Flowers for the Lady (2)

The silence could be deafening sometimes.

He could no longer hear anything else except the silence, the constant ringing of emptiness. Shouichi got up from his bed. He couldn't remember what happened last night or the night before. His mind always went somewhere else. He was just a shell of no emotion, no thought, nothing.

Under day-to-day pretence, it was easy to hide his nihilism. Just fake a smile and be done with it. All those people wouldn't care to think twice anyway. On some occasions, just a simple lie would make them feel better. He kept putting on a fake smile and saying phrases like "I'm okay…" He could effortlessly avoid digging deep into his open wound.

"What is the point of all this?!" Shouichi thought as his eyes fixated on the ground. He couldn't stand to look at the bright sky anymore. Even the normal pastel sky was too bright for him to handle. Shouichi contemplated quitting school, as it might not matter to him anymore.

"I'm home." He subconsciously announced once he arrived at his entryway like he used to. He imagined Yoko would run out to greet him, pulling his hand to the kitchen table, where they would enjoy their dinner together while talking about trivial things. He just realised then that those trivial things he had brushed off were, in fact, something valuable.

"I've missed her so much…" Shouichi groaned in his suffering, alone. Losing strength in his legs, he fell to his knees, his heart aching with piercing pain.

"Ugh!..." In desperation and anger, he forcefully shoved the shoe rack, creating a loud noise. It scattered all his shoes and Yoko's all over the place.

Shouichi didn't realise it, but his face was damp with tears. He thought he had shed the last drop, but apparently, this pain was endless. In his frail attempt to cope with the loss, he picked up Yoko's work shoes and held them tightly to his chest.

"Why did you leave me?!" Shouichi sobbed. "Yoko… If only I had made up with you just an hour faster, I could have prevented this. You would still be here with me." He wept uncontrollably, cursing himself with the thought that he could've saved her.

Yet, in the harsh light of reality, it was never that simple.

***

Another morning arrived, and Shouichi couldn't remember the night that had passed. He got up and prepared himself for school. While buttoning his shirt, his meek and dire reflection stared back at him. His eyes were lifeless and blank, with dark circles from the relentless battle. In a sense, the darkness had won over.

The boy unintentionally swept his eyes across the doorway and saw Yoko's closed door. "For me, you were my strength. Without you, I am stripped of purpose, left adrift in a world I can no longer face." A fleeting thought passed through his mind like a whisper lost to the wind.

"F*ck this shit!" Shouichi aggressively threw away his shirt and stumbled back to bed with the last bit of his energy. "I don't remember the last time I had a meal… I don't feel like it anyway," he pondered.

As Shouichi raised his hand toward the ceiling, his pinky tugging out, something flooded into his mind.

You promised… Yoko, you promised that you'd go to see the ocean together…

You promised that you would go to the hot spring with me next time…

You made me promise that I'd be by your side until the day I died… I should've made you promise that you'd be on my side too. I regret that terribly.

"I've missed her so much that I wanted to hear her voice again…"

Days turned into weeks. Shouichi wouldn't leave his bed except for water and bathroom breaks. His eyes were still fixated on the videos he had saved from the app.

Although the quality wasn't the best, he could still see Yoko as if she were alive, working in the store like she used to. It gave him a sense of joy, even if it was just an illusion.

Initially, Shouichi was annoyed by some random doorbells, but he just could no longer hear them. He put his phone in airplane mode and disconnected himself from the rest of the world.

This world was no longer his. He just wanted to see his mother. He wanted to be with her in the videos.

She was still beautiful and cheerful. He loved to see her work in the café and interact with customers. He giggled when she did something wrong or awkward around the store. Shouichi wished he could've joined her soon.

***

Every attempt to contact Shouichi failed. Suzuki couldn't reach him at all. First, she visited him at the Yamamoto residence, but he never answered his doorbells. His house looked abandoned, devoid of life. Apparently, he wasn't at the store either.

