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CHAPTER 1: The Break
The rain fell in cold sheets, relentless and heavy, soaking through Shiu's clothes, but he remained unmoved, leaning against his car. His expression, typically composed and distant, now carried a trace of something else—something unspoken, but painfully clear.
“Toji...” His voice was quieter than the storm.
“Shiu, I—" Toji's voice faltered, unsure, but Shiu's sharp gaze cut through the words before they could form.
"Spare me," Shiu interrupted, his tone low, dangerous even. His eyes, usually so calm, flickered with a restrained anger. "Was I never enough? Or was it just easy to forget?"
Toji stood there, his posture tense, hands clenched at his sides. He was a man used to violence, to silence, but this—this was different. There was no fight here, no clear enemy. Just the consequences of a choice he could no longer deny.
"It was a mistake." Toji’s words came out flat, but there was something desperate behind them. "I—"
Shiu’s laugh cut him off, a hollow sound, bitter and sharp. "A mistake?" he echoed. "Is that all it was? Something you can brush off like an inconvenience?"
Toji looked away, his face hard, though the guilt was evident in the way his fists tightened. "I didn’t mean for this to happen. I was drunk. It wasn’t—"
"Stop," Shiu snapped, his voice edged with an emotion he didn’t want to show. “Don’t insult me with excuses.” His eyes searched Toji’s, looking for something—remorse, regret—but what he saw was just a man who’d already chosen.
"I’m done, Toji," Shiu said, the words steady, final. "Be the father you need to be, because you’re no longer anything to me."
For a moment, Toji said nothing, his stoic mask cracking, the rain mingling with whatever tears he wouldn’t let fall. "Shiu... don’t go," he said quietly, his voice raw, broken in a way that Toji Fushiguro was never supposed to be.
Shiu didn’t answer. He stepped back, away from the man he had once thought he could love, his heart heavy, his soul worn down. Without a word, he turned and got into his car, the door shutting with a soft thud that somehow felt louder than anything else.
As he drove away, the rain blurred everything outside the window, much like the memories he was trying so hard to leave behind. And as he disappeared into the distance, Toji was left standing alone, drenched in regret and rain, his shadow swallowed by the storm.
---
CHAPTER 2: The Return
Shiu had tried to rebuild his life. He fled Tokyo to a place where Toji's presence could no longer haunt him, but in truth, it was impossible to escape completely. Memories lingered in unexpected places—in the way someone laughed, in the smell of cigarette smoke on a damp street. Months passed, but time had a cruel way of cycling back to the past. His mind circled back to Toji, to the life he had left behind.
Shiu had been doing well, or at least that’s what he told himself. But late at night, when the silence grew heavy, the questions surfaced again. Why did it have to end like that?
And then, the call came. Not from Toji, but from the world he couldn’t quite leave behind. There was work to be done in Tokyo, an assignment only he could handle. Shiu, pragmatic as ever, told himself this was the only reason he was returning. It had nothing to do with Toji. Nothing to do with unfinished business. He convinced himself it was a simple job—quick and clean. But deep down, there was a nagging truth: Tokyo wasn’t just a city. It was a wound.
As his plane touched down, the city stretched out before him like an old photograph, both familiar and foreign. He hadn’t come back for Toji, or so he kept repeating. But the unresolved weight of their history hung in the air, as thick as the clouds that rolled in over the skyline.
He stepped out into the streets, his heart thudding against his chest. Would he run into Toji? Would the past catch up to him?
Shiu shook the thoughts from his mind. This is just business, nothing more.
---
CHAPTER 3: Collision
Days passed and the streets of Tokyo hadn't changed much, but Shiu felt different—harder, more guarded. As he made his way through the crowded city, something pulled at the edges of his consciousness. His steps quickened without meaning to, driven by an unease he couldn’t quite explain. He wasn’t running, but he wasn’t walking either.
And then he saw him.
Toji stood on the other side of the busy square, unguarded, caught off guard. He was holding a small bag of groceries, his face as cold and composed as ever. But the moment their eyes locked, the world seemed to pause. The years of distance, the silence that had grown between them, collapsed in an instant.
They moved toward each other, not consciously, but as if pulled by some invisible force. Shiu's mind raced, telling him to turn away, to avoid this moment—but his body betrayed him, moving closer to the man who had been both his love and his ruin.
Neither spoke, not yet. The noise of the city faded into the background as they stood just a few feet apart. For a moment, the past hung between them like a thick fog.
“Toji,” Shiu said first, his voice steady but low, revealing none of the storm beneath.
“Toji.” A name he hadn’t said in years, a name that still carried weight, despite everything.
Toji’s face remained unreadable, though Shiu could see the flicker of recognition, the sharp edges of regret hidden behind his stoic mask. “Shiu.” Toji’s voice was softer than he remembered, but just as heavy.
“How have you been?” Shiu’s words felt hollow, but they were the only thing he could say. He didn’t know if he really wanted to know, or if he just wanted to hear Toji speak again.
“I’ve been surviving.” Toji’s eyes darkened, as if weighed down by more than just the years.
“And Megumi?”
Toji hesitated, as if he wasn’t sure how to answer. “He’s growing,” he finally said, his voice quieter. “I try... but it’s not easy.”
Shiu’s heart clenched, but he masked it with a nod. “It was never supposed to be.”
There was a long pause. Shiu could feel the weight of the words unspoken between them, the tension of what they had been, and the chaos that now separated them. He didn’t know why he had come back to this city, not really, and why did he even agreed to work here. But standing here, facing Toji again, the reasons seemed to blur.
“I didn’t expect to see you,” Toji said at last, breaking the silence.
“Neither did I,” Shiu admitted, his voice barely above a whisper. “But here we are.”
Toji's eyes flickered, a faint crack in his steely composure. For a brief moment, there was something vulnerable in him, something Shiu hadn't seen in years. “Are you staying long?”
Shiu hesitated. He didn’t know the answer himself. Tokyo was just supposed to be a stop, a job, a fleeting visit. But now, with Toji standing in front of him, everything felt less certain. “I don’t know.”
Another silence settled between them, heavy but not uncomfortable. They both knew what had been said and what hadn’t. This wasn’t the reunion either of them had expected. There were too many ghosts, too much unsaid.
“I should go,” Shiu said, more to himself than to Toji. He turned, his heart feeling heavier than before.
Toji didn’t stop him this time. He watched Shiu walk away, his figure disappearing into the maze of Tokyo’s streets. But as Shiu vanished into the distance, a single thought lingered in Toji’s mind.
"Some wounds never heal, only fester."
---
"In the silence of the parting night,
Two hearts drift in separate flight.
Once close, now distant, path diverge,
Love unspoken, emotions serge.
The streets remember though
they want say,
The echoes of love that they went astray,
In the space between what was and will be,
They remain a memory,
just out of reach."
End.