Terminal
Title: Terminal
Chapter: 1/1
Author: kiroyo
Genre: Drama
Warnings: Character death
Disclaimer: I own no one.
Rating: PG13
Pairing: Kai x Reita
Synopsis: He had been taking the midnight feeder service for years, only to be told one day it never existed; the terminal closed at 11:30pm.
Comments: Comments make me happy, like little bits of candy :3
While sipping a coffee, while rinsing hands, while dispensing a soft drink, even until today Kai's mind still wandered back to the drawer of memories at the back of his subconscious. The drawer which would automatically draw itself open at random, permitting childhood memories to stream out like an old black and white classic film. And whenever that happened, Kai would snap back to his senses and laugh sadly at himself for still being unable to forget - at 29 years old - his very first friend, who eventually turned into someone so much more.
Right now, he was on a bus, staring out of the grimy window at a velvet cape of darkness having just knocked off from work half an hour ago. Bringing his wristwatch into view, it reflected 12:10am. He yawned, loosening his tie as he closed his eyes, as fatigue accumulated from the whole day of sorting paperwork kicked in. Kai sighed. He was currently employed at an old factory as a supervisor. It was a lousy job. His working hours were inhumane to begin with, and he had OT almost every single night, and to top it all off, his pay sucked. But Kai couldn't leave. It was a family business after all. He sighed once again at his god awful life with no social ties but only carefree childhood memories to tide him by.
A voice called him out of his self-wallowing misery. Kai peered up to the rear view mirror and nodded in appreciation at the blonde driver. As Kai was the only passenger who took the feeder service at this hour, the bus driver who took this shift naturally remembered where he stopped and got off. Kai was grateful to him as the driver always took the trouble to stop the bus and go down the aisle to gently wake him up when he dozed off from exhaustion. Yes, despite it all, an act of kindness at the end of the day never failed to cheer Kai up a little. Smiling and thanking the driver, Kai alighted the rusty bus, and begun his familiar way home.
However the next day, Kai's routine was broken. When he arrived at the bus terminal, the old bus was not at the lot where it always was. Scratching his head, he headed to the office only to be greeted with an acrylic 'closed' sign chipped at the top left corner. He glanced at his watch. It was 12:06am. Strange, the blonde driver was never late. 12:00am and he would be there in his seat grinning and waving to Kai before jamming the red button to open the creaky doors. Kai frowned. Was he ill? If so, then shouldn't another driver take over his shift? How was he going to get home at this rate? He lived too far to make it back by foot. Dropping his briefcase, Kai fell backwards onto a wooden bench which was ostensibly weathered by winds and rain over the past few decades.
However, just as he was about to give up all hope, an elderly caretaker slowly sweeping the cemented grounds of the terminal came into view. Kai's hopes jumpstarted. "Hey mister!" he called, springing up and grabbing his briefcase as he jogged over to the old man. The old man turned around slowly, his pale blue uniform thinned from endless cycles of washing draped over the curve of his spine, enhancing his already very hunched back. "Yes young man? What are you doing here so late at night?" he replied with a raspy voice. "I'm here to take the feeder which comes at 12am but it's not today here for some reason. And I've been waiting for probably a substitute driver to show up but no one came." Kai explained, gesturing to the direction of where he always boarded the bus. The old man's lips opened to form a slight 'o' and then clamped it shut, making it seem as though a long horizontal line had been struck across his face due to the numerous wrinkles. After a few moments of nothing but chirping of crickets and rustling of trees in the wind, the old man broke the silence and solemnly said, "There has never been a bus scheduled for 12am son. All bus services stop at 11.30pm. I would surely know that the clearest out of everyone working here as I've been here since this terminal was built."
Kai's jaw unhinged and hung open. There was no such bus? What was the old caretaker saying? He had been taking that bus for the longest time, ever since he came back from Tokyo and started working here. And it doesn't exist? Then who or what was ferrying him home all these years? This couldn't be an over prolonged encounter with the supernatural...
"Oh wait! Don't tell me, good heavens! You're that young man!"
Kai startled, his train of thoughts abruptly broken by the scratchy voice of the old man whose volume went up a notch.
