Inspired by Nanase's solo mv Tsuzuku. A Nanamai heavily centered drama. Written mostly from Nanase's prespective, narating events which alternates between flashbacks and the present time. A lot of angst and sadness, frankly speaking this story is...
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A boy in full speed, runs along a busy street. "Omai!!" Shouts a man as the boy brushes past him, knocking over his umbrella. Onlookers turned to see the commotion but continued to go about their ways, ignoring his fading stomps as he runs past them, disappearing into a crowd. As he felt raindrops falling on his head, he increased his speed. A green light was flashing in the distance, a loud beeping sound shouting towards the street. It flashed more rapidly, the beeping grew more intense. The boy picked up his speed, maybe he can make it. He was almost there, his soles burning from running too hard. He could see it! The opposite side of the street is within reach. He'll definitely make it. The beeping stops and the light turns red but the young boy was already at the edge of the sidewalk to notice the changing lights.
A 1995 Toyota Crown zooms past the traffic, rain had started to fall, hitting its windshield, obscuring the driver's view. The light shower quickly turned into heavy rainfall, the tame pitter patter of rain now raging bullets slamming against the roof of the car. The driver reaches out to turn up the radio, slightly annoyed at the sudden change in weather. He adjusted his seating and leaned in a little closer to the wheel to seek better vision and scoffs as the radio DJ relays the weather forecast, clearly amused by the fact that the actual forecast had already come. He flicks the wiper toggle twice, the wipers exposing the real age of the car as it screeches and screams at full speed, swiping left and right, battling the unforgiving projectiles of water. The car was definitely aging, the driver laments in silence, but its interior and exterior remained pristine, its green based body with the infamous green stipes and white horizontal line running across the car was still bright and shiny as it was twenty years ago. He picks up speed at the sight of the junction ahead, the traffic lights flashing green, similarly with other cars that were parallel to him. But just as he reaches the edge, just meters away from the zebra crossing right before it, a figure dashes in front of the car. He immediately slammed the brakes.
Nanase wasn't paying attention to anything really. She had her phone in her hand, her bag by her side and she was looking out the window, her eyes focusing on nothing more than the raindrops that were trailing down the glass. The roaring rainstorm that was gradually escalating was therapeutic to her, the unforgiving noise of heavy rainfall swallowed every other sound around her, engulfing her in this safe bubble, disconnecting her from the rest of the world. Her eyes briefly darted to the front of the taxi when she noticed the driver turning up the radio and proceeded to slightly smile at the driver's immediate scoff at the late weather forecast. Indeed a few minutes ago her head was about to explode below the weight of various things running through her mind and her heart was throbbing uncontrollably under the influence of her conflicting emotions. Maybe a taxi ride in a rainstorm was just what she needed. She needed a breather, a brief limbo in life where she is just existing, nowhere in particular time or place. At this moment, she was indeed selfish, more selfish than she could ever imagine. She indulged but at the same time loathed at herself, for she dared at that moment, find solace in the absence of the very things that made her who she was. In that taxi, amongst other cars that were advancing through this bothersome shower of rain, she was far away from her responsibilities, far away from reality, far away from the past or the future. Far away from Shiraishi Mai. And her illness. And the hospital. And the suffering. And this life. She dared to think of an alternate life if she had not chosen Maiyan. She dared to let her mind wonder into a distorted web of regrets and wishful thinking, doubts and distrust. How could a person so familiar and close to her now feel so foreign and mysterious? She had thought she knew everything there is to know about the woman whom she calls her wife and yet she is totally cut off from this big chunk of a past that she's never even heard of. An unknown past that would have actually stayed buried had she not eavesdropped on the conversation. She gritted her teeth as her mind regurgitated snippets of that wretched coincidence. "-went to that as a friend. Maiyan and I, before we were-". Maiyan and I? Before we were? were what?! And why is FURY, out of all emotions, trying so hard to conquer her, in this inopportune moment?!
"SCREEEEEEECHH-GKKKKK" The tires screamed and screeched as the brakes clamped down on the rims, compelling them to stop, making them drag across the asphalt.
The driver muttered swears under his breath as he breathed signs of relief that the car stopped in time at that nobody was hurt. He quickly checked on his passenger and asked her condition, still startled and shaking.
The car went into a screeching halt, flinging Nanase forward into the seat in front of her. The seat belt, halting her momentum, saving her face millimeters away from hitting the driver's seat. She fell back to her seat with a light thud, and she sat there silent and deaf, trying to blink away the daze. She felt as if life itself had been yanked away and then forcefully thrusted back into her body. She looked up to see the driver mouthing some words to her, her ears barely picking up audible sounds as she managed to answer him that she was alright. She was shaking but it went away as she leaned back and sighed. She jolted a bit when the driver roared swears at a pedestrian that she could see was bowing up and down repeatedly at the end of the crossing. She returned to look out of the window as the taxi continued its route. The sky was grey and rain was still falling with echoes of thunder far in the distance. This time the rain was not providing her an escapade nor was it offering her comfort. Instead, it was beckoning her to face the music, grey clouds looming over her like the very thoughts she tried to suppress, the unending falling rain mirroring that of the many emotions that had her drenched in confusion, subsequently drowning her. The far echoes of thunder warning her of the grim outcomes that has yet to come.
A 1995 Toyota Crown with green and white stripes navigates through traffic in a rain soaked Japanese metropolitan. Inside the moving taxi was two people who had no correlation with each other's lives.
A vigilant driver, now cautious of his speed, holding tight to the steering wheel
and a poised woman, now more alert than she's ever been, patiently waiting to disembark at her intended destination.
