Unspoken Definites

25 Braced

It was only her fourth day in Japan and Yuna woke up with a bad headache. She stretched her leg and felt that she hit something.

Yuna opened her eyes. The room was too bright for her, she closed her eyes and stayed still. She scanned her memory and thought of what happened yesternight. The karaoke, the drinks, the singing Hanyu, the drunk Kyoko, the scene at the sidewalk and the kiss—her eyes opened again.

How could he kiss me and fall asleep? She asked herself mentally while touching her lips. She grabbed a pillow and covered her face.

She remembered hailing the taxi for her friends. Since she didn’t want the Hanyu folks to worry about their son, she decided to send the sleeping Yuzuru at his house first. She    was nervous when she rang the doorbell and his parents emerged from the gate. She apologized for dragging Yuzuru into such mess. When Mr. And Mrs. Hanyu came out to meet them, the elders insisted that Yuna and Kyoko spend the night at their residence. That was how they ended up sleeping at Saya’s room.

She could hear Kyoko’s slight snoring. She felt relieved somehow. Still covering her face with the pillow, her hand crawled on the sheets aiming for the bedside table where she put her mobile phone before sleeping last night. Then her hand landed on a fur-like surface.

Yuzu has a dog? She thought. With the excitement that the idea of a canine pet has brought, Yuna pushed the pillow away to take a look at what her hands landed to. Much to her surprise, it wasn’t a dog that she was holding. But a head of a young man with a face that resembled a puppy, leaning by her bed. She scratched her eyes and when she opened them again, it really was a man. His eyes only managed to blink at her.

Yuna thought that maybe, she was still in the dazed state. She blinked too but his face did not go away. When it didn’t, she let out an ear piercing scream.  

“AHHHHHH!”

The young man only blinked at her. Yuna got up from her bed and gathered all her pillow to her side. It was only then that she realized that she was alone in the bed and Kyoko was already on the floor. She held the pillow like it was a dependable shield that would make her invincible from this stranger.

“What are you doing in this room?! Who are you?” She asked.

The little guy only tilted his head a little and scratched it while they shared gazes. He looked confused. “I guess she’s awake.” He called in Japanese.

“Yuzuru-sensei! She’s awake!” He called out again and Yuna followed the direction of his head. Her heart pounded fast when she realized that Yuzuru was really inside the room beside the puppy looking young man. And Yuna was quite fast to realize that she was wearing the same clothes from yesterday, the beddings of what obviously was Saya’s room were in chaos and the whole place stank with the reeking smell of the alcohol. Much to her dismay, she caught a glimpse of her unruly hair on the mirror.

Play dead! Play dead! She told herself and Yuna slumped back to her bed like a doll tossed lightly.

She heard Yuzuru telling the guy to go out and then the door creaked a little and then there was silence. Yuna opened her eyes a little and caught a glimpse of Yuzuru’s face looking down at her.

“Stop playing dead, Yuna.”

“I’m not— Oh shit.” She accidentally blurted out and forgot that she was pretending. Yuzuru laughed at her.

“Hahaha! Why do you have to be so cute?”

She gathered herself together before sitting up straight. “What are you doing here?!”

He flicked her forehead, “You shouldn’t ask that question to the owner of the house.” He said sitting down by her bed.

“Aww!” Yuna cried as she touched the portion of her forehead that Yuzuru had hit. “What an ungrateful bastard.”