Our Other Place In The Sun

Chapter 16 (Subaru's Long Lost Journal)

It was nearing dinner time. Rem assisted with making dinner for the entire household with Naoko. The only one who wasn't participating in dinner was Kenichi because he had a late shift that night. After dinner was prepared Naoko, Rem, and Subaru sat at the table to eat.

"Rem, have I ever told you the time when Subaru got beat up by one of his classmates?" Naoko said with a smile on her face.

Subaru looked up from his plate. "W-Wait, when was this? I don't recall ever getting in a fight with someone," he said.

"You don't remember? It happened in grade five, when you were just a little kid." Naoko said.

"I still don't remember..." Subaru responded.

"Does the name Tammy ring a bell?"

Hearing the familiar name, Subaru's face immediately dropped and he covered his face as the memories came flooding back to him. "Oh no! Please don't bring that up!" Subaru pleaded.

"Tammy? Subaru, who was Tammy?" Rem asked curiously.

"Tammy was a girl Subaru got beat up by in grade five." Naoko answered.

Rem hugged Subaru tightly. "My poor Subaru" Rem said sympathetically. Subaru was already embarrassed from the story, but was further more embarrassed having his girlfriend hug him in front of his mom.

"And he was so scared to go back to school he faked being sick for a week" Naoko added, while laughing slightly.

Rem's embrace increased as she nuzzled her head in Subaru's chest. "Awww Subaru, Tammy sounds like such a mean girl. I won't let anyone like her hurt you again." Rem said.

"T-Thanks Rem. But I wouldn't call her a girl, she was built like a lumberjack. Her nickname was Big Bertha. She was only in the fifth grade but she had actual muscles" Subaru responded.

After dinner concluded and the dishes were put away, it was time for Subaru and Rem to go to bed. Subaru was curious as to how his Mom remembered what he went through in the fifth grade. He didn't even remember until his Mom brought it up. That memory was so embarrassing Subaru was struggling to remember when he even told his Mom about it.

"I just don't get how my Mom was able to know about Tammy. I never told anyone about that" Subaru said as he got into bed.

"Maybe you told her and just forgot about it" Rem said.

"I would never tell my Mom about that because she would end up telling my Dad, and if he knew I got beat up by a girl he wouldn't let me live that down for years. Even as a kid I knew that" Subaru said.

"Well I don't know, Subaru... How else could she have known?"

"The only other possible way of her knowing was if she read my journal I kept when I was younger..."

Rem grew a giant smile. "You kept a diary? Subaru, that's so sweet," she said.

"It wasn't a diary it was a journal, Rem... I used to write in it all the time when I was younger. That was until I eventually lost it when I was around fifteen and I haven't seen it since"

"Maybe your mother could have found it and decided to read through it and that's the reason why she knew," Rem said.

"Do you really think my Mom read through my journal? Even if she somehow found it, she wouldn't know the code required to open it.

"Code? Subaru, why do you need a code in order to read a journal?" Rem asked.

"The journal I got came with a mini four letter combination lock. If you put the lock on the journal you couldn't open it, but when put in the correct combination it unlocked. I invented a secret language growing up and I used that on the combination lock"