An unpleasant meeting

It was six in the morning when my alarm went off. As grumpy as I was woken from my sleep, I tried to ignore it. After two minutes of hearing that stupid ringtone I had set, it stopped vibrating, and went silent. At that moment, I felt so happy that tears began to flow, and I promptly went back to sleep. As my mind was slowly drifting away, it was then that I heard that alarm again. I was getting annoyed by the second, and ducked my head under my pillow.

“I can still hear it….”

Yes, even though the pillow was quite firm and thick. It didn’t stop the annoying sound my alarm was making from invading my ears. Veins began to pop on my face, as I gritted my teeth. It went silent a moment later. As relieved as I was that my stupid alarm couldn’t deprive me of more sleep, I went back to sleep. Unfortunately, no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t. I was well awake by this point. Disappointment had painted my face, as I dug my face deeper in my pillow, tears of grieve kept flooding.

Having no other choice than to admit defeat, I got up from my bed. I yawned, whilst heading towards the bathroom. After I took a shower, I brushed my teeth, and got dressed. After I tidied my hair, I got out the bathroom. As I walked downstairs, it was then that my nose began tickling.

I sniffed a few times, and followed the scent. When I entered the dining room, I was presented with an huge meal. Freshly seasoned salad, carefully placed in a bowl. French toast, spread with molten cheese, and a drip of syrup added for the taste, and to not forget the most important dish of all. Freshly baked chocolate cupcakes, with whipped cream added on top.

Just looking at it made me drool a bit. As I stood there admiring the feast in front of me, someone had just entered the dining room. I fixed my eyes on that someone, a smile slowly formed on my face. It was my wife, Naomi. She held a plate in her hands.

“You’re up already?” She asked, her head tilted slightly.

“Yeah,” I replied.

“Apparently, I’m not allowed to enjoy my day off.” I added. I turned my head, and crossed my hands.

I was still angry about it, because it was a first in a long time that I had a day off from work. Where I work, employees are given roughly three weeks off, in the entire year. Today was one of those days, although the dates didn’t vary much from employee to employee, they were only given to the top workers.

In short, I had to work so hard, so much that my back almost gave out, and while I was among those top elite, my ranking still placed last among the others. Not only did I work extremely hard, I had to work extra to secure my place. I sighed. Not only did I work my ass off, I couldn’t even enjoy my well-deserved rest. My back leaned forward, as I sighed even harder.

“How pitiful.” Naomi said, as she placed her plate on the table.

Seeking to heal my broken heart, I turned my gaze to the girl placing the cutlery, she hummed softly. However, something had caught my eye. Upon closer inspection, I saw that her brown hair had steadily grown over the past few years, and now it reached her knees. She also grew a bit herself, but it wasn’t that. Surprisingly, it was her outfit she was wearing.

She was wearing a shirt that was quite large on her, I had realized she was wearing one of mine. The shirt was a beige color, and it had a picture of a puppy quietly biting into a bone in the middle, with its eyes also focused at the center. It was as if the puppy was desperate to find an owner. She was also wearing sweat pants. It was a black color, with white stripes on each side. Now, those were her clothing she usually wore in the morning, so it wasn't that which had piqued my interest.

It was the blue apron she was wearing on top of her oversized shirt. It was a standard one, those that elderly women usually wear, so there was nothing special about it. I have never seen her wear one before, and I don’t recall her ever buying one too.

“Is that new?” I asked, as I tilted my head slightly, pointing at the clothing.

Naomi had already finished ordering the cutlery, and was about to enter the kitchen, but stopped and turned her gaze towards me. She had a puzzled look on her face, but after noticing my finger pointing to her apron, her mouth slowly turned into a grin.

“Are you talking about this?” she replied, as she adjusted her apron.

“My mother gave this as a gift.” she added.

As she adjusted her apron, it caused the bottom part of her shirt beneath to form waves. I saw a glimpse of her naked back. Naked?! I screamed inside. The sweat pants she wore was loose. Normally, you would see the top part of a particular clothing, but I didn’t see any. Does that mean she wasn’t wearing them, you know… underwear. She was wearing them, right?

I was having an internal breakdown. The mere thought of her not wearing them was slowly getting at me, I felt my temperature rising, as my face turned red. After noticing where I looked at, Naomi’s grin grew wider, she had turned around, directly facing me.

“You looked, didn’t you?” she said, as she slowly closed the distance between us.

When she stood before me, she got close to my ear.

