Imprisoned to Love You [Edited]

♦⊱ Chapter 27 - Present and Past ⊰♦

Ruka pov:

"Manager, I'm heading home for the day!" I called to the man who handled the restaurant I worked at.

"Sure! See you on Thursday," he called back with a friendly wave.

I waved to my colleagues and left the restaurant. The walk back to my house was about fifteen minutes but I decided to take a small detour today through the park so I could play some tennis as exercise...and to get my mind off some thoughts that had been bothering me quite a bit off late.

Six months had gone by since I returned from the past – everything had fallen back to the way it was before I had traversed to the past though my lifestyle differed from what I had thought I would make it to be. I decided against studying and graduation for I had got far too used to the carefree lifestyle I had had when with Kichiro sama. Well, that wasn't the only reason – I knew that paying for the graduation exam would be difficult in our current financial condition. As such, I took up a full time job at a five star restaurant that ensured a good enough salary that not only took care of the extra expenses from my arrival but also relaxed the intense restraint we had on other things we all wished to buy.

The main reason why I was able to get a salary higher than most of the other waitresses in the restaurant was my knowledge in four different foreign languages. With customers from different countries flowing in, I was able to have fluent conversations with them and ensure that their visit to the restaurant was pleasant.

Besides how we had settled into the routine, Mother, Papa, and Kojiro had noticed that I had become a lot silent compared to how I was before. They were worried that I was affected by whatever accident had happened in the two years I had been missing, even worried that my hallucinations of traveling to the past was yet to go away after numerous counseling sessions – I felt guilty for worrying them so I had forced myself to be cheerful again, for the most part anyway. Behind the smiled and cheerfulness that I expressed, I was still sad, lonely, and hurt. With each passing day, I missed Kichiro sama more and more. I wanted to see him. I wanted to fall into his warm, strong embraces. I wanted to feel his soft lips on mine.

I missed him so much.

During the times I was alone, my thoughts wandered. I would zone out, everything around me fading into a blur. I would be hit by the past brutally and when I couldn't endure it, I would cry.

The weekends were better though – I hung out with Kiyo, Yuri, and Akira. Being with them took my mind off all the stressful thoughts. I even got a good workout for my body, playing basketball and tennis. We played songs together every now and then too, fine tuning our coordination to become a better band. If Mother and Kojiro were free, we took long walks through the park. Other times, we'd just do window-shopping in the local mall. We couldn't buy anything but we never missed eating a cone of ice cream from the famous ice cream store just outside the mall.

I returned to the presets when I made it to the tennis grounds in the park. I kept by belongings away and reached for the free racquets. I stood in front of the tennis ball machine and waited for it to begin its constant onslaught at me. I was a decent player and with the machine's level set at normal, I was able to return every single shot. I alternated with both hands so I got an equal amount of exercise on both sides of the body. I soon began to tire out, my muscles burning from the over-exertion, but I didn't stop.

"Goodness, just look at her! She's been playing without a pause for almost two hours! She's going to get injured if she doesn't stop," I heard someone say as they passed by me.

I ignored their words and continued playing till the last ball shot out of the tennis ball machine on my third round. I finally relaxed my stance, dropping the racquet to the ground while heaving through my mouth. I shut my eyes as they prickled but wasn't spared from heart ache as, yet again, Kichiro sama's face flashed in front of them. On this day, six months ago, I had been separated from him and I hadn't been able to stop thinking about him in the least.