[The King's Avatar] The Misconstrued Situation With An Overdue Explanation

Chapter 15: Unanswered Call

878 words, 4 minutes

It's been a week since she last spoke to Josaku like that.

Akane reasoned that he was busy catching up on a lot of work from both of his programs, so she didn't even send him her first text despite having had added his number to her contact list. She was worried that he might be stressed.

That was pretty funny considering she was becoming quite stressed herself.

~

The workload had been ramping up since school started, and it felt like all the teachers had secret meetings beforehand because the 2nd week of October was when many students were complaining about having test after test.

The preparation was the usual; grab a couple of friends, make plans to study together somewhere and study on your own after they left.

But for Akane, since she was one of the few students that was enrolled in 3 programs, she didn't have time to go ask any of her classmates to study for all of them. Hell, she barely got to talk to Chen Guo and Tang Rou during this week. The only time she saw Tang Rou was during their Music Performance classes, and it was harder to run into Chen Guo since she shared no classes with them.

Walking through the halls felt like a huge task and also served as a reminder that she had business to attend to.

As she walked to her next class, textbooks held in her arms, Akane felt like she understood what it meant when there were special people in your life that you looked forward to spending time with before, during and after school.

~

She surprisingly didn't go straight to study in her room. Akane decided to take her time at home and prepare a nice bowl of hot pot for herself, something she would usually do after she finished studying for Chinese Literature and International Trade.

While eating on the kitchen table, though, a thought crossed her mind.

She hadn't changed out of her outfit yet, and her phone was still in her jeans' back pocket.

The thought further fleshed itself out in her head as Akane set her chopsticks down and pulled out her phone. She opened her contact list and scrolled through them. Her 3 friends from Nagoya, Chen Guo, Tang Rou, Josaku...

There weren't a lot of contacts saved on her phone, but at the very bottom were her mom's and dad's phone numbers.

They were at the bottom for a reason; because she hadn't contacted them in a while.

She could feel a pang of guilt make her heart swell unpleasantly, even as she decided to try calling her dad first and shakily pressed his phone number.

She held the phone to her ear and waited. After a few rings, it went to voicemail.

How could she forget what their work schedule was like already? She was supposed to be good at recalling details. But then again, she was a child back then who was constantly reminded by them to study.

Akane tried calling him again.

Still no answer.

She decided to try calling her mom. The same thing happened and her phone number went to voicemail.

After neither one of them answered her, Akane gave up for now. Perhaps they were busy at work. Maybe something she wasn't aware of came up. Maybe they were in the middle of an important phone call at work. Maybe they didn't have their phones on them.

Either way, she would leave her phone's ringer turned on while she studied in case they decided to call.

~

When there were no "Missed Call" notifications on her phone the next morning, Akane decided to just try again some other time. Japan was a busy country, Nagoya a busy city, and it wasn't unusual for her hardworking parents to prioritize their work.

She got that from them after all.

While she was still on her phone, though, she decided to take a selfie of her wearing one of her favorite outfits when riding her motorcycle; a white T-shirt topped by a blue varsity jacket with white sleeves, slightly baggy blue jeans that were cuffed at the ankles and unadorned black ankle boots with a low heel.

When she scrolled through her camera feed, she saw the picture she'd taken of Josaku walking away on the day they first talked to each other.

She found it so cute... but then she remembered what Tang Rou told her about how she "wouldn't want him to think she's a stalker".

Akane deleted it without hesitation. If she and Josaku were gonna get together, then she reasoned they'd be able to take as many pictures together as they wanted.

~

While riding on the road and seeing Josaku turn up with a sports bike wave, Akane briefly wondered if their first selfie together would be on a motorcycle. And which one? His or hers?

She might be getting ahead of herself, but it was fun to have thoughts like this.

Her gaze fell on the Jialing River once more, and she appreciated its serene beauty just like she had last year. She also did it out of bashfulness since Josaku hadn't sped off like before. Today, he was riding with her to university.

____________________________________________________________

A/N:

All I keep thinking now is, "Don't let this become another fic that doesn't reach the end."

With that said, I really hope you guys are still enjoying this! I'm trying my best here, and I can't wait to finish this fic! I became nit-picky and organized each chapter, lol.

Now, I have school, Inktober, personal notes, hobbies and this fic to worry about.

—Kaio