JINFINITE
Super-Earth
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2022
- Location
- The Island of Eroda
the original jinsley production.
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c a t c h m y h e a r t [feelsHASkilig && JINFINITE]
- Thread starter JINFINITE
- Start date
the original jinsley production.
OP
OP
JINFINITE
Super-Earth
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2022
- Location
- The Island of Eroda
xx▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰ xLOOK INTO YOUR EYES AND IT GETS HARD TO BREATHE, WHEN EVERYTHING GETS THIS CRAZY...
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY WHEN I'M WITH YOU
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY TALKING WITH YOU
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY MY LOVE FOR YOU
sorry im late! （ＴｏＴ）
my bus is almost there~~~
my bus is almost there~~~
As the bus neared his stop, Jun tucked his phone into the front left pocket of his jeans and got to his feet. Using the rail along the ceiling to help keep his balance he carefully pushed his way through the crowded bus so that he was closer to a door when it finally stopped. Once outside, Jun wasted no time looking around at his surroundings. He knew where he was and he knew where he was going. It wasn’t like the scenery had changed overnight or anything. So down the street he went, stopping only for traffic lights and dodging other pedestrians with a grace and skill that came from living in San Francisco for so long.
He was almost there, just two blocks to go. Stepping off a curb, Jun’s thoughts were solely on his girlfriend. He was still bothered over making her wait and had brought a small gift to give along with his apology; a necklace to be exact. Though Jun didn’t intend on giving it to her just to make up for being late, he’d actually had it in his bag for the past week and had never managed to find the right moment to give to her. Several car horns going off brought Jun out of his thoughts as he casually turned his head to see what nonsense the angry drivers of SF were getting upset over. The rest happened so fast you would’ve missed it if you had blinked.
A car swerved around the corner from behind Jun, going far above the speed limit and breaking probably every traffic law in the book. The driver obviously hadn’t seen the Japanese male crossing the street, after all no one would want to hit another person unless they were attempting murder, or they were drunk. Panic took hold of Jun and he froze like a deer caught in the headlights as he watched the car speed towards him. His brain screamed at him to move but his feet seemed glued in place. In the last possible moment it seemed the driver saw him and attempted to brake however they weren’t quite quick enough. No noise escaped Jun’s lips, just the sickening sound of impact as the car collided with him. Everything had happened too fast for him to react. One second he was standing within the crosswalk, the next he was sliding up the hood of the car as far as the windshield and then rolling off onto the road as the car came to a skidding halt. He crumpled on his side with the wind completely knocked out of him when someone crouched into view in front of him asking if he could hear them. Jun wanted to reply but he could barely breathe let alone speak or form sentences. Some woman screaming to call 911 was his last memory before slipping into unconsciousness. Or, it would have been his last memory had he been able to remember it.
It would be two weeks before Jun next opened his eyes as he lay in a medically induced coma in the ICU. His brain injury was the number one concern as he miraculously had avoided any other severe internal or external wounds. As he’d rolled off the car he’d managed to subconsciously attempt to break his fall with his hands which only succeeded in scraping up his palms and getting a buckle fracture in his left wrist. He had also sustained a hairline fracture on a rib and split his lip. But aside from those and several bruises he’d walked, or was carried, away from the accident unharmed. Everyone seemed amazed at how lucky he was and were talking about how easy his recovery would be once woken up. No one really considered that he might not be fine once awake, so of course those involved in Jun’s care were all smiles the day it came to wake him up.
Jun could hear distant, muffled voices before his dark brown eyes slowly opened. The faint voices were growing stronger as he squinted into the room, his eyes adjusting to seeing light for the first time in two weeks. His body felt heavy, like he was too weak to even lift his arms. There was an ache in his chest every time he took a breath, and a throbbing headache which made it difficult for him to focus his attention. He squeezed his eyes shut and intended to keep them that way and disappear back to the darkness where it’d been quiet and pain free. But a woman’s voice called his name, bringing him back from the edge of consciousness and he opened his eyes again, this time noticing three people standing near the foot of his bed. Wait, bed? Where was he?
“You’re in the hospital.” Was this person psychic? He watched as a man in a white doctor’s coat approached him and settled with standing beside the bed. Jun glanced back to the other two people and saw his sister standing with some girl he didn’t recognize. He opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by the doctor and he found himself playing twenty questions with the older man. What’s your name? What are your parents’ names? Siblings? What city are you in? He was doing fine up until he was asked how old he was to which he responded, ”Twenty one” Without hesitation. There was a moment of silence in the room, then he was asked what year it was, ”2009…” He sounded less sure of himself now, noticing the expression on the doctor’s face. His head was really hurting now and he somehow found the strength to lift his right hand to his forehead but when he did he noticed the gauze bandages wrapped over his palm. His other hand was the same only had a black wrist splint over it as well. What had happened to him?!
“Jun,” The doctor was trying to regain his attention, “Do you remember what happened?” Jun’s silence served as his answer though he found himself unable to look away from his bandaged hands. “You were in a car accident…Jun?” The doctor tried again to break his trance but was only given silence and a growing panicked look on Jun’s face. The woman’s voice from before called his name at which he looked up towards the other two in the room; his sister and the stranger, ”…Onee-san?”
But his sister couldn’t have been the one to call his name; her hands were clamped over her mouth, a scared expression on her face as she stared at him. Jun’s eyes glanced over to the girl beside her. He didn’t show any signs of recognition, his face completely blank with the exception of a slightly pained expression as he became more aware of his current state. His head was killing him now as he tried to piece together what had happened.
Feeling awkward in front of the girl and doctor, both total strangers to him, Jun opted to speak in Japanese as he turned his unfocused attention back to his sister, "Ano hito wa…?" Shock was written all over his sister’s face and she looked from Jun to the girl, then back at Jun in complete disbelief, “Jenny?! Oboetenai no?”
Once again Jun’s lack of response spoke for him. His gaze shifted away from everyone while his sister relayed what he’d said into English. This was getting too overwhelming for him. He didn’t remember getting into any car accident. Why should he know this girl? Why did his sister look older than she had a few days ago when he went out to dinner with her and his girlfriend, Aimee? His eyes danced around the room, as his heart and mind raced.
The doctor looked like he wanted to say something to him but seeing the obvious pain from Jun’s headache he instead asked if the injured boy was feeling alright. Jun managed to mumble that his head hurt and the doctor replied that he’d go get something to help his headache, that he should calm down and that the doctor would be back shortly. Then it was just Jun, Jenny and Mariko. Jun found himself watching the stranger girl as he racked his memory, trying desperately to find somewhere she fit in.
Last edited:
feelsHASkilig
Solo Conversationalist
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2022
- Location
- Page Two Hundred & Forty-Nine
The sun outside their studio was starting to shine its setting light through the open windows in the ceiling. Jenny felt rather successful finally finishing off the second piece for the exhibit, even though she realized she needed three more to complete in a month or so. But either way, an artist worked at his or her own pace, even though this artist technically had a deadline to fulfill. After letting out a sigh of relief that she had now finished a piece she had been working on all week, Jenny finally turned her attention away from the canvas to look out the window. It shocked her to see that the sun was setting, and when she finally looked over at the clock hanging over the door to the darkroom she started to panic. She was supposed to meet Jun for lunch twenty minutes ago. As quickly as she could, she draped her piece so that it would dry overnight and then made sure the door to Jun’s darkroom was locked. She was in the process of grabbing her purse and the keys to the studio when she looked down at her paint covered hands as well as the paint covered jeans she was wearing. “Oh, well. I guess this will have to do for now,” she said to herself and then rushed out of the studio, locking the door behind her.
As she walked down the street towards the restaurant they agreed to meet at, Jenny slowly started to process the situation. If she was twenty minutes late to meet up with Jun, he would have gone to the studio by now to check if she was there. Or he would have called her. As she waited for the light to turn green at the crosswalk and the white little figure to appear for the okay to cross the street, the female pulled out her phone to check if there were any missed calls or messages from him. There was only one; a text message a little more than ten minutes ago telling her that he was going to be late and that his bus was almost there. This made her panic a little more because she was the one that was going to be late. It was then that the impatience she rarely had started to kick in and she was begging for the light to turn green already. When it finally did, you can bet she was already booking it to the restaurant, hoping that her boyfriend would forgive her for being so late. After all, she was working on her piece that would hopefully help bring in the money needed for her dream gallery (which she hoped would be their dream gallery).
When she finally made it to the restaurant, out of breath and sweating with her normally straight hair disheveled and frizzy, Jenny looked around hastily for any sign of her Japanese other half. It concerned her when she couldn’t find him instantly like she usually did. Before she could request for a table, Jenny walked back outside and pulled out her cellphone. She was about to dial Jun’s number when suddenly an unknown phone number appeared on her screen. A part of her wanted to ignore this call so that she could contact Jun first, but then the logical part told her answer it. What she wasn’t expecting was for the phone call to be from a nurse at the local hospital telling her that the other part of her world had just gotten into a serious car accident and had been rushed to the emergency room.
Flash. It’s now a week since Jun had been put into his medically induced coma. His doctor said that he wanted to put make sure the swelling his brain would go down before they could wake him up. And despite being told otherwise, Jenny has protested against leaving his bedside. Jenny remained at the hospital for three days, hardly eating anything and never leaving the chair she had pushed to sit next to him. She had made no intentions of leaving at all until his older sister Mariko entered the room and told her to go home and that she would call her if anything changed. The older woman started to reason that she needed to get some more sleep than she had been getting these past couple days—which had been little to none—and that she still had to go to work; that her bosses both at Starbucks and at the mall probably wouldn’t endure her absence any longer despite knowing the circumstan—
The alarm clock at her bedside disrupted her dreams again, much to Jenny’s relief. It was a reoccurring dream of her since Jun’s accident, and each morning she would wake up with obvious signs of crying. Sitting up slowly, she looked around the bedroom. It had been absent of Jun for too long that she was not used to waking up alone. Her eyes trailed towards the empty side of the bed, expression looking more defeated and tired than usual. Taking up the room of Jun’s side were the two cats that they had adopted a month after Jun moved into her apartment. They were currently mad at her for neglecting them to the point that Mariko was the one that had to feed them, but since she was allowing them to sleep on Jun’s side of the bed, they were slowly forgiving her. At least they weren’t scratching her anymore every time she attempted to come closer to them. Both cats were still sleeping soundly, nuzzled together to keep warm. Letting out a sigh, Jenny kicked the blanket off of her and got out of bed. Like every day this week, she took a quick shower and dressed in her Starbucks barista uniform. She skipped breakfast again, not entirely having the best appetite lately, but did not forget to clean the litter boxes and refill the cats’ water and food bowls to hopefully last them the whole day. Then she made her way to the hospital.
Mariko was already in Jun’s room when Jenny arrived, talking to the doctor about finally taking him out of his coma now that the swelling had finally gone down. The two ceased conversation when she walked inside, giving her a sympathetic look as set her purse down on a chair then walked over to Jun’s bedside. Before she looked at him, her eyes fell on a framed photo of the two of them together. It was taken sometime after Jenny had asked Jun to move in. They had made a very spontaneous decision to visit LA for one weekend and Jun surprised her by taking her straight to LACMA to see the lightposts. She let out another sigh then turned her attention towards her boyfriend, leaning in to kiss his forehead lightly. “So he’s going to be woken up today?” she asked tiredly. Although she didn’t entirely sound like it, she was excited. She would finally get to take him home soon.
Before they could take Jun out of his coma, the doctor had given both Jenny and Mariko instructions about what to do once he woke up. Once the two women acknowledged that they understood what to do, the doctor injected some liquid into Jun’s IV and they waited. Mariko and the doctor went back into conversation about some medical precautions and medications for after he was released. But Jenny remained silent, waiting for him to wake up. It took a few minutes, but finally she saw him stir and watched as his eyes slowly opened. This caused Mariko and the doctor to stop their conversation as the two smiled happily that he was waking up. Jenny was at the point of tears, but had to hold them back since the doctor told her that she shouldn’t cry around him yet so as to not overwhelm him. She watched him struggle to keep his eyes open, an expression of pain painted on his face. This concerned Jenny and she looked at the doctor questioning if anything was wrong with him. “Jun?” she then said, turning her attention back towards him. This seemed to have caught his attention enough for him to finally open his eyes all the way.
The doctor was professional about the next steps, telling Jun straight away where he was and then asking him a list of questions. Both Jenny and Mariko were thrilled when he was getting all of the questions right. Until he was asked how old he was. A great silence filled the room as the three of them looked at Jun curiously and then towards one another. Admittedly, Jenny felt her heart drop to the put of her stomach. When the doctor then asked what year it was, her heart felt like it broke into a million pieces. If he thought it was only 2009, then the accident caused Jun to lose three years of his memory. The three years that had nothing but her in them. “Jun?” she called out again, hoping that if he looked at her he would recognize her. But when he turned his attention away from his bandaged hands and towards where she and his sister were standing, she was met with a look of confusion, as if he had no idea who she was. He then spoke to his sister in Japanese. The look the older woman was giving him then to her only frightened Jenny more. The feeling only grew worse when Mariko translated what they had been saying to each other. It took a lot of strength for Jenny to stop herself from bursting into the tears she had been working so hard to hold in, keeping a calm expression on her face when the woman beside her was already at the brink of tears.
Eventually, after the doctor explained that he was going to get something for Jun’s headache, it was just the three of them alone in the room. Mariko was quick to disobey the instructions that the doctor had given them as she turned away from Jun. Her shaking shoulders couldn’t hide the fact that she was crying right now. Jenny looked over at Jun for a moment before she walked over to the woman, whispering words of comfort. Afterwards, she returned her attention back towards Jun, taking slow steps towards his bedside. As usual, her eyes traveled towards the framed photo and she realized that maybe it was best if he didn’t see it. So she quickly grabbed the photo off his bedside table then turned it so that he wouldn’t see the picture. She then planted a smile on her face, although it was hard given it was very forced. “Hi, Jun. I’m Jenny…um, Mariko’s friend,” she stated carefully. Just then she heard the older woman intake a breath and cry harder. The woman was making it hard for her to be the strong one. “Um, I’m glad you’re awake. Your sister has been very worried about you since the accident. Uh-um, I should probably go so you two can have some alone time. I have to, um, head to work anyway.” After sending him an awkward wave, Jenny turned away from him, grabbed her things then walked out of the room quickly.
She didn’t get very far as Mariko was quick to briefly excuse herself from the room and follow after Jenny. “Jenny! What do you think you’re doing?!” the woman said, pulling Jenny around to face her. The younger woman had nothing to say; unable to say anything as a matter of fact. “You can’t just leave like this, Jenny. This is a very sensitive time and he needs us.”
“Us? Mariko, my boyfriend has absolutely no idea who I am. He probably still thinks Aimee is his girlfriend,” Jenny quickly responded. This caught the other woman off guard, her eyes widening at the thought. For the past year and a half, the name of Jun’s ex-girlfriend has been avoided easily. However, after recent events, it was inevitable for Jenny to avoid saying it. Because if she did her math right, Aimee was probably Jun’s last memory.
“Well then, you need to march yourself back in there and set him straight. You can’t just leave him in the dark that you’re the one he wants to spend the rest of his life with,” Mariko then said. When Jenny said nothing, the woman took the framed photo from her hands and held it out to her. “You have to tell him.”
Jenny looked at the photo for a long time, marveling over how happy she and Jun looked in that photo. Despite all the things they didn’t have and all the struggles they shared because of what they lacked, the two managed to always be so happy as long as they were together. However, Jenny wondered to herself if that was going to remain the same now. This thought caused the tears to swell up and make her vision blurry. “I have to go to work,” she said and turned to walk away.
As she walked down the street towards the restaurant they agreed to meet at, Jenny slowly started to process the situation. If she was twenty minutes late to meet up with Jun, he would have gone to the studio by now to check if she was there. Or he would have called her. As she waited for the light to turn green at the crosswalk and the white little figure to appear for the okay to cross the street, the female pulled out her phone to check if there were any missed calls or messages from him. There was only one; a text message a little more than ten minutes ago telling her that he was going to be late and that his bus was almost there. This made her panic a little more because she was the one that was going to be late. It was then that the impatience she rarely had started to kick in and she was begging for the light to turn green already. When it finally did, you can bet she was already booking it to the restaurant, hoping that her boyfriend would forgive her for being so late. After all, she was working on her piece that would hopefully help bring in the money needed for her dream gallery (which she hoped would be their dream gallery).
When she finally made it to the restaurant, out of breath and sweating with her normally straight hair disheveled and frizzy, Jenny looked around hastily for any sign of her Japanese other half. It concerned her when she couldn’t find him instantly like she usually did. Before she could request for a table, Jenny walked back outside and pulled out her cellphone. She was about to dial Jun’s number when suddenly an unknown phone number appeared on her screen. A part of her wanted to ignore this call so that she could contact Jun first, but then the logical part told her answer it. What she wasn’t expecting was for the phone call to be from a nurse at the local hospital telling her that the other part of her world had just gotten into a serious car accident and had been rushed to the emergency room.
Flash. It’s now a week since Jun had been put into his medically induced coma. His doctor said that he wanted to put make sure the swelling his brain would go down before they could wake him up. And despite being told otherwise, Jenny has protested against leaving his bedside. Jenny remained at the hospital for three days, hardly eating anything and never leaving the chair she had pushed to sit next to him. She had made no intentions of leaving at all until his older sister Mariko entered the room and told her to go home and that she would call her if anything changed. The older woman started to reason that she needed to get some more sleep than she had been getting these past couple days—which had been little to none—and that she still had to go to work; that her bosses both at Starbucks and at the mall probably wouldn’t endure her absence any longer despite knowing the circumstan—
The alarm clock at her bedside disrupted her dreams again, much to Jenny’s relief. It was a reoccurring dream of her since Jun’s accident, and each morning she would wake up with obvious signs of crying. Sitting up slowly, she looked around the bedroom. It had been absent of Jun for too long that she was not used to waking up alone. Her eyes trailed towards the empty side of the bed, expression looking more defeated and tired than usual. Taking up the room of Jun’s side were the two cats that they had adopted a month after Jun moved into her apartment. They were currently mad at her for neglecting them to the point that Mariko was the one that had to feed them, but since she was allowing them to sleep on Jun’s side of the bed, they were slowly forgiving her. At least they weren’t scratching her anymore every time she attempted to come closer to them. Both cats were still sleeping soundly, nuzzled together to keep warm. Letting out a sigh, Jenny kicked the blanket off of her and got out of bed. Like every day this week, she took a quick shower and dressed in her Starbucks barista uniform. She skipped breakfast again, not entirely having the best appetite lately, but did not forget to clean the litter boxes and refill the cats’ water and food bowls to hopefully last them the whole day. Then she made her way to the hospital.
Mariko was already in Jun’s room when Jenny arrived, talking to the doctor about finally taking him out of his coma now that the swelling had finally gone down. The two ceased conversation when she walked inside, giving her a sympathetic look as set her purse down on a chair then walked over to Jun’s bedside. Before she looked at him, her eyes fell on a framed photo of the two of them together. It was taken sometime after Jenny had asked Jun to move in. They had made a very spontaneous decision to visit LA for one weekend and Jun surprised her by taking her straight to LACMA to see the lightposts. She let out another sigh then turned her attention towards her boyfriend, leaning in to kiss his forehead lightly. “So he’s going to be woken up today?” she asked tiredly. Although she didn’t entirely sound like it, she was excited. She would finally get to take him home soon.
Before they could take Jun out of his coma, the doctor had given both Jenny and Mariko instructions about what to do once he woke up. Once the two women acknowledged that they understood what to do, the doctor injected some liquid into Jun’s IV and they waited. Mariko and the doctor went back into conversation about some medical precautions and medications for after he was released. But Jenny remained silent, waiting for him to wake up. It took a few minutes, but finally she saw him stir and watched as his eyes slowly opened. This caused Mariko and the doctor to stop their conversation as the two smiled happily that he was waking up. Jenny was at the point of tears, but had to hold them back since the doctor told her that she shouldn’t cry around him yet so as to not overwhelm him. She watched him struggle to keep his eyes open, an expression of pain painted on his face. This concerned Jenny and she looked at the doctor questioning if anything was wrong with him. “Jun?” she then said, turning her attention back towards him. This seemed to have caught his attention enough for him to finally open his eyes all the way.
The doctor was professional about the next steps, telling Jun straight away where he was and then asking him a list of questions. Both Jenny and Mariko were thrilled when he was getting all of the questions right. Until he was asked how old he was. A great silence filled the room as the three of them looked at Jun curiously and then towards one another. Admittedly, Jenny felt her heart drop to the put of her stomach. When the doctor then asked what year it was, her heart felt like it broke into a million pieces. If he thought it was only 2009, then the accident caused Jun to lose three years of his memory. The three years that had nothing but her in them. “Jun?” she called out again, hoping that if he looked at her he would recognize her. But when he turned his attention away from his bandaged hands and towards where she and his sister were standing, she was met with a look of confusion, as if he had no idea who she was. He then spoke to his sister in Japanese. The look the older woman was giving him then to her only frightened Jenny more. The feeling only grew worse when Mariko translated what they had been saying to each other. It took a lot of strength for Jenny to stop herself from bursting into the tears she had been working so hard to hold in, keeping a calm expression on her face when the woman beside her was already at the brink of tears.
Eventually, after the doctor explained that he was going to get something for Jun’s headache, it was just the three of them alone in the room. Mariko was quick to disobey the instructions that the doctor had given them as she turned away from Jun. Her shaking shoulders couldn’t hide the fact that she was crying right now. Jenny looked over at Jun for a moment before she walked over to the woman, whispering words of comfort. Afterwards, she returned her attention back towards Jun, taking slow steps towards his bedside. As usual, her eyes traveled towards the framed photo and she realized that maybe it was best if he didn’t see it. So she quickly grabbed the photo off his bedside table then turned it so that he wouldn’t see the picture. She then planted a smile on her face, although it was hard given it was very forced. “Hi, Jun. I’m Jenny…um, Mariko’s friend,” she stated carefully. Just then she heard the older woman intake a breath and cry harder. The woman was making it hard for her to be the strong one. “Um, I’m glad you’re awake. Your sister has been very worried about you since the accident. Uh-um, I should probably go so you two can have some alone time. I have to, um, head to work anyway.” After sending him an awkward wave, Jenny turned away from him, grabbed her things then walked out of the room quickly.
She didn’t get very far as Mariko was quick to briefly excuse herself from the room and follow after Jenny. “Jenny! What do you think you’re doing?!” the woman said, pulling Jenny around to face her. The younger woman had nothing to say; unable to say anything as a matter of fact. “You can’t just leave like this, Jenny. This is a very sensitive time and he needs us.”
“Us? Mariko, my boyfriend has absolutely no idea who I am. He probably still thinks Aimee is his girlfriend,” Jenny quickly responded. This caught the other woman off guard, her eyes widening at the thought. For the past year and a half, the name of Jun’s ex-girlfriend has been avoided easily. However, after recent events, it was inevitable for Jenny to avoid saying it. Because if she did her math right, Aimee was probably Jun’s last memory.
“Well then, you need to march yourself back in there and set him straight. You can’t just leave him in the dark that you’re the one he wants to spend the rest of his life with,” Mariko then said. When Jenny said nothing, the woman took the framed photo from her hands and held it out to her. “You have to tell him.”
Jenny looked at the photo for a long time, marveling over how happy she and Jun looked in that photo. Despite all the things they didn’t have and all the struggles they shared because of what they lacked, the two managed to always be so happy as long as they were together. However, Jenny wondered to herself if that was going to remain the same now. This thought caused the tears to swell up and make her vision blurry. “I have to go to work,” she said and turned to walk away.
OP
OP
JINFINITE
Super-Earth
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2022
- Location
- The Island of Eroda
xx▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰ xLOOK INTO YOUR EYES AND IT GETS HARD TO BREATHE, WHEN EVERYTHING GETS THIS CRAZY...
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY WHEN I'M WITH YOU
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY TALKING WITH YOU
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY MY LOVE FOR YOU
Once the doctor had left, Jun’s sister broke down crying; and he just stared wordlessly as the other girl went over to try and comfort her. Jun felt ignored, like there was some secret he wasn’t being let in on. It was like in school when everyone would laugh at the kid with a “kick me” post it stuck to their back. Finally the girl introduced herself as Jenny; his sister’s friend, apparently. Well that was good, at least she wasn’t someone he’d met before. He’d feel bad if they had been introduced but he didn’t recognize or remember her. He was a bit curious how she and Mariko had met though; Jenny looked quite a bit younger than his sister. And if they were close enough to visit him in the hospital with Mariko then why hadn’t he met her before? And why had his sister asked about him remembering her? But Jun let the matter slide; or rather he wasn’t given a chance to ask as Jenny seemed to be in a rush and left after a quick goodbye.
Almost immediately his sister ran after her leaving Jun alone with his thoughts. He still had no idea how he’d ended up here. A car accident? He didn’t even have a car…or did he? Nothing was making any sense and the more he thought about it, the worse his head hurt and by the time the doctor returned he was pressing his less injured hand to his forehead in hopes that the pressure would alleviate some of the pain, ”Here, this should help. Your sister told me that she needs to go pick up her son. She’ll be back later today.”
Son? That should have let off bright red flashing warning lights to Jun as the doctor administered the pain medication, but Jun’s mind couldn’t juggle multiples subjects at the moment and there was already something bothering him, ”What about my girlfriend? Was she hurt? She was with—“
”She wasn’t with you in the accident.”
Jun blinked, ”What?” Aimee hadn’t been in the accident? But they went everywhere together. They were a package deal of sorts. Aimee always insisted he accompanied her everywhere she went. And she would never allow Jun to go somewhere without her. So whenever you wanted one of them you’d end up with both.
That's how Aimee was, controlling and manipulative. Everything always went exactly how she wanted it to, always. Why he stayed with her was a mystery to everyone in Jun's life. They all repeatedly told him to leave yet he never did. Abusive relationships were tricky like that. He was constantly making excuses for the way she treated him; deep down he knew it wasn't right, but the part of him that had fallen in love with her in the first place couldn't let her go.
The fact that Aimee wasn't with him right now was actually more shocking to Jun than the past fifteen minutes had been. She had a hold on him that cleared all other concerns from his head and left his eyes searching the room for his cellphone, "...where's my stuff?"
"Your sister should have everything that was recovered."
Jun was looking quite stressed already and he hadn't even been told that his mind was living three years in the past. His eyelids were growing heavy and he could just barely hear the doctor mention "medication" and "drowsy" before Jun's world turned into silent darkness.
He woke several hours later looking and feeling much more functional than he had after coming out of his coma. His head still hurt but no where near to the degree it had earlier. When the doctor came in he first checked on Jun's amount of pain, health in general and mental awareness before pulling a chair to his bedside so as to talk on a more personal level, "Do you remember anything about the accident?" Jun shook his head, "What's the last thing you remember then?"
"I don't-- I was..." He tried to recall what he'd been doing before the black hole in his memory but no specific event stood out to him and everything sort of just blurred together, "You've been here for two weeks, Jun. We kept you asleep to help you heal but it seems you have some memory loss," Jun tried to speak but the doctor quickly interjected, "This is normal. Your memories should come back on their own over time. It's important you just take things slowly and just try to get back into your usual routine."
His usual routine? Jun just stared at the doctor, he didn't even know how to respond to all that, "...so, what day is it?" He'd lost two weeks of his life to sleep, but he couldn't remember what day it'd been during the accident. Had it been the eighteenth? Jun's heart stopped when the doctor told him the date. 2012? It was 2012?! No. No, no, no, no. This all had to be some kind of nightmare. Or a prank, a very elaborate prank. Had he time warped to the future?? How could three years of his life just disappear like that?
"I know it's a lot to take in, I asked your sister to bring some of your belongings when she returns. Being around familiar things and people should help you remember." The doctor had other patients to attend to and a few minutes later made his leave. His voice could still be heard in the hallway as he talked to someone he encountered, but Jun didn't hear a word of what he said. His mind was still struggling to accept that he'd forgotten three years of his life. His expression was quick to dissolve from shocked into something much darker as he sunk back further into his pillows. Jun tried to roll onto his side but a sharp pain from his ribcage kept him on his back and he opted to simply turn his head to stare distantly out the window.
Almost immediately his sister ran after her leaving Jun alone with his thoughts. He still had no idea how he’d ended up here. A car accident? He didn’t even have a car…or did he? Nothing was making any sense and the more he thought about it, the worse his head hurt and by the time the doctor returned he was pressing his less injured hand to his forehead in hopes that the pressure would alleviate some of the pain, ”Here, this should help. Your sister told me that she needs to go pick up her son. She’ll be back later today.”
Son? That should have let off bright red flashing warning lights to Jun as the doctor administered the pain medication, but Jun’s mind couldn’t juggle multiples subjects at the moment and there was already something bothering him, ”What about my girlfriend? Was she hurt? She was with—“
”She wasn’t with you in the accident.”
Jun blinked, ”What?” Aimee hadn’t been in the accident? But they went everywhere together. They were a package deal of sorts. Aimee always insisted he accompanied her everywhere she went. And she would never allow Jun to go somewhere without her. So whenever you wanted one of them you’d end up with both.
That's how Aimee was, controlling and manipulative. Everything always went exactly how she wanted it to, always. Why he stayed with her was a mystery to everyone in Jun's life. They all repeatedly told him to leave yet he never did. Abusive relationships were tricky like that. He was constantly making excuses for the way she treated him; deep down he knew it wasn't right, but the part of him that had fallen in love with her in the first place couldn't let her go.
The fact that Aimee wasn't with him right now was actually more shocking to Jun than the past fifteen minutes had been. She had a hold on him that cleared all other concerns from his head and left his eyes searching the room for his cellphone, "...where's my stuff?"
"Your sister should have everything that was recovered."
Jun was looking quite stressed already and he hadn't even been told that his mind was living three years in the past. His eyelids were growing heavy and he could just barely hear the doctor mention "medication" and "drowsy" before Jun's world turned into silent darkness.
He woke several hours later looking and feeling much more functional than he had after coming out of his coma. His head still hurt but no where near to the degree it had earlier. When the doctor came in he first checked on Jun's amount of pain, health in general and mental awareness before pulling a chair to his bedside so as to talk on a more personal level, "Do you remember anything about the accident?" Jun shook his head, "What's the last thing you remember then?"
"I don't-- I was..." He tried to recall what he'd been doing before the black hole in his memory but no specific event stood out to him and everything sort of just blurred together, "You've been here for two weeks, Jun. We kept you asleep to help you heal but it seems you have some memory loss," Jun tried to speak but the doctor quickly interjected, "This is normal. Your memories should come back on their own over time. It's important you just take things slowly and just try to get back into your usual routine."
His usual routine? Jun just stared at the doctor, he didn't even know how to respond to all that, "...so, what day is it?" He'd lost two weeks of his life to sleep, but he couldn't remember what day it'd been during the accident. Had it been the eighteenth? Jun's heart stopped when the doctor told him the date. 2012? It was 2012?! No. No, no, no, no. This all had to be some kind of nightmare. Or a prank, a very elaborate prank. Had he time warped to the future?? How could three years of his life just disappear like that?
"I know it's a lot to take in, I asked your sister to bring some of your belongings when she returns. Being around familiar things and people should help you remember." The doctor had other patients to attend to and a few minutes later made his leave. His voice could still be heard in the hallway as he talked to someone he encountered, but Jun didn't hear a word of what he said. His mind was still struggling to accept that he'd forgotten three years of his life. His expression was quick to dissolve from shocked into something much darker as he sunk back further into his pillows. Jun tried to roll onto his side but a sharp pain from his ribcage kept him on his back and he opted to simply turn his head to stare distantly out the window.
Last edited:
feelsHASkilig
Solo Conversationalist
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2022
- Location
- Page Two Hundred & Forty-Nine
The thing about working at Starbucks, especially when it was located somewhere right smack in the middle of downtown, was that the place was always so busy that there was never a down time to stop and think about troubles or worries. It was the reason why Jenny was more than relieved to take in the smell of freshly brewed coffee, caramel, and espresso in the air as she pulled open the door into her day job. She was lucky to get a shift right before the lunch rush began so she had time to head over to the back and put on her apron before she was pushed right into work. It surprised her when her co-workers looked at her strangely as if they were wondering just what in the world she was doing there. But since they had no time to chit chat, they pushed the thoughts aside and went right to work. Jenny took over one of the registers for the new girl that started working a few weeks ago so she could get some time in to practice making drinks. Plus, having to listen to customers tell her their orders and making sure not to forget it helped distract Jenny from thinking about Jun and his current condition.
Things had been going well for the first hour and a half as people in business suits and college students traveling off campus came in and placed their orders for a little pick me up before heading to work or to their next class. As she had predicted, the line was nonstop as people came in and out during the rush and there was no time for her to take a break between placing orders and making sure they were correct to making sure she was giving the right amount of change. She was distracted long enough that the thought of Jun and his memory loss had actually been pushed out of her mind and no longer existed. And for the most part, she actually felt pretty happy being so busy. There was even one point when she was talking to one of her co-workers who was relaying a funny story about her son that Jenny actually let out a real laugh instead of faking it. But like all good things, it came to an end in the form of the she-devil also known as Jun’s ex-girlfriend.
Jenny had just finished writing out an order on a grande cup when she turned to see Aimee looking at her with that typical smug smirk she reserved just for her. “Jenny, I see you’re still working a dead beat job because of your poor career decisions,” insulted Aimee as she simultaneously pulled out a wallet with the LV logo right in the front. Choosing to ignore this, the female pulled out her sharpie pen and asked for her order. She watched as Aimee looked up at the menu for a moment, faking thought as she tapped her perfectly manicured index finger on her chin. “Let me have a…grande upside down ice caramel macchiato,” Aimee said slowly as she continued to look at the menu while Jenny wrote down her order. Just as she was about to ring it up on the cash register, Aimee quickly interrupted with, “On second thought, make that a venti vanilla bean frap with extra whip.” Jenny gave the female a look before she let out a sigh, taking the previous cup back and writing another order on another cup. “Actually! Scratch that last order. I’ll take a grande sugar free soy vanilla latte.” By this time, Jenny and almost all of her co-workers were looking at Aimee wondering what in the world she was doing. Except, Jenny knew exactly what she was doing. Anyone that knew about Jenny and Jun knew that with their relationship came with it a resenting ex-girlfriend that wanted Jun back. So it was obvious to anyone that knew anything that Aimee hated Jenny. Letting out another sigh, Jenny pulled out yet another cup to write out the order, asking if there was anything else that she wanted. Aimee smirked almost devilishly as she stowed away her wallet and took her purse off the counter. “Actually, I don’t think I would be able to wait for my order and make it to class on time. So I’ll just take my business elsewhere another time.” And just like that, she left.
Aimee’s little ploy literally caused the entire store to stop whatever they were doing to watch as she walked out with her nose high and a very evil smirk on her face. The whispers started and she noticed that some people were actually looking at her. Jenny was quick to look away, turning her attention towards an Asian male who ordered an iced Americano. Aimee’s appearance caused her to become a little distracted, but not enough that it would disrupt her work. The thoughts of Jun in the hospital popped up randomly when she had the few seconds to rest before the next customer came up.
Finally, around the late afternoon, her shift finally ended. After she called out her last made order, Jenny said goodbye to her co-workers and made her way to the back to collect her things. While she was taking off her apron and hanging it back up, her boss suddenly came up to her with a concerned expression on her face. “Everything okay? I heard about that incident earlier. Was Aimee causing you any trouble?” Jenny looked up from her apron towards her boss. She wasn’t surprised that the older woman knew about Aimee, as this wasn’t the first time the she-devil caused her trouble on purpose while she was at work. Jenny let out a sigh and responded that everything was fine, that she had it all worked out and that she was making it bother her. The woman nodded at this then walked away to get some work done, leaving the younger female alone with her thoughts. This was the first time in hours that she had time to think about Jun, and it was breaking her heart. The appearance of Aimee only reminded her more and more about how Jun’s only memories right now were of that woman, and that she was nowhere in the picture. In Jun’s mind, Aimee was the one he loves, and she was just a stranger.
