The sound of the Rain

5. Understanding

“What are you planning to do today?” Ryo asked him while Hiroki sipped his tea. The bar was still empty since it was early afternoon. Most of the customers had their work but since Ryo had nothing else to do, he always opened his bar early just in case someone would need a place to crash although Hiroki was most of the time the only person crashing at his place around this time. Before he always came to his apartment, but because of him, he moved to the opening time of the bar so Hiroki could come and hide himself whenever he wanted.

“Yuriko insists on a date, so I guess I will have some fun today.” The way Hiroki said that made Ryo understand what kind of fun he meant. Ryo wasn’t the person who could complain about such things. In the end, he was a man too, but he still felt uneasy when Hiroki behaved like nothing mattered. At some point, all of this made him feel that Hiroki slowly kept vanishing right in front of his eyes. Dying inside with each passing day. Ryo didn’t know how to stop it. He didn’t know how to make him feel something, how to make him yearn for life.

“It’s definitely not fun for you anymore. Maybe you should stop with it.” He replied to him. Hiroki c****d his head to the other side, trying to figure out what Ryo talked about. He didn’t hear something like this from him for a very long time.

“That would cause more problems. I won’t be able to find someone who could satisfy my needs and stay quiet without bothering me every single second.” Hiroki stated those things like she was just playing. Ryo had no illusion about the relationship Hiroki had with Yuriko and he thought Yuriko was the same. They both used each other to kill time, although Yuriko was still a girl, not to mention pretty scheming one on top of that. The only person who refused to see it was Hiroki. Ryo did nothing against Yuriko, although he never approved of Hiroki hanging out with her, but now it was time to finish this before it gets out of his hands.

“It will bring more problems in the future if you continue like this. I am sure you are not planning to marry her, but you are together for four years now. If you ever find someone you would want to stay with, Yuriko will definitely give her hell.” Ryo kept pushing forward the conversation, trying to make Hiroki understand the situation he put himself into. Yuriko might be a girl from a rich family, but that didn’t mean she was docile. On the contrary, Yuriko was always a girl who got what she wanted. If she ever feels like it was time for those two to get married, Ryo believed she could pull those strings perfectly to get once again what she wanted. Since they both were still studying, she let Hiroki do what she wanted, but that won’t last forever, yet Hiroki pretended to be blind about this and not taking her character seriously.

“I know what you are trying to say, but that will never happen. She knows her place.” Hiroki just waved his worries away.

“Plus, do I look like someone who is serious about girls? I am not interested in this marriage thing at all.” He added with disgust in his voice. Just because his mother pushed him into the marriage, he became strongly against it. Right now, even if he would find someone whom he would fall in love with, he would resist marriage at all costs.

“We will see about that.” Ryo gave up. He knew what Hiroki went through after father’s death and what life prepared him for. His college years were the only chance to keep a bit of freedom, but eventually Hiroki would have to take his place in the company and follow his father’s footsteps unless he planned to go completely against his family and cut ties with them. Hiroki seemed like the person who could do something like that, but his cowardliness to stay on his own two feet tied him to this destiny, to this family.

“You know you can work here with me, right?” Ryo felt like reminding him of the offer he gave him before Hiroki went to the college. This bar was just newly opened, and Ryo didn’t have anyone else who would run the place with him. He offered the partnership to Hiroki, but he refused strongly with words that he needs to finish college first. Those words came from his mouth, but he knew they didn’t belong to him. Those were not words coming from his heart. Hiroki’s chains were just too strong and short for him to resist, but one day, maybe. One day, Hiroki might be strong enough to get out of that place and grasp his life and do what he always wanted to.

“Yeah, I am sure you believe those words yourself. You know my mother and my brother.” Hiroki tried to soften his reply with a smile, but deep inside, he knew that his mother, or his brother, would let him just leave the family and work in the bar. They would try their best to destroy this place together with its owner, and that was something Hiroki couldn’t let happen. Not after Ryo’s hard work.

