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Theirs.
She was quiet when he got there. She was quiet now as he drove
her home.
The jail must have been cold and lonely.
None of them said anything. Silence felt right at the moment.
He could feel the tears building up in her eyes.
The turn signal rattered loudly in the night.
Roaring and roaring, the car went on, turning and rushing
towards its destination.
The city seemed like a blur of lights.
She was still quiet when they got home.
He didn't say anything.
The night felt awkward, each of them to their own side, a space
unblanketed in between.
He felt cold with the Spring breeze.
She didn't say anything.
"03:00:48.AM" clicked onto the alarm clock.
Ryo couldn't sleep.
She didn't move.
He wanted to pee. Yet he couldn't get himself to, as if
something was tying him down, holding him in that blanket cocoon
that he had made for himself that night.
He wanted to feel warm.
"I'm sorry." A slight whisper drifted behind him.
"Huh?" He responded in auto-pilot.
"I didn't mean to cause you all this trouble." She didn't turn
around at all.
"That's alright, you had to do what you had to do."
"You should have left me there."
He couldn't see her face. He didn't know what her face looked
like at the moment. The moonlight was the only thing that
reflected on her red hair.
She was quiet again.
"I don't mind," Ryo was half-turned on his side. She appeared
really small and fragile in the corner of his eye. "I just did
what I thought of doing."
"But it'll all probably be for nothing anyway."
"Why do you say that?"
"That money you used to bribe the officers..." She stopped
there.
Ryo didn't say anything.
"You should have let them recycle me." Her voice grew weaker and
weaker. "It was my punishment for what I did anyway, so I
deserved it, and I would have accepted it without regret."
"Is that the truth now?"
"It's what I feel."
The breeze fluttered the white curtains in the room.
"Something will be figured out... Somehow..."
"It doesn't matter, I'll be recycled soon anyway." She said.
"Not for a while."
"But it's inevitable..."
"I'm sure there's a way out of it somehow."
In their silence, they both knew that Ryo could not afford to
buy her now, after he had used all the money he had to bribe the
officers into contaminating and dumping most of the evidence
they had on Eliza.
"When does my lease run out?"
"April first, I believe."
"I'll be recycled then, huh?"
"Don't say that." He turned to her, yet she was still turned
away. "You could easily be placed in the bargain bin again or as
a used model. I'll somehow get the money and come back for you."
"We both know they won't reuse defective models like me..."
"We both don't know anything at all, none of us have been female
salesman before."
"It'll happen though, you know it."
Ryo did know it.
"There's no reason abandoning hope though, the possibility is
still there."
She didn't reply to it.
"Thank you for helping me out." She turned around, although her
long hair still covered most of her face.
"I would have gladly done it again."
Was that a smile on her face? Ryo couldn't tell. The room was
too dark to differenciate little details.
They would never speak of it again for the rest of their time
together. |
