Circle of Friends: Chapter 17
Title: Circle of Friends
Pairing: A pairing that consist of five people....
Rating: Pg-13
Ohno threw his huge bag on the ground in the middle of the street before he dragged the bag towards the sidewalk. It wasn’t that the bag had became heavier than before, he realized that it was him who was having difficulties as though he had all his normal amount of strength strained and bottled somewhere in his chest. Because his chest hurt.
Ohno fiddled with his fingers, before he looked up to stare at the beautiful night sky. He realized how much he had missed it even before he left the place. He was about to heave another sigh when winds were knocked out of him as a body flung itself wholly onto him and hands warped around him, so tight it almost hurt. Yet it felt as though comfort had just assembled itself into a human form and draped itself around him.
“You’re back!”
“Nino” Ohno suddenly breathed out, loosening himself, while he lifted his hand under Nino’s arms to hook on Nino’s shoulder, mostly because he needed to. He knew that he would have collapsed if it wasn’t for Nino’s support. He knew that he probably would have fell on the street and wouldn’t even have the strength to resemble a thought on how he should get up.
“I won”
“That’s a good thing isn’t it?”
“Nino…I won”
“I know”
“But I didn’t want to win” Ohno mumbled at Nino’s shoulder. “I want to stay here with you”
Nino pressed his lips, straining words that were dangling at the tip of his tongue; words that would suggest that Ohno could still back out if he really didn’t want to, words that would admit to Ohno that he had never wanted anything in his life as much as he wanted Ohno to stay there with him. He wanted to say it all, but all he did was held it all back.
“Was it fun?”
Ohno blinked once, as he felt the pain in his chest worsen. He tightened the grip at Nino’s shoulder and gave out an unexpected sigh that made Nino even more flustered when he heard it.
“Oh-chan…do you believe in fate?” Nino asked and paused to wait for an answer, but he continued when he heard none. “I think we are the type that definitely would meet each other again no matter what happens…like fated things…like…some fish from the other side of the world that would swim for thousands of miles for you to catch. Fish that would swim thousands of miles just for you to meet it”
“How…how much… do you believe in that?”
“I believe it very, very much”
“How much?”
“So much, as much as the amount of breads the bread shop’s owner have ever ate his whole life…including his father’s life…throw in their pet dog too” Nino paused and waited, before he felt Ohno’s fingers gripped his forearm tightly. NIno knew from that gesture that he wasn’t satisfying Ohno, not even close “I believe it with all my heart” Nino said finally, trying to sound as though there were no doubts in his words. He wanted to be more than just convincing.
“I would still believe it with my whole hearts if I had two hearts…or even three”
Ohno sniffed a little. “But I just want to stay here with you. Can’t I just do that?”
Nino loosened the hug to look at Ohno in the eyes properly. He liked those calming eyes the best. It was the only thing that he can stare at longer than his games. He loved the soothing forces that could spread from it. As though it was more than just a look that calms, it also softens. “If you want to stay here, how can I prove to you that I’m that fish? Or are you giving up?”
Ohno let go of him slowly.
“I just want you to be able to take care of yourself when you need to.” Nino continued, putting his hands around Ohno’s neck, his eyes fixed on Ohno’s as though he wanted to hypnotize it, just so that he could take all the worries away. “I can’t promise to be here in this town forever too. I can’t promise anything”
“Then” Ohno paused, gripping Nino’s wrist tight. “Then… how can you promise that we will meet again?!”He said; his voice raised a little, shaking Nino’s hand as he spoke. He sounded restless.
Nino smiled and that smile looked so convincing that made Ohno calmed.
“Fate is not a promise…It is something that is destined to be”
****
“Hanabi”
“Yes?”
“You’re a little too bright today, why don’t you get out of my way?”
“Nino, don’t be mean to Hanabi. She’s just happy, right? You’re just happy because after the school ends, school can’t bother you anymore, right?”
“I hate other people who are happy when I’m not”
“Ninomiya-san, your DoS attitude is showing from your nostrils”
“What I hate even more, is a happy person who is sarcastic.”
“Ignore him, Hanabi, Nino is just sulking because Ohno-kun is sad and refuses to get out of bed”
“If you speak again, Aiba, I’ll kick you so hard I’ll burst your bubbly self”
“One day I’ll be much, so much taller than you Nino and I’ll kick you back.”
