Work Text:
(Sunset in the Rain sequel.)
Life has always been a chronic disease for him. He aches every time he dreams of the same sequences of events that he has no idea if had ever happened. Funny enough, he wished they were real, for these feelings underneath his stoic expression would be completely irrational if he's just feeling them for the sake of it. But, believing on something such as past lives is irrational on its own scale. However, he still has hopes, a hopeless hope that one day he wishes to come to life; to see the face of the orange-haired man.
Tsukishima Kei is an established photographer in a known studio somewhere in Tokyo, who was also known for his elegant and mouth-watering photographs. He's usually the one to capture famous weddings in and out of Japan, the most prominent one he was involved with is Oikawa Tōru's wedding with his childhood friend, Iwaizumi Hajime— both are professional in their own fields, one is a volleyball player of Argentina, while the latter is a professional trainer of Japan team. (It was famous not because of which professions they're included, but because of how they broke the tradition of having only man and woman being tied together until death.)
Kei earns tons of money every month, in each event he gets more than 1 million yen, every year he saves millions of money in his bank account. He's saving for something unknown, an unfathomable feeling brought him to save all of his excessive earnings just for the sake of its own self. Or maybe, he tries to tell it that way so no one can figure out his romantic desire of getting married by the beach with somebody who has sunset hair.
Irrational. Impulsive.
*“Even in the afterlife, we'll meet again. In another life, I'll still either be for you or pass by you. I don't care about that, about the circumstances we might face. As long as we exist at the same lifetime, it's okay.”
Kei somehow wished that this is it. This is that timeline. But, how can he wish for something to exist, when it came from a figure formed by his hopeless imagination?
He wiped off those thoughts akin to how he wipes off his sweat during a summer day. He must focus on where he is now and where he wanna go, not to a very distant future that he doesn't have any idea of it was even his. Pessimistic as it seems, but for Tsukishima, somebody who's got a red hair and same vibes as the man in his dreams seemed to be unrealistic.
It's a hopeless thing to imagine the guy who come by his slumber every night coming into life. Hopeless romantic– that's him, an aromantic who somehow starts to feel a thing for someone who he doesn't have any idea if he exists.
“Tsukishima-kun?” A voice echoed around his office, the air-conditioned noise follows. He looked at the door to see his colleague holding some paper in his arms, while reaching one for him.
“Boss asked if you would like to take this venue, it's in Okinawa, a beach party.” Kei scrolled his eyes down to the file. It was a decade anniversary event, so there'd be dozens of people. He pursed his lips and looked back at the guy ahead of him.
“I'll think about it, but you should ask about this to the other photographers too, since I'm hesitating due to the fact that there would be probably a hundred of people in this event and venue.” His colleague chuckled at him, shaking his head at the uttered statement.
“Ha, boss won't recommend something to you if it's not up to your taste and interest, wouldn't he?”
Now that Kei had thought about it, he was right. Their Boss, or what he calls himself?— ah, 'master', never gave him crowded jobs and venues, it was always the private ones or those which are held in secrecy. He tapped his fingers against his wooden table.
“Hmm?” Once again, he eyed the file. “Alright. I'll take it.”
His colleague clapped and bowed, before thanking him and headed towards his door. But before he goes out, he says one major information about this job.
“The celebrant was widowed.” Kei stopped wiping off his folders, watching the dusts float in the air.
He almost let out a snort right then and there, the dust fleeting in the air stopped him from doing so. For him, that seems pointless. Why would anybody bother to manage a party for a marriage that had ended some time ago? It's hilarious yet tragic— just how much does that person misses their significant others?
“His partner passed away six years ago, the reason was, obviously, private. So boss told me to speak about the customer's favor.”
“Wait... a request?”
His job mate held the doorknob, silence occupying the space in between the two of them.
“Capture all the happy things in the event.” He glanced at Kei and smiled. “But, boss said to do one main thing in this mission of yours– capture his smile, that's what boss said, as he described the man to have the brightest and cheerful beams he had ever seen.”
‘How can a smile be bright? Foolish. Akutagawa-san is a big fool.’ He rubbed it off of his shoulders, nodding as he starts piling the folders in front of him.
“First time in a while since I've received such weird request.” Kei chuckled.
The latter looked at him with curved eyebrows to form the expression of sympathy for someone he had never known, and he says,
“Well, he's all alone to celebrate an event for two, anyways.”
※
Okinawa was the same as it was during his last year in high school. He tries to push back the rumbling memories of the past, yet it rages in his head like the waves which hit the shore far enough from the rock formations where he stood. There was someone in his mind that he cannot remember, someone in front of him, he's jumping and the same floating feeling roamed his stomach; it's annoying, that was his feeling even in the current time.
