-She Left-
By: ???
 
Part 1
 
One day, she just left.
 
For countless nights and countless day, all I could ask myself was "Why she left?" She didn't say. All I found was a note saying "I promise that, when I can, I'll come back for you, but if you find somebody else..."
 
First Iwanako, now her. I know that Iwanako was my fault. It took me a long time, and it wasn't until I stopped feeling sorry for myself that I discovered this. I was young, foolish, and full of doubts. I know that.
 
But Lilly, no, it couldn't be. I know her dammit, I'm sure. I know we have petty arguments sometimes, even about the silliest things, but all relationships are like that, right? No relationship is flawless and perfect, that only works in movies and video games.
 
So why do I keep doubting myself?
 
Because she left without saying why. Because she left without saying where.
 
The thought that I might've done something wrong is poisonous. The thought that I it maybe he my fault is sickening. The fact that I don't know the reason almost drove me insane.
 
Was it me? Was I too weak?
 
No calls, no mails, no nothing.
 
Why would I wait? I had no real reason to wait. I had no reason to care: we were never married to begin with. Why do I still remember? Why did it still hurt when I thought about it? Because I felt I was responsible.
 
It was thanks to a chance meeting with Misha, of all people, to realize that, just like before, I was wrong: I was angry and hurt because I still cared. Because unlike Iwanako, something inside me screamed and shouted that I shouldn't try to move on, not just yet.
 
I shouldn't give up on happiness, and most importantly, I should thrust Lilly.
 
I blew it once, I nearly did it a second time, when I chased for Lilly and almost died. But that day I talked with Misha, I realized that while this was largely out of my reach, I couldn't give up, I shouldn't. Not after all we went trough. I still had a chance, or rather, I still could at least try to do something right.
 
And so, I waited.
 
 
 
Part 2
 
One day, she just left. She had to.
 
She couldn't bring herself to tell no one, not even the love of her life. Not a single word.
 
For the longest time, she felt pride in her strength, or so she thought. "It's the right thing to do," she kept saying to herself at night, "I know it, dammit, I'm sure of it."
 
Yet the pain only grew with each passing lonely night.
 
She cursed the day the yen collapsed. She was sure it wouldn't the impact would be barely felt on Yamaku -such were the benefits of such a tight-knit community- but the shock waves were sure to be fell everywhere else.
 
When the yen fell, so did her father. So did her family in Scotland.
 
She had to go, but her family braking apart at its very seams from the inside out, no, she knew she couldn't tell. That much she was sure of, and had no regrets. Such personal things where only between her family and herself. Not a call, not even a peep. Not until the time was right.
 
But was Hisao family? Wasn't he supposed to? They were never married, yet she couldn't avoid wondering this, sometimes even out loud.
 
She had lived her life, taken decisions. She had made mistakes -two of them had nearly costed her both her best friend and her lover- but she was aware of them, had apologized when it was needed, and she took responsibility for those with very few regrets.
 
Or so she thought.
 
The pain of having left so sudden in the middle of the night had left her with nothing but remorse. At first, she was naive enough to promise she would be back, but that, the fact she had made that promise hurt more than anything.
 
She wondered why she did it? Was she really innocent enough to think that the issues with her family were going to be solved that easily? Weeks? Months, maybe?
 
How could she had done such an impossible, selfish, and stupid request?
 
As time went by, she just couldn't hold the tears anymore. Akira tried to help, but was no good. She refused to see other men, all because of a naive hope that one day, she could return to her lover.
 
She wanted nothing more than to touch him again, to embrace him, to hear his voice. She had become attached, more so than she ever thought she would, and she was fine with that, or so she thought, but now she was suffering because she had left herself wide open to this pain -now she knew, and it was too late to do anything about it- because she had let herself grow weak.
 
Yet she couldn't fight it, not when she had to face those cold nights all alone, in her bed, all by herself. Sometimes she would dream, dream with him, dream of the life they once had, dream of his voice and his touch. Then she would woke up, and she would fine herself too scared and hurt to go back to sleep, unable to hold her tears anymore.
 
Years passed. After much hardship by everyone, the issues had been solved. Her mother and her father's relationship was never going to be the same again, but at least where on speaking terms again.
 
