Stories of LITA 1

V - The Convention

"Are you sure?" Rain asked, sounding sceptical. Usually, he was the one with these hair brained schemes, dragging Sky into all of his shenanigans. So hearing this come from Sky was a hard pill to swallow. "Okay, just think about it. When the convention came to Korea last time, what did P'Pai and P'Phayu say?" "That they were too busy to take us," Rain replied dubiously. "And when we told them we could go alone because you are basically half Korean and we would have no issues?" "That we weren't allowed to go anywhere without our boyfriends," Rain said, now starting to get riled up. "And despite all that, where are they now?" Sky asked, knowing this would be the perfect way to end this discussion. "Alone, on a 'boys only' trip with each other and P'Fah!" Rain's face was thunderous, which meant that Sky could practically taste the victory.

"They are off to some remote place where there is hardly any cell coverage. So why can't we go to off to a beautiful and vibrant country like Japan, when you and I both can speak the language?" Sky asked slyly. "And that too, a Manga convention Rain. We can meet some of our favourite authors!" Sky laid it on thick, hoping Rain will not ask too many questions. "Just 3 days Rain. One day there, one day of the convention and one day back. Plus, I booked a place with an onsen. Didn't you want to try one?" Rain started to laugh. "Okay, okay, I am coming with you. When do we leave?" he said, shaking his head at his best friend. "The day after tomorrow. And you can sleep at my dorm tomorrow night so we can reach the airport together, okay?" Rain nodded. It was just three days. What could possibly go wrong, right?

The flight to Tokyo was uneventful. The boys reached the simple resort. The room was lovely. They spent some time exploring Tokyo, and since both of them spoke passable Japanese, it was only too easy to check out local sights, eat some interesting food, and bargain for some lovely souvenirs for their families and boyfriends back home. Later that evening, they had their first onsen experience, and it was sensational. Rain thoroughly enjoyed it, and both of them looked like dry prunes by the time they came back to their room. They relaxed and woke up early next day to be on time at the convention hall. Everything was going well, all according to Sky's plan. But you know what they say about best laid plans.

The next morning, they left way before time. At least Rain was sure they did. And even though the convention was over 2 days, they had passes for only that day. But somehow everything went downhill from there. First, probably for the very time in Japanese Rail history, the train was late. At the venue, they were told that even if they had a pass, they still had to wait in queue as there were rushed repairs taking place. After standing around for almost one hour, both of them needed to pee, but if they did, their spot would go. So they decided that Sky would go first. But even after 15 minutes, when there was no sign of Sky, Rain started to get worried. He knew Sky could manage pretty well, but he also knew that Sky still had panic attacks and the most mundane of things could trigger it. He tried Sky's phone but it went straight to voicemail. Now Rain felt a bit panicky. There was no way he was standing and waiting here if that meant Sky was in trouble.

So off Rain went, running towards the public facilities. He was looking around when he heard someone sobbing bitterly. He ran frantically, looking for the sound and hoping it was not Sky who was in trouble. What he saw made him come to a complete standstill. Sky was sitting a set of steps with arms full of a cute looking Japanese guy who was sobbing and mumbling something incoherently. Rain approached with trepidation. "Ai'Sky? What happened? Who is this?" he asked gently, so as to not disturb the sobbing fellow. "I don't know. when I came out of the washroom, he was sitting here and howling his heart out. I just could not ignore him," Sky said, looking rather in a quandary. "Has he been crying this entire while?" Rain asked. "Yeah, pretty much," Sky said.