“I can bully you anytime I want, even the tall you. Have your growth spurt if you want, I don’t care- Don’t pinch me! Th-that tickles, you idiot! I said- YES, IT WAS A POOP LOOKING HAIRCUT, I CAN’T AGREE MORE! ”
Hana watched as she smiled a little. “Things are looking up, aren’t they?”
It was a little bit of everything the way things are with them. She wasn’t attached in any way, but the simple passings were amusing, because there were always thoughts, if not lessons. She never believed in things that are arranged in life, yet it seems as though the way things had been, seeing how little things are combined to be big and even more, she started to believe the things that she had fully doubted before.
“Thousand yen is made up from one yen…”
“Why are you talking to yourself? Actually, what’s more intriguing and displeasing is that you sounded like Nino. To be his neighbor is that bad?”
“Well, if you’re sex deprived, it’s actually quite heavenly”
Jun winced a little. He watched her for awhile before he frowned a little, unzipped his bag and pulled out a handbag, a handbag that she would definitely wince at if she saw one at the stores. “This is for you” he said casually as he held it to her face.
“What is this? A health bag? “She said as she stared at it. It was a small pink handbag, with glittery decoration. Something that she thought she would stare at from a store but won’t even bother to even guess how much the price is, because the color was too glorious.
“Don’t be stupid” he cut her. “I just feel like giving it to you. Because you’re too…normal, I might easily forget you ever existed. So, keep that. At least with that, you’ll always remember me, even if I’ve already forgotten you”
“Uh” was all that she managed to say.
“Ah~ Insignificant… An interesting girl would smile charmingly and just cutely adoring that cute bag. That bag is significant none the less, cheap too… It’s a present of gratitude”
Hana was about to blurt out ‘Why?’, but she stopped herself when she realized he was looking at a person just behind her. “Ah, Sakurai-san” she said. She watched as Sho greeted other students. Just between that, his eyes flickered at them and he managed a very brief smile. She looked back at Jun, who was grinning at her.
“That wrong turn I made, because of your ugly hand writing, was helpful in a way. Not that I needed it really, I can sort things out by myself, but…well-”
“OK” She grinned. “It’s ‘thank you’ by the way, don’t forget to put that in your life dictionary, seriously”
“It’s not like you did anything marvelous. For all I know all you did was screw up the address. “Jun said in a matter-of-factly. But then he paused and made a small an almost inaudible sigh. “Can you pull off another miracle?”
“Not that it's possible, but ”
“Like pull Ohno-kun out of bed. Nino had been trying to get him out of bed, but Ohno-kun wouldn’t even stick his head out of the window.”
“Ohno-san doesn’t want to get out bed? But the play is this evening; he’s not coming to see? ”
“I don’t know…” Jun said, a brief troubled look on his face that he accidentally let escaped. Nevertheless he only looked at her with firm eyes afterwards. “It’ not your problem after all, who comes or who doesn’t come at my stage play.”
"Do you really think I can do things to Ohno-kun what Nino couldn't?"
Jun shrugged. "The word miracle explains it all doesn't it?"
****
“Is this one okay?”
“No”
“Too striking?”
“Really striking, awesomely striking, shit-“
“Fine” Aiba cut and threw the bag quickly onto the shelf. “You really have no will to do this at all”
“No, I don’t. And I don’t even know why you even care to do all these things for me. I can do this myself.” Sho frowned a little. “Actually, I will not do it. I’ll let my dad figure it out so that he’ll suffer…a little. I’m holding a grudge against him for a month or so…”
“Why would your dad suffer? We’re just choosing your baggage”
“He simply hates shopping” Sho answered shortly, before he threw himself onto a bench outside of `the shop made a small sigh as he closed his eyes.
“Are we going home?”
Sho looked at Aiba from the corner of his eyes as Aiba slumped himself next to him. “Don’t you feel like going home?”
“No…not really”
“Me neither” Sho said as he let out a huge sigh. “Do you want to go and get something to eat?” He asked aimlessly as he stood up.
“Actually, Sho-chan…”
Sho stopped for a second and frowned before he continued moving again. He could almost feel his heart stopped when he heard the tone. It was heavy. It was too heavy that it immediately made him felt nervous. It sent chills down his spine and Aiba had never done that before. “What is it?” Sho asked as he shifted his eyes to Aiba. He saw it there, the deep frown and the serious expression that he expected. Sho let out silently the breath he had been unconsciously holding.
