I'm a mess for the rest of the week. I don't think I've ever been daydreaming more than that, except maybe during English lectures at Yamaku the trimester after Rin left? It's strange how English is more interesting now that I'm in university, I've nearly caught up the slack between my former useless English and being an average student.
I spend the week-end sleeping and reading some boring novel about some nineteen century French boy falling in love with an older woman. The blurb presented it as a famous masterpiece, full of historical backdrop and subtle character composition. Maybe to some European history buffs, or someone who's never really been in love, but for me, it's boring. Well at least, it passes time.
And if Yukio notices how down I am, or the unopened pack of condoms hiding amongst my medication, he tactfully avoids the subject.
The next week, I decide I can't continue like that. I decide to work. Hard. At least, it will be helpful for something else later down the line. That week, I pick-up the slack I've left the two previous weeks, and still manage to finish my training report and give it to my tutor for review.
On Friday afternoon, I get a message from Mio.
Mio ~ Slaughterhouse tonight?
Hisao ~ No, thanks.
Really, I'm glad she still wants to see me, but I'm not hanging out in a place where I might meet Rin again.
Hisao ~ Elsewhere?
Mio ~ When do you finish?
Hisao ~ 6
I hear no more from her after that. But I decide to really leave at 6, instead of pulling even more overtime, just in case.
Mio is nowhere to be seen in the lobby. I sigh, pull up my raincoat hood, and step out in the rain to head for the station. That's when I cross the gaze of the woman in a white raincoat standing in front of the building.
A big green gaze, with red hairs above it.
Rin.
I try to ignore her but she takes a sidestep in front of me.
"Hi." I try to defend myself with hollow politeness, while someone nearly bumps on us, standing still in the middle of the walkway.
"Hello," she answers, not removing her eyes from my face.
It's a strange feeling. Like she's looking at me, but not really. She's in her world, like back in Yamaku when she was painting. Only this time, her eyes are on me, but I feel more like a canvas than a person she's going to interact with. Rin's world is really removed from normal people.
"I need to talk to you," she says.
I turn around and try to walk away in the opposite direction, but she follows me. I walk faster. She does the same.
Great. Now, I've got two choice. Running away, or facing her. She starts talking while I'm still walking, undecided.
"Hisao, I need you to stop. I've got no arms to grab you. And I'm bad with words. And I've got something to say. I cannot think about the words if I've got to run after you at the same time. Please."
And now, I can be a coward and rude by running away, or I can stop. Plus, I've got to admit, I'm curious. It's rare enough for Rin to be the one wanting to speak – when she's not been given any drugs, at least. We stop behind a street corner, and I wait for her to catch her breath.
"I..." She seems lost for words now. I wait – I'd like to say patiently, but I feel anything but patient. "I think you should change university."
What.
"You look too sad. Even worse than I remembered. You need to find something you like. I'd tell you to do try art, but I remember you left the art club. Maybe science? Emi and Mutou always said I should ask you for help, that you were good at it. Or did you hate it? Was it one of those things you were good at while hating it?"
Mutou thought I was good? That's new, but... "Why do you even care?"
Rin recoils. I must have sounded pretty aggressive.
"Because... I..." She hesitates, then stops speaking. She turns away, looking at some people hurry through the rain. A sea of trendy raincoats, trendier boots, and dark umbrellas, as one would expect in a business district around office closing time.
That's classical Rin. One minute, you think she cares, and the next one, she's shutting you out of her world. And my feet are getting wet. And I expect any moment for someone to turn the corner and put his umbrella in my eye. I decide to disappear, but just as I take a step, she speaks.
"Because I want to be your friend?"
"And you couldn't have thought about it before cheating on me?" I take a deep breath before I get too loud. "Or are you trying to tell me you want us to just be friend? Why have we been nearly having sex if that's the case? Or did you decide that after I had my flutter? You're too good for me, you can't be dating a cripple?"
I've just said the word cripple when I realize what I'm saying. Rin should be the last I suspect of thinking that.
"Go away Hisao."
Now she's angry too. In her own distant way, but I can see it. Hurt too? Are that tears at the bottom of her eyes? Like she didn't know she had it coming... But I'm not a confused high-schooler any more.
"Not before you answer." I need my explanation.
"I can't."
"Why?"
"I don't understand the question."
I'm almost tempted to change my decision and leave now. But I decide to be stubborn, step back behind the corner and slowly talk her through the steps of my reasoning. She's painfully close, now.
I ask her if when we were together on her bed, were we going to have sex, when I had my heart attack? Yes, I know she can't predict future, but was that her intention. Yes, she confirms that.
