Chapter 14: Lie
Chapter summary:
Kame's true illness wasn't a mental condition.
The plot that Kame & Pi planned.
Jin left Japan to search for Kame in US, but Kame was in Japan all the while!
Kame's letter to Pi
*****
Maybe Papa would never know the true reason why Kamenashi left.
Pi told me that Kamenashi’s ‘berserk episode’ was a plotted one, and he was the one who brought the reporters in.
It was purely to create a reason for Kamenashi to disappear from the showbiz.
So everything went as planned.
Despite repeated warnings of ‘no recording allowed’, the reporters brought a micro-recorder into the hospital ward as expected.
After the 3 minute clip was broadcasted on television, it created a huge uproar. The hospital that Kamenashi was recuperating in became packed with reporters and that disrupted the tranquility of the entire village. Some of these media even invited psychologists onto talkshows to deduce Kamenashi’s mental condition through snippets of Kame’s behaviour in the hospital.
A few days later, Kame’s parents who have migrated to US, returned. And they took Kamenashi back to US with them.
Kamenashi predicted all the response, with exception to one.
He did not expect Papa to abandon everything here and went to US to look for him.
Chapter 14a: With
‘Actually… Kame didn’t leave Japan’, said Pi.
When Papa found Kamenashi missing from his ward, he broke down right on the spot. Little did he know that Kamenashi was only a wall away from him in the next room, and he was crying terribly too.
Pi was beside Kamenashi then.
Kamenashi bit his own arms to prevent himself from crying out too loudly. He trembled uncontrollably, and was indifferent to everything else. He just kept on trying to control himself from making any noise from crying.
Kamenashi merely moved a room to the left, but Papa never discovered that as he was too upset and worried at that moment. He did not suspect that it was a decoy plan.
Because Kamenashi’s parents did return to Japan and leave after a few days.
Because Kamenashi’s airmail to Jin clearly stated that he couldn’t accept how his disorder was broadcasted on television and commented by the public.
He wanted to go somewhere that no one recognized him.
He said he would seek treatment in US, either by surgery or therapy. He would try his best to recover…
He said, “Jin, even when you aren’t mine, you must achieve happiness too alright?”
Papa believed Kamenashi’s words.
A week later, Papa took all his savings to US to look for Kamenashi. But the very person that Papa was looking for, stayed on in Japan because he wanted be on the same land as Papa.
******
Dearest Pi,
When was the last time I wrote to you? It seemed that I did not write anything after that ‘last performance’ for Jin…
My thoughts are still in a mess now, because I have so many things to tell you but I have no idea where I should start from. Thus I think, what I need the most now… is time.
Until now, I still think that I’m a weakling because I cried so much in the ward that day. I hate to see myself crying…
Sorry, I must have given you a bad scare when I lost control and bawled my eyes out that day…
Although you kept telling me that it was ok, I still felt bad about it.
I hurt Jin, I burdened you, I made my parents disappointed and disrupted everyone’s lives.
It was unbearable to see Jin leaving the hospital in pain. Why was I so foolish to think that I would be able to take all these pain? I should know that no matter what justifications there were, Jin’s departure would still hurt me greatly.
Thank you very much. Without your support, I wouldn’t have survived through that horrible period.
Pi, it was only till yesterday that I found out about my condition.
The word stamped across on my medical records - “terminal”.
The word clearly explained everything, right?
Day by day, I have no idea how bad my health would deteriorate to.
I have no idea how much more time I have to live.
In the past, I used to look forward to weekends because Jin would spend his afternoon with me, playing games or doing physiotherapy exercises. Sometimes, the doctor gave us permission to go to the nearby sunflower fields to take a stroll. We were even allowed to stay out for the night if my condition was stable.
Those were such simple things, right? But they were good enough for me. What I truly wanted wasn’t much anyway. Rather to hope for everlasting love, I chose to believe in the afternoons that Jin was with me.
After 4pm, I would feign tiredness and sleepiness. Jin would then keep me company until I fell asleep.
But he never knew that, I had been faking it all the while.
I had to fake it because he would only leave after when I fell asleep.
When his footsteps drifted away from the ward, I would climb out of bed. Then, I would just look at his vanishing backview through the windows, using the curtains to conceal myself. After that, I would start counting down to the next Saturday.
I thought it was already antagonizing enough to see him leaving every Saturday…
Only until that fateful day when it was the last time that we would be so physically near each other, my heart truly shattered into pieces from the pain.
Remember the day you brought the reporters into the hospital? Jin visited me the day before that. It was so difficult trying to act perfectly normal in front of him. We stayed out that night, and I was just staring at his sleeping face through the night…. I clearly knew that it was our last meeting, but I couldn’t bid him farewell, I couldn’t beg him to stay…. And Jin, who was ignorant of anything that was going to happen, wasn’t aware that it was the last time he would see me, the last time I would hold his hands, and the last time I would kiss him…
When he woke up that morning, Jin discovered that I had secretly exchanged our earrings. He thought I was feeling insecure because of our distance apart… He smiled, pulled me into his arms and rested his chin against my forehead.
When he said “I love you” to me, he looked so happy. He looked so happy that I felt bad about it. If he knew that I was plotting to leave him then, would he hate me? Did I betray his trust by doing this? Did I betray all the emotions and love that he put on me?
I knew it was selfish to make a decision on my own… I loved him so much, but yet, I did something so cruel that we would both suffer from the result.
Poor Jin, alone in a foreign land, on a futile search for someone that he would never find there…
Every night, I dreamt about Jin’s back view when he left for his futile search in US, and his heartbroken cries when he broke down in the room next to me…. It was so painful…
It took me a lot to convince myself that I must bear all the loneliness now, for the sake of Jin’s future happiness. But as I think again, I am the root of his agony… He gave up everything here because he was afraid that I would feel lonely in foreign land. When I thought about his sacrifice for me, the strong front that I’ve been putting up crumbled into pieces.
Pi, you asked me if I would regret my decision. I have no time to think about that then because of circumstances.
But now, I didn’t dare to think of that, and I shouldn’t think about that too…
Now, I just hope that someone can tell me… where are we heading towards? Where am I heading towards? Where would we go to? Where should we go to?
Tell me, how long is a lifetime? And how long would it take for my wounds to stop hurting?