After her shift at Starbucks, Jenny quickly returned to her apartment to have a quick meal. She didn’t realize until after she got on a bus to head home how incredibly hungry she was. Between working nonstop at Starbucks and worrying about Jun, she didn’t exactly have time to think about her own well-being, which is probably not a good thing. So before she could change out of her barista uniform and into clothes made and sold at her job, Forever 21, she made herself a quick meal of instant ramen then scarfed it down quickly so that she wouldn’t be late for work. The rest of her night shift went by in a blur and before she knew it, her shift was over. It was just after she walked out from the back with her purse did she notice a female beeline right to her. When she turned to look to see who it was Jenny let out a sigh when she saw that it was Mariko. She also noticed that the woman was dragging her son along behind her. “Mariko, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at the hospital with Jun?” she asked curiously. Just then she was momentarily distracted by Jun’s nephew who pulled his hand out of his mother’s and ran right to her. She picked him and hugged him tightly before returning her attention back to Mariko who was explaining to her that she was going to come with them to the hospital. Because apparently, she needed to tell Jun who she really was. The two women bickered for a few minutes before Jenny finally gave up and followed behind Mariko.
“Oh, you arrived just in time. He just woke up,” said the doctor when they walked towards his room. Jenny was still holding onto Yuta as he and Mariko conversed about Jun’s condition. She listened carefully but silently, holding tightly to the little boy that she had grown to become very attached to. Apparently the doctor had finally told him what year it was and that being around familiar faces would help bring back his memory. This made Jenny nervous a little bit. Before the three of them went in, Mariko paused for a moment to explain that she had brought some of Jun’s things. When she opened the bag to reveal those items, the first thing she noticed was the framed photo she had taken earlier without him realizing. “Mariko! You can’t show that to him!” she said in a whisper, pulling the photo out of there and attempted to put it in her purse. But because she was holding Yuta, it was difficult and the older woman successfully took it away from her. She explained that he needed to see this and that he needed to know. The two bickered yet again, which distracted Jenny and Mariko long enough to not notice that the little boy in Jenny’s arms had wiggled his way out of her hold and walked clumsily over to the door. Jenny noticed in time what he was doing and followed after him as he opened the door and let himself in.
“Yuta, stop! You can’t just walk into a room without knocking,” Jenny said, taking hold on the little boy’s hand and pulling him away from the bed. She looked up at Jun cautiously as she carried Yuta in her arms. He looked far more distressed than he had earlier; possibly from learning that he had lost three years of his life’s memories. “…Hi,” was all she said as she walked over to his bedside. “This is, um…This is Yuta. Your nephew,” she continued then looked at the little boy in her arms, who suddenly decided to be very shy around his uncle. It made her wonder if the boy knew about Jun’s condition.
Things had been going well for the first hour and a half as people in business suits and college students traveling off campus came in and placed their orders for a little pick me up before heading to work or to their next class. As she had predicted, the line was nonstop as people came in and out during the rush and there was no time for her to take a break between placing orders and making sure they were correct to making sure she was giving the right amount of change. She was distracted long enough that the thought of Jun and his memory loss had actually been pushed out of her mind and no longer existed. And for the most part, she actually felt pretty happy being so busy. There was even one point when she was talking to one of her co-workers who was relaying a funny story about her son that Jenny actually let out a real laugh instead of faking it. But like all good things, it came to an end in the form of the she-devil also known as Jun’s ex-girlfriend.
Jenny had just finished writing out an order on a grande cup when she turned to see Aimee looking at her with that typical smug smirk she reserved just for her. “Jenny, I see you’re still working a dead beat job because of your poor career decisions,” insulted Aimee as she simultaneously pulled out a wallet with the LV logo right in the front. Choosing to ignore this, the female pulled out her sharpie pen and asked for her order. She watched as Aimee looked up at the menu for a moment, faking thought as she tapped her perfectly manicured index finger on her chin. “Let me have a…grande upside down ice caramel macchiato,” Aimee said slowly as she continued to look at the menu while Jenny wrote down her order. Just as she was about to ring it up on the cash register, Aimee quickly interrupted with, “On second thought, make that a venti vanilla bean frap with extra whip.” Jenny gave the female a look before she let out a sigh, taking the previous cup back and writing another order on another cup. “Actually! Scratch that last order. I’ll take a grande sugar free soy vanilla latte.” By this time, Jenny and almost all of her co-workers were looking at Aimee wondering what in the world she was doing. Except, Jenny knew exactly what she was doing. Anyone that knew about Jenny and Jun knew that with their relationship came with it a resenting ex-girlfriend that wanted Jun back. So it was obvious to anyone that knew anything that Aimee hated Jenny. Letting out another sigh, Jenny pulled out yet another cup to write out the order, asking if there was anything else that she wanted. Aimee smirked almost devilishly as she stowed away her wallet and took her purse off the counter. “Actually, I don’t think I would be able to wait for my order and make it to class on time. So I’ll just take my business elsewhere another time.” And just like that, she left.
Aimee’s little ploy literally caused the entire store to stop whatever they were doing to watch as she walked out with her nose high and a very evil smirk on her face. The whispers started and she noticed that some people were actually looking at her. Jenny was quick to look away, turning her attention towards an Asian male who ordered an iced Americano. Aimee’s appearance caused her to become a little distracted, but not enough that it would disrupt her work. The thoughts of Jun in the hospital popped up randomly when she had the few seconds to rest before the next customer came up.
Finally, around the late afternoon, her shift finally ended. After she called out her last made order, Jenny said goodbye to her co-workers and made her way to the back to collect her things. While she was taking off her apron and hanging it back up, her boss suddenly came up to her with a concerned expression on her face. “Everything okay? I heard about that incident earlier. Was Aimee causing you any trouble?” Jenny looked up from her apron towards her boss. She wasn’t surprised that the older woman knew about Aimee, as this wasn’t the first time the she-devil caused her trouble on purpose while she was at work. Jenny let out a sigh and responded that everything was fine, that she had it all worked out and that she was making it bother her. The woman nodded at this then walked away to get some work done, leaving the younger female alone with her thoughts. This was the first time in hours that she had time to think about Jun, and it was breaking her heart. The appearance of Aimee only reminded her more and more about how Jun’s only memories right now were of that woman, and that she was nowhere in the picture. In Jun’s mind, Aimee was the one he loves, and she was just a stranger.
After her shift at Starbucks, Jenny quickly returned to her apartment to have a quick meal. She didn’t realize until after she got on a bus to head home how incredibly hungry she was. Between working nonstop at Starbucks and worrying about Jun, she didn’t exactly have time to think about her own well-being, which is probably not a good thing. So before she could change out of her barista uniform and into clothes made and sold at her job, Forever 21, she made herself a quick meal of instant ramen then scarfed it down quickly so that she wouldn’t be late for work. The rest of her night shift went by in a blur and before she knew it, her shift was over. It was just after she walked out from the back with her purse did she notice a female beeline right to her. When she turned to look to see who it was Jenny let out a sigh when she saw that it was Mariko. She also noticed that the woman was dragging her son along behind her. “Mariko, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at the hospital with Jun?” she asked curiously. Just then she was momentarily distracted by Jun’s nephew who pulled his hand out of his mother’s and ran right to her. She picked him and hugged him tightly before returning her attention back to Mariko who was explaining to her that she was going to come with them to the hospital. Because apparently, she needed to tell Jun who she really was. The two women bickered for a few minutes before Jenny finally gave up and followed behind Mariko.
“Oh, you arrived just in time. He just woke up,” said the doctor when they walked towards his room. Jenny was still holding onto Yuta as he and Mariko conversed about Jun’s condition. She listened carefully but silently, holding tightly to the little boy that she had grown to become very attached to. Apparently the doctor had finally told him what year it was and that being around familiar faces would help bring back his memory. This made Jenny nervous a little bit. Before the three of them went in, Mariko paused for a moment to explain that she had brought some of Jun’s things. When she opened the bag to reveal those items, the first thing she noticed was the framed photo she had taken earlier without him realizing. “Mariko! You can’t show that to him!” she said in a whisper, pulling the photo out of there and attempted to put it in her purse. But because she was holding Yuta, it was difficult and the older woman successfully took it away from her. She explained that he needed to see this and that he needed to know. The two bickered yet again, which distracted Jenny and Mariko long enough to not notice that the little boy in Jenny’s arms had wiggled his way out of her hold and walked clumsily over to the door. Jenny noticed in time what he was doing and followed after him as he opened the door and let himself in.
“Yuta, stop! You can’t just walk into a room without knocking,” Jenny said, taking hold on the little boy’s hand and pulling him away from the bed. She looked up at Jun cautiously as she carried Yuta in her arms. He looked far more distressed than he had earlier; possibly from learning that he had lost three years of his life’s memories. “…Hi,” was all she said as she walked over to his bedside. “This is, um…This is Yuta. Your nephew,” she continued then looked at the little boy in her arms, who suddenly decided to be very shy around his uncle. It made her wonder if the boy knew about Jun’s condition.
OP
OP
JINFINITE
Super-Earth
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2022
- Location
- The Island of Eroda
xx▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰ xLOOK INTO YOUR EYES AND IT GETS HARD TO BREATHE, WHEN EVERYTHING GETS THIS CRAZY...
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY WHEN I'M WITH YOU
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY TALKING WITH YOU
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY MY LOVE FOR YOU
The door opening did little to distract Jun from his thoughts until the intruders were at his side and he slowly turned his head to see who had entered his room. The girl from earlier that day came into view along with a little boy. Her brother? Or maybe he was her son? No, they looked nothing alike; although, he could have been adopted. Jun said nothing in return when Jenny greeted him which wasn’t like him at all. He’d been raised to be polite no matter what. Before he’d had the excuse of being extremely disoriented from the coma; his visitors just had bad timing right now as Jun was feeling far from social. At least he was looking at them though, ”This is, um…this is Yuta. Your nephew.”
Jun’s eyes widened slightly at this bit of news. It really was 2012, wasn’t it? Mariko had had her child, and he’d missed it. No, he hadn’t missed it; he just couldn’t remember it had even happened. Feelings of guilt, joy, regret and sadness washed over Jun and he found himself unable to look away from the little boy in Jenny’s arms. He didn’t have a clue how he was supposed to react or what he was supposed to say. What could he say? “Hi Yuta! I guess we’ve met already but I don’t remember you at all. How’s it going?” No, that definitely didn’t work.
Part of him wanted to reach out and hold the boy; he felt drawn to him. But his fear of his current situation immobilized him, ”Nande are you crying?” Jun’s breath caught in his throat at the scrambled question and he slowly reached one bandaged hand up to wipe at a tear that had somehow escaped him. There were two things Jun never did; not since officially breaking up with Aimee. He never yelled or showed when he was angry and would let things that upset him pass by with a smile. Jun also never cried, ”Itai?” He blinked back any other tears threatening to fall and forced what he could manage of a smile as he shook his head, ”Uun, heiki heiki.”
By now Jun had sat up and Yuta was squirming in Jenny’s arms till he got what he wanted; to be set on the edge of the bed. It seemed the ice had broken between the two relatives as the curious three year old reached for his uncle’s left hand to pull at the velcro holding the wrist splint in place, ”Yuta, don’t do that!”
Jun glanced up to see his sister enter the room and cross towards them. She set her purse, Yuta’s backpack and a white paper shopping bag from Macy’s on the chair by his bed and trained her scolding gaze on her son, ”It’s fine, his gaze dropped back to the boy sitting next to him. He was too captivated by the fact that he had a nephew now to be able to tell Yuta not to do something. And it wasn’t like he was jumping on him or anything, ”Shussan omedetou.” He looked back to his sister who stared blankly at him for a brief second before looking away. She’d already heard that from him, three years ago. Dealing with Jun’s memory loss was going to be hard on them all, but for the time being they could forget about it as Yuta finally found his voice and started conversing with Jun speaking in what broken Japanese and English he knew. Yuta and Jun had been very close before the accident, Jun was always bringing him places and he and Jenny would babysit for Mariko and her husband when they wanted a night to themselves. It was clear that their bond was still there, even though Jun had no recollection of the boy who was currently retelling an event from his day.
Jun’s mood had obviously lifted while talking to Yuta, he was smiling, even teasing the little boy. He was rather surprised at how talkative he was, and despite mixing his two languages together at times he had a large vocab and excellent grammar for a child barely three years old. Little did Jun know, but he had been the main reason for Yuta’s speaking skills. ”Ojisan,”
”Hm?”
”When can I go to you and Jenny’s house again? All the smiles and happy conversations that had been going on for the past ten minutes stopped there, ”Me and…Jenny’s house…? He slowly looked away from Yuta and up at the girl who’d introduced herself as his sister’s friend. She offered no explanation however and looked like she wished she could turn invisible, so Jun’s focus quickly shifted over to his sister, ”What’s he talking about?” Mariko didn’t look like she wanted to say anything either and glanced over to Jenny; she had told the younger girl she needed to be the one to tell him the truth, ”Kotaero!!” She flinched at Jun’s raised voice and quickly looked back at him. There were two things Jun never did; cry, or show any form of anger.
”She’s your girlfriend…you and Aimee broke up a couple years ago,” Jun was shaking his head in denial and Mariko’s hands flew into the Macy’s bag she’d brought in search of proof, ”See? Look!” She held out the framed photograph and Jun’s eyes dropped to look at it. His hand trembled slightly as he reached to take it from her. There in the photo were Jun and Jenny; he stood slightly behind her, his arms wrapped protectively and lovingly around her as they smiled at the camera. He was speechless and found himself unable to look away from the photograph
”You two live together,” his sister continued, ”You share a loft apartment south of Market.” She started to explain more and reached back into the bag to grab something else but Yuta who had been crying from shock this whole time turned towards her with his arms out. Mariko was torn momentarily between being a sister or a mother but in the end picked up her son to comfort and quiet him, ”You two should talk,” her voice was soft but shakey as though she were fighting to keep back tears as she gathered her purse and Yuta’s backpack, leaving the bag of Jun’s stuff, ”I’ll be in the hall…”
And then it was just Jun and Jenny, though neither said anything to the other. Or rather, Jun didn’t hear anything if Jenny had spoken. All his focus was locked on the photo in his hands to the point where he had no awareness of his surroundings. He finally blinked away from the photo and over to the bag Mariko had left behind. Ignoring the pain in his side he leaned over and weakly took the handles, pulling it onto the bed before emptying the contents out for him to see. Various items fell out, none of which looked familiar to Jun. There was an iPhone with a shattered screen, a rather fancy looking camera, a Disneyland hoodie, some cds and a cute gift box with a tag hanging off that read ‘Jenny’. Jun’s hand went to the phone he’d been searching for earlier; since when did he have an iPhone? Despite the broken screen he was able to turn on the device and proceeded to unlock it. The wallpaper was another photo of Jun and Jenny. Whether or not Jenny had tried to talk to him at all during all this, he had no idea, but eventually Jun was able to string together a simple request, his voice cracking as he spoke, ”C-can you go…” He needed time alone, his mind was suffering from information overload and he simply couldn’t deal with talking about any of this tonight.
Jun’s eyes widened slightly at this bit of news. It really was 2012, wasn’t it? Mariko had had her child, and he’d missed it. No, he hadn’t missed it; he just couldn’t remember it had even happened. Feelings of guilt, joy, regret and sadness washed over Jun and he found himself unable to look away from the little boy in Jenny’s arms. He didn’t have a clue how he was supposed to react or what he was supposed to say. What could he say? “Hi Yuta! I guess we’ve met already but I don’t remember you at all. How’s it going?” No, that definitely didn’t work.
Part of him wanted to reach out and hold the boy; he felt drawn to him. But his fear of his current situation immobilized him, ”Nande are you crying?” Jun’s breath caught in his throat at the scrambled question and he slowly reached one bandaged hand up to wipe at a tear that had somehow escaped him. There were two things Jun never did; not since officially breaking up with Aimee. He never yelled or showed when he was angry and would let things that upset him pass by with a smile. Jun also never cried, ”Itai?” He blinked back any other tears threatening to fall and forced what he could manage of a smile as he shook his head, ”Uun, heiki heiki.”
By now Jun had sat up and Yuta was squirming in Jenny’s arms till he got what he wanted; to be set on the edge of the bed. It seemed the ice had broken between the two relatives as the curious three year old reached for his uncle’s left hand to pull at the velcro holding the wrist splint in place, ”Yuta, don’t do that!”
Jun glanced up to see his sister enter the room and cross towards them. She set her purse, Yuta’s backpack and a white paper shopping bag from Macy’s on the chair by his bed and trained her scolding gaze on her son, ”It’s fine, his gaze dropped back to the boy sitting next to him. He was too captivated by the fact that he had a nephew now to be able to tell Yuta not to do something. And it wasn’t like he was jumping on him or anything, ”Shussan omedetou.” He looked back to his sister who stared blankly at him for a brief second before looking away. She’d already heard that from him, three years ago. Dealing with Jun’s memory loss was going to be hard on them all, but for the time being they could forget about it as Yuta finally found his voice and started conversing with Jun speaking in what broken Japanese and English he knew. Yuta and Jun had been very close before the accident, Jun was always bringing him places and he and Jenny would babysit for Mariko and her husband when they wanted a night to themselves. It was clear that their bond was still there, even though Jun had no recollection of the boy who was currently retelling an event from his day.
Jun’s mood had obviously lifted while talking to Yuta, he was smiling, even teasing the little boy. He was rather surprised at how talkative he was, and despite mixing his two languages together at times he had a large vocab and excellent grammar for a child barely three years old. Little did Jun know, but he had been the main reason for Yuta’s speaking skills. ”Ojisan,”
”Hm?”
”When can I go to you and Jenny’s house again? All the smiles and happy conversations that had been going on for the past ten minutes stopped there, ”Me and…Jenny’s house…? He slowly looked away from Yuta and up at the girl who’d introduced herself as his sister’s friend. She offered no explanation however and looked like she wished she could turn invisible, so Jun’s focus quickly shifted over to his sister, ”What’s he talking about?” Mariko didn’t look like she wanted to say anything either and glanced over to Jenny; she had told the younger girl she needed to be the one to tell him the truth, ”Kotaero!!” She flinched at Jun’s raised voice and quickly looked back at him. There were two things Jun never did; cry, or show any form of anger.
”She’s your girlfriend…you and Aimee broke up a couple years ago,” Jun was shaking his head in denial and Mariko’s hands flew into the Macy’s bag she’d brought in search of proof, ”See? Look!” She held out the framed photograph and Jun’s eyes dropped to look at it. His hand trembled slightly as he reached to take it from her. There in the photo were Jun and Jenny; he stood slightly behind her, his arms wrapped protectively and lovingly around her as they smiled at the camera. He was speechless and found himself unable to look away from the photograph
”You two live together,” his sister continued, ”You share a loft apartment south of Market.” She started to explain more and reached back into the bag to grab something else but Yuta who had been crying from shock this whole time turned towards her with his arms out. Mariko was torn momentarily between being a sister or a mother but in the end picked up her son to comfort and quiet him, ”You two should talk,” her voice was soft but shakey as though she were fighting to keep back tears as she gathered her purse and Yuta’s backpack, leaving the bag of Jun’s stuff, ”I’ll be in the hall…”
And then it was just Jun and Jenny, though neither said anything to the other. Or rather, Jun didn’t hear anything if Jenny had spoken. All his focus was locked on the photo in his hands to the point where he had no awareness of his surroundings. He finally blinked away from the photo and over to the bag Mariko had left behind. Ignoring the pain in his side he leaned over and weakly took the handles, pulling it onto the bed before emptying the contents out for him to see. Various items fell out, none of which looked familiar to Jun. There was an iPhone with a shattered screen, a rather fancy looking camera, a Disneyland hoodie, some cds and a cute gift box with a tag hanging off that read ‘Jenny’. Jun’s hand went to the phone he’d been searching for earlier; since when did he have an iPhone? Despite the broken screen he was able to turn on the device and proceeded to unlock it. The wallpaper was another photo of Jun and Jenny. Whether or not Jenny had tried to talk to him at all during all this, he had no idea, but eventually Jun was able to string together a simple request, his voice cracking as he spoke, ”C-can you go…” He needed time alone, his mind was suffering from information overload and he simply couldn’t deal with talking about any of this tonight.
Last edited:
feelsHASkilig
Solo Conversationalist
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2022
- Location
- Page Two Hundred & Forty-Nine
The moment between Jun processing what she had told him and his response seemed like an eternity which involved him staring fixedly at his nephew without uttering a single word. Yuta clutched at Jenny tighter, obviously a tad uncomfortable with the situation as he moved closer to her so that his head was resting against her shoulder. Her eyes traveled from uncle to nephew back and forth wondering when the situation would change. However, her gaze remained on Jun when she noticed his eyes begin to water and then a single tear roll down his cheek. Yuta noticed this too and was quick to ask for the reason why he was crying. The entire time they exchanged words, some she could not understand, Jenny cautiously held onto the child tighter in some form of comfort for herself. She had never seen Jun cry before since she met him, especially since she never gave him a reason to. So seeing this side of him was strange to her and she had no idea how to handle it. She also couldn’t help feeling incredibly jealous of Yuta and his ability to cause such a reaction from Jun. Then again, Jenny had chosen to not tell him who she really was in his life.
Things between the two quickly escalated past the awkward ice between them. It came to the point that Yuta was now squirming in her arms in his attempt to be placed on the edge of Jun’s bed. The female soon reluctantly did as the boy wanted, placing him down carefully on the edge of the bed then moving away to give them some bonding time. In a similar situation like this when Jenny would leave the two to bond, Jun would have been able to equally split his attention between his nephew and her. But right now, Jenny felt more invisible to him than before as she moved back to rest against the wall while she watched the two converse and get along. Things were going well for the next ten or some minutes. Jenny found herself feeling relieved and happy to finally see a smile on Jun’s face again after two long weeks. She would have been content with this continuing for the rest of the night if it hadn’t been for Yuta to finally drop the bomb on what Jenny had been avoiding until he was ready to face the facts. And suddenly, the spotlight was directed right her as Jun gazed at her expecting answers. But Jenny was too afraid to give them, shriveling back as if she wanted to become invisible. Jun’s attention then went over towards his sister which in turn made Mariko turn to look at her. “Jenny, you need to be the one to tell him the tru—“ The sudden outburst of anger frightened everyone in the room. Mariko flinched at the outcry and Yuta started to cry tears of fright on the bed. Jenny’s eyes went from being wide with fright to drooping down in defeat. This was another thing that she had never seen from Jun before. This accident was doing things to him that she did not like at all. And both of them were her fault.
The situation escalated quickly as Mariko interjected and explained the truth of the matter: who Jenny was to him. She could not get herself to look at Jun and so resorted to looking at Mariko the entire time. But as the older woman walked over to the white paper bag and dug through it, Jenny had an idea what she was trying to get and panicked. “Mariko, don’t,” she started, but it was too late. Jenny braved a glance at Jun to see his reaction to the framed picture. The look of disbelief numbed her and she tried her hardest to find something to bring feeling back into her body. She decided to comfort Yuta, who was still crying because of his uncle’s outburst earlier. Cautiously making her way back over towards his bedside, Jenny reached out for the little child who now turned to look at her, reaching his arms out to her as he continued to wail. Picking him up now, she took him far away from Jun as he continued to stare down at the picture. She constantly rocked Yuta and whispered comforting words to him, but the crying did not stop. Mariko continued, explaining that they were living together in her apartment and was going to keep proving what she was saying was true when suddenly Yuta cried out for her, lifting his head off of Jenny’s shoulder and leaning over her other side with his hands outstretched towards his mother. The woman looked conflicted between being a sister and being a mother as she looked from Jun then to her crying son. In the end, she grabbed Yuta from Jenny and excused herself from the room, leaving Jenny alone with her boyfriend.
Jenny slowly turned to look over at Jun on the bed, unable to say anything as he continued to look at the picture now in his hands. She remained completely still and silent the entire duration he looked at the photo, but she watched his expression. To her dismay, it did not change one bit. He did not have the same reaction from when he found out Yuta was his nephew. It was as if he was intentionally trying not to believe what he had been told. She had no way of knowing how to react to this, which only made me feel entirely out of place now. A part of her really wanted Mariko to come back into the room, to be the balancing being between the awkward atmospheres.
“Let me get that for yo—“ Jenny stopped mid-step when Jun grabbed hold of the bag he had been struggling to reach for. If she hadn’t known better, she would have guessed that she was completely invisible to him right now as he attempted to process all this information. This was an entirely new experience for her that she could not figure out how to deal with. The only thing she could do was watch as he went through the stuff he had with him on the day of the accident. When he picked up a small gift box with her name written on the tag, Jenny found herself staring at it quizzically, wondering what that was doing there. She had not seen that box before when she and Mariko retrieved his belongings. Her breath caught in her chest, suffocating her as tears swelled up and threatened to fall. Then he finally spoke, asking her to leave. Jenny parted her lips in preparation to say something. But when no words between head and mouth connected, she let out a defeated sigh, grabbed her purse then turned to leave.
It was a sleepless night for Jenny consisting of her constantly tossing and turning in bed in an attempt to get some sleep. But Jun’s last words before she left the hospital haunted her and she had no way of getting them to leave her mind. It came to the point where her tossing and turning aggravated the cats and the both jumped off the bed to find somewhere more peaceful to sleep. Since she could not get any sleep in, Jenny did something that she hadn’t done since Jun’s accident; visit the studio. And that was currently where she could be located. For the entire night, she worked on another piece for the exhibit. And she managed to finish the third one, realizing until after she had completed it that the feeling of it was entirely different from the first two she had made. While the first two definitely showed signs of happiness, her third piece reeked of nothing but the loneliness she felt right now. But there was no way she could toss the finished painting, because despite its depressing feel, it was one of her best work. When she looked up from her painting towards the window, Jenny was surprised to see that it was already day time, afternoon to be exact. Looking over at the clock on the wall, her eyes widened and she quickly rushed out of the studio to run back to her apartment. She took a quick shower to wash off the paint on her hands and changed her clothes for the day, ignoring the fact that she was literally running on no hours of sleep. Once she refilled the cats’ bowls with water and food and cleaned the litter box, she grabbed her purse and left the apartment. A part of her was very glad that it was the weekend, which meant that she didn’t have to work.
Before heading to the hospital to see Jun, Jenny made a quick visit to her work for a free pick me up. Sometime between the walk to the bus stop and actually getting on the bus, she felt the exhaustion of losing all that sleep last night start to kick in. So she decided to visit her work to order herself a free latte. In the process, she also got something for Jun; his old favorite drink from back when they had first started getting to know each other. If he hadn’t been lying to her, it should be the drink he remembers as being his usual before she bewitched him with her Starbucks knowledge and made him change it. For good measure, she also got him a coffee cake when she decided last minute to get a donut to at least fill her stomach with some form of food.
Standing outside his room now, Jenny took in a deep breath then knocked on the door before stepping inside. Her heart went into a quick panic when she realized that it was only him in the room and that Mariko was nowhere in sight. But she immediately covered her panic with a smile as she walked over to him. “Hi. I figured that hospital coffee must be pretty damn terrible, so I stopped off at my work before coming here and got you your usual. Or more, what used to be your usual,” she explained as she handed him his drink. Seeing the look on his face, she continued. “Your usual has changed since we met. It was kind of my fault really,” she explained with a nervous laugh. “Here, I also got you this just so you don’t suffer with hospital food,” she quickly added as she handed him the small bag with the coffee cake. She then pulled up a chair to his bedside and took a seat. “So…how are you feeling? Is your head feeling a little better?” she asked cautiously. It was pretty obvious she was attempting to avoid any form of conversation pertaining to what had happened last night.
Things between the two quickly escalated past the awkward ice between them. It came to the point that Yuta was now squirming in her arms in his attempt to be placed on the edge of Jun’s bed. The female soon reluctantly did as the boy wanted, placing him down carefully on the edge of the bed then moving away to give them some bonding time. In a similar situation like this when Jenny would leave the two to bond, Jun would have been able to equally split his attention between his nephew and her. But right now, Jenny felt more invisible to him than before as she moved back to rest against the wall while she watched the two converse and get along. Things were going well for the next ten or some minutes. Jenny found herself feeling relieved and happy to finally see a smile on Jun’s face again after two long weeks. She would have been content with this continuing for the rest of the night if it hadn’t been for Yuta to finally drop the bomb on what Jenny had been avoiding until he was ready to face the facts. And suddenly, the spotlight was directed right her as Jun gazed at her expecting answers. But Jenny was too afraid to give them, shriveling back as if she wanted to become invisible. Jun’s attention then went over towards his sister which in turn made Mariko turn to look at her. “Jenny, you need to be the one to tell him the tru—“ The sudden outburst of anger frightened everyone in the room. Mariko flinched at the outcry and Yuta started to cry tears of fright on the bed. Jenny’s eyes went from being wide with fright to drooping down in defeat. This was another thing that she had never seen from Jun before. This accident was doing things to him that she did not like at all. And both of them were her fault.
The situation escalated quickly as Mariko interjected and explained the truth of the matter: who Jenny was to him. She could not get herself to look at Jun and so resorted to looking at Mariko the entire time. But as the older woman walked over to the white paper bag and dug through it, Jenny had an idea what she was trying to get and panicked. “Mariko, don’t,” she started, but it was too late. Jenny braved a glance at Jun to see his reaction to the framed picture. The look of disbelief numbed her and she tried her hardest to find something to bring feeling back into her body. She decided to comfort Yuta, who was still crying because of his uncle’s outburst earlier. Cautiously making her way back over towards his bedside, Jenny reached out for the little child who now turned to look at her, reaching his arms out to her as he continued to wail. Picking him up now, she took him far away from Jun as he continued to stare down at the picture. She constantly rocked Yuta and whispered comforting words to him, but the crying did not stop. Mariko continued, explaining that they were living together in her apartment and was going to keep proving what she was saying was true when suddenly Yuta cried out for her, lifting his head off of Jenny’s shoulder and leaning over her other side with his hands outstretched towards his mother. The woman looked conflicted between being a sister and being a mother as she looked from Jun then to her crying son. In the end, she grabbed Yuta from Jenny and excused herself from the room, leaving Jenny alone with her boyfriend.
Jenny slowly turned to look over at Jun on the bed, unable to say anything as he continued to look at the picture now in his hands. She remained completely still and silent the entire duration he looked at the photo, but she watched his expression. To her dismay, it did not change one bit. He did not have the same reaction from when he found out Yuta was his nephew. It was as if he was intentionally trying not to believe what he had been told. She had no way of knowing how to react to this, which only made me feel entirely out of place now. A part of her really wanted Mariko to come back into the room, to be the balancing being between the awkward atmospheres.
“Let me get that for yo—“ Jenny stopped mid-step when Jun grabbed hold of the bag he had been struggling to reach for. If she hadn’t known better, she would have guessed that she was completely invisible to him right now as he attempted to process all this information. This was an entirely new experience for her that she could not figure out how to deal with. The only thing she could do was watch as he went through the stuff he had with him on the day of the accident. When he picked up a small gift box with her name written on the tag, Jenny found herself staring at it quizzically, wondering what that was doing there. She had not seen that box before when she and Mariko retrieved his belongings. Her breath caught in her chest, suffocating her as tears swelled up and threatened to fall. Then he finally spoke, asking her to leave. Jenny parted her lips in preparation to say something. But when no words between head and mouth connected, she let out a defeated sigh, grabbed her purse then turned to leave.
It was a sleepless night for Jenny consisting of her constantly tossing and turning in bed in an attempt to get some sleep. But Jun’s last words before she left the hospital haunted her and she had no way of getting them to leave her mind. It came to the point where her tossing and turning aggravated the cats and the both jumped off the bed to find somewhere more peaceful to sleep. Since she could not get any sleep in, Jenny did something that she hadn’t done since Jun’s accident; visit the studio. And that was currently where she could be located. For the entire night, she worked on another piece for the exhibit. And she managed to finish the third one, realizing until after she had completed it that the feeling of it was entirely different from the first two she had made. While the first two definitely showed signs of happiness, her third piece reeked of nothing but the loneliness she felt right now. But there was no way she could toss the finished painting, because despite its depressing feel, it was one of her best work. When she looked up from her painting towards the window, Jenny was surprised to see that it was already day time, afternoon to be exact. Looking over at the clock on the wall, her eyes widened and she quickly rushed out of the studio to run back to her apartment. She took a quick shower to wash off the paint on her hands and changed her clothes for the day, ignoring the fact that she was literally running on no hours of sleep. Once she refilled the cats’ bowls with water and food and cleaned the litter box, she grabbed her purse and left the apartment. A part of her was very glad that it was the weekend, which meant that she didn’t have to work.
Before heading to the hospital to see Jun, Jenny made a quick visit to her work for a free pick me up. Sometime between the walk to the bus stop and actually getting on the bus, she felt the exhaustion of losing all that sleep last night start to kick in. So she decided to visit her work to order herself a free latte. In the process, she also got something for Jun; his old favorite drink from back when they had first started getting to know each other. If he hadn’t been lying to her, it should be the drink he remembers as being his usual before she bewitched him with her Starbucks knowledge and made him change it. For good measure, she also got him a coffee cake when she decided last minute to get a donut to at least fill her stomach with some form of food.
Standing outside his room now, Jenny took in a deep breath then knocked on the door before stepping inside. Her heart went into a quick panic when she realized that it was only him in the room and that Mariko was nowhere in sight. But she immediately covered her panic with a smile as she walked over to him. “Hi. I figured that hospital coffee must be pretty damn terrible, so I stopped off at my work before coming here and got you your usual. Or more, what used to be your usual,” she explained as she handed him his drink. Seeing the look on his face, she continued. “Your usual has changed since we met. It was kind of my fault really,” she explained with a nervous laugh. “Here, I also got you this just so you don’t suffer with hospital food,” she quickly added as she handed him the small bag with the coffee cake. She then pulled up a chair to his bedside and took a seat. “So…how are you feeling? Is your head feeling a little better?” she asked cautiously. It was pretty obvious she was attempting to avoid any form of conversation pertaining to what had happened last night.
OP
OP
JINFINITE
Super-Earth
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2022
- Location
- The Island of Eroda
xx▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰ xLOOK INTO YOUR EYES AND IT GETS HARD TO BREATHE, WHEN EVERYTHING GETS THIS CRAZY...
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY WHEN I'M WITH YOU
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY TALKING WITH YOU
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY MY LOVE FOR YOU
It wasn’t until he was alone that Jun managed to tear his eyes off the wallpaper of him and Jenny. He didn’t understand how any of this was possible. No matter how hard he thought he could only recall memories of him dating Aimee. Yet here was a girl his sister claimed was his girlfriend and even had pictures to prove it. It was easy to go the conspiracy theory route and say this was all some giant prank. The doctor must have been paid to lie to him; was he even a doctor? And they found someone extremely skilled with photoshop to edit the picture. He could come up with a reason for just about all of it except for, why on earth would Mariko plan such a thing in the first place? She wouldn’t, plain and simple. Also, his headache earlier had been very much real as was the pain in his side just minutes ago; those weren’t things someone could fake.
His attention next went to the camera that had fallen out of the bag and he picked it up weakly; it was a bit heavy and what little strength he’d gained since waking up had been used on moving the bag from the chair to his bed. Jun managed to find the ‘on’ button and proceeded to switch the camera to playback mode. Instantly a photo of Jenny popped up on the little screen and there was another when he pressed the ‘previous’ arrow. And another, and another, and another; were there any pictures she wasn’t in? There were a few artsy shots and cats mixed in, but Jun scrolled through the entire camera memory and majority of the photos seemed to be of Jenny. A picture of him popped up at the end and he instantly noticed something he’d been too shocked to see in the other pictures he’d been in. His hair was a different color. Jun had kept his hair a golden, orange blonde since high school. Yet here in the pictures he had dark brown, near black hair. It was hard to wrap his mind around the fact that it wasn’t 2009 like he had thought it was. It was like he’d been frozen in time and life and moved on without him. Only, it also wasn’t like that at all. He’d been living these past three years; there was proof of that all around him, he just couldn’t remember any of it.
Jun didn’t sleep at all that night. He sat with his broken phone scrolling through a contact book full of strangers, his Facebook page with get well messages all over his wall, and phone calendar which had all sorts of important dates written into it. Like a photo shoot that was scheduled to take place in two days. Was he a working photographer now? Even after his phone ran out of battery and died, Jun still couldn’t fall asleep. There was so much going on in his head and by the time 4:30am rolled around his headache from earlier had returned full force. A nurse working night shift happened to check in on him and after discovering the state he was in gave him more painkillers which once again knocked him out. Hopefully once he’d adjusted back to the land of the living he’d stop requiring drugs strong enough to put him to sleep every eight hours or so.
