Chapter Text
For Taichi, ten years pass in the blink of an eye.
Well, that isn't quite true. In the span of those ten years, starting from the day he graduated from Mizusawa High School, Taichi earns his medical degree from one of the most prestigious universities in Tokyo. Following that, he completes his two years long residency at a local hospital, before obtaining his medical license to become a certified doctor. It is easy enough now to recite his achievements, but at the time, he endured every single one of those gruelling hours spent studying for tests and preparing for interviews, all while balancing a social life and a barely functional sleep schedule.
In those days, karuta was the only balm to the anxiety of his daily life. Whether it was exchanging medical advice with Harada between matches, or letting out his frustrations through a game with Suou (who could always be relied upon to deftly match his tactics with equally underhanded stratagems), Taichi would feel the stress ease from his shoulders the instant his feet touched the tatami mat. And as always, playing a game with Chihaya and Arata was enough to take him back to the halcyon days of his childhood, back when he did not have memorize the entire Kreb's Cycle the night before an exam. He doesn't think it is an over exaggeration at all to say that karuta - and all of the friends he had made through the game - is what kept him sane throughout his studies.
And now, he has reaped the rewards of his hard work. Doctor Mashima Taichi. Now that he was working at a local clinic, Taichi has gradually gotten used to the title, more or less. But it is still disconcerting for him, looking back on those days and realising just how much time has passed and how many things have changed since high school. And equally so, how many things have remained the same. Not only for him, but for his closest friends, too.
Now in her late twenties, Chihaya teaches at a local high school not too far away from Mizusawa. To absolutely no one's surprise, she had taken it upon herself to create and coach the school's very first competitive karuta team. In their first year, the team reached a respectable third place at the national tournament at Omi Jingu, in no small part thanks to the reigning Queen's tutelage. Likewise, Arata had settled into his own career after completing his literature degree, still helping out at the local karuta society and fending off challengers to his title as Meijin. On two of those ten years since Arata first became Meijin, his challenger to the title had been none other than Taichi himself.
Taichi is hoping now that he has settled into his occupation, he will have more time to practice his karuta and challenge Arata yet again. It is strange but nowadays, the thought of losing to Arata doesn't taste nearly so bitter to him. Maybe Taichi has grown accustomed to the taste of bitterness - he wouldn't have gotten through university without developing a crippling addiction to coffee. Or maybe he has learned to celebrate his own victories, whether it is gaining his hard-earned medical license, simply reaching the Meijin finals at Mount Fuji regardless of the outcome, or enjoying a game with his childhood friend like old times. He thinks maybe he has finally grown up, or just grown tired of being unhappy.
(Third time lucky, right?)
When it comes to things that stayed the same since graduation, Chihaya and Arata are still together, and still acting like high school sweethearts whenever the other enters the room. To an outsider, it is as if absolutely nothing had changed since the day they first started dating. In reality, it wasn't always easy sailing. No relationship, no matter how perfect they may appear on the surface, is, Taichi knows this well. But despite it all, Chihaya and Arata seemed to navigate each bend in the river and somehow come out stronger for it. At least, that was how it seemed to him until recently.
Ten years is a long time for a relationship to stay stagnant, Taichi realises one day, after finishing a consultation with a married couple at his clinic. He used to privately roll his eyes whenever his mother made pointed comments over dinner and asked him just when his friends intended to get married, buy a house, have children together, et cetera. After all, every couple had their own pace, their own direction. Taichi knows full well that Chihaya is the type to take things slow, to the point of seeming glacial in the eyes of some people. Besides, buying a house in this economy? Not everyone is well off like his family. He knows his friends are happy enough renting in their (albeit rather cramped) apartment. And when it comes to children, Chihaya and Arata have their hands full with Chihaya's students, as well as mentoring the kids at the local karuta society.
He used to chide his mother - and anyone else, for that matter - who made assumptions about his friends' relationship. But now, he cannot help but wonder why. Why, after ten years of dating, Arata hadn't even proposed to Chihaya. When in comparison, Kanade and Tsutumo have been married for two whole years now. Even Nishida seems closer to tying the knot with his most recent girlfriend than Arata and Chihaya ever were.
Like a magnet, his gaze is drawn to the stack of karuta cards on the shelf opposite his desk in his office. He didn't shuffle them before returning them to the deck the last time he played, so Taichi knows exactly which card rests at the top of the deck.
46. Like a boatsman adrift at the mouth of Yura / I do not know where this love will take me.
Maybe, Taichi thinks, he had been wrong about the course of his friends' relationship all along.
Immediately, he hates himself for the feelings that thought provokes in him. Any residual resentment towards his friends may have dissipated years ago, but a selfish hope still remains inside of him, a stupid yearning for something that never existed. That never could exist, he reminds himself.
Not for the first time, he thinks back to what Kanade said to him in passing, only a few months ago when they had caught up for a lunchtime coffee between work.
"It's just... these days, when the three of you are together, I can't figure out if you're jealous of Wataya-kun, Chihaya-chan, or both of them."
Taichi knows himself well enough by now to say it is not just his lingering feelings for Chihaya that frustrate him, not anymore. It's both of them; Chihaya, Arata and the world they have built together in front of his eyes, a place wholly separate from what they share with him. And no matter how hard Taichi tries, those feelings won't fade even with time.