Game Over

STAGE THIRTY-THREE >> Acknowledgement

This is a work of fiction. All of the names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents in this story are all products of the author's imagination used in fictitious manner. Any resemblance to an actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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"You've made your choice very clear from the beginning, Yuki-chan," said Eiko. "And I...Takehiko-san, understand that well."

There was pain underneath the words but there was none if he looked at her face. "I'm so—"

"Don't," she shook her head. "You don't have to apologize. That's not what he wants from you."

There were many versions of unrequited love, and as Yuki heard this he suddenly understood where he stand and how careless he was in thinking that he was the only one who experience it when he was the one who was winning from the very start.

Yuki did his best to stop the feeling for somebody who already rejected him, but Takehiko was struggling to move on from him. He thought he was stuck in a one-sided relationship when all this time it was Takehiko who doesn't have anyone to catch him at all.

"You don't have to feel sorry for him," Eiko added. "The healing process involves acceptance. And that's what he did. He accepted the pain."

"How...how did he do it?" Yuki could feel his chest constricting as he listened, imagining what Takehiko has to put up with all this time. Akihiro hated him. And all this time he had been in love with him without even his knowledge, unable to even confide his feelings.

"Not all acceptance is rainbows and butterflies," Eiko said. "It took him a long while, and when every time he see you, it reminded him of the things he has to let go of. Acceptance is about validating the pieces that are hard then invalidating those which aren't true."

When he heard this, Yuki concluded that this was probably what drove Takehiko into helping Riko. He wanted her to understand that the intensity of her current feelings won't last forever. Just like him. In time, the emotions around it will dull, and eventually, heal.

There was also this feeling of camaraderie, knowing that most people experience the same in their life and that he wasn't alone in this suffering. It helps ease the shame and embarrassment of falling for someone who wouldn't be able to return the same affection. And even if the game was created by both Mori brothers, to Takehiko it was his only way to connect with Akihiro and had also become his escape.

"Take me back," Yuki finally uttered. "I want to be in the real world."

Eiko turned towards him with a sad smile, "Yuki, no one is holding you back but yourself."

As the words left her mouth, the darkness suddenly smothered him. Pitch black like tar, the darkness moves like a monstrous living thing, filling his vision in and out and beyond. Eiko was still smiling, pink-cheeked she echoed, "Wake up, Yuki."

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A flicker of light here and there was the first thing he saw the moment Yuki opened his eyes for a wink. Gazing at that bright, silvery sphere above him, he thought he was looking directly at the sun. But as his eyes adjusted and the painfully white diminished softly, Yuki realized that it wasn't the sun he was staring at but a fluorescent bulb.

There were wires and tubes above his head, all the while asking if he was paralyzed since he was unable to move at the beginning. High from all the drugs and semi-lucid, Yuki started panicking and tried to reach out to remove all the piping around him.