1 Natsuo x Rui

It was a nice and warm day. The sun shone from a beautiful blue sky partially covered by a few small white clouds. The leafs of the surrounding plant life, blowing in a light breeze, were like a whispering audience.

But Natsuo Fujii noticed none of that. As far as he was concerned, it might as well have been pouring. To him, the world was gray and without joy.

There were two main reasons for that. For one, Natsuo just couldn't write anymore. He had been an aspiring young author, and a rather successful one at that. He just recently had published his first book, and even though he wasn't content with the way that had happened at all, it had been a further step towards his dream of becoming a professional novelist. But for some reason he couldn't tackle, he couldn't write anything at all anymore. He didn't believe it to be just writer's block, he had experienced that before and always overcome it. But then again – before, he had had Rui.

Rui Tachibana was the second and more important reason Natsuo's world hardly seemed worth living in anymore. Until recently, Rui had been Natsuo's girlfriend. In spite of their rather unusual circumstances, Rui had slowly conquered his heart after his relationship with his previous girlfriend had come to an end rather abruptly. Natsuo had known about Rui's feelings for him even before that, but it had taken him a long time to realize he himself had fallen in love with her too. Looking back, Natsuo was well aware that he had hurt Rui quite a few times back then because of that. In spite of that, Rui had been there for him even before she knew her love would be returned. For example, she had helped him resolve a writer's block. So maybe it was just writer's block after all, but he actually never had had the strength to overcome those on his own. The world truly seemed dark without Rui. His time as her boyfriend had been the best of his life – but that was all over now.

"Hey, you came!" a familiar voice yelled "To be honest, I kinda thought you would just keep locking yourself in your apartment!"

"You basically threatened to kidnap me if I didn't, so what choice did I have?" Natsuo replied in a miserable voice. The newcomer was his friend Al. "So what did you want to talk about so urgently?" Natsuo asked.

"Did you two really break up? Did you actually.."

"Yes, we broke up. Is that a problem?" Natsuo interrupted him without any emotion in his voice.

The world was gray and without life. He didn't care anymore. What use was there in caring now. He had lost everything he had in this world. He was basically only living out of habit anyway.

Al punched him in the face."Is that a problem? IS THAT A PROBLEM? Have you gone mad? OF COURSE that's a damn problem! It's a catastrophe!" he shouted angrily.

Natsuo didn't care about the pain. It was meaningless, just like everything else. "And why is that?" he asked, still without any emotion in his voice.

Al punched him again, harder this time, so that the force sent Natsuo to the ground. Al towered over him "Because she loves you, you idiot! And you love her, don't you?"

For the first time in perhaps days, Natsuo felt something. "she loves you". It stung. A lot. "She doesn't love me! I wasn't the one who wanted to break up!" He shouted as loud as he could, his voice filled with rage and frustration "She doesn't love me!"

There was a moment of silence. Al, who had backed away a little bit at his sudden outbreak, just looked at him in disbelief.

Then he punched him again, almost knocking Natsuo's head to the ground. Next, he crouched down, grabbed Natsuo by his collar and, looking him straight in the eyes, told him in a calm, yet unyielding voice "So that's what you're telling yourself? That Rui doesn't love you anymore? Perhaps never did? Do you remember back when I still tried to get her to go out with me? Do you remember how you made her cry on our trip to see Kiriya-Sensei's shooting for the movie adaptation of one of his books? Do you remember how you helped me get close to her even though you knew it would hurt her just because you didn't have the guts to accept your feelings? And most importantly, do you remember how after all that, after you treated her that badly, she still told me she just can't give up on you? After actively trying to get over you, not knowing whether her love is ever gonna be returned, she still just couldn't give up on you. Still, one word from you could make or ruin her day. And you are trying to tell me that that Rui, that person that loved you so much more than you deserved, after a year of actually being with the person she loved so much she would have been fine with just watching him from the sidelines for the rest of her live, just stopped loving you after a few month in America? How can you even think that? Did she tell you she doesn't love you anymore? You can't honestly believe her that she..."

"She didn't tell me that she doesn't love me anymore. Actually, she even told me that she still loves me." Natsuo's whole attitude hat completely changed during Al's speech. While in the beginning he had looked like he would finally punch back, he now just sat on the ground, staring at the grass, tears in his eyes. Al on the other hand seemed to explode when he heard that Rui not only hadn't told him she doesn't love him but actually did the opposite "WHAAAAAAAAAA.."

"But why?" Natsuo interrupted him faintly "Why did she break up with me?".

Al struggled a moment to calm himself down but then returned to his calm voice "I don't know. Now as to the actual reason I wanted to talk to you. Remember what you promised me when Rui and you started going out?"

Natsuo just stared at the grass for a few seconds "I promised you to make her happy". He repeated, with an even fainter voice than before "I promised to make her happy"

Al stood up, turned around, and started walking away. Without looking back, he asked "So how do you think she feels right now, having broken up with the man she loves?".