“I know, but maybe one day you will shake them off of your shoulders.” Ryo placed his hand on Hiroki’s shoulder, trying to support him. For the past few years, giving him an ear and supporting him by his presence was the only thing he could do for him. Offering a place to hide and talk. Everything else was simply out of his powers. He hated himself for this uselessness, but in this world, fighting against power and money wasn’t easy. They both knew that. Being the one caught in those chains of power, same as the one who tried to fight against this huge mill of money, wasn’t something they prepared them both for. Hiroki worked hard to keep his composure when dealing with mother and his brother. When his father lived, it was quite easier. His father never pushes hard for him to take over the company and become an adult. All he wanted for his two sons was happiness and childhood, but Hiroki experienced that firsthand since he was a child. Almost never could the kids come closer to him, at least not when he had the security surrounding him, instead of his parents. The most generous thing his father did for him was overlooking those escapes and letting him be out on his own, hidden by the shadow of anonymity and being himself for a short moment. This all broke with his death.

The only thing Hiroki now didn’t understand was the push from his brother. Usually, the oldest one wanted everything for himself. Or at least one child always wanted everything for himself, but Hideki was different. All he wanted was for his brother to inherit the company and become the CEO, same as him. Hideki wanted him to throw everything behind his head and just focus on family business. Maybe it was his way of torturing his younger brother.

“So, what are you gonna do about Yuriko? Are you seriously going to continue this until there is no way out?” Ryo tried to reason with him one more time.

“Why are you obsessed with this?” Hiroki looked him deeply in the eyes, trying to figure out what drove him to interfere with his relationship.

“I am not obsessed, but you are getting older with every passing day and whether you like it or not, eventually you will meet the one you want. Keeping Yuriko around will only cause more damage, and you know that. She is already becoming overbearing, but because you are too lazy to fight with her, you just tolerate that.” Ryo sighed loudly. Hiroki still stared at him, but after this speech, he had no words to reply to him. He brooded over what he said and no matter how hard he tried, there simply wasn’t any reply to this. Ryo was right. He was always right about everything. You couldn’t expect anything else from an outside observer. Not to mention Ryo always kept Hiroki at the center, straight in front of his eyes.

“Damn you, man. Why do you always have to be right?” Hiroki complained in the end, punching the bar. He didn’t want to admit it, but Ryo was right about Yuriko. Hiroki knew that a long time ago, but his own laziness refused to do anything about that and now might be already late. He knew that Yuriko slowly paved her way to his family. Luckily for him, his mother had a tough personality and getting close to her took a lot of effort and strong dedication. None of this Yuriko lacked. Only one question remained: “When will she get close enough to his mother”.

“Told ya.” Ryo felt better hearing Hiroki finally realized the problem, and it seemed he did something about that.

The time slowly flew by and without realizing those two hours, Hiroki had left before his meeting with Yuriko almost passed. Ryo told him a lot of things that were happening around him, since high school, which Hiroki never realized before. Many of those things seemed distant, but as Ryo continued, it slowly made more sense. He had time to think about his plan and how to break up with her, but he knew it wouldn't be that easy. After four years with her, I'm sure she won’t give up so easily. Now, when he was thinking about it, she did a good job isolating him from other girls when they were at school. The anger inside him grew stronger than he slowly realized what she was doing all those years and how she controlled him. A lot of things suddenly made sense, for example, how she always knew where he was. He punched the bar one more time, overturning the glass of juice Ryo gave him, spilling the liquid all over the bar.

“She is a hell of a scheming bitch.” Hiroki shouted, full of anger.

“Glad you finally realized that, but it’s funny. I tried to make you open your eyes for so long and you never listened and now you just needed two hours of talking? Did something happen today that made you so open-minded?” Ryo knew this wasn’t just like this. Something must have happened. He tried to talk to Hiroki for the past three years, but Hiroki always waved him off with words that he knew what he was doing and only getting himself deeper into her webs. For Hiroki to suddenly listen and think about his words meant that something happened before he came here. Hiroki only shook his head before checking the time on his watch.

“I should be going.” He said while taking his stuff, turning around and heading to the door, but before he hit the knob, he turned his face to Ryo one more time.

“Thanks for not giving up on me.” He said with a smile on his lips. Ryo knew that smile too well to understand it was a genuine one. For Hiroki to smile like this could mean only one thing. Whatever happened to him today, it was quite good to put him into this good mood, although the challenge that lay in front of him now.