowly crept open, she quickly wiped away her tears, figuring she might have sobbed too loudly. Sobo Chō thankfully brought in a box of tissues and she sat down on the bed beside her.

       "I'm so sorry if I've hurt you, Sobo," she sniffled.

       Sobo Chō wrapped her arms around her, pulling her close. "It's okay. I hope you know that I wasn't angry with you two. I was only worried about you and I didn't want anything to happen to you," she then planted a kiss on her forehead—next to the place where Kohei placed his. "You know, your father was the same too when he was way younger than you are,"

       "Really?"

       "Yep, he snuck out with this girl that he knew in high school one night and you should've seen the look on Naoki's face when the boy tried to sneak back in through his own bedroom window," Sobo Chō then laughed at the memory.

       Louanne chuckled too before she wiped one last tear from her eyes.

       "What happened then?" she asked her.

       "He was grounded from there. But you do know that I will always love you, right?" Sobo Chō said as she moved the strand of hair from her face.

       Louanne looked up to the old woman. "Always?"

       "Always," she replied, pulling her close.

       There was something about her grandmother's warm embrace that made her feel like she was more at home, how she was reluctantly accepted into the family without even having to try. Louanne closed her eyes, feeling the warmth and love around them.