Tsuyoshi wonders out of his room and came upon Nakai who is drinking alone in the kitchen. "Yo!" He greeted his regular drinking partner. " What's wrong?" Nakai asks calmly. " Where's Joyce?"
" She's not back from school yet." Tsuyoshi replied.
" Drink?" Nakai gestures at a bottle of sake on the table.
" Thanks."
While Nakai pour out a glass of sake for him, Tsuyoshi rubs his face tiredly.
" You look tired."
" Yes, I am. I haven't had much sleep since the start of the onsen trip." Tsuyoshi yawned before taking a big sip from his glass.
" Wow ~ she wore you thin." Nakai joked.
" No kidding."
" Can I ask you something?"
" Sure."
" You don't strike me as the type to get married on a spur of the moment." Nakai analyses thoughtfully. Tsuyoshi burst out laughing instead of replying. " I don't know Joyce, of course. But what made you ~"
" She's the most passionate lady I ever met. She's bubbly and she's fun. I need someone like that in my dull life."
" Dull life?" Nakai asks in surprise. He never thought of Tsuyoshi's life as dull.
" I don't know. I was alone day in day out, there wasn't anyone whom I can account for."
" Some people will call that freedom." Nakai laugh but Tsuyoshi shook his head determinedly.
" She weighted me down, give me a purpose to live." He explains with the smile of a blissful man. Nakai kept thoughtfully quiet, he had never thought of it that way. Suddenly his heart ache for the same smile on Tsuyoshi's face and he realised that he is feeling lonely too but he just push it away everytime loneliness rears its head.
" But even so, you don't have to rush to get the papers signed so fast! You don't want your friends and family to witness the most important event in your life?" Nakai questions.
" Her visa is expiring next month. She has to go home after that happens. I don't think I can live without her so the only way she can stay on is for me to marry her right away. At least her chances of staying will be higher."
cj kicked at a pebble at her foot angrily. Her head is hung low and she sighs periodically as she walks home from school. Her out of body experience had ended at precisely the moment when school's over. Now she knows that she has to come to terms with the real situation whether she likes it or not. Suddenly, she don't feel like going back anymore. Standing still, she comtemplated where she could go to hide.
" cj?!"
She turned in response to the person calling out to her and she almost took off and ran. Her English teacher is walking towards her! By the time her mind is made up to run, it is too late to actually do it. She waited in resignation for Joyce to catch up.
" It's really you! I thought I was mistakened." Joyce laughs gaily at herself. " What are you doing here so late? You live around here?" cj nodded numbly. " What a coincident! So do I, from now on ~"
" I lived next to Mr Kusanagi." cj said swallowing hard. She is having such a hard time calling him by the formal name but she feels it is best she does now. Whatever for? To dull the pain in her heart? To appear aloof and pretend she is not the least affected? Suddenly the urge to run comes back to her.
" Really?!" Joyce exclaimed.
" Yes. I am staying with Goro's sister who lives across the hall from him."
" I have not met everyone yet ~ I really must do it soon."
" There's no hurry ~ you only moved in last night." cj mumbles politely. Joyce starts walking again and cj follows meekly. She knows she has no way of escaping now.
" You must have known Tsu very long then?' Joyce asks ruefully.
" Tsu?"
" Oh ~ I mean Tsuyoshi." Joyce giggles. " That's what I call him ~ Tsu...."
" I ~ I see." cj mutters weakly.
" So you two know each other long?"
" I moved in at the start of the semester." cj explains. " I don't know him very well."
" I see. Neither do I ~ that's why I am trying to piece him together. You know, much like a jigsaw puzzle." Joyce explains looking a little sad and lost.
" Can I ~ "
" Yes?"
" How can you marry a man you do not understand at all?"
" I beg your pardon?"
" The both of you spent a few nights at the onsens and decided that you should get married and live forever?" cj said getting a little worked up. " Don't you think that is too fast?"
Joyce is struck dumb by cj's seemingly angry confrontation. She doesn't see why she needs to explain to cj but she feels it's best she does. " I was the one who gave him the holiday voucher."
" You did?" cj blinks in surprise.
" Yes. He thought we are going as a big group, that's why he was surprised to see only the two of us. I wasn't sure if I was the reason he agreed to go but I had to make the first move.
" My visa is expiring next month. I may never have another chance to travel with him."
" I see ~"
" While we are there, we went for walks, have long talks and every night we look up at the stars and talked about the person residing in our hearts. He never told me who it was, but I was just glad to be able to be by his side listening quietly ~
" On the last night, he invited me into his room and I saw two mattresses laid out side by side. I could see that he was a little drunk and very sad. He invited me to stay and I did. I guess the thought of it being the last chance I have to spend time alone with him made that night memorable. And the next morning when he proposed, I said yes."
cj was too engrossed in listening to the story that she couldn't bring herself out of it after it ended. Joyce waited patiently as they kept on walking. Wanting to have cj's understanding feels really important to her. In fact Joyce has her own insecurities, and to get rid of them, she needs the approval of everyone who is around Tsuyoshi.
Suddenly cj stopped walking and turned to face her squarely. " I understand now." She gave a placid smile. " You have my blessings."
Alhough the last sentence seems totally out of context, it is what Joyce needed. " Thanks, cj."
" You're welcomed." cj smiles in return. " C'mon, let's go home!"
