Back to the Present (Part 7)

The Group is Back

“Maybe I didn’t hear you correctly, Daisuke, did you just say that was you?” I chuckled nervously while clasping my hands together.

He nodded again, averting his eyes from the rest of us.

Kazuki lunges towards him over the table and I quickly get up to hold him back from his shoulders.

“Are you fucking serious?” Emi finally asked him; I could hear the anger building up in her voice as well as see it on her face with her reddened cheeks.

Daisuke looked up and I saw something in his eyes that I never thought I would see before; regret.

Emi and Kazuki wouldn’t stop yelling at him and he just stood there taking it all, not reacting, not speaking, if this was the old Daisuke, he would have fired a few things but not this Daisuke.

“Let’s go outside,” I say calmly while downing my drink and throwing the cup in the bin.

“What?” Kazuki asked me, confused.

“Outside. Let’s go,” I say looping my arms through Emi and Daisuke’s and dragging them out with Kazuki following.

I planned to get them out in the open for some fresh air, hopefully, that would cool their heads down a bit before they end up killing him, and just as I hoped as soon as the cool air touched their skin, they stopped yelling at him.

“Daisuke,” I say going up to him and placing my hand on his shoulder, he finally looks up and when he does, I smile a little.

“Why did you do it?!” Emi pushes past me grabbing his collar.

“Emi,” I say trying to pry her off, gently.

“Do you know how worried we were? How worried I was?!” she continued to yell.

“Emi…” I say trying to pry her off while she lunged at him.

“Emi…” I say, firmly this time but she still doesn’t stop.

“EMI, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, STOP!” I say this time getting to her, she looks at me shocked.

I take a deep breath to calm myself down.

“Let’s let him talk first, okay?” I say to her.

“And if by any chance we’re not satisfied with his answer then I’ll let you kill him,” I whisper, joking which makes her giggle a little.

I look towards Kazuki, who gives me a small smile and stands beside Emi, pulling her in a side hug.

I turn around to see Daisuke a couple of feet away, I slowly walk up to him and place my hand on his shoulder, he turns around to look at me with the same regretful look in his eyes he had earlier.

“Daisuke, what’s going on?” I ask him.

“Nothing.” He shrugged.

“Nothing?” I scoffed.

“If nothing’s going on when what demon possessed you to send us those creepy messages?” I asked, on the verge of losing my temper.

I take a deep breath, “Daisuke, please. Give me a straight answer.”

“I don’t have to answer your questions,” he states firmly.

Welp the Daisuke we all know and love is back.

I grabbed his arm and spun him around again before he had a chance to turn a full 360.

“The fuck you do! You’re going to answer every single one of our questions, Daisuke because I’ve had it up to here with you and your fucking mood swings…”

“What do you want from me?!” he yelled.

“I want the truth!” I yelled back.

“You can’t handle the truth!” he fired.

“You regretted it didn’t you?” Kazuki asked, calmly.

“What?” Daisuke says.

Just then it clicked.

“You regretted your decision of having us stop keeping in contact with each other for 10 years, you regretted your decision of letting us go, you regretted everything, Daisuke, but most of all you missed Emi, is that or is that not the truth?” I asked.

He looked at me surprised for a minute before he nodded, “Yes.”

I gave him a look, “Actually I’m not surprised.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

Emi stepped forward, “Daisuke, I love you, but sometimes when you’re not in the right frame of mind you make the wrong decisions and then regret them later.”

“Sooo, you guys aren’t mad at me?” he asks.

The three of us shared a look before dog piling on Daisuke, for the first time after 10 years I laughed with my friends, for the first time in 10 years I felt like a kid again, I smiled, I laughed, and most importantly I didn’t worry about anything.

“Let’s go back to my place,” I say while getting up.

We all get into our cars and I lead them all, soon there are 4 cars, 1 including mine, parked in my driveway, I open the door to my house and we all pile inside, luckily it's clean thanks to my OCD.

“Your house is so cute!” Emi squealed.

I laughed at her excitement, “Thank you.”

I walked to the kitchen and put the kettle on, made some tea and carried 4 cups on a tray, we sat down drinking the tea in silence, it wasn’t awkward, just comfortable.

