Closed Maybe I'm Better Off Alone

[Cadell Owens-Lee]

As much as Cadell loved living in Japan, it was starting to become really stressful for him. His wife was always telling him what to do but was never there when he and their daughter needed her. The man was becoming sick of it, and their small and cosy apartment was nothing of the sort now. The streets they used to walk down holding hands together in the snow were now dry and barren in Cadell’s eyes, and all of the good memories he associated with everything was starting to make him sick. He walked down the street with his hands in pockets, looking straight at the ground as he headed towards his apartment. Aiya was back in New Zealand with his family, but he needed to collect a few things before going back, and then soon enough they would just be back in Japan again, living a life that Cadell really wished he could change. His thoughts became interrupted however as he collided with a man heading in the opposite direction. He looked up at the Japanese man. "Gomen'nasai” he mumbled in Japanese, apologising to him.

 

[Hiro Aoki]

Hiro yawned as he walked, stretching his arms out to the side as he rolled his neck on his shoulders. The man was feeling just a little sore after the absolute ringer of a training session their coach had put the Quidditch team through that morning. He had not been happy about their previous game and, apparently, everyone needed to do better, even Hiro had thought he had played well that game and had only let in four goals all match. Dropping his arms ago, he shoved his hands into his pockets as he walked back to where he had parked his car, however, before he could make it a man coming in the other direction bumped right into the front of him. "Sorry!" His own apology came spilling from his mouth, offering a small bow on top of it. But then he paused, frowning as he looked at the man. "Are you alright?" He offered in a softer tone this time, more referring to the fact the man absolutely looked down in the dumps instead of inquiring about any physical injuries from their little collision.

 

[Cadell Owens-Lee]

Cadell almost continued walking until he heard the man say something to him. He stopped in his tracks, turning around with a raised eyebrow as he realised what exactly he was asking. He didn't want the man to think anything bad had happened, and so played it off as best as he could. "Oh, um, yeah." he said, forcing a smile as he stood up straighter to compose himself, his hands still in his pockets. "It's a bit windy today, hope it calms down soon." He didn't realise how bad he must have looked with his rugged hair, and hoped that was all the man would say. Cadell could pass it off as the wind's fault and hopefully get away with it, mostly because he didn't want to embarrass himself any further.

 

[Hiro Aoki]

Hiro just continued to frown at the man, tilting his head to the side as he looked at him. He didn't really know what it being slightly windy really had to do with anything relevant. Some slight wind didn't usually make someone look so down and out about things. "Yes... I suppose it is," he responded rather uncertainly, giving a small glance around, eyes fixing on the slight rustling of anything not pinned down thanks to the said wind. But it really wasn't that bad, so he looked back at the man again. "I was only asking because you look kind of... down."

 

[Cadell Owens-Lee]

Cadell knew that what he said didn't make much sense almost straight after he said it. He wasn't surprised at the man's reaction and didn't blame him for potentially judging him. He probably thought he was a crazy man now and almost expected him to walk away. However, the man didn't seem to budge and was commenting on how he looked a bit down. Cadell sighed, taking his hands out of his pockets and finally speaking the truth. "Look, life just sucks." he said simply, not trying to be rude. "Just having a bad... time." He didn't want to say he was having a bad day, as that simply wasn't the truth at all. "I'm sorry. I'm Cadell by the way." He held his hand out for the man to shake.

 

[Hiro Aoki]

Maybe it was rude of him to bring this stuff up. It was probably a little embarrassing to have some complete stranger telling you that you looked rather depressed. Hiro sucked on the inside of his cheek for just a moment as he listened to the other man, sighing as he let it go again. "I get that," he had those days where he did think that everything in life was just out to get him and the world just sucked. Usually, it was on days after he had performed badly in front of the hoops or when he didn't perform as well as he wanted on the circuit. "You don't need to be sorry," he offered with another smile, trying to make him feel just a little better if he could, "I'm Hiro."

 

[Cadell Owens-Lee]

Cadell couldn't help but feel slightly better when the man seemed to relate to his feelings. He had been so caught up with himself and keeping his feelings inside that he hadn't stopped to think that perhaps if he spoke about his feelings to other people then he could potentially feel a little better. He didn't want to pour it all onto a stranger, but Cadell tried to tell himself that the stranger wouldn't have stopped to talk to him if he didn't care. He introduced himself as Hiro and Cadell smiled slightly. "I'm Cadell. Do you live around here?" he asked, wondering if perhaps he could make a friend that lived close by.

 

[Hiro Aoki]

At least Cadell still seemed to be taking this well. Or Hiro assumed he was as he hadn't told him to piss off yet or anything. Or maybe he was just too poilte. Hiro did rather hope he wasn't being a nuisance and bothering him or anything, he was only trying to be nice and trying to make him feel a little better. Even if they were strangers he did still want to reach out and make people feel better if he thought they looked a little down about the world. "Oh, not too far," while it was within walking distance, Hiro still took every opportunity to drive. He just loved it too much. Not to mention walking was boring. "But how about you? Are you on holiday? If you are, you Japanese is very good." A lot better than other tourists who thought they knew Japanese but actually only learned phrases they heard in an anime.