“I’m not wearing any..” she whispered. Her grin grew wider.

She had this mischievous look on her face, so it was obvious that she was messing with me. Somehow, I was still able to think rationally, it was a wonder that the blood hadn’t reached my brain yet. However, I don’t know if she can read my mind or not, but not a second later she blew right into my ear. I felt an electric surge throughout my body, as my face turned redder, my mouth was left wide open.

“Oh my,” she placed her hand on my forehead.

“You’re not sick, are you?” she had forced a surprised look on her face. She wasn’t even attempting to hide that she wasn’t serious.

You little rat, I grunted. She knew exactly what she was doing. She would always pull pranks like this, making me extremely uncomfortable. That was who she was, unfortunately. She had always been like this, ever since we were little. I tried her to stop once, but to no avail. Over the years, the teasing became more frequent, and more thirstier. I’m amazed how far she was willing to cross the line, just to make me embarrassed. I must say, it does irritate me, but it wasn’t like I hate it either.

“Why are you always like this?” I pouted, and looked to my right.

Naomi laughed at me. Did she really find it that amusing to embarrass me? Give me break, will you? She stopped a minute later, and went to the table next to her.

“Let’s eat,” she said, as she took her seat.

I went to the chair across from her, and promptly took my seat.

“The food’s a little cold, though.” she said, her eyes downward.

It seemed that our little play took longer than I thought. The food had cooled off a little, but it wasn’t like the taste would change that much. Besides, I didn’t really care enough to make a huge fuss about it anyway. I had grabbed the fork to my left, and took a handful from the salad, my first victim.

“It’ll probably taste the same, since this is you we’re talking about.” I commented, as I held my fork in the air.

I brought the fork to my mouth as the contents spread inward. My tongue was engulfed by a mixture of different flavors. I tasted mostly lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber, but also bits of onion, broccoli and white cabbage. After chewing the contents into small pieces in my mouth, I slurped everything down and sent it to my stomach. The olive oil softened the vegetables, making it easier to swallow. I scooped up one handful after another. When I took another scoop after a while, all that remained was an empty bowl.

Surprised at how quickly I had eaten it, I had put down the fork and moved on to the next dish. I grabbed the plate with the toast, and pulled it closer to me. I grabbed a knife, and cut the toast in half. I grabbed a slice, and took a bite out of it. The smell of the toasted toast, combined with the sticky taste of the cheese, made it all the more delicious. After swallowing the piece, I took another bite of the slice. It was so delicious, I had eaten the entire toast in less than a minute.

After placing the plate next to the empty dish, I realized there was one dish left. Now that my stomach was almost filled, I was especially excited about this one. Who doesn't love a dessert right after a meal. I took one of the cupcakes that were in the middle of the table, and removed the paper cup from the bottom. First I licked some of the whipped cream before taking a bite of it.

As the taste of the puffy chocolate cake and the sweetness of the whipped cream satisfied my taste buds, I chewed them into smaller pieces, and then I graciously swallowed it. Not a second after, I took another bite from the chocolate sweet. Two bites were all that it took to eat it. With my stomach now filled, I let out a burp.

Naomi had looked up from her plate, practically staring blades at me. Her face hinted disgust. However, something was up here. Normally she would bark at me for stuff like this, but she didn’t. She hadn’t said a single thing, her eyes glared at me, goose bumps began spreading on my body.

I panicked about what to do. Should I apologize? I thought about it, and while it does seem like the right thing to do, my pride wouldn’t allow it. I know full well how she will use this against me, I can already hear her say stuff like “You’re such a wimp”, and “Are you a scaredy cat?”. The air around us tensed up. I was cornered with nothing left to do, so I chose the safest course of action. And that was to just ignore her.

I know that it wasn’t a manly thing to do, but what are other choice did I have. I couldn’t pretend it didn’t happen, and I couldn’t really apologize either, since that would be like playing in her hand. “Sometimes retreat is the best option, even if it means looking like a coward.” A quote that I strongly live by. Anyways. As if annoyed by my ignorance, Naomi pouted. Her bulging cheeks turned red, her gaze now looked even sharper. The air grew tenser, as Naomi’s cheeks turned redder. A cold sweat dripped from my spine.

Oh man… She’s really angry. Okay, I take back what I said earlier, I should’ve said something. I’m such an idiot. I cursed myself for being a coward. Why would I always make such dumb decisions, I really hate that about me. Soon that feeling of hate vanished, and a feeling much worse appeared in its place. I was feeling nothing but regret. My eyes moved downwards, as all emotions disappeared from my face.

