Title : The Noisy Empty Room (Chapter 1)
Author :
lovu_lovu_aiba Beta :
andreja1989 *yay we start something new together again XD*
Pairing : Sakuraiba
Genre : AU, Romance, psychological
Rating : PG13 (for now) :D
Disclaimer : The boys aren't mine, I really hope I own them tho XD
Summary : Sakurai Sho, an introvert and normal psychology student, his world was somersaulted after he got a confession from Aiba Masaki, a popular weirdo from music department. But how if Aiba forgot that he talked to Sho in the very next day? Or the shocking fact that Aiba has more than one personality?
~*~
First Entry
Spring, March 21st
Hello, Sakurai Sho here…
It’s Sakurai Sho’s journal!
Okay, I feel stupid. I don’t know why did my lecturer ask me to write this journal? Maybe because my grades are not good enough? But I always am a number one in my class, no-in my university. It doesn’t change the fact that my lecturer just lectured me about how rigid I am, I mean he didn’t even tell me what happened to me, he just said, “You have to be more flexible, explore about yourself more and write a journal, find a case and write it in your journal, be yourself. I want to see about you more Sakurai!”
He didn’t tell me which part should I focus on! I feel lost and I know he will read my journal someday so I just need to rip this page. Whatever.
To-do-list:
- Find a case just like lecturer instructed you to, go to the library.
- Find a date for university festival << impossible, get rid of it Sakurai! You are not popular.
- Do the laundry.
- And do the dishes if I have time.
Sho dragged his feet lazily, ignored the sakura petals that were falling, colored the dark soil with beautiful baby pink. His mind was wandering around his journal, class, but grumbled so suddenly when his stomach screamed for super late breakfast, he groaned impatiently when he realized he needed to walk two blocks away to get a box of food, which is not possible because his class will start in ten minutes. He started to fasten his pace when he heard the rushed steps echo from the asphalt. Suddenly everything happened so fast, a tall guy passed by him running like there is no tomorrow and before Sho had a chance to think about anything, the guy stumbled over his feet and fell to the ground really hard.
Sho gasped loudly as he ran toward him, his voice worried, “Are you okay?”
The guy brought himself to sit slowly. His right elbow was bleeding while there was a red scratch on his cheek. “Lucky I left my saxophone in my locker…” he mumbled lowly and grimaced because of his hurt elbow.
Sho started to gather the guy’s things together as they scattered on the road when the guy fell, “Are you okay? Can you stand up?” he asked the guy again.
He looked at Sho, but instead receiving an answer, Sho could see the color of the guy’s cheek change, from pink to red. “Sho- Sho-chan…”
“Eh?” For the first time in his life Sho had no clue at all about the thing that just happened at that moment. Was it just his imagination or did a stranger just call him by his first name?
“Sho-chan! I like you!!” Sho gaped, his mouth widely open and unable to grasp the situation he was in. A bleeding stranger confessed to him in the middle of the road? He just needed someone to slap him and bring him back to earth. Maybe it was because he thought too much about his journal which turned him crazy and consecutively, he started to imagine things?
Suddenly the stranger closed his eyes tightly and his condition as if he was in trance. Sho felt too many things happened in the least two minutes, now there is a possibility that the stranger was dead? But he was still breathing… After some moments he opened his eyes again and Sho felt a cold sensation run down his spine when he looked into the other eyes. He had the weird feeling that he faced a different person; the gaze in the other’s eyes was totally different.
“Stupid…” the guy mumbled as he took his things from Sho, somehow Sho got a feeling that the guy wasn’t addressing him. “I’m sorry for what had happened, thank you, I hope I didn’t make you late…”
The stranger checked his watch, “Because I just caused myself to be late…” he stood up fast and started to walk.
Sho stayed still in the middle of the road while he tried to conclude everything that happened. A stranger fell, he helped but apparently the stranger knew his name and called him by his first name, then confessed to him but then he left him in confusion, without any explanation? Sho tried to dig out a reasonable answer from his head but he found nothing.
Sho couldn’t concentrate on anything he did because of this matter, he just felt that something was wrong and obviously he needed to learn more about the man who just confessed-then-ran away from him. He spaced out in class although he was late already which is one of unforgivable actions for Sho. The guy he just met is just… unbelievable in all aspects… he didn’t even understand himself and in the end Sho just couldn’t leave the matter unsettled. He walked out from class, felt empty and blank, without notes and even without processing anything said by his lecturer.
