Ubiquitous

When We Met (Day 5)

last part of the story. hope you like it xx

This 5-part short story centres on a rising teen actor and her 5-day stay in Tokyo. She meets someone, and they share an interesting similarity with each other. But how far will it go?

xxxxx

Waking up on this morning feels different. Different from the other days I've spent here. For one, it's raining like hell. And after 10 minutes of just sitting on the edge of the bed did it dawn on me that I'm leaving Tokyo today. I find myself sighing and looking out the window.

I turn to look at the other side of the bed and my face grows gloomier than the sky when I see no one there. I press my hand on the spot where he laid and it still feels warm. But before I could wallow myself with questions regarding my foolish and dumb actions yesterday, I hear knocks on the door.

Unsurprisingly, Yuki stands there on the other side of the door with tickets. "Miss Jenna, your flight is in two hours and there are some people waiting to meet you at the lobby before we leave."

Just hearing her words made my mood worsen. This city has more to offer me than what I got to experience with Johnny. There are places to go and people to meet. As weird as it sounds, to me at least, but I want to stay. I don't have the privilege to though, don't I? "Okay, thanks."

Yuki hands me the ticket and leaves. I throw it on the bed and enter the toilet, closing the door behind me. I once again find myself sighing as I stare at the toilet bowl in contempt.

I'll never meet him again. Worse, I'll probably forget about him once I get home. He will, too. And when we meet, we'll probably forget how the other looks like. And end up not recognizing each other.

I pull up the collar of my pajama and dab it on my teary eyes. I get so emotional over these kinds of things. I'll remember this fact if I need to have a crying scene next time. Maybe this way I won't forget him.

After the hot shower, I step out and put on a simple shirt and jeans and the same damn black coat. Feeling too tired to even put on a layer of powder on my face, I decide to go bare faced today. Screw my image. 

Picking up my luggage and the ticket, passports whatnot, my eyes drifts to look at the empty bottle of champagne by the bed. I can almost see Johnny and I on the bed, laughing at the TV. Me dodging his kiss. How dumb can I be? So dumb.

Walking towards the lift as slow as I can, I press on the button to go down. And then, I hear the room telephone ring. Since my room is pretty close to the lift, I rush to my door and press my ear against it. Much to my dismay, it's ringing in my room. I clumsily enter the room and run towards the phone. 

"Hello?" I say, panting.

"Oh, thank god you haven't left." The voice on the other end says.

"Johnny?"

"I'm sorry I left this morning. I--"

"It's fine. I understand, whatever it is."

"Well, um, I think you may be still be in possession of my jacket."

"Uh..." I look at the jacket on the chair by the window that I completely missed while packing just now. "...yeah."

"I'll meet you in the lobby, okay?"

"Okay."

And just like that, my mood brightens again. It's funny how easy your mood can change depending on the words you get to hear.

I almost galloped my way to the lift. A family of 3 are already in it, ignoring me as I enter the space. I stare at the numbers decreasing from 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 until it finally reaches G. 

Already waiting for me at the lobby with wide smiles on their faces, I greet to group of business people with a bow. They shake my hands and begin saying, "Picture, picture." at me. I nod and Yuki takes out a camera form her bag.

As I pose with the group, my eyes drift towards the man exiting the lift. He sees me and smiles. After the first blink of flash goes out, I excuse myself and walk towards Johnny.

I grab the jacket and hand it to him, saying, "Here's your beloved jacket." He takes it and smirks at me. I ask, "What?"

"You look really pretty. As always." 

"I didn't put any make up on."

"Okay, so you're less prettier."

I shoot him a glare and he laughs, asking, "What did you expect me to say? You still look gorgeous, Jenna."

"Thanks." I say. I open my mouth to say something, but Yuki calls out my name and asks for another photo. I sigh and look back at Johnny. "Duty calls." I sorrily say, my smile turning downwards.

Johnny smiles and taps my cheek before walking away. "Have a nice flight." He says. I could only nod.

I walk back to the group for another picture. I couldn't focus on the camera, my eyes keep on finding it's way towards Johnny who's walking towards the coffee lounge. My eyes follow him until he's out of sight. I gulp and wonder if I should chase after him or something. It wouldn't hurt, would it? But maybe he knows better. To leave me coldly like this.

"Let's go." Yuki calls out to me. I nod and drag my luggage with me. Outside, the cab driver stuffs my stuff in the boot and I enter the cab, biting my lip as I look back at the hotel. Just walk away, I tell myself. Like nothing happened.

As per usual, I stare out the window as the cab drives off towards the airport. Drops of water race on the window, grabbing my attention more than the view outside does. The cab stops and the driver starts cursing in Japanese. Or at least I think he's cursing, because I look ahead to see a jam. Clusters of cars waiting to go somewhere. 

I look outside my window and look at the pedestrians walking outside, not minding the jam at all. But amongst them, I see a figure walking with a transparent umbrella, the kind my hotel gave when it's raining. The figure turns around and my face lights up at the sight of Johnny. But after thinking for a bit, he turns back around and walks away.

"I'm going to go out. Just for a while." I tell Yuki, rushing out the door. Yuki tries to say something to me, but I ignore her.

Making my way through the crowd, I slide past shoulders and try to walk as fast as I can towards the transparent umbrella. It almost feels like I should stop this. Stop trying to make it happen. But a bigger part of tells me that, hey, you haven't even said goodbye yet.

"Hey, you." I exclaim when I'm a meter away from him. Johnny and a few other people turn around but only he stops when he sees me. His eyes are glassy. The both of us are just standing in the midst of the moving crowd, looking like idiots. He smiles at me and before I could spew out how sorry I am for managing to be such an idiot in the span of 5 days, he walks towards me and hugs me.

"I'm sorry we didn't have more time." I say. I sob into his jacket, the one I had just given back to him. I sob even harder when I could smell his cologne on it. Maybe it's the cologne, maybe it's the rain, maybe it's how tight his hug his, but I can't stop the waterworks.

He pulls away from the hug and wipes my tears away with his fingers. Leaning in, I could sense a kiss coming. I don't back away this time. Our lips meet and I can't describe a more beautiful kiss than this. This is it. My Disney princess moment. 

He lets go off the kiss first and looks at my still-sad-face. I pull him closer to lean into me again, but not for a kiss. This time, I whisper in his ear, "I have to be leaving, but I won't let that come between us. Okay?" 

He nods and I can see the tears pooling in his eyes like me. He kisses my cheek and hugs me again. I sob grossly once more. 

After what seems like ages, I finally let go and say, "Bye." before walking away without a second glance. I enter the cab and tell Yuki that I'm good to go now.

We didn't even exchange numbers. But that hug made me feel like it'll all be alright. Maybe we will meet again. I am, after all, an actress. It wouldn't be too hard to find me. If he ever tries to.

Feeling like the slow Japanese song playing on the radio is the cue that our brief love story has ended, I look out the window again and wipe the tears rolling down my cheek with the sleeves of my coat. 

I'll wait.