FANFICTION - Tell me how you lost me - Chapter 18

 “No, they’re not.” He replied.

“Yes, they are… well at least for me.”

“Riya... this is different.”

“How is it different?” I asked.

“I’ll make sure I keep them.” He answered.

“Yeah right. That’s what everybody says.” I said smirking.

“Riya.. believe me…” he assured while reaching out for my hand.

“I don’t know… I don’t think this is the right thing.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t you get it? You, me, together … it’s not going to work. There are a lot of things that’s not going to turn out ok.”

“I don’t care about those things…”

“Don’t say that…” I cut him off.

“I really don’t care… All I know right now is I want to marry you.”

“Satoshi! Be reasonable for once in your life. It’s not going to work.”

“I’ll make it work. We’ll make it work. Together.” He said still not letting go of my hand.

“We can’t make it work. Why can’t you understand that?” I asked

“Because I refuse to understand it! Riya… listen to me…”

“No, you listen to me… You know why it’s not gonna work? Let me tell you why it’s not gonna work. One, you’re an idol, I’m a nobody. Idol’s usually end up with another idol. Sssshhhh… let me finish.” I said gesturing him to shut up.

“Two, your management company’s going to throw a fit when they find out. Three, I’m not your type. Four, I live in Yokohama, you live in Tokyo. Five, and the most important of all… I’m not your girlfriend. Why would I marry you?” I enumerated.

“Are you finished? Am I allowed to speak?” He asked

I nodded.

“Ok, one, it does not mean that, just because I’m an idol I have to end up with another Idol. I am human too you know. I decide who I want to end up with. Two, the jimusho does not have to know. What they don’t know won’t hurt them. Three, who says you’re not my type? Four, if we get married you obviously need to live here in Tokyo. And lastly, Do you have to be my girlfriend for me to marry you?”

“BAKA!!! Of course! What makes you think that I would just go and marry you when I don’t even know what’s going on between the two of us?” I was trying to stop myself from hitting him with the pepper shaker.

“I thought you like me?” he said softly.

“Well I do like you but…”

“Then what’s the problem?” he asked.

“This is not how I imagined it to be. This is not the kind of proposal I want to receive. Well… not that I expect something romantic from you but what I’m trying to say is we could have at least gotten to know about each other in a different level.”

“I don’t get it. We’ve known each other for more than 4 months. We’re good friends now aren’t we?” he asked confused.

“That’s basically my point. We’re friends. That just about it. Friends don’t go asking one another to marry them in an instant.” I replied.

“Haven’t you heard of friends getting married? It’s actually quite popular.”

“Stop being a smart ass! You know that’s not what I’m trying to point out here.”

“Riya… for once in my life I have actually been serious about something and here you are thinking I’m being unreasonable. Can’t you believe me this once?” he asked sincerely.

“I don’t know… I… I… You’re putting a lot of pressure on me. I need to smoke.” I said as took the pack of cigarette out of my bag.

“You don’t need that.” He said as he grabbed the pack from my hand and crushed it.

“What did you do? That was a new pack. I just bought that.” I exclaimed not believing what just happened to my beautiful unopened pack of cigarettes.

“Since we’re getting married, I don’t want you to smoke. It’s not good for you.” He said.

“You smoke too don’t you? Then why are you asking me to stop? Plus, I don’t remember saying yes to your proposal just yet.” I reasoned.

“Riya… focus! Your cigarettes are not the issue here. We need to finalize this. I need you to say yes so we can get this done before you go back to Yokohama.” He said, bringing the topic back to his proposal.

“You are harassing me!”

“I’m not harassing you. I’m asking you to marry me.”

“You’re not asking, you are imposing!”

“Ok… ok… I’m going to ask you one last time. Just give me a truthful answer ok? Riya… will you marry me?” he asked while holding my hand but this time in a more gentle tone.

I looked at him straight in the eye as my ego tried weigh the options. But my id acted too fast that before my superego could contradict, the word just came straight out of my mouth.

“Yes…” I said softly.

“Yes what?” he asked.

“You asked a question. I just answered.” I replied.

“Oh yeah right… Eeehhh? You mean you will marry me?” He asked again as if he did not understand what I just said.

“Ok… I take it back…”

“No… no… no… you can’t take it back… it’s rude.”

“Rude?”

“Yeah… or whatever so you can’t take back your answer anymore. Ok… so what are we going to do now?” He asked.

“I don’t know. Why are you asking me? You mean you have not thought this through?” I returned the question.

“Well… I know that we have to get married at a City office or something. So do we just go there or do we have to call for a schedule?” he asked me again.

“Satoshi… let me remind you… between the two of us, you are the Japanese national ok. I’m a foreigner. What do I know about your laws?” I emphasized.

“Oh yeah… sorry… hmmm… what do we do now?”

“Why don’t you call your parents and ask them how they got married?” I suggested.

“What? No, I can’t do that.” He replied.

“Why not?” I asked again.

“Coz, they don’t know that I’m getting married. Or that I asked you to marry me.” He said trying to avoid my gaze.

“Why?” I asked again this time sounding a bit frustrated.

“I don’t want them to know. I don’t want other people to know.” He replied softly.

