Fists and Lipsticks 2: The Silver Crescent

CHAPTER 12: Lethal Lilies

CHAPTER 12: LETHAL LILIES

Lilies took my memories away.

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"We have nothing to talk about!"

Shizuki turned around and walked away hastily. Her hands were clenched into tight fists, her footsteps heavy and repulsive. As she flounced out on him, however, Yuken persistently tailed her.

"But until when will you be avoiding me?" Yuken asked. "You haven't talked to me for three years!"

"Exactly!" Shizuki replied. She stopped and faced him. "What about asking yourself that question?" She looked at him in the eye and waited for a reply. But Yuken remained silent, responding merely with a hefty sigh.

"You cannot answer?" Shizuki muttered sadly. "Then neither can I."

Shizuki attempted to walk away, but Yuken made sure she would not leave suddenly again. He was already desperate and tired. He grasped her arms tight and pulled her close to him, "Shizu-chan, please! Look, I'm sorry!"

"What are you gonna do with me again, Sato Yuken? Haven't you hurt me enough?" Shizuki shouted. "You know what the problem is? It has ALWAYS been about you. We promised each other that we would go to medical school together! That day, I waited for you in the airport for nine hours! I waited for you in Boston for almost eight years! I didn't receive a single call, no email, no letters! And now, you'll show up all of a sudden to tell me that you're sorry? Do you really think that it would be that easy for me to forgive you?"

"Shizu-chan, listen! You know what happened to my father and the hospital," Yuken explained. "I thought that you'd be the first person to understand what I'm going through!"

"Ah, so that's why? You didn't want to go because of your father and the hospital?" Shizuki smiled sarcastically.

"Shizu-chan..."

"I'm tired of waiting for you. I'm tired of chasing after you. I'm tired of writing letters that were never returned. And now that you're here in front of me now, I really do not know what to say to you. I feel like I'm talking to a stranger. I feel as if I don't know you anymore."

Yuken watched as tears formed on Shizuki's eyes. Slowly, he released her arms. Shizuki stepped back and wiped her tears with her palms.

"I'm sorry," Yuken sighed.

"Why did you have to make promises that you couldn't keep? I was waiting, Sato-kun! I was waiting for so long! You should have at least told me that you're not coming," Shizuki answered. "If you did, I wouldn't have gone there all by myself!"

"That's exactly why I didn't tell you," Yuken answered. "I knew how much you wanted that scholarship. I didn't want to keep you from achieving your dream to become a doctor, so I kept silent. I was afraid that you would only go back here, quit school, and let the rare opportunity pass by just because of me."

"But where did you go? You still left Japan. You left me!"

"Shizu-chan, please just understand."

"You know what?" Shizuki shook her head. "I think I get it now. You just wanted to escape from everything – from your father, from the hospital, even from me. You didn't want to put any amount of burden on your shoulders, so, you quit. You quit because you're a coward."

"It's not like that, Shizu-chan."

"And it sucks," Shizuki continued, "that you had to use the issue between us to cover up for your cowardliness."

As Shizuki walked away, she left one last line – "It's over between us, Sato Yuken."

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