Saying all out, Airi hurriedly bent down her head, looking at her toes. Now that she told them everything out loud, her heart was beating extremely fast. She felt like her heart would come out of her chest at any moment. But surprisingly, the reason for her racing heart was not the fear or hesitation she was having, rather it was the nervousness she was feeling, wondering how their reaction would be. It might have been a bit more than two years for them to hear something like this from their daughter, but to Airi, it was more like two lifetimes. She couldn't ever tell someone that she loved them for a very long time, after the truck accident her father faced. So, what kind of expression people give upon response to that was something as much unknown as how the brain of a thriller or mystery novel writer or mangaka's works to her. Both of these things are like a wonder and unknown mystery to her.
Yet, she kept her eyes downwards, not daring to look at their faces, despite the urge she was feeling against it. She kept her gaze stuck to her toes, while tears kept falling down nonstop, as well as her entire body breaking into a sweat due to nervousness.
Suddenly, she felt a pair of warm hands wrapped around her. She couldn't see who it was, but the softness it had on those arms, and a faint smell of cooking and kitchen on the body was clear enough to tell that it was her mother.
"Airi, do you have any idea after how long you have called me Maa? I… I am so happy… to get you back, my precious little jasmine," Airi could hear Sara sobbing in between her words. She was hugging her daughter tightly, and when Airi realized the feeling, she tried to hug her mother back. She raised her hands and placed them on Sara's back. And then, she could feel something she never felt for a really long time.
She could feel the warmth of skin, instead of the cold freezing one.
She could feel the trembling of the body, and heart beating unbelievably fast, instead of the stillness of a person.
She could hear the sound of her crying and feel the breath falling on her skin, instead of the eternal silence she felt when she last hugged her mother.
She was experiencing something totally different, in response to her admitting her love to someone.
"So that's how it feels when you know your love is reached to them," she felt so calm and relieved seeing the people in front of her all okay and alive, and reciprocating to her feelings, as she kept wondering to herself.
She felt another touch on top of her head, and looking in that direction, she found her father, looking at her affectionately, with tear-filled eyes. She couldn't remember if she had ever seen any man crying, but to know that those were the tears of happiness flowing out, she found him beautiful. She extended a hand to him, in hope of getting an embrace. And Max didn't disappoint her.
"Welcome back, Airi," both of her parents said with a gentle and low voice.
After that, those three people had a long talk about a lot of things. Airi listened to everything, while they kept talking. Max told her how he was threatened badly by his boss, just so that he keeps his daughter out of this mess. He did as he was told. He kept Airi away from doing anything against his boss. That's why he suggested putting sleeping pills on her food, so that they could keep her from going to testify for Clara. He did all those to save his job, and his family's future. Yet he was removed from his job in the end. And after that, things were really hard for him, keeping up with his family expenses, and Airi's sudden weird whims. He managed to get another job in another company, although he could never get the position he had on his previous one. So things were never the same as they used to be.
Airi heard all of it, and her guilt was increasing bit by bit. She regretted not listening to them sooner. If she did, maybe nothing would've gone wrong.
There were also occasionally tears rolling down, as the little family of three people was finally bestowed upon happiness. The happiness which was snatched away because of Airi, was also returned for her.
That day, Airi had a peaceful lunch after a long time, basking in the love she was getting from family. The love she never got after the age of ten, the love she craved for, the love she was scared of getting, scared of giving.
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After lunch, she got up to her room and lay down on her bed. She kept thinking about what happened an hour ago, while eyeing her surroundings. "That somehow feels easy, now that I've done it. To think that the curse actually didn't work, I was so damn scared. Yet, I needta' be careful."
Her eyes fell on her room, and she felt disgusted all over again. "Then again, here I am, in the middle of this friggin' room. To think I used to have such a horrendous taste, Cheh! I am disgusted with myself, tsk." Airi clicked her tongue on herself. "Although, I've got lotsa things which I should feel disgusted at. But first of all, this garbage needs to be changed. ASAP!"
Her hands touched on the diary lying on the bed. She took it in her hands and caressed through the hardcover of it. "At least I'm glad I decided somethin' like this. Otherwise, things could've been way harder, harder than some boss of a game." She kept it aside, yet she kept looking at it with the corner of her eyes. "Now that the first task is done, time to move ahead ne? Yosh! Ganbatte ne, Airi!"
But before that, she has something more she would need to do. Something about her life she would need to know, that she never penned here, in her diary. And she was sure if she doesn't work on that first, she would regret this all over again. Probably more than anything. "I'm sure I surely regretted that too. But why i didn't write it down… that is the question. So, this thing has to wait a bit more. Imma take it super easy for now, I'm tired already…", and she dozed off.
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When she woke up, it was already dinnertime. So she got up and went downstairs. She saw her parents busy setting up the dining table. "Airi, you awake? Seems like you were really tired. Come and let's have dinner," Sara noticed her and pulled up a chair for her to sit.
"Yeah, Maa. Imma freshen' up and hurry back." She remembered there was still one little thing she needed to do before any one of her parents gets a whiff about it. She rushed back to her room, picked up her phone and the hospital reports she took from the drawer, and carefully put those back the way they were, in their original place, while her parents were still busy at the dining table. "Now this is good. I'm surprised they didn't realise a sneaky rat came in here and took things. I mean, woah, it was missin' for a goddamn two weeks."
Airi returned to the dining room and sat down for dinner. "Maa, can I ask for something?"
"Yeah, sure. What is it?" Sara pushed the bowl of curry towards Airi, signaling her to start eating.
Airi took some of the curry onto her plate with the spoon. "Is my phone really broken, or…" she looked at them, only to find them looking at each other guiltily.
"It's not, actually, " this time it was Max who replied. "We just kept it with us, thinking that it would be good for you to keep that away from you, you know."
"Yeah, I guess that's what you should've done when the entire mess was that of a hell. Well, can I get that back then? Cuz I'd need to contact my classmates."
"Yeah, of course you would need it. I will bring it to you once we are done with dinner, " Sara responded, while helping everyone and herself with food.
After the dinner, Airi came back to her room with her phone in her hand. "Finally, this thing has been returned to its rightful owner." But almost immediately her face became dark and glum. "As if this stupid piece of box got anythin' fun to begin with. Ugh! Mendokusai na~"
She threw herself on the bed, and swung her legs in irritation. "It's been so long since I played my games! My ikementachis! My husband must be out there cryin' their balls out, hngh! I don't even have a PC here which I could use for surfing animes, I couldn't even finish AOT, I don't even have the OSTs to relax my nerves! Gaaaaah! This is so unfair!!" Airi grumbled, throwing a pillow in annoyance. But after grumbling for a bit, she felt a lot better. "At least Imma have my otaku regrets if I end up not utilizin' this life. Guess I'd crash into a cyber cafe the first thing tomorrow morning. I needta' blow off some steam, but then again, I'd need… Money…" she drifted off to sleep slowly, mumbling to herself.