As she boarded the first plane back to Japan, she ironically found herself doubting that Hisao would even speak to her again.
 
She found herself doubting that Hisao would even remember her.
 
 
 
Part 3
 
He left.
 
By the time Lilly reached their house, Hisao no longer lived there. The old couple who now lived there hadn't deal with him, and couldn't give her any information of his whereabouts. Asking the neighbors gave her the same result.
 
She hold herself well, as she had always done so, calculating her voice and body language as to not show the true extent of her frustration and sorrow as to not worry them for things they couldn't fix. She gave them her contact number in case he appeared, although she knew hos pointless it really was.
 
He wasn't coming back. She could spend a whole life trying to track him down in Japan, but she knew she would never found him.
 
She had ruined it, sacrificed her happiness in exchange for her family's well being. Did she regretted it? No. But what tore her up inside was that she had also made Hisao suffer for her family's sake. She knew they were close, and she knew she had brought him huge amounts of pain. He never asked for those, yet she did it without blinking, and that selfishness terrified her, made her feel like the worst person in the world. She thought she knew better, the thought she had done the right thing, but now she knew, too late, that she had not.
 
Hisao deserved better. He, at the very least, deserved a proper explanation, or a call, or anything. Yet she hadn't, and now her guilt was eating her away.
 
She kept looking, not giving up. Once again, she was being selfish and she knew it. What if Hisao no longer wanted to see her? What if he had moved on? Those two thoughts alone stole her sleep away at nights, her mistake robbing her of hunger and thirst.
 
But no, she refused to believe it. She knew she had made a mistake, and the best thing she could do, the only right thing she could do, was at least explain her actions, give some closure to Hisao.
 
She couldn't avoid laughing sadly at the idea her blindness was not only physical, but also mental. She had always considered herself at least smarter than the usual person, but the truth was, it wasn't until she had realized how much she had destroyed her own chance at happiness because of her lack of vision that this had become apparent.
 
Without knowing, she had suddenly becomed another Iwanako on Hisao's life, and she was perfectly aware how that ended for him. The feeling made her curse trough clenched teeth.
 
After days of dead ends, she tried calling her old friend Hanako, once again masking her own feelings on her voice, but she knew nothing. It was almost as if Hisao had completely disappeared from Japan, and there was a very big chance that was the case.
 
If that was the case, she thought, then there was no hope left. He was gone.
 
But talking to Hanako had made her deeply nostalgic. She realized that if Hisao had moved on, as much as it pained her, maybe she should too. But even if that was the case, she couldn't stop herself from visiting Yamaku one last time.
 
It was, after all, the place that changed her life. The place where she had met him.
 
After a short bus trip she soon found herself in front of the school's gates, the same gates she had walked trough so many times before, her hands immediately noticing they still had the same metallic pattern as they used to when she graduated. The park with its path right in the middle of it was still the same, the sound of the trees and the smell of the freshly cut grass reminding her of all the good times she had.
 
They were fond memories, memories that would forever be with her, she would never depart from them, and she didn't want to.
 
She was sure some students were going to be slightly confused at a foreign's presence, after all, it had been a long time since she had been a student in that school, but to her surprise, no one questioned her presence, even when she accidentally poked the foot of one or two persons with her white-tipped cane.
 
It wasn't until she reached the halls where she heard a very familiar voice. A small smile appeared on her still delicate features.
 
"Wahaha~!"
 
It was Misha. She had heard that the bubblegum-pink haired girl wanted to become a sign language teacher and had gone out of the country to finish her tutoring to become just that, but she would've never expected for her to be back on Yamaku for some reason. Then again, she admitted that if the school itself brought her so many good memories, odds are it would do the same for the rest of the students, so it made sense for Misha to come back.
 
She wanted to call for her, but realized there was a bit possibility she was going to interrupt her class, so she stopped herself from doing so.
 
"Oh, hello Lilly!~!"
 
Somehow, however, she had miscalculated Mischa's position she had seen her on the hallway already, and didn't realize that she was closer than she expected her to. Mischa's loud voice always had that effect.
 
