Chapter 36: Career talk

"I don't mean to pry but, do you want to tell me about it? I won't force you to though." 

"It's just that my family doesn't really support me when it comes to writing. My parents would usually tell me to just make it a part time job and not a main job considering how risky it is to become a novelist. I know where they're coming from, but writing isn't that easy to just give it my spare time. It requires a huge amount of time and effort to be able to make one story. How can they not understand that?" 

I understand what Haruto is trying to say because I know of many people who think of writing stories as something easy to do. Despite understanding that, I really don't know what to say when I myself don't know how to handle the situation if I was in his shoes. 

"How much do you love writing Haruto?" 

"I love it so much to the point of obsession." 

"I don't know about the situation in your family, nor do I know if the two of us will be successful and become great novelists. But one thing's for sure. It's that we both love writing so much to just let it go. I say we keep struggling to prove others wrong. Besides, I don't want that talented brain of yours to be wasted." 

"I guess you're right Aoi. Thanks a lot. I would be lying if everything's good right away, but you really took some weight off my shoulders. Should I kiss you?"

"Don't even think about it or do you want me to smack your head on this piano?" 

"Chill dude! I'm kidding. I love Shin too much to cheat on her with her best friend." 

"Anyway? How are you guys doing?" 

"Well, we've been fighting a lot and she would usually get violent but no major fights are recorded yet. How did you even handle her violence all these years Aoi?" 

I guess that's to be expected, but he should be happy Shin's being violent. That means that the problem isn't major. Once she gets mad like real mad, she would just act that you don't exist and ignore you totally.

"You'll get used to it in no time so hang in there my dear friend." 

We spent a few minutes there before heading out. I dropped Haruto back at his place and I went on my way home. 

Just when I arrived home and lay down on my bed, I received a call from Yukino. Talk about perfect timing.

"So? How'd it go with Haruto? Was it a fight with Shin?" 

"It went alright I guess? But it wasn't a fight with Shin, in fact they're getting along quite better than I expected. But listen to this, I learned something really shocking about Haruto." 

"What was it?" 

"He's actually a rich kid. You won't believe your eyes when you see that dude's house!" 

"What? Wasn't he really amazed when we went to your apartment?" 

"Yeah, I don't know why but that dude's house is like a mansion! I wonder if Shin knew about this."

"We should probably ask Shin about this." 

The phone call ended and Haruto's situation made me think about what people usually thought of us writers. I guess becoming a successful one would indeed be tough which will probably make parents worry and question if their child is choosing the right path. Most parents would want something like a more well known type of job which offers a higher chance for success. But I think there's no such thing as playing safe in life, we all have to take risks at one point in our lives. Of course it's a good thing that our parents would want what's best for us, but I also think that they can't make someone love what they don't. Yeah sure, there are a lot of factors aside from passion such as skill, financial stability, luck, and many more factors. But I think that we should take that leap of faith if we want to have a chance at pursuing our dreams. I know that success isn't guaranteed for everyone, that's reality. But I also don't want to live a life of regret. I want to live it the way that I picture it. A life with no regrets should be the path that I take no matter what. 

But then again, my perspective on career path is just one of the many out there. And I'm not the most knowledgeable regarding this field so many might question this perspective of mine. I'm sure there are others who think completely opposite of me and there are others that have a similar one. This matter is subjective and I think that there will be no right or wrong answer. I wonder what Haruto thinks about this. How would he handle the situation? I just hope that he finds the right answer for himself. 

The very next morning, I found myself feeling a headache so I tried checking my temperature and found that I indeed have a fever. It was 38.9. My body felt so heavy that I couldn't seem to find the energy to go to university let alone get up from my bed. I decided to skip lectures just for today so I guess that my straight A punctuality these past few days will have to end its streak. 

I fell back to sleep and woke up by 1 PM. What woke me up was my rumbling stomach which hadn't eaten anything yet. The question is, what should I eat? Going to the convenience store is definitely out of the question, so should I force myself to cook something? An egg maybe? 

I gathered all my strength to pick myself up from the bed and went to the kitchen to cook a poorly made scrambled egg.

Bleh-

It definitely tastes bad. Salty! Considering that I didn't even know how much salt I put in, the taste shouldn't have surprised me this much. I went back to bed and tried to rest, it was hard to fall asleep since my head's been aching but thankfully, my fatigue did the work and I fell asleep once again.

I was woken up by a phone call from Yukino.

"Aoi? I heard you skipped school." 

"Yeah, I'm not feeling too well right now so I might take a day off or two." 

The line cut which made me wonder what's up.