Destined

Back to Toronto

Koharu's POV

On the flight back, I am assigned to sit beside Yuzu, and Brian is assigned the seat behind us.

"Did you bring your medication along? Especially your inhaler. The blue one. Remember to write your name on it too, do you have a sharpie? I'll go get a sharpie--" I fuss, looking around in my backpack, but he raises a finger, and boops me straight on the nose.

"Boop," he whispers, grinning.

A wave of electricity shoots through me once more, just like yesterday when he placed his finger on my lips.

My heart is beating really fast...

"Take care of yourself, you know. It's my last day of work... I'm going to miss you," I murmured, whispering the last part under my breath.

I do hope he didn't hear that.

After he properly apologised to me yesterday, I kind of regretted resigning.

But I handed the letter to Brian weeks ago. There's no turning back.

Brian pokes out from behind.

"Hey Koharu, your resignation letter is still with me, you know. I'm not planning to let my fluffy koala go any time soon, you know. Free medic!" He laughs.

"But if you really need to go, I can understand, I'll respect your decision," he adds, in a serious voice.

Yuzuru tenses for a while.

I think I know what to do.

"Can I have my letter back?" I ask Brian, who gladly passes the small envelope to me.

I tear it in half, and Yuzuru relaxes, exhaling loudly.

"Ahh.. So relieved. I thought you were really going to leave," he sighed.

"Hey Yuzu, I'm not Japanese, mind translating?" Brian asks from behind us.

We laugh, as the air stewardess offers us some hot towels.

We accept it gratefully, and Yuzuru juggles his towel, hissing.

"hot hot hot hot," he mutters in English.

We hear Brian laughing from behind, and exchange looks.

Just before the announcement to turn off our mobiles comes on, Yuzu snaps a selfie with us.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

During the flight, we decide to watch an American comedy, so we try to sync our TVs so that we would be watching at the same time.

"It's the fifth time we're holding our remotes like idiots, let's just give up," I murmur, sleepy.

"No, champions don't give up, c'mon, one last try," he insists, poking me with the remote.

I exhale, elbowing him.

"1....2....3" we whisper, and press down on the play button.

His jaw drops with a comical expression as our screens play at the same time, unlike the previous few failed attempts.

The movie is in English and has English subtitles, so he has to ask me to explain every five minutes.

"Intelligence?" He repeats after the person.

"As in, you know like secret information?" I explain in Japanese.

"Um, no nevermind," he scratches his head and settles back to watch.