Block A 「Nishimura Riki」

34

"I don't know what to think," Eiko said.

Her mind was a mess of different thoughts, like a tornado picking up everything coming into its path. Her eyes were locked on the road ahead of them but she wasn't focused on what empty space they were driving into at all.

"We were destined to be together," murmured Riki, his one hand on the steering wheel turning in tandem with the direction of the car. He gave a brief glance towards Eiko, tender fraught with affection.

"Was that the only thing you picked up from that entire spiel?" Eiko chuckled while asking.

"No, but it's the most important. To me at least," Riki remarked, the red hue of the stoplight fanning over the features of his face when they arrived at it.

Eiko turned her head, catching notice of the smug curl of Riki's lips tilting his mouth into a subtle smirk. He simpered unashamedly, proud of his statement. She scoffed and then faced the road again. "You're fine with everything else she said, Nishimura Riki?"

"Yeah," said Riki. With the pressure of his foot on the gas pedal, the car moved forward once again. "I like you, of course, I'm fine with it. It's your life, everything Koroi–or your mother–said is for you to come to terms with."

"Don't call her that."

"But she is your mom, Ei. If you're not sure then look in the book maybe, or ask your dad. You can't change it."

Eiko sighed tiredly as she relaxed in the passenger seat. Just how many things occurred today? It was still dark outside but it had to be in the a.m. by now. "So what do we do now? Does everything go back to normal? Do we just continue doing everything that we used to?"

'Things can't go back to normal after that, things are going to change. They'll treat you differently, everyone will if they notice. You don't have the scent, so you'll be fine until they see that hairpin," Riki carefully explained.

Eiko peered down at the hairpin in her hand, observing the way it was styled before hiding the piece underneath her fingers when she balled her fist around it. The other end, the diamond-encrusted clover, peeked above the circle of her thumb and index finger. "Is that why everyone said you were a royal? Because you smell like one."

"Bingo," he chimed. "Back to when you ran into that group, I wasn't there to help because I had to see them, my family. I guess I can talk about that casually now, you're a royal too."

Eiko waited to say something, her mind still clouded with everything from prior. "So what does that make us?" She asked, belatedly taking a look at the boy beside her.

He seemed to be unbothered by anything because he was still calm with all of his responses. "A couple. If we're still on break then I'll take you on enough dates until we're not. Then if you want to, we can tell the others about whatever is on your mind. You can go back to attending work, and the neighborhood will be the same. You can finish that art project before you're too late. And then that will be it, that's us."

"That's us," Eiko mindlessly repeated. It was a simple ending to her hectic journey but the sound of it was just enough for her. She smiled, things were coming to an end, finally. She snickered, "If we were a book, we'd be a long one. But I like the sound of that. We don't have to be on break anymore, but I'm taking you up on those dates. Then we can do everything that you said, we can finally relax, Riki."

The boy smiled, content with the atmosphere and the direction of their long-ventured path. "Yeah. Of course, we can do whatever you like. Let's just enjoy ourselves while we can. Let's write the script of your book together, Eiko."

===

It was a surprisingly sunny Tuesday, the breeze outside dancing with the leftover orange leaves dangling from the fading trees' branches. The corners of the blanket lifted at times, but never enough to tousle the things on top, like opened oil paints and cheap acrylic paint.