The memories were vague, warm and they're, somehow, comforting. The memory looks humid as the color scheme ranged from white to yellow to red-orange, it's a reminder that sunset's about to come and envelope everyone of them. It was the same as his current view, everything's hot and the sun's scorching above everything.
“Stupid, Kei.” He cussed himself, whilst going up to the event venue.
The place, even though surrounded by ocean, has lots of trees, mangroves were even under those grande plants; it's surprisingly chill when he entered the metal gates covered in vines that lead through a Japanese house. There were bamboos behind, some foldable tables outside, where food covered in foils lie silently.
Kei decided to explore his eyes to be familiar with the surrounding. There are crickets singing together with the choir of rustling leaves and branches. Dahlia and buttercups scattered on the ground, it was colorful, it doesn't feel like a widowed person's living in this space.
He enjoys his mind and eyes with the huge garden and all its own wonders, when a mellifluous voice spoke not too far.
“Ah, you're the photographer?” His feet were nailed on the graveled path. “Please, make yourself feel at home. I have not much of visitors, it's a hassle, you see?”
“And besides, my past ‘husband’ doesn't like crowds.”
It caught him off guard. All this time, he's thinking that their customer was a straight man, turns out, it's a lover who was unfavored by the world.
Kei faced the man behind him. And right then and there, the only thing in his mind is to shrink into the size of an ant. Yet, all he could do was shiver from his spine to his head. His heart was rushing, adrenaline starts to go through his cells. He has the urge to jump, to runaway and hide somewhere silent and unoccupied.
It was as if a flight response was switched on in his head— similar to the feeling of seeing something he doesn't believe to.
“Eh?” He once shivered when a warm and calloused forehand touched his forehead. “You're pale, are you okay?”
His eyes widened.
*“Are you alright? You're pale, Tsukishima. Need me to send you to the nurse's office?—”
“‘Urusai’, I am alright, just a slight fever.”
“Meanie!” The guy pouted, steam forming over his head. “Go get sick, you stick!”
That guy with orange hair started to have his face, he started to have his own features— and all because of this man in front of him.
“Why do you have the same face as him?” A supposed to be wondering thought became a loud whisper, escaping the pink and mushy lips of the taller man.
A chuckle escaped the other's, his shoulders trembling lightly while he beams on Kei. The trees seemed to have move in alignment towards some other place, where the customer's face wasn't facing, all the sun beams were colliding and merging with the man's ethereal smile.
“As who?” The man ahead of Kei wondered, taking his hand back and wiping it off to his apron. “You're quite a weird guy, aren't you?”
“Oh well! That's good. I'm getting to know you, since I don't really like any strangers stepping their feet on my property— sorry for the rumbling! I'm actually pleased to meet you.” He bowed right after.
Getting off of his shocked state, Kei bent his body to bow back and show respect to him. “I –It's alright, sir—”
“Haha!” The wind gushed towards them, swaying away the orange flock of hair far from the soft and gentle face of the smaller man amongs them two. And all that Kei could do was let his rationality slip through his delusions, and questions about how, why, what and who; he looks like he's about to start wording out his wonders as to why are they meeting now, during a 'special' time when a certain someone from the two of them could only hope that they had met earlier in life, like maybe, in high school.
“Let us drop the honorifics, shall we? What's your name?”
“My... My name's Tsukishima Kei, I always use my surname for my job. And since you don't like any kind of honorifics, what I shall call you, 'sir'?”
He waited, and waited, whilst the man in front of him became silent– and then, the smile was back on his face, as if a switch was turned on in his head.
“I'm Hinata Shoyo. Call me Shoyo, if you may.” Shoyo looked down and back up again, to regain his composure as he slipped out an inaudible sigh.
“What a cruel fate.”
※
It was dead silent, that is if Kei would describe noise as made by human. He haven't done much during the morning time, due to the fact that there was nothing much to capture. All that he had took pictures of were the food, Hinata (-san) fixing the bushes and all the paper roses behind the plastic, foldable table to make the images more appealing and pleasant. Aside from all of that, Kei had only took images of the sceneries— the trees over him with the scorching sun above everything, the raging ocean that soon calms as it reaches the far line, and the sailing fishing boats and surfers from other area of the shore.
Everything was muted, if that everything is man-made, except the humming that ceased down his rumbling.
“Oh~” He listens, staying still while leaning his arms on the wooden fence that faces the sea. “Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry. You don't know how lovely you are~”
The song made the back of his head itch, somehow. There's like a wriggling worm in his brain that won't stop until he starts to grow dizzy, and eventually shuts his eyes close.
“I had to find you, tell you I need you...” The humming slows down. “Tell you—”
A smaller tone from the same man continues. “Tell you I set you apart.”