He woke up around 11am to a crashing noise in the hallway. Someone visiting the patient next door had dropped everything they’d been carrying and as much as Jun tried he couldn’t fall back asleep. His headache was gone though so at least it wasn’t torture being awake now. Looking around it seemed the nurse from earlier had cleaned up all the things from his bed as the Macy’s bag was sitting on a table against the wall out of his reach along with the chair. Part of him wanted to get up and grab the bag to go through it again, but at the same time he wanted nothing to do with it and for things to simply return to how he remembered them and denying his current situation seemed to be the only way to keep everything the same. In the end he opted to get the bag and sat up in the bed. He pulled back the blankets, slowly swung his legs over the side and tried to get to his feet. Having not eaten solids in two weeks he’d lost quite a bit of weight and with it his strength. His knees threatened to give out, his arms shook as they held onto the bed for support, and after a full minute of struggling to find his balance he ended up crawling back onto the bed completely spent of energy with a slight stabbing pain in his side and an ache in his wrist. That was the first of several future realizations that he wouldn’t be able to do much on his own for the next few days till his strength returned from having been lying in a bed for fourteen days.
Once safely back on the bed, Jun was only alone for about fifteen minutes before there was a knock at the door. He turned his head towards the noise thinking it’d be hospital staff or his sister, but it was neither. Whatever expression had been on his face fell as Jenny entered the room with a smile and coffee in hand; he was not mentally prepared to be alone with her after what had happened last night. His trembling right hand took the offered drink while a questioning face stared up at Jenny as she talked about his coffee order changing. He couldn’t help but wonder what he supposedly drank now, not that he was given much time to as the Starbucks pastry bag was extended towards him and his slightly more injured left hand reached to take that as well. He hadn’t realized how hungry he actually was until presented with food, at that very moment he wanted nothing more than to open the bag and eat whatever it was Jenny had brought him. However with only two hands and one of them having a slightly fractured wrist, multi-tasking the coffee and pastry bag was a bit difficult. Jun set the paper bag on the bed for the time being while Jenny pulled the chair back over to the bed and took a seat.
He wasn’t at all a shy or rude person, but this was still rather awkward for Jun and he had no idea how to reply to Jenny when she asked how he was feeling. He gave a vague, “mm” in response to if his head felt better and raised the coffee cup to his lips to take a sip. It was a bit too hot to actually drink though and lowered the cup back down, resting his hand on himself so he didn’t have to actually hold the cup up.
”I got more painkillers this morning,” Jun generally didn’t keep secrets and this girl was supposed to be his girlfriend, right? So what was the point in hiding something that he would tell his sister without second thought? He did however fail to mention that thinking of her all night had been the cause of his most recent headache. By now his other hand had also moved to the coffee cup to help keep it steady as he waited for it to cool to drink more; which wouldn’t take long, it was just that this was Starbucks coffee which was always exceptionally scalding and took longer to cool than other coffee shops. The journey of this coffee from the store to the hospital had taken care of most of the cooling, it was just that last little bit now for Jun’s sensitive tongue to handle it. The taste also was strange in his mouth, he figured it was just since he hadn’t had anything in two weeks, but the back of his head repeated was Jenny had said about his coffee order changing. Maybe he really didn’t like this drink anymore.
Jun had intended to not start off their conversation talking about anything related to them directly or anything from last night, but before he knew it he was raising his hand to point at the Macy’s bag, ”There’s a bo—“
He didn’t get to finish saying that there was a box with Jenny’s name on it. Jun’s body had instinctively raised his right hand to point, not remembering or realizing that it held the coffee cup until some of the drink spilled through the drinking hole in the lid from the sudden movement. The third thing Jun didn’t do was swear, ever, no matter what, ”Shit…” But it escaped under his breath as the coffee hit his skin. Thankfully it wasn’t a lot but it did land on his hand, and what didn’t soak into his bandages slid off onto the bed. Well that was smooth of him.
His attention next went to the camera that had fallen out of the bag and he picked it up weakly; it was a bit heavy and what little strength he’d gained since waking up had been used on moving the bag from the chair to his bed. Jun managed to find the ‘on’ button and proceeded to switch the camera to playback mode. Instantly a photo of Jenny popped up on the little screen and there was another when he pressed the ‘previous’ arrow. And another, and another, and another; were there any pictures she wasn’t in? There were a few artsy shots and cats mixed in, but Jun scrolled through the entire camera memory and majority of the photos seemed to be of Jenny. A picture of him popped up at the end and he instantly noticed something he’d been too shocked to see in the other pictures he’d been in. His hair was a different color. Jun had kept his hair a golden, orange blonde since high school. Yet here in the pictures he had dark brown, near black hair. It was hard to wrap his mind around the fact that it wasn’t 2009 like he had thought it was. It was like he’d been frozen in time and life and moved on without him. Only, it also wasn’t like that at all. He’d been living these past three years; there was proof of that all around him, he just couldn’t remember any of it.
Jun didn’t sleep at all that night. He sat with his broken phone scrolling through a contact book full of strangers, his Facebook page with get well messages all over his wall, and phone calendar which had all sorts of important dates written into it. Like a photo shoot that was scheduled to take place in two days. Was he a working photographer now? Even after his phone ran out of battery and died, Jun still couldn’t fall asleep. There was so much going on in his head and by the time 4:30am rolled around his headache from earlier had returned full force. A nurse working night shift happened to check in on him and after discovering the state he was in gave him more painkillers which once again knocked him out. Hopefully once he’d adjusted back to the land of the living he’d stop requiring drugs strong enough to put him to sleep every eight hours or so.
He woke up around 11am to a crashing noise in the hallway. Someone visiting the patient next door had dropped everything they’d been carrying and as much as Jun tried he couldn’t fall back asleep. His headache was gone though so at least it wasn’t torture being awake now. Looking around it seemed the nurse from earlier had cleaned up all the things from his bed as the Macy’s bag was sitting on a table against the wall out of his reach along with the chair. Part of him wanted to get up and grab the bag to go through it again, but at the same time he wanted nothing to do with it and for things to simply return to how he remembered them and denying his current situation seemed to be the only way to keep everything the same. In the end he opted to get the bag and sat up in the bed. He pulled back the blankets, slowly swung his legs over the side and tried to get to his feet. Having not eaten solids in two weeks he’d lost quite a bit of weight and with it his strength. His knees threatened to give out, his arms shook as they held onto the bed for support, and after a full minute of struggling to find his balance he ended up crawling back onto the bed completely spent of energy with a slight stabbing pain in his side and an ache in his wrist. That was the first of several future realizations that he wouldn’t be able to do much on his own for the next few days till his strength returned from having been lying in a bed for fourteen days.
Once safely back on the bed, Jun was only alone for about fifteen minutes before there was a knock at the door. He turned his head towards the noise thinking it’d be hospital staff or his sister, but it was neither. Whatever expression had been on his face fell as Jenny entered the room with a smile and coffee in hand; he was not mentally prepared to be alone with her after what had happened last night. His trembling right hand took the offered drink while a questioning face stared up at Jenny as she talked about his coffee order changing. He couldn’t help but wonder what he supposedly drank now, not that he was given much time to as the Starbucks pastry bag was extended towards him and his slightly more injured left hand reached to take that as well. He hadn’t realized how hungry he actually was until presented with food, at that very moment he wanted nothing more than to open the bag and eat whatever it was Jenny had brought him. However with only two hands and one of them having a slightly fractured wrist, multi-tasking the coffee and pastry bag was a bit difficult. Jun set the paper bag on the bed for the time being while Jenny pulled the chair back over to the bed and took a seat.
He wasn’t at all a shy or rude person, but this was still rather awkward for Jun and he had no idea how to reply to Jenny when she asked how he was feeling. He gave a vague, “mm” in response to if his head felt better and raised the coffee cup to his lips to take a sip. It was a bit too hot to actually drink though and lowered the cup back down, resting his hand on himself so he didn’t have to actually hold the cup up.
”I got more painkillers this morning,” Jun generally didn’t keep secrets and this girl was supposed to be his girlfriend, right? So what was the point in hiding something that he would tell his sister without second thought? He did however fail to mention that thinking of her all night had been the cause of his most recent headache. By now his other hand had also moved to the coffee cup to help keep it steady as he waited for it to cool to drink more; which wouldn’t take long, it was just that this was Starbucks coffee which was always exceptionally scalding and took longer to cool than other coffee shops. The journey of this coffee from the store to the hospital had taken care of most of the cooling, it was just that last little bit now for Jun’s sensitive tongue to handle it. The taste also was strange in his mouth, he figured it was just since he hadn’t had anything in two weeks, but the back of his head repeated was Jenny had said about his coffee order changing. Maybe he really didn’t like this drink anymore.
Jun had intended to not start off their conversation talking about anything related to them directly or anything from last night, but before he knew it he was raising his hand to point at the Macy’s bag, ”There’s a bo—“
He didn’t get to finish saying that there was a box with Jenny’s name on it. Jun’s body had instinctively raised his right hand to point, not remembering or realizing that it held the coffee cup until some of the drink spilled through the drinking hole in the lid from the sudden movement. The third thing Jun didn’t do was swear, ever, no matter what, ”Shit…” But it escaped under his breath as the coffee hit his skin. Thankfully it wasn’t a lot but it did land on his hand, and what didn’t soak into his bandages slid off onto the bed. Well that was smooth of him.
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feelsHASkilig
Solo Conversationalist
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2022
- Location
- Page Two Hundred & Forty-Nine
The awkward atmosphere between Jenny and Jun was without a doubt the most difficult thing she had to endure. Being with Jun right now in this kind of situation brought back memories of when they had first met and how he was the one that initiated their first conversations. Now, it was almost a mission getting him to say more than five syllables out of him. It was as if he didn’t want her to be around him at all. It killed her inside looking at the expression he was giving her. This sort of upsetting confusion that made it seem like he really didn’t want to be around her and that it was best for her to just leave. But Jenny wasn’t going to give up. Jun was her boyfriend after all and memory loss or not she loved him and would never give up on him. She quickly hid her true feelings behind a semi-bright smile then took a sip of her latte slowly. She typically took her latte extra hot, but today she was in a hurry to get to the hospital. When Jun took a sip of his drink, Jenny watched him carefully to see his reaction. There was definitely a recollection that this was his favorite drink, but she could tell that his tongue wasn’t accustomed to it. Maybe she should have gotten him his current favorite drink instead.
The two sat in silence for a short moment. In this time, Jenny tried to figure out just what to talk about with Jun. She didn’t think jumping straight into the details would be a smart idea. If he wasn’t able to handle the news that she was his girlfriend, explaining to him every single one of his changes in the past three years would probably be overwhelming. She was so deep in thought over what to say to him next that she did not hear whatever he had said to her. It wasn’t until she noticed him spill some of his coffee onto his gown and cast did she snap out of her own thoughts. “Oh! Let me hel—“ The word came out as a whisper, but due to how close she was to him, she heard it clearly. Jenny stepped away from him, hands dropping to her sides. The look she was giving him expressed her surprise to hear him say a swear word. Never once since she had met him had he ever said a swear word, even as a whisper. He had told her that after breaking up with Aimee, he had no reason to use them.
Realizing how ridiculous she must have looked just now, Jenny cleared her throat as she placed her latte on the bedside table then grabbed his coffee and placed it beside hers. “Here, let me help clean that up. I’ll call a nurse in a bit,” she said as she grabbed a few paper towels to pat at the liquid and clean up what was on his bandages. Once she did all that she could do to clean him up, Jenny tossed all the paper towels into the trash then helped Jun pull the bed table over in front of him so that he could place his coffee and coffee cake down and not have to hold it all the time. As Jun went on to eat the coffee cake she brought him, Jenny excused herself to search for a nurse to change his bandages and get him a new gown. She returned moments later, smiling when she saw that Jun had finished the pastry and was in the process of drinking his coffee. As the nurse busied changing the bandages, playfully teasing Jun for being so clumsy in the hopes of getting a smile out of him, Jenny stepped aside, resting against the wall so that she could stay out of the lady’s way. She didn’t make a single movement until after the nurse pulled the curtain away to reveal that Jun had on fresh bandages on his hands and his gown had been changed.
At that same moment, the door opened once again to reveal more visitors. Yuta seemed to have forgotten his uncle’s scary moment the day before as he walked in with a bright and innocent smile on his face, running right to the bedside and calling for Jun’s attention. However when he caught sight of Jenny, his small attention span caused him to forget about the male on the bed for a moment as he ran to her and gave her a quick hug then an innocent peck on the lips. The attention of the child was averted back to his uncle as he showed him the device around his neck. When Jenny took a closer look at what Yuta had brought with him, she noticed that it was the Polaroid camera that she and Jun had bought him recently for his birthday. Maybe the child brought it with him in the hopes that Jun would remember? While uncle and nephew conversed lightly, Jenny walked away from the bedside towards Mariko who was putting down many plastic bags full of what smelled like Jun’s favorite dishes—save for ramen. Once the older woman pulled out all the containers and placed them on Jun’s bedside table, Mariko walked back over to where Jenny was standing with a careful look. “You look like you haven’t gotten a wink of sleep last night,” the woman said. Jenny didn’t respond, merely shaking her head as a means of telling Mariko to not worry about it. Luckily she agreed, but managed to press on another topic that she didn’t want to talk about in front of Jun. ”How are you doing with your pieces?” Jenny took a quick glance towards Jun to see if he was listening. But with Yuta talking loudly as an attempt to keep his uncle’s attention, there was a chance he probably forgot the two women were still there.
Letting out a sigh, Jenny stepped farther away from the bed at an attempt to go out of earshot despite the small room. “I have three done already. I just don’t know when I’ll be able to work on the other two. I have to deal with all of Jun’s clients to tell them what is going on and then I have to go to his job to explain his absence. I just have a lot of things to take care of in regards to Jun,” she explained in a low voice.
Apparently Mariko wasn’t going to take this excuse as her gaze hardened to one of great disproval. “Jenny, this exhibit is a big deal. You know what your pieces will do for you if you sell all of them.” And the argument continued between the two women in hushed voices with Mariko occasionally raising her voice a little to express her frustration at Jenny. She had to explain that she had no means of inspiration to work on her last two pieces since her only muse was currently hospitalized and with no recollection of who she is. In the end, Mariko gave up knocking some sense into Jenny. At this point, Jenny realized that it was probably time for her to go and work out some things.
“Hey there, you!” Jenny said as she plastered the most believable smile she could muster as she walked over to Yuta. “Don’t wear out your uncle, okay? Give me a kiss?” Puckering her lips light, she leaned in just as the child leaned in to her and pecked her lips again. She then stood up straight to give her attention towards Jun. That smile she had earlier faltered a little, but she managed to keep some form of smile on her face. “Um, I’m gonna come back later. I need to, um, pass by your work and tell them what’s going on. And I’ll most likely contact some of your clients. Their numbers are at the house.” She didn’t expect him to respond. Before she could stop herself, Jenny had subconsciously extended a hand towards him to run a hand through his hair. However, when she realized what her hand was doing, she stopped midway, blushed a light shade of pink and walked away awkwardly without another word. While Jun was in this current condition, she needed to watch some of the habits she did around him.
It was sometime around late afternoon that she returned to the hospital to see Jun. After spending that whole day going from his job at the restaurant to explain to his boss about the accident and what had happened afterwards and then calling some of his clients that he booked for the whole month to cancel appointments and explain why, Jenny had actually debated going back at all. Now clad in warmer clothes and another cup of latte in her hands, she carefully walked back to Jun’s room wondering what she would find when she got there. After knocking a couple times, Jenny let herself in. She peeked her head in first before stepping inside; taking note that Jun was currently sleeping. As she pulled a chair to his bedside though, he stirred then woke up. She quickly placed a smile on her face. “Good morning, sunshine,” she teased lightly as she pulled off her jacket and hung it over the back of her chair. “When did Mariko and Yuta leave?” she asked which he responded to.
He then bluntly changed the topic, asking her what she did. Looking up at him from the cup in her hands, Jenny wondered how to go about this. She supposed if anything she could be straight forward. “Well, aside from being your personal assistant,” she jested carefully with a small laugh then continued, “um, I’m an artist. Actually I’m an artist and an architect. I double majored at the school we both went to, but only continued to graduate school for architecture. Um, when I don’t have any projects designing new buildings or working on art pieces, I have two part-time jobs. One is at a Starbucks close to the campus. I’ve been working there since graduate school. And I also work at the Forever 21 close to our apartment.” Well, it was a start.
The two sat in silence for a short moment. In this time, Jenny tried to figure out just what to talk about with Jun. She didn’t think jumping straight into the details would be a smart idea. If he wasn’t able to handle the news that she was his girlfriend, explaining to him every single one of his changes in the past three years would probably be overwhelming. She was so deep in thought over what to say to him next that she did not hear whatever he had said to her. It wasn’t until she noticed him spill some of his coffee onto his gown and cast did she snap out of her own thoughts. “Oh! Let me hel—“ The word came out as a whisper, but due to how close she was to him, she heard it clearly. Jenny stepped away from him, hands dropping to her sides. The look she was giving him expressed her surprise to hear him say a swear word. Never once since she had met him had he ever said a swear word, even as a whisper. He had told her that after breaking up with Aimee, he had no reason to use them.
Realizing how ridiculous she must have looked just now, Jenny cleared her throat as she placed her latte on the bedside table then grabbed his coffee and placed it beside hers. “Here, let me help clean that up. I’ll call a nurse in a bit,” she said as she grabbed a few paper towels to pat at the liquid and clean up what was on his bandages. Once she did all that she could do to clean him up, Jenny tossed all the paper towels into the trash then helped Jun pull the bed table over in front of him so that he could place his coffee and coffee cake down and not have to hold it all the time. As Jun went on to eat the coffee cake she brought him, Jenny excused herself to search for a nurse to change his bandages and get him a new gown. She returned moments later, smiling when she saw that Jun had finished the pastry and was in the process of drinking his coffee. As the nurse busied changing the bandages, playfully teasing Jun for being so clumsy in the hopes of getting a smile out of him, Jenny stepped aside, resting against the wall so that she could stay out of the lady’s way. She didn’t make a single movement until after the nurse pulled the curtain away to reveal that Jun had on fresh bandages on his hands and his gown had been changed.
At that same moment, the door opened once again to reveal more visitors. Yuta seemed to have forgotten his uncle’s scary moment the day before as he walked in with a bright and innocent smile on his face, running right to the bedside and calling for Jun’s attention. However when he caught sight of Jenny, his small attention span caused him to forget about the male on the bed for a moment as he ran to her and gave her a quick hug then an innocent peck on the lips. The attention of the child was averted back to his uncle as he showed him the device around his neck. When Jenny took a closer look at what Yuta had brought with him, she noticed that it was the Polaroid camera that she and Jun had bought him recently for his birthday. Maybe the child brought it with him in the hopes that Jun would remember? While uncle and nephew conversed lightly, Jenny walked away from the bedside towards Mariko who was putting down many plastic bags full of what smelled like Jun’s favorite dishes—save for ramen. Once the older woman pulled out all the containers and placed them on Jun’s bedside table, Mariko walked back over to where Jenny was standing with a careful look. “You look like you haven’t gotten a wink of sleep last night,” the woman said. Jenny didn’t respond, merely shaking her head as a means of telling Mariko to not worry about it. Luckily she agreed, but managed to press on another topic that she didn’t want to talk about in front of Jun. ”How are you doing with your pieces?” Jenny took a quick glance towards Jun to see if he was listening. But with Yuta talking loudly as an attempt to keep his uncle’s attention, there was a chance he probably forgot the two women were still there.
Letting out a sigh, Jenny stepped farther away from the bed at an attempt to go out of earshot despite the small room. “I have three done already. I just don’t know when I’ll be able to work on the other two. I have to deal with all of Jun’s clients to tell them what is going on and then I have to go to his job to explain his absence. I just have a lot of things to take care of in regards to Jun,” she explained in a low voice.
Apparently Mariko wasn’t going to take this excuse as her gaze hardened to one of great disproval. “Jenny, this exhibit is a big deal. You know what your pieces will do for you if you sell all of them.” And the argument continued between the two women in hushed voices with Mariko occasionally raising her voice a little to express her frustration at Jenny. She had to explain that she had no means of inspiration to work on her last two pieces since her only muse was currently hospitalized and with no recollection of who she is. In the end, Mariko gave up knocking some sense into Jenny. At this point, Jenny realized that it was probably time for her to go and work out some things.
“Hey there, you!” Jenny said as she plastered the most believable smile she could muster as she walked over to Yuta. “Don’t wear out your uncle, okay? Give me a kiss?” Puckering her lips light, she leaned in just as the child leaned in to her and pecked her lips again. She then stood up straight to give her attention towards Jun. That smile she had earlier faltered a little, but she managed to keep some form of smile on her face. “Um, I’m gonna come back later. I need to, um, pass by your work and tell them what’s going on. And I’ll most likely contact some of your clients. Their numbers are at the house.” She didn’t expect him to respond. Before she could stop herself, Jenny had subconsciously extended a hand towards him to run a hand through his hair. However, when she realized what her hand was doing, she stopped midway, blushed a light shade of pink and walked away awkwardly without another word. While Jun was in this current condition, she needed to watch some of the habits she did around him.
It was sometime around late afternoon that she returned to the hospital to see Jun. After spending that whole day going from his job at the restaurant to explain to his boss about the accident and what had happened afterwards and then calling some of his clients that he booked for the whole month to cancel appointments and explain why, Jenny had actually debated going back at all. Now clad in warmer clothes and another cup of latte in her hands, she carefully walked back to Jun’s room wondering what she would find when she got there. After knocking a couple times, Jenny let herself in. She peeked her head in first before stepping inside; taking note that Jun was currently sleeping. As she pulled a chair to his bedside though, he stirred then woke up. She quickly placed a smile on her face. “Good morning, sunshine,” she teased lightly as she pulled off her jacket and hung it over the back of her chair. “When did Mariko and Yuta leave?” she asked which he responded to.
He then bluntly changed the topic, asking her what she did. Looking up at him from the cup in her hands, Jenny wondered how to go about this. She supposed if anything she could be straight forward. “Well, aside from being your personal assistant,” she jested carefully with a small laugh then continued, “um, I’m an artist. Actually I’m an artist and an architect. I double majored at the school we both went to, but only continued to graduate school for architecture. Um, when I don’t have any projects designing new buildings or working on art pieces, I have two part-time jobs. One is at a Starbucks close to the campus. I’ve been working there since graduate school. And I also work at the Forever 21 close to our apartment.” Well, it was a start.
OP
OP
JINFINITE
Super-Earth
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2022
- Location
- The Island of Eroda
xx▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰ xLOOK INTO YOUR EYES AND IT GETS HARD TO BREATHE, WHEN EVERYTHING GETS THIS CRAZY...
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY WHEN I'M WITH YOU
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY TALKING WITH YOU
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY MY LOVE FOR YOU
Jenny was quick to jump into action, trying to clean up the coffee as best she could and bringing the bed table down to set his Starbucks on. Well that was embarrassing. Injured or not; whether he truly knew her or not, spilling coffee wasn't the best move on his part. Yet, at the same time he didn’t really feel flustered, or anything like he might have in front of a total stranger. And that bothered him slightly. How was it that his subconscious was reacting to things he had no recollection of?
Still feeling a little bitter with the coffee for spilling, Jun reached for the pastry bag and found a piece of coffee cake inside which he pulled out and then set on top of the bag, using it as a make shift plate. It was then that Jenny excused herself to find a nurse to help with the rest of clean up. Being left alone washed a confusing mix of longing and relief over Jun who turned his attention to the unavoidable fate of the coffee cake to distract himself from getting lost in his thoughts. It was a good coffee cake and was gone in no time leaving Jun to return to drinking the very coffee which he was currently wearing. By now it had cooled considerably and was at a comfortable drinking temperature, not that he got to drink much of it as Jenny had returned with a nurse and he had other things to pay attention to besides his caffeine.
”Aw, got nervous being around such a pretty girl? Or did you just want to see me again?” The nurse was smiling, obviously trying to be funny and break the silence but it got no reaction out of Jun who was very thankful that she was pulling the curtain around the bed for decency while he was changed. Either the nurse didn’t pick up on the atmosphere, didn’t care, or still wanted to fix it as she continued chatting away despite the lack of response from Jun. He’d force a half smile or give a vague response as needed but for the most part Jun just checked out while the nurse worked and before he knew it she had finished, drew back the curtains and left saying she’d swing by in a couple hours to check on him. Wanting to say something, Jun glanced from his freshly bandaged hands to Jenny only to be interrupted before even speaking as the door opened and in bounced Yuta.
”Ojisan~” Jun was oh so thankful for his nephew’s appearance but ended up awkwardly watching as the little boy dashed over to Jenny first and even kissed her. As if yesterday hadn’t been hard enough for Jun; he’d found out he lost three years of his memory, had a new girlfriend and gotten a nephew. Now that new reality was becoming painfully obvious and he felt very much disconnected from it. The three in his room right now were supposedly those closest to him, but to Jun it was like he was acting as an extra for some movie in which the main cast had developed tight bonds working together for months and he was just a no name there for a day. He blinked to refocus on Yuta as his nephew finally made it over to him and did his best to assist him in climbing up to sit on the bed with him. A Polaroid camera was shoved into view but Jun didn’t know what he was supposed to do or say in response and just smiled as Yuta boasted about how many pictures he’d taken and how many kids at school didn’t have one.
Mariko approached, setting out food containers as Yuta went into story mode, telling Jun about his morning. Jun and Mariko’s eyes met briefly though no words were exchanged as Yuta demanded his attention and Mariko moved back to talk to Jenny. Jun attempted to glance back to the girls, the curious part of him wondering what they were talking about; though it was futile as Yuta was louder, closer, and far more distracting as he waved pictures he’d taken in front of Jun’s face.
Yuta succeeded in controlling Jun’s attention for the duration that Mariko and Jenny talked. The two relatives easily spoke in a mixture of Japanese and English, in topics ranging from advice to Yuta’s little requests. The little boy had finally brought a smile to his uncle’s face, only for it to disappear as Jenny interrupted them and broke Jun’s focus. She approached the two of them, speaking to Yuta and even requesting a second kiss. The awkwardness returned and Jun glanced away for a split second, feeling like a third wheel on a date even though technically Yuta was supposed to be the third wheel in this relationship. His dark eyes looked back up to Jenny as she finally addressed him. What had she said though? Pass by his work? He worked? Since when? And what clients? So many questions flashed through his head but his thought train jumped the rail when her hand extended towards him, leaving his mind blank as he stared up at her. His heart raced slightly in anticipation but part of him also wanted to move away from the hand that grew closer and closer. He’d literally just met this girl yesterday; and while he was generally quite open and friendly with strangers, something about Jenny threw him off and he just didn’t know how to act around her. She stopped herself though and left without a word. No one in the room said anything for a while. Yuta was too busy fiddling with his camera, Mariko was watching Jun, and Jun was staring at the door Jenny had disappeared through as he tried to make sense of the past hour, ”Jun?” His trance was broken by his sister’s voice and he looked up to see she had moved closer to his bed, ”I work?”
Jun enjoyed the remainder of his relatives’ visit. Mariko caught him up on a bit of the past three years, he got to eat tasty food, and Yuta was a constant source of entertainment. But sadly, all good things must come to an end and eventually a nurse came to send them away so he could rest and what not. Jun protested though his wishes were ignored and he soon found himself alone once more. It was silent and lonely for a short bit until he realized just how worn out he was from his couple hours of visitors. It was amazing how tiring it was to lay in bed and talk to people, but considering how little energy he’d had to begin with it made sense as he was still recovering two weeks of coma time. Jun slept most of the afternoon away, partly because he was tired, and partly because he was just bored and sleeping passed the time. He woke briefly a couple times when a nurse would approach his bed; the third time he woke up was when he once again felt a presence beside him that brought him out of his light sleep only this time it wasn’t a nurse. The by now familiar face smiled at him but it took a moment for Jun to process that Jenny had returned as his mind slowly turned back on. He pushed himself up so he was sitting as she asked about Mariko and Yuta, ”Uh, maybe like an hour after you left?” It struck him then that he’d spent a good hour learning about the life he supposedly lived, but he still had no idea really who Jenny was, ”So…what do you do?” He couldn’t come up with any clever way to phrase it and it really just blurted out of his mouth as soon as it had popped into his head. Jun was preparing to take it back and say something else when Jenny actually answered his random, vague, blunt question.
It was a lot to take in all at once right after waking up from his extended nap but he found himself repeating her quietly, ”Our apartment…” Mariko had said yesterday that they lived together but nothing had really stuck and it all still felt surreal. It was difficult for him to wrap his mind around the fact that he apparently wasn’t dating Aimee or living at home anymore. Once more Jun didn’t give Jenny much time to think or speak her own mind and he spoke off the top of his mind, changing the topic yet again, ”Can we leave? Like, a walk or something?” Could he even walk? He’d totally failed earlier that morning. But by now he’d eaten and slept a good deal so hopefully he wouldn’t embarrass himself, ”I mean, I’ve been in here all day…” And cue the awkward. One moment he was confidently saying anything he wanted, the next he was back to being shy around this girl he hardly knew. He didn’t really know how he felt about her, and part of him wanted to just push her away and stick to what he remembered. But something in him wanted to find out more, and it was that curiosity that had him essentially asking her out. So to speak.
Still feeling a little bitter with the coffee for spilling, Jun reached for the pastry bag and found a piece of coffee cake inside which he pulled out and then set on top of the bag, using it as a make shift plate. It was then that Jenny excused herself to find a nurse to help with the rest of clean up. Being left alone washed a confusing mix of longing and relief over Jun who turned his attention to the unavoidable fate of the coffee cake to distract himself from getting lost in his thoughts. It was a good coffee cake and was gone in no time leaving Jun to return to drinking the very coffee which he was currently wearing. By now it had cooled considerably and was at a comfortable drinking temperature, not that he got to drink much of it as Jenny had returned with a nurse and he had other things to pay attention to besides his caffeine.
”Aw, got nervous being around such a pretty girl? Or did you just want to see me again?” The nurse was smiling, obviously trying to be funny and break the silence but it got no reaction out of Jun who was very thankful that she was pulling the curtain around the bed for decency while he was changed. Either the nurse didn’t pick up on the atmosphere, didn’t care, or still wanted to fix it as she continued chatting away despite the lack of response from Jun. He’d force a half smile or give a vague response as needed but for the most part Jun just checked out while the nurse worked and before he knew it she had finished, drew back the curtains and left saying she’d swing by in a couple hours to check on him. Wanting to say something, Jun glanced from his freshly bandaged hands to Jenny only to be interrupted before even speaking as the door opened and in bounced Yuta.
”Ojisan~” Jun was oh so thankful for his nephew’s appearance but ended up awkwardly watching as the little boy dashed over to Jenny first and even kissed her. As if yesterday hadn’t been hard enough for Jun; he’d found out he lost three years of his memory, had a new girlfriend and gotten a nephew. Now that new reality was becoming painfully obvious and he felt very much disconnected from it. The three in his room right now were supposedly those closest to him, but to Jun it was like he was acting as an extra for some movie in which the main cast had developed tight bonds working together for months and he was just a no name there for a day. He blinked to refocus on Yuta as his nephew finally made it over to him and did his best to assist him in climbing up to sit on the bed with him. A Polaroid camera was shoved into view but Jun didn’t know what he was supposed to do or say in response and just smiled as Yuta boasted about how many pictures he’d taken and how many kids at school didn’t have one.
Mariko approached, setting out food containers as Yuta went into story mode, telling Jun about his morning. Jun and Mariko’s eyes met briefly though no words were exchanged as Yuta demanded his attention and Mariko moved back to talk to Jenny. Jun attempted to glance back to the girls, the curious part of him wondering what they were talking about; though it was futile as Yuta was louder, closer, and far more distracting as he waved pictures he’d taken in front of Jun’s face.
Yuta succeeded in controlling Jun’s attention for the duration that Mariko and Jenny talked. The two relatives easily spoke in a mixture of Japanese and English, in topics ranging from advice to Yuta’s little requests. The little boy had finally brought a smile to his uncle’s face, only for it to disappear as Jenny interrupted them and broke Jun’s focus. She approached the two of them, speaking to Yuta and even requesting a second kiss. The awkwardness returned and Jun glanced away for a split second, feeling like a third wheel on a date even though technically Yuta was supposed to be the third wheel in this relationship. His dark eyes looked back up to Jenny as she finally addressed him. What had she said though? Pass by his work? He worked? Since when? And what clients? So many questions flashed through his head but his thought train jumped the rail when her hand extended towards him, leaving his mind blank as he stared up at her. His heart raced slightly in anticipation but part of him also wanted to move away from the hand that grew closer and closer. He’d literally just met this girl yesterday; and while he was generally quite open and friendly with strangers, something about Jenny threw him off and he just didn’t know how to act around her. She stopped herself though and left without a word. No one in the room said anything for a while. Yuta was too busy fiddling with his camera, Mariko was watching Jun, and Jun was staring at the door Jenny had disappeared through as he tried to make sense of the past hour, ”Jun?” His trance was broken by his sister’s voice and he looked up to see she had moved closer to his bed, ”I work?”
Jun enjoyed the remainder of his relatives’ visit. Mariko caught him up on a bit of the past three years, he got to eat tasty food, and Yuta was a constant source of entertainment. But sadly, all good things must come to an end and eventually a nurse came to send them away so he could rest and what not. Jun protested though his wishes were ignored and he soon found himself alone once more. It was silent and lonely for a short bit until he realized just how worn out he was from his couple hours of visitors. It was amazing how tiring it was to lay in bed and talk to people, but considering how little energy he’d had to begin with it made sense as he was still recovering two weeks of coma time. Jun slept most of the afternoon away, partly because he was tired, and partly because he was just bored and sleeping passed the time. He woke briefly a couple times when a nurse would approach his bed; the third time he woke up was when he once again felt a presence beside him that brought him out of his light sleep only this time it wasn’t a nurse. The by now familiar face smiled at him but it took a moment for Jun to process that Jenny had returned as his mind slowly turned back on. He pushed himself up so he was sitting as she asked about Mariko and Yuta, ”Uh, maybe like an hour after you left?” It struck him then that he’d spent a good hour learning about the life he supposedly lived, but he still had no idea really who Jenny was, ”So…what do you do?” He couldn’t come up with any clever way to phrase it and it really just blurted out of his mouth as soon as it had popped into his head. Jun was preparing to take it back and say something else when Jenny actually answered his random, vague, blunt question.
It was a lot to take in all at once right after waking up from his extended nap but he found himself repeating her quietly, ”Our apartment…” Mariko had said yesterday that they lived together but nothing had really stuck and it all still felt surreal. It was difficult for him to wrap his mind around the fact that he apparently wasn’t dating Aimee or living at home anymore. Once more Jun didn’t give Jenny much time to think or speak her own mind and he spoke off the top of his mind, changing the topic yet again, ”Can we leave? Like, a walk or something?” Could he even walk? He’d totally failed earlier that morning. But by now he’d eaten and slept a good deal so hopefully he wouldn’t embarrass himself, ”I mean, I’ve been in here all day…” And cue the awkward. One moment he was confidently saying anything he wanted, the next he was back to being shy around this girl he hardly knew. He didn’t really know how he felt about her, and part of him wanted to just push her away and stick to what he remembered. But something in him wanted to find out more, and it was that curiosity that had him essentially asking her out. So to speak.
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feelsHASkilig
Solo Conversationalist
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2022
- Location
- Page Two Hundred & Forty-Nine
Despite the explanation about herself, Jenny and Jun sat in awkward silence while the male pondered over what she had just told him. She could tell that all this information was overwhelming to him. Jenny had to admit to herself that even though she’s supposed to be the strong one in this situation, Jun wasn’t giving her much motivation to keep at it. The way he looked at her whenever she came to visit was like a dagger to her heart. She even envied Yuta for being able to get him to open up and accept him. Even if she acted like she didn’t notice she saw Jun’s smile falter when she came to visit him. It had her thinking that maybe, just maybe, this Jun’s heart wasn’t for her. Just as this thought was about to consume her to the point that she wanted to get up and leave, Jun’s voice broke through with the request that they leave the room to take a walk. Jenny was hesitant about this request after hearing about his failed attempt earlier that morning. But she didn’t have the courage to tell him “no” and quietly nodded.
Once she put her latte aside, she got up off her chair then pushed it out of the way. “Let me help you,” she said carefully. After taking his good hand in hers, she waited until Jun swung his legs over the edge of the bed then leaned forward, wrapped her other arm around his waist and helped him to his feet. This was the first time since the accident that Jenny had the opportunity to be this close to him. Except that instead of it feeling warm and comfortable, she felt distance from him. To prevent him from seeing the pain this was causing her, Jenny turned her gaze downwards to the floor and remained as still as possible until he finally got his footing and his balance. She let him go when he gave her the okay and then made sure to keep a fair distance between them. Slowly and carefully, with Jenny keeping a close eye on Jun, they made their way out of the room and into the hallway. The two walked in silence for a while in which time Jenny spent all of it making sure that Jun’s legs weren’t going to give way. Eventually, they made their way towards the cafeteria where a fair amount of patients were sitting at tables either by themselves or with visitors. Apparently it was still early enough for the hospital to be busy.
