The Old Flame

Life in Japan

On the journey to Japan Uncle asks:

        "Why so sad and why's the towel so important to you"

       "Well, Uncle this towel I shared one time with the guy I liked, I hired him to work with me on the land and then he saved me from someone and then he just left me and it hurt really bad when he left."

       "Thomas sounds like your first love."

I blushed, Uncle was smiling ear to ear as he said first love. I began to question myself. Did I love Thomas? Was Thomas my first love? I finally realized and blurted out my thought without realizing it.

          "Yes, I do."

Uncle acted like he didn't hear. We had made it to Japan; Uncle owned a sports bar and he and his friends who played baseball came to the bar and recalled the baseball game that had occurred earlier. I grabbed my bags and moved them into Uncle's apartment right above the bar. As the guys began to drink I had unpacked my things and was back downstairs. Uncle introduced me to the guys who were all in their twenties.

            "Saeki, Yuta, Yamato, Takao, and Ren"

I wasn't really in a mood to talk so I didn't really talk.

       "She's so quiet because she broke up with her boyfriend."

      "Uncle!" The guys looked shocked.

     "We weren't dating or anything just really good friends."

     "She was in love with him."

   "Uncle!"

The guys burst out laughing.

    "Don't worry kid, we'll help you out of this," Yamato said.

********************************

A year down the road.....

I'm fifteen now and Uncle has to travel for his job so I had to stay with each of the guys at their apartments for a couple months. With Yamato's help I go to a all-girl school that he worked at. I'm better about Thomas now but it still hurts to think about him but I can move past it now. The guys helped me out a lot with Yuta's humor, Takao's sweetness, Saeki's romantic side, Yamato's pep talks, and Ren's ability to listen.

Yamato and his girlfriend were going to go out for the night. I decided I wanted to go watch Yuta's show because I needed a laugh. I ran into Takao and Saeki at the place Yuta was performing at. Takao had brought along his little brother Hiro. Saeki had a mischievous smile on his face. I walked up to Saeki and said in a whisper.

              "I told you I'm not ready to date but you're forcing me into this that's just not right Saeki."

Hiro and I actually had a lot in common and we talked the night away but I had accidently drank something with a high alcohol content in it. Takao and Saeki carried me back to Yamato's apartment. He was super angry at me because I didn't tell him where I was going. He grounded me for a week. When I was eventually released it was my sixteenth birthday and the first time Uncle had came back to Japan since I was fifteen. Hiro and I had started dating. Then in the middle of one of our dates a rush of memories from when Thomas and I were still close.

I thought back, I have changed from a tomboy to a drama queen. I looked Hiro in the eye.

"Hiro, I'm sorry but I have something I have to take care of alone."

He nodded and then left.

A year later a week before my seventeenth birthday I gathered the courage to go back home.