“Ab-about me coming back to school and dad actually being able to support me …why it has been easy for my dad lately…” he looked at Sho with deep concern on his face. It was solemn Sho could swear that he would laugh if it wasn’t for the heavy atmosphere. “You have nothing to do with it, have you?”
“Why are you asking me this silly question?”
“Then how come you’re suddenly leaving? I thought you said you’ll never leave since we’re the kind of friends that need to be taken care of. You said we’ll need you around to have that motherly influence on five of us, so-”
“Fatherly.”
“-you said you can’t leave”
“I guess I was wrong”
“Why is it that you always happen to be wrong at the most awful moments?”
“Aiba, let’s go” Sho said, as he reached out to pull Aiba by the wrist, his voice barely coming out of his throat. Sho was almost tugging him roughly, because he knew they needed to start walking and leaving that place. They need to walk out of that atmosphere. Because he knew that he didn’t satisfy Aiba with any good answer, and it would be an insult to their friendship if Aiba couldn’t already tell that he was hiding something.
“Is it me coming back to school is more important than you being here?”
“No” Sho sighed softly, gripping Aiba’s wrist to the point that he could almost feel his pulse. “It’s you having a future is more important than me being here”
“A future without you here?”
Sho stared at Aiba, his face unchanging. He was determent for that one decision he made for himself and he had thought about the good consequences it could give to Aiba, so no whining, no wavering. Suck it up. In the end, nothing could worth more.
“I’ll have my future, there’s nothing to worry about”
Aiba tugged his hand and looked away. “You had a chance to stay, but I don’t have a chance to run away-- even now. Why gave that up? You’ll end up being lonely in a foreign country while I’ll be here serving people the just the way I should be. You’ll be gone…and I’ll have nothing”
Sho made a sigh and sat beside Aiba again; smiling at him with the usual affection he had since they first saw each other. Sho knew that the restaurant doesn’t suit him. Aiba always wanted to have things his way, meaning that he always wanted something more; he has determination that shows in colorful bubbles. He always liked Aiba that way and he wasn’t going to let Aiba gives it up or the world to take it away from him.
“You’ll have a chance.”
****
Naturally, just naturally, the world is connected in some odd ways. The words that someone says from the other side of the world could reach someone from far away and maybe, just naturally, change their life. A bad day in someone life could result to a good day to another. A simple smile from a stranger far ahead, could give a healing effect to another. Odd, but could naturally happen.
“It would have been better if he had given me something I could use properly, this thing is…” Hana mumbled to herself as she pulled out the glittery bag from inside her school bag, subconsciously too embarrass to actually hold it in her hand.
“…and I can’t throw it either. He’ll make me suffer-” She lifted it up a little to see it properly, and suddenly noticed the ‘free for buying ME’ tag on it.
“Ah?”
Suddenly someone came running from behind her and at a blink of an eye
“AAAH!!!”
She watched as the fast figure ran past her and tugged the bag she was holding. Her eyes were fixed on the glittering pink bag that the man was gripping as he disappeared around the corner. Hana blinked with her mouth slightly opened.
“Ah…”
She froze for a moment in silence as many relentless things ran through her mind; the uselessness of that mugging because the bag was empties anyway, the death threat that might come tagging along with it, but then again it wasn’t her fault. She stood there due to her muscles straining from the surprise, after awhile she started walking again with a mixed feeling of shock, nervous and relived.
“I got rid of that, somehow…”
****
If anything was magical, Jun knew that the stage was. He would have the strongest feel whenever he stood there looking at the crowd. It made him feel complete in the simplest way; as though it was something he was born with. He knew that it was something he would be good at, naturally, but not with lack of practice and endurance.
But that one particular day, he was standing there with knots in his stomach, butterflies or other inhabitants that shouldn’t actually be there. He ate and slept and woke up after two hours just before midnight to repeat the steps, and then he woke up again, staring out the window wondering what tomorrow would be like. It was very unusual for him to act that way; about other things, maybe, but never when it comes to performing. The stage had always been the perfect place to stand on, his place that he could grip on strong without shaking or contemplating. Yet, there he was, looking down at the crowd with dryness in his throat.
“I really hate waiting” He whispered to himself. “They will come of course”
That didn’t sound weird at all. Of course they would, what else would be more important than watching his play. Nothing.
He bit his lips and squatted, so that he wouldn’t throw up.
Of course the past years taught him that there could be something more important than his play; misunderstandings, egoistic manner, misunderstandings and even ramen. But this one was important. It’s the last one, the most special one. At least he thought so. And then he couldn’t help but wonder if he was the only one.
