from the start | ran takahashi

Chapter 3

'Whatever..' I'd always say.

After getting him a souvenir, I turned around to bump into someone.

"Mi dispiace tanto! I'm sorry.." I bowed, feeling bad.

"Va tutto bene, non preoccurparti. Are you okay?" The man in front of me asked.

I didn't understand what he said at first, but was quick enough to pick up on his last sentence.

"I'm alright, thank you.." I smiled sheepishly.

I noticed that the person in front of me was an asian-looking man. He was tall and had black fluffy hair. He was wearing a white tee with a dark blue shirt on top and a pair of black slacks.

I questioned how he was fluent in Italian but kept it to myself.

"Where are you from?" He asked tilting his head.

'That's kind of cute coming from such a tall man.'

"Oh.. I'm Japanese!" I replied back with a smile.

"Really?" He asked back in Japanese.

I widened my eyes at the sound of the familiar language.

"Are you Japanese too?" I asked, feeling quite happy to see a Japanese fellow.

He nodded his head until someone called his name.

"Yuki-san!" A familiar voice called out, making the man turn away from me.

I peaked to see who the person was and was horrified to see him. The person that stressed me out the whole day, that gave me a mini panic attack for just following me in my social media account.

The man in front of me, Yuki-san let's say, was tall enough to hide me as I quickly made a run for it, escaping the possible confrontation.

'Thank you for your height.'

I heard him call after me but I disappeared through the busy streets of Milan.

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I finally arrived back to my hotel room, plopping my shopping bags down as I removed my shoes lazily. I hopped on the bed finally opening my phone after a long day.

The first thing I saw was messages from my brother, Ryouta.

Ryouta: hey, how was the workshop.

Ryouta: are you still teaching?

Ryouta: hey

Ryouta: rika where are you?

Ryouta: rika this isnt funny anymore

Ryouta: where the fuck are you?

Ryouta: okay that's it im calling ran

I widened my eyes and quickly exited the chatroom to look for the messages. Anxiety was bubbling up while checking every social media account I own. Until I clicked the request tab to finally see the messages.

Ran: Rika, where are you?

Ran: Ryouta is worried.

Ran: I promised Ryouta I'd look after you and I'm getting worried as well.

Ran: Please reply back or I'm calling the police.

Ran: You have 10 minutes.

The last message was sent 8 minutes ago, making me panic. I replied without thinking so he wouldn't actually call the police for no reason.

Rika: Hey! I'm okay! Sorry for the trouble..

Rika: Please don't call the police T-T

After a few seconds, he replied back.

Ran: Oh, thank God.. Are you safe?

Ran: Where are you?

Rika: I'm at the hotel right now..

Rika: I was just buying some stuff earlier, sorry about that.

Ran: No, that's alright.. just message your brother.

Ran: I think he's panicking right now.

I replied with a thumbs up and went to my brother's chatroom.

After a long scolding session from my brother, he finally let go of me and said his farewell as it was already super late in Japan.

As I was about to close my phone, a notification popped up. I opened it to see a message coming from Ran.

Ran: you probably talked to your brother but just keep us updated so we don't worry.

Ran: good night

I reacted a thumbs up to the messages and finally closed my phone.

'It's going to be a long week.. I really hope I don't have to see him personally..'

I then remembered that I almost did see him earlier if it weren't for that human shield. With the quickest glance, I remembered what he looked like. His brown hair, his shoulders molded through the white tee and his deep voice that echoed to my ears. I blushed at the image and shook my head.

'Why do I still feel this way about you?'