Side Story 4 - Trunk Elf (3/3)

<p>'What if Kei doesn't remember me forever? What do I do? I can't live without him anymore.'<br/><br/>---------------------<br/><br/>Sparkles and Twinkle were watching by the window. Sparkles can't help but hit Twinkle's head.<br/><br/>"Ouch!"<br/><br/>"Look what you've done to those lovers!"<br/><br/>"Huh, lovers?" His reaction only made Sparkles angrier.<br/><br/>"Stupid, stupid stupid!" Hitting him consecutively once again.<br/><br/>"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"<br/><br/>"You said he should break it himself or live being forgotten forever. But what if it's already too late for them to make up after the pain you put that tangerine through?"<br/><br/>"I didn't know they were lovers. When I cursed him to forget how to love, how would I know that that tangerine was the love of his life?"<br/><br/>"Because you refuse to see the truth, just as stubborn as you were when I was explaining to you."<br/><br/>They followed Kei, hoping he gets to break the curse.<br/><br/>Kei walked the familiar path towards the bench.  He saw the collapsed old tree trunk.  He sat on the bench and stared at it.<br/><br/>'Did I cause that?'<br/><br/>'Shoyo... Shoyo... My mind doesn't remember him.  But my heart wants to soothe him, his tears affect me so much that I don't want to look at him... because I might reach out to him.  Every time I sense his pain, my heart seems to be in pain too...'<br/><br/>'What happened?  It doesn't make sense that he's my lover when I don't remember him,  but it also doesn't make sense that I'm with him if we're not in some kind of a close relationship.'<br/><br/>He saw the apple on the ground.<br/><br/>'Did I put that in there? Wait ...'<br/><br/>"Arghhhh!"  A sudden sharp pain hit his right temple.  His hand massaged his head easing the pain that doesn't want to go away.  After a minute or two, he breathed a sigh of relief.<br/><br/>He remembered Shoyo said he has a lot of pictures.  He pulled out his cell phone from his jacket and opened the gallery app.<br/><br/>The gallery's most recent pictures were of the small temple uphill.  Yesterday.  The fruits he brought at the altar, the surrounding nature...<br/><br/>'But I didn't put that apple in the ground.  What for?  That tree trunk, I seem to remember it still in one piece yesterday.  But did I destroy it?'<br/><br/>"Arghhhh!" Another pain shot through his temple, this time expanding up to his eye sockets and bridge of the nose.<br/><br/>He looked at his cell phone and his sight got blurry but the pictures seems to have multiplied.  He rubbed his eyes.  He focused.  And then he saw them.  The pictures he took of Shoyo yesterday. His memories came flooding back.  All six years of cuddling, kissing, laughing, and... what's that... something's missing.<br/><br/>I can't describe it.  What's it called?<br/><br/>"Hey, are you okay?" Shoyo appeared, his eyes puffy from crying.  His voice trembled slightly.  But he stayed a good meter away from Kei.<br/><br/>Kei stared at him.<br/><br/>What is this feeling?  How did I forget about my beautiful Shoyo? But... but my mind can't remember him earlier but my heart does?<br/><br/>"I— I know you don't remember me, but I will be with you until you can.  But if you can't remember me, please give me a chance to make new memories with you.  So that you go through the feelings again.  I will help you reach the same feelings again.  Please give me that chance.  Please love me again."  Shoyo was once again sobbing.<br/><br/>"Love! That's what I'm missing!"  Kei exclaimed. <br/><br/>"Arghhhh!" Kei held his head with both hands. The rush of emotions blurred his vision as he felt a more intense pain in his head.<br/><br/>"Oh my, Kei? What's wrong?"  Shoyo sat beside Kei and held him in his arms.<br/><br/>"It's okay Kei, it's okay...". He sniffled while hugging Kei. They went hugging like that for a while. Then Kei broke the silence.<br/><br/>"I'm sorry Shoyo..." Kei straightened up and cupped Shoyo's face, "I'm so sorry baby, I should have never forgotten you.  I'm so sorry baby.  Forgive me, forgive me..."<br/><br/>"You remember me now? Really? I love you Kei! You now love me again?"<br/><br/>"I don't think I ever stopped.  I am hurting all this time that I saw you hurt because I forgot about you.  My heart belongs to you though my mind wandered off."<br/><br/>"Really? Did you remember me now? I'm your baby of six years. We have two dino plushies. We have an apartment, we— we — uwaaaaah!!!" Shoyo cried like a baby. He cannot take it anymore.<br/><br/>"I'm sorry baby, I remember everything now. But trust me when I say, my mind may have forgotten, by my heart remained yours. I love you so much, baby. I'm sorry."<br/><br/>The lovers spent a few more minutes calming themselves. They went uphill to the temple before returning to the resort. They had a good dip in the onsen locked in an embrace, whispering sweet nothings.<br/><br/>They made long sweet love that night, as if re-assuring each other of their feelings for the nth time.<br/><br/>——————————<br/>"I hope you learned something from this Twinkle."<br/><br/>"Grandpappy?!" The two elves screamed.<br/><br/>"Love is not something you intervene with. The love of these two human beings encompasses what the eyes can see or what the mind perceives. Their hearts remain unchanged. Unmoved. In the end, it brought them back together. That's what love is."<br/><br/>Twinkle received an hour sermon from Grandpappy. He ordered Twinkle to apologize and explain the phenomenon to Shoyo and Kei through a joint dream which Grandpappy arranged.<br/><br/>In the dream, they were in the forest where the bench was and the old trunk tree collapsed.<br/><br/>"I am terribly sorry for causing you both trouble and pain. I got vengeful because you destroyed my tree trunk." He looked at Shoyo, "Though you apologized sincerely, your partner," he looked at Kei, "refused to take your destructive action seriously so I... I got mad and cursed you to forget about him. Please forgive me."<br/><br/>The dream ended. The two never spoke of their dream with each other when they woke up.<br/><br/>Twinkle and Sparkles reunited too.<br/><br/>Before Shoyo and Kei left, they dropped by the bench again and Kei brought a few fruits as peace offering. He whispered an apology to the elf.<br/><br/>The elf whispered a wish to the couple. Wishing them a happy life together full of love and understanding.<br/><br/>-------------------<br/>That's it! Thank you so much for reading! I sincerely hope I touched you with this last side story.<br/><br/>I hope to add some extras soon but my mind is occupied by my ongoing novel…</p>