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Four calls it's what you always get. Two in the morning, two in the night. Two from Kaoru, two from Kojiro.
Older people always talk about how cellphones and the tech culture have made relationships drier, but you don't have this type of thought - actually, only through a cellphone call you can discover the nuances of your boyfriends' love languages.
Kojiro is always loud, like his demonstrations of love are. If someone is near you, they can hear his voice from your phone even if you haven't put him on speaker.
He always asks a lot of things, but he is the one talking and talking. Even if he is busy, he needs to listen to your voice at least for ten minutes. He is needy, but not clingy, and you love to be loved in his way.
Kaoru is quiet. He often insults Kojiro for his long calls, because he makes the line busy for too much time. The pink-haired man prefers short calls, just checking that everything in your life is okay. And he wants to say “good night”, not to text it. He has often problems with resting and he needs the comfort of your voice. Or Joe’s one, but he doesn’t like to admit it.
His calls may be short, but he texts all the day. He asks Carla to send various type of messages during the day, that can be photos of his works as calligraphist such as simple texts with love declarations. He is indeed clingy, but knowing his past with love relationships (or better relationship, since the relationship that broke him was only one), you can’t be annoyed just by the fact he needs the confirmation that he is being loved.
In fact, Joe and you do everything in your power to make him trust people again. It’s a journey, but because you love Kaoru you want to travel every aspect of his healing.
Share quality time is one of those things you do, often on Kaoru’s sofa. Kojiro holds you and Cherry in his arms, and everyone talks about what they want – you often hear them talking about their past together, and you’re envious because you weren’t there, but time is a human construct that doesn’t define how much you love them. You don’t need to have shared all your childhood with them to have the same amount of love they have for each other. Or maybe, the whole point is you don’t have to weigh love, because it’s impossible and three different people need three different type of love.
In those four calls there is the equilibrium of your relationship with those two men.
But what is love? To be heard, to be respected, to be accepted. And there is nothing more comforting to show a naked soul and be accepted in its raw nature – the flaws, the virtues, the present, the future, the past. And as you accepted Kaoru’s fragility (or strength, because how much strength you need to have to admit you have scars?) and Kojiro’s hunger to be loved, they accepted you. You, without any adjective or other epithet.
So, you want Kaoru to be clingy and you want Kojiro to let you try all his dishes. You want to discover them everyday a little more – their favorite tricks, the piercings Kaoru had, the vacations in Italy Kojiro has planned.
Intimacy has the form of four calls, but not exclusively. It’s also watching Kojiro’s tired smile after his day of work, in his restaurant, with a glass of wine in Kaoru’s and your hand. It’s watching Reki and Langa, hoping they will find an intimacy like this someday, it isn’t important if romantic or platonic. It’s watching Kaoru falling asleep with his head on your thighs while Carla plays a lullaby. It’s having Kojiro kissing your whole face, telling you you aren’t alone. And it isn’t circumstantial phrase, because you deeply know you aren’t alone, even when you are physically alone – their love is always near you.
It’s sharing a bed skin to skin, heart to heart, soul to soul and feeling safe – the paradox to feel shielded without wearing the first existing shield: clothes.
Everyday, or something similar, two different numbers call the same number twice a day. And everyday, in Okinawa island, the miracle of love happens, through cellphones or not.