【Novel】To be continued ～Chapter 9　Carrying Love in the Last Note～

The parking area was just ahead.

I crossed Tamblingan Street, weaving my way between the motorcycles.

Theo was smiling.

When we reached the spot, he silently held out his right hand.

I took it.

Warm.

Just for a few seconds.

Our hands rested together.

With a smile, he waved and began walking toward his motorcycle.

――I don't want this to end.

I swallowed the words deep in my throat.

He couldn't hear them.

I looked at him.

Without saying a word, I slowly opened both arms.

Theo stopped walking.

And smiled.

Then he walked back toward me.

――The sound of the entire world disappeared.

The next moment,

without saying anything, he wrapped his large arms around me.

A hard, muscular chest.

The warmth of his body against mine with every breath I took.

That warmth was far more honest than words could ever be.

As we parted, I touched his hand one last time,

making sure of the warmth that remained from his palm to my fingertips.

And this time,

he really did walk away,

disappearing into the crowd.

I waved.

And so did he.

Even after his figure had grown smaller,

again,

and again…

I made my way back to my usual villa,

walking vaguely and almost absent-mindedly through the narrow streets after leaving the main road behind.

“Thank you for the wonderful time tonight.”

Theo and I exchanged messages as the quiet night slowly passed.

From my tablet came the sound of piano music.

Summer Candles.

I wasn't the adult Rio anymore.

I wasn't a wife.

I wasn't the good girl who always did the right thing.

I was seeing a side of myself I had never known before.

No.

That wasn't quite right.

It was the version of myself I had left behind somewhere long ago.

I had thought I would never fall in love again.

And yet…

Even after standing under the hot shower, the sensation in my body wouldn't disappear.

That hard, muscular chest.

Like a wall.

I had never been held by a body like that in my entire life.

As I dried my hair, I looked at myself in the mirror.

I couldn't help but smile.

“What am I doing?”

I sat down on the edge of the bed

and quietly replayed the day in my mind.

How could it have happened in such a short time?

How could we have exchanged so much of ourselves?

We couldn't even understand half of each other's words.

Had it all been a dream?

…No.

The warmth that still lingered in my right hand

was quietly telling me,

It wasn't a dream.

With those hazy feelings still inside me,

my last night in Sanur slowly came to an end.

—The Morning I Left Sanur

Bali had entered the dry season, and the sky was perfectly clear again that morning.

The car arrived right on time, and I told the driver my schedule.

I had chosen a large suitcase, thinking I would have plenty of room.

But I no longer felt the old need to fill every empty space, the way I once had.

Now, I wanted to choose only the things that truly meant something to me.

With that thought in mind, I headed toward the final destination of my trip.

There were only a few things I wanted.

My usual coffee.

A few small souvenirs for my family.

And one more pair of my favorite leggings I had discovered in Bali.

Once I had experienced how easy they were to move in,

nothing else could really replace them.

First, I stopped at a natural food store near Sanur.

It was one of my favorite places—

one I almost didn't want to tell anyone about.

It wasn't even 10 a.m. yet.

A shop assistant was arranging fruit to be sold by weight.

Almost everything here was organic.

I picked out one mango for dessert that evening.

I checked its color and texture before asking the shop assistant to choose one for me.

At the back of the store was a small shelf lined with coconut oil and handmade soaps.

They weren't the glittery souvenirs made for tourists.

They were simple soaps made by a small local workshop.

Yes.

The same soap I had given Theo.

It left my skin feeling clean and refreshed, yet gentle at the same time.

I loved it so much that I kept buying it again and again.

I chose my favorite frangipani scent and placed it in my basket.

I loved looking at Bali's natural, locally made products.

After paying, I got back into the car and headed toward Ubud.

The scenery outside the window gradually changed into deeper and deeper shades of green.

In neglected empty lots, tall grasses and trees grew wild, heavy with the dampness of the tropics.

Every now and then, a tiny shop would appear, almost swallowed up by the vegetation.

Colorful fabrics hung from the eaves.

Hand-painted signs stood casually by the roadside.

There was something precious about these familiar scenes that had simply remained there, unchanged.

That leggings store was the only one of its kind in Bali.

A new pair in pale pink was displayed in the shop window.

“Miss~!”

“Hello~!”

It had been two months since I last saw them.

I wasn't exactly a “Miss,” but…

The familiar staff greeted me with their usual smiles.

I chose while imagining myself wearing them during my Pilates sessions at the studio.

“This one, after all.”

Yes.

The new pale-pink pair I had seen in the window.

I had thought I would never wear pink again.

But perhaps because of the watercolor-like pattern, the color somehow looked surprisingly good on me when I tried them on.

The black floral pair I had reserved and the pink pair were placed into a paper bag.

I wanted more.

But that could wait until next time.

That was my way.

My little secret for enjoying travel.

After finishing everything I needed to do in Ubud, I still had some time.

There was a shop I had been curious about for a while but had never visited.

