A Tender Warmth

Prologue #2

If only I stayed behind and held him in my arms.

Sousuke looked beside him. He watched Makoto's chest rise and fall. How could he leave such an endearing sight? He didn't know.

His head spun around many thoughts of his one true love. The tall boy quietly stood up off the soft bed and got dressed. How long ago was it that Sousuke realized that he loved Makoto? He didn't know.

The young man searched around Makoto's shabby apartment for paper and a pen. That's what they called the apartment together. They laughed over how shabby, old and haunted it was. He wrote on the notepad:

I love you-

He ripped off the piece of paper and scrunched it up, shoving it in his jacket pocket.

I promise to come back-

He scribbled it out then wrote:

I'll miss you-

Sousuke sighed then scrunched up the piece of paper; pushing it deep into his pocket. He didn't know what to write. He put the notepad and pen back where he found it.

Sousuke unlocked the front door and stepped out into the darkness of the frozen morning. His fingers became stiff from the cold air and he quietly closed the door. His head hurt and his chest tightened from quiet sobs. Tears that refused to fall stung his eyes.

The street lights were glowing and the sky was turning a magenta pink, and where the sun was just peaking, a peach orange hid behind the clouds.

Sousuke didn't want to think of last night, but it all came back in short snippets. Like an old film. He felt something between the two of them and he didn't want it to end. If he could, he'd go back to the fairy tale that it once was.

As he sat on the cold early morning train, he stared down at his phone. Wiping his thumb over the screen, he read over his shared text messages with Makoto multiple times, a smile appearing on his face everytime he thought of him.

An older man was about to sit down beside him on the busy train, so he quickly turned off his phone and put it in his pocket. The small notes made a rustling sound and he remembered about them. He wondered what Makoto was doing at this very moment.

Sousuke lent on his elbow on the bottom of the window and stared out at the towns as the train passed them. Unfamiliar faces, strange buildings and farms stretching out as far as the eye can see passed him unknowingly.