Painted With Roses (Oreki x Chitanda)

Chapter 23 - 5 years later

"Houtarou, my luck's gone dead," Fukube said, sighing out a gloomy sigh through the call.

"You weren't accepted, did you?" Oreki assumed, walking on the bustling road flooded with people and filled with tall, great buildings. 

"You're making me feel worse about my failure in my job interview." He then grinned. "How's it going back there, in Tokyo?"

"Fine," Oreki simply replied, continuing to pace forwards towards his work. 

He heard his friend laughing. "Man, you're as succinct as ever. Okay, got to go. See ya."

Oreki just nodded and clicked off the phone, finding the building he was heading to in front of him. As he exhaled, he murmured, "How tiresome."

He climbed up the stairs that led to the glass entrance, catching a glimpse of his reflection that portrayed himself. He wore a neat, black suit and tie, suitable for work and had the face he always owned, but a little more of a 22-year-old's. His soft, brown hair was still as messy, a lock of it between his two, emerald eyes.

He brought a black rectangle-shaped bag with a gleaming, silver lock in the middle. He tightened his tie, and proceeded into the building.

The area was filled with the staff. He was working in a bank department, although he was not too fond of this kind of job. In fact, his sister recommended him and urged him to give it a shot, and it had been 4 months since then.

As he walked in, there were many good mornings that could be heard between different members and of course, himself. It was a polite way—a tradition—that had been going on, ordered by the leader in order to start a new, fresh day. 

It's so loud, Oreki thought, walking to his personal area, a single table. 

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"Good work everyone! I thank you for everyone's hard progress!" the manager exclaimed when the clock stroke 4 o'clock, as staff by staff started to stand up and prepare to go home.

Oreki stood, stacking his papers and organized them, checking if he was missing something and pushed in his chair. He snatched his bag and started to saunter, when suddenly a hand reached his shoulder.

He looked back and found a member who sat beside him grinning. "You did well, newbie. Quite impressed."

Oreki just looked at him and casually said "thanks" and nothing more. He then strolled away to the exit.

He scrolled through his message box and found Chitanda's messages at the very bottom. He had read all of them in the past and replied to some, but he was never the one that would start a conversation with her. 

Fukube's words echoed in his mind, "You like Chitanda-san, right?"

Shaking the thought off his head, he shut his phone off and squeezed through the crowd of people in the city. Today's really busy, he thought.

He shook out a long breath and stared at the distant sky. It was orange, reminding that the night would arrive. 

After some time, traveling on foot and on the subway, he finally reached the route that was close to his temporary apartment. 

He lived alone—his sister was in a foreign country and his father was back at their hometown, Takayama. It was indeed a very separated family, however Oreki sometimes called his father when he had some spare time.

His feet came to a stop when he saw a full-grown, stunning sakura tree. Its petals were colored pink and many dropped from their branches, flying according to the wind flow and fell to the ground elegantly.