Instead of staying in the cafeteria, however, Jenny and Jun moved on to head outside. Not outside like the front of the hospital. They moved on to a place in the hospital for the patients to get some fresh air. Jenny was sitting beside Jun on a bench, silently wondering what to say to him right now. They hadn’t really said much to each other since they walked out of the room what with Jenny spending more time making sure that Jun was okay to keep walking. Now that they were actually sitting, she had no idea what to do now. That was when Jun brought on a new question. She pondered over the question for a moment, wondering just how to answer it without giving too much overwhelming information. “Well,” she started slowly, “The Jun from three years later got a tattoo a few months ago.” She noticed the look Jun was giving her and she couldn’t help but let out a tiny laugh. She didn’t mean to laugh at him for his shock, but in her mind, she would have never thought of Jun to be surprised about getting a tattoo. Given that it was sort of his idea in the first place; though they ended up making the decision together. Clearing her throat, Jenny rolled up her left sleeve and revealed the small infinity tattoo on her wrist. “Yours is on your collarbone,” she explained as she pointed towards where his own tattoo was. She could see a small bit of it from his gown which would explain why he probably hasn’t seen it yet. “We got them together a while back. One of the few times we splurged our money on something that didn’t involve bills or other important payments,” she further explained, though she started blushing when she realized that she was basically telling him that they were pretty damn poor compared to the Jun three years ago.
Biting down on her bottom lip nervously, Jenny figured if she was going to get to the bottom of things, she would have to do it now while they were left alone. “Listen, Jun. I realize that all of this must be pretty overwhelming. So, um, if you don’t feel coming home once you’re okay to leave, I can understand. You’re welcome to stay at Mariko’s until you feel comfortable coming back to the apartment.” It wasn’t entirely something she wanted to say, but she figured she had to say it for his sake.
It was finally the week that Jun was allowed to leave the hospital and Jenny was a nervous wreck. So to say, she had lost yet another night’s worth of sleep from the stress of Jun coming home at last. The whole night was spent cleaning the apartment even if it didn’t need cleaning. She made sure to give their cats a bath and clean out their litter box. Basically, she was doing the best to impress her boyfriend with their apartment. To this day, Jenny still believes that despite Jun saying he would come home with her that he was only saying it to be nice. The least she could do was try to give their apartment some appeal despite how Jenny and Jun it was all together.
The days before Jun’s release from the hospital were spent either arguing with Mariko over the details of where Jun was supposed to stay—because despite his decision, Jenny tried to persuade Mariko to think otherwise—or in her studio working on the pieces she had already completed. Since she had absolutely no inspiration to work on new ones, she needed to make sure that the ones she had already done were up to par for the exhibit. In the timespan of a little less than a week, Jenny had lost a large amount of sleep that was remedied with many cups of coffees. To say the very least, the female wasn’t quite looking at her best with her body running on less than seven hours of sleep in the time span of five to seven days and filled mainly with coffee or instant noodles. If the Jun that hadn’t lost his memory could see her now, he would not be very happy with her.
Once the cats were fed and well entertained for the next hour or so, Jenny looked down at her watch and noted that she had about twenty minutes before Mariko and her husband were scheduled to pick her up and drive all of them to pick up Jun from the hospital. In that time, she took a very quick shower, changed into paint splattered jeans and a black oversized sweater, and was at the door as soon as Mariko knocked. “Jenny, you look like death. Those dark circles under your eyes are darker than the last time I saw you,” Mariko complained as soon as Jenny opened the door. Jenny looked at the women sternly for a moment then muttered that she was going to go grab her purse before they left. After she rushed up the stairs to the room, she grabbed her thick-rimmed glasses from the bedside table to wear so as to cover the dark circles, at least just a little bit. It was better than having Mariko whine about her lack of sleep. Once she slipped her purse over her head and across her shoulder, she followed behind Mariko and her husband out of the apartment towards their car.
In the week since Jun had woken up, Jenny had been spending a few hours a day visiting him. She made sure not to overstay her welcome while he still felt awkward around her. In that week, she made slow progress in catching him up with the three years he had lost in memory. Granted, she kept all that information generic and simple. Most of the things they talked about were of him; what he did, what he liked, what he disliked. The topics that Jenny, Mariko and her husband kept out of conversation included the details of Jenny and his relationship, his parents, and his relationship with Aimee. The day after Jenny told Jun about the tattoo, she and Mariko agreed that anything involving emotional attachment to others would be kept until a time that Jun felt ready to hear them.
After picking up Yuta from daycare—in which Jenny listened as the child talked about how excited he was that his uncle was now out of the hospital—the four of them arrived at the hospital and went straight to Jun’s room. When they all walked in, the male was in the middle of his final check-up before he was to be discharged. As the doctor finally left to speak to Mariko about medications and the likes, Jenny let Yuta down and watched the child run to his uncle and greeted him with a hug. Jenny chose to keep her distance while the uncle and nephew conversed and interacted, awkwardly looking from them to Mariko, her husband, and the doctor standing outside. Eventually, the older pair walked into the room smiling and happy that they were finally going to get Jun out of here. With Mariko and her husband leading the way to the car, Jenny followed behind them while holding Yuta’s hand. Jun was at the other side holding the child’s other hand. Although this was typically normal of the two, it definitely felt awkward now.
After they all went out to eat lunch (Yuta’s choice of course), Jenny and Jun were finally dropped off at the apartment. She had to admit that as she led him towards their door she was growing more and more nervous. Finally, standing at their door, she unlocked it slowly then opened it wide enough for him to step inside. “Well, here it is,” she said simply as she walked deeper inside and placed Jun’s bag on the couch. “I know it’s not entirely much like what three years ago was like for you, but it’s home.”
Once she put her latte aside, she got up off her chair then pushed it out of the way. “Let me help you,” she said carefully. After taking his good hand in hers, she waited until Jun swung his legs over the edge of the bed then leaned forward, wrapped her other arm around his waist and helped him to his feet. This was the first time since the accident that Jenny had the opportunity to be this close to him. Except that instead of it feeling warm and comfortable, she felt distance from him. To prevent him from seeing the pain this was causing her, Jenny turned her gaze downwards to the floor and remained as still as possible until he finally got his footing and his balance. She let him go when he gave her the okay and then made sure to keep a fair distance between them. Slowly and carefully, with Jenny keeping a close eye on Jun, they made their way out of the room and into the hallway. The two walked in silence for a while in which time Jenny spent all of it making sure that Jun’s legs weren’t going to give way. Eventually, they made their way towards the cafeteria where a fair amount of patients were sitting at tables either by themselves or with visitors. Apparently it was still early enough for the hospital to be busy.
Instead of staying in the cafeteria, however, Jenny and Jun moved on to head outside. Not outside like the front of the hospital. They moved on to a place in the hospital for the patients to get some fresh air. Jenny was sitting beside Jun on a bench, silently wondering what to say to him right now. They hadn’t really said much to each other since they walked out of the room what with Jenny spending more time making sure that Jun was okay to keep walking. Now that they were actually sitting, she had no idea what to do now. That was when Jun brought on a new question. She pondered over the question for a moment, wondering just how to answer it without giving too much overwhelming information. “Well,” she started slowly, “The Jun from three years later got a tattoo a few months ago.” She noticed the look Jun was giving her and she couldn’t help but let out a tiny laugh. She didn’t mean to laugh at him for his shock, but in her mind, she would have never thought of Jun to be surprised about getting a tattoo. Given that it was sort of his idea in the first place; though they ended up making the decision together. Clearing her throat, Jenny rolled up her left sleeve and revealed the small infinity tattoo on her wrist. “Yours is on your collarbone,” she explained as she pointed towards where his own tattoo was. She could see a small bit of it from his gown which would explain why he probably hasn’t seen it yet. “We got them together a while back. One of the few times we splurged our money on something that didn’t involve bills or other important payments,” she further explained, though she started blushing when she realized that she was basically telling him that they were pretty damn poor compared to the Jun three years ago.
Biting down on her bottom lip nervously, Jenny figured if she was going to get to the bottom of things, she would have to do it now while they were left alone. “Listen, Jun. I realize that all of this must be pretty overwhelming. So, um, if you don’t feel coming home once you’re okay to leave, I can understand. You’re welcome to stay at Mariko’s until you feel comfortable coming back to the apartment.” It wasn’t entirely something she wanted to say, but she figured she had to say it for his sake.
══════════════════════════════
It was finally the week that Jun was allowed to leave the hospital and Jenny was a nervous wreck. So to say, she had lost yet another night’s worth of sleep from the stress of Jun coming home at last. The whole night was spent cleaning the apartment even if it didn’t need cleaning. She made sure to give their cats a bath and clean out their litter box. Basically, she was doing the best to impress her boyfriend with their apartment. To this day, Jenny still believes that despite Jun saying he would come home with her that he was only saying it to be nice. The least she could do was try to give their apartment some appeal despite how Jenny and Jun it was all together.
The days before Jun’s release from the hospital were spent either arguing with Mariko over the details of where Jun was supposed to stay—because despite his decision, Jenny tried to persuade Mariko to think otherwise—or in her studio working on the pieces she had already completed. Since she had absolutely no inspiration to work on new ones, she needed to make sure that the ones she had already done were up to par for the exhibit. In the timespan of a little less than a week, Jenny had lost a large amount of sleep that was remedied with many cups of coffees. To say the very least, the female wasn’t quite looking at her best with her body running on less than seven hours of sleep in the time span of five to seven days and filled mainly with coffee or instant noodles. If the Jun that hadn’t lost his memory could see her now, he would not be very happy with her.
Once the cats were fed and well entertained for the next hour or so, Jenny looked down at her watch and noted that she had about twenty minutes before Mariko and her husband were scheduled to pick her up and drive all of them to pick up Jun from the hospital. In that time, she took a very quick shower, changed into paint splattered jeans and a black oversized sweater, and was at the door as soon as Mariko knocked. “Jenny, you look like death. Those dark circles under your eyes are darker than the last time I saw you,” Mariko complained as soon as Jenny opened the door. Jenny looked at the women sternly for a moment then muttered that she was going to go grab her purse before they left. After she rushed up the stairs to the room, she grabbed her thick-rimmed glasses from the bedside table to wear so as to cover the dark circles, at least just a little bit. It was better than having Mariko whine about her lack of sleep. Once she slipped her purse over her head and across her shoulder, she followed behind Mariko and her husband out of the apartment towards their car.
In the week since Jun had woken up, Jenny had been spending a few hours a day visiting him. She made sure not to overstay her welcome while he still felt awkward around her. In that week, she made slow progress in catching him up with the three years he had lost in memory. Granted, she kept all that information generic and simple. Most of the things they talked about were of him; what he did, what he liked, what he disliked. The topics that Jenny, Mariko and her husband kept out of conversation included the details of Jenny and his relationship, his parents, and his relationship with Aimee. The day after Jenny told Jun about the tattoo, she and Mariko agreed that anything involving emotional attachment to others would be kept until a time that Jun felt ready to hear them.
After picking up Yuta from daycare—in which Jenny listened as the child talked about how excited he was that his uncle was now out of the hospital—the four of them arrived at the hospital and went straight to Jun’s room. When they all walked in, the male was in the middle of his final check-up before he was to be discharged. As the doctor finally left to speak to Mariko about medications and the likes, Jenny let Yuta down and watched the child run to his uncle and greeted him with a hug. Jenny chose to keep her distance while the uncle and nephew conversed and interacted, awkwardly looking from them to Mariko, her husband, and the doctor standing outside. Eventually, the older pair walked into the room smiling and happy that they were finally going to get Jun out of here. With Mariko and her husband leading the way to the car, Jenny followed behind them while holding Yuta’s hand. Jun was at the other side holding the child’s other hand. Although this was typically normal of the two, it definitely felt awkward now.
After they all went out to eat lunch (Yuta’s choice of course), Jenny and Jun were finally dropped off at the apartment. She had to admit that as she led him towards their door she was growing more and more nervous. Finally, standing at their door, she unlocked it slowly then opened it wide enough for him to step inside. “Well, here it is,” she said simply as she walked deeper inside and placed Jun’s bag on the couch. “I know it’s not entirely much like what three years ago was like for you, but it’s home.”
OP
OP
JINFINITE
Super-Earth
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2022
- Location
- The Island of Eroda
xx▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰ xLOOK INTO YOUR EYES AND IT GETS HARD TO BREATHE, WHEN EVERYTHING GETS THIS CRAZY...
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY WHEN I'M WITH YOU
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY TALKING WITH YOU
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY MY LOVE FOR YOU
Jun tensed ever so slightly at the direct contact from Jenny as she assisted him in standing up. It wasn’t that he didn’t like or want her to be that close or touch him. He just wasn’t used to it. Aimee wasn’t a particularly physical, touchy feely person; least not unless she was getting something out of it. He actually found is rather comforting to finally be near another person and not trapped in bed behind the invisible patient/visitor wall. But his body’s natural reaction was one of surprise and so it took Jun a few moments to adjust to being so close to Jenny.
His was trembling and awkwardly held onto Jenny for balance for a short bit as he and gravity were reacquainted with one another, “I got it, thanks…”
He backed away a tad, just enough so that Jenny could have some breathing space; they didn’t really need to stay shoulder to shoulder did they? Jun was then the one to initiate leaving the hospital room he’d been in just about 24/7 since waking up. He was excited to get out but then at the same time he was feeling a little weird being alone with Jenny. Neither of them said anything as they walked through the halls but as they reached the cafeteria they had a silent moment of mutual agreement to move somewhere quieter and less crowded; outside.
Jun didn’t realize how exhausting their short walk had been until he was off his feet and seated on a bench, "So then uh, anything I should know about?" He was referring to the three years of his life he had forgotten but couldn't quite figure out how to phrase his question and glanced nervously away from Jenny, then towards her as his curiosity got the best of him. It was obvious that he'd changed a lot from how he remembered himself. For starters he no longer lived alone, he had a job apparently, a new girlfriend, hell his hair was brown! Jenny's answer wasn't exactly what he was expecting to hear and the disbelief on Jun's face was clear as day. He had a tattoo? Him? Jun had a tattoo? His dark eyes followed Jenny's movements to see the small infinity symbol on her wrist. His own lightly gauzed hand trailed up to his collar bone to tug at his gown and he craned his neck down in a failed attempt to confirm that he'd been inked like Jenny said. He'd have to find a mirror later to see it for himself.
"One of the few times we splurged our money," Wait, so they were broke? A tattoo, especially as small as theirs shouldn't have been that much. After hearing that he was almost afraid at the thought of finding out where he lived now. Jun tried to push the tattoo from his mind for now and focused his attention back on Jenny as she then brought up their apartment. They had the same thought process. That was a little weird, yet comforting. He'd never had a connection moment like that with Aimee.
Stay with Mariko though? She had her own family now, he couldn't go and impose on her like that. Not when he had somewhere to stay. Part of Jun wanted to jump on Jenny's understanding offer and go back with his sister, but part of him knew not to accept. For starters, Mariko wouldn't approve of it. Also there was the fact he'd been told to get back into his pre-accident routine; as strange as it seemed to him. He shook his head slightly, "I'll try staying at ou-- the apartment." He couldn't bring himself to say 'our', the next few weeks were going to be tough.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
When Jun wasn't asking about pieces of his new life he was either in physical therapy being being bed ridden for weeks, or he was sleeping off all the accumulated stress from the two of them. He was finally accustomed to staying in the hospital when it was announced that he would be released soon. Jun was a ball of nerves on the inside. He had been clinging to anything familiar to him and at the moment the only thing that was was the hospital. He wasn't sure he was ready to get thrown into a life he didn't even remember. When he confided in his sister about such feelings she told him he was being stupid and that going back with Jenny was the best solution for everyone, especially him.
"Aren't you excited to be going home~?" Jun forced a half smile for the overwhelmingly energetic nurse. He was getting a final check up; the all clear, a-okay to leave the hospital. However rather than leaving him to relax and prepare himself, Jun's attending nurse had decided to stick around on stand by while Jun sat through a few simple tests, questions and advice from his doctor. It was rather distracting and frustrating to be told not to talk and to breathe deeply as his still healing rib was examined, and then to have that nurse at his side chattering away; Jun's patience was about to break when the door opened and in came Jenny, Yuta, Mariko and her husband. They would never know just how perfect their timing was. Jun helped Yuta climb up to sit on the bed beside him, happy to have a legitimate reason to ignore his nurse now as he gave all his attention to his nephew, "Mou hirugohan wo tabeta?"
"Nooo."
"Jaa, Yuta wa nani ga tabetai~?"
"Ice cream!"
Jun's appetite had finally returned to normal and he was currently starving. Yuta seemed to only be interested in getting ice cream though. His uncle in the end had to strike a deal that they'd go out for ice cream sometime in the next few days. In exchange for postponing the ice cream it seemed they would be going to the Rainforest Cafe. Not a favorite of Jun's but at least it was food and it was Yuta would be happy there.
The afternoon felt less and less like celebrate Jun's release and more like, 'do whatever Yuta wants." The little boy even arranged their seats at the restaurant so that the two couples sat on either side with their respected other, with Yuta seated at the head of the table; he was glowing the entire time, happy to finally have his family all gathered together. By now Jun was somewhat used to Jenny. He'd seen her everyday and was fine talking with her but throughout the week every once in a while one of them would screw up and say something that would leave them twiddling their thumbs and avoiding each other until something or someone saved them from sitting in awkward silence.
That silence was one they sat through after lunch during the car ride to their apartment, though thankfully Yuta was pretty adamant on planning his ice cream trip. So there was some bilingual talking from the three year old. The car ride was sorta long, though it didn't feel quite long enough when they finally pulled up to an apartment building and goodbyes were exchanged. Jenny insisted on carrying his bag for him, leaving Jun to follow after her like a duckling following its mother. He didn't know his surroundings or any of the other birds in the pond of life he'd woken up in. All he could do was to trust and rely on his mother duck, Jenny.
"Well here it is," they had stopped in front of a door and Jun's heart was racing out of control. He wasn't sure what he was expecting it to look like inside, run down and cramped maybe? But the loft apartment was actually quite spacious when Jenny opened the door for him, there was even an entire wall from floor to ceiling of windows. It was just cluttered with art; more like completely covered in it. There was very little wall space not occupied by a painting or photograph. Surfaces had pens, paper, brushes and other various art related supplies. So they really were full time artists apparently. Jun would have been able to overlook and accept everything had he not taken a moment to actually look at the pictures on the walls. He saw himself staring back at him and it sent a slight shiver up his spine as he realized just how many of the paintings were of him. There was one in particular he found his attention locked on; he was sleeping shirtless though covered by a blanket. The tattoo Jenny had mentioned a while ago was clearly visible on his collarbone. It was almost like an out of body experience for Jun. There he stood, surrounded by proof of a life he had no memories of; he was a complete stranger in his own house.
A chirping noise brought him back to reality and he looked down to see a dark tabby trotting towards him. Jun blinked, then squatted down closer to the cat's level. He extended his hand to let the cat sniff him, common courtesy when meeting a new animal, however the cat skipped that step and instead headbutted his hand before moving forward to rub his body against Jun's leg; he was purring.
"That's Tako," he was told they also had a second cat named Zazzles. Jun loved cats and has always wanted one. He actually had cat sat for a friend once but Aimee was allergic to cats. Even though she never came over to his place she was always complaining about fur showing up on his clothes. It wasn't even enough to irritate her allergy, it just irritated Aimee. So of course the blonde won, as always, and Jun had to give up on his dream of having a cat. Though now he had two of them. Go figure. Jun instinctively picked up the fluffy tabbi before working up the courage to step further into the apartment; as if Tako would be able to keep him safe. Safe from what...?
Jenny offered to give him a tour ofthetheir apartment to which Jun weakly nodded in agreement, though if he were truthful he kind of wanted to just stay there by the door with Tako for a while. Or, you know, just leave.
There weren't really a whole lot of rooms, in fact the only rooms with doors seemed to be the bathroom upstairs and a closet; so much for privacy, though looking around that didn't seem to have been an issue for the Jun and Jenny from a few weeks ago. They even shared a bed. But what the apartment lacked in rooms and space it seemed to make up for in memories. Memories Jun no longer shared with his girlfriend of three years. Jenny was picking up belongings of his, giving brief backgrounds on how things came into their possession, after fifteen minutes of it Jun had a headache and could barely recall anything Jenny had told him so far. He stopped mid step as Jenny tried to lead him over to the fridge to show him how they organized their calendar and various post it notes of info and memos, "Jun?--"
"Stop."
He'd set Tako down quite a while ago and now he wished he hadn't as he stood there, trembling slightly, completely overwhelmed and feeling very much alone. He couldn't focus on Jenny, his head was down so as to not see all the photos of the two of them smile at him, "Can you just stop?"
Jun didn't hear Jenny try and speak, his own voice was raised and cut her off as he looked up finally, arms gesturing around him, "I don't fucking remember any of this! Do you really think telling me everything will bring back whoever it is you think I am!?”
He spoke as though she was making up a person in her head. But for all he knew she was. There were stories of people taking advantage of amnesia patients and essentially recreating the person to be how they wanted them to be; brain washing them. They’d fix their flaws, tell them things that never happened, what if that was happening to him?! There were so many pictures though. His eyes had gotten locked on a painting of him leaving him staring trance like at it, only for a moment though, or at least he didn’t think it was that long. When he blinked out of it he was watching Jenny’s back briefly before she slipped through the door, shutting it behind her.
Had she really just left him? Alone? Here? In a place he had no memories of? A slight panic began to set in and he turned to head upstairs to the bathroom. He’d just splash some water on his face, cool off and calm down, right? After he did though he found himself staring down his reflection in the mirror above the sink. Had it really been three years? He tugged down his shirt to reveal the tattoo below his neck and then ran his hand across it, half expecting the ink to come off on his hand as though it’d been drawn on by a cheap washable marker. It didn’t budge and Jun quickly released his shirt and left the bathroom. His headache was at the point he was squinting on the side it originated from. Hadn’t he been given some kind of pain killer—oh, that’s right, Mariko had passed his medications to Jenny directly rather than trusting him to take them on his own. They were probably still in Jenny’s purse then. He ended up returning to the bathroom and shuffling through things until he found a container of Advil. Was he allowed to take over the counter drugs in addition to whatever it was he’d been sent home with? He couldn’t remember, and by now the pounding in his head was at the point that he didn’t care either way; so he took the Advil. Jun once again left the bathroom, his tired eyes landed on the bed but his legs kept moving past it and downstairs to crash on the sofa. Something about sleeping in someone else’s bed just freaked him out.Even though it was his bed too.
Almost instantly after his head was on the sofa, Jun was out. He slept for a good five hours solid until receiving a rather rude awakening from a certain fluffy cat. Tako was in his face voicing his hungry complaints until Jun woke and sat up, rubbing his eyes with one hand while the other ran across Tako’s head before gently pushing the cat to the side so he could stand up. Tako circled around and between his legs, meowing the entire walk to the kitchen where Jun made an attempt to find the cat food, though he failed. His pocket started vibrating and Jun reached in to pull out his phone and glanced at the screen to see his sister’s name glowing. He made a mental note to fix or replace his phone as the near shattered screen from his accident was dangerous to keep using before he answered the call with a question, ”Where’s the cat food kept?”
”…ehh?? Jun! Why haven’t you or Jenny been answering my calls?”
He turned around to glance around the apartment, it didn’t seem like Jenny had returned yet, ”Wari wari, nechatta….so, cat food? Where is it?”
”It’s in the lower cabinet to the right of the sink….Jun?”
He’d located the cat food finally and pulled the bag out which got Tako rubbing against his legs again, ”Hm?”
”Where’s Jenn--”
”Shirane.”
He could hear her sigh for a split second before the line went dead and he moved the phone away from his ear to see that she’d hung up on him. Glancing at the time in the top right corner had him thinking back to Jenny though. She wasn’t back yet, and apparently hadn’t been answering Mariko’s calls. He knew he shouldn’t have blown up at her, he’d just been so frustrated and before he knew it he was yelling at her. By now Zazzles was in the kitchen with him and both cats were very happy when Jun finally put their food down for them. His own stomach reminded him that he was hungry too but turning to face the kitchen again he didn’t know where to begin. He ate out a lot usually, not to say that he didn’t know how to cook or wasn’t good at it, it’d just been a while and now he was in someone else’s kitchen. It didn’t take long for the hunger to take over and Jun pushed the awkwardness away to search the kitchen for something to eat.
It was definitely dinnertime when Jun finished throwing together what he could find in the kitchen. There was food for two set out on the small coffee table (that was the only available surface area Jun could find) but he didn’t wait for Jenny to comeback to eat, he was far too hungry at that point. After he’d eaten, Jun got up and with Tako on his shoulders like a scarf he ventured to the corners of the apartment to finally explore his new surroundings. It didn’t take long for him to locate his workspace and his eyes lit up at a familiar binder at the bottom of a stack. It was his first photo album from when he’d first started playing around with photography. The other binders in the stack were labeled by year and month; apparently he’d gotten really into photography during the past three years. Balancing Tako on his shoulders and the binders in his arms, Jun somehow made it back to the sofa and opened up his original binder, flipping through it until he reached photos he didn’t recognize. Going through the photos took up hours and it was nearing midnight when his eyes finally gave out on him and Jun drifted to sleep on the sofa. He was the type of person who could sleep for hours, wake up, not do anything all afternoon and then sleep some more. There were photo binders spread out and opened on the floor and table in front of him, Tako and Zazzles both shared the sofa with him, and Jenny’s dinner portion was left untouched on the opposite side of the coffee table.
His was trembling and awkwardly held onto Jenny for balance for a short bit as he and gravity were reacquainted with one another, “I got it, thanks…”
He backed away a tad, just enough so that Jenny could have some breathing space; they didn’t really need to stay shoulder to shoulder did they? Jun was then the one to initiate leaving the hospital room he’d been in just about 24/7 since waking up. He was excited to get out but then at the same time he was feeling a little weird being alone with Jenny. Neither of them said anything as they walked through the halls but as they reached the cafeteria they had a silent moment of mutual agreement to move somewhere quieter and less crowded; outside.
Jun didn’t realize how exhausting their short walk had been until he was off his feet and seated on a bench, "So then uh, anything I should know about?" He was referring to the three years of his life he had forgotten but couldn't quite figure out how to phrase his question and glanced nervously away from Jenny, then towards her as his curiosity got the best of him. It was obvious that he'd changed a lot from how he remembered himself. For starters he no longer lived alone, he had a job apparently, a new girlfriend, hell his hair was brown! Jenny's answer wasn't exactly what he was expecting to hear and the disbelief on Jun's face was clear as day. He had a tattoo? Him? Jun had a tattoo? His dark eyes followed Jenny's movements to see the small infinity symbol on her wrist. His own lightly gauzed hand trailed up to his collar bone to tug at his gown and he craned his neck down in a failed attempt to confirm that he'd been inked like Jenny said. He'd have to find a mirror later to see it for himself.
"One of the few times we splurged our money," Wait, so they were broke? A tattoo, especially as small as theirs shouldn't have been that much. After hearing that he was almost afraid at the thought of finding out where he lived now. Jun tried to push the tattoo from his mind for now and focused his attention back on Jenny as she then brought up their apartment. They had the same thought process. That was a little weird, yet comforting. He'd never had a connection moment like that with Aimee.
Stay with Mariko though? She had her own family now, he couldn't go and impose on her like that. Not when he had somewhere to stay. Part of Jun wanted to jump on Jenny's understanding offer and go back with his sister, but part of him knew not to accept. For starters, Mariko wouldn't approve of it. Also there was the fact he'd been told to get back into his pre-accident routine; as strange as it seemed to him. He shook his head slightly, "I'll try staying at ou-- the apartment." He couldn't bring himself to say 'our', the next few weeks were going to be tough.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
When Jun wasn't asking about pieces of his new life he was either in physical therapy being being bed ridden for weeks, or he was sleeping off all the accumulated stress from the two of them. He was finally accustomed to staying in the hospital when it was announced that he would be released soon. Jun was a ball of nerves on the inside. He had been clinging to anything familiar to him and at the moment the only thing that was was the hospital. He wasn't sure he was ready to get thrown into a life he didn't even remember. When he confided in his sister about such feelings she told him he was being stupid and that going back with Jenny was the best solution for everyone, especially him.
"Aren't you excited to be going home~?" Jun forced a half smile for the overwhelmingly energetic nurse. He was getting a final check up; the all clear, a-okay to leave the hospital. However rather than leaving him to relax and prepare himself, Jun's attending nurse had decided to stick around on stand by while Jun sat through a few simple tests, questions and advice from his doctor. It was rather distracting and frustrating to be told not to talk and to breathe deeply as his still healing rib was examined, and then to have that nurse at his side chattering away; Jun's patience was about to break when the door opened and in came Jenny, Yuta, Mariko and her husband. They would never know just how perfect their timing was. Jun helped Yuta climb up to sit on the bed beside him, happy to have a legitimate reason to ignore his nurse now as he gave all his attention to his nephew, "Mou hirugohan wo tabeta?"
"Nooo."
"Jaa, Yuta wa nani ga tabetai~?"
"Ice cream!"
Jun's appetite had finally returned to normal and he was currently starving. Yuta seemed to only be interested in getting ice cream though. His uncle in the end had to strike a deal that they'd go out for ice cream sometime in the next few days. In exchange for postponing the ice cream it seemed they would be going to the Rainforest Cafe. Not a favorite of Jun's but at least it was food and it was Yuta would be happy there.
The afternoon felt less and less like celebrate Jun's release and more like, 'do whatever Yuta wants." The little boy even arranged their seats at the restaurant so that the two couples sat on either side with their respected other, with Yuta seated at the head of the table; he was glowing the entire time, happy to finally have his family all gathered together. By now Jun was somewhat used to Jenny. He'd seen her everyday and was fine talking with her but throughout the week every once in a while one of them would screw up and say something that would leave them twiddling their thumbs and avoiding each other until something or someone saved them from sitting in awkward silence.
That silence was one they sat through after lunch during the car ride to their apartment, though thankfully Yuta was pretty adamant on planning his ice cream trip. So there was some bilingual talking from the three year old. The car ride was sorta long, though it didn't feel quite long enough when they finally pulled up to an apartment building and goodbyes were exchanged. Jenny insisted on carrying his bag for him, leaving Jun to follow after her like a duckling following its mother. He didn't know his surroundings or any of the other birds in the pond of life he'd woken up in. All he could do was to trust and rely on his mother duck, Jenny.
"Well here it is," they had stopped in front of a door and Jun's heart was racing out of control. He wasn't sure what he was expecting it to look like inside, run down and cramped maybe? But the loft apartment was actually quite spacious when Jenny opened the door for him, there was even an entire wall from floor to ceiling of windows. It was just cluttered with art; more like completely covered in it. There was very little wall space not occupied by a painting or photograph. Surfaces had pens, paper, brushes and other various art related supplies. So they really were full time artists apparently. Jun would have been able to overlook and accept everything had he not taken a moment to actually look at the pictures on the walls. He saw himself staring back at him and it sent a slight shiver up his spine as he realized just how many of the paintings were of him. There was one in particular he found his attention locked on; he was sleeping shirtless though covered by a blanket. The tattoo Jenny had mentioned a while ago was clearly visible on his collarbone. It was almost like an out of body experience for Jun. There he stood, surrounded by proof of a life he had no memories of; he was a complete stranger in his own house.
A chirping noise brought him back to reality and he looked down to see a dark tabby trotting towards him. Jun blinked, then squatted down closer to the cat's level. He extended his hand to let the cat sniff him, common courtesy when meeting a new animal, however the cat skipped that step and instead headbutted his hand before moving forward to rub his body against Jun's leg; he was purring.
"That's Tako," he was told they also had a second cat named Zazzles. Jun loved cats and has always wanted one. He actually had cat sat for a friend once but Aimee was allergic to cats. Even though she never came over to his place she was always complaining about fur showing up on his clothes. It wasn't even enough to irritate her allergy, it just irritated Aimee. So of course the blonde won, as always, and Jun had to give up on his dream of having a cat. Though now he had two of them. Go figure. Jun instinctively picked up the fluffy tabbi before working up the courage to step further into the apartment; as if Tako would be able to keep him safe. Safe from what...?
Jenny offered to give him a tour of
There weren't really a whole lot of rooms, in fact the only rooms with doors seemed to be the bathroom upstairs and a closet; so much for privacy, though looking around that didn't seem to have been an issue for the Jun and Jenny from a few weeks ago. They even shared a bed. But what the apartment lacked in rooms and space it seemed to make up for in memories. Memories Jun no longer shared with his girlfriend of three years. Jenny was picking up belongings of his, giving brief backgrounds on how things came into their possession, after fifteen minutes of it Jun had a headache and could barely recall anything Jenny had told him so far. He stopped mid step as Jenny tried to lead him over to the fridge to show him how they organized their calendar and various post it notes of info and memos, "Jun?--"
"Stop."
He'd set Tako down quite a while ago and now he wished he hadn't as he stood there, trembling slightly, completely overwhelmed and feeling very much alone. He couldn't focus on Jenny, his head was down so as to not see all the photos of the two of them smile at him, "Can you just stop?"
Jun didn't hear Jenny try and speak, his own voice was raised and cut her off as he looked up finally, arms gesturing around him, "I don't fucking remember any of this! Do you really think telling me everything will bring back whoever it is you think I am!?”
He spoke as though she was making up a person in her head. But for all he knew she was. There were stories of people taking advantage of amnesia patients and essentially recreating the person to be how they wanted them to be; brain washing them. They’d fix their flaws, tell them things that never happened, what if that was happening to him?! There were so many pictures though. His eyes had gotten locked on a painting of him leaving him staring trance like at it, only for a moment though, or at least he didn’t think it was that long. When he blinked out of it he was watching Jenny’s back briefly before she slipped through the door, shutting it behind her.
Had she really just left him? Alone? Here? In a place he had no memories of? A slight panic began to set in and he turned to head upstairs to the bathroom. He’d just splash some water on his face, cool off and calm down, right? After he did though he found himself staring down his reflection in the mirror above the sink. Had it really been three years? He tugged down his shirt to reveal the tattoo below his neck and then ran his hand across it, half expecting the ink to come off on his hand as though it’d been drawn on by a cheap washable marker. It didn’t budge and Jun quickly released his shirt and left the bathroom. His headache was at the point he was squinting on the side it originated from. Hadn’t he been given some kind of pain killer—oh, that’s right, Mariko had passed his medications to Jenny directly rather than trusting him to take them on his own. They were probably still in Jenny’s purse then. He ended up returning to the bathroom and shuffling through things until he found a container of Advil. Was he allowed to take over the counter drugs in addition to whatever it was he’d been sent home with? He couldn’t remember, and by now the pounding in his head was at the point that he didn’t care either way; so he took the Advil. Jun once again left the bathroom, his tired eyes landed on the bed but his legs kept moving past it and downstairs to crash on the sofa. Something about sleeping in someone else’s bed just freaked him out.
Almost instantly after his head was on the sofa, Jun was out. He slept for a good five hours solid until receiving a rather rude awakening from a certain fluffy cat. Tako was in his face voicing his hungry complaints until Jun woke and sat up, rubbing his eyes with one hand while the other ran across Tako’s head before gently pushing the cat to the side so he could stand up. Tako circled around and between his legs, meowing the entire walk to the kitchen where Jun made an attempt to find the cat food, though he failed. His pocket started vibrating and Jun reached in to pull out his phone and glanced at the screen to see his sister’s name glowing. He made a mental note to fix or replace his phone as the near shattered screen from his accident was dangerous to keep using before he answered the call with a question, ”Where’s the cat food kept?”
”…ehh?? Jun! Why haven’t you or Jenny been answering my calls?”
He turned around to glance around the apartment, it didn’t seem like Jenny had returned yet, ”Wari wari, nechatta….so, cat food? Where is it?”
”It’s in the lower cabinet to the right of the sink….Jun?”
He’d located the cat food finally and pulled the bag out which got Tako rubbing against his legs again, ”Hm?”
”Where’s Jenn--”
”Shirane.”
