Seven Years

Prologue

I woke up from my slumber when I heard the pilot announced to the passenger that in few minutes we would be landing on Japan International Airport, Narita. I checked on my seatbelt once more, one of the worst thing of riding a plane is the landing time. Plus I had such a bad experience in the past. I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth. It had been a long time. A really long time. I never thought that one day I would actually come back to this country.

How long had it been?

Five years? Six years?

I opened my eyes slowly. I looked outside the window, I could see the airport already. It didn't feel good to come back to the country where I had spent half of my life, it was a terrible feeling that filled my chest. I could not breath. Seven years. Yes, it had been seven years since the last time I went to Japan. It had been that long. I wondered if everything was still the same as the last time I saw it.

I closed my eyes again tiredly.

No.

Everything wouldn't be the same.

I sighed. Seven years. When was the last time I saw him? Ah, yes, seven years ago. Right after he knew what had happened to me and her. That was the last time I met him. Never once I saw him, or even talked to him since then. And now, here I was, on my way back to Japan. For his funeral.

At the moment, I did not know what to think.

I still could not believe it. He had always been healthy for me. He was... old. But he had always been a healthy old man. If only I knew that he had been weakened these last few years... At least, I would try to visit him. I rested my back, well it was not like he would let me to see him, but at least if I knew, I would do something. However, I was still his pupil and he was still my master. To say that I was sorry was just a big understatement. I felt horrible.

Last night, when Elise called me, I could not believe it. I thought it had been just a misunderstanding. That it was a prank. Maybe, he just wanted to teach me some lesson for never visiting him these last seven years. But I knew that the way Elise sobbed as she told me the news would not lie. It was not a prank, unfortunately, that soon after the call I could see the news on the internet. I could try to tell my self that this was just a joke but but deep inside I knew that it was true. Stresseman had been passed away.

There were many reasons why I actually did not want to go back to Japan. If only he did not request to be buried in Japan, next to his love's who had been died two years ago, I would not ever come back to Japan. No matter how hard my mother had tried to make me coming back, I would always find a reason to say no.

She was the reason.

Now that I had to come back to Japan, and attended the funeral, there was a big chance that I would meet her there.

It had been seven years.

I did not know how to feel, should I be happy? After all, to say that I did not miss her was a big lie. After these damn seven years, I could count how many nights I did not dream about her, and that was really a few. Most of the nights, she would hi-jack my dreams.

It had been seven years and yet I had not changed at all, no, at least my feeling had not change at all. I shook my head to erased the thought. No, I could not think like this. Not now, when all the things between us had been no more than a part of our past time. But still, those memories kept haunting my sleep. Even when I was awake like now, the memories of her would sneak into my head. Forced me to remember her again. To remember her and to be hurt. To remember her and to be helpless.

I was pathetic.

It had been all my fault.

I was the one who sent her away.

It was for her own good, yes, but still I was the one who ruined everything.

-

"I would call you."

"Promise?"

I smiled.

She asked again, "Promise?"

"I promise."

-

But I never called her.

She called but I never answered it, and now it had been seven years.

Yet, all the pain had not gone.

Maybe it would never gone.

I clenched my jaw tightly as the plane started to land. In few minutes I'll be in Japan, where she had spent her life these past seven years. I wondered if she was still the same girl as the one who always appeared in my dream for these seven years.

I let out a deep breath. It was about time. I would see her again.

I wondered how would she react when she saw me.

Nodame...