Chapter 12:

Back to the Present (Part 2)

Hunted

Hoshina Emiru

10 Years ago, I was a part of something that I never would have imagined, a part of a murder of a guy I once knew very well, and not only that I got away with it. Well, partially, I have a guilty conscience, sometimes I wish I could go back and confess everything, it might have helped a little bit… I think.

Anyways no point dwelling on the past… well no point dwelling on the past right NOW, that’s more of a nighttime thought that keeps me up. So, 10 years later, this ‘accidental’ criminal is now a designer in New York. I work alongside really big designers like Marc Jacobs and Tommy Hilfiger.

As stupid as it sounds, we all drifted apart, after the funeral we graduated and went our separate ways, and as usual it was Daisuke’s idea. We all rejected the idea at first saying that we would look suspicious if, we, the people the victim knew his whole life, left the country shortly after the funeral. Luckily, no one thought that, they just thought we left to pursue our careers… well I hope that’s what they thought.

It's been so long since I last spoke with them, I miss them so much, but I know if I contacted them, they wouldn’t like it, especially Daisuke. As stupid as my boyfriend is, I know he means well, but the problem is the idiot doesn’t think before he acts. When it finally dawns on him, he regrets it, and I fucking well know now that he is definitely regretting his life choices, and when I see him again believe me, I will give that jackass a piece of my mind!

So now here we are, 10 years later and I have my clothing line, I started from the bottom, working as a small designer, selling my clothes online, and soon I started expanding, I got more clients, and soon I was approached by some of the biggest companies you could think of, after working with them for a few years. Now, I am one of the youngest designers out there and I have a few people working for me, as well as a few branches open in New York, LA, and California.

I love my job, I do, but I always miss home, I miss my friends, I miss Reiko and Kaz-Kaz, I just wish we didn’t have to move away, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again it was a stupid move, but hey ho we still went ahead of it, why? Because we thought it would’ve been a good idea at the time but now that I think about it, we were all scared out of our wits which led us to this mistake.

My life consists of two things; work and home. I don’t want to do anything else, I am not going to lie, working alongside models and other designers I have been asked out by others, but I don’t care about them, I’m just waiting for the day Daisuke calls me, and if I have to wait forever and a day to be with him again, then so be it.

But it doesn’t mean I don’t wonder if any of them have moved on, sometimes I think that the reason why Daisuke hasn’t called me is that he has moved on and doesn’t want to see me again. I just hope that’s not the case, call me selfish, call me whatever you want, but part of me doesn’t want him moved on, the other part, however, doesn’t want him hung up on me and wants him to move on.

I wonder if Reiko and Kazuki are dating other people, I don’t think they would be because, before the events that took place, they were very much in love. I wonder if they’re still in contact, but if they were, surely Reiko would’ve contacted me, we’re best friends for God’s sake, maybe I’m overthinking because I’m lonely.

I’ve never felt so alone before, if I ever wanted to talk, I always had Kaz, if I wanted to vent or watch a movie or a shoulder to cry on then I had Reiko and Daisuke and I had our… moments would be the appropriate word to use. It’s been so many years, you would think I would have grown used to my surroundings and NYC itself, and I have but you know what they say, ‘There’s no place like home’.

Everything was fine, except a few weeks ago I was on my way to work. I had a meeting with a client and arrived half an hour early at the coffee shop, I’m sure if Reiko saw me now, she would be surprised, I was well-known for my awful time management, and now I’m being punctual.

I’m digressing, so I got to the coffee shop and ordered my usual Latte, and sat down waiting for my client to come, about 5 minutes later my phone pinged, I found that weird since no one texts me, my family calls me but they never call me at this time as they know my schedule, when I looked at my phone screen my heartbeat increased,

‘I know what you did 10 years ago’

‘Remember that one eventful Winter afternoon, back in 2011?’

‘I am coming for you’

Did someone see us?

Did we drop something?

What went wrong?

What are we going to do?

These questions have been flooding my mind for weeks, and there is nothing I can do about it because he knows who I am.

He knows where I live.

He knows everything about me, about all of us.

Now we’re all being Hunted.

Before I could react in any other way another message popped up, but this time from another number.