Breaktime

^^^Yooa Ito^^^

"What the HELL arms?!"

The bag that weighs probably 100kg in Yooa's opinion, continued to be drag down the stairs. Her goal was to reach the apartment's main lobby and hurry up to the taxi that is already waiting for her since, forever. Yooa still has 1 floor to go.

.

She huffs and puffs as she walks past her neighbours who all stare at her. Her breath coming in short and her grip is starting to go weak. She made a turn and head onto the last stair and, drags her bag down with her. At this time, she's starting to regret bringing those extra clothes and buying too much gifts since its both money and time consuming.

"Dont you just-wish this place has-elevators?" She pants.

After a lot of stops, and lots of tripping on the stair, Yooa made it to the lobby and she practically collapse on the ground. Only that she crouches, because collapsing on the ground will probably catch her some eyes.

But then the taxi horns, and Yooa flinches and look up to see the driver staring at her silently with his eyes almost bulging out, as if he's judging her for being late. So she got up and ran towards it with her 100kg bag.

The ride to the airport was okay to Yooa. Despite the fact that she rather have a decent conversation with the driver who has said nothing but stare at her through the mirror, or rather glare, she enjoyed going out of Briston Law University once in a while. At least, practically out and witness England's beauty other than books or professors or documents.

Once she was dropped off at the Airport entrance, Yooa got a text. It was Gogon.

"Are you on your way?"

Yooa took a selfie making sure the background is the airport itself. She hits send.

"Okay. Safe trip. Don't die."

"I won't. "

Yooa struggles to find the way to her gate. Her admiration for the sales everywhere on the airport with little souvenirs made her pause her steps everytime, and when she hears that her gate was closing, Yooa bolted and suprised herself for carrying a heavy bag with such speed.

Not long after, Yooa is tucked on the chair with her seatbelts on, and is sleeping tightly with her handkerchief on her face. She planned to write notes on her phone about legal cases that she had memorized. But her head feels lighter when she's a thousand feet up the ground. Plus the roudy ladies who are all on a vacation together makes it even harder to concentrate. That feeling soon became a headache and she drifts herself to sleep. Soon everything was quite and the athmosphere there turns peaceful, so Yooa got to rest in bliss.

BANG.. BANG

Two large explosion-like sound errupted and all of a sudden the ladies got rowdy again and Yooa wakes up abruptly. She started hearing shrieks. Yooa could hear the engine making roaring sound which is definetely not the normal sound, and the plane jerked as it loses airspeed all of a sudden. On the corner of her eye she saw other passangers pulled to their chair as the aircraft jerked, but from the window she also saw a blinding bright yellow light.

"This is it.", she thought to herself.

"The two explosion is probably the engines having cathastropical failures and deforming, which probably also why the aircraft jerked violently and slowed down. We are going to crashland and I might not survive. Gon! Mom and Dad!" she cried. Yooa started to whine as she couldn't believe what's happening.

She thought of how have she not yet able to give her parents a happy carefree retirement, how she wants Gon to graduate and watch him become the ultimate scientist.

"But if it was my fate then I am ready to die. " Yooa dramatically said as she hold herself to the seat and prepare for impact. She grits her teeth.

And she waited, and waited and waited.....

Then she finally noticed that nobody is panicking, even those old ladies who were so rowdy before which Yooa was sure cant be that collected when face in a tragedy. But then she saw the passangers to her side gleefully chatting around as if nothing happened.

And then the aircraft stopped. Parked at the gate.

As Yooa sat there with tears rolling down her cheeks and unable to feel her feet. She realized that there was no emergency. The "explosion" she heard was the goddamn tires touching down the runway, because she was sitting right above the wheels compartment the sound was much more accentuated. The engines roaring was because they activated the reverse ****** along with the airbrakes, hence the jerking motion. Since the airport strip was longer than the one in England, Yooa didnt notice earlier that they were just taxiing on the runway. The yellow light was because it was sunset, and because she was so tired and was forced awake by the sound, Yooa's eyes didnt adjust fully so all she saw through the window was blurry yellow light.

She's here. She has arrived in Tokyo.

"Ehem."

A man beside Yooa coughs and she flinches before looking at him. The guy is a middle aged man who is looking utterly concern and mostly confused at her. They both blink at each other, staring.

"I had a b-bad dream." The words sends heat curling all over her face. At this point Yooa wishes that anyone could just throw her to the nearest volcano and engulf her in flame. Did anyone else notice her screaming? Of course, she thought.

When everyone got off, Yooa got her bag and just sprints across every person who got off early. She leaves the airport after undergoing pass and steps out.

Yooa booked another taxi as she waits at the entrance. She bows at everyone who passes her and greets them good evening. She beams at the gesture and then felt oddly weird. It feels nice to do it again. The Japanese norm.

Not long after the taxi came and Yooa hopped in, she went to look for the nearest hotel, or the cheapest one to spend the night before going to Shirakawa tomorrow. Then she found Shinjukku Gyeomme. And so she went ahead to pay an overnight stay and talks about her trip with Eugeniea through video calls before calling Gon.

Gon picked up on the third ring.

"Yes?" He picked up in a monotone voice.

"Hi, I'm here. Tokyo. Just wanted to check on mom. How is she?'

There's a rustle in the background before Gogon speaks. "She's the same. Only that her headaches are getting out of hand. Plus-" He pauses for a few seconds. "She's being forgetful. Yesterday she told me about a weird story that happened in the woods nearby, and when I asked about it again, she said she does not recall telling me about it." Yooa scrunches her face at the sound of that.

Himari, Yooa's mom is pretty known to the people in Shirakawa to be a woman made of steel. She rarely got sick. One time she was tending to a bunch of patients with infectious disease for several months and people are sure she's going to be sick, she doesn't. The now retired nurse, has always been seen going through paddy fields, planting paddy seeds, sowing them all evening and still got the energy to run back home, cook dinner, fold their clothes and going through this cycle all over again for years, without getting sick. So whatever it is that made her sick now, to Yooa it must be serious.

"How bout Dad? Is he doing alright?"

"Dad's been trying to earn extra money harvesting other people's plants. He's trying his best to get mom a proper medication. If only we have proper tools and resources I might help a lot more."

"No. Your experiments stays with you."

"I'll try my best."

They both say their goodbyes and Yooa is already planning to get to the train station in the early morning and get to Shirakawa.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***