He walked along the hallway while thinking about the possibility of the strange guy’s school, he mentioned about saxophone and he ran from the same direction as Sho’s apartment was. Shocked, he slapped his own face, scolding himself, don’t make yourself act like a stalker Sho!
He almost slapped himself for the second time when he saw the guy sit under the tree, he stood out so much not only because of the fact that he looked so beautiful with the brown-almost-cooper-like-color hair, doe-like eyes and slender figure but also how he ignored all people that stared at him and remained concentrated on his game. He was the same guy as the run-away-guy from this morning. Sho emboldened himself to approach the guy who didn’t bother to look around, nor to care about someone who suddenly stood beside him and looked like he waited for him.
“Ummm… excuse me…” Sho cleared his throat, actually to gain the guy’s attention.
The guy looked annoyed, pushed the start button to pause his game and lifted his face as he encountered Sho, “What is it? Who are you?”
Sho opened his mouth but no voice came out, He thought he would go insane soon, the guy who called him by his first name this morning just asked about his name. The guy frowned to the speechless Sho while his face slowly changed as if he noticed something, “Oh~ you are Sakurai Sho…”
Sho still wasn’t able to compose himself and make any move to answer the question but the guy understood too fast, “Wait… are you gay?” The comprehension and interest radiated from his eyes.
“What?” Sho gasped in shock, it wasn’t like he felt the guy offended him by saying he is a gay but it was just… Sho tried to describe his feeling or position but he couldn’t find any remarked words for it.
The guy laughed as he said, “You are interesting Sakurai-san…” He opened his bag, put his DS inside it and smiled to Sho again before walking away.
“Wait!” Sho caught after him fast, stopped him by pulling his arm.
“Wow, you are interested in Ma-me that much?” He looked at Sho, his gaze somehow made Sho stunned, not because he was afraid or he because he would like that guy, Sho just felt creepy because the gaze was totally different from when he met him this morning. Although he got random confession this morning but he could feel the honesty in the guy’s eyes but this gaze was just different, it was too smart, too cunning, Sho could feel his judging gaze.
“It’s not like that, I’m just wondering about this morning,” Sho tried to answer fast before the guy would leave him again.
“About the confession? What do you think?” he smirked smartly, observing Sho and waited for his reply.
“It’s not what I think about!”
“Then what is it about Sakurai-san?” He asked again, tilted his head on the side, while faking his interest.
“How do you know my name?” Sho asked the stranger again.
“It’s not hard,” He smiled and moved hastly to someone near them, “Hey! Can you tell me his name?” The guy pointed to Sho.
“Sakurai Sho?” The student raised his eyebrows in confusion while responding.
He smirked at Sho, “Next question? Don’t ask any boring question anymore,” he clasped his lips when he observed Sho, “Although you are indeed interesting I still don’t understand…”
“Excuse me?”
He smiled, “Nothing, I just tend to talk to myself from time to time… Now, what do you want to know about me?”
“Your name for starters?”
“People call me Aiba Masaki…”
“People call you?” Sho blinked his eyes in confusion, that answer was indeed odd but he shook his thought away, “Okay, so today’s confession is just a joke, Aiba-san?”
“I would love to grant your wish by saying it was a joke, it’s not normal to get confession by a guy right-“
“I didn’t say that!” Sho cut in, slightly frowning but Aiba ignored him.
“That was a serious confession anyway… If you trust me,” he shrugged as if he didn’t care. “But as I expected, you are interested about the confession, it’s a good thing you are gay,” he laughed.
“I didn’t say I’m gay…”
“Nor did you say you are straight,” He cut fast, very smart, Sho thought. “Crap! My part time! I have to go Sakurai-san but I believe we will meet soon, very soon…”
He walked away fast but stopped after five steps and turned back, “Meanwhile, you can make out your mind about if you are gay or you are just not that straight,” He smirked again and ran, ignoring the annoyed Sho.
~*~
Sho didn’t understand why was he so interested in this Aiba Masaki, the guy was beyond what he could understand, he succeeded not to leave Sho’s mind. He could look so clumsy, so independent, yet the other time he looked so bratty and smart. He jumped when he heard his own alarm from his bedroom and asked himself how stupid he could be? He didn’t get any sleep at all because he kept thinking about the new strange guy…? He pushed the button on his clock to turn it off as he thought to skip today’s class. He dragged himself lazily to the kitchen as he suddenly heard a loud sound outside his door, like someone crushed himself to a board.
“Damn! What is that?” Sho stomped out of his apartment and found someone kneel in front of his door. “Are you okay?” Sho asked while tried to see clearly in the dim sunrise light.
