Chapter 16 —

The movie was a huge success, with the ticket box breaking a whole new all time record. The applause and review perceived for the audience were highly notable. Which the media and agency decided to set up a fan meeting to express their gratitude for the appreciation from the viewers, as well as a celebration for those who took part the progress of making the film.

Almost everyone attended the celebration till late night except for Arisu Kiyotaka, who was said to have left Japan.

"We made it! Takato-san!" Azumaya Junta toasted as he bumped his beer bottle against Saijou Takato's, who seemed to be getting slightly tipsy from the alcohol evidenced by the formation of pink pigment around his cheeks, even though Junta managed to divert majority of the toast directed to Takato onto himself.

"Yeah… we… did it!" Takato's sapphire blue eyes were unable to maintain eye contact as he took another drink from his glass. His eyes wandered around the table in search of something green in a plate.

"Ta-Takato-san…" Junta sighed as he watched Takato grabbing onto a plate of green soy beans and begun peeling them —an indication and an amusing habit of Takato when he was drunk.

"Saijou-kun's drunk!" The director of the film declared as he laughed at the man that was slowly pealing the green soy beans one by one.

Suddenly everyone's attention was diverted onto Takato, with a few of them fishing out their phone and started recording a clip of Takato's action.

It was not long before Takato was fully drunk and being brought back by Junta by cab back to Junta's apartment.

On the other hand—

Usaka Kazuomi hailed a cab back home as he was tipsy from the drinking at the celebration.

He fished out his phone, searching through the contact list for the number that he was recently given —Arisu Kiyotaka.

Arisu…senpai… The grip on his phone tightened as he stared at the name with a painful expression.

He knew why Arisu chose to leave without saying goodbye.

He recalled a night where they were talking about the past where Arisu left, and how it impacted hardly on himself, and that he would never want to have a taste of it ever again.

Arisu knew him well. He knew it will be challenging for himself to watched him leave under his eyes which was one of the reason Arisu chose to leave without saying goodbye.

Another reason, Usaka knew within himself —Arisu would fear that he would not be able to bring himself to leave either.

But Usaka knew that this departure was different from previous. Arisu had put his feelings into considerations and minimized the pain he caused — evidenced by the repeatedly erased and written trace when Arisu wrote his number on the note.

It was the last gentle side of himself that he left for him.

Usaka stood in front of his door, composing the first message that he will be sending to that number.

'The movie was more than a huge success, thank you for being the music producer of this film. It's a pity that you could not celebrate the success with us here in Japan. P.S. — How are you doing over there? I…'

Usaka's fingers froze in the air as he hesitated to continue typing. In the end he deleted the 'I' away, pressing on the send button as he took his keys and unlocked the door.

He twisted open the door weakly as he stared at his phone.

"I missed you…" He whispered in sadness as he shut the door behind him.

An unusual ringtone echoed in his apartment. He lifted his head up upon hearing the tone, and saw a small bright light lit up in the middle of his living room, showing a glimpse of a silhouette.

That…was a phone —someone was reading certain thing off from the phone.

Usaka immediately search for the switch to switch on the lights.

In the middle of the living room stood a man wearing a drape tee and a skinny jean with his phone on his hand. He was chewing on a candy stick as he turned around, removing the sun glasses that he usually wore.

His topaz-colored eyes, along with the grin forming on his lips, were bewitching.

It was not long until his lips parted, the smoky voice that Usaka missed, longed and addicted to hear finally started playing.

"Welcome back, rabbit —I missed you too."

-End-

Thank you for reading! I hope I did not disappoint you guys! RR is appreciated! My favorite pairing is UsakaxArisu followed by TakatoxJunta!Thank you for tolerating my grammars and limited vocabularies —I am brushing up on it as and when I can. And yes —my writing style changed under the influence of the current stories I am reading.