My Sweet Roomies Re-Written (Tegemi Mikahara/ Misaki Fujinaga Route

Chapter 23 - Mother's Memento.

"Come, sit down."

I'm suddenly invited into Tegemi's room. She slowly sits down on her bed and pats next to her.

"Ah, umm...Ok." I sit down on the bed next to her as I'm told.

(Why on the bed? We can sit on the floor next to her coffee table...)

Fidgeting restlessly, I glance at her.

She looks at the rain outside her window.

"It looks like it's started raining again."

"It's been a long time since I've had much this fun on a rainy day," she says that, and lets out a small laugh.

"You don't like the rain, Tegemi?"

"It's not that..."

"I'm just not very good with rain."

(not good with rain? Does the rain brings back bad memories?)

Only the gush of rain can be heard by the silence that engulfs us for a moment.

(Should I ask her...about the rain?)

I think a little uncertain, then...

"Mina..."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you worry."

"Ah, no...it's nothing."

"If I don't tell you now, I'm sure you'll just worry more."

She lets out a deep sigh.

"The rain..."

"It always brings back bad memories..."

"I always feel like this when the rainy season is around." She slowly begins to share more about herself.

"Every time it rains it reminds me of my parent's death..."

(I knew it could be something like that...)

All I know about her parents' death is that it happened when she was very young.

She suddenly looks down.

"My mother and father..."

"It was around this time of year...On a rainy day..."

"My parents died in a car accident..."

I unconsciously breathe in.

She looks in pain, but continues speaking.

"So every time the rainy season comes around I remember..."

"An accident..."

She nods slowly.

(So that's why she's always sad when the rain comes...)

There's no way to avoid the rainy season.

When I think about the bad memories it brings back to her, year in, year out...

My heart hurts for her...

"Rei, said that you seem even more down than normal this year?"

She smiles glumly.

"That's because of this..."

Her eyes fall on the parcel that arrived several days earlier.

"What's in it?" I asked caustiously.

"It's..."

" A memento of my dead mother..."

She opens the box, and inside is an old broken watch.

She takes it out carefully.

(this belonged to her mother...) I look at it carefully holding it in my hand the watch glass face has a crack in it and the time seem to stop at 3:35 pm her mom must be wearing this by the time of their demise...

"I thought it was lost when I moved away from the orphanage..."

"My foster mother found it recently."

Just then, I suddenly remember her conversation on a phone with her foster mother she said something about her real mother's watch, that what must be the call is all about.

When I think about it, that was when she started acting strange.

"My mother got this watch from my father as a present, a long time ago..."

Her smile has a hint of nostalgia and loneliness.

"It was my mother's treasure possession, it's something dear to me."

"When I was young I used to always ask her to give it to me."

"Really? And what did your mother say?"

"She said she'll give to me when I'm older."

"I bet she didn't expect I'd get it like this..." she lets off a sad smile.

"Tegemi..."

She clutches the watch close to her heart.

"Mina."

With her sullen smile she looks at me.

"Don't leave....ok?"

"Huh? I'm not going anywhere Tegemi." I smiled at her confusedly (what does she mean?)

Then she slowly comes closer to me.

She lean her head on my shoulder.

(Tegemi?)

"Hey..."

"I've been having a really bad dream lately."

"It's about you, and the other member of the Famille'..."

"You all left, leaving me alone in this house..."

"Ehehe, I know, it sounds stupid..."

"That wouldn't happen...well it probably will, sometimes when you guys get to have your own family."

"But not sooner, I mean the girls are still in there college, and busy pursuing their own careers." I assured her.

"I know ehehehe, I probably got married first when it comes to that." she said smiling forcefully.

(her getting married huh...)

"But if ever...especially if you leave me..."

"Especially me?

"Uh, umm...I mean..." she gasps.

She couldn't finish her sentence, she trembles a little, with her head leaning closer to my chest.

(crap I bet she can hear how my heart is beating so fast right now...)

(but what does she mean, by saying especially me?)

(this might be a chance to tell her how I feel.)

"It's alright...i..."

"I will never leave you..."

(Wait that's not what I wanted to say.)

"We'll stay with you forever Tegemi, all of us!"

"I know..." she said smiling softly.

She slowly moves away from me.

"Thank you." Her smiles is weak, but it appears that the small burden on her shoulders has been lifted.

"It's my pleasure Tegemi."

"I'm sorry...I'm always making you worry..."

"There's nothing to apologize, really."

I don't want to see her in pain, I won't take any more of it...