Eternal Melody



SUMIRE

At Toh's apartment.

After feeding the kids and tucking them in for bed, she found herself scrolling through her phone. She paused before opening up her chat message history with Yuhi and staring at the pictures Yuhi-san sent her earlier. He really is a work of art. Sometimes she wonders if Yuhi-san is real. How can anybody look so perfect? It feels like somebody sculpted him, to have such perfect features and to have that lovely hair that reminds her of the night sky, and the stars.

"Hi beautiful." A voice said from behind her. 

Sumire jumped at the sound of Toh's voice and ended up dropping her phone. Unfortunately for her, her phone landed directly at Toh's feet, giving him the best view of what she was looking at.

"I see."

"T-that's not it-" Sumire exclaimed with flushed cheeks. "We don't normally do this, and I'm not a pervert just because I happen to be looking at naked pictures-"

This is so embarrassing. Why is it every time she does something stupid, Toh catches her?

"Do you still keep my pictures?" Toh suddenly asked.

Sumire blinked, startled at his question. She was half-expecting him to tease her. 

"Ah-those."

Did she ever delete them? Now that she thinks about it. After Toh left, she spent a lot of time staring at his photos. Until Ren took her from off her saying it's unhealthy for her to keep reminding herself of her past relationship. Ren insisted that she focused on the present.

She simply assumed after that grand speech, he deleted the pictures for her. But, she never actually checked. Sumire scrolls through her gallery and sees a familiar folder. Her cheeks heated up when she opened it, almost dropping her phone again, but Toh catches it.

Toh's lips curved to an amused smile. "So, you kept them?"

"D-don't misunderstand jerk. It's because I forgot they were even there!" Sumire exclaimed.

A lot happened afterwards, the last thing on her mind would be the pictures. 

He chuckled. "No need to explain, I get it."

No, no. No. He is definitely misunderstanding! She should go through the folder and delete the explicit ones later. There are some photos of them as a couple however that she wants to keep. Just because they have broken up, doesn't mean she has to delete all their memories. She knows most couples do that, so they don't linger in the past and it helps them move on. But, there is no need for her to do that.

"Toh, I told Yuhi about what was happening with San and he told me to tell you to take care of the situation." Sumire decided to change the topic.

"So, you can use the dream space?" Toh guessed.

Sumire slowly nodded.

"Thats good. If you can see Terashima once in awhile, you won't be as lonely."

Sumire lowered her head in shame. After what happened, things have been slightly awkward between them. Toh can't hide his desire for her anymore, and as for her. The small grain of sand, the small part of her that still loves Toh is resurfacing.

But, even so. Breaking up with Yuhi-san is a no. She still loves Yuhi more.

'I really am a selfish person. How can I stay by his side like this, when I know how strongly he feels about me?' This is not the first time she has had this thought. Since the first day they moved in together, she has been thinking that she ought to put some distance between them. But Toh wouldn't let her.

"I-I'm hungry." Sumire stammered shifting the topic.

Toh's lips curved to a smile. "I've made you something, it's in the fridge."

Sumire nodded and picked up her phone from the ground, as she walked over to the kitchen area. The moment she opened the fridge she saw various dishes, dishes that just happened to be her favourite.

Moments later she hears approaching footsteps and felt Toh wrap his arms around her from the back.

"So,do you have plans again tonight?" Toh mumbled.

"I-" 

'-need to practice, and get away from you?' Sumire shakes her head. Toh definitely wouldn't like that explanation. Besides it's very hard for her to avoid someone, when they are living together. 

It's been awkward since that time, but it's not like she didn't know that this would happen eventually. That was why she set those rules up when they first started living together. She trusted Toh not to touch her without her permission. But, she also understood that it would be difficult for him if they ever became too close.

Now that night? That night she ended up poisoned, they definitely got closer than they should have. Later on Atushi explained the details to her properly, and since then she has put some space between herself and Toh. That incident set him off.

"Don't avoid me, Sumire." Toh said sharply.

She doesn't want to. She genuinely meant it when she said she missed him. From the very first moment they met, Toh has always made her feel safe. She missed spending time with him, she missed how naturally it felt to be by his side. Sumire takes a deep breath before saying.

"I have plans."

Toh frowned, probably thinking that she was going to go out and avoid him again. But she quickly said. 

"Were watching another movie together right?"

Toh blinked and chuckled. "Yeah." He reached over and opened the fridge. "Which one of these do you want? I'll sort it out, and you can pick a movie?"

Sumire nodded and pointed to several dishes before walking over to the living room. She stopped in front of the rows of movies lined up on the shelves. Now that she thinks about it, Toh has always liked watching movies. Even when he is busy working on new designs, he would have a movie playing in the background. 

She brows through a few of them and notices familiar titles. Titles of books from her shelves in star town that had been adapted into movies. She paused and then chuckled softly. He used to say that because he is so busy he doesn't have much time to read. So, instead of reading, he found the movie adaptations?

'I want to know everything about you.' Then again, he did use to say lines like that. 

'Not as a psychologist, but as the one who is dating you.'

There was a time when Toh simply watched over her due to his profession. He only learned things about her because he wanted to see why she was different. She couldn't blame him for that, after all the same went for her towards him.

*Unedited*