Naomi must’ve noticed the sudden change in my expression, because she stopped pouting, and put her fork down. She sighed, her head leaning forward. She quickly straightened her back, and continued eating her meal. The air wasn’t so tense anymore. Had she giving up, which would be strange coming from her. Normally she wouldn’t back down in these situations.

Whatever it was though, I was glad that I didn’t need to review my life choices. Seriously, I don’t think I could endure it if it lasted a second more or so. Now that I could finally be at ease again, one other problem showed itself. The silence was awkward. So I decided to break the ice, but….

“How’s the food?”

Naomi got ahead of me. She looked at me, whilst chewing the contents in her mouth. She was still eating her salad.

“Not bad,” I said, as I grabbed my phone, and opened my agenda.

Naomi seemed dissatisfied with such a bland answer, because I felt her glaring blades at me again. Well, I should give props for the effort though. Despite the food having cooled off, I still enjoyed it. Normally that wouldn’t have been possible, but this is Naomi who we’re talking about. She would never mess up.

“No scratch that, it was delicious.” I looked away from my phone and turned my gaze towards Naomi, whilst restating my former response.

“Really?” Apparently my response caught her off guard, since she started blushing. She also avoided my gaze, she turned her head to her right.

“You really mean it?” She was still unsure, like I was just playing with her. I understood her worries though. If it was the other way around, then I too would be skeptical. But I wasn’t joking. I had to make sure she understood that.

“I’m dead serious.” I said, with as much emotion as I could, I cracked a smile.

Naomi’s cheeks turned redder, and muttered quietly: “Idiot.”

The atmosphere lightened, and the air loosened. I had managed to dodge a bullet there. I was fine, for now at least. Naomi continued eating her meal, while I was reading through my emails.

I scrolled through my inbox, and after I opened the first mail and saw who sent it, my face twitched. It was from my boss. As I read through the entire mail, my mood soured. In short, a colleague had the flu and couldn’t come to work for an entire week, so he had make me do his work instead.

That bastard. He thinks he can just do as he pleases. My “boss” is a young self-centered arrogant man, who was spoiled to the bone when he was younger. I heard it was because of his mother, who was significantly younger than his father. I heard from older coworkers that it was much better when his father ran the place. Everyone didn’t have to worry about getting fired, and there wasn’t much competition between employees.

But after he died of a heart disease, his son inherited the factory. And from what I heard, it became a massacre on the first day. My boss had unreasonable demands that workers had to meet, and if they didn’t they would be fired. Many had to pack and leave, since they couldn’t meet the demands. I remember the first day I worked there. I came in with a lot of expectations, doing my best as your average worker, but my dreams quickly fell apart when I became the boss's personal dog instead.

Somehow he had taken a liken to me, not that I was happy about it though. In fact I hated it, I had to work twice as hard so that he wouldn’t fire me. Others laughed at me, while some despised me. I felt embarrassed at first, but that soon turned into anger. The only reason I still work there is because of the woman before me. It would hurt me if I couldn’t provide for her, so I just deal with it.

But someday… One day, I will smash that head of his, and make him pay for this. I made a mental note of that.

“What’s the matter, darling?” Naomi had already finished eating her meals, and she was now holding her phone. She looked worried, her head tilted slightly.

“Nothing, just work.” I didn’t want her to worry, so I decided not to hide it from her.

“What about it?”

“My little vacation’s over apparently, they expect me there tomorrow.”

I could see the emotions draining from her face, she also gritted her teeth. Was she that pissed? I didn’t really know she was so against it.

“Are you mad?” I asked her.

She didn’t respond, her face still gloomy. After a second or so, she had focused her eyes on me.

“Yeah, I am. Didn’t you say you have three weeks off?” Her face turned red, as anger took hold of her. Her voice raised also slightly.

“An emergency, apparently. The boss specifically asked for my help.” I framed it as nicely as I could, because in reality, I was just doing his dirty work, not that I want her to know.

“Do you really have to?”

“Not that I have another choice.”

“Why not call in sick tomorrow?”

I thought about that, but it really wasn’t worth the trouble that I would have to deal with the next time I would come to work. That arrogant bastard would make sure I suffered as much as possible. Reduced pay, and most importantly my place among the elite would be revoked. I can’t have that, I already make enough so we could make ends meet, but it wasn’t much either, just the bare minimum to live of off. I couldn’t really risk making us homeless, because my father-in-law would surely come after me.