Pairing: A pairing that consist of five people....
Rating: Pg-13
Ohno threw his huge bag on the ground in the middle of the street before he dragged the bag towards the sidewalk. It wasn’t that the bag had became heavier than before, he realized that it was him who was having difficulties as though he had all his normal amount of strength strained and bottled somewhere in his chest. Because his chest hurt.
Ohno fiddled with his fingers, before he looked up to stare at the beautiful night sky. He realized how much he had missed it even before he left the place. He was about to heave another sigh when winds were knocked out of him as a body flung itself wholly onto him and hands warped around him, so tight it almost hurt. Yet it felt as though comfort had just assembled itself into a human form and draped itself around him.
“You’re back!”
“Nino” Ohno suddenly breathed out, loosening himself, while he lifted his hand under Nino’s arms to hook on Nino’s shoulder, mostly because he needed to. He knew that he would have collapsed if it wasn’t for Nino’s support. He knew that he probably would have fell on the street and wouldn’t even have the strength to resemble a thought on how he should get up.
“I won”
“That’s a good thing isn’t it?”
“Nino…I won”
“I know”
“But I didn’t want to win” Ohno mumbled at Nino’s shoulder. “I want to stay here with you”
Nino pressed his lips, straining words that were dangling at the tip of his tongue; words that would suggest that Ohno could still back out if he really didn’t want to, words that would admit to Ohno that he had never wanted anything in his life as much as he wanted Ohno to stay there with him. He wanted to say it all, but all he did was held it all back.
“Was it fun?”
Ohno blinked once, as he felt the pain in his chest worsen. He tightened the grip at Nino’s shoulder and gave out an unexpected sigh that made Nino even more flustered when he heard it.
“Oh-chan…do you believe in fate?” Nino asked and paused to wait for an answer, but he continued when he heard none. “I think we are the type that definitely would meet each other again no matter what happens…like fated things…like…some fish from the other side of the world that would swim for thousands of miles for you to catch. Fish that would swim thousands of miles just for you to meet it”
“How…how much… do you believe in that?”
“I believe it very, very much”
“How much?”
“So much, as much as the amount of breads the bread shop’s owner have ever ate his whole life…including his father’s life…throw in their pet dog too” Nino paused and waited, before he felt Ohno’s fingers gripped his forearm tightly. NIno knew from that gesture that he wasn’t satisfying Ohno, not even close “I believe it with all my heart” Nino said finally, trying to sound as though there were no doubts in his words. He wanted to be more than just convincing.
“I would still believe it with my whole hearts if I had two hearts…or even three”
Ohno sniffed a little. “But I just want to stay here with you. Can’t I just do that?”
Nino loosened the hug to look at Ohno in the eyes properly. He liked those calming eyes the best. It was the only thing that he can stare at longer than his games. He loved the soothing forces that could spread from it. As though it was more than just a look that calms, it also softens. “If you want to stay here, how can I prove to you that I’m that fish? Or are you giving up?”
Ohno let go of him slowly.
“I just want you to be able to take care of yourself when you need to.” Nino continued, putting his hands around Ohno’s neck, his eyes fixed on Ohno’s as though he wanted to hypnotize it, just so that he could take all the worries away. “I can’t promise to be here in this town forever too. I can’t promise anything”
“Then” Ohno paused, gripping Nino’s wrist tight. “Then… how can you promise that we will meet again?!”He said; his voice raised a little, shaking Nino’s hand as he spoke. He sounded restless.
Nino smiled and that smile looked so convincing that made Ohno calmed.
“Fate is not a promise…It is something that is destined to be”
****
“Hanabi”
“Yes?”
“You’re a little too bright today, why don’t you get out of my way?”
“Nino, don’t be mean to Hanabi. She’s just happy, right? You’re just happy because after the school ends, school can’t bother you anymore, right?”
“I hate other people who are happy when I’m not”
“Ninomiya-san, your DoS attitude is showing from your nostrils”
“What I hate even more, is a happy person who is sarcastic.”
“Ignore him, Hanabi, Nino is just sulking because Ohno-kun is sad and refuses to get out of bed”
“If you speak again, Aiba, I’ll kick you so hard I’ll burst your bubbly self”
“One day I’ll be much, so much taller than you Nino and I’ll kick you back.”
