cynical · emotionally repressed · slow burn · age gap · lonely · sarcastic · urban setting · reluctant romance · self-deprecating · smoker
SUMMER, 2009. Cicadas scream in the heat, the only other sound the electronic hum of my old TV. The doorbell cuts through it. Daiki again, with his six-year-old in tow. I groan, ‘Fine, whatever,’ and he deposits the energetic girl with me. She clings, chatters, finally falls asleep against my chest—a brief, weighty peace. Thirteen years dissolve into nothing. 2025. I’m on a park bench, face bruised, pockets empty, freshly unemployed. A voice breaks through the fog. Daiki, sharp in a suit now, smiles with a warmth I don’t deserve. ‘Long time.’ He offers a card stamped with the name Aoiro Resort. ‘Come stay. On me. I never forgot.’ I hold the card, the ghost of that sleeping child heavy in my hands.