“No, I can’t do that.”

Naomi grunted, she must’ve realized that convincing me wouldn’t work. Nothing she says would change my mind, that much she knew. Admitting defeat wasn’t something for her, because she would always get her way.

“Sure, have it your way then.” she said, she sounded quite annoyed.

I didn’t really understand why she was so angry. I mean, can you cut me some slack please? Is that to much to ask? I’m not exactly in a good mood either, but I’m not barking at others for it. I know she was just looking out for me but she didn’t have to act like this.

“What’s your problem?”

I accidently let out my inner thoughts, I hadn’t meant to say anything. Naomi jolted from her chair upon hearing my comment. She was ready to fight me, her face burned red, exposing her inner anger.

“Nothing, but I find it weird that your boss requested you for it. Couldn’t he ask another employee to for the job?!”

I mean she had a point. Looking from her perspective, it didn’t make any sense. Why would he personally want me, if he had an entire personnel working for him? That was the question I could read from her.

“It’s.. complicated.”

It hurt me seeing her so angry for my sake. The urge to tell her my situation grew, but I stopped myself. I averted my eyes away from her. I could never let her find out.

“Suite yourself!”

She stormed out the dining room, and entered the kitchen. She left me behind, I was all alone. I leaned back against my chair, and looked at the white ceiling.

“I’m such an idiot.”

My mind concluded. After I straightened my back, and brought my thoughts together. It was clear that there was one thing I could do.

“Tell her, I guess?”

Yeah, if I were to chose between that piece of crap or my wife, the choice would undoubtedly be clear. So what if that jerk fires me, I will find another place to work at.

Having decided about what to do next, I got up, and I headed towards the kitchen.

As I entered the kitchen, I saw my wife cleaning the dishes. The room was quiet. Nervous as I was, I walked towards her, one step at the time. When all of a sudden, she said: “What do you want?”. Her tone still sounded angry.

“I came to talk.”

“About what, I wonder?” her tone still hinted her inner rage. She puffed, as she turned her head to the side.

“You know, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you.” I said apologetically, I patted the back of my head.

“And?” she said, her face still to the side.

Really? I thought. I sighed, and removed my hand from my head. I got close to her, and embraced her back.

“I’ll tell them I won’t come tomorrow.”

Naomi stopped moving her hands, and turned around, directly facing me. Her hazel eyes glittered, as the anger left her body. I thought that she wasn’t mad anymore, but to my surprise she frowned, looking really intimidating at me. There’s more?! I yelled inside.

“Aren’t you forgetting something? Something really important?” she asked, whilst pouting.

The face she made was cute though, so I got distracted for a bit.

“Something important?”

Despite her saying it, I had no idea what she was referring to. A date we had planned? Going to her parents? That was all I could think of, but it didn’t seem like they could be possible answers. If it were the first, then she wouldn’t stop nagging me about it, so I know that wasn’t it. And as for the latter, her parents would’ve called by now to remind us about it, so it couldn’t have been that either.

What could it be?

“Here,” Naomi said, as she held her phone close to my face. She had her calendar open, and pointed at today.

“What’s the date?”

“It’s the fourteenth of July.” I didn’t really know what she was getting at. It was just a normal day in the summer. So I didn’t really get why she was so angry at me for.

I was desperate to find the answer, so I looked around for clues. After finding nothing for about five minutes or so, I almost gave up. That was until I looked at the woman before me. I felt stupid for not noticing earlier, I was really hopeless. On her left hand was something important, something that symbolized my love for my wife. I am talking about the metal ring I had bought her three years ago.

“It’s our anniversary!”

Naomi’s face brightened as she suddenly embraced me.

“Finally, you remembered! Took you long enough, stupid idiot!”

“I’m sorry, honey.”

I really felt stupid for forgetting something so important. Hadn’t I promised her that I would never forget. But fate got the better of me. As much as humans make promises, they can’t always fulfill them. We can complain all we want, but their still humans. People tent to forget stuff after some time passes, so they can’t take all the blame.

“I really am.”

I still felt bad about it, because it that day was so important to me. She had saved me, and this is how I repay her? No way am I going to let that slide. I was going to make up for this mistake, even if I have to give my life for it. My face lit as well, as my resolve had been given new life.

“You’re forgiven. But it’s going to be the last time, you better remember that!”