Suzuki called Ayane, and she claimed that he hadn't been at school for a week. This worried her to the core. For Morimura Ayane, his best friend and distant relative, she figured Ayane might have tried to look for him, but she couldn't get into the house.

"Don't say that he just does it too? Has he done it? I need to search for him harder." Negative thoughts crossed her mind, urging her to investigate for clues.

Fortunately, Yoko's personal effects were at the precinct under police possession. The suicide case was easily solved since it was obvious that she had taken her own life because of her recent trauma.

"Also, her suicide note… I need to give it to him," Suzuki thought, as she respectfully borrowed Yoko's keys to the Yamamoto residence. "I'm sorry, Yoko-san. But your son could be in danger." She apologised to Yoko in her mind.

It was late in the evening when the female police officer finished her work. Suzuki felt anxious and guilty for going out of her way, bending her sense of justice and righteousness for this. But without it, she couldn't think of a better solution. There was no solution. "I'm the last person who cares about him," she gave herself a pep talk.

When she arrived at Yamamoto's residence, as she expected, the house was dark with no artificial light. She shuffled, trying out each key. It wasn't long before she managed to get into the front gate and then into the house.

Once inside, it was empty and quiet. The dark atmosphere was eerie and cold, as if it was a haunted house. She naturally used her flashlight for visibility, not wanting to turn on the lights. After all, she was trespassing.

"Shouichi-kun?" Suzuki anxiously called out to him."Sorry for intruding, I'm Suzuki… I'm just worried about you…" She began to systematically search for him on the first floor. Suzuki closely examined the stove and the fridge. It appeared that no one had used it for a long while. "Maybe he left the town? Gone back to Australia?" She speculated.

Apart from the scattering of shoes in the entryway, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It just looked like a normal house that hadn't been lived in for a week or two. Suzuki concluded from her examination.

"WWAHAAAHAH!" A loud scream coming from the second floor startled her. She was pretty sure it was Shouichi's scream. The policewoman dashed upstairs. The hallway was dark. She saw Shouichi's feet sticking out of the doorway on the left, while the door on the right was wide open.

"Shouichi-kun!" She quickly rushed to the left. She saw a pale and thin boy in front of her, covering his face in fear. Suzuki turned to check the source of his dread, but nothing was there. It was just a normal room, which she assumed was Yoko's.

"I~I… I~I saw her hanging in there…" The boy was pointing at the empty space in Yoko's room direction, his entire body trembling with terror.

"But there's nothing there?" Suzuki pointed the flashlight at his pointer, but nothing was out of the ordinary. She then searched for the light switch. After a few guesses, she located it and turned it on.

The room lit up as Suzuki flicked the switch. She could hear sniffing and sobbing from the petrified boy. Under the proper light, she eventually discerned his face and body with a clear examination. He must have been malnourished for the past week to slim down like this. His face was indented with the absence of fat, and his limbs appeared frail and weak.

"What happened? Please tell me," Suzuki crouched in front of him. He appeared to have calmed down a bit.

"I don't know… I think I was having a nightmare…" He clarified in a quivering voice. His face was almost unrecognisable.

"Was it Yoko?" Suzuki asked, rubbing his shoulder to console him.

Hesitation in his eyes, but he nodded and bitterly recollected, "I'm terrified… I saw her step into the stall and hang herself. Her b~body twitched and squirmed in agony before everything became silent…"

"Look at me!" Suzuki grasped his cheeks firmly, forcing him to look forward. "Shouichi-kun, please look at me!" She repeated, louder this time.

"Huh?" He eventually snapped out of it.

"You are safe now. I think you might be having hallucinations from malnutrition. Have you eaten anything at all?" She asked out of pure concern.

"Y~yeah… no~no, I haven't been able to…" He answered. She could easily see the honesty in his eyes.

"Umm… Shouichi-kun… May I suggest something unconventional?" Suzuki stumbled over her words with half-hearted resolve. For a short moment, she placed her fist on her chest to signify her determination. "Please let me take care of you!"