Mistaken Identity- Chapter 17

Chapter 17

I arrived home a few hours later and I noticed Naoko’s boxes already had arrived to my house. I smiled and loaded them inside in my living room. I found a lot of mail and messages from my answering machine.

There was one from Johnny-san, he said that he took everyone who knew Naoko really well to her grave. Then he said that everyone was devastated when they heard the news. I sighed. I still felt like that big boulder was still on my shoulders.

I went back to work the next day. They gave me flowers and celebrated my belated birthday. I tried to smile most of the time. I wasn’t really happy, every time I would think about being happy about my birthday. I would have a flashback to the time when Nino celebrated my birthday with me.

After a long day at work and celebrating my belated birthday at a restaurant with my co-workers, I came home feeling tired and drunk. I made myself drink until I threw up. I wanted to forget everything that had happened. Naoko, Nino, Arashi and Johnny-san. I finally escaped.

I had a really bad headache the next morning. I couldn’t walk and I called in to say that I was sick. I think they knew that I was badly hung-over.

I roamed around my house. I didn’t feel like going outside. I sat down on my bed. I sighed and looked around my room. Then I noticed Naoko’s boxes. I had to put them away.

I opened one of Naoko’s boxes and looked at what I stuffed inside. I didn’t even think when I was packing up Naoko’s stuff. I just threw all her stuff in some boxes and shipped it my place.

The box contained her papers. Then I saw a photo that stood out in the pile of papers. I picked it up and looked at it.

It was a picture of Naoko and Nino. I smiled. I placed it back and closed the box up with some tape.

I placed the boxes in my storage room. I sighed and I heard something falling into my mailbox.

I got up and checked what kind of mail I received. It was mostly flyers but then I saw a blue envelope. I checked to see the sender's name and I couldn't find one. I shrugged my shoulders and opened it up.

It was a ticket to an Arashi concert for tomorrow in Okinawa. I gasped. It must be from Nino.

I had to decide if I wanted to keep hiding or go face my fears.