And since, she's had sex with someone else. She doesn't deny it. So, why?
"Because I didn't know you were there."
"You thought I wouldn't be coming back? I told you it wasn't your fault. I asked Mio to tell you I'll drop by!" It would be simpler if you had a phone.
"She told me."
"So you cheated."
"I didn't know you were there that very night!"
"And if I hadn't been there, I wouldn't even know. I'd think you're my girlfriend, while you're cheating on me."
Rin bites her lips, then, suddenly, explode. I've never heard her so loud. Although if there's someone I would have expected not to tone it down for being in a public place, that would be her. But I'm still surprised.
"Will someone one day explain me where's the problem? If you aren't there, how can it hurt you? What is this cheating thing you're all talking about? If you're my friend, I'm supposed to do nothing without asking your permission first? You think I'm a baby? Is that how it works? Can't I have a real friend, or whatever you call that? Someone who cares without treating me like a baby? Is it because I don't have arms?"
And now, she's crying. And I've made her cry. Despite my being sure it's her fault, I now feel bad. I'm going to steel myself and answer again, explain her that yes, refraining from having sex with someone else than their boyfriend is something normal girls do, when I suddenly realize that the word normal doesn't apply to Rin. And, with that, I'm defeated. I don't know what to say any more.
Rin does.
"Go away. You've got your answer? Now, go. Leave me alone."
She tries to step away, but I put a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm not leaving you again on a misunderstanding. It's too painful."
I'm done playing this game. I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm not going away like that. Not to spend the next year thinking about her again. Especially her crying for something I said. That break-up has to be clean.
Rin shakes her shoulder out of my hand, but she stops. Her sandals are now square in the middle of a puddle.
"You're going to catch a cold. Let's get in there." I lead her toward some kind of tea house on the side.
The waitress is busy, but we get ourselves a tiny table near a cold, damp window. What now? I don't even know why I'm being so stubborn. Why not call it a loss and leave her do whatever she wants as long as it's not with me? Rin is looking at the sky, or rather at what small part of it is visible despite the tall buildings around.
"Not many clouds to see," I finally remark out loud. Like small talk is going to solve my problem with her.
"I hate this town," Rin answers to the dimming light outside.
She's still not looking at me, and her raincoat is dripping on the floor and on her pants. I lean over the table to unzip it and hang it along with mine. When I sit down again, Rin is watching me.
"Why do you do that?" She asks.
"Do what?"
"Act like you care."
"Because I do," I answer. "What about you? You went here, under the rain, just to tell me I look sad?"
"I don't mind the rain. What's so bad about it? Mio was so upset about me having no arms to hold an umbrella that I had to wear her raincoat."
We're interrupted by the waitress' arrival. I order a tea, and I see the woman blink when Rin orders hers with a straw. But when the tea arrives, it does come with a straw. And also with a serving of sliced fruits; we might be in an up-scale place; or at least some place trying to act up-scale.
We slowly drink our tea, and I feed Rin some fruit. We remain silent throughout, and, strangely, this doesn't bother me. But, in the end, I decide we can't stay there all night.
It's a difficult decision. I've stopped Rin from going for a good reason, although I'm not able to articulate it, and nothing has changed since. I still don't have any closure. Yes, I decide that's what I'm after: closure. But I don't think I can reach it alone. I pay, and stand reluctantly. I even help Rin with her raincoat, but I'm really unhappy to let her go. I really need more time with her. Or am I deluded? Should I make a clean cut now, all by myself without waiting for her help? Am I even able to do that?
"Hisao," Rin's voice drag me out of my depressing reflections, "can I paint you?"
"Yes." Like I've got any power to change that.
"No, I mean tonight. Would you agree to let me see you tonight? After you've taken your medication?"
I don't accept immediately. That's the excuse I needed to stay longer with Rin, but a small voice in me says that I'm only twisting the knife in the wound, that I'm still going with the flow instead of making a clear decision for myself, and that I should stop being a sheep.
But one look at Rin's green eyes is enough for me to ignore that voice. Especially when there are tears falling from them. I nod.
"I'm doing things wrong again," Rin starts saying, "you don't care that way, do you? That's another meaning of that 'friend' word I don't know? You want to keep some distance?"
"Rin," I interrupt her, "I've accepted."
I retrieve a towel to wipe her tears.
We walk to the subway station, while Rin wonders why I make her cry so easily, and if she cried because she was afraid or sad. Sometime, I think she doesn't understand herself better than I do.
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Scene 3 over there