Naomi stopped embracing, and stood before me pointing her finger at me. The smirk on her face grew larger as her beauty shone through. I’m one lucky man. Having Naomi as my wife truly is a privilege that ordinary guys like me couldn’t even dream of. Tears began forming in my eyes, as the watery fluids started flooding down my face. As reason had vanished from me, I embraced Naomi, with all my strength.

“C..an..t bre...ath...”

Her plead had cleared my mind, I stopped hugging her, and took a step backwards;

“So we’re cool then?” I asked, my head tilted to side, whilst looking at the floor, and my hand against the back of my head.

Naomi took a moment before she answered; Now, I’ll have to be really honest here, I didn’t expect her answer to be a firm: “No.”, but the way she said it was too aggressive.

“Huh, but why?”

It had caught me by surprise. I couldn’t really think of any other reason for her to be mad at me.

“Because of your behavior at the table.”

Naomi had her arms crossed, with her head turned away from me. She pouted, as her cheeks turned red.

“But didn’t you forgive me just now?”

Now I was really confused, didn’t she literally say a moment ago that she forgave me, so why was she pissed about the dining thing? I couldn’t help but ask.

“That was for our anniversary!”

That much I understand, but that doesn’t explain why she’s still mad about our conversation earlier.

“You still have a debt to pay.”

I kind of figured that something felt fishy about this. Why wouldn’t she explain her reasoning? it didn’t make any sense. If you had just met her, you wouldn’t think much of this situation, but I knew her well enough to know that she scheming something in the back of her mind. She truly was an evil character, taking every opportunity possible to achieve her goals.

“And how do I repay that exactly?”

Knowing that any more resistance would be futile, I decided to play along.

“Hmmm….”

She took a while, her left finger placed at her lips, whilst staring at the ceiling.

“Let’s go shopping!” she had moved her gaze from the ceiling towards me, as she held her finger up.

“Huh…” my mouth was left wide open.

You little rat, I knew it. I knew she was planning something, although it was kind of my fault to begin with. I wonder if I could win once against her. But that’ll probably never happen though. She’s just that better then me. I am pissed however, because now I’ll have to tag along with her shopping spree. Man, maybe I should’ve chosen that prick instead? But really, shopping? Couldn’t you choose something else??

As I grunted about the ordeal, Naomi’s smile grew wider. She got close to me, and whispered into my ear: “Exactly, Shopping.”. She winked her eye at me, her tongue sticking out.

You little… As I was played by the wicked monster in front of me, I couldn’t help but smile. Since it was her being herself, I couldn’t really get mad at her. I knew what I signed up for back when I proposed to her. But still, she really knows how to play with other’s feelings. Why am I always on the receiving end?

As I complained about my situation, I prayed to whatever deity I could think of. But unfortunately my prayers were left unanswered. I had rolled the dice, and got the worst possible outcome. My life truly sucks.

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“Wow, look at these! They’re so cute!!” Naomi said, as she inspected the valuables from a store window.

“They’re alright, I guess?”

After taking a look, I saw three horse sculptures. Behind them were a few dolls, two of them were dressed in beautiful dresses, that resembled your noble woman from the nineteenth century. While the other ones were dressed in military outfits.

“What do you mean they’re alright? You don’t like them?”

It wasn’t that I hated them, I just didn’t understand the setup. Why place dolls from different eras next to each other? It didn’t make sense to me.

“No, it’s just that they seem out of place, no?”

I tried conveying my feelings to the best I could. It was now on her.

“You’re right, the time period don’t match,”

Luckily, she saw what I was getting at.

“But I still think they’re all cute.”

Well, it wasn’t like she cared all to much about it. So I decided to leave it at that.

“Where are we going next?” I asked Naomi.

After a small pause, she proudly exclaimed: “To…”.

The hours went by as we visited many different stores. It was about noon now, when we decided to get something to eat. We were currently located at a restaurant that opened recently. Being a brand new business in a city were new trends keep popping up every second. It was only natural that this place was quite popular amongst the younger generation.

We were standing at the entrance hall, and looked around for a table to sit. However, we didn’t find any. Naomi had asked a waiter if they could arrange something, but unfortunately, without success. Well, we were screwed. Without a table to eat, the only thing we could do was leave. But that wouldn’t do. I’m hungry, like seriously I had been carrying bags the entire morning. Naturally it would drain my body. Naomi had the same problem, all that walking around really took a toll on her, especially with the heels she was wearing.

Oh well, I had prepared for this exact moment, it wasn’t a luxurious restaurant like this one, but it sure as hell is a lot cheaper, so I’m counting my life on this. I had grabbed Naomi’s hand and escorted her towards the place.