 

[Cadell Owens-Lee]

Cadell nodded as the man said that he didn't live too far. "Oh, same. Just up the road actually." he said with a smile, glad that he had finally found someone nice to talk to. Perhaps he could boast to Sora about how he could actually make friends in Japan. As the man then complimented his Japanese, he blushed a little, happy that someone thought that. "I'm not a tourist, I live here. I got a job here, then met someone. I started learning Japanese almost ten years ago. Thank you." he said, nodding his head in his direction. He appreciated it, and perhaps it would give him a reason to stay.

 

[Hiro Aoki]

"That's cool!" He honestly didn't actually know too many people in the area. While he often said hello to a couple of regular faces as he passed by, he'd never really stopped and had a conversation with them before. At least, not a conversation that lasted more than a couple of minutes. So he wouldn't really say that he was friends with anyone around here, just general acquaintances. And when Cadell explained that he lived here and wasn't just a tourist Hiro grinned. "That must be exciting, moving to a new country and everything. I've visited other places, but I've never lived anywhere outside of Japan." He didn't really have a reason to move. He had been born in the country and he was on a Japanese quidditch team.

 

[Cadell Owens-Lee]

Cadell began to think that perhaps it would be odd for a local to see a person of different colour roaming the streets in Japan. Race had never occurred to Cadell until now, as he always surrounded himself with various people and was used to everyone around him being different. It made sense as to why the man was so curious now, and he smiled as he said it was cool and must be exciting to move to a new country. "I guess pretty exciting, yes. My family when I was younger moved a lot though. We moved between Wales and New Zealand as we have other family in both countries. It's always fun moving and seeing how different people live." he explained, glad that he was distracted by this now. "So I'm guessing you went to the magic school here then. What was it like?" He was curious and couldn't help asking.

 

[Hiro Aoki]

Hiro had to wonder what it would actually be like to just pick up everything and suddenly move to a different country. If he were to go to any it would probably be New Zealand just because that is where he had visited before. Definitely somewhere which had English as a prominent language, no doubt about that. Though his English was not all that great, it was good enough to get him by and he didn't really want to stress trying to learn something new. At the question, Hiro smiled and nodded his head, "I did, yes. I mean, I don't suppose it would be that much different to magical schooling elsewhere. But I enjoyed it. Mostly getting to play Quidditch more than the actual lessons, but that's just me." He chuckled lightly at his own joke. But it was true, he had always loved Quidditch. Which made sense seeing as he had gone and made his career out of the sport.

 

[Cadell Owens-Lee]

Cadell nodded when the man said he played Quidditch more than did the lessons. Everyone was different, and Cadell admired that the boy had such an interest in the sport, and was probably good at it too. "I wasn't one for Quidditch. Couldn't stay on a broom if my life depended on it. But my sister played Quidditch and was good at it. I wish I could play it though." he told him. "What do you do now? Do you still play Quidditch?" Cadell often wondered how far people went with playing Quidditch as he knew that his sister had pretty much given it up. It would be hard to take it professionally and he just wondered how many people actually did that, and whether or not they had a plan B if they were to get injured and not be able to play anymore.

 

[Hiro Aoki]

(Apologies for the wait!)

"That's fair, not everyone can get to grips with it," everyone was good at different things and some people just weren't very good at Quidditch or flying. It was not really something he understood as he had always found it quite easy, but maybe he just had the natural skill for flying. Though it still surprised him how some adults still couldn't fly very well. "If you still want to learn, I could always give you some lessons," he offered with a friendly smile and a small laugh. Then, he nodded, "Yeah, I'm currently the Keeper for Toyohashi Tengu. Have been for a couple of years now." It had taken a while to decide to go professional with Quidditch, most of his focus after graduating being on fixing up his car and messing around on the drift track. "But what about you? What have you decided to do with your life?"

 

[Cadell Owens-Lee]

Cadell was glad that the man wasn't pressuring him to play quidditch. He knew some athletes were all about getting fit and making others do the same, and it was refreshing that others weren't like that. He did offer him some lessons however, and Cadell almost refused until he realised how jealous that would make Gwen. "Damn that would be good! From a professional quidditch player, how could I refuse?" he said, eager to tell Gwen all about it. He didn't know which team she supported, but a professional quidditch player was a professional quidditch player. "Oh I work for a Magazine company right here in Japan. I take all of the photos. You might have seen some if you read magazines." Cadell explained. He wasn't sure how likely it was that the man read magazines, but thought it was worth a try.

 

[Hiro Aoki]

While he was more than happy to rag on about his passions, he was well aware that it annoyed some people and a lot of people just didn't care how great he thought Quidditch was. It was the same if they tried to talk to him and push him into doing something he wasn't interested in doing. Like gardening. But when the man took him up on the offer to take some lessons, Hiro grinned. "Great! Let me get you my number." He rummaged around for his cell for a moment before he looked up again, "You do have a phone... right?" Some wizards could be quite averse to technology. Which was ridiculous given the best thing they had for communication was owls. And then he nodded his head with interest as Cadell explained what he did for work. "Whenever I end up in a convenience store I usually end up browsing through the magazines, so I've probably seen some of your pictures before."