Before the Battle

Family Name 9/17

Like my sister, I had my bedroom on the second floor of the house.

But when I entered, I hardly recognised it. All my things were gone and the room seemed cold and impersonal.

There were none of my books or photos on the shelf, the wardrobe in the corner was empty and I couldn't find a single piece of clothing in it. Only my old bed, with its worn headboard, looked a little familiar.

I hadn't expected anything else, but the sight made me sad. I dropped my travel bag on the floor and, feeling trapped and uninvited, looked around to see what other changes my room had undergone over the years.

"Taira?"

Shira peeked in through the open door and smiled at me, instantly improving my mood by a hundred percent.

"What about Tamiko?" he asked as he slipped into the room to me. "Have you spoken to her? Is she still mad at you?"

I nodded my head in resignation. "I'm not surprised, actually. I left her and my mum before the war. She's right to blame me."

"You didn't do it on purpose."

"Hm, but to make things worse, I also have something she wants."

"Which is...?"

"You."

Shira ran his fingers through his long hair and sighed: "I hoped she'd got over it by now."

"Did you know she loved you?"

"I don't think she loves me. She's young, naive. She sees something in me that I'm not."

"You weren't having an affair with her, were you?" I had to ask, because that would be something I would find really hard to accept.

"No," he assured me, and I knew he wouldn't lie to me. "She's a nice girl, I like her, but..." he shook his head.

"And what about the maid?" I remembered the red-haired girl who served us at the dinner. "The one who undressed you with her eyes."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Shira said innocently.

"Yes, you do... Yva," I remembered how my mother had called her. "You had an affair with her, didn't you?"

"Is this an interrogation?"

The way he stalled and avoided answering was enough of an answer. Nevertheless, I continued to press him: "Did you or didn't you?"

"It was nothing. One night, maybe two. Long before I met you."

He smiled at me beautifully and put his arms around my neck. "You will not hold all my sins against me."

I suspected that his past was rich and colourful, but I never had the courage to ask him for details. He was with me now, and that was enough. I didn't have the slightest reason not to trust him.

"I don't deny I was no saint," he admitted, "but since I met you, I can't think of anyone else," he whispered in a low voice.

"Sure, don't sweet-talk me," I murmured, though his words brought a smile to my lips.

"It's true," he wispered, looking at me as if he wanted to remember every detail of my face. And then he kissed me.

It was the first kiss since our unexpected reunion, and the fact that it was happening under the roof of my birthplace, in secret and in denial, was unnerving, but also strangely exciting.

And it seemed to me that Shira was enjoying it even more than I was. I'd expected him to be upset that we were keeping our relationship a secret, but he was actually having fun with all the hiding and secret touching.