“Daisuke, quick question,” Kazuki pipes up.

“Shoot,” he replies, looking up from the rim of the cup.

“How did you find us?”

At this both Emi and I perked up too.

Daisuke sighed, put his cup down, and turned his attention towards us, “I know someone who was able to give me your numbers,” he shrugged.

“So, if they gave you our numbers, then how come they didn’t tell you that I was here the whole time?” I asked.

“He did, at first I was a little surprised but then I remembered that you grew up here, you have a home here, so it’s going to be hard to give that up,” he smiled a little.

“Thanks,” I smiled.

“Hold on, you said you got a text too, did you also send yourself an ‘anonymous’ message too?” Kazuki raised an eyebrow.

“Yup,” he nodded.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because then you guys wouldn’t be suspicious, and let’s face it you did act a bit like Tom Cruise from ‘A Few Good Men’ earlier with the whole, ‘I want the truth,” Daisuke looked at me.

“And what about you acting like Jack Nicholson with the whole, ‘You can’t handle the truth!’ I retorted.

We both go back to drinking our tea, Kazuki and Emi give us a look before they burst out laughing, a few short seconds later me and Daisuke join in.

“So, what has everyone been up to?” I ask.

“I’m a fashion designer,” Emi tells us.

“I knew you could do it!” I squealed hugging her.

“What about you?” Emi asked me.

“I’m a writer,” I giggled.

“That’s my girl,” Kazuki cheered.

“I’m so proud of you,” Emi hugged me.

“What about you two boys?” Emi asked.

“I have my own pub,” Kazuki said.

“Check you out,” I winked.

“Whoo!” Emi cheered.

Daisuke slapped his hand on his shoulder making Kazuki laugh, we then all turned our gaze to Daisuke who chuckled.

“I’m a professor at Oxford University.”

“Whoo!” Kazuki cheered.

“See I knew you would!” I told him.

Emi didn’t say anything, well not out loud, instead, she got up and whispered something in Daisuke’s ear who got up quickly, “Reiko?”

I chuckled knowing exactly what was going to happen, “Upstairs, right at the end.”

They both left just as Kazuki and I burst into laughter, we calmed down and just sat in silence for a bit.

“How have you been?” I asked, my voice soft.

“Good,” he nodded.

After a few seconds he shook his head, “Nope, it’s been shit! I’m doing something I love but it’s not the same if the one I love is not there with me! I wasted 10 fucking years when I could have said; ‘Screw everything I’m going to her’ but I didn’t and I was miserable!”

“Hey,” I quickly get up to where he was pacing near the door.

“It’s not your fault, it’s also mine, I could’ve done the same, but I guess I was scared that maybe if I found you and you didn’t want to see me, or you moved on, I don’t know what I would’ve done if I saw you with another woman,” I admitted.

Our noses were just inches apart when I realised what was happening, Kazuki placed his lips on mine, at first, I was confused but then I slowly melted into it, I lost my grip on reality, and I could feel his arms around me as my legs gave out.

He quickly moved forward as I moved back, lightly hitting the wall, his grip was tight around me, and as his hands moved down, he held my thighs as I wrapped my legs around his torso.

His mouth was hot and consuming, he kissed me with everything, his lips, teeth and tongue and I reciprocated with the same amount of passion, my hands moved up his chest and around his neck.

He released a noise deep from his throat which both frightened and excited me, his lips left mine as he travelled down my neck, I let out a breathy moan and felt him smirk, he continued kissing me there, if he weren’t holding me, I know I would have fallen on my knees.

His lips travelled back to my lips as he walked with me still in his arms, I felt the sofa underneath me before he came on top, his necklace just hovering above me, we were both out of breath as we gazed into each other’s eyes.

He kissed my forehead before lying down next to me, the tension was no longer in the room as we stared at the ceiling, just soaking each other’s presence, enjoying each other’s company, just being there next to each other.

We also went upstairs to my room and just lay down, I placed my head on his chest and fell asleep, honestly, the best sleep I had in over 10 years. Our group was back together and nothing could change that.