A Welcome Goodbye

The words pierced my ears, leaving a deafening whistle behind. Even though the cup of tea stayed against my lips, I had stopped drinking it.

He stared at me as I lowered the cup to place it on the table.

"I'm very sorry to hear that," I said. "I… I didn't know about it."

"Why would you?"

His sentences were never easy to reply to. And to top it off, I wasn't used to having a conversation about such a topic.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Heart attack."

"I see…. You must have so many memories here. I guess you don't have a reason to sell your home anymore."

"Are you joking? I want to leave this place as soon as I can."

"Huh?"

"Who cares about a building? Memories are here," he said as he tapped the side of his head with his finger. "But I'm old, kid. The last thing I want to do is rot on a couch, reminiscing about the past. I want to live in the present for what little remains of my life, and I want to fulfill my wife's and I's last wish."

A bittersweet smile appeared on my face, not knowing what to say.

"I'm still sorry."

He frowned. "For what?"

"For not being able to buy your house earlier so that you and your wife could fulfill your wish together."

His frown softened as his brows and mouth twitched. "Don't say that, kid. It's nobody's fault."

"I know."

Silence encompassed the room for a while. We both took a sip of our tea.

"You remember I said my house was going to be expensive, right?"

"I do."

He smirked, "Let's talk business, then."

We spent the next hour and a half discussing the price and the terms. For him to want to sell his house, he played hard to catch by making the price exorbitant. He did it on purpose to see if I took the bait, but I didn't. I kept lowering the amount and he agreed, knowing he was exaggerating.

Eventually, he didn't want to go any lower. It still was crazily expensive, almost double the cost of our current building, but it wasn't fair to compare it since Butcher did us a huge favor by selling it to us at a cheap price.

I agreed to the price and the terms, which were nothing exceptional. The contract was ready five minutes later, thanks to the glasses doing the entire process for us.

However, I still wanted to make sure everything was right, so I returned to HQ with a copy of the contract to review it with Haru and our lawyer of trust.

We signed the contract the next day and, to our surprise, the owner was ready to leave just one day later.

One truck came by to pick up the furniture during the day. A few hours later, Butcher and I approached the old man as the taxi driver helped him put his two suitcases in the trunk.

"Did you really find a house this soon?" Butcher asked.

"A beach house, to be exact," the old man answered. "It's small, but still an amazing deed, huh? We elders have many tricks up our sleeves. It also helped that my wife and I had been saving for years, and I won't live much longer anyway."

Although the joke was quite dark, it made me chuckle. Even a smirk formed on Butcher's face.

"See you later," said Butcher. "You were a great neighbor."

"Don't talk garbage, I know you hated me because I kept complaining about the noise you made. And no, I won't apologize for it."

"You and your wife took care of the girls many times; that makes you a great neighbor."

The old man smirked, "If you say so."

The door of the taxi was already open, so he simply climbed in, then the door closed on its own. About to say something, Sanae's shout startled the three of us.

"Wait!"

Both she and Risa ran down the sidewalk in front of us. When did they leave the studio?

They approached the taxi's window. They stared at the old man as they recovered their breath.

"Thank you for taking care of us all those times," Sanae said.

"It meant a lot to us," added Risa.

The old man's lips twitched before he snapped his head away.

"Only heartless people would've left two little girls alone," he said, still looking away from the girls.

Sanae and Risa giggled. Suddenly, Risa took a scrunchie out of her shorts' pocket and handed it to the old man.

"Here," she said.

The old man turned around. His eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped the moment he saw the scrunchie on Risa's hand. He stared at it for a few seconds before grabbing it.

"You had it all this time," he said.

"Yes," Sanae replied. "We were playing with it last time you took care of us, and I forgot to take it off before going back home. We eventually forgot about it, and only recently we found it when we moved out."

Risa continued, "Then we kept forgetting to give it back to you."

They both bowed. "We are extremely sorry."

The old man glanced at them for a second before looking down at the scrunchie in his hand again.

"It was my wife's favorite scrunchie. She thought she had lost it, and we kept looking through the entire house for it. We looked for months. It even turned into a holiday for us; we would spend an entire day looking for it every year," he chuckled. "It was going to be my only regret for leaving this house."

He glanced at us, just to see all our smiles had disappeared. He cleared his throat before continuing.

"Anyway. Thank you for giving it back to me, and keep working hard because I'll be watching all of your shows, in low volume of course. Goodbye."

The window started rolling up, then the taxi flew up to drive away. We watched the car until it disappeared behind the buildings, but when I looked down, Sanae was staring down at the ground and wiping her face with her arm as Risa caressed her shoulder. It wasn't hard to guess why.

Another couple of days passed before the payment was processed and the contract came into effect. By that time, Umi, Jun, Tomokazu, Aki, and I had rented a truck to transport all our stuff from our apartments to the new building.

Leaving the apartment left a bittersweet feeling inside me. I had spent the most crucial years of my life in it, making me into the person I was today. Many miracles led me to this moment, including meeting Haru, Jun, and Tomokazu, which snowballed into Blostars coming to life. I also had to recognize that my hard work also played a role in that.

The truck left after picking up my stuff last, then the five of us walked, with even more suitcases and bags, to the building.

Exhausted, we arrived a few minutes later. The two workers in the truck were already unloading everything into the building hallway, so we left our suitcases and bags inside to help them finish faster.

It took more time than I had anticipated, and the regret of not paying extra for them to carry everything to where we asked them to bring it increased with every box we unloaded.

Finally, the five of us sat on the floor of the empty living room to rest.

"We need to choose our rooms," I said.

Umi instantly replied, "I want the biggest one."

"Aki and I will take the master room."

"Why? Just because you bought the building?"

"Because we are the only ones that are going to share a room," I answered, "And because I bought the building."

She crossed her arms and looked away. "Fair enough. I want the second biggest, then."

"Are you okay with that?" I asked Jun and Tomokazu.

"I am," answered Tomokazu.

Jun smirked, "That's the Tomokazu I know, always kneeling before women. I want the third biggest."

"Listen to yourself," scoffed Tomokazu. "You barely own anything; why do you want the third biggest room for? To impress the chicks you sleep with?"

Jun opened his mouth to reply, but I interrupted him.

"Thank you for bringing the topic up," I said to Tomokazu. "Jun, you won't invite girls to your room unless you want something serious with them."

"What?! Why?"

"Because I'm your friend and I don't like you doing that. But more importantly, because it'll only create awkward situations for the rest of us."

"What? No, it won't."

I sighed. "Jun, I've only visited you two times in the last several months, and an awkward situation happened both times."

He opened his mouth to reply but said nothing.

I continued, "Also, the bigger your room is, the more rent you'll pay. It's only fair for everyone."

Umi snapped her head toward me with a frown, but she merely looked away again. "Whatever."

"I want the smallest one," Tomokazu said.

"No, I want the smallest one," Jun said.

A mild headache grew in my forehead, and I pinched the bridge of my nose to ease the pain. "Oh my…"

"I'm just kidding," smirked Tomokazu. "I still want the third biggest room; my Humas will appreciate the extra space."

Jun raised his hand in front of Tomokazu and said, "That's a deal, then."

Tomokazu raised his hand to shake Jun's.

"I'm glad you've come to terms," I sighed as I stood up. "Let's start moving our stuff, just make sure not to take anyone else's to avoid problems. And help the rest of us if you finish first."

Everyone nodded before standing up.

I offered my hand to Aki, who looked at it for a second before grabbing it. Even though we weren't arguing anymore, the tension was still there.