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The screen of Daishou’s phone lights up the entire room. The ringing jolts him awake. He squints his eyes against the bright light. His hand searches for the phone on the nightstand. He lifts it up and when his eyes finally read the name across the screen, he sits up, wide awake.
He answers the phone.
“Mika,” he breathes into the dark.
“Ah no, sorry,” the other person says, “it’s Alisa.”
“Can I help you with anything?” Daishou asks.
“I’m out with Mika and she’s had a little too much to drink and I didn’t know who else to call,” she explains, with a sigh.
“Where are you?” Daishou says, out of bed, trying to put on whatever pants he found laying on the floor.
“We’re at her usual spot,” Alisa answers, knowing that Daishou has taken Mika there himself several times. “We’ll meet you out front.”
Daishou jumps on one leg, still trying to put on pants with one hand. Daishou topples over with a slight crash.
“You okay?” Alisa asks from the other end of the line.
“Yeah, fine,” Diashou grumbles. “See you there,” he says, still on the floor. He hangs up and gets off the floor. He finally manages to pull the pants up and throws on a shirt.
He grabs his car keys from the table by the door.
He rushes out, slams the car door as he gets in.
“Okay.” He runs his hand over the steering wheel, the key still unturned in the ignition.
“I can do it,” he tells himself. “I need to get it together.”
With a resolute flick of his wrist Daishou turns the key and speeds out into the city.
Daishou’s car is far from the only one in need of parking in front of the club, but he manages to find a spot to squeeze into.
Alisa has always been hard to miss in a crowd. Her long moonlight coloured hair makes her stand out, along with the fact that her heels often make her the tallest person in the room. Still, Daishou’s eyes drift right past her to the small brunette all but hanging off of Alisa’s arm.
He waves an arm over his head to get Alisa’s attention. Alisa starts to drag a stumbling Mika in his direction.
“Suguru!” Mika’s whole body straightens as she spots him, as if she had forgotten. Then, like a dark cloud before the sun, she remembers and her eyes lose their sparkle.
Daishou opens the passenger seat door for her, and somehow she climbs gracefully into the car. He shuts the door behind her.
“I’m sorry,” Alisa says, as Mika can no longer hear them. “It’s probably awkward.”
“If it gets her home safe.” Daishou shrugs. “How are you getting home?” he asks.
“Lev lives down the street, he should be here soon,” she says, nodding in the direction of her brother’s apartment. Daishou spots Lev a few metres away from them.
“You should text Mika when you get home,” Daishou says before stepping around the car and getting in himself.
Mika waves to Alisa as Daishou drives away.
The car ride is silent, the atmosphere in the car is heavy, weighing down on Daishou’s shoulders. His hand leaves a damp handprint on the steering wheel as he moves it to turn the radio’s volume up. A slow love song comes clearly through the speakers, and Daishou curses his luck. He doesn’t move his hand for the rest of the trip.
He parks the car in front of Mika’s apartment, where he has parked it so many times before back when it was theirs and not just hers.
Neither of them move. The radio shuts off when Daishou removes the key from the ignition and the heavy silence returns. Daishou looks at Mika and he can feel the embers left in his heart, after she last destroyed it, burning.
“I shouldn’t have left you,” Mika says, and Daishou’s heart bursts into flame. He just keeps looking at her, wondering if she can see the pain, maybe she can see the flames of his heart in his eyes.
“I love you,” she whispers, her eyes looking anywhere but Daishou’s face.
“You don’t mean that,” Daishou says back. He unbuckles his seatbelt and steps out of the car. The cold air does little to calm the fire in his heart. He steps around the car, this time to let Mika out of the car.
“I do,” she says, as she takes his hand to help her get out. She says it with such ease as if she wasn’t throwing gasoline on a fire.
“You’re drunk,” he says gruffly.
“Shouldn’t that make me more honest?” she retorts as he follows her to the door. Daishou doesn’t know how to answer, so he simply shakes his head. Mika unlocks the building door. Daishou follows her into the building, helping her up the stairs.
“If you still mean it in the morning,” he starts. Mika stands on the other side of the threshold to her apartment. “Call me,” he ends, and turns around. He leaves the building quickly. The drive home is a blur.
“Why did I say that?” he says to himself, looking into his own eyes in the rearview mirror. His apartment is too dark, too silent and too empty for his own liking after being reminded of what he had before. Daishou plugs his phone into the charger and makes sure the volume is turned all the way up, before placing it on his nightstand.
He gets back into bed and falls asleep.
The sunlight streams through the curtains. Daishou’s phone rings. The sound bounces off the walls. Daishou wakes to the sound for the second time in less than twelve hours. This time he doesn’t have to read the name on the display.
“Mika” he says, a smile playing on his lips.