"So you're the one he talked about all the time! No one's allowed to drive buses after the terminal's closed, but he was such a nice chap I decided to let him, 'cause he wanted to give you a ride home every night and ensure you get back safely. He said your residence is too far for you to walk and get proper sleep for the next day of work too. Such a nice young man he was. Such a nice young man."
"What are you talking about? Who is this young man? He wasn't a bus driver?" Kai whispered, his throat hurting as it suddenly ran dry.
"Akira of course! The odd-job chap! He had a heart of gold. Do you know that he used all the bus fares you paid to buy groceries and daily necessities for me 'cause he knew it's tiring for an old man like me to go all the way to the other town to get them? Such a nice young man. Such a pity too." the old man sighed sadly, shaking his balding head in dismay.
Akira? That name resonated in his head, getting louder and louder each time he repeated it mentally. Suzuki Akira? This time, the drawers burst open and memories exploded, revealing snippets of Kai and another child folding paper airplanes, Kai and the same toddler playing by a lake, then the film fast-forwarded: Kai and an adolescent crying. Kai himself was standing a meter away from them, watching his younger self mouthing the words he remembered till this day. "I'm moving. It would be better for both of us to forget each other. I doubt we'd see each other again. Bye Akira." Then that scene changed to one of Kai in high school, in a bookshop, at a cafe, and everywhere else. He was surrounded by many people, as compared to his earliest memories where he was always with a particular individual, and yet, all those short films casting him and several others were all tinged with shades of grey.
A cool impact upon his skin brought him back to reality. A slight breeze caressed his cheeks, and brought to his attention the presence of tears on his face. Kai hurriedly wiped them away with the back of his hand.
"Akira? So where is he now? Is he ill that's why he couldn't come today?"
Instead of replying him, the old man averted his cloudy eyes and sighed again.
Shock that came in the form of tendrils crept up his veins. No...
"Hold on. What did you say earlier on? He was a nice chap? He had a heart of gold? Why did you refer to him in that manner?" Kai's voice shook as he trembled for repose. It must be the old people's way of speaking. Not everyone was linguistically fluent right? Not everyone had a chance to be educated. Not everyone-
"He passed away this morning son," came the sorrowful reply of the elderly caretaker, shaking his head in consternation once more.
Kai could only hear the thud of his briefcase against the ground.
"It was an accident on the way here. He was on his way back from the other town to get things for me. But the bags overloaded his motorcycle and he lost balance while making a turn." the old man said, his voice breaking off at the end. "I'm truly sorry young man. It was my fault he died."
But Kai couldn't register that. He couldn't find the will to hate or even be angry at the old caretaker. His entire being was at such a loss that he couldn't do anything but stare straight ahead.
"Come with me." A skeletal hand closed around Kai's wrist and led him to the small field behind the terminal, where a small tombstone sat accompanied with a photograph of the driver Kai was so used to seeing in a wooden frame. The only other decorative was a single yellow flower stalk.
"He always used to talk about you, Yutaka. About his childhood and the mischief you both would get up to. And his dream of becoming an engineer so he could go to Tokyo and find you. And when he found out that you had returned, he was ecstatic, and leapt at the chance to shuttle you home every night when you wandered into the terminal for the first time years ago. He recognised you instantly you know? But when I asked him why he didn't approach you and identify himself, he said that you have forgotten him, and that he was more than happy to just be near you, even if it was just a mere 15 minutes a day. He was stupid. That's what I told him. A hopeless fool in love, he was. And look, it's all too late now." The old man said, smiling sadly at the photograph before them. "But he was a good lad. I'm certain he's at a better place now. A place better than this dreary town by a hundred fold." Patting Kai's shoulder, the old man slowly turned around and shuffled back to the terminal.
Kai could do nothing but crumble to his knees. He knelt in front of the stone and wept. The old man was right, it was all too late. It wasn't the old man's fault for Akira's death at all. It was all Kai's. Kai whose parting words caused both of them so much pain and agony which had somewhat subsided over the years only to be resurfaced now. He wept, for the loss of his first love, for the naivety of his words, and for the stupidity which forbade him to recognise Akira.
Hours later when the sun rose and emerged from the roof of rundown apartments, Kai could only see rays of grey in different tones. Grey, the colour, or rather, the absence of it which tinted Kai's memories, would now always be an incessant reminder of the one who departed the terminal, his life, and his future.