“Is this it?”

When we arrived at the restaurant, Naomi looked dejected, she looked disappointed at me, her eyes had lost their lights;

“Yeah..”

She looked at the prices next to the entrance, her eyes were devoid of any color, as she understood why I picked this place in the first place. Fearing that I might die, I turned my gaze away from her. I know she wasn’t happy, but not like this, please. You’re going to make me cry!

Naomi sighed, and said: “Let’s try it, I guess?”.

The way she said it though wasn’t comforting at all. This meant that I was spared for now, but I would surely come to hear about this another time. I sent a prayer to my future self.

After me and Naomi entered, we got ourselves a table, and waited for the waitress to come. When one came, she handed us the menu, and waited. Naomi choose the third option, which was tomato soup with meatballs. I chose the restaurant’s recommended dish, a perfectly baked beefsteak, with vegetables, and vol-au-vent. When the waiter got our orders, she promptly left.

After fifteen minutes, she returned with our order. She placed our order, and promptly left.

When I ate a piece from my steak, I felt relieved that I could finally eat a decent meal. Tears of joy flooded from my wet eyeballs. It seemed that Naomi felt the same way, as the tears too came dripping from her eyes.

After discussing certain topics, we had finished eating our meals. About an hour passed, it was five o’clock now. When I told her we’d have to leave, she had asked me if she could order some snacks for on the way. Seeing no problem with this, I let her order her things. This couldn’t have come at a greater time, since I really needed to run an errand.

I hurried myself towards the restroom. After I was done washing my hands, I had left the restroom. I searched for Naomi, as she was not at our table. I found her at the bar, still waiting for her meals to come. For a second there I was worried that something might’ve happened, but it was all for naught.

I decided to wait for her at our table, whilst watching over her. I would’ve expected someone to make a move on her, but nobody did. While yeah, Naomi was prettier than your average woman, that didn’t mean she would let anyone get close to her. I didn’t really have any worries though, since she could beat anyone who would dare to make a move on her.

And to my surprise, a moron had made an move on her. As I was kind of worried for what might happen to that guy. I got up from my table, and headed towards the bar.

After Naomi had seen me, she immediately latched onto me. I confronted the idiot in question. He was about a hundred and seventy six centimeters, two centimeters shorter than me. He had brown hair, with his left eye covered. He had unique facial features, that made him stand out. If you told me he was a model or something, I would have believe it without question.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were taken.” he said, wearing a smile, his teeth shone brightly.

I have to say though, the man was pretty. I’m pretty sure he has no problem with courting women at parties or not. Man, I’m envious. People like me could never dream of that, but not that I really need to, but still I’m speaking for every average Joe out there.

“No, it’s okay. I’m sorry for the confusion.” I said, with a smile.

I may have smiled, but I’m slightly pissed though, since his target was my wife, I had no choice but to intervene. But something felt off about him. Yeah, after I looked at his face more closely, I couldn’t help but feel that I know him from somewhere. I couldn’t point out from where, though.

“Well then, I’ll take my leave.”

The man had adjusted his jacket, and headed towards the exit. While he did, I saw him glancing at Naomi, who was still embracing me. His gaze slowly turned towards me, and he stopped walking. He got close to me, and put his hand on my shoulder.

“You’re a lucky man.”

Huh? What is he talking about?

“Take good care of her,”

My suspicions were correct, as he turned his gaze towards Naomi. The bastard looked back at me, as he cracked a smile. Just who is he?

“Pig-kun.” he said, as he continued walking to the exit.

Wait, hold on a second. What did he say? “Pig-kun”, but that’s impossible. I haven’t heard that name in a long time. That was the name given to me back when I was used as a test subject by those five bastards. But I haven’t heard from them in six years. So how could he know that name?

Wait.. Now that I think about it, he looked really familiar. After digging deep within my memories, I slowly started to remember. The brown hair, covering his left eye. The beautiful face, that could make any girl fall for him. Goose bumps began spreading across my body. As many memories from the past kept emerging one after the other, my body froze in fear. It became harder to breath.

It can’t be…

“Akemi?”

I had muttered his name as he had left the restaurant. Akemi, part of the gang that terrorized me back when I was a kid. The group I hadn’t heard from in a few years were now back. My legs began numbing, as my heart started beating faster. I fell to my knees, as my entire body became cold. My senses were slowly robbed from me, draining me from the inside out.

At that moment, I felt that hard times were ahead of me.