Too Late To Regret

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'The sky doesn't look the same,' was the thought on her head as she stared at it, lying on the ground. The grass pricking her skin as she breathes the staleness of the air. "This is not home," she mumbled to herself watching the sky.

Now that she is finally here, she felt stupid running away from her mother. She wondered why she can't just be an adult, sit down and talk things out with her mother.

'Because she always judges you first before listening to your explanation.'

'Because you are a coward who chose to lie rather than tell the truth?'

She closed her eyes as if she could shut the voices in her head by doing so. They don't. They get noisier the longer she ignores them. But what can she do? Some things can never be undone no matter how much she regrets them.

She never wanted things to be this way. She thought she could have things on her way, however, as time passed by, it was clear that those things she wanted in her life weren't going to happen.

She has to make do of what she has now. There was no use crying over spilt milk. She could just find another cow -- or buy herself a farm!

"Hey, don't sleep on the ground! The neighbors would find you crazy and called the police on us! I didn't like it when I greeted our neighbor when I met her at the konbini. She didn't reply to my konnichiwa. Why is that?"

"They called the police. They will just give us a silent disgruntled look or put a letter of complaint in our mailbox," she chuckled softly as she got up from the ground.

Dirt clung to her butt and her shirt got dirty. She was removing the dry grass on her hair and her elbow when a shadow crossed her line of vision. She looked from wiping her arm and met a familiar man.

He is wearing eyeglasses now, his hair is still cut short, and he wears the usual salaryman suit. He squatted and removed the dry grass on her hair.

"Hisashiburi desu, Laurie-san."

"Nakamura-san," she muttered his name under her breath. She wasn't expecting to see him as soon as she arrived. If she hasn't been breaking his heart since two thousand one, she would assume that he came to see her.

There was another plausible reason why he's here than what her egoistic self could assume. That was because he owned the building they were staying in free of charge from her friend who happened to be his only sister.

"How was your trip?" he asked in his usual monotonous voice.

"It was uneventful. Just your usual six hours flight," she gave him a small smile.

"There is no need for your guard to be up." he didn't let her argue with what he was saying, and added, "Other than I'm here to welcome you as a family friend visiting, your mother called."

'Family friend? Ouch!' She was put in her place just like that. He is still as blunt as she remembered him to be. His manner of speaking doesn't help his bluntness in winning him the Mister Congeniality award.

But it helped him handle his family business and grew it into a multi-million dollar international enterprise at such a young age that his family corporation was listed in Forbes Top 500 companies to watch.

She stared at his slanted eyes and thought to herself, if she wasn't idealistic about love when she was nineteen, she is now the wife of this multi-millionaire guy, squatting in front of her face.

"My mother called?" She asked in bewilderment. It seemed like she underestimated the tenacity of her mother in wanting to marry off. She thought her mother won't think of this country as the last place she would run to.

Now, inhaling his minty aftershave, why does she feel like she walked to the Lion's den to be slaughtered?

"Yes," he confirmed what he said. "She and Father had a talk --"

"And?" She opened her palm in a gesture of asking, "What happened.?" Why does he have to stop in the middle of his sentence.

He put his hands on his knees and pushed himself up. "Come to the house this weekend."

She sprung up and ran after him, "Why do I have to come to your house?" She crashed her face onto his chest, for he unexpectedly pivoted to face her.

"I was just relaying the message Mei Mei wanted me to tell you." he furrowed his eyebrow, looking down on her like she was the most idiotic person he ever met.

She pushed her chin up, and met his eyes, "Tell me what did your father and my mother talk about."

The corner of his mouth was pulled into a mocking smile, "You have to come to the house this weekend, Laurie-san." he turned around as soon as he answered her.

She grabbed his elbow, "Why can't just tell me now, nii-chan?" He was playing with her! This jerk!

He pulled his elbow from her grasp, and he had the audacity to pat his elbow like he was shaking off some dust!

"Laurie-san, just as I said, my Father and your mother talked," he said the word father slowly as though he was talking to a kid who couldn't understand what he was saying.

She gritted her teeth in annoyance. "And that's why I am asking you, what was the talk about?" She widened her eyes at this annoying man.

He bent down to meet her eyes, and exaggeratedly widened his eyes, and spoke the words slowly, "If you want to know the answer to that question, talk to my father. I didn't say that it was I, that your mother talks to, did I?"

"You had grown up, Nakamura-san," she commented as she stepped away from him. "Vengeful, I'd say."

He didn't answer her taunting which just further aggrieved her. He simply bows down to Bella and turns around without giving her a second glance.

'Jerk!' Her hands were fisted on her side as she watched him put on his shoes at the genkan and exit the door.