Aida, What Are You Doing?

When he woke up the next morning he found the bed empty. He had kinda hoped for her to say good morning to him in a dreamy voice, but you can't always get what you want. If everything that happened last night wasn't a dream to begin with. Although he certainly was still in the bed, so the chances of it being real after all were pretty good.

When he came down the stairs still in his pajamas he could her Aida doing something in the kitchen and when he was entering the kitchen he could see that she was making breakfast. She was also wearing an apron over her pajamas, certainly a sight to behold. He was very surprised, as she explicitly told him that she couldn't cook at all, but he wasn't going to complain either.

“Good morning.” She welcomed him with a bright smile. Not quite the dreamy voice he had imagined, but a pretty good replacement at the same time. He sat down at the table.

“Good morning. I didn't expect you to make breakfast.” Michio said truthfully.

“Well, it's something that a good girlfriend would do, right?” replied Aida.

“I mean, I guess so.” Michio was at a loss. But something felt off. And it wasn't the fact that Aida had never before treated him this nicely before. Well, surely part of it was that. But there was more to it. It just felt so... fake. She finished the meal she was making and put it infront of Michio.

It seemed to be some kind of porridge. He looked at her and she still wore that big smile. But it looked forced. What was happening? If she wanted to convince him that she was in love with him, she was actually achieving the opposite. That wasn't Aida. Michio stood up and she looked at him confused. “Do you not like it? I can make some...” without waiting for her to end her sentence he went to her and hugged her tightly. “Aida, what are you doing?” he whispered.

At first she didn't respond and he could feel how tense she was. Then suddenly all tension seemed to leave her body and she basically went limp in his arms and started to sob.

“I don't know Michio. I do actually love you and I want to make you believe me, but I don't know how. Everything I do will feel fake now and it hurts so much. When you held my hand yesterday I felt so happy, but I can't make it come across.” she was talking quickly through her sobs and he just wanted to hold her forever and tell her that everything would be alright. If anything, this was making him believe her a lot more. “It's alright.” he whispered. “I love you Aida.” That was the first time he actually said it out loud to her. Now she slung her arms around him and hugged him back. “I love you, too Michio.” Michio felt happiness washing over him like never before. It must be real he thought. When he let her go he still held her by her shoulders and smiled at her and she smiled back at him. And this time it was a real smile, he could feel it. He then sat down at the table and tried the porridge she was making. “Hm, this is actually pretty good.” Aida smiled even more so.

“I'm as surprised as you are. But I was putting my love into it after all.” she replied.

“So what do we do now?” Michio asked. Aidas smile faded as if Michios words brought her back to reality. But he couldn't help it, they had to talk about it at some point anyway.

“I don't know Michio.” she answered. “I still want to see my family so much, but as you said yesterday, no matter how you look at it, it's a terrible thing to do.” Michio looked down at the plate in front of him when he answered. “But there is something else, isn't there.” He looked at Aida and he saw on her face that she knew what he was talking about. “You remember it as well?” she said in a flat, toneless voice.

“Yes, I do.” answered Michio in a similar tone of voice. “Did you really like Taiki?”

Both of them started to remember what happened on that faithful day. And it was something that could complicate the situation further.

“No, I didn't.” said Aida finally.

“But you said he asked you out and you said yes?” insisted Michio.

“The truth is, he asked me out that morning. But I did turn him down. I just said that I agreed to get you off my back for a while. I didn't expect you to jump off the roof God damn it” Aida said, visibly upset now. That was the truth of the matter. After he had heard that Aida agreed to go out with someone else his brain short circuited and he attempted to jump off the roof to take his own life. Aida went to stop him and he dragged them both to their deaths. Both just sat there in silence now. “I'm sorry.” said Michio. “I can't believe that happened.”

“What's done is done” Aida answered. “But I didn't like Taiki, please believe me.” He did actually believe her. Telling him things to make him upset was something she did on the regular back then and he thought he deserved it anyway for being on her tail all the time. But hearing her say that she liked someone else broke the camels back apparently.

“I want to go back as well.” Michio said into the silence that followed her last sentence. “If you tell me you will be with me when we go back then I take the consequences.” He looked her straight in the eye now.

“I love you Michio. I want to be with you wherever we go.” She smiled as she said it. He couldn't help but smile as well.

“So shall we call Ose?” asked Michio.

“Yes, let's do that.” answered Aida.