“O-kay… I-I’m sorry... I just can’t walk straightly, crushed a dozen of bicycles…” He mumbled incoherently, he was drunk. Sho flinched when he saw the wound on the guy’s elbow, his mind worked so slow that it made Sho growl from frustration. Of course he said they would meet again really soon, “Aiba-san?”
The guy raised his head and Sho could see his pale face because of the hangover, the wet hair patched on his temple. He looks sick… but not a tiny bit less beautiful. Sho was wondering if there existed another person who looked messed up like this but beautiful at the same time. He felt amused when the guy’s cheeks turned pink once again. “You live around here Aiba-san?”
“I-I live next door…” He pointed to the door beside Sho’s room. The gesture made Sho look at the door next to his apartment and back to the guy who still knelt in front of his room.
“I see…” Sho nodded as a sign of understanding, while an awkward silence possessed among them, “Urm… I have a bottle of a energy drink if you want it…” Sho smiled awkwardly to Aiba. Yes, he just invited Aiba to come to his room…
They ended sitting face to face on Sho’s futon, Aiba played with the bottle cap in his hand, Sho slurped his instant coffee while Aiba stared at him intensely. “I’m sorry, coffee is not good for the hangover…”
The guy in front of him smiled brightly and shook his head, “I never expected I will be in Sho-chan’s room someday and see you sip your coffee…”
“You called me Sho-chan again…” Sho frowned at the thought about how easy this guy could confuse him.
“I’m sorry!” the guy apologized and blushed deeply as if he was caught staring at Sho too much. “I just imagined I would call you Sho-chan if we talk…”
Aiba drank from his bottle but choked at the same time which made the other man laugh, “That’s not what I meant, it’s okay to call me Sho, it’s just… you called me Sakurai-san before…”
“I did?” Aiba frowned and looked at Sho, confused.
“You did… when we talked on my university ground…”
“We talked on your university ground?” he looked even more confused, his mind not understanding what Sho tried to explain to him.
For a second Sho could see the anxiety on his expression, “You don’t remember it?”
He carefully looked at Sho and shook his head, “But it’s normal for me to not remember something… I tend to lose my memory a lot, like I can’t remember how I ended sleeping in the bar today…”
It’s not normal…
“But you remember that you talked to me yesterday?”
“Yes, in the morning… and I…” he stopped in the middle of his sentence as he felt his face burning again. “I just thought I won’t have another chance to talk to you… so…”
Sho frowned, he couldn’t accept ‘it’s normal’ for someone who lost his memory regularly. It couldn’t be Alzheimer because he remembered he met Sho in the morning and it wasn’t temporary either, he lost his memory from to time to time but it was still permanently. The guy he talked to at this moment was the same guy that he met in the morning, who called him Sho-chan and easily lost balance everywhere, who would blush every time Sho looked into his eyes. But the one who talked to him on the university ground… It felt like he talked to a different person. The way he talked, the way he looked at Sho was different but Aiba still remembered that he is Sakurai Sho although he called Sho ‘Sakurai-san’. Sho grunted in frustration, not grasping why in the hell he felt so confused? It felt like he needed to find an answer but that answer seemed blurred for him as if he tried to find a way out of the foggy environment,still he could feel the answer slowly coming.
“Aiba-san… I think it’s not normal to lose memory…” Sho talked his thoughts slowly while Aiba looked at him, his eyes bigger in confusion.
“But…” For the second time Sho saw it again, that moment but this time Aiba didn’t close his eyes, Sho only saw how empty his look was for some seconds. Sho turned his head to see if there was something behind him because Aiba seemed to concentrate on a point behind his back until he turned back and saw Aiba looking back at him.
“I think I talk too much about myself… It’s so not polite of me…” He bowed to Sho. “I think it’s time to leave, thank you for the energy drink…”
He rose up swiftly and bowed lightly to Sho again, while the later stared at his back because he wasn’t able to say anything…
It was wrong…
That’s not it…
He will run away again…
Sho stood up fast and caught Aiba’s wrist, the later looked at him while Sho who was still in his own shock said, “You are not Aiba-san, who are you?”
~*~
A/N : After almost 3 months I started a new multi chapter yayy~
It won't be long I guess, and won't be so angsty like my usual multi chapter~ I can't promise I will able to update regularly like I usually do, but I will try my best, so at least you will get a new chapter every 2 weeks, maybe be shorter than that depends on how bitch my lecturer at the moment lol and other works :D
My problem with confident is getting worse lately, not mention about trust :D
But you can always leave the honest comment for me, I would love to read <3 and always feel grateful~
continue? no?