“I can bully you anytime I want, even the tall you. Have your growth spurt if you want, I don’t care- Don’t pinch me! Th-that tickles, you idiot! I said- YES, IT WAS A POOP LOOKING HAIRCUT, I CAN’T AGREE MORE! ”
Hana watched as she smiled a little. “Things are looking up, aren’t they?”
It was a little bit of everything the way things are with them. She wasn’t attached in any way, but the simple passings were amusing, because there were always thoughts, if not lessons. She never believed in things that are arranged in life, yet it seems as though the way things had been, seeing how little things are combined to be big and even more, she started to believe the things that she had fully doubted before.
“Thousand yen is made up from one yen…”
“Why are you talking to yourself? Actually, what’s more intriguing and displeasing is that you sounded like Nino. To be his neighbor is that bad?”
“Well, if you’re sex deprived, it’s actually quite heavenly”
Jun winced a little. He watched her for awhile before he frowned a little, unzipped his bag and pulled out a handbag, a handbag that she would definitely wince at if she saw one at the stores. “This is for you” he said casually as he held it to her face.
“What is this? A health bag? “She said as she stared at it. It was a small pink handbag, with glittery decoration. Something that she thought she would stare at from a store but won’t even bother to even guess how much the price is, because the color was too glorious.
“Don’t be stupid” he cut her. “I just feel like giving it to you. Because you’re too…normal, I might easily forget you ever existed. So, keep that. At least with that, you’ll always remember me, even if I’ve already forgotten you”
“Uh” was all that she managed to say.
“Ah~ Insignificant… An interesting girl would smile charmingly and just cutely adoring that cute bag. That bag is significant none the less, cheap too… It’s a present of gratitude”
Hana was about to blurt out ‘Why?’, but she stopped herself when she realized he was looking at a person just behind her. “Ah, Sakurai-san” she said. She watched as Sho greeted other students. Just between that, his eyes flickered at them and he managed a very brief smile. She looked back at Jun, who was grinning at her.
“That wrong turn I made, because of your ugly hand writing, was helpful in a way. Not that I needed it really, I can sort things out by myself, but…well-”
“OK” She grinned. “It’s ‘thank you’ by the way, don’t forget to put that in your life dictionary, seriously”
“It’s not like you did anything marvelous. For all I know all you did was screw up the address. “Jun said in a matter-of-factly. But then he paused and made a small an almost inaudible sigh. “Can you pull off another miracle?”
“Not that it's possible, but ”
“Like pull Ohno-kun out of bed. Nino had been trying to get him out of bed, but Ohno-kun wouldn’t even stick his head out of the window.”
“Ohno-san doesn’t want to get out bed? But the play is this evening; he’s not coming to see? ”
“I don’t know…” Jun said, a brief troubled look on his face that he accidentally let escaped. Nevertheless he only looked at her with firm eyes afterwards. “It’ not your problem after all, who comes or who doesn’t come at my stage play.”
"Do you really think I can do things to Ohno-kun what Nino couldn't?"
Jun shrugged. "The word miracle explains it all doesn't it?"
****
“Is this one okay?”
“No”
“Too striking?”
“Really striking, awesomely striking, shit-“
“Fine” Aiba cut and threw the bag quickly onto the shelf. “You really have no will to do this at all”
“No, I don’t. And I don’t even know why you even care to do all these things for me. I can do this myself.” Sho frowned a little. “Actually, I will not do it. I’ll let my dad figure it out so that he’ll suffer…a little. I’m holding a grudge against him for a month or so…”
“Why would your dad suffer? We’re just choosing your baggage”
“He simply hates shopping” Sho answered shortly, before he threw himself onto a bench outside of `the shop made a small sigh as he closed his eyes.
“Are we going home?”
Sho looked at Aiba from the corner of his eyes as Aiba slumped himself next to him. “Don’t you feel like going home?”
“No…not really”
“Me neither” Sho said as he let out a huge sigh. “Do you want to go and get something to eat?” He asked aimlessly as he stood up.
“Actually, Sho-chan…”
Sho stopped for a second and frowned before he continued moving again. He could almost feel his heart stopped when he heard the tone. It was heavy. It was too heavy that it immediately made him felt nervous. It sent chills down his spine and Aiba had never done that before. “What is it?” Sho asked as he shifted his eyes to Aiba. He saw it there, the deep frown and the serious expression that he expected. Sho let out silently the breath he had been unconsciously holding.
“Ab-about me coming back to school and dad actually being able to support me …why it has been easy for my dad lately…” he looked at Sho with deep concern on his face. It was solemn Sho could swear that he would laugh if it wasn’t for the heavy atmosphere. “You have nothing to do with it, have you?”