He could hear her sigh for a split second before the line went dead and he moved the phone away from his ear to see that she’d hung up on him. Glancing at the time in the top right corner had him thinking back to Jenny though. She wasn’t back yet, and apparently hadn’t been answering Mariko’s calls. He knew he shouldn’t have blown up at her, he’d just been so frustrated and before he knew it he was yelling at her. By now Zazzles was in the kitchen with him and both cats were very happy when Jun finally put their food down for them. His own stomach reminded him that he was hungry too but turning to face the kitchen again he didn’t know where to begin. He ate out a lot usually, not to say that he didn’t know how to cook or wasn’t good at it, it’d just been a while and now he was in someone else’s kitchen. It didn’t take long for the hunger to take over and Jun pushed the awkwardness away to search the kitchen for something to eat.
It was definitely dinnertime when Jun finished throwing together what he could find in the kitchen. There was food for two set out on the small coffee table (that was the only available surface area Jun could find) but he didn’t wait for Jenny to comeback to eat, he was far too hungry at that point. After he’d eaten, Jun got up and with Tako on his shoulders like a scarf he ventured to the corners of the apartment to finally explore his new surroundings. It didn’t take long for him to locate his workspace and his eyes lit up at a familiar binder at the bottom of a stack. It was his first photo album from when he’d first started playing around with photography. The other binders in the stack were labeled by year and month; apparently he’d gotten really into photography during the past three years. Balancing Tako on his shoulders and the binders in his arms, Jun somehow made it back to the sofa and opened up his original binder, flipping through it until he reached photos he didn’t recognize. Going through the photos took up hours and it was nearing midnight when his eyes finally gave out on him and Jun drifted to sleep on the sofa. He was the type of person who could sleep for hours, wake up, not do anything all afternoon and then sleep some more. There were photo binders spread out and opened on the floor and table in front of him, Tako and Zazzles both shared the sofa with him, and Jenny’s dinner portion was left untouched on the opposite side of the coffee table.
Last edited:
feelsHASkilig
Solo Conversationalist
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2022
- Location
- Page Two Hundred & Forty-Nine
Jenny felt nervous leading Jun deeper into their apartment. She couldn’t read anything from him like she used to so she had no idea what he could possibly be thinking right now. While he looked around the apartment, taking in the walls and the surroundings, she watched him carefully hoping that in some way or another there would be one flash of recognition. Any that could tell Jenny that everything was going to be alright in the end. She noticed when his gaze was locked on a specific painting, following his line of vision until her own eyes fell on their most recent addition to the wall. She started to panic a little, realizing for the first time ever just how creepy this must be to Jun. Having all of these paintings of himself plastered on the walls mixed with blown up photos of various sizes of memories that he no longer had. It made her realize that she should have at least taken down most of the photos and paintings just so that it wouldn’t be so overwhelming. She was about to explain the paintings when another sound interrupted the silence, causing the both of them to look down at the furry feline moving closer to him.
Watching Jun and Tako interact with each other was like sitting through when he and Yuta first saw each other after the accident. A burning feeling ate at her pit of her stomach that made her want to take the cat away from him. Never did she think that she would be unbelievably jealous of a three year old and a tabby cat. But she held her tongue and decided to just look away until Jun returned his attention to her. Once he finally stepped inside, carrying Tako closely, Jenny returned her gaze to him with a comforting smile and offered to give him a tour of the apartment which he agreed to. She was cautious of what she showed him and also made sure to add a brief background story to all of them. The tour lasted for fifteen minutes and could have kept going if it had not been for Jun suddenly looking like he was going to faint. Concerned, she turned away from her journey to the kitchen to walk over to him. His words though caused her to stop mid-step. The tone of his voice made her blood run cold and she subconsciously started backing away from him. “I’m sorry. If you want we can sto—“ His next words cut right through her like a sword. His voice was colder and the volume had risen so that he was yelling at her. This was nothing she was familiar with. Neither of them had ever argued like this before. While they are guilty of having their disagreements, yelling was never a part of it.
Suddenly a mixture of hurt and anger consumed her and she blew up on Jun even if he didn’t seem to be paying attention. “I am trying to help you, Jun! But you are not letting me! We don’t talk to each other like this, ever!” Realizing that his attention had gone off again to one of the paintings on the wall, Jenny suddenly gave up. “This is hard for me too…” she said in a softer voice then turned and made her way to the door with purse and keys in hand. The last thing she heard before she closed the door behind her was Tako and Zazzles letting out a couple meows to grab her attention. But she did not turn around to look.
While the travel to her studio typically needed the use of public transportation, Jenny walked the entire way. By the time she unlocked the door to her dark studio and turned on the lights, she was exhausted. Mixed with the lack of sleep she had been getting lately, it was amazing that she didn’t just pass out on the floor the second she locked the door behind her. But with her anger towards Jun and the adrenaline from walking the entire way to the studio coursing through her veins, she was fully energized and…inspired. As soon as she dropped her purse onto her work table, not caring that it had landed on some wet paint, Jenny found herself staring at a blank canvas. The argument from earlier replayed in front of her like an out of body experience and she watched Jun’s face and her face melt and spiral into expressions of anger. But then she suddenly focused on herself and noticed that her expression wasn’t anger at all, it was hurt. Her fingers started to tingle as she suddenly felt the inspiration creep up at her like a bolt of lightning. And before she knew it, she was at her work station with a piece of drawing paper in front of her and a pencil at the ready. She spent the next three to five hours tracing out the image in her head; having to restart the outline multiple times when she thought that the others weren’t right. By the time the sun had gone down, Jenny’s studio was cluttered with crumpled up papers of rejected drafts. But eventually, she had one all completed and ready to be transferred to the blank canvas standing in front of her.
She was about to begin outlining the draft onto the canvas when her eyes fell on something she had not looked upon since Jun’s accident. It was a portrait painting of Jun that she had been planning on giving to him on the day of the accident. The painting was of him with his camera. He had been shooting some stills for add to his portfolio. She had been standing in the background snapping her own photos of him with her camera’s phone when he suddenly turned to her with the camera in front of him. They had snapped a photo of each other. Jenny had been working on the painting for some days after taking the photo and was completed the day before the accident. Jenny stared at the painting silently, the hand holding the outline of her new piece shaking. The argument flashed in front of her again and she clearly saw the frustration and anger on Jun’s face. When she blinked and was left staring at the smile behind Jun’s painted camera, her heart pounded painfully in her chest with the anger and hurt she still felt. And before she knew what she was doing, she had stormed off to her work table again and grabbed a cup of red paint. With a frustrated cry, Jenny tossed the cup of paint at the painting. She heard the crash and clatter of the aluminum cup hit the painted canvas and then watched as the red paint trickled down completely covering Jun’s face and his once happy smile.
Breathing heavily, Jenny stared at the destroyed painting until the paint spilled onto the studio floor. With a frustrated sigh, she walked over to the painting, picked it up and tossed it to the other side of the room so that it fell into the shadows where the studio’s installed lights were not hitting. She stood in silence for a long while until finally focusing all of her energy and attention on getting the outline of her new piece on the larger canvas. She was careful with each stroke she made on the canvas so that she wouldn’t have to restart all over again. By the time she finished, it was already late into the night. But the time of night did not stop her from her work. And even though her eyes felt heavy and at the point of closing on its own, she pushed through it to make intense progress on this piece. She could not believe that she would find inspiration in this kind of situation, but she did and it was working to her advantage. It was around almost three in the morning when she finally finished outlining her piece on the canvas and she was now figuring out which colors to use. Unfortunately, red could not be an option for now though she knew she would need it eventually. Knowing that she probably would not remember later in the morning, Jenny walked over to her purse and pulled out her phone to type up the reminder to get more red paint. But before she could, she noticed that Mariko had been calling her since she left the apartment earlier that day. And the number of text messages she sent her was twice that number. Since it was too late to reply to any of the messages or give the woman a call, Jenny ignored the text messages and the voice mails to type up her reminder. Then she went back to work until the sun started to rise.
Jenny reluctantly returned to the apartment around six in the morning after she realized how much time had passed and that she would be working almost all day that day. As quietly as possible, Jenny unlocked and opened the door then slipped inside. She hoped that she wouldn’t make so much noise as to wake Jun up. Though at this rate, after what had happened, she was wondering if he was going to be in the apartment at all. It was for this reason that she was shocked stiff when she saw that Jun had passed out on the couch. She was staring at him for a long time until both Tako and Zazzles seemed to have realized that their other owner had finally come home and were not meowing and purring for her attention. Panicking, she knelt down in front of both of them and quietly shushed them by scratching the top of their heads.
“Shhh. Don’t wake him,” she whispered then leaned in to kiss both of the tops of their heads before getting up to look at Jun again. He looked so peaceful in his sleep, something she had not seen since the accident. After some time gazing down at him quietly, Jenny finally walked up the stairs to the upper level of the loft to grab a blanket from the closet. When she returned to where Jun was sleeping, she spread the blanket out over top of him and readjusted the pillow under his head. She refrained from touching the portfolios he had spread out around him in the living room. Kneeling in front of him now, Jenny allowed herself this one time to stop being cautious of her actions. She reached a hand forward to him, brushing it gently against his cheek before raising it up to brush through his hair. She did this for a few seconds then leaned in to kiss his forehead lightly. Afterwards she quickly got up and made her way back upstairs to take a quick nap before she had to go to work.
The nap didn’t last long; in fact she barely got a full hour before she woke up again to the feeling of something soft and furry brushing against her foot. It was Zazzles attempting to wake her up and demand for food. With a groan, she sat up slowly in bed. She had just stretched her arms out above her when her phone started buzzing beside her. She picked it up blindly without looking at the caller ID. “Jenny! Finally you answer my calls! Where were you all of yesterday? Why weren’t you answering any of my phone calls or text messages?” This went on for another second or so until finally Jenny muttered groggily that she had been in the studio working on a new piece. This didn’t seem to satisfy Mariko who went into another lecture about how she shouldn’t have left Jun alone like that. When Jenny finally got Mariko to stop lecturing her, the older woman informed her that she would be picking Jun up around lunch time then hung up. Tossing the phone to the other side of the bed, Jenny kicked the blanket off of her and stumbled down the stairs into the kitchen to feed the cats. Jun was still sleeping, so she had to keep quiet. After feeding Zazzles and Tako—who had woken up after hearing his food bowl being filled again—she moved about cleaning up a little. She mainly cleaned up the plate of food Jun had left untouched on the coffee table, unknowing to her that the food was meant for her.
After showering and changing into her barista uniform, Jenny exited the apartment to grab some breakfast for her and Jun at Subway. She didn’t know what the Jun from three years ago liked, so she went the safe route and ordered his usual that he had now. Returning to the apartment, she found that nothing had changed except that the cats had returned to their original position at the couch with Jun. She continued to move as quietly as possible so as to not wake the male up, deciding to eat on the kitchen counter. She scarfed the sandwich down since she would be late for work if she took her time. Before leaving though, she wrapped up Jun’s sandwich in the plastic bag it was carried in then pulled out one of the post-it notes from off the fridge and wrote a quick note for him:
After leaving the apartment that morning, Jenny was busy at work at Starbucks until half passed the lunch hour. She returned to the apartment around one, noticing that Jun was nowhere in sight. She had a quick lunch of instant ramen before she changed into clothes for her second job at Forever 21. But before she left, her eyes fell on the portfolios Jun had been looking at the night before. Her gaze then moved over to Jun’s broken camera. Biting down on her bottom lip, she made the decision to take it with her to work so that she could get it replaced as soon as she was finished with her shift. So she carefully placed the camera into her purse, rummaged through their files of receipts for the one for the camera then left the apartment once again.
By the time she got out of work around six, Jenny was exhausted. But she had to get Jun’s camera replaced first. So she took the bus to the store they bought his camera from, explained the situation to the employee and the manager and managed to get a free replacement thanks to their warranty. After getting the new camera, and placing the old memory chip inside, Jenny went the extra mile to splurge on Jun. Usually the Jun pre-accident would never have let her do this for him, not even as a birthday present, since he knew they were always tight on money. But she was taking advantage of their current situation to do this one thing for him. So after getting the camera, Jenny bought Jun a couple better lenses for when he was comfortable with photography again and a few more memory cards. Content with her purchases, Jenny took the bus back to her apartment.
At some time passed seven, Jenny opened the door to the apartment and stepped inside quietly in case Jun was sleeping or something. When she entered the kitchen area though, she saw him wide awake. “Hi…” she said awkwardly, stepping into clear view. She placed her purse on the coffee table then returned to the kitchen. “How was your ice cream date with Yuta?” she asked him then let him respond, though she couldn’t help focusing more on the plastic bag she still had in her hands. When opportunity presented itself, Jenny quickly jumped into it and extended the bag to him. “Here. I, um, got your camera replaced,” she explained as she handed the bag to Jun. “I even, um, got some extra lenses and memory cards for you,” she added, feeling slightly terrible that she was lying to Jun. This was the first time ever that she lied to him.
“I noticed this morning that you had been looking at your portfolios. So I thought that, maybe you can get back into photography again. I mean, not that you ever weren’t. But maybe after fiddling with this camera a bit you can get back into the swing of things.”
Watching Jun and Tako interact with each other was like sitting through when he and Yuta first saw each other after the accident. A burning feeling ate at her pit of her stomach that made her want to take the cat away from him. Never did she think that she would be unbelievably jealous of a three year old and a tabby cat. But she held her tongue and decided to just look away until Jun returned his attention to her. Once he finally stepped inside, carrying Tako closely, Jenny returned her gaze to him with a comforting smile and offered to give him a tour of the apartment which he agreed to. She was cautious of what she showed him and also made sure to add a brief background story to all of them. The tour lasted for fifteen minutes and could have kept going if it had not been for Jun suddenly looking like he was going to faint. Concerned, she turned away from her journey to the kitchen to walk over to him. His words though caused her to stop mid-step. The tone of his voice made her blood run cold and she subconsciously started backing away from him. “I’m sorry. If you want we can sto—“ His next words cut right through her like a sword. His voice was colder and the volume had risen so that he was yelling at her. This was nothing she was familiar with. Neither of them had ever argued like this before. While they are guilty of having their disagreements, yelling was never a part of it.
Suddenly a mixture of hurt and anger consumed her and she blew up on Jun even if he didn’t seem to be paying attention. “I am trying to help you, Jun! But you are not letting me! We don’t talk to each other like this, ever!” Realizing that his attention had gone off again to one of the paintings on the wall, Jenny suddenly gave up. “This is hard for me too…” she said in a softer voice then turned and made her way to the door with purse and keys in hand. The last thing she heard before she closed the door behind her was Tako and Zazzles letting out a couple meows to grab her attention. But she did not turn around to look.
While the travel to her studio typically needed the use of public transportation, Jenny walked the entire way. By the time she unlocked the door to her dark studio and turned on the lights, she was exhausted. Mixed with the lack of sleep she had been getting lately, it was amazing that she didn’t just pass out on the floor the second she locked the door behind her. But with her anger towards Jun and the adrenaline from walking the entire way to the studio coursing through her veins, she was fully energized and…inspired. As soon as she dropped her purse onto her work table, not caring that it had landed on some wet paint, Jenny found herself staring at a blank canvas. The argument from earlier replayed in front of her like an out of body experience and she watched Jun’s face and her face melt and spiral into expressions of anger. But then she suddenly focused on herself and noticed that her expression wasn’t anger at all, it was hurt. Her fingers started to tingle as she suddenly felt the inspiration creep up at her like a bolt of lightning. And before she knew it, she was at her work station with a piece of drawing paper in front of her and a pencil at the ready. She spent the next three to five hours tracing out the image in her head; having to restart the outline multiple times when she thought that the others weren’t right. By the time the sun had gone down, Jenny’s studio was cluttered with crumpled up papers of rejected drafts. But eventually, she had one all completed and ready to be transferred to the blank canvas standing in front of her.
She was about to begin outlining the draft onto the canvas when her eyes fell on something she had not looked upon since Jun’s accident. It was a portrait painting of Jun that she had been planning on giving to him on the day of the accident. The painting was of him with his camera. He had been shooting some stills for add to his portfolio. She had been standing in the background snapping her own photos of him with her camera’s phone when he suddenly turned to her with the camera in front of him. They had snapped a photo of each other. Jenny had been working on the painting for some days after taking the photo and was completed the day before the accident. Jenny stared at the painting silently, the hand holding the outline of her new piece shaking. The argument flashed in front of her again and she clearly saw the frustration and anger on Jun’s face. When she blinked and was left staring at the smile behind Jun’s painted camera, her heart pounded painfully in her chest with the anger and hurt she still felt. And before she knew what she was doing, she had stormed off to her work table again and grabbed a cup of red paint. With a frustrated cry, Jenny tossed the cup of paint at the painting. She heard the crash and clatter of the aluminum cup hit the painted canvas and then watched as the red paint trickled down completely covering Jun’s face and his once happy smile.
Breathing heavily, Jenny stared at the destroyed painting until the paint spilled onto the studio floor. With a frustrated sigh, she walked over to the painting, picked it up and tossed it to the other side of the room so that it fell into the shadows where the studio’s installed lights were not hitting. She stood in silence for a long while until finally focusing all of her energy and attention on getting the outline of her new piece on the larger canvas. She was careful with each stroke she made on the canvas so that she wouldn’t have to restart all over again. By the time she finished, it was already late into the night. But the time of night did not stop her from her work. And even though her eyes felt heavy and at the point of closing on its own, she pushed through it to make intense progress on this piece. She could not believe that she would find inspiration in this kind of situation, but she did and it was working to her advantage. It was around almost three in the morning when she finally finished outlining her piece on the canvas and she was now figuring out which colors to use. Unfortunately, red could not be an option for now though she knew she would need it eventually. Knowing that she probably would not remember later in the morning, Jenny walked over to her purse and pulled out her phone to type up the reminder to get more red paint. But before she could, she noticed that Mariko had been calling her since she left the apartment earlier that day. And the number of text messages she sent her was twice that number. Since it was too late to reply to any of the messages or give the woman a call, Jenny ignored the text messages and the voice mails to type up her reminder. Then she went back to work until the sun started to rise.
Jenny reluctantly returned to the apartment around six in the morning after she realized how much time had passed and that she would be working almost all day that day. As quietly as possible, Jenny unlocked and opened the door then slipped inside. She hoped that she wouldn’t make so much noise as to wake Jun up. Though at this rate, after what had happened, she was wondering if he was going to be in the apartment at all. It was for this reason that she was shocked stiff when she saw that Jun had passed out on the couch. She was staring at him for a long time until both Tako and Zazzles seemed to have realized that their other owner had finally come home and were not meowing and purring for her attention. Panicking, she knelt down in front of both of them and quietly shushed them by scratching the top of their heads.
“Shhh. Don’t wake him,” she whispered then leaned in to kiss both of the tops of their heads before getting up to look at Jun again. He looked so peaceful in his sleep, something she had not seen since the accident. After some time gazing down at him quietly, Jenny finally walked up the stairs to the upper level of the loft to grab a blanket from the closet. When she returned to where Jun was sleeping, she spread the blanket out over top of him and readjusted the pillow under his head. She refrained from touching the portfolios he had spread out around him in the living room. Kneeling in front of him now, Jenny allowed herself this one time to stop being cautious of her actions. She reached a hand forward to him, brushing it gently against his cheek before raising it up to brush through his hair. She did this for a few seconds then leaned in to kiss his forehead lightly. Afterwards she quickly got up and made her way back upstairs to take a quick nap before she had to go to work.
The nap didn’t last long; in fact she barely got a full hour before she woke up again to the feeling of something soft and furry brushing against her foot. It was Zazzles attempting to wake her up and demand for food. With a groan, she sat up slowly in bed. She had just stretched her arms out above her when her phone started buzzing beside her. She picked it up blindly without looking at the caller ID. “Jenny! Finally you answer my calls! Where were you all of yesterday? Why weren’t you answering any of my phone calls or text messages?” This went on for another second or so until finally Jenny muttered groggily that she had been in the studio working on a new piece. This didn’t seem to satisfy Mariko who went into another lecture about how she shouldn’t have left Jun alone like that. When Jenny finally got Mariko to stop lecturing her, the older woman informed her that she would be picking Jun up around lunch time then hung up. Tossing the phone to the other side of the bed, Jenny kicked the blanket off of her and stumbled down the stairs into the kitchen to feed the cats. Jun was still sleeping, so she had to keep quiet. After feeding Zazzles and Tako—who had woken up after hearing his food bowl being filled again—she moved about cleaning up a little. She mainly cleaned up the plate of food Jun had left untouched on the coffee table, unknowing to her that the food was meant for her.
After showering and changing into her barista uniform, Jenny exited the apartment to grab some breakfast for her and Jun at Subway. She didn’t know what the Jun from three years ago liked, so she went the safe route and ordered his usual that he had now. Returning to the apartment, she found that nothing had changed except that the cats had returned to their original position at the couch with Jun. She continued to move as quietly as possible so as to not wake the male up, deciding to eat on the kitchen counter. She scarfed the sandwich down since she would be late for work if she took her time. Before leaving though, she wrapped up Jun’s sandwich in the plastic bag it was carried in then pulled out one of the post-it notes from off the fridge and wrote a quick note for him:
Morning. I hope you slept well.
I don’t know if you would like this, but it’s your usual.
- Jenny
P.S. – Mariko called and said she would be here to pick you up at noon.
Give Yuta a kiss for me.
I don’t know if you would like this, but it’s your usual.
- Jenny
P.S. – Mariko called and said she would be here to pick you up at noon.
Give Yuta a kiss for me.
After leaving the apartment that morning, Jenny was busy at work at Starbucks until half passed the lunch hour. She returned to the apartment around one, noticing that Jun was nowhere in sight. She had a quick lunch of instant ramen before she changed into clothes for her second job at Forever 21. But before she left, her eyes fell on the portfolios Jun had been looking at the night before. Her gaze then moved over to Jun’s broken camera. Biting down on her bottom lip, she made the decision to take it with her to work so that she could get it replaced as soon as she was finished with her shift. So she carefully placed the camera into her purse, rummaged through their files of receipts for the one for the camera then left the apartment once again.
By the time she got out of work around six, Jenny was exhausted. But she had to get Jun’s camera replaced first. So she took the bus to the store they bought his camera from, explained the situation to the employee and the manager and managed to get a free replacement thanks to their warranty. After getting the new camera, and placing the old memory chip inside, Jenny went the extra mile to splurge on Jun. Usually the Jun pre-accident would never have let her do this for him, not even as a birthday present, since he knew they were always tight on money. But she was taking advantage of their current situation to do this one thing for him. So after getting the camera, Jenny bought Jun a couple better lenses for when he was comfortable with photography again and a few more memory cards. Content with her purchases, Jenny took the bus back to her apartment.
At some time passed seven, Jenny opened the door to the apartment and stepped inside quietly in case Jun was sleeping or something. When she entered the kitchen area though, she saw him wide awake. “Hi…” she said awkwardly, stepping into clear view. She placed her purse on the coffee table then returned to the kitchen. “How was your ice cream date with Yuta?” she asked him then let him respond, though she couldn’t help focusing more on the plastic bag she still had in her hands. When opportunity presented itself, Jenny quickly jumped into it and extended the bag to him. “Here. I, um, got your camera replaced,” she explained as she handed the bag to Jun. “I even, um, got some extra lenses and memory cards for you,” she added, feeling slightly terrible that she was lying to Jun. This was the first time ever that she lied to him.
“I noticed this morning that you had been looking at your portfolios. So I thought that, maybe you can get back into photography again. I mean, not that you ever weren’t. But maybe after fiddling with this camera a bit you can get back into the swing of things.”
OP
OP
JINFINITE
Super-Earth
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2022
- Location
- The Island of Eroda
xx▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰ xLOOK INTO YOUR EYES AND IT GETS HARD TO BREATHE, WHEN EVERYTHING GETS THIS CRAZY...
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY WHEN I'M WITH YOU
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY TALKING WITH YOU
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY MY LOVE FOR YOU
You might think that with a fat fluffy cat sleeping on your chest that you might wake up from the pressure on your lungs over time. However that wasn’t the case for Jun who slept undisturbed until around 8:30am when the sunlight hitting his face had gotten too bright to ignore. His dark eyes slowly opened to stare up at the ceiling while he waited for his brain to catch up to speed. Did he usually sleep this much? He couldn’t remember; it certainly felt nice though. He had never woken up feeling so well rested and relaxed at his own place.
After a few minutes Jun gently pushed the two cats off of him and sat up. Bad idea. The pain hit him then and his hand rushed to his still healing rib as he inhaled sharply. Jun let himself sit still and just breathe for a few moments. His eyes landed on the blanket that had slipped off from his movement which caused him to then glance around what he could see of the apartment from his seat on the sofa; was Jenny back? He noticed that the plate of food was gone, but he couldn’t bring himself to go upstairs and check if she was in fact there. Jun reasoned that he didn’t feel well enough to trek up to the loft so soon after waking up; the truth was more that he didn’t want to face Jenny after last night. When he did get to his feet he made his way to the kitchen in hopes of finding something breakfast worthy that would be quick and easy to make. What he found was that there was food already prepared for him. Removing his hand from his rib he reached out and pulled the post it off the bag to bring it closer to read; apparently he had a usual at Subway now. Shrugging mentally he picked up the bag and returned to the sofa. It hadn’t even been twenty four hours since arriving and the sofa had already become his little safe haven in his new home without rooms.
It was a little odd at first, but his breakfast grew on him and by the time he was crumpling the paper wrapping he was thoroughly satisfied with “his usual”, at least, what he’d gotten to eat of it. Tako and Zazzles had managed to beg for enough pieces that he should’ve just cut off a fourth of it and given it to the cats in the beginning. The clock read 9:07am after Jun had thrown away the trash from his breakfast. According to Jenny’s note he had roughly three hours until Mariko was supposed to pick him up; truthfully he didn’t want to see her either after last night. Jun was tempted to nap till twelve. Really there was no reason why he couldn’t; Mariko had a key to the apartment, right? She could just wake him up when she got there. He did need to shower and get dressed though, or rather, change out of yesterday’s clothes that he’d slept in.
Admittedly the thought of taking a shower here was a little daunting and it took Jun a while to convince himself to go upstairs. Actually it took him an entire hour of sitting on the sofa and eyeing the paintings with the cats before he went to wash up. Choosing clothes afterwards was just as difficult though it didn’t take nearly as long. These were his clothes after all. He recognized a few things amongst the mass of fabric and in the end grabbed what was most familiar to him. It was almost 11am now. What could he do for an hour?
Back downstairs Jun resumed circling around the apartment as though it was some museum exhibit. He found a laptop in what appeared to be his workspace, however when Jun opened it he was asked for a password and after several failed attempts he abandoned the computer and searched around for something else to pass the time with. Jun fiddled with some things and shuffled through some papers but nothing was able to hold his attention for long and he soon found himself lying on the floor with Tako. Jun held his phone out in front of him with a blank message addressed to Jenny on the screen. His eyes began to glaze over the longer he stared. Maybe the text message would write itself if he waited long enough? Psh, dream on Jun.
To: Jenny (11:15AM)
He stopped when Tako stretched out beside him, crashing his thought train. When Jun looked back at the message he let out a sigh before individually erasing every character he’d just typed out. He’d lost whatever courage he’d had when he started writing. In the end Jun wasn’t ready to initiate contact with Jenny, especially not to apologize.
Waiting for Mariko turned painfully slow after that and he was relieved to finally hear her unlocking the door at 12:10pm, ”Osoi na.”
She rolled her eyes, still readjusting to his new old Jun. She already knew why her brother was so rude now. She’d been through this all before when he was dating Aimee; she had just never imagined she’d have to do it again. Mariko had reasoned that this was just some subconscious defense mechanism Jun had come up with to deal with how Aimee treated him, as both pre and post Aimee Jun was nothing like the male currently picking up her son. Smile on his face or not, this wasn’t the happy Jun she’d worked so hard to get back.
”Can we go now?” Yuta stole the siblings’ attention with his plea to leave. While he was obviously overjoyed to see his uncle again, ice cream was the only thing on his mind at the moment and he was more than ready to go, ”Haha, hai~ Ikuzo!”
It didn’t take long for them to get to their destination as Yuta’s choice was the Cold Stone Creamery just downtown by the Westfield mall. Mariko parked in the garage and walked her family to Cold Stone but then left Jun and Yuta on their own. It was a tough decision to leave her amnesiac brother with her three year old son. Just an hour though, she would just leave them for an hour, then come back to check in on them. She handed over a twenty dollar bill to Jun, told him to keep his phone nearby and kissed Yuta goodbye for the next hour.
Yuta wanted vanilla and bubble gum ice cream combined, with rainbow sprinkles and gummy bears in a chocolate cone with even more sprinkles on that. Jun felt like throwing up watching the worker mix together Yuta’s creation. He opted for a combo of dark chocolate and mint chocolate chip. He also got it in a cup. Had he not been babysitting his nephew he may have gone all out with a sundae or waffle cone. But with little Yuta and his monster ice cream order, Jun needed to be able to set his own ice cream down and use his hands at the drop of a hat. However once they both received their ice cream they realized that the few tables inside were all in use. Well then, now what? Yuta was a three year old with an ice cream cone, and Jun was still struggling with his energy levels; they needed to find somewhere to sit before Yuta was wearing his ice cream or Jun was dead on his feet. So with his ice cream in one hand and Yuta’s hand in the other Jun set out towards Union Square, pushing obnoxious tourists out of the way as needed. They were stopped in front of a Starbucks when a shimmer of blonde entering the coffee franchise stole his attention away. Jun was completely oblivious to everything around him as he stared at the now closed door until he felt his hand being tugged on, ”Ojisan! Aoi!”
It didn’t take long for them to find a seat once they got to the square. Yuta’s ice cream and clothes were still intact, Jun was off his feet, and they were both completely safe: mission success. The Japanese relatives ate mostly in silence for a while with Yuta finishing first; he had practically inhaled his crazy rainbow ice cream mess. ”Can we take pictures now?
Jun was caught off guard by his nephew’s question and set down his ice cream on the table between them, ”Pictures?”
Oh, duh, he was an actual photographer now. Yuta’s expression had already fallen in slight disappointment, ”Remember? Kukki konpe!”
Jun’s face was completely blank. First ice cream, and now cookies? This kid had a massive sweet tooth. Though Yuta was talking about an ongoing photography competition between the two of them where they’d walk around and each take one photo. They’d then take that camera over to Jenny who would decide the winning photo and pick up a cookie for the winner the next time she went into Starbucks. This was a big deal during Jun and Yuta hang outs. After Yuta finished explaining the cookie competition Jun had to apologize that he didn’t have a camera with him. Hadn’t his camera gotten pretty beat up in the accident anyways? Yuta’s mood wasn’t dampened for long; he was soon back to his bright eyed self, taking it upon himself to retell stories and other things as it was revealed that Jun didn’t remember something. Man could this kid talk…
The hour was just about up and while Jun wasn’t getting upset with Yuta the way he had with Jenny last night, he could feel the same headache setting in with every passing minute. His phone rang. Jun managed to make out Mariko’s name across the shattered screen and casually accepted the call, not at all prepared for what was about to come, ”Jun!? I said to stay at Cold Stone!! Where are you?!” She sounded irritated, even kind of pissed off. But Jun could hear the worried panic she was trying to mask behind anger.
”…there weren’t any seats—we’re at Union Square!” He had to cut himself off and rush through the last bit when he could hear Mariko trying to interrupt. She finally sighed and hung up after telling him to stay put.
Jun had finished his ice cream by the time his sister found them, and she had managed to calm herself so as to not alarm her son, ”Are you guys ready to go?”
Yuta spoke up with complaints right away…and he kept at it the entire walk back to the car until they were all discussing the possibility of a sleepover with Uncle Jun. Eventually they came to an agreement that Yuta would stay with Jenny and Jun that night and he’d be picked up late tomorrow afternoon. Jun found out that this was normal and happened quite frequently. Originally to give Mariko and her husband date nights, but that sometimes he and Jenny had even offered just so they could be with him. It was decided that Yuta would be dropped off by 8pm and then they took Jun back to the apartment.
It was nearly 2pm when Jun locked the door behind him. He stepped out of his shoes in the entry area and was instantly surrounded on two fronts by the fast approaching cats, ”Tadaima…”
He was tired. Who knew a couple of hours eating ice cream with a three year old would be so draining. And he did this practically every other day? Jun just wanted to sleep at that point. So sleep he did.
After few painkillers and a four hour nap he wasrevived rudely awakened by two starving cats. So basically when he was outside the apartment his life was run by his nephew. And when he was inside the cats were in charge. He'd just have to sit back and twiddle his thumbs till he found something he had control over; after he fed the cats of course. While Zazzles and Tako were happily crunching on their kibble, Jun got himself a glass of water and leaned back against the counter contemplating going back to sleep or not.
He couldn't have been standing there for long, but he lost track of time and was slightly startled when he heard the door open and looked over to see Jenny entering the apartment. His eyes followed her, though he didn't directly return her greeting; he'd occupied himself with taking a sip of water until she spoke again, asking about his afternoon with Yuta.
”It was good...” Wow Jun, great response. He bit down on his lower lip slightly, trying to figure out what else to say. Then it hit him that he should probably tell Jenny about Yuta's sleepover that night but before he could mention it he found a bag held out towards him with Jenny saying she'd gotten him a new camera.
Jun hesitated to take the bag, weren't they supposed to be poor? He took it though after setting down his half full glass of water and opened the bag to peek inside. Had Yuta complained to her about him not having a camera earlier that day? Probably not. But everyone seemed to be so close and connected, it sort of just made Jun feel more alone, ”Thanks, are you sure though? I mean cameras are expensive...”
And there it was. An awkward flash of the real Jun. The Jun that cared about the little things and never expected anything for himself except maybe complimentary coffee from his girlfriend during her shift. It was brief though, almost instantly afterward he was back to being uncertain of everything around him, ”Uhh, Yuta wanted to stay over tonight. I think he should be here soon.”
There was a knock at the door. What perfect timing, Jun was completely out of things to say. He let Jenny answer the door, you know, just in case it was someone he didn't remember. It was Yuta and his parents though and Jun dropped his new camera off on the coffee table before joining everyone by the front door. Mariko passed him Yuta's bag and informed the awkward double J couple that he'd already eaten dinner but to be sure that he brushed his teeth before bed. Plans and details were reconfirmed amongst the four adults before the eldest two left. Jun stood by Jenny, staring down at his nephew. Why had he agreed to go through with this again? He didn't know the first thing about childcare. Jun was frozen in place now with the sudden feeling of responsibility weighing down on his shoulders. Glancing over at Jenny she seemed completely unfazed by Yuta's appearance, maybe a little surprised as she'd basically had no warning. But she wasn't at all scared like Jun was. Or maybe scared wasn't the right word, but Jenny looked totally at ease around the little boy.
Yuta had shown up shortly before his bed time so it wasn't long before he was carried upstairs and changed into his pajamas. Jun changed with him and the two of them even brushed their teeth together. But when it came time to actually sleep Jun said his goodnights and proceeded to head down the stairs back to his safety sofa, ”Why are you sleeping down there?” He stopped mid step and turned to see that Yuta had crawled out of bed and was standing at the top of the stairs, ”...we can't all fit on that bed.”
Yuta looked confused as he was obviously used to them all squishing into bed together when he stayed over, ”Can too!”
Jun smiled weakly at Yuta but shook his head and resumed his descent.
”Yuta ga kirai?” Jun stopped again, spinning around to look Yuta straight in the eye, ”No, of course not. Yuta ga suki—daisuki.”
”So nande?”
Jun's eyes glanced up to Jenny, unsure how he was supposed to explain this to a three year old, Yuta had caught his movement though and looked back at Jenny briefly before turning back, ”Jenny ga suki ja nai no?”
Another glance at Jenny. Jun couldn't think of anyway out of this and found himself returning up the stairs and crouching down to Yuta's eye level. He looked like he was on the verge of tears, ”Yuuuta, nakanaide~”
He didn't answer Yuta though, instead he picked the little boy up and brought him back over to the bed, ”Alright then, I guess we're all sleeping here tonight.” Yuta was in the middle with Jun and Jenny on either side of him; the cats piled on where they could fit. It'd been a long day though and the two boys were out quickly despite Jun's excessive naps. His new sleep routine did have it's downside though as he woke up rather early the next morning. He was ready to close his eyes and go back to sleep but some light noises from downstairs had him looking to his side to see Jenny missing from the bed.
It was a bit of a struggle to get up without disturbing Yuta, Zazzles or Tako. He surprisingly wasn't as sore as he'd been yesterday morning, likely because he'd slept on a real bed and not the sofa, but he still wrapped an arm across his chest for support out of habit. Down the stairs he went and towards the kitchen where Jenny stood, ”What're you doing?”
