Five years later

I stared at it.

I did it... I did it!

"Yes!!" I shouted out in pure ecstasy at the email.

Dear Mr Uchiha,

We are pleased to inform you that we have decided to give you an offer as a graphic designer with our company.

As previously informed, you will be required at the office in Wellington, New Zealand, to be part of our team. There will be one week of paid internship with the start date 1st of March. You will be contracted for one year, with the potential to extend. We will provide accommodation. Please partake in details below.

Please take note that March is equivalent to autumn here.

We look forward to working with you.

Mark Spencer
Vice CEO

I was happy. So, so happy. Finally, finally, at the age of thirty-two, I would leave the country and go see something new. A whole new life! In New Zealand! I knew my new job would be tough, but there would be evenings and weekends for exploring the beautiful landscape. I needed to start planning! 1st of March was only one month away.

I had to cool my mind, so I went for a walk. I hadn't been unhappy here, I thought. I had graduated. I still had my group of friends. I had gotten a good job alongside Marlene. I was, I thought, happy here.

But ever since I had gotten my heart comprehensively broken, I had felt this city haunted me, and I had developed a desire to leave, to try something new, to decide who I wanted to be and then become that person.

I never understood why he just broke it off with me. Not that I had tried very hard; I had had enough self-respect to stop phoning him after three calls which he never answered. It didn't hurt that much now, since so much time had passed, but I still thought about it. I didn't open my heart up to people easily, and I had really believed there was something special about him, and about us.

But even if I couldn't know for certain, I had my guesses as to what had happened. His wife or girlfriend or whoever the woman with the red hair was had found out. I didn't know if Tobirama was sorry for his involvement with me, or just sorry he'd been caught, but it didn't matter to me, really. The result was the same.

But then, a different thought had struck me. A thought that destroyed me from the inside and out.

What if you didn't provide him with what he wanted?

And that was the truth that landed within me. No matter how much I tried to convince myself, over and over during those first awful months, that I had dodged a bullet, I believed that Tobirama Senju had left me because I hadn't been enough.

On the 21st of February, me and the gang met up for dinner at the rooftop restaurant where I had met Tobirama so long ago. It wasn't the first time we were there since that time, and I was ashamed to admit that I still looked for him whenever we were there.

"Stop it", Marlene had hissed once. "It's been a year. He doesn't deserve to occupy even a single neuron in your brain."

But even so, I still looked, five years later. I kind of wanted him to see me now, five years more elegant, my hair still long and blow-dried to perfection, wearing a feminine black suit.

It would be good, I thought as I celebrated with my friends, to go to a place where his ghost didn't linger.

We ate. We drank. My friends cried. I cried. They gave me a gift that made me shriek with laughter; a little canvas with one piece of underwear from them each pinned up in a very artful fashion.

"When you're bored", Callum said with a wink. "You can spend your time trying to guess which one belongs to who. The correct answer is written on the backside."

Such a lovely idea for a gift. I really had the best group of friends. What would I do without them?

My plane left early next morning, taking me to Wellington via Singapore. I took a taxi to the apartment the company had provided me with. I was nervous as I hadn't seen the apartment, not even photos, but was pleasantly surprised by how nice it was, much nicer and more modern than the apartment I had left behind. I had one entire week to explore before work started on the 1st. The first two days just passed by as I tried to fix my jet lag and go grocery shopping, but then, I could actually start to enjoy myself.

Wellington was beautiful, and I soon found a track for running that made me feel immediately at home. I put up the underwear canvas, which made me blissfully happy and immensely sad all at once. I video-called my friends so that we could cry together.

And then, on the 1st or March, my alarm went off at seven am.

I got ready, dressing in black trousers and a grey shirt for my first day, my long hair up in a clip. I had a piercing in my lower lip nowadays, and considered removing it for work, but decided against it; they had already hired me. I took the bike I had thrifted yesterday and biked the short distance to work.

The welcome was a warm one. Everyone were friendly towards me, and seemingly happy for a new graphic designer.

I was put to work immediately, getting my own room on the fifteenth floor with floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides and a desk. The company I worked for made panels for solar energy, and was at the forefront of making the production of them more effective. My job was to partake in their web design development.

The first week flew by, and I felt as if I had clicked into place. On the Friday, Mark the vice CEO came to pay a visit.

"Izuna! What a pleasure to finally meet you!"

I blushed a little; I had seen Mark on Skype, but he was even more handsome in real life.

"The pleasure is all mine, Sir", I said.

Mark out his heavy hand on my shoulder.

"Please, call me Mark! I've heard only good things about you! Everyone in the building who met you say you're very easy to work with, and one of the best at the job on the planet."

I blushed even more. I knew I was good, but to hear so many had put in a good word for me...

"Next week, I'm flying to Melbourne for a business meeting. The CEO will be here to take my meetings, then. He's paying you a visit on Monday. Not you, per se", Mark added when he saw how worried I became. "He's just coming to the department for a meeting. But I wouldn't at all be surprised if he paid you a visit." Mark winked at me. "I've spoken very fondly about you."

I kept working at my latest design that would be the headboard of our website. I was happy, I believed.

But anxiety was just around the corner.