“Why are you asking me this silly question?”
“Then how come you’re suddenly leaving? I thought you said you’ll never leave since we’re the kind of friends that need to be taken care of. You said we’ll need you around to have that motherly influence on five of us, so-”
“Fatherly.”
“-you said you can’t leave”
“I guess I was wrong”
“Why is it that you always happen to be wrong at the most awful moments?”
“Aiba, let’s go” Sho said, as he reached out to pull Aiba by the wrist, his voice barely coming out of his throat. Sho was almost tugging him roughly, because he knew they needed to start walking and leaving that place. They need to walk out of that atmosphere. Because he knew that he didn’t satisfy Aiba with any good answer, and it would be an insult to their friendship if Aiba couldn’t already tell that he was hiding something.
“Is it me coming back to school is more important than you being here?”
“No” Sho sighed softly, gripping Aiba’s wrist to the point that he could almost feel his pulse. “It’s you having a future is more important than me being here”
“A future without you here?”
Sho stared at Aiba, his face unchanging. He was determent for that one decision he made for himself and he had thought about the good consequences it could give to Aiba, so no whining, no wavering. Suck it up. In the end, nothing could worth more.
“I’ll have my future, there’s nothing to worry about”
Aiba tugged his hand and looked away. “You had a chance to stay, but I don’t have a chance to run away-- even now. Why gave that up? You’ll end up being lonely in a foreign country while I’ll be here serving people the just the way I should be. You’ll be gone…and I’ll have nothing”
Sho made a sigh and sat beside Aiba again; smiling at him with the usual affection he had since they first saw each other. Sho knew that the restaurant doesn’t suit him. Aiba always wanted to have things his way, meaning that he always wanted something more; he has determination that shows in colorful bubbles. He always liked Aiba that way and he wasn’t going to let Aiba gives it up or the world to take it away from him.
“You’ll have a chance.”
****
Naturally, just naturally, the world is connected in some odd ways. The words that someone says from the other side of the world could reach someone from far away and maybe, just naturally, change their life. A bad day in someone life could result to a good day to another. A simple smile from a stranger far ahead, could give a healing effect to another. Odd, but could naturally happen.
“It would have been better if he had given me something I could use properly, this thing is…” Hana mumbled to herself as she pulled out the glittery bag from inside her school bag, subconsciously too embarrass to actually hold it in her hand.
“…and I can’t throw it either. He’ll make me suffer-” She lifted it up a little to see it properly, and suddenly noticed the ‘free for buying ME’ tag on it.
“Ah?”
Suddenly someone came running from behind her and at a blink of an eye
“AAAH!!!”
She watched as the fast figure ran past her and tugged the bag she was holding. Her eyes were fixed on the glittering pink bag that the man was gripping as he disappeared around the corner. Hana blinked with her mouth slightly opened.
“Ah…”
She froze for a moment in silence as many relentless things ran through her mind; the uselessness of that mugging because the bag was empties anyway, the death threat that might come tagging along with it, but then again it wasn’t her fault. She stood there due to her muscles straining from the surprise, after awhile she started walking again with a mixed feeling of shock, nervous and relived.
“I got rid of that, somehow…”
****
If anything was magical, Jun knew that the stage was. He would have the strongest feel whenever he stood there looking at the crowd. It made him feel complete in the simplest way; as though it was something he was born with. He knew that it was something he would be good at, naturally, but not with lack of practice and endurance.
But that one particular day, he was standing there with knots in his stomach, butterflies or other inhabitants that shouldn’t actually be there. He ate and slept and woke up after two hours just before midnight to repeat the steps, and then he woke up again, staring out the window wondering what tomorrow would be like. It was very unusual for him to act that way; about other things, maybe, but never when it comes to performing. The stage had always been the perfect place to stand on, his place that he could grip on strong without shaking or contemplating. Yet, there he was, looking down at the crowd with dryness in his throat.
“I really hate waiting” He whispered to himself. “They will come of course”
That didn’t sound weird at all. Of course they would, what else would be more important than watching his play. Nothing.
He bit his lips and squatted, so that he wouldn’t throw up.
Of course the past years taught him that there could be something more important than his play; misunderstandings, egoistic manner, misunderstandings and even ramen. But this one was important. It’s the last one, the most special one. At least he thought so. And then he couldn’t help but wonder if he was the only one.