“Why? Coz I’m not within your league? If you don’t want anyone to know you’re getting married then why did you ask me to marry you? I’m confused.” I asked.

“Riya that’s not it. “ he replied.

“Then what is it? Just give me an explanation.”

“I don’t want them to know coz it might leak out.”

“Yeah right… It all boils down to you being an idol and being public property.” I replied sarcastically.

“Riya…”

“It’s ok… don’t worry I’m not going to back out from this. So do you have any other rules that I need to know before we get this ‘so called marriage’ on the go?” I asked sarcastically.

“Riya… don’t worry… I promise…” he began

“I said don’t make promises! They’re meant to be broken.”

“No Riya… Let me make this promise. I promise that I will do everything I can to make this relationship work out. You’ll not regret making this decision.” He assured.

“Ok whatever. There’s always divorce…” I said the last sentence in a hushed voice.

“So what are we going to do now?” I asked trying to shake of the uneasiness that was there for a moment.

“Well… we could…” he began

“Why don’t we search the internet. I’m sure we’re bound to find something.” I suggested.

“That’s a great idea! Let’s go.” He said as he grabbed my handed and headed towards the door.

“Satoshi slow down!” I said as I was being dragged out of the door.

I was dragged two blocks down the road all the way to the internet café. We googled for all the possible answers to the questions that we had earlier. After an hour of searching we knew what we needed to do to “get married”.

“Ok. So we need to have your birth certificate translated and I need to get my koseki tohon.” He said as we walked out of the café.

“ My papers are in Yokohama.” I replied.

“Can’t you ask Ai to mail it?” He asked me again

“Ok… wait I’ll call her… hold on.” I said while I was dialing Ai’s number.

“Hello? Ai? Hi… yeah… wait… I need something from you. Can you mail me my birth certificate? It’s in my files on top of the drawer? Just use the hotel’s address. Can you mail it today? Yeah… Oh it’s nothing. I just need it tomorrow. Yeah… Ok. Thanks.” I said before flipping my phone close.

“So what did she say?” He asked.

“Yeah she’s going to mail it today. I should be getting it by lunch tomorrow.” I replied.

“Ok. That’s good. So we just need to translate it tomorrow and then we can go to the City Office before it closes tomorrow.” He said while we were walking towards the bus stop.

“Ok. I still have time to go to the conference in the morning.”

“Can’t you just skip the conference tomorrow?” he asked.

“What? I can’t do that.” I said.

“Just say you’re sick or something.”

“I don’t know...”

“Please? We need to translate your papers tomorrow.” He begged.

“Wait… “ I said as I got the paper where we wrote the requirements.

“What?” he asked.

“I knew it! The odds are not in our favor.” I said as I shoved the paper in his face.

“What? What? What is it?” he asked.

“We need your driver’s license that’s what.” I replied.

“Why?” he asked

“Because it says here that you need to have a driver’s license.” I replied.

“That’s easy. I’ll get one then.” He said with conviction.

“You seem so optimistic about this.”

“Of course I am. I can get a license in just 2 days. Well that’s how long Aiba-chan got his license.” He replied enthusiastically.

“Oh… alright. So that means I can still go to the conference then if you’re going to get your license tomorrow.”

“Riya… stop thinking about the conference for once. This is a serious matter.”

“Well you said you’re going to get your driver’s license tomorrow right? So I can go to the conference tomorrow while you can go and get your driver’s license.” I explained.

“Riya… I need moral support!”

“Why? You’re  practically a grown up. You don’t need me there.” I said

“Of course I need you there. What if I don’t know what to do? Who am I going to ask?” He returned the question.

“Well even if I’m there, you won’t get any answers from me. I don’t know how to drive remember?” I reminded him.

“Riya… please… please… I just need you to be there for me…” he pleaded.

“Ok fine! But you have to buy me lunch and dessert and snacks.” I demanded.

“No problem! Ok so it’s settled. I’ll pick you up at the hotel tomorrow 8AM.” He said

“Why so early? Can’t we leave at around 10:00?” I bargained as we stood by the curb waiting for the bus to come into view.

“So we could get a lot of things done. You could sleep all you want when everything’s done.” He replied.

“You know what? You are unusually perky today. I just realized it.” I said as we got on the bus.

“What do you mean?” he asked as we sat in the middle portion of the half empty bus.

“Well you seemed to be rushing into doing stupid things. You are unusually talkative and bossy today. It’s so not you. What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Nothing’s wrong. I just want us to get married, and don’t ask why again coz this discussion is not going to end there I know it.” he said smiling.

The ride back to my hotel was quite a long one since we got stuck in traffic. I was so tired that I could not resist resting my head by the window trying to catch some sleep. I was about to close my eyes when he held my head and guided it towards his shoulder. I looked at him with droopy eyes and he just smiled back as he patted my head.

I was already half asleep when he asked out of the blue…

“Riya…”

“Hmmm?”

“Why did you say yes?” he asked.

“Say yes to what?” I asked back.

“Say yes when I asked you to marry me?”

“I don’t know…”

“What do you mean?”

“Well you asked so I answered.” I replied while trying to stay awake.

“That’s all?” he asked again.

“Well, there ‘s also the part where I………….” and sleep has totally taken over.