37... a short story

~Memories~

His name was I, he who loved her.
And how about her, what was her name?
I forgot.
I suffered from memory lapses, and sometimes he would even forget when they started.
As long as he could remember, she had always been the one for him, even after she left.
Why did she leave?
The answer to that question, he still remembered.

~Encounter~

The first wind of spring blew on the day they met; the billowing breeze swept her scarf into his face, the way he swept her off his feet simply by his gaze.
A gentle yet detached gaze.
"He looks just like H", she thought.
"Here, perhaps this is yours?" His husky voice startled her from her reverie.
"Erm, yes, thank you" she answered shyly.
"The wind is strong today" he continued as he handed her her scarf.
This was how they met, and it was the beginning.
Of the end.
Of course, they did not know.
Nobody can know the future.
Like other mere mortals, they could only feel what was in the present.
And at that moment in time, what they felt for each other was an inexplicable attraction.
Some things don't need a reason.

~Supersub~

He could feel it in the distance that separated them even though they were sitting side by side.
It was inevitable, since along the way he had discovered that he was no more than a substitute for H, albeit a supersub.
No matter how many goals I contributed, he was still not the first-choice that he aspired to be.
"Is this what I really want?” I asked himself.
Next to him, she was asking herself the same question.
"I have made the choice a long time ago, and that is the reason why I am here", he told himself, and he was going to tell her the same when she motioned him to listen.
Her eyes told him all he needed to know.
"It's ok, please go back to where you belong, I understand." His voice was as gentle as before, his tone as detached as always.
Then silence reigned, and it was so quiet that you could hear his heartbeat.
It was beating furiously, in direct contrast to his voice.
His heart knew what he really wanted.
You can deceive the world, but you cannot lie to yourself.
But the whistle had blown, and there was no stoppage time.

~Goodbye~

After she left, he started to suffer lapses in memory.
Even so, he always managed to remember to forget her name.
But not the scent of her fragrance, nor the language of her eyes, not the coldness of her hands, nor the taste of her lips, and definitely not the musical melody of her voice that sounded like stars tinkling in the Spring wind, on the day that they first met.

~Encore~

"I am I, and you are...?"