His voice was soft, partly so at to not wake Yuta up in the loft, but also despite having woken up he wasn't actually awake yet. If his mild bedhead hair hadn't already given that away.
After a few minutes Jun gently pushed the two cats off of him and sat up. Bad idea. The pain hit him then and his hand rushed to his still healing rib as he inhaled sharply. Jun let himself sit still and just breathe for a few moments. His eyes landed on the blanket that had slipped off from his movement which caused him to then glance around what he could see of the apartment from his seat on the sofa; was Jenny back? He noticed that the plate of food was gone, but he couldn’t bring himself to go upstairs and check if she was in fact there. Jun reasoned that he didn’t feel well enough to trek up to the loft so soon after waking up; the truth was more that he didn’t want to face Jenny after last night. When he did get to his feet he made his way to the kitchen in hopes of finding something breakfast worthy that would be quick and easy to make. What he found was that there was food already prepared for him. Removing his hand from his rib he reached out and pulled the post it off the bag to bring it closer to read; apparently he had a usual at Subway now. Shrugging mentally he picked up the bag and returned to the sofa. It hadn’t even been twenty four hours since arriving and the sofa had already become his little safe haven in his new home without rooms.
It was a little odd at first, but his breakfast grew on him and by the time he was crumpling the paper wrapping he was thoroughly satisfied with “his usual”, at least, what he’d gotten to eat of it. Tako and Zazzles had managed to beg for enough pieces that he should’ve just cut off a fourth of it and given it to the cats in the beginning. The clock read 9:07am after Jun had thrown away the trash from his breakfast. According to Jenny’s note he had roughly three hours until Mariko was supposed to pick him up; truthfully he didn’t want to see her either after last night. Jun was tempted to nap till twelve. Really there was no reason why he couldn’t; Mariko had a key to the apartment, right? She could just wake him up when she got there. He did need to shower and get dressed though, or rather, change out of yesterday’s clothes that he’d slept in.
Admittedly the thought of taking a shower here was a little daunting and it took Jun a while to convince himself to go upstairs. Actually it took him an entire hour of sitting on the sofa and eyeing the paintings with the cats before he went to wash up. Choosing clothes afterwards was just as difficult though it didn’t take nearly as long. These were his clothes after all. He recognized a few things amongst the mass of fabric and in the end grabbed what was most familiar to him. It was almost 11am now. What could he do for an hour?
Back downstairs Jun resumed circling around the apartment as though it was some museum exhibit. He found a laptop in what appeared to be his workspace, however when Jun opened it he was asked for a password and after several failed attempts he abandoned the computer and searched around for something else to pass the time with. Jun fiddled with some things and shuffled through some papers but nothing was able to hold his attention for long and he soon found himself lying on the floor with Tako. Jun held his phone out in front of him with a blank message addressed to Jenny on the screen. His eyes began to glaze over the longer he stared. Maybe the text message would write itself if he waited long enough? Psh, dream on Jun.
hey. sorry about last night it was just a lot—
He stopped when Tako stretched out beside him, crashing his thought train. When Jun looked back at the message he let out a sigh before individually erasing every character he’d just typed out. He’d lost whatever courage he’d had when he started writing. In the end Jun wasn’t ready to initiate contact with Jenny, especially not to apologize.
Waiting for Mariko turned painfully slow after that and he was relieved to finally hear her unlocking the door at 12:10pm, ”Osoi na.”
She rolled her eyes, still readjusting to his new old Jun. She already knew why her brother was so rude now. She’d been through this all before when he was dating Aimee; she had just never imagined she’d have to do it again. Mariko had reasoned that this was just some subconscious defense mechanism Jun had come up with to deal with how Aimee treated him, as both pre and post Aimee Jun was nothing like the male currently picking up her son. Smile on his face or not, this wasn’t the happy Jun she’d worked so hard to get back.
”Can we go now?” Yuta stole the siblings’ attention with his plea to leave. While he was obviously overjoyed to see his uncle again, ice cream was the only thing on his mind at the moment and he was more than ready to go, ”Haha, hai~ Ikuzo!”
It didn’t take long for them to get to their destination as Yuta’s choice was the Cold Stone Creamery just downtown by the Westfield mall. Mariko parked in the garage and walked her family to Cold Stone but then left Jun and Yuta on their own. It was a tough decision to leave her amnesiac brother with her three year old son. Just an hour though, she would just leave them for an hour, then come back to check in on them. She handed over a twenty dollar bill to Jun, told him to keep his phone nearby and kissed Yuta goodbye for the next hour.
Yuta wanted vanilla and bubble gum ice cream combined, with rainbow sprinkles and gummy bears in a chocolate cone with even more sprinkles on that. Jun felt like throwing up watching the worker mix together Yuta’s creation. He opted for a combo of dark chocolate and mint chocolate chip. He also got it in a cup. Had he not been babysitting his nephew he may have gone all out with a sundae or waffle cone. But with little Yuta and his monster ice cream order, Jun needed to be able to set his own ice cream down and use his hands at the drop of a hat. However once they both received their ice cream they realized that the few tables inside were all in use. Well then, now what? Yuta was a three year old with an ice cream cone, and Jun was still struggling with his energy levels; they needed to find somewhere to sit before Yuta was wearing his ice cream or Jun was dead on his feet. So with his ice cream in one hand and Yuta’s hand in the other Jun set out towards Union Square, pushing obnoxious tourists out of the way as needed. They were stopped in front of a Starbucks when a shimmer of blonde entering the coffee franchise stole his attention away. Jun was completely oblivious to everything around him as he stared at the now closed door until he felt his hand being tugged on, ”Ojisan! Aoi!”
It didn’t take long for them to find a seat once they got to the square. Yuta’s ice cream and clothes were still intact, Jun was off his feet, and they were both completely safe: mission success. The Japanese relatives ate mostly in silence for a while with Yuta finishing first; he had practically inhaled his crazy rainbow ice cream mess. ”Can we take pictures now?
Jun was caught off guard by his nephew’s question and set down his ice cream on the table between them, ”Pictures?”
Oh, duh, he was an actual photographer now. Yuta’s expression had already fallen in slight disappointment, ”Remember? Kukki konpe!”
Jun’s face was completely blank. First ice cream, and now cookies? This kid had a massive sweet tooth. Though Yuta was talking about an ongoing photography competition between the two of them where they’d walk around and each take one photo. They’d then take that camera over to Jenny who would decide the winning photo and pick up a cookie for the winner the next time she went into Starbucks. This was a big deal during Jun and Yuta hang outs. After Yuta finished explaining the cookie competition Jun had to apologize that he didn’t have a camera with him. Hadn’t his camera gotten pretty beat up in the accident anyways? Yuta’s mood wasn’t dampened for long; he was soon back to his bright eyed self, taking it upon himself to retell stories and other things as it was revealed that Jun didn’t remember something. Man could this kid talk…
The hour was just about up and while Jun wasn’t getting upset with Yuta the way he had with Jenny last night, he could feel the same headache setting in with every passing minute. His phone rang. Jun managed to make out Mariko’s name across the shattered screen and casually accepted the call, not at all prepared for what was about to come, ”Jun!? I said to stay at Cold Stone!! Where are you?!” She sounded irritated, even kind of pissed off. But Jun could hear the worried panic she was trying to mask behind anger.
”…there weren’t any seats—we’re at Union Square!” He had to cut himself off and rush through the last bit when he could hear Mariko trying to interrupt. She finally sighed and hung up after telling him to stay put.
Jun had finished his ice cream by the time his sister found them, and she had managed to calm herself so as to not alarm her son, ”Are you guys ready to go?”
Yuta spoke up with complaints right away…and he kept at it the entire walk back to the car until they were all discussing the possibility of a sleepover with Uncle Jun. Eventually they came to an agreement that Yuta would stay with Jenny and Jun that night and he’d be picked up late tomorrow afternoon. Jun found out that this was normal and happened quite frequently. Originally to give Mariko and her husband date nights, but that sometimes he and Jenny had even offered just so they could be with him. It was decided that Yuta would be dropped off by 8pm and then they took Jun back to the apartment.
It was nearly 2pm when Jun locked the door behind him. He stepped out of his shoes in the entry area and was instantly surrounded on two fronts by the fast approaching cats, ”Tadaima…”
He was tired. Who knew a couple of hours eating ice cream with a three year old would be so draining. And he did this practically every other day? Jun just wanted to sleep at that point. So sleep he did.
After few painkillers and a four hour nap he was
He couldn't have been standing there for long, but he lost track of time and was slightly startled when he heard the door open and looked over to see Jenny entering the apartment. His eyes followed her, though he didn't directly return her greeting; he'd occupied himself with taking a sip of water until she spoke again, asking about his afternoon with Yuta.
”It was good...” Wow Jun, great response. He bit down on his lower lip slightly, trying to figure out what else to say. Then it hit him that he should probably tell Jenny about Yuta's sleepover that night but before he could mention it he found a bag held out towards him with Jenny saying she'd gotten him a new camera.
Jun hesitated to take the bag, weren't they supposed to be poor? He took it though after setting down his half full glass of water and opened the bag to peek inside. Had Yuta complained to her about him not having a camera earlier that day? Probably not. But everyone seemed to be so close and connected, it sort of just made Jun feel more alone, ”Thanks, are you sure though? I mean cameras are expensive...”
And there it was. An awkward flash of the real Jun. The Jun that cared about the little things and never expected anything for himself except maybe complimentary coffee from his girlfriend during her shift. It was brief though, almost instantly afterward he was back to being uncertain of everything around him, ”Uhh, Yuta wanted to stay over tonight. I think he should be here soon.”
There was a knock at the door. What perfect timing, Jun was completely out of things to say. He let Jenny answer the door, you know, just in case it was someone he didn't remember. It was Yuta and his parents though and Jun dropped his new camera off on the coffee table before joining everyone by the front door. Mariko passed him Yuta's bag and informed the awkward double J couple that he'd already eaten dinner but to be sure that he brushed his teeth before bed. Plans and details were reconfirmed amongst the four adults before the eldest two left. Jun stood by Jenny, staring down at his nephew. Why had he agreed to go through with this again? He didn't know the first thing about childcare. Jun was frozen in place now with the sudden feeling of responsibility weighing down on his shoulders. Glancing over at Jenny she seemed completely unfazed by Yuta's appearance, maybe a little surprised as she'd basically had no warning. But she wasn't at all scared like Jun was. Or maybe scared wasn't the right word, but Jenny looked totally at ease around the little boy.
Yuta had shown up shortly before his bed time so it wasn't long before he was carried upstairs and changed into his pajamas. Jun changed with him and the two of them even brushed their teeth together. But when it came time to actually sleep Jun said his goodnights and proceeded to head down the stairs back to his safety sofa, ”Why are you sleeping down there?” He stopped mid step and turned to see that Yuta had crawled out of bed and was standing at the top of the stairs, ”...we can't all fit on that bed.”
Yuta looked confused as he was obviously used to them all squishing into bed together when he stayed over, ”Can too!”
Jun smiled weakly at Yuta but shook his head and resumed his descent.
”Yuta ga kirai?” Jun stopped again, spinning around to look Yuta straight in the eye, ”No, of course not. Yuta ga suki—daisuki.”
”So nande?”
Jun's eyes glanced up to Jenny, unsure how he was supposed to explain this to a three year old, Yuta had caught his movement though and looked back at Jenny briefly before turning back, ”Jenny ga suki ja nai no?”
Another glance at Jenny. Jun couldn't think of anyway out of this and found himself returning up the stairs and crouching down to Yuta's eye level. He looked like he was on the verge of tears, ”Yuuuta, nakanaide~”
He didn't answer Yuta though, instead he picked the little boy up and brought him back over to the bed, ”Alright then, I guess we're all sleeping here tonight.” Yuta was in the middle with Jun and Jenny on either side of him; the cats piled on where they could fit. It'd been a long day though and the two boys were out quickly despite Jun's excessive naps. His new sleep routine did have it's downside though as he woke up rather early the next morning. He was ready to close his eyes and go back to sleep but some light noises from downstairs had him looking to his side to see Jenny missing from the bed.
It was a bit of a struggle to get up without disturbing Yuta, Zazzles or Tako. He surprisingly wasn't as sore as he'd been yesterday morning, likely because he'd slept on a real bed and not the sofa, but he still wrapped an arm across his chest for support out of habit. Down the stairs he went and towards the kitchen where Jenny stood, ”What're you doing?”
His voice was soft, partly so at to not wake Yuta up in the loft, but also despite having woken up he wasn't actually awake yet. If his mild bedhead hair hadn't already given that away.
feelsHASkilig
Solo Conversationalist
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2022
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- Page Two Hundred & Forty-Nine
“Lifetime warranty. So it wasn’t expensive at all,” Jenny was quick to explain. She knew that Jun knew they didn’t have a lot of money to go around spending a lot of it on expensive things. So it was best to clear that up before something bad came out of it. “And don’t worry about the extra lenses and memory cards,” she began her lie. “They didn’t cost that much.” Hopefully Jun wasn’t curious enough to find that out when he had the chance. Jenny was about to explain further, but she was interrupted by Jun’s suddenly proclamation that Yuta would be spending the night with them tonight. This had her frozen in place a bit, a little wide eyed as well. But when there was a sudden knock at the door at the very moment Jun mentioned the plans, she snapped out of whatever shocked feelings she had and went to answer the door.
She was met with Mariko and her husband’s bright smiles and warm greetings which she had no problem returning. Because she was the first person he saw, Yuta immediately went cried out for her attention and gestured for her to pick him up. It was something that Mariko always scolded her about since Yuta was now almost four years old and he was still being carried around places when he wanted to. At least, this was the case whenever he was around Jenny. But it wasn’t easy for her to say no to the three year old. Everyone knows that when it comes to her, babies are her kryptonite. Once everything was all settled—in which Mariko explained at least three times everything that Jenny already knew by heart—the older couple left their son in the younger couple’s hands. For the most part, Yuta was acting as normal as he always was as he went on about his day starting with the ice cream date with Jun. Jenny listened half-heartedly while making it look like she was giving him all of her attention. She was actually focusing her attention on Jun.
“That’s the same exact expression you had on your face the first time Yuta spent the night with us when he was one. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of us,” she explained to him with a small smile on her face. This earned a scowl from Yuta, who was quick to notice that he wasn’t given the attention he wanted. When he called out her name again to grab her attention, Jenny looked away from Jun now and walked deeper into the apartment so that she can put Yuta down for him to walk a bit. After all, the child hadn’t been in the apartment since before the accident so she wanted him to get accustomed to it again.
It didn’t take Yuta to get used to the apartment again, of course. As soon as he noticed his crayon drawings on the walls, his excitement level increased and he ran over to them to examine his handiwork. This was another thing that Mariko scolded Jenny about. Jenny never had a problem with Yuta drawing on her apartment walls so long as they were with crayon. She believed that letting him draw on whatever surface he wanted would help broaden his creativity more than it already was granted he had a photographer as an uncle. But in Mariko’s mind, not disciplining him to stop meant that they were giving him way too much freedom while he was staying with them. This is not including the fact that Jenny did make sure to keep close supervision on him while he was drawing on their walls. After all, she didn’t want him coloring on any of her paintings or on one of Jun’s photos.
Eventually, the two pulled the child’s attention away from his works of art and directed him towards the upper level of the apartment so that he could change and brush his teeth before bed. Since Mariko and her husband brought Yuta over around his bedtime, there was no time to play and have quality time with their unofficial son. Jenny left the job of changing Yuta and making sure that he brushed his teeth to Jun while she brought his bag of clothes upstairs and organized everything for tomorrow morning. When she had extra time before it was her turn to change and get ready for bed, she went back downstairs to clean up the kitchen and the living room. She didn’t touch the bag that had Jun’s new camera in case he wanted to fiddle with it a bit before going to sleep—this was under the assumption that he would be sleeping on the couch again tonight.
Her time in the bathroom didn’t take as long as the other two as she simple changed into a tank top and a pair of Jun’s old sweatpants then tied her hair up into a bun. But when she stepped out of the bathroom ready to tuck Yuta in, she walked into the middle of something that appeared to be rather emotional for the three year old. She didn’t know that much Japanese, but after dating Jun for three years and spending some quality time with his immediate family she managed to pick up a few phrases. So when she overheard Yuta ask Jun if he didn’t like her anymore, her heart felt like it had stopped for an entire second then plummeted to the pit of her stomach. But she tried to act like it wasn’t affecting her as much as it really was as she watched Jun return up the stairs and carry Yuta to the bed. Jenny watched for a fair distance while Jun tucked Yuta in, though a bit clumsily. Once both boys were situated in bed, she cautiously made her way over and slid in on the other side of Yuta. By the time she brought the blanket up to her chest, both of the boys were fast asleep—probably beat from the events of today.
Jenny, on the other hand, wasn’t as tired as she probably should be considering the long hours she worked today plus the emotional roller coaster she’s been going through all week. So she ended up lying in bed for a few hours. At least she occupied herself by watching her two favorite boys sleep peacefully. There wasn’t that much light from the upper loft of the apartment, but with her eyes adjusting to the darkness she was able to make out their features. With her arm perched up so that her head could rest on the palm of her hand, she watched both Jun and Yuta sleep. Her eyes fell on Jun often, noticing how calm he looked in his sleep as compared to how stressed he looked when he was awake. It was a flip flop between feeling a bittersweet happiness gazing at Jun sleep without any worries and the relieving happiness from watching Yuta sleep so innocently. This went on for hours until finally her eyes felt too heavy to stay open and she went to sleep as well.
Jenny managed to get a good four to five hours of sleep that night, but her body felt like she had only slept for ten minutes when she heard the distant sounds of her phone vibrating under her pillow. She blindly dug under her pillow for her phone and managed to find it before it could wake Yuta who was sharing the pillow with her. After taking a quick look over at the two sleeping boys, Jenny carefully slipped out of the bed while making sure that she didn’t wake any of the four sleeping figures bunched together. Through tired, groggy vision, she managed to make out Mariko’s name from the caller ID and quietly moved to the other side of the loft away from the bed before answering the call. Jenny did mostly listening on her part and when she did speak, she made sure it was in a very low voice. But mainly, Mariko called this early in the morning to make sure that Yuta and they were doing okay. This wasn’t normal for all of them, especially since the last time Mariko was this worried about Yuta was during the early months when Jun and Jenny first started looking after Yuta. But Jenny understood where the woman was going with this early morning check in, so she didn’t making any complaints about it.
Once the both women hung up the phone, Jenny had intentions of going back to bed to sleep a little more. It was a Sunday morning, which meant that Jenny spent this time catching up on any sleep that she had lost the entire week due to work and working on new paintings. But when she walked back to the bed, she realized that she was just not that tired anymore. With a sigh, she decided that if she wasn’t tired anymore she might as well start her day. She moved to the bathroom to wash her face and fix her bun. When she stepped out, she moved back towards the bed for a moment to watch the boys sleep for a little bit. In the time that she had been absent from the bed, both Tako and Zazzles seemed to have migrated from their places at the end of the bed to her spot. At the same time, Yuta had moved his sleeping position so now he was facing Jun and sharing his pillow. She didn’t know what came after her next, but without thinking she pulled out her phone again and snapped a photo of Jun and Yuta sleeping. She then traveled down the stairs towards the kitchen.
Jenny already knew what to make for breakfast, and lucky for her they still had enough ingredients. Granted, she never really had time to cook in the morning anyway and typically ate a muffin or two on the way to work. So when she stepped into the kitchen, she went straight to work pulling out and organizing the ingredients she would need to make pancakes. She had finished measuring the approximate amount that she would need to feed the three of them and pouring it into a mixing bowl when she felt another presence coming to join her. She turned her head as soon as Jun came up close to her and asked what she was doing. She didn’t answer automatically. Instead she took a moment to peek up towards the loft to check if Yuta was still sleeping. Of course, she should have picked up on the low voice that Jun was using as indication. But it was Sunday morning, and she was not used to being awake this early. “Starting on breakfast,” she explained in a soft voice. “Hope you like pancakes,” she added afterwards. “Good morning, by the way. Did you sleep well?” she then added as she mixed the ingredients together.
After the initial statements, conversation between Jun and Jenny was minimal to almost done. The both of them just sort of worked quietly together to get breakfast ready for when Yuta was due to wake up. Jenny put Jun in charge of making the pancakes halfway into the process when it was evident the both of them needed coffee and needed it fast. She quickly brewed the coffee and went about fixing them up just the way they both liked it. They had just started drinking their coffee when Jenny heard some distant fussing from upstairs. Without another word, she placed her cup down on the kitchen counter and returned upstairs just as Yuta started stretching and slowly gaining consciousness. At the same time, both cats stretched for a moment then rushed downstairs to be fed. This left Jenny with Yuta, which was just fine with her. She needed a break away from the uncomfortable feelings she was having being close to Jun and return to something familiar; especially since this piece of familiar knew who she was.
“Good morning, Yuta~ Did you sleep well?” Jenny said as she crawled back into bed beside Yuta. She rested her head on her pillow and watched the child stretch some more then rub the sleep from his eyes. When he was finally awake, the two conversed a little. It wasn’t much of a conversation really. It was more Jenny telling Yuta that they were going to have pancakes for breakfast and then asking him what he wanted to do today before he had to go home. After helping him freshen up a bit, Jenny carried Yuta downstairs in time to see that Jun had finished making the pancakes. “Look, Yuta. Uncle Jun cooked the pancakes~ You always liked his pancakes better than mine,” she said with a smile. She then turned her attention to Jun with a somewhat concerned expression on her face. “Yuta says he wants to bake cookies today since you two didn’t do the cookie contest yesterday. But we don’t have any ingredients to make the cookie dough from scratch. I can go to the store after breakfast and buy it—“
“I want to go too!” Yuta suddenly interrupted. “Ojisan come too!” he suddenly added as he turned his attention to his uncle. He even went so far as to really call him out by pointing his tiny finger at the man. By the tone of his voice, there was no arguing with the child; unless Jun wanted to deal with the tears again. Jenny nervously looked at Jun for a second then sent him a shrug indicating that they really had no choice. With that decided, the three of them gathered together and had breakfast.
The process of preparing for the day took a lot longer than usual. Though they typically worked together, Jenny offered to help Yuta with his bath today in case Jun was uncomfortable or not accustomed to bathing children especially as young as his nephew was. Then after Jenny finished with Yuta’s bath, she allowed for Jun to get ready next while she went about helping the child change into his clothes for the day. She had noticed since last night that Yuta had been sniffling and acting fussy. After the shower, the sniffling stopped a little but he was still acting somewhat fussy. Knowing these symptoms well, Jenny was quick to contact Mariko and incline as to whether Yuta had been around anyone that had a cold sometime yesterday or earlier after mentioning the symptoms she had noted. Just as Jenny was about to write down the medicine that Yuta took for flus and colds, Jun came out of the bathroom and made an indication that it was her turn to get ready. “Hold on, Mariko. Jun just stepped out of the bathroom,” she interrupted then stood up from the bed. Luckily the cats had been fed so they were able to keep Yuta company for a moment. Jenny walked up to Jun and then handed him her phone. “Yuta caught a cold apparently before coming here last night. Can you talk to Mariko and write down the medicine we’ll need to get for him while I get ready?” she said. She didn’t really leave Jun any choice in the matter though because she wanted to be quick in getting ready so that they can get Yuta’s medicine.
After some discussion between the two of them, Jenny and Jun decided that it would be best to skip going to Safeway for today to visit CVS so that they could get medicine for Yuta. Not only that, but Jenny didn’t want to risk taking the bus for risk of exposing Yuta to any more germs that could worsen his cold. As an extra safety precaution, Jenny dug up one of Jun’s jackets to pull over Yuta’s outfit and made sure the hood was on his head the entire time they were outside. She also insisted on carrying him most of the travel from the apartment to the store and back so as to not exhaust him. Yes, at this point, Jenny was doing a lot of babying of little Yuta. She just wanted to make sure that he was going to be okay and that his condition didn’t get worse later on.
By the time they reached the store, Jun had made an argument that they should just buy pre-made cookie dough. While Jenny didn’t entirely like this idea, she didn’t want to argue with Jun. He was probably thinking of Yuta’s well-being. It was probably for the best anyway because the three of them have so many memories of working together as a team to make cookie dough. And with Yuta being sick, it might not be a good idea to let him anywhere near foods that both she and Jun might eat in the future. She just hoped that Yuta wouldn’t be too upset about it. Jenny placed Yuta in the baby seat on the cart then pushed it towards the medicine section first, all the while keeping a close eye on the child.
With the list of medicine in one hand and the other clutching the cart handle, Jenny went to work looking for all the ones that Yuta uses. She had been so concentrated on the task at hand that she did not notice an elderly woman come right up to them. The woman looked at little Yuta in the cart then towards Jun before she commented with, “The poor thing. How bad is your son’s cold?” Eyes wide, Jenny straightened up and turned her head to find that the woman was looking right at Jun expectedly. For some reason she couldn’t gain the courage to tell this woman that Yuta wasn’t Jun’s son. It mainly had to do with the fact that in any other situation that didn’t involve him losing three years’ worth of his memory, Jun would have played along with it easily and acted like Yuta really was his son. Instead, she watched quietly for Jun’s response.
She was met with Mariko and her husband’s bright smiles and warm greetings which she had no problem returning. Because she was the first person he saw, Yuta immediately went cried out for her attention and gestured for her to pick him up. It was something that Mariko always scolded her about since Yuta was now almost four years old and he was still being carried around places when he wanted to. At least, this was the case whenever he was around Jenny. But it wasn’t easy for her to say no to the three year old. Everyone knows that when it comes to her, babies are her kryptonite. Once everything was all settled—in which Mariko explained at least three times everything that Jenny already knew by heart—the older couple left their son in the younger couple’s hands. For the most part, Yuta was acting as normal as he always was as he went on about his day starting with the ice cream date with Jun. Jenny listened half-heartedly while making it look like she was giving him all of her attention. She was actually focusing her attention on Jun.
“That’s the same exact expression you had on your face the first time Yuta spent the night with us when he was one. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of us,” she explained to him with a small smile on her face. This earned a scowl from Yuta, who was quick to notice that he wasn’t given the attention he wanted. When he called out her name again to grab her attention, Jenny looked away from Jun now and walked deeper into the apartment so that she can put Yuta down for him to walk a bit. After all, the child hadn’t been in the apartment since before the accident so she wanted him to get accustomed to it again.
It didn’t take Yuta to get used to the apartment again, of course. As soon as he noticed his crayon drawings on the walls, his excitement level increased and he ran over to them to examine his handiwork. This was another thing that Mariko scolded Jenny about. Jenny never had a problem with Yuta drawing on her apartment walls so long as they were with crayon. She believed that letting him draw on whatever surface he wanted would help broaden his creativity more than it already was granted he had a photographer as an uncle. But in Mariko’s mind, not disciplining him to stop meant that they were giving him way too much freedom while he was staying with them. This is not including the fact that Jenny did make sure to keep close supervision on him while he was drawing on their walls. After all, she didn’t want him coloring on any of her paintings or on one of Jun’s photos.
Eventually, the two pulled the child’s attention away from his works of art and directed him towards the upper level of the apartment so that he could change and brush his teeth before bed. Since Mariko and her husband brought Yuta over around his bedtime, there was no time to play and have quality time with their unofficial son. Jenny left the job of changing Yuta and making sure that he brushed his teeth to Jun while she brought his bag of clothes upstairs and organized everything for tomorrow morning. When she had extra time before it was her turn to change and get ready for bed, she went back downstairs to clean up the kitchen and the living room. She didn’t touch the bag that had Jun’s new camera in case he wanted to fiddle with it a bit before going to sleep—this was under the assumption that he would be sleeping on the couch again tonight.
Her time in the bathroom didn’t take as long as the other two as she simple changed into a tank top and a pair of Jun’s old sweatpants then tied her hair up into a bun. But when she stepped out of the bathroom ready to tuck Yuta in, she walked into the middle of something that appeared to be rather emotional for the three year old. She didn’t know that much Japanese, but after dating Jun for three years and spending some quality time with his immediate family she managed to pick up a few phrases. So when she overheard Yuta ask Jun if he didn’t like her anymore, her heart felt like it had stopped for an entire second then plummeted to the pit of her stomach. But she tried to act like it wasn’t affecting her as much as it really was as she watched Jun return up the stairs and carry Yuta to the bed. Jenny watched for a fair distance while Jun tucked Yuta in, though a bit clumsily. Once both boys were situated in bed, she cautiously made her way over and slid in on the other side of Yuta. By the time she brought the blanket up to her chest, both of the boys were fast asleep—probably beat from the events of today.
Jenny, on the other hand, wasn’t as tired as she probably should be considering the long hours she worked today plus the emotional roller coaster she’s been going through all week. So she ended up lying in bed for a few hours. At least she occupied herself by watching her two favorite boys sleep peacefully. There wasn’t that much light from the upper loft of the apartment, but with her eyes adjusting to the darkness she was able to make out their features. With her arm perched up so that her head could rest on the palm of her hand, she watched both Jun and Yuta sleep. Her eyes fell on Jun often, noticing how calm he looked in his sleep as compared to how stressed he looked when he was awake. It was a flip flop between feeling a bittersweet happiness gazing at Jun sleep without any worries and the relieving happiness from watching Yuta sleep so innocently. This went on for hours until finally her eyes felt too heavy to stay open and she went to sleep as well.
Jenny managed to get a good four to five hours of sleep that night, but her body felt like she had only slept for ten minutes when she heard the distant sounds of her phone vibrating under her pillow. She blindly dug under her pillow for her phone and managed to find it before it could wake Yuta who was sharing the pillow with her. After taking a quick look over at the two sleeping boys, Jenny carefully slipped out of the bed while making sure that she didn’t wake any of the four sleeping figures bunched together. Through tired, groggy vision, she managed to make out Mariko’s name from the caller ID and quietly moved to the other side of the loft away from the bed before answering the call. Jenny did mostly listening on her part and when she did speak, she made sure it was in a very low voice. But mainly, Mariko called this early in the morning to make sure that Yuta and they were doing okay. This wasn’t normal for all of them, especially since the last time Mariko was this worried about Yuta was during the early months when Jun and Jenny first started looking after Yuta. But Jenny understood where the woman was going with this early morning check in, so she didn’t making any complaints about it.
Once the both women hung up the phone, Jenny had intentions of going back to bed to sleep a little more. It was a Sunday morning, which meant that Jenny spent this time catching up on any sleep that she had lost the entire week due to work and working on new paintings. But when she walked back to the bed, she realized that she was just not that tired anymore. With a sigh, she decided that if she wasn’t tired anymore she might as well start her day. She moved to the bathroom to wash her face and fix her bun. When she stepped out, she moved back towards the bed for a moment to watch the boys sleep for a little bit. In the time that she had been absent from the bed, both Tako and Zazzles seemed to have migrated from their places at the end of the bed to her spot. At the same time, Yuta had moved his sleeping position so now he was facing Jun and sharing his pillow. She didn’t know what came after her next, but without thinking she pulled out her phone again and snapped a photo of Jun and Yuta sleeping. She then traveled down the stairs towards the kitchen.
Jenny already knew what to make for breakfast, and lucky for her they still had enough ingredients. Granted, she never really had time to cook in the morning anyway and typically ate a muffin or two on the way to work. So when she stepped into the kitchen, she went straight to work pulling out and organizing the ingredients she would need to make pancakes. She had finished measuring the approximate amount that she would need to feed the three of them and pouring it into a mixing bowl when she felt another presence coming to join her. She turned her head as soon as Jun came up close to her and asked what she was doing. She didn’t answer automatically. Instead she took a moment to peek up towards the loft to check if Yuta was still sleeping. Of course, she should have picked up on the low voice that Jun was using as indication. But it was Sunday morning, and she was not used to being awake this early. “Starting on breakfast,” she explained in a soft voice. “Hope you like pancakes,” she added afterwards. “Good morning, by the way. Did you sleep well?” she then added as she mixed the ingredients together.
After the initial statements, conversation between Jun and Jenny was minimal to almost done. The both of them just sort of worked quietly together to get breakfast ready for when Yuta was due to wake up. Jenny put Jun in charge of making the pancakes halfway into the process when it was evident the both of them needed coffee and needed it fast. She quickly brewed the coffee and went about fixing them up just the way they both liked it. They had just started drinking their coffee when Jenny heard some distant fussing from upstairs. Without another word, she placed her cup down on the kitchen counter and returned upstairs just as Yuta started stretching and slowly gaining consciousness. At the same time, both cats stretched for a moment then rushed downstairs to be fed. This left Jenny with Yuta, which was just fine with her. She needed a break away from the uncomfortable feelings she was having being close to Jun and return to something familiar; especially since this piece of familiar knew who she was.
“Good morning, Yuta~ Did you sleep well?” Jenny said as she crawled back into bed beside Yuta. She rested her head on her pillow and watched the child stretch some more then rub the sleep from his eyes. When he was finally awake, the two conversed a little. It wasn’t much of a conversation really. It was more Jenny telling Yuta that they were going to have pancakes for breakfast and then asking him what he wanted to do today before he had to go home. After helping him freshen up a bit, Jenny carried Yuta downstairs in time to see that Jun had finished making the pancakes. “Look, Yuta. Uncle Jun cooked the pancakes~ You always liked his pancakes better than mine,” she said with a smile. She then turned her attention to Jun with a somewhat concerned expression on her face. “Yuta says he wants to bake cookies today since you two didn’t do the cookie contest yesterday. But we don’t have any ingredients to make the cookie dough from scratch. I can go to the store after breakfast and buy it—“
“I want to go too!” Yuta suddenly interrupted. “Ojisan come too!” he suddenly added as he turned his attention to his uncle. He even went so far as to really call him out by pointing his tiny finger at the man. By the tone of his voice, there was no arguing with the child; unless Jun wanted to deal with the tears again. Jenny nervously looked at Jun for a second then sent him a shrug indicating that they really had no choice. With that decided, the three of them gathered together and had breakfast.
The process of preparing for the day took a lot longer than usual. Though they typically worked together, Jenny offered to help Yuta with his bath today in case Jun was uncomfortable or not accustomed to bathing children especially as young as his nephew was. Then after Jenny finished with Yuta’s bath, she allowed for Jun to get ready next while she went about helping the child change into his clothes for the day. She had noticed since last night that Yuta had been sniffling and acting fussy. After the shower, the sniffling stopped a little but he was still acting somewhat fussy. Knowing these symptoms well, Jenny was quick to contact Mariko and incline as to whether Yuta had been around anyone that had a cold sometime yesterday or earlier after mentioning the symptoms she had noted. Just as Jenny was about to write down the medicine that Yuta took for flus and colds, Jun came out of the bathroom and made an indication that it was her turn to get ready. “Hold on, Mariko. Jun just stepped out of the bathroom,” she interrupted then stood up from the bed. Luckily the cats had been fed so they were able to keep Yuta company for a moment. Jenny walked up to Jun and then handed him her phone. “Yuta caught a cold apparently before coming here last night. Can you talk to Mariko and write down the medicine we’ll need to get for him while I get ready?” she said. She didn’t really leave Jun any choice in the matter though because she wanted to be quick in getting ready so that they can get Yuta’s medicine.
After some discussion between the two of them, Jenny and Jun decided that it would be best to skip going to Safeway for today to visit CVS so that they could get medicine for Yuta. Not only that, but Jenny didn’t want to risk taking the bus for risk of exposing Yuta to any more germs that could worsen his cold. As an extra safety precaution, Jenny dug up one of Jun’s jackets to pull over Yuta’s outfit and made sure the hood was on his head the entire time they were outside. She also insisted on carrying him most of the travel from the apartment to the store and back so as to not exhaust him. Yes, at this point, Jenny was doing a lot of babying of little Yuta. She just wanted to make sure that he was going to be okay and that his condition didn’t get worse later on.
By the time they reached the store, Jun had made an argument that they should just buy pre-made cookie dough. While Jenny didn’t entirely like this idea, she didn’t want to argue with Jun. He was probably thinking of Yuta’s well-being. It was probably for the best anyway because the three of them have so many memories of working together as a team to make cookie dough. And with Yuta being sick, it might not be a good idea to let him anywhere near foods that both she and Jun might eat in the future. She just hoped that Yuta wouldn’t be too upset about it. Jenny placed Yuta in the baby seat on the cart then pushed it towards the medicine section first, all the while keeping a close eye on the child.