“Ah...” Kei starts to see some things. They're fading, but they do exist. It was that in his dreams, those moments that he couldn't differentiate from reality. The dead leaves falling over an orange head, the pink blossoms covering the same hair, with the man having almost faded face.
A hilt in his heartbeat caused Kei to heave a deep sigh. And another one follows, then another one, eventually turning into a palpitation that even his own breath cannot follow. The sound of the waves clapping under his nose echoed in his head, ringing something he doesn't have any idea that they were there. Like the chime at the mirrored door of their office building, or that one from a place where he goes with the orange-haired boy in his dreams; a coffee shop that sells sweet delicacies.
”Tell me your secrets, ask me your questions..”
Kei's grip on the fence grew stronger. He's trying to balance his body and build up his composure, whilst the events in his head projected in front of his eyes when he opened them, playing like a movie in the light blue sky.
*And again, he's wearing the black button-up uniform with gold buttons, with the red headphones hanging over his shoulders, together with his crimson red handbag at his other arms. It was a warm afternoon, the sun is still up despite the time being at 5 PM, truly an indication that it is indeed summertime. The dribbling sweats from his forehead could tell how unbearable the weather is for those who are not used or fond of it.
He was ready to go home when a smaller guy with almost shoulder length, orange hair bounces from behind up to his front.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, shall we go?”
“Tch.” He turned his head at the opposite side of the man's face. “What else should we do? Go back to school? You dumb fool, of course we should go ahead.”
The latter chuckled it off, used to the tsundere attitude of the taller one. “Oh well. I guess I don't have any energy left to oppose that, Mister Kei.”
They walked through the setting sun, by the river and the lighting up houses. When the sun is about to wave hello to the incoming night, the guy faced Kei and shoved a small box towards his chest.
“I–I don't know what else to give you, I could only afford, umm, this one.” Kei took it, opening the red ribbon that wraps the matte black box. When he opens it, a figure welcomes him.
“A preserved Japanese Silk Moth?” His eyebrows rose up, since he never told anyone about his obsession with moths and insects as a whole, everybody only knows about his liking for dinosaurs but never of the insects, especially his adored specie of moth.
“Ah, umm..” The other party scratches the back of his head. “I don't know what else I could give you, haha!”
Kei looked at him with disbelief and wonders, questions like ‘how did he know?’ start to form in his mind. However, the orange ray of the setting sun reflects on the other man's face, tainting him almost the same color of his hair— warm, comforting, it almost seems like home.
“Happy Birthday, Kei.”
His grip loosened, shutting his eyes open. Hinata (-san) was still humming, but this time it is even fainter.
“Oh, let's go back to the start.”
He looked at his back and saw Hinata beaming at the sea, looking so far from him who's just in front of him.
“I see, you like this view too?”
“I–It's not that bad, but I'm not really an enthusiast of unbearable heat.” He responded, earning a smile from Hinata. That same feeling hits him again, the same emotions that came from that unfathomable memory, which in this time, wasn't from his dream.
“I knew someone who used to hate the summer, too.” The older started, earning Kei's interest and curiosity.
‘Is it his husband?’
‘Is it his new lover?’
‘Is it a relative who's close to him?’
“I think I should have told you something, hm?” Hinata leaned on the same fence which Kei gripped at earlier, still eyeing the sea where surfers started to swarm at. “I am actually not widowed.”
“I was actually left by myself before I could even ask for the hand of my lover. But I've filled my documents and files as someone who was widowed six years ago, just to stop all the mutterings and questions surrounding me.”
Kei listens tentatively, trying to hear something from his words— NO. He's waiting to hear those specific phrases, as if it will set him free from the burden pulling his feet underground, and to cease the suffocating feeling that starts to wrap its arms around his chest.
“I tried to forget him. I tried to drown him on the sea that surrounds me. I tried to lose his voice on those trees above and around me, yet my heart cannot forget.” Hinata sighs, as if frustrated, but mostly broken from reminiscing everything he was trying to wipe off from his own existence. “I always want to take him off of my chest.”
“After his disappearance, my life continues with wanting to forget him, to kill his presence from my mind, body and soul, like he's some kind of stain, just because I know I loved him— I LOVE HIM.”
“But I never realized that all those times, and until this one, all I wanted was for him to come back.”
Silence followed and it was carried by the wind which embraced the two of them. Kei felt like those were the words he's waiting for, but they're not the words he needs. There are more words to unlock something in him—
“All these times, I was waiting for him to remember me.”
Kei's stomach started churning upside down, as if his acid was too much and he's about to throw up. And here is Shoyo looking at Kei with an unfamiliar yet familiar, gentle gaze, as if asking him to jump onto his arms and tell him that it was alright.
A gaze that's akin to telling him welcome back.
Or a gaze similar to telling him, “welcome home.”