The Lost Chapter (Clannad) *Youhei/OC*

What happened to the ones left behind?

What happened to feelings that were unreciprocated, unfulfilled, unanswered... Did they fade over time? Did they just remain there, unrequited forever? Or did they eventually pass onto someone else instead?

Maybe it was just a chapter of life that passed by as quickly as it had started. Or maybe it was different for everyone. Maybe each individual just had their own unique story to follow...

XXX

Tori was bored at work yet again. Her team leader, Hayao, wasn't in this morning, which normally meant she could slack off in the office, seeing as it would be empty. But unfortunately, the store had inspectors in and they were currently commandeering the office.

Because her team leader wasn't in, it meant that Tori hadn't been given any jobs to do. It may have sounded good, but after circling the store for a while, it soon got boring and she began to wish that Hayao had left her a job list. This happened every Wednesday. Her boss just so happened to be a bit of an airhead and, no matter how many times she reminded him that her Wednesday shifts tended to get wasted, he still always forgot to leave tasks for her.

It didn't help that the store had hit a bit of a dry spell, so there weren't many customers in. Nobody had asked her for any assistance at all today. The only customer she'd seen in the last half hour was a teenage boy looking at the roller blinds. Tori decided that if he was still there by the time she'd walked the store again, then she was going to ask if he needed any help.

However, after completing another route around the store, when she got back to the curtain section, he wasn't there anymore. Typical, Tori thought to herself with a sigh. She'd have to carry on hunting and see if she could find another customer that she could bother to try and kill some time.

She carried on past the flooring and tiling, past the paint section, then stopped abruptly and doubled back. The boy she'd seen earlier was down one of the paint aisles, looking at the colour cards. Thank god. It was so quiet that she'd been starting to feel like she was in a post-apocalyptic store all by herself.

"Can I help you with anything?" Tori asked the boy, all but dancing over to him.

He looked up, mildly surprised. "Oh... I was just looking at some colours. Do you think this would look good for a bedroom?"

He showed her the colour card he was looking at. Tori made a face. The colour he was pointing out was a muddy brown. "Um, well, it's a bit drab for a bedroom..." she said truthfully.

The boy laughed, obviously not minding her honesty. "I guess it is. I don't have much of an eye for decorating, if I'm honest."

Resisting the urge to agree that she could tell that already, Tori decided to try and be helpful instead. "Well, it could work if you teamed it up with something else." She picked out a colour card with a light teal shade. "How about something like this?"

"Hmm, that does work quite well," the boy agreed, taking the card and holding the two of them up beside each other. "I think this could be a winner."

"That scheme does seem to be quite popular right now. One of my friends has her living room done in these colours too," said Tori brightly. "Do you want me to get someone to mix them up for you on the paint machine?"

"Oh, no, I'm not actually looking to buy anything today," said the boy vaguely, still looking at the colour cards in his hands.

"Oh..." said Tori, feeling a little confused. "You can take the cards home if you need to think about it."