COMING OF AGE | Nishimura Riki

023 | out of thier minds

sato mai
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Despite being with Ni-ki at the warehouse once, it feels weird to be here without him. Everything reminds me of him, every piece of this building holds a memory of him. It's strange how memories affect us just by existing in our heads.

Once a memory stops being relevant or hasn't been recalled, we forget it. That makes me wonder how many memories I have forgotten.

When I reached the center of the building, my eyes caught Eito sitting by himself on the skate ramp. He noticed me and chuckled before he jumped off the skate ramp to walk closer to me.

"I forgot it is a weekday today and you have school" Eito said.

"Or are you just surprised that people our age attend school?" I replied with a chuckle.

"I'm more surprised to see you alone actually. I expected to see you with your good-looking friend again" Eito responded.

It seems like I'm not the only one who finds it weird to come here alone. Even Eito notices it and points it out, just like it was odd to see me by myself. Ni-ki is good at leaving marks on other people's memories. It's not easy to forget him.

"Are you two dating?" Eito asked all of a sudden.

I stared at him out of concussion, trying to process Eito's question. He thinks me and Ni-ki are dating? He thinks that Ni-ki who is a good-looking member of the posh society class would be into dating me? I'm sure Ni-ki would feel ashamed if he heard this conversation.

"Are you out of your mind? Being seen with me would already be embarrassing enough for him, why would he want to date me?" I asked back.

"Do you think he would feel embarrassed to be seen with you? That guy's eyes light up brighter than the sun when he looks at you. He also was seen with you here a whole day. I don't know a lot about him, but he is for sure into you" Eito answered.

Ni-ki is into me? I normally trust Eito since he is the type of person who prefers to spit out the harsh truth instead of turning it into harmful lies. But right now, I don't trust him at all. I understand the reason why Eito thinks like he does, I just don't see the logic.

As I said earlier, I'm sure Ni-ki would feel ashamed if he heard this conversation.

"Stop talking nonsense and come to the point. What am I doing here?" I said.

"We had a delivery the other day that contained goods we didn't order. I believe they mixed up our packages with someone else and I didn't notice it until last night" Eito explained.

"So?" I responded.

"Would you like to try them?" Eito asked with a smirk.

Instead of answering him, I turned my back and was ready to walk away but Eito grabbed my shoulder to stop me from walking away. A part of me knew he was joking and I wanted to play along, but it also wouldn't surprise me if Eito was serious.

"You have the best customers among us, so I want to give them to you. The opportunity to perform mischief is also right in front of you since snobs are willing to purchase anything when they see a new item in the market" Eito said.

"I also hope you bring in some extra money now when your Dad is getting released soon" Eito added with a smile.

"How did you know?" I asked out of confusion.

"Rumors" He answered while he shrugged his shoulders.

"How are you feeling about your Dad getting released?" Eito asked me as we started to walk to the storage room.

"There are very mixed feelings going on because, at the end of the day, me and my Dad are probably the only ones who are and will ever be happy about this. The rest of the world will be thrown into frustration, especially the royal family" I answered.

"The Crown Prince goes to Kinmyaku, apparently. I don't know that much about him other than he exists. I try my best to not focus on him and the rest of the royal family, but sometimes I can't help but wonder how things are going to change once the news is out" I added.

The power the royal family has is no joke. If something is going to stop me from reuniting with my Dad, it's going to be the royal family. It wouldn't surprise me if a war breaks out once the news arrives.

To be honest, I would rather let my Dad rot in a prison cell than risk losing him again because the royal family are out of their minds. I refuse to let them win again, they had no right to take my Dad away from me, and they still have no right to do it again.

"Do people still care about that though? I mean, it's been like a decade since it happened?" Eito asked.

"We have to wait and see whether people still care about it or not. I just know for sure it's not forgotten, especially in the environment I spend my days in" I answered.

It felt like a heavy shadow covered me as I started to think about my school environment. I usually leave judgments behind me because I do not have the energy to care about them, but in this case scenario, it's the only thing I can think about.

There will be a lot of drastic changes as soon as the news is revealed to the rest of the world, and I'm not going to be prepared for those drastic changes and I hate it. One day, I'm gonna wake up and everything I know will be unknown.

Everything I want is to live a simple life with my Dad and spend my days doing foolish activities with Ni-ki, but that seems to be too much to ask. Haunted thoughts inside my head are predicting that I will lose one of them while I am willing to do anything to keep them both close to me.

I don't want to lose my Dad a second time. And I don't want to lose Ni-ki before I'm even given the chance to say that I like him out loud.