She expected -no, wanted- to make some chit-chat, to talk about the old times before she left for good, maybe back to Scotland, maybe somewhere. But to her shock, before she even got a chance to say something, Misha excused herself from her students -very loudly and with sign language at the same time as she always used to, she was sure- grabbed her by one of her shoulders, and began to pull her in some random direction.
 
It took her some seconds to realize what was going on, and when she finally asked, Mischa only response was, "You're late!~" with a mock angry voice as she dragged her even faster, to the point Lilly tripped and nearly fell more than once, losing all sense of direction in the process.
 
Finally, they stopped, Lilly gasping for air.
 
"Well, we're here now!~" Mischa shouted before Lilly heard a door opening.
 
Lilly quickly regained her usual composure and was just about to ask her old friend what was going trough her head when Mischa just said, "Go on then, he's waiting!~"
 
Lilly's eyes opened wide. Her mind raced to comprehend -no, to believe- what was happening.
 
"H-Hisao?"
 
After a tense moment of silence, she heard it.
 
"Lilly?"
 
Her composure dissipated as her knees grew weak and tears began to roll down her cheeks. She felt she was about to fall, but someone rushed at her and stopped her from hitting the floor.
 
The second she felt the embrace, the second she felt that familiar feeling, that touch she had longed for what felt an eternity, she realized who it was.
 
Her voice broke in a million pieces, "Hisao! Hisao!" she hold him as close to her as she could, clinging desperately to him, her crying mumbled into his chest.
 
All he says is "I waited for you," before kissing her.
 
 
 
Part 4
 
They stayed.
 
They just embraced each other until their arms grew numb, and even so, they didn't want to let go.
 
It had been so long since they had seen each other. It felt like decades.
 
It took both more time than they expected to regain some semblance of composure, and even when they did, it only made both blush when they began to hear murmurs coming from Hisao's classroom.
 
He gave an assignment to the class before he had to "excused himself" and left the class president in charge. He knew beforehand they weren't going to do it, but made it clear he was going to be waiting for it on Monday.
 
The whole class groaned.
 
Mischa went back to her class while Hisao took Lilly to the cafeteria, both had plenty of things to talk.
 
And talk they did. For countless hours, apologizing until it almost became a running joke, each telling each other what they had done while they were away. Hisao decided to follow a random advice by his old teacher Mutou and decided to become a science teacher himself. He, just like her, had been hit by a great deal of nostalgia after he had come with terms of what she had done but, most importantly, his decision to wait for her, while Lilly told her story while trying to apologize.
 
To her surprise, Hisao showed little anger, if any. He admitted he wish she had told him, that it did make him doubt himself and caused some bitterness at first, but that, in the very end, he trusted her judgement and her decision and, although he didn't agree completely with it, he respected it and didn't hold it against her, not one bit.
 
Even so, she felt the need to apologize. She thought she had failed him, even when he told her otherwise.
 
By the time night had fallen and they soon found themselves still talking, Hisao and Lilly moved to an old, familiar hangout: the Shanghai.
 
And there they continued, soon both realizing their bond was never truly broken, and now instead doing small chit-chat and having a good time just like before while waxing over a bit of nostalgia. Finally, both of them could smile fully once again. They felt content. It was there when it was decided -without much of an argument- that, because Miyagi -Lilly's old professor- was retiring soon, she should try and get a job as teacher just as Hisao did, at the same time revealing that not only Yamaku itself had courses for such things, but that, due to Hisao's position, they could "bed the rules a little bit." They both find the idea amusing and giggle, Lilly admitting that the idea isn't half bad.
 
It was there that Hisao revealed he had sold their old house and moved to the small town just next to the school due to his job. It paid better than Lilly thought it would. It wasn't as big as the older house, but it was big enough.
 
It was there where the conversation moved after the Shangai had to close. It was there where they both finally enjoyed each other as they couldve only done so in their dreams for so long.
 
It was a beautiful night, it was the best of nights.
 
They were finally together again, and nothing in the world was going to pull them apart.
 
THE END.
 
 
 
Bonus addendum: And the Lilly wore a dickstrap and had hot steaming buttsex with Hisao and lived happily ever after.
 
TEH' END, :D