Afterglow

Part 2

O'-two raised a hand to silence the blond. This was the first time that someone actually thought I was a good person. It was just a shame that a pissy jerk like o'-two would disagree with this cinnamon roll.

"Yes, not even this hypocrite. Now, board the train and have a safe trip." O'-two pulled us towards the platform, then pushed us inside when the operator rang the warning bell. This train was weird. It seemed to be run by coal. Wasn't this type of steam engine outdated five decades ago? "By the way, o'-two isn't my real name. I'll see you in Route 39. Yuu, take care of yourself, too. You're the man here so look after this alien, too."

While Yuu agreed excitedly with o'-two, I was about to reach out and hit him when the train started to move. I wasn't only insulted once, but twice. First, this dork called me hypocrite, and now alien. I was pretty sure that o'-two saw me raise a hand so I could hit him. However, I wouldn't forget how his stoic face lit up with a small smile as the train moved away from him.

"Hey, drag racer! Why aren't you coming with us?" I yelled from the window. My long teal hair fluttered in the wind, obstructing the sight of his face. He was getting smaller as the train slowly began to run faster. The railway rattled underneath us noisily along the combustion of the engine.

"I have several things to take care of!" he yelled back. It was bit unclear, but I understood him. He raised a hand and waved a goodbye. I looked away from him as the train went out of the station, and the bright lights of the town underneath us came to vicinity. I heard Yuu gasp beside me, he stuck his head out of the window to glance at the vast orbs of light spreading below. We could see the distant city from here, the magnanimous walls of Ardio and the spherical roof of SELF. Everything seemed tiny and unimportant from the distance. Watching the landscape before us like this left a false notion in my head that Cloture was a peaceful place. Well, it used to be.

The cold wind grazed sharply against our faces. Yuu said something about this scene being nice, and I nodded in agreement. However, there was something in my head saying that this feeling was a tad familiar. I didn't know why, but it did feel awfully nostalgic.

For some reasons, I pictured myself waiting in someone else's living room with the TV turned on. Strangely, Jingle Bells was being sung in that show. I didn't recognize the place, couldn't even recall if I've been into someone else's house besides Diva. But this place in my memory felt so much like home. I was just there, sitting on a couch...watching someone to doze off on the other couch. He opened his eyes and rubbed the sleep from those blue orbs. His face was blurry but his eyes remained clear. I knew those eyes. They reminded me so much of a clear summer sky.

"Let's eat our dinner, Miku," Yuu grabbed my arm and pulled me back inside the train, cutting through my musing. "Don't let the food wait."

Don't let the food wait, huh? I giggled as I sat opposite to Yuu. Tucking a hair behind my ear, I said, "You sounded like someone I know in the past—distant past."

Yuu pointed his disposable fork at me, his eyes wide. "Don't tell me you're seeing your ex-boyfriend in me?! No—look, I'm younger than you! You're like twenty and I'm sixteen! No!"

I shot him a glare. "Dude, no. I'm only eighteen. Shut it. I'm not talking about a specific person or anything. It's just...there's a hazy image in my head when you mention that don't-let-the-food-wait stuff." But surely, Yuu got the same shade of blond like the guy in my vision. Who was he?

We ate our dinner quietly. Shortly after that, Yuu spent the next hours staring at the scene outside, keeping an eye on the capital city as it grew tinier and tinier as we moved away. The air turned colder as the night got deeper that we decided to pull down the window panes. However as we did that, the peaceful image of Ardio we were admiring a few hours ago was wiped off. A huge explosion shocked everyone in the train. Since we were really far from the capital now, it wouldn't affect us. In fact, the explosion just sounded like a fire cracker lot from a distance. And yet, it was more than a fire cracker, of course. Yuu and I watched as the smoke formed like a blazing mushroom, and the city was soon illuminated with various sort of fire...everywhere.

I glanced down at the boy beside me. Everyone in the train was worried now, some were busy contacting their relatives located near the capital. I heard an old lady saying that the signal posts were down in the city now. I looked back to Yuu and watched how red and orange lights flickered in his eyes.

"Yuu? What do the rebels want from me?" I asked, taking a proper seat. This didn't feel right anymore. Many people would die if the revolution went on. "You said I'm not a mere florist. Tell me, do you know who really am I?"

"You," the blond snorted, and it was one of the cutest snorts I heard in my life. "You're worried about the people in Ardio, are you not? I don't think you have to, Miku. Nobody's real in this place. I bet I'm the only one alive in this train. Not even you."

Okay. Where on earth was the cinnamon roll I was talking to a few hours ago? I found it really cringe-worthy when people could dramatically change expressions from a cute smile to a deadly stoic face.

"Oi, that's creepy. Stop saying that." I wanted to slap him just to make him realize how scary his words sounded, but when his face changed expression, I hesitated. Yuu looked so...pained. The horrifying look he had a moment ago melted in to those glistening eyes.

Right that moment I forgot where we were. The time stood still and the commotion vanished as I stared at his face. I didn't pay so much attention when someone started to wail behind me as the news about massive deaths in the city was brought to them. The annoying sound of the rattling railroad as the train passed over it went unnoticed, too. I never really cared about how the people inside the rain were panic-stricken as another explosion illuminated the distant city of Ardio, its light cast shadows on the blond's face. It was just Yuu and I that very moment. There was something in those tears as it fell down from his eyes, and there was something in those words he kept mumbling as he sniffed. He was the only one alive inside the train, he repeated. I reached out a hand and held his hand. He was just a child, a helpless one at that.

"Miku, if I tell you a secret," he lifted his face to meet my eyes. It broke my heart to see him crying like this. Was it the war that scared him? Did he get a trauma after being caught in a shootout? What really happened to Yuu in the past?

"If I tell you a secret, will you laugh at me?" he continued, holding back my hand tightly. I winced while smiling, knowing that my voice would betray me once I spoke. He didn't say a word for another minute, he just filled the silence with hid sobbing and sniffing. When finally calmed down, he looked at me in the eyes.

I didn't know how to react but...I knew he wasn't lying when he said, "Miku, I came here to find my parents and save them from the government. I came from the future, eighteen years from now."

***

a/n. whoo, it's raining ambiguity here and there. *casts hints everywhere. all right. thanks for those who read the previous chapter btw. this story is literally my child so yeah this one's a weird annoying child - hah.