I decided to stop by.

Shoes and clothes were piled everywhere, filling the small space.

There were cosmetics and body creams too, and the selection was much larger than I had expected.

When I looked toward the other side of the cosmetics shelves, I noticed the perfumes.

In Japan, I don't wear perfume because I have to commute on crowded trains.

And I had grown tired of the strong, obvious fragrances I used to wear.

Yet…

I wanted to find something with a more gender-neutral scent, so I tried several.

“This might be it.”

When I picked it up, the fragrance faintly overlapped with the scent that still lingered from the perfume Theo had been wearing.

I would let this scent slip quietly into my everyday life after returning to Japan.

With the feeling that I was sealing a little piece of Bali's air inside the bottle, I headed to the register.

I got back into the car.

The truth was, that day…

I had been drifting through a strangely unfocused stretch of time.

Even while shopping, my thoughts kept slipping back to the lingering memories of the night before.

I couldn't go straight to the hotel like this.

The feelings with nowhere to go kept overflowing.

“I want to see the ocean. Anywhere is fine. After that, please take me to the hotel.”

I showed the driver the translated message and explained that I wanted to change the plan.

At first, I had said I wanted to go to a beach nearby.

But then, at the last moment, I changed my mind and asked him to change direction.

The car passed the hotel and seemed to be drawn toward the sea,

until we finally arrived at the beach in Seminyak.

In about thirty minutes, the sun would begin melting into the ocean.

I got out of the car and walked toward the sea alone.

Beach clubs and cafés lined the shore, lively at this hour.

When I stepped onto the sand, the sea breeze felt wonderful.

“I'm alive.”

That was what I thought.

I walked slowly, letting the sea breeze wash over me, away from the setting sun.

When I looked back, the sun was sinking lower and lower.

Once again, Japan crossed my mind.

I still hadn't completely thrown off the heavy burden that clung to my back.

But for once, it didn't matter who was watching.

And then there were the happy memories from the night before…

Scenes and conversations came rushing back, one after another, like a movie.

I let myself cry as much as I wanted.

I didn't need to stop.

I took out my phone and played the piano version of Summer Candles.

Blending with the sound of the waves,

it became a song that belonged only to me.

Alone, I sat on a rock.

I simply surrendered myself to the sea breeze and watched the sun slowly sink toward the horizon.

Then I said goodbye to the ocean

and headed to the hotel I had changed my plans to stay at during the trip.

Changing an itinerary like this would once have been unthinkable for me.

But now, I simply wanted to follow the restlessness in my heart.

The night I had spent with Theo.

“What if the plans change?”

“My plan is perfect.”

I had given him the wrong answer.

This trip was teaching me that sometimes there are views you can only see after your plans have fallen apart.

I sent Theo a photo of the Seminyak sunset—

along with the real answer.

After unpacking, it was finally time for a Bintang.

I had bought all kinds of side dishes, but for some reason,

I opened a bag of potato chips made from Balinese potatoes instead.

The outside of the aluminum package was wrapped in a paper bag and tied with twine.

The salt wasn't sharp or overpowering.

It had a simple, natural taste.

Then a message from Theo arrived.

In the corner of the sunset photo,

there was a tiny heart.

I couldn't help but smile.

He really had looked at it.

Something inside my chest grew a little warmer.

Exhausted from walking around all day,

I sank into the large bed

and quietly drifted off to sleep.

—The Last Day of My Stay in Seminyak

During the day, I spent my final hours of relaxation at the spa.

I had only visited a few times,

yet the lively conversation began almost immediately.

Their openness and genuine friendliness made me feel, somehow, that they had helped me more than they knew.

After the spa, I returned to my room.

The souvenirs I had bought were still sitting in their shopping bags.

I gently opened the box containing the perfume I had bought the day before.

I still didn't want to go home.

But I packed it carefully into my suitcase anyway.

Before I knew it, sunset was approaching.

I should have simply bought dinner and gone back to my room.

That would have been enough.

But I couldn't.

I called a motorbike from the hotel lobby

and headed back toward the beach in Seminyak.

The sun hadn't set yet.

――I made it.

I stepped down onto the beach.

“Damn it.”

The tiny words were swallowed by the waves.

I threw everything that was still hurting inside my chest

into the sea.

And yet…

Yesterday's smile came back to me.

Yesterday's warmth came back to me.

Why?

Why had the gods of Bali

made me meet him?

Happy moments flashed through my mind,

and tears slipped down my cheeks.

After watching the sun disappear completely,

I called a motorbike and returned to the hotel with the sea breeze at my back.

“The sea in Bali

felt as though it had accepted everything that I am.

As if,

here,

I had found my way back to my true self.”

That was how it felt.

Once again, I sent him a message,

along with a photo of the sunset.

Tomorrow was finally the day I would return home.

The faint sounds of insects came from outside.

The piano music played softly from my tablet.

And slowly,

the night carried me into sleep…

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