Lenku one-shot stories by Shirai Hisaishi (orphic saudade)

Koi no Yokan

"Really?" That was astounding, Gumo thought. "Yeah, I think so. She's my everything. She's everything I could ask for, you know." He laughed and gave Len's shoulder a weak slap as they crossed the railroad. "I feel so complete whenever I'm around her."

Len laughed with Gumo's musing, which the other guy took it offending. Nothing's funny about his girlfriend-brag so what's Len's point of laughing? The blond quieten down when he noticed Gumo's hand on his shoulder to dig a little deep through his sleeves. Yes, the guy's pissed off. "Wow, I mean. That's so sappy--you're so sappy. I mean, cool." Len patted his friend's shoulder by praising him, if ever it was a praise. "I wish you luck, guys."

"Don't you feel like you have to find someone to complete you, too?" Gumo pulled Len with him as they sat on a bench alongside the park they're walking on. Len was staring at orange canvas in front them, the sky fading with the yellow puffs of clouds stuck there. Incomplete, that word echoed in Len's head as though it was a broken CD played through some portable.

His eyes glanced at his companion, studying Gumo's serious face drawn to the sun's adieu. Len realized it right there, that moment; the answer came to him at that one look at Gumo's ugly face when serious. "Gumo, I feel complete by myself. You, guys, are enough and I shall not crave more affection. Your attention given to the group is enough, bro."

"We're not going to be bachelors forever, Len. All of us will eventually settle down in latter time. When that time came, our attention is not for the group alone. Family becomes priority." Gumo stood as his hands were kept in his pockets, an audible sigh escaped his mouth. It was an uneasy task to convince someone with things he found faulty. It's hard to make people believe stuffs they find unbelievable, especially when their kind of thinking is already closed.

"Then I shall be. . . alone," Len laughed and tapped Gumo's shoulder and ran the other way, departing ways with his nakama to avoid further probing. Gumo sagged his shoulders as he dialed IA's number to check if she was at home, and she was. Next, Oliver. When the blond picked up, Gumo reported his failed mission.

"Thy lad ditched me, sire." Gumo scratched his head, "he still refused the idea of relationships, love and settling down. He even called me sappy! How's that!?"

"Hah, I'd seen this coming. Well, Gumo, you totally are! It's like you won't exist a second if you haven't mentioned IA. Bragging her isn't a good thing, bro. You want Kaito to steal your girl?" Oliver laughed on the other line, so loud it irritated Gumo.

"Just shut up, Oliver. Or else,"

"Yes, yes. Well, we have no choice other than to send Kaito to pursue our Len?" Oliver asked, fiddling his pen at his fingers. A smirk stretched his pallid lips as he listened to Gumo's sigh.

"Are you sure? That douchebag will, of course, use carnal advances to pursue Len."

"What is this? Are you worried 'bout Len, Gumo?" Oliver chuckled and heard Gumo's reply that chastity is important. "You're surely a conservative old man. Worry not about Len! He is, as he called, rational."

Len slumped on his bed, face down. The Script songs played on his stereo, blocking the noise coming from his parents' argument downstairs. Every day is a new reason for them to keep on nagging. And he is running out of reasons why he shouldn't intrude their daily lifestyle. His parents are both working; they have stable jobs. But they are not as good as they used to be. Beginning the day his mom lost his sibling while s/he was conceived, his parents began blaming each other for the loss. Right then, when Len was only 10, he knew that love between his mom and dad was lost.

"How can someone avail to have a life like this in the future?" Len murmured, fists clenching against the sheets. He directed the blame to his parents for he grew disbelieving the foolish irrational concept of love. A bitter laugh escaped his throat as he indulged himself with the songs, rather than his parents' incessant heated quarrel. Oliver and Gumo's attempt of encouraging him to get a girlfriend, though failed to convince him, was funny. It was in his own bewilderment why his guys were busying themselves with his love life. Don't they get that he was enough?