With the list of medicine in one hand and the other clutching the cart handle, Jenny went to work looking for all the ones that Yuta uses. She had been so concentrated on the task at hand that she did not notice an elderly woman come right up to them. The woman looked at little Yuta in the cart then towards Jun before she commented with, “The poor thing. How bad is your son’s cold?” Eyes wide, Jenny straightened up and turned her head to find that the woman was looking right at Jun expectedly. For some reason she couldn’t gain the courage to tell this woman that Yuta wasn’t Jun’s son. It mainly had to do with the fact that in any other situation that didn’t involve him losing three years’ worth of his memory, Jun would have played along with it easily and acted like Yuta really was his son. Instead, she watched quietly for Jun’s response.
OP
OP
JINFINITE
Super-Earth
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2022
- Location
- The Island of Eroda
xx▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰ xLOOK INTO YOUR EYES AND IT GETS HARD TO BREATHE, WHEN EVERYTHING GETS THIS CRAZY...
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY WHEN I'M WITH YOU
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY TALKING WITH YOU
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY MY LOVE FOR YOU
Pancakes? Not in Jun's list of usual breakfast foods, or at least not in the list he remembered. Pancakes were fattening, according to Aimee. And they ate most of their meals together so pancakes weren't ever on the menu. But it'd have to do for today. He actually couldn't remember the last time he had them, "Did you sleep well?"
"Mm..."
Well enough anyways, all things considered. Jun wasn't usually very talkative or responsive in the mornings, that much hadn't changed. But the air was still awkward and slightly tense between them as they worked on the pancakes. This was all so far from familiar for the Japanese male, had he ever made pancakes before? Surely he had before meeting Aimee....right? When Yuta woke up he was handed the spatula and it was sink or swim. Luckily Jun seemed to have a knack for flipping the pancakes at just the right moment...of course, this was after the first four came back rather dark, even nearing black. So when Jenny returned with Yuta praising his previous pancakes it was like a scene out of a manga with the black lines of dread and depression across his face and the kanji giri, or burden, sitting on his shoulders. He was supposed to be good at this? Jun didn't have time to dwell on his lack of pancake skills as Jenny spoke to him about cookies. Cookies now? Did they all just eat all the time or something? Seriously though, they ate after he was discharged from the hospital, he and Yuta got ice cream, they just made pancakes and now there were plans for cookies already?
“Ojisan come too!” Jun didn't respond right away and instead glanced over to Jenny instead who simply shrugged in response. Well that settled it then, they were making cookies after breakfast.
With Jenny getting Yuta ready that left Jun with some alone time, something he hadn't had much of the past week with everyone fretting over him left and right. The few times he was alone were usually due to a fight so it was hard to enjoy the solitude when he was sitting around in a bad mood. Plus he generally slept when he was left alone anyways. So being able to walk around and go through "his belongings" without someone breathing down his neck was very much appreciated. He found himself back in front of his computer trying to crack his password but without any success. The password hint given was a series of numbers, six of them to be exact. It looked like a date. But the year fell during the time he'd forgotten which meant he'd have to ask Jenny or his sister for help....so basically he wouldn't be getting into his computer anytime soon. Cool.
Finally he was allowed to shower and get dressed and you know, look less like he just rolled out of bed and more like he could present himself to the general public. Jun tried to balance enjoying his time with being speedy, and he felt he did a pretty good job of it before he exited the bathroom to give Jenny her turn. He found himself being handed a phone, given instructions and then Jenny disappeared into the bathroom leaving Jun staring down at his nephew sitting on the bed. "Hello?" Mariko's voice could be heard from the phone and he brought the device to his ear, "So what medicine is it?"
By the time they reached CVS, Jun was ready to go back home already. His energy was steadily depleting and his brief argument with Jenny over pre-made versus scratch cookies hadn't helped. They needed to just get the medicine, grab the dough and hurry back to the loft apartment so he could sit down and maybe take some of his own meds. He could feel a headache forming; a feeling he was growing to despise over the past couple weeks. He'd been warned before leaving the hospital to take it easy, avoid stress, all that jazz. But that was proving to be difficult when they had also told him to return to his "usual routine", and that routine was wearing him down.
As Jun followed behind Jenny through the store aisles he pulled his hood up over the back half of his head, but not quite all the way up to his hairline. His eyes glanced around as they walked, the store layout had changed a bit, but at least he was finally somewhere familiar. He stayed silent, leaving Jenny with the task of hunting down Yuta's cold medicine. But that seemed to mean that he was available for conversation as an elderly lady was suddenly staring at him and asking about Yuta, "How bad is your son’s cold?"
His....son? Jun glanced at Yuta, then back at the woman as he shook his head slightly, "He's not--"
She stepped towards him and Jun shuffled back slightly closer to Jenny, it wasn't enough though as the woman reached out and gently took his forearm, her eyes still glued to him, "You know, when I was sick as a child my mother would always make cinnamon tea."
She went on to retell other natural remedies of her childhood and even went so far as to pull Jun down the aisle to point out her new favorite cough drops that she'd recently discovered.
His patience was wearing thin and it no doubt showed on his face but the elder in front of him was too immersed in her story telling to notice. This wasn't like Jun to get visibly frustrated with someone like a little old lady who just wanted someone to talk to. This wasn't like pre-Jenny Jun either. This was new. This irritable and short tempered Jun was a side effect of his accident; his injured brain's response to dealing with pain. He was told he had been extremely lucky he survived without worse injuries. He had a lot to be thankful for: he could still think, talk and move all on his own. He wasn't paralyzed and still remembered most of his life. His headaches made it hard to see any of that however as the only thing on his mind was the light throbbing in his right temple. He'd been given a very large list of possible symptoms he could have following the accident but the doctor had said it varied case by case. Headaches seemed to be Jun's.
It was Jenny who finally interjected in the middle of the woman's stories, apologizing and saying they really needed to get going. As soon as his arm was released, Jun reached up to press against the pain in his head and he turned away from Jenny mumbling that he would be waiting outside. He needed fresh air and to get out from under the fluorescent lights that lined the ceiling. Outside wasn't exactly as fresh as he'd hoped as San Francisco streets smelled awful, and the sun was too bright, but all in all it was better than being inside CVS. Grabbing the medicine and cookie dough didn't take long, it was the line to the cash register that kept Jenny and Yuta inside for longer than they needed to be. However it worked out for the better; by the time they came out Jun had calmed down and even took Yuta from her when the little boy reached out towards him. He looked to Jenny as he adjusted Yuta in his arms, he briefly had some sort of cross between an apology and thanks in his eyes but in the end didn't say either, "You ready to go?"
They were using mostly premade cookie dough. So how on earth did the kitchen end up looking like they'd been working on cookies for an hour? Cookie dough was sticking to everything and in places that seemed so totally random. Jenny had gotten the Betty Crocker cookies where you just had to add a stick of butter and an egg. A compromise she'd made with Yuta who insisted on making the cookies, and then with Jun who had insisted on premade dough. Still though...the kitchen was a mess. Cooking with three year olds, that would be a hit TV program. Yuta was currently struggling to get the dough off of his spoon and onto the cookie sheet and with Jenny upstairs at the moment that left Jun and Yuta alone in the kitchen.
"Otetsudai shimashou ka~?" Looking quite defeated Yuta wordlessly handed him the spoon, "Henji wa?"
"Hai!"
Taking the spoon from his nephew, Jun went to work filling the rest of the sheet with dough. With pain meds in his system now he was able to focus on things, such as the cookies, so he wasn't aware of Yuta sneaking his little hand into the bowl of dough until it was too late, "Ojisan mite!"
"Hm?" But he didn't actually look up, "Mite! Mite!" Finally he did and Jun lifted his head to see some cookie dough smeared around Yuta's mouth that he'd snacked on, but then he saw what Yuta was pointing to. There was a chocolate chip stuck to his nose that he was oh so proud of, "Dame dayo~" He reached out to take the chocolate off the boy's face but he didn't set it on the counter or throw it away, "Yuta, ahhh~" Instead he fed him the chocolate chip which sent the three year old off running elsewhere in the apartment with a smile plastered to his face
The rest of the day ran pretty smoothly and before they all knew it Mariko was at the door to pick up Yuta. Jun walked around with Yuta gathering his belongings and wrapping up a few cookies to bring home but his eyes kept wandering over to Jenny and his sister who were talking quietly by the door. He always felt like there was some secret they were keeping, and it bothered him. Even though it made perfect sense for a mother to check in with her babysitter after leaving her sick son with her post-coma brother and girlfriend he couldn't remember.
Once Yuta left, Jun finally crashed. These past three days had been the longest in his life. From the hospital, to lunch with everyone, to finally getting "home", then ice cream date the next day, Yuta spent the night, the semi eventful trip to CVS followed by kitchen antics and playing the rest of the afternoon; Jun was tired. He was back on the sofa now that Yuta was gone, one night sharing the bed hadn't been enough to bridge the gap between him and Jenny. Plus the sofa was closer anyways. He was fast asleep by 8pm and stayed that way till around 1:30am when he woke up sweating. There was a blanket draped over him but it certainly wasn't thick enough for him to start overheating. Pushing the blanket off he got to his feet and trudged over to the kitchen where he poured himself a cup of water. Drinking it was another matter however, as it hurt his throat to swallow so after forcing himself to drink half he abandoned the glass on the counter and returned to the sofa. Yuta's cold medicine had been put upstairs in the bathroom for future use and he assumed that's where the adult medicine was as well. But he really didn't feel like climbing all those stairs in the middle of the night while he felt like this. His head felt fuzzy and hurt, it wasn't quite the same pain as his headaches but maybe his meds would help anyways? Those were the only resource he had downstairs with him, it was worth a shot at least.
So Jun got back on his feet, picked up his prescription bottle from the coffee table and returned to the counter where his water was. When he was done the glass had dropped to about a third full and was returned to sitting on the counter. His pain killers were set beside it, the cap loosely resting on top but not actually screwed on correctly; it took too much effort. And Jun finally crawled back to the sofa where he now pulled the blanket up over him to combat the chill he'd gotten from walking around the kitchen. He fell back asleep fairly quickly, but as the night turned to morning the occasional cough escaped him. Jun woke up a couple more times for brief moments feeling nauseous but it was never enough to get him to do anything more than moan softly in discomfort and readjust how he was laying to fall back asleep.
"Mm..."
Well enough anyways, all things considered. Jun wasn't usually very talkative or responsive in the mornings, that much hadn't changed. But the air was still awkward and slightly tense between them as they worked on the pancakes. This was all so far from familiar for the Japanese male, had he ever made pancakes before? Surely he had before meeting Aimee....right? When Yuta woke up he was handed the spatula and it was sink or swim. Luckily Jun seemed to have a knack for flipping the pancakes at just the right moment...of course, this was after the first four came back rather dark, even nearing black. So when Jenny returned with Yuta praising his previous pancakes it was like a scene out of a manga with the black lines of dread and depression across his face and the kanji giri, or burden, sitting on his shoulders. He was supposed to be good at this? Jun didn't have time to dwell on his lack of pancake skills as Jenny spoke to him about cookies. Cookies now? Did they all just eat all the time or something? Seriously though, they ate after he was discharged from the hospital, he and Yuta got ice cream, they just made pancakes and now there were plans for cookies already?
“Ojisan come too!” Jun didn't respond right away and instead glanced over to Jenny instead who simply shrugged in response. Well that settled it then, they were making cookies after breakfast.
With Jenny getting Yuta ready that left Jun with some alone time, something he hadn't had much of the past week with everyone fretting over him left and right. The few times he was alone were usually due to a fight so it was hard to enjoy the solitude when he was sitting around in a bad mood. Plus he generally slept when he was left alone anyways. So being able to walk around and go through "his belongings" without someone breathing down his neck was very much appreciated. He found himself back in front of his computer trying to crack his password but without any success. The password hint given was a series of numbers, six of them to be exact. It looked like a date. But the year fell during the time he'd forgotten which meant he'd have to ask Jenny or his sister for help....so basically he wouldn't be getting into his computer anytime soon. Cool.
Finally he was allowed to shower and get dressed and you know, look less like he just rolled out of bed and more like he could present himself to the general public. Jun tried to balance enjoying his time with being speedy, and he felt he did a pretty good job of it before he exited the bathroom to give Jenny her turn. He found himself being handed a phone, given instructions and then Jenny disappeared into the bathroom leaving Jun staring down at his nephew sitting on the bed. "Hello?" Mariko's voice could be heard from the phone and he brought the device to his ear, "So what medicine is it?"
By the time they reached CVS, Jun was ready to go back home already. His energy was steadily depleting and his brief argument with Jenny over pre-made versus scratch cookies hadn't helped. They needed to just get the medicine, grab the dough and hurry back to the loft apartment so he could sit down and maybe take some of his own meds. He could feel a headache forming; a feeling he was growing to despise over the past couple weeks. He'd been warned before leaving the hospital to take it easy, avoid stress, all that jazz. But that was proving to be difficult when they had also told him to return to his "usual routine", and that routine was wearing him down.
As Jun followed behind Jenny through the store aisles he pulled his hood up over the back half of his head, but not quite all the way up to his hairline. His eyes glanced around as they walked, the store layout had changed a bit, but at least he was finally somewhere familiar. He stayed silent, leaving Jenny with the task of hunting down Yuta's cold medicine. But that seemed to mean that he was available for conversation as an elderly lady was suddenly staring at him and asking about Yuta, "How bad is your son’s cold?"
His....son? Jun glanced at Yuta, then back at the woman as he shook his head slightly, "He's not--"
She stepped towards him and Jun shuffled back slightly closer to Jenny, it wasn't enough though as the woman reached out and gently took his forearm, her eyes still glued to him, "You know, when I was sick as a child my mother would always make cinnamon tea."
She went on to retell other natural remedies of her childhood and even went so far as to pull Jun down the aisle to point out her new favorite cough drops that she'd recently discovered.
His patience was wearing thin and it no doubt showed on his face but the elder in front of him was too immersed in her story telling to notice. This wasn't like Jun to get visibly frustrated with someone like a little old lady who just wanted someone to talk to. This wasn't like pre-Jenny Jun either. This was new. This irritable and short tempered Jun was a side effect of his accident; his injured brain's response to dealing with pain. He was told he had been extremely lucky he survived without worse injuries. He had a lot to be thankful for: he could still think, talk and move all on his own. He wasn't paralyzed and still remembered most of his life. His headaches made it hard to see any of that however as the only thing on his mind was the light throbbing in his right temple. He'd been given a very large list of possible symptoms he could have following the accident but the doctor had said it varied case by case. Headaches seemed to be Jun's.
It was Jenny who finally interjected in the middle of the woman's stories, apologizing and saying they really needed to get going. As soon as his arm was released, Jun reached up to press against the pain in his head and he turned away from Jenny mumbling that he would be waiting outside. He needed fresh air and to get out from under the fluorescent lights that lined the ceiling. Outside wasn't exactly as fresh as he'd hoped as San Francisco streets smelled awful, and the sun was too bright, but all in all it was better than being inside CVS. Grabbing the medicine and cookie dough didn't take long, it was the line to the cash register that kept Jenny and Yuta inside for longer than they needed to be. However it worked out for the better; by the time they came out Jun had calmed down and even took Yuta from her when the little boy reached out towards him. He looked to Jenny as he adjusted Yuta in his arms, he briefly had some sort of cross between an apology and thanks in his eyes but in the end didn't say either, "You ready to go?"
They were using mostly premade cookie dough. So how on earth did the kitchen end up looking like they'd been working on cookies for an hour? Cookie dough was sticking to everything and in places that seemed so totally random. Jenny had gotten the Betty Crocker cookies where you just had to add a stick of butter and an egg. A compromise she'd made with Yuta who insisted on making the cookies, and then with Jun who had insisted on premade dough. Still though...the kitchen was a mess. Cooking with three year olds, that would be a hit TV program. Yuta was currently struggling to get the dough off of his spoon and onto the cookie sheet and with Jenny upstairs at the moment that left Jun and Yuta alone in the kitchen.
"Otetsudai shimashou ka~?" Looking quite defeated Yuta wordlessly handed him the spoon, "Henji wa?"
"Hai!"
Taking the spoon from his nephew, Jun went to work filling the rest of the sheet with dough. With pain meds in his system now he was able to focus on things, such as the cookies, so he wasn't aware of Yuta sneaking his little hand into the bowl of dough until it was too late, "Ojisan mite!"
"Hm?" But he didn't actually look up, "Mite! Mite!" Finally he did and Jun lifted his head to see some cookie dough smeared around Yuta's mouth that he'd snacked on, but then he saw what Yuta was pointing to. There was a chocolate chip stuck to his nose that he was oh so proud of, "Dame dayo~" He reached out to take the chocolate off the boy's face but he didn't set it on the counter or throw it away, "Yuta, ahhh~" Instead he fed him the chocolate chip which sent the three year old off running elsewhere in the apartment with a smile plastered to his face
The rest of the day ran pretty smoothly and before they all knew it Mariko was at the door to pick up Yuta. Jun walked around with Yuta gathering his belongings and wrapping up a few cookies to bring home but his eyes kept wandering over to Jenny and his sister who were talking quietly by the door. He always felt like there was some secret they were keeping, and it bothered him. Even though it made perfect sense for a mother to check in with her babysitter after leaving her sick son with her post-coma brother and girlfriend he couldn't remember.
Once Yuta left, Jun finally crashed. These past three days had been the longest in his life. From the hospital, to lunch with everyone, to finally getting "home", then ice cream date the next day, Yuta spent the night, the semi eventful trip to CVS followed by kitchen antics and playing the rest of the afternoon; Jun was tired. He was back on the sofa now that Yuta was gone, one night sharing the bed hadn't been enough to bridge the gap between him and Jenny. Plus the sofa was closer anyways. He was fast asleep by 8pm and stayed that way till around 1:30am when he woke up sweating. There was a blanket draped over him but it certainly wasn't thick enough for him to start overheating. Pushing the blanket off he got to his feet and trudged over to the kitchen where he poured himself a cup of water. Drinking it was another matter however, as it hurt his throat to swallow so after forcing himself to drink half he abandoned the glass on the counter and returned to the sofa. Yuta's cold medicine had been put upstairs in the bathroom for future use and he assumed that's where the adult medicine was as well. But he really didn't feel like climbing all those stairs in the middle of the night while he felt like this. His head felt fuzzy and hurt, it wasn't quite the same pain as his headaches but maybe his meds would help anyways? Those were the only resource he had downstairs with him, it was worth a shot at least.
So Jun got back on his feet, picked up his prescription bottle from the coffee table and returned to the counter where his water was. When he was done the glass had dropped to about a third full and was returned to sitting on the counter. His pain killers were set beside it, the cap loosely resting on top but not actually screwed on correctly; it took too much effort. And Jun finally crawled back to the sofa where he now pulled the blanket up over him to combat the chill he'd gotten from walking around the kitchen. He fell back asleep fairly quickly, but as the night turned to morning the occasional cough escaped him. Jun woke up a couple more times for brief moments feeling nauseous but it was never enough to get him to do anything more than moan softly in discomfort and readjust how he was laying to fall back asleep.
feelsHASkilig
Solo Conversationalist
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2022
- Location
- Page Two Hundred & Forty-Nine
As much as she wanted to be concerned about Jun and his current state she couldn't stop giving all of her attention on the child still sitting in the cart. As the elderly woman gave herself permission to unfold her life story, Yuta started randomly coughing nonstop. It wasn't worrisome exactly, but it was enough to have Jenny turn away so that she could rub the child's back until he stopped. The woman didn't seem to notice much. It took some time before the woman finally allowed her and Yuta to leave—only because Jenny finally had the courage to interrupt in the middle of yet another story to excuse them all. As soon as they were given the go ahead to leave, Jun had already excused himself and was practically bolting to the exit. Yuta voiced his own concern for his uncle as he asked Jenny if Jun was going to be all right. All she could muster was a tight smile and a small nod before placing her hands on the cart handle to push it forward. Now that they were no longer expected to have any more distractions, Jenny didn't think that they would take any longer.
By the time that Jenny exited the store and made her way over to Jun he seemed to be in a brighter mood. She wondered what part exactly made him so uneasy earlier, but stopped short of the idea that being around her was the problem. Jenny wasn't much of a pessimist. After all, considering the kind of life style she had decided upon, it wouldn't have done her well if she thought on the negative side. However, as of recently, she couldn't help it when the issue was about Jun and his current situation. This was why as he went to take Yuta from her, his expression softening within seconds, Jenny tried her best to hide the frown that wanted to appear on her face. "Okay,” she responded when he inquired as to whether they should go. “We should head back so that we can get to work on those cookies," she added, attempting a smile before turning to lead the way.
Back in the apartment, Jenny was glad she had restocked on cleaning supplies earlier that week. Despite buying the pre-made cookie dough—after having dealt with a small debate between frozen cookie dough and cookie dough mix—Yuta had still managed to make quite a mess of their kitchen. Not that Jenny had a problem with that. As long as he was having fun besides the fact that he had developed a cold, she didn't mind having to clean afterward.
After she watched closely while Yuta added in the butter and egg to the cookie dough mix, Jenny had to step back and excuse herself when she felt her phone go off in her back pocket. It was getting harder and harder to avoid Mariko's text messages. After the first message she received upon informing the woman that they had returned safely back to the apartment with Yuta's cold medicine, her phone was never given the chance to take a break given that Mariko was constantly requesting updates on her son's condition. From the way Mariko was sending text messages, it seemed like she was expecting updates every minute. Eventually, Jenny decided to give in and called Mariko. For much of the time that Yuta and Jun busied spooning the dough onto the cookie sheet Jenny was upstairs in deep conversation with Mariko; reassuring her that, yes, Yuta had already eaten lunch—a ham and cheese sandwich with a juice box—and that, yes, he had taken his medicine—much to his dismay. As always, the conversation happened to move back to her as Mariko started asking how she was doing. Jenny didn't say much because she didn't want to worry the woman on the other end of the line. All the while as she listened, Jenny kept her eyes on Jun and Yuta downstairs. A smile kept creeping onto her face watching them together. They got along together so well as if nothing had happened to their relationship in the past few weeks. Again, Jenny fought the feeling of jealousy that wanted to flow through her veins. She couldn't get mad at Yuta because he was able to get along with Jun better than she can hope.
After spending the rest of the day playing with Yuta, a text message from Mariko's husband waited for Jenny a few hours later stating that Mariko was on her way to pick Yuta up. Jenny wondered why it was him that sent her the text message when it was usually Mariko that let her know when she was coming to pick up her son. Almost as if the man had read her mind over the text message, another came seconds after she read the first one explaining that Mariko was in a hurry to pick Yuta up that she had forgotten her phone. Jenny couldn't help smiling at this. She didn't know whether or not to be insulted about how Mariko seemed to trust Jenny and Jun with Yuta and still acted like she would never want to have him out of her sight ever again. Then again, Yuta was only three years old and Mariko's only child. Jenny shook her head incredulously then quickly responded to the text. Once it sent, she walked over to Yuta who was huddled with Jun at the couch fiddling with his camera. “Yuta, sweetie, your mom will be here soon,” she said as she took a seat on the other side of the child. Yuta didn't look up at her as he was too busy changing the settings in a manner that appeared as if he didn't quite know what he was doing although he attempted to act like he did. The only form of acknowledgement that she got that he heard her was the little grunt and a slight nod. It was better than nothing.
When Mariko arrived, she and Jenny remained at the door while Jun helped Yuta gather up his belongings. As always, they immediately began their whispered conversations about Jun. “Has there been any improvement?” she asked in hushed tones. Jenny's lips tightened and she shook her head sullenly. A frown slowly appeared on Mariko's face and she turned to look away from Jun's direction so that he wouldn't see. “Well, I'm sure there will be some change soon. We just have to be patient.” It was obvious Mariko wasn't entirely believing her own words.
“Have you been working on your pieces though?” she continued after a short awkward silence. When Jenny shook her head no, a scowl immediately appeared. “Jenny, you need to save some time for those pieces. This gallery is an important event for your career and you've worked so hard to get this opportunity,” Mariko started, her voice stern. “I understand that you want to be concerned with Jun, but you can't do it at the expense of all that you have worked so hard for. He can get along fine for at least a few hours a day. And who knows, maybe some distance from one another might be good with helping him remember.” Jenny must have shown obvious signs of disappointment at this because Mariko quickly backtracked. “I don't mean that you have to give him a lot of space, but it might be good for him to not feel pressured to have to always remember. I'm sure that he feels like he needs to remember something when he's around you. And that might not be good.” Jenny didn't say anything which resulted in Mariko letting out a defeated sigh.
“Just think about what I said, okay? The gallery is coming up real soon.” Jenny didn't have time to respond since Yuta was now running over to them and into his mother's awaiting arms. Not that she had anything to respond with anyway. She was grateful for the distraction as she turned her attention towards Yuta, who was now extending his new free arms towards her for a hug. She scooped the child into her arms and held him for a few seconds longer before finally returning him back to his mother so that they could leave.
Once she closed the door and locked it, she walked back to the living room area. There she noticed that Jun was already fast asleep. Evidence of exhaustion were clear on his face and she questioned how draining the last few days had been for him. Without another thought, Jenny grabbed one of the blankets from the edge of the sofa and draped it over him. She looked down at her watch and noticed that it was now a little passed eight at night. With nothing much else to do that now that Jun was asleep, she went to work cleaning up the apartment. It took her a little less than a couple hours to complete and by the time she finished, she was too exhausted to attempt to follow what Mariko advised and went to sleep as well.
"Hey, I know this is really last minute, but do you mind covering my shift today?...Jun caught his nephew's cold and I don't feel comfortable leaving him alone today....Thank you so much! I owe you big time!" Jenny hung up the phone with a relieved sigh. It was the next morning and Jenny had woken up when she heard soft groans coming from downstairs. Much to her dismay, Jun seemed to have caught whatever cold Yuta had. After she stepped out of the bathroom, she went back downstairs to check on Jun. He was still on the sofa; although whether he was asleep still was questionable. As she stood over him, she observed him closely. He was letting out tiny groans in his sleep still. They weren't like Yuta's, but she could tell that the cold was affecting him faster than she would have expected. She was wondering if it had anything to do with his accident.
As she pondered over this, Jenny made sure that he was fully covered in an attempt to stop the shivering. She then reached a hand up to feel his forehead; frowning when she concluded that he was definitely warmer than she would have liked. Letting out a deep sigh, she walked over to the kitchen to boil some water for tea. All the while she was doing this, Jenny was back in texting mode with Mariko. Now that Yuta was back at home and fast asleep in his own bed Mariko had a lot of time on her hands and was back on "Bug Jenny About Her Life" mode. However, that mode was quickly shifted to "Worrying About Her Younger Brother" mode when she heard about Jun catching Yuta's cold.
Jenny had no time to respond much as the spam of questions flooded in faster than she could type. She shook her head then put her phone on silent so that she could put the phone down and let the woman run out of energy. While she waited, Jenny busied preparing Jun a warm mug of tea to drink. It was a shame she didn't have any cinnamon tea like the elderly woman from the other day had mentioned. She also rummaged through the small kitchen for ingredients to make some soup. Every so often Jenny would stop whatever she was doing when she heard groaning from the sofa.
Some minutes later, a bowl of steaming hot soup and an equally steaming mug of tea rested on the coffee table right next to Jun's medication. However, the said medication was now capped and instead the adult cold medicine that they had stored right beside Yuta's cold medicine upstairs was uncapped. Jenny stirred the soup for a short while to cool it faster, blowing into it softly every so often. When she deemed the soup cool enough to not burn his tongue, Jenny grabbed the mug of tea by the handle then sat down at the edge of the sofa close to Jun's feet.
She hesitated for a moment, watching as he groaned once again in his sleep. Then with a deep sigh, Jenny reached her free hand forward and placed it firmly on his arm and shook him awake. “Jun?” she said gently and continued to shake him until she was sure he was awake. “It appears you caught Yuta's cold,” she said after catching Jun's eyelids flutter a few times. “I made some tea that Mariko told me would help soothe your throat. And I also made some soup so that you can have something in your stomach before taking medicine.” She was very cautious, speaking slowly so that she think over her words before she spoke them.
It took a little more coaxing to finally waken Jun and prop him up into a sitting position. After helping him adjust into a comfortable sitting position on the sofa, Jenny once again reached for the mug of tea she had put down to help Jun and handed it to him, making sure that he didn't burn himself. She waited patiently for him to take a sip, all the while fumbling with the medicine. She grabbed the cough medicine and used the tiny plastic measuring cup that came with the bottle to pour the right amount he would need. “You should eat some soup while it's still hot...” Uncertain as to whether it was a smart idea to give him the bowl of soup, Jenny slowly stood up from the sofa and took a few steps away.
“I need to make a few calls. Just let me know if you need anything, okay?” she said then picked up her phone from the coffee table and moved over to the kitchen. The first person she called was Mariko, who had stopped her spam of text messages some time ago and she was sure was waiting impatiently for a call. She filled the woman in then listened intently as she was given tips for how to take care of Jun; not that she really needed them as she had taken care of a sick Jun plenty of times. Then again, none of those times included him having memory loss and recovering from a car accident. Before Mariko hung up she said that she would call Jun's doctor and hopefully get some better advice for taking care of him; in case there were some specific actions they needed to take into consideration.
The next call that Jenny made was a quick one to her jobs, informing the managers that she would need some time off to take care of Jun. She was grateful at how understanding they were, even if she was only allowed a couple days off. If anything she could always ask Mariko to watch over him if he didn't feel any better by then. When she hung up the phone after her final call, Jenny placed her phone on the kitchen counter then went back to the living room area. However, she did make a quick detour. She just remembered that Jun's parents had contacted her recently and that she had forgotten to respond to them.
Even though Jenny's passion belongs to art, she knew that it wouldn't always give her a comfortable life which is why she took up architecture as well. It didn't pay much also, but it was definitely enough. Before Jun's accident, his parents had contacted her through email asking if she would be interested in designing a penthouse apartment for a friend of a friend. She wasn't given much details about the clients; only that he was a musician and that his current situation required that he have his own place with a lot of space. They had already sent her pictures of the area and also the square footage. Jenny had told them that she would think about it and to contact her in a few weeks for an update.
The detour Jenny took was to her work space area. She and Jun shared the remaining space in the living room with one corner being his for his photo editing and her at another corner for her sketching. That work space was reserved for her architecture work given that she already had a studio for her painting. As she came up on her desk, she glanced over at the rough sketches of her current idea for the project. Although she hadn't quite said yes to the project, she took this time that she needed to think it over to see if she got any ideas that would make her feel confident to do the project. The rough draft currently on the paper had been what she had worked on before the accident, but since then she couldn't keep her mind on it. Now that it was a few weeks later and Jun's parents had contacted her for an answer, she had to figure out now if she would do it. She couldn't exactly tell them that she would think about some more. As such, she figured that she would just send them what she has so far to relay to the possible client and let them figure it out for her. So she picked up her draft and fed it to the copier standing between her and Jun's work spaces and then moved over to her computer to check if it copied correctly. She didn't do much after that though. Instead she simply left the photo waiting on her desktop then let her computer go into Sleep mode before returning to take care of Jun.
She was happy to see that some of the soup had been eaten and that Jun was drinking the tea. She was drawn into the tired expression on his face. It was a look she was familiar with even though there was a bit of pain behind it which she could assume must have been because of his headaches. “Do you need anything? More tea?” she quickly asked when she finally realized that she had been staring. Taking her seat beside him again—though making sure to keep her distance—Jenny reached for the small plastic measuring cup of cough syrup that she had poured earlier and handed it to him. “Here, this should help with the cough and you should be able to sleep better,” she explained. Once Jun took it, she reached for the other cold medications. As he finished the last of the cough syrup, Jenny picked up the glass of water from the table to hand over to him while she took the plastic measuring cup. Then she gave him the rest of the cold medications she had in her hand. Once he finished taking all of them, Jenny took the glass of water, returned it to the coffee table, and stood up from the sofa once more. “Come on, you should sleep upstairs instead of on the sofa.” She then extended her hand to him.
By the time that Jenny exited the store and made her way over to Jun he seemed to be in a brighter mood. She wondered what part exactly made him so uneasy earlier, but stopped short of the idea that being around her was the problem. Jenny wasn't much of a pessimist. After all, considering the kind of life style she had decided upon, it wouldn't have done her well if she thought on the negative side. However, as of recently, she couldn't help it when the issue was about Jun and his current situation. This was why as he went to take Yuta from her, his expression softening within seconds, Jenny tried her best to hide the frown that wanted to appear on her face. "Okay,” she responded when he inquired as to whether they should go. “We should head back so that we can get to work on those cookies," she added, attempting a smile before turning to lead the way.
Back in the apartment, Jenny was glad she had restocked on cleaning supplies earlier that week. Despite buying the pre-made cookie dough—after having dealt with a small debate between frozen cookie dough and cookie dough mix—Yuta had still managed to make quite a mess of their kitchen. Not that Jenny had a problem with that. As long as he was having fun besides the fact that he had developed a cold, she didn't mind having to clean afterward.
After she watched closely while Yuta added in the butter and egg to the cookie dough mix, Jenny had to step back and excuse herself when she felt her phone go off in her back pocket. It was getting harder and harder to avoid Mariko's text messages. After the first message she received upon informing the woman that they had returned safely back to the apartment with Yuta's cold medicine, her phone was never given the chance to take a break given that Mariko was constantly requesting updates on her son's condition. From the way Mariko was sending text messages, it seemed like she was expecting updates every minute. Eventually, Jenny decided to give in and called Mariko. For much of the time that Yuta and Jun busied spooning the dough onto the cookie sheet Jenny was upstairs in deep conversation with Mariko; reassuring her that, yes, Yuta had already eaten lunch—a ham and cheese sandwich with a juice box—and that, yes, he had taken his medicine—much to his dismay. As always, the conversation happened to move back to her as Mariko started asking how she was doing. Jenny didn't say much because she didn't want to worry the woman on the other end of the line. All the while as she listened, Jenny kept her eyes on Jun and Yuta downstairs. A smile kept creeping onto her face watching them together. They got along together so well as if nothing had happened to their relationship in the past few weeks. Again, Jenny fought the feeling of jealousy that wanted to flow through her veins. She couldn't get mad at Yuta because he was able to get along with Jun better than she can hope.
After spending the rest of the day playing with Yuta, a text message from Mariko's husband waited for Jenny a few hours later stating that Mariko was on her way to pick Yuta up. Jenny wondered why it was him that sent her the text message when it was usually Mariko that let her know when she was coming to pick up her son. Almost as if the man had read her mind over the text message, another came seconds after she read the first one explaining that Mariko was in a hurry to pick Yuta up that she had forgotten her phone. Jenny couldn't help smiling at this. She didn't know whether or not to be insulted about how Mariko seemed to trust Jenny and Jun with Yuta and still acted like she would never want to have him out of her sight ever again. Then again, Yuta was only three years old and Mariko's only child. Jenny shook her head incredulously then quickly responded to the text. Once it sent, she walked over to Yuta who was huddled with Jun at the couch fiddling with his camera. “Yuta, sweetie, your mom will be here soon,” she said as she took a seat on the other side of the child. Yuta didn't look up at her as he was too busy changing the settings in a manner that appeared as if he didn't quite know what he was doing although he attempted to act like he did. The only form of acknowledgement that she got that he heard her was the little grunt and a slight nod. It was better than nothing.
When Mariko arrived, she and Jenny remained at the door while Jun helped Yuta gather up his belongings. As always, they immediately began their whispered conversations about Jun. “Has there been any improvement?” she asked in hushed tones. Jenny's lips tightened and she shook her head sullenly. A frown slowly appeared on Mariko's face and she turned to look away from Jun's direction so that he wouldn't see. “Well, I'm sure there will be some change soon. We just have to be patient.” It was obvious Mariko wasn't entirely believing her own words.
“Have you been working on your pieces though?” she continued after a short awkward silence. When Jenny shook her head no, a scowl immediately appeared. “Jenny, you need to save some time for those pieces. This gallery is an important event for your career and you've worked so hard to get this opportunity,” Mariko started, her voice stern. “I understand that you want to be concerned with Jun, but you can't do it at the expense of all that you have worked so hard for. He can get along fine for at least a few hours a day. And who knows, maybe some distance from one another might be good with helping him remember.” Jenny must have shown obvious signs of disappointment at this because Mariko quickly backtracked. “I don't mean that you have to give him a lot of space, but it might be good for him to not feel pressured to have to always remember. I'm sure that he feels like he needs to remember something when he's around you. And that might not be good.” Jenny didn't say anything which resulted in Mariko letting out a defeated sigh.
“Just think about what I said, okay? The gallery is coming up real soon.” Jenny didn't have time to respond since Yuta was now running over to them and into his mother's awaiting arms. Not that she had anything to respond with anyway. She was grateful for the distraction as she turned her attention towards Yuta, who was now extending his new free arms towards her for a hug. She scooped the child into her arms and held him for a few seconds longer before finally returning him back to his mother so that they could leave.
