The Goats Are Traveling the World, but No One Took Them Out of the Suitcase

Survival mode stopped working when she sat on the edge of the hotel bed in one of the last available rooms. She didn't care about luxury; after all, she hadn't planned to come here at all. The girl took a deep breath and let it out for a moment, as if it were her first normal breath in a good dozen hours. She looked around the quite cozy room, trying to convince herself that she was safe.

Foreign country, language, culture, everything… foreign. She started laughing hysterically and didn't even notice the tears dripping onto her hands clenched in her laps. She opened them and moved her fingers, as if she had to remind herself that she had control over her own body and therefore over her life. Tears were wiped away, but they wouldn't stop flowing; since nothing was stopping them anymore, they could use their cleansing power to the full.

She pulled out her phone, but was afraid to turn it on. She wasn't ready to face what she might find there. But she was more terrified of her possible reaction. Fear at the threats, or remorse for running away, or maybe hope would resurface in her and a willingness to forgive at the fiery promises of improvement. She nodded her head violently; she couldn't afford that; she couldn't let herself be fooled this time, because there would be no more chance to escape again. This time had to be the first and the last one, so the device landed on the desk, knowing that sooner or later she would have to face it.

She lay down, but for a long time she couldn't fall asleep; hence, she took a shower, but even that didn't help her calm the anxiety that was demanding attention. She curled up under the blanket, realizing that she had gotten used to his presence and felt his absence. Not only that, but she was also simply afraid that when she woke up, it would all turn out to be just a strangely real dream, and she was still stuck in the nightmare of everyday life.

She got up and looked at her phone; she wanted to reach for it to stifle the feeling of loneliness, but… No one, except him, was looking for her; no one missed or worried about her, and this one person just couldn't find out where she was. The girl closed her eyes and, for some reason, remembered the young man who had helped her earlier. She only regretted that she hadn't thanked him differently after the way she had behaved.

Her first instinct was indeed frightened. At the airport, someone directed her to a bus. She got on and waited for it to depart without any idea where to go, so she got off at the bus stop when she felt it was the right place. That was when it began to dawn on her that choosing Japan might not have been the best idea, but it was far enough away and the flight was fast enough. By a stroke of fate, she managed to buy a ticket for one of the last available seats. So she sat on that bench with a blank mind, hungry, cold, and no desire to even think about what she should do now.

Wallowed in this state, when this nice man pulled her out of it, she simply ran away. And it took her a moment to understand that he only wanted to help her; she was surprised that, despite her behavior, he decided to take her to the hotel anyway. She still remained distrustful, but as she boarded the plane to the unknown, she engraved one resolution in her heart: Do not trust men. And she was not going to make an exception for him, although she still thought that her thanks were not enough, and with that thought she finally fell into a restless sleep.

When she woke up, she looked at the watch half-consciously; many hours had passed, almost a day since that meeting. She checked if she was definitely in a foreign country and smiled shyly. For now, the escape had been successful, but… She shook her head, and she would worry about the rest later. The runaway decided to take care of the matter that had been keeping her awake earlier.

She first looked through her things; although she didn't think anything would be suitable as a gift, she had no one to bring souvenirs to. At the very bottom of the suitcase she found a magnet, bought on impulse at the airport, to remind her of home. She stroked the goats on it, the symbol of the city she came from, and sighed. I guess they won't mind if I give them away, she laughed to herself, hoping they would end up in a good home after all.

Time passed at its own pace, not caring that the girl had to leave by a certain hour to somehow catch the nice man. She should have kept track of the instructions herself, since the matter was so important to her. Finally, the girl looked at the watch and threw a loud curse into the air.

She didn't make it. She waited for some time, but the lack of lights in the windows convinced her that there was no point; everyone had already left. The next day she turned on her phone; the decision was not easy, but the device could be helpful, if only as a translator. However, the number of messages overwhelmed her, and she hid the phone under the pillow, just to drown out the beeping of notifications. It took away her desire to go anywhere. The next day was Friday; everyone managed to finish work a little earlier, and then the weekend, which also didn't allow her to fulfill her plans.

She didn't go far from the hotel; she ate at the restaurant there and read information brochures, trying to memorize a few basic phrases in Japanese. She slept a lot, as if she needed to rest for the past few years. After all these days, she still hadn't read all the messages; more time and, above all, distance were necessary, but at least she had turned off all notifications.

On Monday, she made one last attempt; she waited on the same bench since early and watched the employees leaving the building. She had to admit it was a difficult task; in her eyes, they all looked almost identical. The girl regretted not taking a closer look at him then, but she didn't think she would have to find his face in the crowd one day.

She was slowly losing hope; the hour they had first met, she had assumed it was the hour they finished work, had long since passed. She got up and walked a bit to warm up, came back, and repeated this short walk several times. Finally, she decided that this would be the last. She was already taking steps towards the hotel when someone loudly called someone's name. Something made her turn around at that moment.

The girl had so much time, and yet she hadn't thought carefully about what she would do when they met again. She walked toward him; he was talking to someone; she patted him on the shoulder. She knew it was rude, but she couldn't wait, because the courage was already abandoning her. Hence, she pressed the magnet into his hands, tried to thank him in Japanese, but stumbled in ari and ran away, feeling her cheeks burn.

“Hikaru…” She managed to hear before she betook herself off, seconds later running.