Once she closed the door and locked it, she walked back to the living room area. There she noticed that Jun was already fast asleep. Evidence of exhaustion were clear on his face and she questioned how draining the last few days had been for him. Without another thought, Jenny grabbed one of the blankets from the edge of the sofa and draped it over him. She looked down at her watch and noticed that it was now a little passed eight at night. With nothing much else to do that now that Jun was asleep, she went to work cleaning up the apartment. It took her a little less than a couple hours to complete and by the time she finished, she was too exhausted to attempt to follow what Mariko advised and went to sleep as well.
"Hey, I know this is really last minute, but do you mind covering my shift today?...Jun caught his nephew's cold and I don't feel comfortable leaving him alone today....Thank you so much! I owe you big time!" Jenny hung up the phone with a relieved sigh. It was the next morning and Jenny had woken up when she heard soft groans coming from downstairs. Much to her dismay, Jun seemed to have caught whatever cold Yuta had. After she stepped out of the bathroom, she went back downstairs to check on Jun. He was still on the sofa; although whether he was asleep still was questionable. As she stood over him, she observed him closely. He was letting out tiny groans in his sleep still. They weren't like Yuta's, but she could tell that the cold was affecting him faster than she would have expected. She was wondering if it had anything to do with his accident.
As she pondered over this, Jenny made sure that he was fully covered in an attempt to stop the shivering. She then reached a hand up to feel his forehead; frowning when she concluded that he was definitely warmer than she would have liked. Letting out a deep sigh, she walked over to the kitchen to boil some water for tea. All the while she was doing this, Jenny was back in texting mode with Mariko. Now that Yuta was back at home and fast asleep in his own bed Mariko had a lot of time on her hands and was back on "Bug Jenny About Her Life" mode. However, that mode was quickly shifted to "Worrying About Her Younger Brother" mode when she heard about Jun catching Yuta's cold.
To: Jenny
From: Mariko
Message: How is he doing?
Message: Is he sleeping well right now?
Message: Has he eaten anything?
Message: Does he have any cold medicine?
Message: Do you want me to come over so that you don't miss work?
From: Mariko
Message: How is he doing?
Message: Is he sleeping well right now?
Message: Has he eaten anything?
Message: Does he have any cold medicine?
Message: Do you want me to come over so that you don't miss work?
Jenny had no time to respond much as the spam of questions flooded in faster than she could type. She shook her head then put her phone on silent so that she could put the phone down and let the woman run out of energy. While she waited, Jenny busied preparing Jun a warm mug of tea to drink. It was a shame she didn't have any cinnamon tea like the elderly woman from the other day had mentioned. She also rummaged through the small kitchen for ingredients to make some soup. Every so often Jenny would stop whatever she was doing when she heard groaning from the sofa.
Some minutes later, a bowl of steaming hot soup and an equally steaming mug of tea rested on the coffee table right next to Jun's medication. However, the said medication was now capped and instead the adult cold medicine that they had stored right beside Yuta's cold medicine upstairs was uncapped. Jenny stirred the soup for a short while to cool it faster, blowing into it softly every so often. When she deemed the soup cool enough to not burn his tongue, Jenny grabbed the mug of tea by the handle then sat down at the edge of the sofa close to Jun's feet.
She hesitated for a moment, watching as he groaned once again in his sleep. Then with a deep sigh, Jenny reached her free hand forward and placed it firmly on his arm and shook him awake. “Jun?” she said gently and continued to shake him until she was sure he was awake. “It appears you caught Yuta's cold,” she said after catching Jun's eyelids flutter a few times. “I made some tea that Mariko told me would help soothe your throat. And I also made some soup so that you can have something in your stomach before taking medicine.” She was very cautious, speaking slowly so that she think over her words before she spoke them.
It took a little more coaxing to finally waken Jun and prop him up into a sitting position. After helping him adjust into a comfortable sitting position on the sofa, Jenny once again reached for the mug of tea she had put down to help Jun and handed it to him, making sure that he didn't burn himself. She waited patiently for him to take a sip, all the while fumbling with the medicine. She grabbed the cough medicine and used the tiny plastic measuring cup that came with the bottle to pour the right amount he would need. “You should eat some soup while it's still hot...” Uncertain as to whether it was a smart idea to give him the bowl of soup, Jenny slowly stood up from the sofa and took a few steps away.
“I need to make a few calls. Just let me know if you need anything, okay?” she said then picked up her phone from the coffee table and moved over to the kitchen. The first person she called was Mariko, who had stopped her spam of text messages some time ago and she was sure was waiting impatiently for a call. She filled the woman in then listened intently as she was given tips for how to take care of Jun; not that she really needed them as she had taken care of a sick Jun plenty of times. Then again, none of those times included him having memory loss and recovering from a car accident. Before Mariko hung up she said that she would call Jun's doctor and hopefully get some better advice for taking care of him; in case there were some specific actions they needed to take into consideration.
The next call that Jenny made was a quick one to her jobs, informing the managers that she would need some time off to take care of Jun. She was grateful at how understanding they were, even if she was only allowed a couple days off. If anything she could always ask Mariko to watch over him if he didn't feel any better by then. When she hung up the phone after her final call, Jenny placed her phone on the kitchen counter then went back to the living room area. However, she did make a quick detour. She just remembered that Jun's parents had contacted her recently and that she had forgotten to respond to them.
Even though Jenny's passion belongs to art, she knew that it wouldn't always give her a comfortable life which is why she took up architecture as well. It didn't pay much also, but it was definitely enough. Before Jun's accident, his parents had contacted her through email asking if she would be interested in designing a penthouse apartment for a friend of a friend. She wasn't given much details about the clients; only that he was a musician and that his current situation required that he have his own place with a lot of space. They had already sent her pictures of the area and also the square footage. Jenny had told them that she would think about it and to contact her in a few weeks for an update.
The detour Jenny took was to her work space area. She and Jun shared the remaining space in the living room with one corner being his for his photo editing and her at another corner for her sketching. That work space was reserved for her architecture work given that she already had a studio for her painting. As she came up on her desk, she glanced over at the rough sketches of her current idea for the project. Although she hadn't quite said yes to the project, she took this time that she needed to think it over to see if she got any ideas that would make her feel confident to do the project. The rough draft currently on the paper had been what she had worked on before the accident, but since then she couldn't keep her mind on it. Now that it was a few weeks later and Jun's parents had contacted her for an answer, she had to figure out now if she would do it. She couldn't exactly tell them that she would think about some more. As such, she figured that she would just send them what she has so far to relay to the possible client and let them figure it out for her. So she picked up her draft and fed it to the copier standing between her and Jun's work spaces and then moved over to her computer to check if it copied correctly. She didn't do much after that though. Instead she simply left the photo waiting on her desktop then let her computer go into Sleep mode before returning to take care of Jun.
She was happy to see that some of the soup had been eaten and that Jun was drinking the tea. She was drawn into the tired expression on his face. It was a look she was familiar with even though there was a bit of pain behind it which she could assume must have been because of his headaches. “Do you need anything? More tea?” she quickly asked when she finally realized that she had been staring. Taking her seat beside him again—though making sure to keep her distance—Jenny reached for the small plastic measuring cup of cough syrup that she had poured earlier and handed it to him. “Here, this should help with the cough and you should be able to sleep better,” she explained. Once Jun took it, she reached for the other cold medications. As he finished the last of the cough syrup, Jenny picked up the glass of water from the table to hand over to him while she took the plastic measuring cup. Then she gave him the rest of the cold medications she had in her hand. Once he finished taking all of them, Jenny took the glass of water, returned it to the coffee table, and stood up from the sofa once more. “Come on, you should sleep upstairs instead of on the sofa.” She then extended her hand to him.
OP
OP
JINFINITE
Super-Earth
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2022
- Location
- The Island of Eroda
xx▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰ xLOOK INTO YOUR EYES AND IT GETS HARD TO BREATHE, WHEN EVERYTHING GETS THIS CRAZY...
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY WHEN I'M WITH YOU
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY TALKING WITH YOU
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰-IT'S SO EASY MY LOVE FOR YOU
It took a few moments for Jun to wake up. His eyes opened first; slightly startled awake despite Jenny’s soft approach. But Jun’s brain, whether because it was injured or just because he was tired, took a while to process that he’d woken up. Jenny was ever patient with his slow response time and he was soon sitting up on the couch, the blanket that had been draped over him now fell to his side. Soup? Tea? Medicine? Wait, Jenny? Didn’t she work early in the mornings? Jun was about to question what she was still doing here but she beat him to it and took charge in a loving caring way. Apparently this was normal between them, but even his sister wasn’t this thorough whenever he’d gotten sick in the past. It was a little overwhelming to wake up to, but lately everything overwhelmed him, so there was no surprise there. She clearly meant well, and he truly appreciated it, Jun just wasn’t used to anyone going out of their way for him like this. After all he lived alone and Aimee was always too busy to bring him anything when he was sick in bed. Busy; that was the lie he’d told himself over and over again. But Jenny was busy too and she was still here for him…
It was that instant that Jenny excused herself to make a phone call and Jun watched her leave before hesitantly picking up the spoon to the soup and giving it a taste. It was too hot to taste at first so he blew on it a bit which in turn irritated his throat and invited the cough to return. But by the third taste test it was at a consumable temperature and the warmth felt good on his raw throat; it was a little hard to swallow though with the pain that accompanied this sore throat but he pushed through it as best he could to eat more. Whatever it was Jenny had left to deal with it sure took her a while, he could faintly hear her talking in the back and there were some paper shuffling noises and beeps of a machine. He had reached his limits with the soup by the time she returned to his side. It was good. The soup was fine, he just had very little appetite at the moment especially with it being pretty early in the morning still. She offered more tea and then cough syrup which he was hesitant to take. Not for any important reason, he just knew it would taste horrible. He’d never encountered a syrup medicine that didn’t taste like artificially flavored chemicals, and the expression on his face matched as he swallowed it in one go. Ew. The water helped wash down the taste a little but it still burned as it went down his throat to take the other medications she gave him. He took everything she handed without question. In fact he hadn’t said anything since waking up.
What time was it anyways? Was it normal for him to wake up this early? Was this what 2012 Jun did? Was he just running on a new internal clock now? Or was it the cold that had woken him up? He’d have to ask later...it was such a weird and unsettling concept; the fact that he had to ask things about himself. He should know himself better than anyone but here he was a complete stranger to his own life. Was anything still true to him? He never in a million years would have thought he’d get a tattoo. Or eat pancakes for breakfast. Babysit a child. Hell he never even would have imagined himself living in this part of the city. But here he was with his tattoo, pancakes, Yuta, this apartment and….”Jenny…”
Her hand was extended to help him up, she’d just suggested moving to sleep on the bed but clearly hadn’t expected him to really say anything in response, ”What’s my favorite color?” His voice croaked, cracked even from his throat being so raw. But his eyes raised to meet hers. He needed to know. He needed to know that something about him hadn’t changed. Favorite movie might have changed if something came out, music is always evolving, but surely he at least still liked the same color. He held his breath waiting for her to say gray. Please say gray. She had to say gray--she didn’t say gray. He really didn’t know himself anymore. His expression fell almost as quickly as his confidence. Jun had never felt so completely alone before. How was he supposed to trust others when he couldn’t even trust himself? His mind was racing with questions but nothing seemed worth asking. What was the point? Clearly his entire life had flipped, nothing was familiar to him anymore, not even himself. His hand pressed to his forehead as his headache surged to the next level as his mental breakdown continued to spiral, then his other hand joined and they synced up to run through his hair and grab a handful.
Who am I…
In a way the reality of his situation had finally sunk in. He’d been in shock and denial for a good while in the hospital, he accepted this change and was willing to try and adjust by coming back with Jenny but literally nothing had been working. It had only been a matter of time before he cracked, and it seemed like waking up miserably sick in an unfamiliar environment in his already vulnerable state had done the trick. His body was still recovering from the accident and his brain struggling to wrap around the idea of forgetting years of his life. The Jenga tower that was his emotions had been gradually added to until he’d asked that one question which forced Jenny to pull that one Jenga block that crashed the tower to the floor.
His head hurt.
So.
Much
.
Why? Had his emotional response triggered this pain? Did it have something to do with the cold he’d caught? Had it been there this whole time and he’d just been bearing it till now? Jun’s eyes were squeezed shut but he could feel them watering out of frustration. He couldn’t think of a single traumatic event that had left him in such a state. He’d never felt this way in any of the years he could remember and he didn’t know how to handle it. Had he ever cried with Jenny? Had they ever experienced tragedy together? Ever been under this amount of stress together? Everything seemed so perfect here. Was he the only problem they’d ever had? She knew everything about him but despite having seen for for several weeks he still felt like she was a total stranger. She knew how to approach him everytime. She knew what to say, what he liked, what he wanted; before he was even aware he needed or wanted something.
Jun inhaled sharply. He wanted to apologize. He felt the need to despite the intense pain radiating through his head, but when he opened his mouth to speak nothing came out. His eyes however managed to slowly open. He could hear Jenny speaking but he couldn’t tell if it was directed towards him or if she was on the phone. Everything seemed to distant right now and he couldn’t focus on her words well enough to understand her but he could feel her touch on him and his panic starting to dissipate as he came back to 2012. How long had she been beside him? Talking to him? The exhaustion was setting in, his body felt heavy, his fingers tingling. It was almost as though he’d run out of emotion. Like he’d used up all his fear and panic and now was calming down on his own because he simply had nothing left to give. He’d run his 100m sprint and now the adrenaline was wearing off and Jenny’s previous suggestion of laying down upstairs was starting to sound real nice. Why hadn’t he gone with her in the first place? What had triggered his panic? He couldn’t even remember now how he’d gotten into this state.
”I want to lay down.”
One hand still held his head as the pain was slow to wean, but at least he was able to speak now. He really didn’t know what had come over him, he’d never experienced anything like it. He would later learn he’d had his first panic attack.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Jun woke a few hours later in the bed with a very hazy memory of Jenny helping him get upstairs, and an even blurrier memory of what had happened prior to leave him in such a disoriented state. His body was heavy as he sat up. Every movement felt as though it took three times as much effort as it normally would. But on the flip side his cold symptoms seemed to have died down. His throat was still sore but the general ‘sick’ feeling was significantly better. Tako voiced his complaints that his body pillow was getting up and Jun reached over to stroke the cat, ”Sorry buddy.”
It seemed Jenny had heard him as he next heard footsteps and she came into view looking rather concerned. A feeling of dejavu washed over him as she asked something along the lines of how he was feeling and Jun only had the dumb response of ”What happened?” Followed by, ”Are you okay?” Which was probably the first time he’d voiced concern for her, something Jun normally would have done one way or another almost daily.
He continued stroking the cat as Jenny described the event from a few hours ago. It all sounded vaguely familiar but at the same time not. It was like the memory had nearly slipped past his injured mind which brought out his next question asking if she’d told his sister. He could practically hear Mariko’s fretting and insisting he let the doctor see him. Which maybe was a smart idea, but not right now, he didn’t want to deal with that right now.
There was a long pause after Jenny finished getting him caught up to speed.
”I don’t--I don’t know who I’m supposed to be. “ He gestured around himself, ”None of this is familiar. I--”What’s the point of all this? He cut himself short, not really sure how to proceed without being a total ass about it, ”What are we doing here?”
It was that instant that Jenny excused herself to make a phone call and Jun watched her leave before hesitantly picking up the spoon to the soup and giving it a taste. It was too hot to taste at first so he blew on it a bit which in turn irritated his throat and invited the cough to return. But by the third taste test it was at a consumable temperature and the warmth felt good on his raw throat; it was a little hard to swallow though with the pain that accompanied this sore throat but he pushed through it as best he could to eat more. Whatever it was Jenny had left to deal with it sure took her a while, he could faintly hear her talking in the back and there were some paper shuffling noises and beeps of a machine. He had reached his limits with the soup by the time she returned to his side. It was good. The soup was fine, he just had very little appetite at the moment especially with it being pretty early in the morning still. She offered more tea and then cough syrup which he was hesitant to take. Not for any important reason, he just knew it would taste horrible. He’d never encountered a syrup medicine that didn’t taste like artificially flavored chemicals, and the expression on his face matched as he swallowed it in one go. Ew. The water helped wash down the taste a little but it still burned as it went down his throat to take the other medications she gave him. He took everything she handed without question. In fact he hadn’t said anything since waking up.
What time was it anyways? Was it normal for him to wake up this early? Was this what 2012 Jun did? Was he just running on a new internal clock now? Or was it the cold that had woken him up? He’d have to ask later...it was such a weird and unsettling concept; the fact that he had to ask things about himself. He should know himself better than anyone but here he was a complete stranger to his own life. Was anything still true to him? He never in a million years would have thought he’d get a tattoo. Or eat pancakes for breakfast. Babysit a child. Hell he never even would have imagined himself living in this part of the city. But here he was with his tattoo, pancakes, Yuta, this apartment and….”Jenny…”
Her hand was extended to help him up, she’d just suggested moving to sleep on the bed but clearly hadn’t expected him to really say anything in response, ”What’s my favorite color?” His voice croaked, cracked even from his throat being so raw. But his eyes raised to meet hers. He needed to know. He needed to know that something about him hadn’t changed. Favorite movie might have changed if something came out, music is always evolving, but surely he at least still liked the same color. He held his breath waiting for her to say gray. Please say gray. She had to say gray--she didn’t say gray. He really didn’t know himself anymore. His expression fell almost as quickly as his confidence. Jun had never felt so completely alone before. How was he supposed to trust others when he couldn’t even trust himself? His mind was racing with questions but nothing seemed worth asking. What was the point? Clearly his entire life had flipped, nothing was familiar to him anymore, not even himself. His hand pressed to his forehead as his headache surged to the next level as his mental breakdown continued to spiral, then his other hand joined and they synced up to run through his hair and grab a handful.
Who am I…
In a way the reality of his situation had finally sunk in. He’d been in shock and denial for a good while in the hospital, he accepted this change and was willing to try and adjust by coming back with Jenny but literally nothing had been working. It had only been a matter of time before he cracked, and it seemed like waking up miserably sick in an unfamiliar environment in his already vulnerable state had done the trick. His body was still recovering from the accident and his brain struggling to wrap around the idea of forgetting years of his life. The Jenga tower that was his emotions had been gradually added to until he’d asked that one question which forced Jenny to pull that one Jenga block that crashed the tower to the floor.
His head hurt.
So.
Much
.
Why? Had his emotional response triggered this pain? Did it have something to do with the cold he’d caught? Had it been there this whole time and he’d just been bearing it till now? Jun’s eyes were squeezed shut but he could feel them watering out of frustration. He couldn’t think of a single traumatic event that had left him in such a state. He’d never felt this way in any of the years he could remember and he didn’t know how to handle it. Had he ever cried with Jenny? Had they ever experienced tragedy together? Ever been under this amount of stress together? Everything seemed so perfect here. Was he the only problem they’d ever had? She knew everything about him but despite having seen for for several weeks he still felt like she was a total stranger. She knew how to approach him everytime. She knew what to say, what he liked, what he wanted; before he was even aware he needed or wanted something.
Jun inhaled sharply. He wanted to apologize. He felt the need to despite the intense pain radiating through his head, but when he opened his mouth to speak nothing came out. His eyes however managed to slowly open. He could hear Jenny speaking but he couldn’t tell if it was directed towards him or if she was on the phone. Everything seemed to distant right now and he couldn’t focus on her words well enough to understand her but he could feel her touch on him and his panic starting to dissipate as he came back to 2012. How long had she been beside him? Talking to him? The exhaustion was setting in, his body felt heavy, his fingers tingling. It was almost as though he’d run out of emotion. Like he’d used up all his fear and panic and now was calming down on his own because he simply had nothing left to give. He’d run his 100m sprint and now the adrenaline was wearing off and Jenny’s previous suggestion of laying down upstairs was starting to sound real nice. Why hadn’t he gone with her in the first place? What had triggered his panic? He couldn’t even remember now how he’d gotten into this state.
”I want to lay down.”
One hand still held his head as the pain was slow to wean, but at least he was able to speak now. He really didn’t know what had come over him, he’d never experienced anything like it. He would later learn he’d had his first panic attack.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Jun woke a few hours later in the bed with a very hazy memory of Jenny helping him get upstairs, and an even blurrier memory of what had happened prior to leave him in such a disoriented state. His body was heavy as he sat up. Every movement felt as though it took three times as much effort as it normally would. But on the flip side his cold symptoms seemed to have died down. His throat was still sore but the general ‘sick’ feeling was significantly better. Tako voiced his complaints that his body pillow was getting up and Jun reached over to stroke the cat, ”Sorry buddy.”
It seemed Jenny had heard him as he next heard footsteps and she came into view looking rather concerned. A feeling of dejavu washed over him as she asked something along the lines of how he was feeling and Jun only had the dumb response of ”What happened?” Followed by, ”Are you okay?” Which was probably the first time he’d voiced concern for her, something Jun normally would have done one way or another almost daily.
He continued stroking the cat as Jenny described the event from a few hours ago. It all sounded vaguely familiar but at the same time not. It was like the memory had nearly slipped past his injured mind which brought out his next question asking if she’d told his sister. He could practically hear Mariko’s fretting and insisting he let the doctor see him. Which maybe was a smart idea, but not right now, he didn’t want to deal with that right now.
There was a long pause after Jenny finished getting him caught up to speed.
”I don’t--I don’t know who I’m supposed to be. “ He gestured around himself, ”None of this is familiar. I--”
feelsHASkilig
Solo Conversationalist
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2022
- Location
- Page Two Hundred & Forty-Nine
After Jun’s panic attack weeks ago, Jenny kept her distance. Well, that was putting it nicely. If Mariko was to be believed, Jenny had become elusive. She still made sure she was taking good care of Jun - especially when he had been sick for half a week - but her previous attempts and efforts to help him remember were kept at arm’s reach. The look he gave her when she told him his favorite color was now green - specifically, she had explained, a dark forest green - haunted her still to this day. She feared that she would never see the day when something she told him about the three years he forgot would make him smile. It was for this reason that she only answered his questions when he asked, and usually she kept her responses either vague or cautious. She also never looked at him.
Nowadays, Jun had also regained more of his energy. After he recovered from his cold, he seemed to have bounced back some to the point that he didn’t seem to always need her for help. One day after work, she found him moving about the apartment looking at more of his belongings; an energy about him that at first seemed reassuring until he noticed that she had arrived. The more he seemed capable of taking care of himself, the more she stepped back and let him do his thing. As a result, she spent more time in the studio than at home. But it wasn’t like she was making any progress on her pieces. She had less than two months to finish the remaining two.
This week had been one of the “couple’s” bad weeks. When Mariko called her out on her elusiveness - again, her words, not Jenny’s - she had tried making an attempt at being helpful to Jun. As she had expected, it didn’t work too well and she watched as Jun once again shut himself off from her with the excuse that he had a headache.
”What are we doing here?” he had said weeks ago. Jenny, typically the optimist, still felt the sting of the metaphorical slap into reality. She was losing him and nothing she did was helping him boost his morale. So after she watched him once again nose dive into the messy blankets on the couch declaring the need for a nap, she returned to the studio to stare at the blank canvas that was supposed to be the fourth piece.
The knock on the door at the apartment startled Jenny. She hadn’t been expecting any visitors. After Mariko arrived to pick Jun up for his weekly doctor’s appointments, she had expected to spend these couple hours alone in the apartment. In fact, over the past couple weeks, she had kind of been anticipating them. Today, she planned on finalizing the blueprints for the penthouse apartment Jun’s parents’ friend had commissioned to her. Construction was scheduled to begin in another week or so.
“David? What are you doing here?” Jenny asked, surprised to see Mariko’s husband standing at her door. Well, standing at her door without Mariko or Yuta. They were usually the pre-requisite for his visits.
“You just missed Jun and Mariko,” she quickly added, although she was using her words lightly. The siblings had been gone for half an hour by now.
David nodded slowly. “I know. Mariko called me letting me know they had just signed in at the hospital and are now waiting for their turn.” The two stood in silence for a moment. They didn’t know what to say next. Jenny liked David, don’t get her wrong. But ever since she started dating Jun, she was never in a situation where it was just the two of them in the room.
“Listen,” David started after clearing his throat. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”
Jenny looked at him closely. “Okay?” she said with uncertainty. Regardless of her confusion, she took a step back to open the door wide enough for him to come inside. She ignored her mometary embarrassment when she realized that the couch was still unmade after Jun had left. It wasn’t like it was a secret they weren’t sleeping in the same bed since he came home.
The two took a seat on the messy couch. Jenny pulled Jun’s blankets to the side so that it wouldn’t get in the way. She waited quietly as David got situated. It was during this time that she noticed the manila folder he had been carrying that she had not seen until now.
“Mariko and I have been talking,” he said as he dropped the folder on the coffee table. Jenny tensed, a million follow up sentences running through her head. But she kept her mouth shut. “Well, if I had to be honest, it was Mariko that did all the talking.” For good measure - at least that’s what it felt like - he let out a low chuckle. It didn’t do much to lighten the mood. The pause only made Jenny wonder when he would drop the bomb that they thought Jun should come stay with them now.
“She’s concerned you’re going to struggle with the hospital bills…” Okay… That was definitely not where she saw this conversation going.
Before he could continue, Jenny quickly interrupted. “David, whatever Mariko persuaded you to do, I can’t have either of you help out financially. I can take care of this.”
David sighed. “Jenny...you’ve quit your job at Forever 21 so that you can have the evenings to take care of Jun. It’s going to be awhile before Jun is given the okay to go back to work. We know this. How are you going to handle hospital bills and keeping up rent both here and the studio just working at Starbucks?”
Jenny once again looked at David closely. He was slowly losing his “Mariko’s husband” persona and looked more like his profession; a banker. Even the shiny cufflinks on his jacket were looking unsettling to her.
“Mariko told me about the penthouse you were commissioned by my in-laws. Is that going well?” he continued without skipping a beat.
Jenny merely nodded, still unsure where this was going.
David mirrored the nod then finally reached for the manila folder he had with him. He immediately handed it over to her. “I have a client. They invest in properties and the like. Flipping houses and buying up land. That sort of thing. They’re currently looking for an architect. I recommended you.”
This was a lot to take in. It was all so unexpected too. Of all the possible things Mariko’s husband came to personally talk to her about, a job opportunity was not one of them.
“I understand that the exhibit is important, but this is a good opportunity, Jenny,” David continued, as if he had read her mind. “Mariko thinks so too. It’s commission based, but the base salary will help you in the long run.” Jenny noticed the pause afterward. David wasn’t good at being subtle. “And we know that you hate working at that Starbucks near campus.” Yes, he really was not good at being subtle at all.
“Just think about it. Okay?” David told her once again as he walked to the door. Jenny followed after him to see him out. She nodded as she opened the door for him. “I left the business card of my client in the file. He’s expecting your call to set up an interview.” The two said their final goodbyes and Jenny closed the door once David turned away.
She sighed, resting her back against the door. “Oh boy…” It was definitely a lot to think over.
Jun arrived back at the apartment with Mariko hours later than she had anticipated. Apparently Yuta wanted to spend some time with his uncle. When she heard the door open, Jenny craned her neck from her workstation to watch as the siblings conversed. From her location, she couldn’t hear what they were saying. But honestly, she was a little distracted to put in the effort. On top of the final drafts of the blueprints for her current project were the papers and brochures for the company David had told her about.
“Jenny?” Mariko called out suddenly. Jenny jumped, turning her attention away from the business card she had been staring at to look over at the two.
“Will you be going to the studio again?” Mariko asked cautiously when Jenny walked over to join them. She recognized the tone in her voice. It was the same guilt tripping, almost scolding tone she had used on her when she let slip the news of her having quit her job at Forever 21 in front of Jun. The tone was the reason she avoided looking at Jun as she was being spoken to.
Instead of giving her a verbal response, Jenny merely shook her head. She let the two siblings talk a little while longer until Mariko explained that she needed to go prepare Yuta for bed time. As Jenny closed the door behind Mariko, the woman glanced down at her with a knowing look. Strangely enough, she had a feeling she knew the meaning behind her.
“I’m still thinking, but I’ll let you know…” was all she said before closing the door.
After Jun freshened up and changed, Jenny joined him on the couch. She handed him a cup of tea before taking a seat beside him. As always, she kept her distance.
“So…” she said somewhat awkwardly. It wasn’t quite as awkward as compared to a few weeks ago, but given the current week, it was there. She decided to avoid hearing about the appointment as she asked, “I was wondering. Um, I noticed that you were getting used to the camera again. So I thought maybe you wanted to take a look at our studio? It doesn’t have to be now. I’m sure you’re probably tired. But we can go tomorrow...or whenever you might be ready?”
She paused, then added, “I haven’t touched much of your side, I promise. Well, except for some of the shots you had in the dark room before...the accident. You taught me how to take care of them if you ever got tied up at work. But for the most part, I kind of kept to my end; ya know, with the exhibit and all.”
Jenny’s eyes widened for a second. Shit. Her pieces. He would see her pieces. Sure, after weeks of being surrounded by some of her work, it should be no big deal. But her exhibit pieces...they were personal. Too personal. Way too personal for him to see.
If he said yes, maybe she should go beforehand to drape her pieces with a tarp. She was sure she could find some excuse to keep them from him.
Nowadays, Jun had also regained more of his energy. After he recovered from his cold, he seemed to have bounced back some to the point that he didn’t seem to always need her for help. One day after work, she found him moving about the apartment looking at more of his belongings; an energy about him that at first seemed reassuring until he noticed that she had arrived. The more he seemed capable of taking care of himself, the more she stepped back and let him do his thing. As a result, she spent more time in the studio than at home. But it wasn’t like she was making any progress on her pieces. She had less than two months to finish the remaining two.
This week had been one of the “couple’s” bad weeks. When Mariko called her out on her elusiveness - again, her words, not Jenny’s - she had tried making an attempt at being helpful to Jun. As she had expected, it didn’t work too well and she watched as Jun once again shut himself off from her with the excuse that he had a headache.
”What are we doing here?” he had said weeks ago. Jenny, typically the optimist, still felt the sting of the metaphorical slap into reality. She was losing him and nothing she did was helping him boost his morale. So after she watched him once again nose dive into the messy blankets on the couch declaring the need for a nap, she returned to the studio to stare at the blank canvas that was supposed to be the fourth piece.
The knock on the door at the apartment startled Jenny. She hadn’t been expecting any visitors. After Mariko arrived to pick Jun up for his weekly doctor’s appointments, she had expected to spend these couple hours alone in the apartment. In fact, over the past couple weeks, she had kind of been anticipating them. Today, she planned on finalizing the blueprints for the penthouse apartment Jun’s parents’ friend had commissioned to her. Construction was scheduled to begin in another week or so.
“David? What are you doing here?” Jenny asked, surprised to see Mariko’s husband standing at her door. Well, standing at her door without Mariko or Yuta. They were usually the pre-requisite for his visits.
“You just missed Jun and Mariko,” she quickly added, although she was using her words lightly. The siblings had been gone for half an hour by now.
David nodded slowly. “I know. Mariko called me letting me know they had just signed in at the hospital and are now waiting for their turn.” The two stood in silence for a moment. They didn’t know what to say next. Jenny liked David, don’t get her wrong. But ever since she started dating Jun, she was never in a situation where it was just the two of them in the room.
“Listen,” David started after clearing his throat. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”
Jenny looked at him closely. “Okay?” she said with uncertainty. Regardless of her confusion, she took a step back to open the door wide enough for him to come inside. She ignored her mometary embarrassment when she realized that the couch was still unmade after Jun had left. It wasn’t like it was a secret they weren’t sleeping in the same bed since he came home.
The two took a seat on the messy couch. Jenny pulled Jun’s blankets to the side so that it wouldn’t get in the way. She waited quietly as David got situated. It was during this time that she noticed the manila folder he had been carrying that she had not seen until now.
“Mariko and I have been talking,” he said as he dropped the folder on the coffee table. Jenny tensed, a million follow up sentences running through her head. But she kept her mouth shut. “Well, if I had to be honest, it was Mariko that did all the talking.” For good measure - at least that’s what it felt like - he let out a low chuckle. It didn’t do much to lighten the mood. The pause only made Jenny wonder when he would drop the bomb that they thought Jun should come stay with them now.
“She’s concerned you’re going to struggle with the hospital bills…” Okay… That was definitely not where she saw this conversation going.
Before he could continue, Jenny quickly interrupted. “David, whatever Mariko persuaded you to do, I can’t have either of you help out financially. I can take care of this.”
David sighed. “Jenny...you’ve quit your job at Forever 21 so that you can have the evenings to take care of Jun. It’s going to be awhile before Jun is given the okay to go back to work. We know this. How are you going to handle hospital bills and keeping up rent both here and the studio just working at Starbucks?”
Jenny once again looked at David closely. He was slowly losing his “Mariko’s husband” persona and looked more like his profession; a banker. Even the shiny cufflinks on his jacket were looking unsettling to her.
“Mariko told me about the penthouse you were commissioned by my in-laws. Is that going well?” he continued without skipping a beat.
Jenny merely nodded, still unsure where this was going.
David mirrored the nod then finally reached for the manila folder he had with him. He immediately handed it over to her. “I have a client. They invest in properties and the like. Flipping houses and buying up land. That sort of thing. They’re currently looking for an architect. I recommended you.”
This was a lot to take in. It was all so unexpected too. Of all the possible things Mariko’s husband came to personally talk to her about, a job opportunity was not one of them.
“I understand that the exhibit is important, but this is a good opportunity, Jenny,” David continued, as if he had read her mind. “Mariko thinks so too. It’s commission based, but the base salary will help you in the long run.” Jenny noticed the pause afterward. David wasn’t good at being subtle. “And we know that you hate working at that Starbucks near campus.” Yes, he really was not good at being subtle at all.
“Just think about it. Okay?” David told her once again as he walked to the door. Jenny followed after him to see him out. She nodded as she opened the door for him. “I left the business card of my client in the file. He’s expecting your call to set up an interview.” The two said their final goodbyes and Jenny closed the door once David turned away.
She sighed, resting her back against the door. “Oh boy…” It was definitely a lot to think over.
Jun arrived back at the apartment with Mariko hours later than she had anticipated. Apparently Yuta wanted to spend some time with his uncle. When she heard the door open, Jenny craned her neck from her workstation to watch as the siblings conversed. From her location, she couldn’t hear what they were saying. But honestly, she was a little distracted to put in the effort. On top of the final drafts of the blueprints for her current project were the papers and brochures for the company David had told her about.
“Jenny?” Mariko called out suddenly. Jenny jumped, turning her attention away from the business card she had been staring at to look over at the two.
“Will you be going to the studio again?” Mariko asked cautiously when Jenny walked over to join them. She recognized the tone in her voice. It was the same guilt tripping, almost scolding tone she had used on her when she let slip the news of her having quit her job at Forever 21 in front of Jun. The tone was the reason she avoided looking at Jun as she was being spoken to.
Instead of giving her a verbal response, Jenny merely shook her head. She let the two siblings talk a little while longer until Mariko explained that she needed to go prepare Yuta for bed time. As Jenny closed the door behind Mariko, the woman glanced down at her with a knowing look. Strangely enough, she had a feeling she knew the meaning behind her.
“I’m still thinking, but I’ll let you know…” was all she said before closing the door.
After Jun freshened up and changed, Jenny joined him on the couch. She handed him a cup of tea before taking a seat beside him. As always, she kept her distance.
“So…” she said somewhat awkwardly. It wasn’t quite as awkward as compared to a few weeks ago, but given the current week, it was there. She decided to avoid hearing about the appointment as she asked, “I was wondering. Um, I noticed that you were getting used to the camera again. So I thought maybe you wanted to take a look at our studio? It doesn’t have to be now. I’m sure you’re probably tired. But we can go tomorrow...or whenever you might be ready?”
She paused, then added, “I haven’t touched much of your side, I promise. Well, except for some of the shots you had in the dark room before...the accident. You taught me how to take care of them if you ever got tied up at work. But for the most part, I kind of kept to my end; ya know, with the exhibit and all.”
Jenny’s eyes widened for a second. Shit. Her pieces. He would see her pieces. Sure, after weeks of being surrounded by some of her work, it should be no big deal. But her exhibit pieces...they were personal. Too personal. Way too personal for him to see.
If he said yes, maybe she should go beforehand to drape her pieces with a tarp. She was sure she could find some excuse to keep them from him.